Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Head and body sway in response to vertical visual stimulation

Conclusions. Postural responses differed according to the stimulus direction, i.e. vertical visual stimulation induced head rather than trunk displacements. Accordingly, it could be that center of foot pressure (COP) responses tended to underestimate the postural sway during visual stimulation. Objectives. To investigate head and body sway in response to vertical visual surround motion, and to examine the correlation between the displacements of head and body segments derived from video-motion analysis and COP measurements. Material and methods. Postural sway was assessed in 10 young female subjects by video-motion analysis of four different head and body segments, and by use of force-plate posturography. Head and body sway in the pitch plane was induced by rotating a random pattern of dots about the subject's inter-aural axis at a constant acceleration of 1°/s2 or a constant velocity of 60°/s in darkness. Results. Generally, head displacement was greater than that of other body parts during vertical optokinetic stimulation (OKS). In most subjects, maximum head displacements were induced in the same direction as the visual motion. Downward OKS induced a forward head and body sway. The COP trajectory correlated well with the displacements of each head and body segment during downward OKS. In contrast, postural responses to upward OKS were complicated in terms of their time course. The correlation coefficient between each head and body segment and the COP varied among individuals for upward OKS.
Duodenum-triggered delivery of pravastatin sodium: II. Design, appraisal and pharmacokinetic assessments of enteric surface-decorated nanocubosomal dispersions

Abstract Context: Pravastatin sodium (PVS) is a freely water-soluble HMG-CoA inhibitor that suffers from instability at gastric pH, extensive first pass metabolism, short elimination half-life (1–3 h) and low oral bioavailability (18%). Objective: To overpower these drawbacks and to maximize drug absorption at its main site of absorption at the duodenum, enteric surface-coated PVS-loaded nanocubosomal dispersions were presented. Materials and methods: Glyceryl monooleate (GMO)-based dispersions were developed by the fragmentation or the liquid precursor methods using Pluronic® F127 or Cremophor® EL as surfactants. As a challenging enteric-coating approach, the promising dispersions were surface-coated via lyophilization with Eudragit® L100-55; a duodenum-targeting polymer. The drug content, particle size, zeta potential, morphology and release studies of PVS-loaded dispersions were evaluated before and after surface-coating. Compared to an aqueous PVS solution, the pharmacokinetics of the best achieved system (E-F8) was evaluated (UPLC-MS/MS) in rats. Results: The enteric surface-coated nanocubosomal dispersions were more or less spherical in shape and showed high drug-loading, negative zeta potential values and fine-tuned biphasic drug-release patterns characterized by retarded (2 h) and sustained (10 h) phases in pH 1.2 and pH 6.8, respectively. E-F8 system showed significantly (p< 0.05) higher oral bioavailability, delayed Tmax and prolonged MRT0−∞ following oral administration in rats. Conclusions: The duodenum-triggering potential and the controlled-release characteristics of the best achieved system for smart PVS delivery were revealed.
Assessing Text Readability Using Cognitively Based Indices

Many programs designed to compute the readability of texts are narrowly based on surface-level linguistic features and take too little account of the processes which a reader brings to the text. This study is an exploratory examination of the use of Coh-Metrix, a computational tool that measures cohesion and text difficulty at various levels of language, discourse, and conceptual analysis. It is suggested that Coh-Metrix provides an improved means of measuring English text readability for second language (L2) readers, not least because three Coh-Metrix variables, one employing lexical coreferentiality, one measuring syntactic sentence similarity, and one measuring word frequency, have correlates in psycholinguistic theory. The current study draws on the validation exercise conducted by Greenfield (1999) with Japanese EFL students, which partially replicated Bormuth's (1971) study with American students. It finds that Coh-Metrix, with its inclusion of the three variables, yields a more accurate prediction of reading difficulty than traditional readability measures. The finding indicates that linguistic variables related to cognitive reading processes contribute significandy to better readability prediction than the surface variables used in traditional formulas. Additionally, because these Coh-Metrix variables better reflect psycholinguistic factors in reading comprehension such as decoding, syntactic parsing, and meaning construction, the formula appears to be more soundly based and avoids criticism on the grounds of construct validity.
Camera tamper detection using codebook model for video surveillance

