Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An improved method of real-time camera pose estimation based on descriptor tracking

Most of automatic navigation technologies are developed based on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), which requires to estimate the pose from the camera input image in real time. The camera pose is estimated by matching the keyframe image and camera input image. To minimize errors in the matching, we present a hybrid method using a Pyramid Lucas-Kanade optical flow and features from accelerated segment test (FAST) descriptor, where the optical flow accurately tracks the displacement of keypoints in consecutive images, and the FAST is a fast keypoint descriptor. The performance of the hybrid method is compared with a method using only the ORB descriptor matching. Due to the distance of both the grey value and position between keypoint descriptors is as far as possible from the equation of camera model, we get deal with the position and gray value of the keypoint descriptors in advance and get more precise results in different experiments. In addition, different SLAM data set with the hybrid method was tested in both indoor and outdoor environments.
The molecular landscape of synchronous colorectal cancer reveals genetic heterogeneity

Abstract Synchronous colorectal cancers (syCRCs), which present two or more lesions at diagnosis, are rare and pose a great challenge for clinical management. Although some predisposing factors associated with syCRCs have been studied with limited accession, the full repertoire of genomic events among the lesions within an individual and the causes of syCRCs remain unclear. We performed whole-exome sequencing of 40 surgical tumour samples of paired lesions from 20 patients to characterize the genetic alterations. Lesions from same patient showed distinct landscapes of somatic aberrations and shared few mutations, which suggests that they originate and develop independently, although they shared the similar genetic background. Canonical genes, such as APC, KRAS, TP53 and PIK3CA, were frequently mutated in the syCRCs, and most of them show different mutation profile compared with solitary colorectal cancer. We identified a recurrent somatic alteration (K15fs) in RPL22 in 25% of the syCRCs. Functional analysis indicated that mutated RPL22 may suppress cell apoptosis and promote the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). Potential drug targets were identified in several signalling pathways, and they present great discrepancy between lesions from the same patient. Our data show that the syCRCs within the same patient present great genetic heterogeneity, and they may be driven by distinct molecular events and develop independently. The discrepancy of potential drug targets and mutation burden in lesions from one patient provides valuable information in clinical management for patients with syCRCs.
Multiple Regression Methods Show Great Potential for Rare Variant Association Tests

The investigation of associations between rare genetic variants and diseases or phenotypes has two goals. Firstly, the identification of which genes or genomic regions are associated, and secondly, discrimination of associated variants from background noise within each region. Over the last few years, many new methods have been developed which associate genomic regions with phenotypes. However, classical methods for high-dimensional data have received little attention. Here we investigate whether several classical statistical methods for high-dimensional data: ridge regression (RR), principal components regression (PCR), partial least squares regression (PLS), a sparse version of PLS (SPLS), and the LASSO are able to detect associations with rare genetic variants. These approaches have been extensively used in statistics to identify the true associations in data sets containing many predictor variables. Using genetic variants identified in three genes that were Sanger sequenced in 1998 individuals, we simulated continuous phenotypes under several different models, and we show that these feature selection and feature extraction methods can substantially outperform several popular methods for rare variant analysis. Furthermore, these approaches can identify which variants are contributing most to the model fit, and therefore both goals of rare variant analysis can be achieved simultaneously with the use of regression regularization methods. These methods are briefly illustrated with an analysis of adiponectin levels and variants in the ADIPOQ gene.
Species Shifts in the Anopheles gambiae Complex: Do LLINs Successfully Control Anopheles arabiensis?

Introduction High coverage of conventional and long-lasting insecticide treated nets (ITNs and LLINs) in parts of E Africa are associated with reductions in local malaria burdens. Shifts in malaria vector species ratio have coincided with the scale-up suggesting that some species are being controlled by ITNs/LLINs better than others. Methods Between 2005–2006 six experimental hut trials of ITNs and LLINs were conducted in parallel at two field stations in northeastern Tanzania; the first station was in Lower Moshi Rice Irrigation Zone, an area where An. arabiensis predominates, and the second was in coastal Muheza, where An. gambiae and An. funestus predominate. Five pyrethroids and one carbamate insecticide were evaluated on nets in terms of insecticide-induced mortality, blood-feeding inhibition and exiting rates. Results In the experimental hut trials mortality of An. arabiensis was consistently lower than that of An. gambiae and An. funestus. The mortality rates in trials with pyrethroid-treated nets ranged from 25–52% for An. arabiensis, 63–88% for An. gambiae s.s. and 53–78% for An. funestus. All pyrethroid-treated nets provided considerable protection for the occupants, despite being deliberately holed, with blood-feeding inhibition (percentage reduction in biting rates) being consistent between species. Veranda exiting rates did not differ between species. Percentage mortality of mosquitoes tested in cone bioassays on netting was similar for An. gambiae and An. arabiensis. Conclusions LLINs and ITNs treated with pyrethroids were more effective at killing An. gambiae and An. funestus than An. arabiensis. This could be a major contributing factor to the species shifts observed in East Africa following scale up of LLINs. With continued expansion of LLIN coverage in Africa An. arabiensis is likely to remain responsible for residual malaria transmission, and species shifts might be reported over larger areas. Supplementary control measures to LLINs may be necessary to control this vector species.
m-AAA and i-AAA complexes coordinate to regulate OMA1, the stress-activated supervisor of mitochondrial dynamics

