Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In-the-wild Drowsiness Detection from Facial Expressions

Driving in a state of drowsiness is a major cause of road accidents, resulting in tremendous damage to life and property. Developing robust, automatic, real-time systems that can infer drowsiness states of drivers has the potential of making life-saving impact. However, developing drowsiness detection systems that work well in real-world scenarios is challenging because of the difficulties associated with collecting high-volume realistic drowsy data and modeling the complex temporal dynamics of evolving drowsy states. In this paper, we propose a data collection protocol that involves outfitting vehicles of overnight shift workers with camera kits that record their faces while driving. We develop a drowsiness annotation guideline to enable humans to label the collected videos into 4 levels of drowsiness: ‘alert’, ‘slightly drowsy’, ‘moderately drowsy’ and ‘extremely drowsy’. We experiment with different convolutional and temporal neural network architectures to predict drowsiness states from pose, expression and emotion-based representation of the input video of the driver's face. Our best performing model achieves a macro ROC-AVC of 0.78, compared to 0.72 for a baseline model.
uGMRT detection of associated H i 21-cm absorption at z ≈ 3.5

We report a uGMRT detection of Hi 21-cm absorption associated with the radio source 8C 0604+728, at z = 3.52965. The source is at the highest redshift at which associated Hi 21-cm absorption has been discovered to date, surpassing earlier known absorber at z approx 3.39. We estimate ultraviolet luminosities of (3.2 plus or minus 0.1) times 10 23 W Hz -1 and (6.2 plus or minus 0.2) times 10 23 W Hz -1 , and ionising photon rates of (1.8 plus or minus 0.1) times 10 56 s -1 and (5.0 plus or minus 0.1) times 10 56 s -1, using data at different epochs; the source shows year-scale variability in both its luminosity and photon rate. The luminosity and photon rate at later epochs are approx 6.2 and approx 1.7 times higher than thresholds suggested in the literature above which all the neutral hydrogen in the AGN host galaxy is expected to be ionised. The detection demonstrates that neutral hydrogen can survive in the host galaxies of AGNs with high ultraviolet luminosities. We estimate a high equivalent width ratio of 15.2 for the Ly{\alpha} and HeII emission lines detected in the optical spectrum, that is consistent with AGN photoionisation models. However, a significant contribution from young stellar populations to the excess Ly{\alpha} flux cannot be ruled out.
Multidimensional Boltzmann Neutrino Transport Code in Full General Relativity for Core-collapse Simulations

We develop a neutrino transfer code for core-collapse simulations that directly solves the multidimensional Boltzmann equations in full general relativity. We employ the discrete ordinate method, which discretizes the 6D phase space. The code is an extension of our special relativistic code coupled to a Newtonian hydrodynamics code, which is currently employed for core-collapse supernova simulations. In order to demonstrate our code’s capability to treat general relativistic effects, we conduct some tests. We first compute the free streaming of neutrinos in the Schwarzschild and Kerr spacetimes and compare the results with the geodesic curves; in the Schwarzschild case, we deploy not only a 1D grid in space under spherical symmetry but also a 2D spatial mesh under axisymmetry in order to assess the capability of the code to compute the spatial advection of neutrinos. Second, we calculate the neutrino transport in a fixed matter background, which is taken from a core-collapse supernova simulation with our general relativistic but spherically symmetric Boltzmann hydrodynamics code, to obtain a steady neutrino distribution; the results are compared with those given by the latter code.
Mechanisms of Self-Organized Quasicriticality in Neuronal Network Models

The critical brain hypothesis states that there are information processing advantages for neuronal networks working close to the critical region of a phase transition. If this is true, we must ask how the networks achieve and maintain this critical state. Here, we review several proposed biological mechanisms that turn the critical region into an attractor of a dynamics in network parameters like synapses, neuronal gains, and firing thresholds. Since neuronal networks (biological and models) are not conservative but dissipative, we expect not exact criticality but self-organized quasicriticality, where the system hovers around the critical point.
Modeling Type Ic Supernovae with tardis: Hidden Helium in SN 1994I?