The proposed model, Camera Tamper Detection Model (CTDM), is used for the camera tamper detection in a video surveillance system. In this paper, an adoptive background codebook model is trained for classifying foreground and background pixels from video image sequence. According to the color model, both chroma and brightness of pixels are adopted as feature values and they are able to tackle the problem of light and shadow movement. During a training process of background pixels, CDTM automatically creates clusters in a background codebook model to classify pixels. After training stage, a well adaptive background model is acquired which is a basis for camera tamper detection. A warning interface of camera tamper detection is provided in the surveillance system which can classify tamper type, e.g. displacement tamper or obstruction tamper, in order to ensure the security of video surveillance system. The experimental results show that the accuracy rate of real-time camera tamper detection in the research can reach 100%, either in the indoor or outdoor experimental scenes.
Neurolab: a Multimodal Networked Exoskeleton for Neuromotor and Biomechanical Research

NeuroLab refers to an experimental platform designed to enhance studies in human movement and neuromotor control. The platform comprises a robotic exoskeleton and some other stand-alone devices. All of these components have communication capabilities integrated in hardware and can work cooperatively taking advantage of a networked architecture. A set of experiments have been conducted with NeuroLab. The objective of the trials was to use mechanical perturbations to identify the viscous-elastic properties in human elbow joint and to correlate such mechanical impedance with the electromyographic information of muscles associated to the joint, during a postural task and in a rest position. In each condition, a pseudo-random torque perturbation was applied directly to the arm and to the forearm by mean of an upper limb powered exoskeleton. The angular kinematics (velocity and position), kinetics (torque) and the muscular activation patterns (EMG) in the two main muscles (biceps and triceps brachii) intervening in the elbow flexion-extension movement
Complex Word Identification: Challenges in Data Annotation and System Performance

This paper revisits the problem of complex word identification (CWI) following up the SemEval CWI shared task. We use ensemble classifiers to investigate how well computational methods can discriminate between complex and non-complex words. Furthermore, we analyze the classification performance to understand what makes lexical complexity challenging. Our findings show that most systems performed poorly on the SemEval CWI dataset, and one of the reasons for that is the way in which human annotation was performed.
Example-Based Video Stereolization With Foreground Segmentation and Depth Propagation

With advances in 3DTV technology, video stereolization has attracted much attention in recent years. Although video stereolization can enrich stereoscopic 3D contents, it is hard to create good depth maps from monocular 2D videos. In this paper, we propose an automatic example-based video stereolization method with foreground segmentation and depth propagation, called EBVS. To consider both performance and computational complexity, we separately estimate depth maps according to the key and non-key frames. In the key frames, we first estimate an initial depth map based on examples from the RGB-D training data set, then refine it to preserve boundaries of foreground objects. In the non-key frames, we propagate the depth map of the key frame using motion compensation, and generate depth maps. Finally, we employ depth-image-based-rendering (DIBR) to generate stereoscopic views from 2D videos and their depth maps. Extensive experiments verify that the proposed EBVS produces visually pleasing and realistic stereoscopic 3D views from 2D videos.
Gender-Specific English Language Use of Malaysian Blog Authors

Gender-based research on the language use in blogs has its roots in the long-standing notion that men and women speak and write differently. This paper reports an empirical study on the use of English in a blog context involving Malaysian blog authors. Specifically, the study aimed to identify gender-specific English use among Malaysian blog authors and determine the differences in the language use. Using an ensemble text analysis approach, Malaysian female blog authors are more inclined towards using more verbs, adverbs and pronouns than their male counterpart, with a significant difference, while the males are inclined towards using more adjectives, nouns, determiners and prepositions/subordinating conjunctions than the females, with a significant difference. There are also differences between females and males in terms of the function words, neologisms/blog words as well as use of tag questions and adverbs initiating sentences. However, there are minimal differences between the females and males in terms of length of sentences and that the use of intensifiers, hedges, empty adjectives and emotions, thus concluding that they are not necessarily gender-specific differences. The findings can serve as useful language markers that can benefit the applied linguistics and particularly gender-based and forensic linguistic research. DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2016-1603-02
Asynchronous Parallel Bayesian Optimisation via Thompson Sampling

