Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A More Efficient Transportable and Scalable System for Real-Time Activities and Exercises Recognition

Many people in the world are affected by muscle wasting, especially the population hits by myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). Those people are usually given a program of multiple physical exercises to do. While DM1 and many other people have difficulties attending commercial centers to realize their program, a solution is to develop such a program completable at home. To this end, we developed a portable system that patients could bring home. This prototype is an improved version of the previous one using Wi-Fi, as this new prototype runs on BLE technology. This new prototype conceptualized induces great results.
Cross-layer design of an LQG controller in multihop TDMA-based wireless networked control systems

Wireless networked control systems (WNCSs) are control systems whose components are connected through wireless networks. In this paper, we consider a multihop WNCS, where controllers and controlled objects are connected through a multihop wireless network. Round-trip delays between controllers and controlled objects may cause unstable behavior of the WNCS due to inconsistency between states of the system at time when an observation packet is generated and when the corresponding control packet is received. In order to solve this problem, we propose a cross-layer design of an LQG (Linear Quadratic Gaussian) controller, which specializes in TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)-based WNCS. In the proposed method, control packets are designed by using a property of TDMA that a sequence of round-trip delays is deterministic. When the controller receives an observation packet, it generates a control packet based on the estimated state of the controlled object at time when the control packet will reach the controlled object. Simulation results show that the proposed method achieves better performance in terms of RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) of the controlled object's state to their targets.
Semiformal Verification of Embedded Software in Medical Devices Considering Stringent Hardware Constraints

In recent days, the complexity of software has increased significantly in embedded products in such a way that the verification of Embedded Software (ESW) now plays an important role to ensure the product's quality. Embedded systems engineers usually face the problems of verifying properties that have to meet the application's deadline, access the memory region, handle concurrency, and control the hardware registers. This work proposes a semiformal verification approach that combines dynamic and static verification to stress and cover exhaustively the state space of the system. We perform a case study on embedded software used in the medical devices domain. We conclude that the proposed approach improves the coverage and reduces substantially the verification time.
H2B ubiquitination regulates meiotic recombination by promoting chromatin relaxation

Meiotic recombination is essential for fertility in most sexually reproducing species, but the molecular mechanisms underlying this process remain poorly understood in mammals. Here, we show that RNF20-mediated H2B ubiquitination is required for meiotic recombination. A germ cell-specific knockout of the H2B ubiquitination E3 ligase RNF20 results in complete male infertility. The Stra8-Rnf20−/− spermatocytes arrest at the pachytene stage because of impaired programmed double-strand break (DSB) repair. Further investigations reveal that the depletion of RNF20 in the germ cells affects chromatin relaxation, thus preventing programmed DSB repair factors from being recruited to proper positions on the chromatin. The gametogenetic defects of the H2B ubiquitination deficient cells could be partially rescued by forced chromatin relaxation. Taken together, our results demonstrate that RNF20/Bre1p-mediated H2B ubiquitination regulates meiotic recombination by promoting chromatin relaxation, and suggest an old drug may provide a new way to treat some oligo- or azoospermia patients with chromatin relaxation disorders.
Augmented visualization: Observing as desired

Over 20 years have passed since a free-viewpoint video technology has been proposed in which a user's viewpoint can be freely set up reconstructed 3D space of a target scene photographed by multi-view cameras. This technology allows us to capture and reproduce the real world as it recorded. Once we capture the world in a digital form, we can modify the world as augmented reality does (i.e., placing virtual objects in the digitized real world). As oppose to this concept, the augmented world also allows us to see through real objects by synthesizing the backgrounds that cannot be observed in our raw perspective directly. The key idea is to generate the background image using multi-view cameras observing the backgrounds at different positions, and seamlessly overlaying the recovered image in our digitized perspective. In this article, our studies regarding such desired view generation techniques are reviewed, and its future directions and open problems are discussed.
Interactive comment on “ Late Pleistocene Glacial – Interglacial related shell size isotope variability in planktonic foraminifera as a function of local hydrology ”

and ‘depleted’ to describe both isotopic ratios and the amount of each isotope. This is at times very confusing. Can I please request that when referring to enrichment or depletion of a specific isotope that it is noted which one is being discussed. Further, isotope ratios themselves are not strictly speaking enriched/depleted they are, e.g., higher/lower. A little thing but separating the terms out this manner would help to simply matters considerably.
Development of a pre-operative scoring system for predicting risk of post-operative paediatric cerebellar mutism syndrome