Supernovae (SNe) with photospheric spectra devoid of hydrogen and helium features are generally classified as SNe Ic. However, there is ongoing debate as to whether helium can be hidden in the ejecta of SNe Ic (that is, helium is present in the ejecta, but produces no obvious features in the spectra). We present the first application of the fast, 1D radiative transfer code tardis to an SN Ic, and we investigate the question of how much helium can be hidden in the outer layers of the SN Ic ejecta. We generate tardis models for the nearby, well-observed, and extensively modeled SN Ic 1994I, and we perform a code comparison to a different, well-established Monte Carlo based radiation transfer code. The code comparison shows that tardis produces consistent synthetic spectra for identical ejecta models of SN 1994I. In addition, we perform a systematic experiment of adding outer He shells of varying masses to our SN 1994I models. We find that an outer He shell of only 0.05M ⊙ produces strong optical and near-infrared (NIR) He spectral features for SN 1994I which are not present in observations, thus indicating that the SN 1994I ejecta is almost fully He deficient compared to the He masses of typical He-rich SN progenitors. Finally we show that the He i λ20851 line pseudo-equivalent width of our modeled spectra for SN 1994I could be used to infer the outer He shell mass which suggests that NIR spectral follow-up of SNe Ic will be critical for addressing the hidden helium question for a statistical sample of SNe Ic.
Effector gene reshuffling involves dispensable mini-chromosomes in the wheat blast fungus

Newly emerged wheat blast disease is a serious threat to global wheat production. Wheat blast is caused by a distinct, exceptionally diverse lineage of the fungus causing rice blast disease. To understand genetic diversity in wheat-infecting strains, we report a near-finished reference genome of a recent field isolate generated using long read sequencing and a novel scaffolding approach with long-distance paired genomic sequences. The genome assemblage includes seven core chromosomes and sequences from a dispensable mini-chromosome that harbors effector genes normally found on the ends of core chromosomes in other strains. No mini-chromosomes were observed in an early field strain, and two mini-chromosomes from another field isolate each contain different effector homologous genes and core chromosome end sequences. The mini-chromosome is highly repetitive and is enriched in transposons occurring most frequently at core chromosome ends. Additionally, transposons in mini-chromosomes lack the characteristic signature for inactivation by repeat-induced point (RIP) mutation genome defenses. Our results, collectively, indicate that dispensable mini-chromosomes and non-dispensable core chromosomes undergo divergent evolutionary trajectories, and mini-chromosomes and core chromosome ends are coupled as a mobile, fast-evolving effector compartment in the wheat pathogen genome. Significance statement The emerging blast disease on wheat is proving even harder to control than the ancient, still-problematic rice blast disease. Potential wheat resistance identified using strains isolated soon after disease emergence are no longer effective in controlling recent aggressive field isolates from wheat in South America and South Asia. We report that recent wheat pathogens can contain one or two highly-variable conditionally-dispensable mini-chromosomes, each with an amalgamation of effector sequences that are duplicated or absent from pathogen core chromosome ends. Well-studied effectors found on different core chromosomes in rice pathogens appear side-by-side in wheat pathogen mini-chromosomes. The rice pathogen often overcomes deployed resistance genes by deleting triggering effector genes. Localization of effectors on mini-chromosomes, which are unstably transmitted during growth, would accelerate pathogen adaptation in the field.
DiSCO: Differentiable Scan Context With Orientation

Global localization is essential for robot navigation, of which the first step is to retrieve a query from the map database. This problem is called place recognition. In recent years, LiDAR scan based place recognition has drawn attention as it is robust against the appearance change. In this letter, we propose a LiDAR-based place recognition method, named Differentiable Scan Context with Orientation (DiSCO), which simultaneously finds the scan at a similar place and estimates their relative orientation. The orientation can further be used as the initial value for the down-stream local optimal metric pose estimation, improving the pose estimation especially when a large orientation between the current scan and retrieved scan exists. Our key idea is to transform the feature into the frequency domain. We utilize the magnitude of the spectrum as the place descriptor, which is theoretically rotation-invariant. In addition, based on the differentiable phase correlation, we can efficiently estimate the global optimal relative orientation using the spectrum. With such structural constraints, the network can be learned in an end-to-end manner, and the backbone is fully shared by the two tasks, achieving better interpretability and lightweight. Finally, DiSCO is validated on three datasets with long-term outdoor conditions, showing better performance than the compared methods. Codes are released at https://github.com/MaverickPeter/DiSCO-pytorch.
Relationship Among NAGase Enzyme Activity, CMT Score and Somatic Cell Count in Milk of Crossbred Dairy Cows with Sub-Clinical Mastitis in North-Western Province of Sri Lanka