We design and analyse variations of the classical Thompson sampling (TS) procedure for Bayesian optimisation (BO) in settings where function evaluations are expensive, but can be performed in parallel. Our theoretical analysis shows that a direct application of the sequential Thompson sampling algorithm in either synchronous or asynchronous parallel settings yields a surprisingly powerful result: making $n$ evaluations distributed among $M$ workers is essentially equivalent to performing $n$ evaluations in sequence. Further, by modeling the time taken to complete a function evaluation, we show that, under a time constraint, asynchronously parallel TS achieves asymptotically lower regret than both the synchronous and sequential versions. These results are complemented by an experimental analysis, showing that asynchronous TS outperforms a suite of existing parallel BO algorithms in simulations and in a hyper-parameter tuning application in convolutional neural networks. In addition to these, the proposed procedure is conceptually and computationally much simpler than existing work for parallel BO.
131I-labeled Anti-HER2 Camelid sdAb as a Theranostic Tool in Cancer Treatment

Purpose: Camelid single-domain antibody-fragments (sdAb) have beneficial pharmacokinetic properties, and those targeted to HER2 can be used for imaging of HER2-overexpressing cancer. Labeled with a therapeutic radionuclide, they may be used for HER2-targeted therapy. Here, we describe the generation of a 131I-labeled sdAb as a theranostic drug to treat HER2-overexpressing cancer. Experimental Design: Anti-HER2 sdAb 2Rs15d was labeled with 131I using [131I]SGMIB and evaluated in vitro. Biodistribution was evaluated in two HER2+ murine xenograft models by micro-SPECT/CT imaging and at necropsy, and under challenge with trastuzumab and pertuzumab. The therapeutic potential of [131I]SGMIB-2Rs15d was investigated in two HER2+ tumor mouse models. A single-dose toxicity study was performed in mice using unlabeled [127I]SGMIB-sdAb at 1.4 mg/kg. The structure of the 2Rs15d–HER2 complex was determined by X-ray crystallography. Results: [131I]SGMIB-2Rs15d bound specifically to HER2+ cells (Kd = 4.74 ± 0.39 nmol/L). High and specific tumor uptake was observed in both BT474/M1 and SKOV-3 tumor xenografted mice and surpassed kidney levels by 3 hours. Extremely low uptake values were observed in other normal tissues at all time points. The crystal structure revealed that 2Rs15d recognizes HER2 Domain 1, consistent with the lack of competition with trastuzumab and pertuzumab observed in vivo. [131I]SGMIB-2Rs15d alone, or in combination with trastuzumab, extended median survival significantly. No toxicity was observed after injecting [127I]SGMIB-2Rs15d. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate the theranostic potential of [131I]SGMIB-2Rs15d. An initial scan using low radioactive [*I]SGMIB-2Rs15d allows patient selection and dosimetry calculations for subsequent therapeutic [131I]SGMIB-2Rs15d and could thereby impact therapy outcome on HER2+ breast cancer patients. Clin Cancer Res; 23(21); 6616–28. ©2017 AACR.
Proteomic profiling of γ-ECS overexpressed transgenic Nicotiana in response to drought stress