Abstract Background: Despite previous identification of pre-operative clinical and radiological predictors of post-operative paediatric cerebellar mutism syndrome (CMS), a unifying pre-operative risk stratification model for use during surgical consent is currently lacking. The aim of the project is to develop a simple imaging-based pre-operative risk scoring scheme to stratify patients in terms of post-operative CMS risk. Methods: Pre-operative radiological features were recorded for a retrospectively assembled cohort of 89 posterior fossa tumour patients from two major UK treatment centers (age 2–23yrs; gender 28 M, 61 F; diagnosis: 38 pilocytic astrocytoma, 32 medulloblastoma, 12 ependymoma, 1 high grade glioma, 1 pilomyxoid astrocytoma, 1 atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumour, 1 hemangioma, 1 neurilemmoma, 2 oligodendroglioma). Twenty-six (29%) developed post-operative CMS. Based upon results from univariate analysis and C4.5 decision tree, stepwise logistic regression was used to develop the optimal model and generate risk scores. Results: Univariate analysis identified five significant risk factors and C4.5 decision tree analysis identified six predictors. Variables included in the final model are MRI primary location, bilateral middle cerebellar peduncle involvement (invasion and/or compression), dentate nucleus invasion and age at imaging >12.4 years. This model has an accuracy of 88.8% (79/89). Using risk score cut-off of 203 and 238, respectively, allowed discrimination into low (38/89, predicted CMS probability <3%), intermediate (17/89, predicted CMS probability 3–52%) and high-risk (34/89, predicted CMS probability ≥52%). Conclusions: A risk stratification model for post-operative paediatric CMS could flag patients at increased or reduced risk pre-operatively which may influence strategies for surgical treatment of cerebellar tumours. Following future testing and prospective validation, this risk scoring scheme will be proposed for use during the surgical consenting process.
DVAE++: Discrete Variational Autoencoders with Overlapping Transformations

Training of discrete latent variable models remains challenging because passing gradient information through discrete units is difficult. We propose a new class of smoothing transformations based on a mixture of two overlapping distributions, and show that the proposed transformation can be used for training binary latent models with either directed or undirected priors. We derive a new variational bound to efficiently train with Boltzmann machine priors. Using this bound, we develop DVAE++, a generative model with a global discrete prior and a hierarchy of convolutional continuous variables. Experiments on several benchmarks show that overlapping transformations outperform other recent continuous relaxations of discrete latent variables including Gumbel-Softmax (Maddison et al., 2016; Jang et al., 2016), and discrete variational autoencoders (Rolfe 2016).
Effect of biologically active light and partial sleep deprivation on sleep, awakening and circadian rhythms in normals.

The effects of biologically active light (BL) on subjective and objective quality of sleep and awakening, as well as circadian rhythms in cortisol, temperature and well-being were studied in 10 hospitalized normal female volunteers as compared with partial sleep deprivation (PSD). After 2 adaption days, three 24-hour periods were recorded before (baseline), during (intervention) and after (recovery) treatment with BL (exposure between 5.00-9.00 p.m. and 6.00-9.00 a.m.; light sensitivity: 2,800 lx at eye level) and PSD (1.30-6.00 a.m.). Somnopolygraphic investigations demonstrated a significant improvement in sleep maintenance both after BL and PSD, while sleep induction improved only after PSD. Subjectively experienced sleep quality increased after both treatments. However, subjective and objective awakening quality (objectivated by means of psychometric test battery) was improved by BL only, while PSD produced no changes or even a deterioration. Cortisol levels tended to be lowered by BL, while the troughs increased after PSD; there was also an earlier rise in cortisol levels after PSD than BL. No significant differences were found in regard to temperature. Subjectively experienced well-being tended to improve after both interventions. Our findings concerning the beneficial effect of BL on objective and subjective quality of sleep and awakening in normals encourages us to initiate a single-dose study with BL in depressed patients.
Noninvasive measurement of regional pulse wave velocity in human ascending aorta with ultrasound imaging: an in-vivo feasibility study