The assay procedure for N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAGase) was considered to be the most reliable, simple, and rapid enzymatic method for estimating the severity of mammary tissue damage. This study was carried out to assess the relationship of NAGase enzyme activity, California mastitis test score (CMTS) and somatic cell counts (SCC) in milk and the influence of breed, parity and age of the cow on NAGase activity. The results showed that prevalence of sub-clinical mastitis (SCM) was 74.5% (41/55) in the population of cows tested. The isolated pathogens were Staphylococcus spp. (34%, 14/41), Escherichia coli (34%, 14/41) and Streptococcus spp. (32%, 13/41). The SCC showed a significant (p<0.05) positive correlation with the activity of NAGase (R2= 0.796) and CMTS (R2= 0.709). A significant correlation was observed between the NAGase activity and SCC in SCM positive milk, where the correlation was stronger (R2= 0.748) in the former than in the latter. The parity (R2= 0.843) and age (R2= 0.758) of the cow also showed a significant (p<0.05) positive correlation with enzyme activity. The mean SCC and enzyme activity of different crossbreds of the study population did not show a significant correlation, but mean values of SCC and enzyme activity were higher when an animal was phenotypically more related to European breeds (779– 1848 x103 SCC/ml;0.64 -0.89 μmole/min/ml) than tropical breeds (427–534x103 SCC/ml; 0.26-0.43 μmole/min/ml). It could be concluded that, the prevalence of SCM in crossbred cows in North-Western Province of Sri Lanka is considerably high. The determination of NAGase enzyme activity in milk could be used as a method for early detection of SCM more accurately than CMTS and SCC.
Two-level cervical disc arthroplasty in patients with Klippel-Feil syndrome: A case report and review of the literature

Background: Klippel-Feil syndrome (KFS) is defined by multiple abnormal segments of the cervical spine with congenital synostosis of two or more cervical vertebrae. KFS patients who demonstrate progressive symptomatic instability and/or neurologic sequelae are traditionally managed with operative decompression and arthrodesis. Case Description: A 44-year-old female with chronic neck pain and radiculopathy and a C7-T1 KFS presented with adjacent segment degenerative disc disease at the C5-6 and C6-7 levels. She was successfully managed with a two-level cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA). Conclusion: Patients with KFS and disease at two contiguous, adjacent levels (e.g., cervical disc disease) may be safely and effectively managed with two-level CDA.
Length of Hospital Stay for Hip Fracture and 30-Day Mortality in People With Alzheimer’s Disease: A Cohort Study in Finland

Abstract Background Persons with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are at higher risk of hip fractures (HFs) than general older population and have worse prognosis after HF. Hospital stays after HF have shortened along time. We investigated the association between length of hospital stay after HF and mortality after discharge among persons with AD. Method The MEDALZ cohort includes all Finnish community dwellers who received clinically verified AD diagnosis in 2005–2011 (N = 70 718). Patients who experienced first HF after AD diagnosis in 2005‒2015 (n = 6999) were selected. Length of hospital stay for HF was measured as a sum of the consecutive days spent in hospital after HF until discharge. Outcome was defined as death within 30 days after hospital discharge. Results Mean of overall length of hospital stay after a HF decreased from 52.6 (SD 62.9) days in 2005 to 19.6 (SD 23.1) days in 2015. Shortest treatment decile (1‒4 days) had the highest risk of death within 30 days after discharge (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 2.76; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.66–4.60) in addition to second (5‒6 days; aHR 2.52; 95% CI 1.50–4.23) and third (7‒10 days; aHR 2.22; 95% CI 1.34–3.69) deciles when compared to the sixth decile of length of stays (21‒26 days). Conclusions Among persons with AD, shorter length of hospital stay after HF was associated with an increased risk of death after discharge. After acute HF treatment, inpatient rehabilitation or proper care and services in home need to be organized to older persons with AD.
Does Cathaya argyrophylla, an ancient and threatened Pinaceae species endemic to China, show eco-physiological outliers to its Pinaceae relatives?