The contribution of Glutathione (GSH) in drought stress tolerance is an established fact. However, the proteins which are directly or indirectly related to the increased level of GSH in response to drought stress are yet to be known. To explore this, here, transgenic tobacco plants (NtGp11) overexpressing gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase (γ-ECS) was tested for tolerance against drought stress. NtGp11 conferred tolerance to drought stress by increased germination rate, water retention, water recovery, chlorophyll, and proline content compared with wild-type plants. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that the transcript levels of stress-responsive genes were higher in NtGp11 compared with wild-type in response to drought stress. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) coupled with MALDI TOF-TOF MS/MS analysis has been used to identify 43 differentially expressed proteins in response to drought in wild-type and NtGp11 plants. The results demonstrated the up-accumulation of 58.1% of proteins among which 36%, 24%, and 20% of them were related to stress and defense, carbon metabolism and energy metabolism categories, respectively. Taken together, our results demonstrated that GSH plays an important role in combating drought stress in plants by inducing stress related genes and proteins like HSP70, chalcone synthase, glutathione peroxidase, thioredoxin peroxidase, ACC oxidase, and heme oxygenase I.
Effet de l'herbe de Guinée ( Panicum maximum Jacq.) associée à l'herbe de lait ( Euphorbia heterophylla L.) ou aux feuilles de patate douce ( Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) sur la croissance des lapins ( Oryctolagus cuniculus L.)

Objectif : Le present travail vise a trouver une solution alternative a l'utilisation des feuilles de patate douce ( Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. ) dans l'alimentation des lapins ( Oryctolagus cuniculus L.) dont la recolte non controlee des feuilles peut induire une baisse de la production de tubercules d'environ 32%. Methodologie et Resultats: L'effet de l'ingestion de l'herbe de guinee ( Panicum maximum Jacq.) associe a l'herbe de lait ( Euphorbia heterophylla ) (Paneuph) ou a Ipomoea batatas (Panipo) sur la croissance journaliere et l'indice de consommation a ete determine chez les lapins. Les poids a la naissance et en fin d'engraissement (90 jours d’âge) etaient de 67,6 g et 60,8 g et de 770,0 et 933,8 g respectivement pour Panipo et Paneuph. Le regime Paneuph induisait une croissance journaliere et un indice de consommation significativement superieurs durant les deux derniers mois d'essai. Conclusion et Application des resultats : Les resultats de cette etude permettent de conclure que l'utilisation de l'herbe de lait en substitution des feuilles de patate douce dans l’alimentation des lapins en milieu traditionnel pourrait etre envisagee. Mots cles : Cuniculture traditionnelle, Oryctolagus cuniculus, Panicum maximum, Euphorbia heterophylla, Ipomoea batatas , alimentation Effect of Guinea grass ( Panicum maximum Jacq.) associated with Milk weed ( Euphorbia heterophylla L.) or sweet potatoes leaves ( Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) on rabbits growth ( Oryctolagus cuniculus L.) . Objective : The aim of this study was to find an alternative to the use of leaves of sweet potatoes ( Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. ) in the diet of rabbits ( Oryctolagus cuniculus L.) whose uncontrolled leaves harvesting can induce a decrease in production of tubers up to 32%. Methodology and Results : The effect of ingestion of guinea grass ( Panicum maximum Jacq.) associated with milk weed ( Euphorbia heterophylla ) (Paneuph) or sweet potatoes ( Ipomoea batatas ) (Panipo) on daily weight gain and feed efficiency was determinate in rabbits. The weight a the birth and the end fattening (90 days old) were 67.6 g and 60.8 g and 770.0 and 933.8 g respectively for Panipo and Paneuph. The Paneuph diet induced a daily growth and a feed efficiency significantly higher in the last two months of the test. Conclusions and Application of Results: Results of this study indicated using of milk weed in substitution of leaves of sweet potatoes in rabbits feed could be considered. Keywords : Traditional cuniculture, Oryctolagus cuniculus, Panicum maximum, Euphorbia heterophylla, Ipomoea batatas , feeding
Multimodal cardiac imaging of a postinfarction subvalvular left ventricular aneurysm