Objectives: Accurate and noninvasive techniques for measurement of local/regional pulse wave velocity (PWV), instead of global PWV, is desired for quantifying localized arterial stiffness and improving cardiovascular disease assessment. This study aimed at investigating the feasibility of regional PWV measurement in human ascending aorta in vivo using an ultrasound-based technique. Methods: Proximal ascending aortas of 76 healthy patients (23–71 years) were scanned with transthoracic echocardiography in parasternal long-axis view, and ultrasound radiofrequency data were acquired in a high temporal resolution (∼404 Hz). The PWV was derived from the determination of arrival times and identification of travel distances. Both PWVs in early systolic phase (PWVsf; pulse wave velocity measured using the systolic foot as characteristic time point) and late systolic phase (PWVdn; pulse wave velocity measured using the dicrotic notch as characteristic time point) were obtained. Results: The PWVsf and PWVdn were 4.58 ± 1.38 and 6.51 ± 1.90 m/s, respectively, and both were correlated with age (r = 0.30, P = 0.02 and r = 0.71, P < 0.0001). The measurements were reproducible, and PWVdn showed significant correlation with aortic diameter (r = 0.53, P < 0.0001), relative distension (r = −0.44, P = 0.0002), and local PWV derived from Bramwell–Hill equation (r = 35, P = 0.004). The PWV difference (PWVdn − PWVsf) reflected aortic stiffness change within cardiac cycle from early systole to late systole and was also correlated with age (r = 0.50, P < 0.0001). Conclusion: The feasibility of ascending aortic PWV measurement using ultrasound imaging was illustrated in vivo, suggesting the potential of the technique in characterization of regional aortic stiffness and assessment of aortic diseases.
Impaired adaptation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to chronic ethanol stress in aged rats.

Acute injection of ethanol in young rats stimulates corticosterone secretion, and repeated daily ethanol injection results in tolerance to this response. This study examined the tolerance development of the corticosterone response to 14 daily ethanol injections (2 g/kg i.p.) in young (3-month-old) and aged (24-month-old) male rats. By day 7 the young rats exhibited complete tolerance to the stimulatory effects of ethanol on corticosterone levels, as measured 1 h after injection. In contrast, the aged rats displayed a fairly large corticosterone response to ethanol on day 7, and they still exhibited a significant corticosterone response to ethanol on day 14. There was no difference between young and aged rats in blood ethanol levels at any time point examined, and blood ethanol levels did not change across days of treatment, indicating that neither the tolerance development, nor the age-related difference in tolerance development could be explained by time- and age-related differences in ethanol metabolism. There also was little evidence for the impaired tolerance development in the aged rats to be secondary to a generalized dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis following 2 weeks of ethanol treatment. Thus, there was no difference in basal corticosterone levels between young and aged rats on each test day, and there was no difference between young and aged rats in the corticosterone response to an acute restraint stress challenge when administered 24 h after the last day of ethanol treatment. This study suggests that in aged rats there are changes in the adaptive mechanisms contributing to tolerance of the HPA axis response to ethanol.
Laser-induced breakdown spectrometer for nondestructive diagnostics