Abstract Cathaya argyrophylla is an ancient and threatened Pinaceae species endemic to China, but its eco-physiological traits are rarely reported. We hypothesized that Cathaya showed eco-physiological outliers to its Pinaceae relatives, which lead to its current endangered status. Here we collected the photosynthetic capacity (Pn, maximum photosynthesis rate) and branchlet hydraulic safety (P50, the water potential at which a 50% loss in conductivity occurs) of Pinaceae species globally, including our measurements on Cathaya. We applied the phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate: (i) the phylogenetic signal of the two key traits across Pinaceae species, and (ii) the trait–climate relationships and the photosynthesis–cavitation resistance relationship across Pinaceae species. We applied the polygenetic quantile regression (PQR) method to assess whether Cathaya showed eco-physiological outliers to its Pinaceae relatives in terms of cavitation resistance and photosynthetic capacity. It was found that P50, and to a less extent, Pn, had a strong phylogenetic signal consistent with niche conservation among Pinaceae species. Hydraulic safety largely determined non-threatened Pinaceae species’ distribution across moisture gradients at the global scale. There was also an adaptive trade-off relationship between Pn and P50. Cathaya is a high cavitation resistant, low photosynthetic capacity species. It showed eco-physiological outliers to its Pinaceae relatives because it had lower P50 and Pn below the 10% quantile boundaries along moisture and/or temperature gradients; also, it was above the 90% quantile boundary of the Pn and P50 relationship across non-endangered Pinaceae species. The PQR output demonstrated that in the subtropical area of China characterized by abundant rainfall, Cathaya has extra high hydraulic safety, suggesting inefficiency of carbon economy associated with either competition or other life history strategies, which lead to its current endangered status.
Benefits of a root fungal endophyte on physiological processes and growth of the vulnerable legume tree Prosopis chilensis (Fabaceae)

Aims Desertification is a major concern in arid and semi-arid regions globally. Understanding interactions between vulnerable plant species and associated microbial symbionts may have important applications for conservation and restoration strategies in affected areas. Methods In this study, we evaluated the root-associated fungal endophyte community in Prosopis chilensis, a vulnerable and threatened aridadapted tree of northern Chile. Host benefits in terms of physiological performance and plant growth were also assessed. Endophytic fungi were isolated from asymptomatic roots by the culture method for molecular identification of the 18S rRNA gene. The dominant fungal endophyte (Penicillium sp.) in the community was later used in inoculation experiments to assess its effect on maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II (PSII), (Fv/Fm) actual PSII efficiency (ΦPSII), and non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). Total sugars, starch content, malonaldehyde (MDA), nitrogen content (%) and growth traits were also measured. Important Findings Whereas ΦPSII increased significantly in endophyte-inoculated plants, NPQ was found to decrease. No effect of endophyte inoculation on sugars and MDA was detected, but starch content, leaf nitrogen content, number of leaves and shoot biomass were found to increase. Results revealed that inoculation of endophytic Penicillium fungal isolate can provide significant physiological benefits to the host plant P. chilensis. Its presence resulted in greater PSII efficiency and higher leaf nitrogen and carbohydrate content, enhancing host plant growth. These findings highlight the importance of considering the fungal endophyte community of this vulnerable species as an important tool to the design of further revegetation and conservation programs.
Effects of Platycodin D on apoptosis, migration, invasion and cell cycle arrest of gallbladder cancer cells