To cite: Menke J, Sahlmann CO. BMJ Case Rep Published online: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/bcr-2014208139 DESCRIPTION A 61-year-old smoking patient presented with leftsided heart failure. Chest X-ray showed cardiac calcifications. Cardiac MRI confirmed a basolateral left ventricular aneurysm, of size 4.5×3.3 cm, with turbulent flow inside (video 1). Besides a thick hypointense fibrous mural scar (figure 1, arrow), there was late gadolinium enhancement of the remaining non-contractile thinned myocardium (figure 1, arrowheads), consistent with residuals of a transmural infarction. Coronary angiography revealed proximal occlusion of the left circumflex artery. Owing to recurrent ventricular tachycardia, the patient received an implantable cardioverterdefibrillator. He decided against aneurysmectomy. Seven years later, lung cancer was incidentally detected (figure 2, arrow). Positron emission tomography (PET) with CT (F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT) depicted the cancer (figure A, arrow) and indicated no metastases. The transmural infarction region showed no glucose metabolism (figure 3B, arrowheads) whereas the other left ventricular myocardium was viable. CT scan confirmed the aneurysm’s hypodense fibrous scar (figure 3C, arrow) and the peripheral calcifications (figure 3C, arrowheads). In comparison to the previous MRI
An investigation into weighted data fusion for content-based multimedia information retrieval

Content Based Multimedia Information Retrieval (CBMIR) is characterised by the combination of noisy sources of information which, in unison, are able to achieve strong performance. In this thesis we focus on the combination of ranked results from the independent retrieval experts which comprise a CBMIR system through linearly weighted data fusion. The independent retrieval experts are low-level multimedia features, each of which contains an indexing function and ranking algorithm. This thesis is comprised of two halves. In the ﬁrst half, we perform a rigorous empirical investigation into the factors which impact upon performance in linearly weighted data fusion. In the second half, we leverage these ﬁnding to create a new class of weight generation algorithms for data fusion which are capable of determining weights at query-time, such that the weights are topic dependent.
Genetic and environmental influences on thin-ideal internalization.

OBJECTIVE Current research on the etiology of thin-ideal internalization focuses on psychosocial influences (e.g., media exposure). The possibility that genetic influences also account for variance in thin-ideal internalization has never been directly examined. This study used a twin design to estimate genetic effects on thin-ideal internalization and examine if environmental influences are primarily shared or nonshared in origin. METHOD Participants were 343 postpubertal female twins (ages: 12-22 years; M = 17.61) from the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Thin-ideal internalization was assessed using the Sociocultural Attitudes toward Appearance Questionnaire-3. RESULTS Twin modeling suggested significant additive genetic and nonshared environmental influences on thin-ideal internalization. Shared environmental influences were small and non-significant. DISCUSSION Although prior research focused on psychosocial factors, genetic influences on thin-ideal internalization were significant and moderate in magnitude. Research is needed to investigate possible interplay between genetic and nonshared environmental factors in the development of thin-ideal internalization.
La composante lamellaire dans l'Aurignacien initial de la France Méditerranéenne.

La composante lamellaire a joue un role important dans la reconnaissance de l'Aurignacien initial de la France Mediterraneenne. En Languedoc, a l'Esquicho-Grapaou et a la Laouza, les “grandes lamelles” a profil rectilignes apparaissent comme un trait culturel majeur des assemblages lithiques a la fois sur le plan typologique et sur le plan technologique. Interprete dans un premier temps comme un sous produit du debitage laminaire (rectification des nervures), le debitage lamellaire s'inscrit dans un continuum laminaire/lamellaire sans doute volontaire et non simplement opportuniste. L'hypothese d'un debitage, a partir de nucleus strictement lamellaires, prismatiques unipolaires est egalement envisageable. A cote, on note un debitage de petites lamelles plus courbes, sinon torses, a partir de nucleus grattoirs carenes et de burins carenes (type “Vachons”).
Promoting Secondary Analysis of Electronic Medical Records in China: Summary of the PLAGH-MIT Critical Data Conference and Health Datathon

Electronic health records (EHRs) have been widely adopted among modern hospitals to collect and track clinical data. Secondary analysis of EHRs could complement the traditional randomized control trial (RCT) research model. However, most researchers in China lack either the technical expertise or the resources needed to utilize EHRs as a resource. In addition, a climate of cross-disciplinary collaboration to gain insights from EHRs, a crucial component of a learning healthcare system, is not prevalent. To address these issues, members from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital (PLAGH) organized the first clinical data conference and health datathon in China, which provided a platform for clinicians, statisticians, and data scientists to team up and address information gaps in the intensive care unit (ICU).