Laser emission analysis is an efficient method used for determination of quantitative and qualitative composition of chemical elements in materials. For the analyzer designs a proper choice of a laser type, stabilization of its pulse parameters and performance of a high-resolution spectrometer of sufficient responsivity are crucial problems. The correlation-based method of laser induced breakdown spectrometry for soil contamination was presented. A system of laser induced breakdown spectroanalyzer and the investigation of a portable laser emission spectro-analyzer for analysis of chemical composition of materials are described. The results and examples of its applications and optimizations are given.
Spatial Statistics for Segmenting Histological Structures in H&E Stained Tissue Images

Segmenting a broad class of histological structures in transmitted light and/or fluorescence-based images is a prerequisite for determining the pathological basis of cancer, elucidating spatial interactions between histological structures in tumor microenvironments (e.g., tumor infiltrating lymphocytes), facilitating precision medicine studies with deep molecular profiling, and providing an exploratory tool for pathologists. This paper focuses on segmenting histological structures in hematoxylin- and eosin-stained images of breast tissues, e.g., invasive carcinoma, carcinoma in situ, atypical and normal ducts, adipose tissue, and lymphocytes. We propose two graph-theoretic segmentation methods based on local spatial color and nuclei neighborhood statistics. For benchmarking, we curated a data set of 232 high-power field breast tissue images together with expertly annotated ground truth. To accurately model the preference for histological structures (ducts, vessels, tumor nets, adipose, etc.) over the remaining connective tissue and non-tissue areas in ground truth annotations, we propose a new region-based score for evaluating segmentation algorithms. We demonstrate the improvement of our proposed methods over the state-of-the-art algorithms in both region- and boundary-based performance measures.
A Porous Scaffold Design Method for Bone Tissue Engineering Using Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces

Among the various scaffold design methods, function-based modeling is of great interest due to its accurate controllability for designing pore architectures. Parameters, such as the pore size, pore shape, porosity, and channel interconnectivity, should be designed according to actual skeleton characteristics. To this, an effective modeling method of trabecular bone is proposed, combining triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) and fractal geometry. First, the surface morphology of real trabecular bone is obtained based on the binary processing of computed tomography images. Then, the fractal pore-making element using TPMS is built and constructed into a complex porous structure. Finally, the customized scaffold model is manufactured with an additive manufacturing method.
Numerical Studies of Explosive Welding by SPH

A particular characteristic of an explosively produced weld is that the profile of the weld interface often has a regular wavy appearance. An effect of detached shock wave and jetting on the metal interface of explosive welding has been shown by SPH (Smoothed particle hydrodynamics). Numerical results show wavy interface which is observed in several experiments. High speed jet between interface and Karman vortex after oblique impact of a flyer plate to a parent plate were major mechanism of explosive welding.
Diagnostic yield by supplementing prenatal metaphase karyotyping with MLPA for microdeletion syndromes and subtelomere imbalances

The aim of the study was to retrospectively assess the relevance of using multiplex ligation‐dependent probe amplification (MLPA) for detection of selected microdeletion syndromes (22q11, Prader–Willi/Angelman, Miller–Dieker, Smith–Magenis, 1p‐, Williams), the reciprocal microduplication syndromes and imbalance at the subtelomere regions of chromosomes in a routine prenatal setting.
TP53 Haploinsufficiency Rescues Emergency Granulopoiesis in FANCC−/− Mice