Platycodin D (PD) is a triterpenoid saponin that exists in the roots of Platycodonis. It exhibits evident growth inhibitory effects and potent cytotoxicity against multiple types of cancer. Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the most common malignant disease of the biliary tract system. Patients with GBC usually have limited available treatment strategies and a poor prognosis. The present study investigated the antitumor effects of PD on human GBC cells in vitro and its underlying molecular mechanisms of action. The results indicated that PD, as assessed using MTT and colony forming assays, induced evident growth inhibition. Flow cytometry indicated that PD robustly induced apoptosis and blocked GBC cells at the G2/M phase. Cell migration and invasion assays demonstrated that PD effectively inhibited the migratory and invasive abilities of GBC cell lines. Western blotting indicated that PD may initiate mitochondrial destruction in GBC cells through the JNK signaling pathway, thereby inducing apoptosis. The present results indicated that PD may exhibit antitumor effects by inducing apoptosis; inhibiting migration and invasion; and affecting the cell cycle in GBC cells. Therefore, PD has the potential to become a novel antitumor drug for GBC therapy.
Additive effects of green tea and coffee on all-cause mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: the Fukuoka Diabetes Registry

Introduction The impact of consuming green tea or coffee on mortality in patients with diabetes is controversial. We prospectively investigated the impact of each beverage and their combination on mortality among Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes. Research design and methods In all, 4923 patients (2790 men, 2133 women) with type 2 diabetes (mean age, 66 years) were followed prospectively (median, 5.3 years; follow-up rate, 99.5%). We evaluated the amount of green tea and coffee consumed using self-administered questionnaires. Results During the follow-up period, 309 participants died. The consumption of green tea, coffee, and a combination of the beverages was associated with reduced all-cause mortality. Multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (95% CIs) for green tea were as follows: none 1.0 (referent); 0.85 (0.60–1.22) for ≤1 cup/day; 0.73 (0.51–1.03) for 2–3 cups/day; 0.60 (0.42–0.85) for ≥4 cups/day; and P for trend, 0.002. For coffee, they were: none 1.0 (referent); 0.88 (0.66–1.18) for <1 cup/day; 0.81 (0.58–1.13) for 1 cup/day; 0.59 (0.42–0.82) for ≥2 cups/day; P for trend, 0.002. With the combination they were 1.0 (referent) for no consumption of green tea and coffee; 0.49 (0.24–0.99) for 2–3 cups/day of green tea with ≥2 cups/day of coffee; 0.42 (0.20–0.88) for ≥4 cups/day of green tea with 1 cup/day of coffee; and 0.37 (0.18–0.77) for ≥4 cups/day of green tea with ≥2 cups/day of coffee. Conclusions Higher consumption of green tea and coffee was associated with reduced all-cause mortality: their combined effect appeared to be additive in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Quantification of Resting-State Ballistocardiogram Difference Between Clinical and Non-Clinical Populations for Ambient Monitoring of Heart Failure

A ballistocardiogram (BCG) is a versatile bio-signal that enables ambient remote monitoring of heart failure (HF) patients in a home setting, achieved through embedded sensors in the surrounding environment. Numerous methods of analysis are available for extracting physiological information using the BCG; however, most have been developed based on non-clinical subjects. While the difference between clinical and non-clinical populations are expected, quantification of the difference may serve as a useful tool. In this work, the differences in resting-state BCGs of the two cohorts in a sitting posture were quantified. An instrumented chair was used to collect the BCG from 29 healthy adults and 26 NYHA HF class I and II patients while seated without any stress test for five minutes. Five 20-second epochs per subject were used to calculate the waveform fluctuation metric at rest (WFMR). The WFMR was obtained in two steps. The ensemble average of the segmented BCG heartbeats within an epoch were calculated first. Mean square errors (MSE) between different ensemble average pairs were then retrieved. The MSEs were averaged to produce the WFMR. The comparison showed that the clinical cohort had higher fluctuation than the non-clinical population and had at least 82.2% separation, suggesting that greater errors may result when existing algorithms were used. The WFMR acts as a bridge that may enable important features, including the addition of error margins in parameter estimation and ways to devise a calibration strategy when resting-state BCG is unstable.
Primum non nocere (first do no harm). The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic course in oldest in Italy

Dramatic outcomes of Covid-19 pandemia in Italy, in particular in the North, must be discussed. Maybe a bad strategy and lack of timely intervention togheter with concurrent social events, comorbidities of oldest persons, bed rest, inadequate nutritional support and drugs’ side effects and infection of health professionals proved fatal for many. (www.actabiomedica.it)