Emergency (stress) granulopoiesis is an episodic process for the production of granulocytes in response to infectious challenge. We previously determined that Fanconi C, a component of the Fanconi DNA-repair pathway, is necessary for successful emergency granulopoiesis. Fanconi anemia results from mutation of any gene in this pathway and is characterized by bone marrow failure (BMF) in childhood and clonal progression in adolescence. Although murine Fanconi anemia models exhibit relatively normal steady-state hematopoiesis, FANCC−/− mice are unable to mount an emergency granulopoiesis response. Instead, these mice develop BMF and die during repeated unsuccessful emergency granulopoiesis attempts. In FANCC−/− mice, BMF is associated with extensive apoptosis of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells through an undefined mechanism. In this study, we find that TP53 haploinsufficiency completely rescues emergency granulopoiesis in FANCC−/− mice and protects them from BMF during repeated emergency granulopoiesis episodes. Instead, such recurrent challenges accelerated clonal progression in FANCC−/−TP53+/− mice. In FANCC−/− mice, BMF during multiple emergency granulopoiesis attempts was associated with increased ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein (Atr) and p53 activation with each attempt. In contrast, we found progressive attenuation of expression and activity of Atr, and consequent p53 activation and apoptosis, in the bone marrow of FANCC−/−TP53+/− mice during this process. Therefore, activation of Atr—with consequent Fanconi-mediated DNA repair or p53-dependent apoptosis—is an essential component of emergency granulopoiesis and it protects the bone marrow from genotoxic stress during this process.
"How Was Your Weekend?" A Generative Model of Phatic Conversation

Unspoken social rules, such as those that govern choosing a proper discussion topic and when to change discussion topics, guide conversational behaviors. We propose a computational model of conversation that can follow or break such rules, with participant agents that respond accordingly. Additionally, we demonstrate an application of the model: the Experimental Social Tutor (EST), a first step toward a social skills training tool that generates human-readable conversation and a conversational guideline at each point in the dialogue. Finally, we discuss the design and results of a pilot study evaluating the EST. Results show that our model is capable of producing conversations that follow social norms.
A Survey of Data Semantization in Internet of Things

With the development of Internet of Things (IoT), more and more sensors, actuators and mobile devices have been deployed into our daily lives. The result is that tremendous data are produced and it is urgent to dig out hidden information behind these volumous data. However, IoT data generated by multi-modal sensors or devices show great differences in formats, domains and types, which poses challenges for machines to process and understand. Therefore, adding semantics to Internet of Things becomes an overwhelming tendency. This paper provides a systematic review of data semantization in IoT, including its backgrounds, processing flows, prevalent techniques, applications, existing challenges and open issues. It surveys development status of adding semantics to IoT data, mainly referring to sensor data and points out current issues and challenges that are worth further study.
The knockout of urea transporter-B improves the hemorheological properties of erythrocyte.

OBJECTIVE Urea transporter-B (UT-B), highly expressed in erythrocyte, confers specific permeability to urea, urea analogues and water. The purpose of this study was to determine the hemorheological properties of UT-B null erythrocyte using a series of biophysical techniques. METHODS AND RESULTS The blood was taken from UT-B knockout and wild-type mice and the hemorheological parameters were measured. The UT-B inhibitor, PU-14, was used to treat the erythrocyte of wild-type mice in vitro and the deformability of the treated erythrocyte was analyzed. The results showed that UT-B knockout improves the hemorheological properties of erythrocyte, including increased erythrocyte deformation index, small deformation index, orientation index, low osmotic fragility and high electrophoretic rate. The UT-B inhibitor PU-14 had the similar effect as UT-B knockout on the deformation indices. The whole blood viscosity in UT-B knockout mice showed reduction trend as compared to wild-type mice. CONCLUSIONS The data indicate that UT-B is involved in the regulation of hemorheology, which suggests that UT-B may be a potential therapeutic target for improving the hemorheology in some metabolic and hereditary diseases.
Occupational position and consumption of news: A research note

Abstract This study explored in what way and to what extent people's occupational position corresponds with the consumption of news and the exposure to political content offered by the traditional mass media TV, radio, and newspaper, using survey data (N = 825). The influence of occupational position in general and perceived amount of public social capital (or: social network) on especially consumption of news as well as the exposure to political media content, was evident. Findings are in line with the central assumptions on ‘audience activity’ of audience-centered models in communication research in general and the ‘media use as social action’ approach especially (cf. Renckstorf and Wester, 2001, 2004). The subjectively perceived social context, indicated by occupational position as well as the subjectively held structure of relevancies is a central predictor of media use.