ABSTRACT The proteolytic processing of dynamin-like GTPase OPA1, mediated by the activity of both YME1L1 [intermembrane (i)-AAA protease complex] and OMA1, is a crucial step in the regulation of mitochondrial dynamics. OMA1 is a zinc metallopeptidase of the inner mitochondrial membrane that undergoes pre-activating proteolytic and auto-proteolytic cleavage after mitochondrial import. Here, we identify AFG3L2 [matrix (m)-AAA complex] as the major protease mediating this event, which acts by maturing the 60 kDa pre-pro-OMA1 to the 40 kDa pro-OMA1 form by severing the N-terminal portion without recognizing a specific consensus sequence. Therefore, m-AAA and i-AAA complexes coordinately regulate OMA1 processing and turnover, and consequently control which OPA1 isoforms are present, thus adding new information on the molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial dynamics and neurodegenerative diseases affected by these phenomena. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper. Summary: AFG3L2 and YME1L1 coordinately regulate OMA1 maturation and consequently, mitochondrial dynamics.
Position Paper on Common-sense and Formal Semantics

I'm not sure what I'm doing on this panel, but I thought it would be helpful if we could start at the beginning. It's interesting to note that both the dictionary and common sense were eighteenth-century inventions. This is no coincidence; in fact, it's entirely appropriate that the most celebrated blow that was ever struck on behalf of common sense was delivered by Dr. Johnson himself, when he kicked a stone in refutation of Berkeley's idealism. If you'll indulge me, I'd like briefly to explore this connection, with the promise that I'll wind up by drawing a moral about n_atural-language understanding. First for "common sense. " To be sure, the phrase had been in use since the fourteenth century, but it was not until the eighteenth century that it acquired three important philosophical uses, which we confuse at our peril. First, there was the understanding of common sense as the faculty of judgement possessed by the average person as part of his birthright. This is the sense of the phrase that Priestly had in mind when he wrote (1775): "Common sense.in common acceptation.has long been appropriated.to that capacity for judging of common things that persons of middling capacities are capable of. " In this sense, common sense is variously a general or universal faculty, "the same in every time and clime," as Hume (somewhere) put it; to avoid confusion here, I'll sometimes refer to this as the faculty of common sense. Now for many philosophers of the period, it was an article of doctrine that natural and moral law were accessible to common sense, and hence that the body of common man could achieve both the degree of understanding of the world and the refinement of moral judgment necessary to self-government. This was the view of Hume, of Johnson, and of course of Thomas Paine, who entitled his famous treatise on natural rights Common Sense. The second use of the phase was more narrowly associated with the Scottish School of phi losophy(also called the "Philosophers of Common Sense"); on this understanding it is a universal endowment, not just of critical faculties, but of beliefs. As the philosopher Hamilton put it, common sense is in this interpretation is "the complement of those cognitions or convictions which we receive from nature; which all men possess in common . " This group made common sense the test of all philosophical doctrines, and in particular referred to the common-sense belief in the reality of t he physical world in the course of their Berkeley.bashing (a
Associations Between Outer Retinal Structures and Focal Macular Electroretinograms in Patients With Retinitis Pigmentosa.

Purpose Our earlier study showed that the width of the intact ellipsoid zone (EZ) of the photoreceptors was significantly but weakly correlated with the amplitudes of the focal macular ERGs (FMERGs). The aim of this study was to determine a microstructure of the photoreceptors in the spectral-domain optical coherence tomographic (SD-OCT) images that was more strongly correlated with the FMERG parameters in eyes with retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Methods This was a retrospective, observational study. The medical records of 65 patients with RP were reviewed. FMERGs were elicited by a 15-degree stimulus spot. The width of the EZ and the outer segment (OS) area surrounded by EZ and retinal pigment epithelium in the SD-OCT images within 15 degrees of the fovea were evaluated. Spearman correlation tests and multiple stepwise regression analyses were performed. Results There was a strong correlation between the amplitudes of FMERGs and the EZ width (r = 0.68 for a-wave amplitude; r = 0.64 for b-wave amplitude), and also between the amplitudes of the FMERGs and the OS area (r = 0.69 for a-wave amplitude; r = 0.67 for b-wave amplitude). However, some patients had long EZ widths but had severely reduced FMERGs. Multiple stepwise regression analyses showed that the OS area was the only significant independent predictor of the amplitudes of FMERGs (P < 0.001). Conclusions The OS area might be a better morphological structure to use to predict the physiological function of the macula.
Quintupling Inhaled Glucocorticoids to Prevent Childhood Asthma Exacerbations

BACKGROUND Asthma exacerbations occur frequently despite the regular use of asthma‐controller therapies, such as inhaled glucocorticoids. Clinicians commonly increase the doses of inhaled glucocorticoids at early signs of loss of asthma control. However, data on the safety and efficacy of this strategy in children are limited. METHODS We studied 254 children, 5 to 11 years of age, who had mild‐to‐moderate persistent asthma and had had at least one asthma exacerbation treated with systemic glucocorticoids in the previous year. Children were treated for 48 weeks with maintenance low‐dose inhaled glucocorticoids (fluticasone propionate at a dose of 44 μg per inhalation, two inhalations twice daily) and were randomly assigned to either continue the same dose (low‐dose group) or use a quintupled dose (high‐dose group; fluticasone at a dose of 220 μg per inhalation, two inhalations twice daily) for 7 days at the early signs of loss of asthma control (“yellow zone”). Treatment was provided in a double‐blind fashion. The primary outcome was the rate of severe asthma exacerbations treated with systemic glucocorticoids. RESULTS The rate of severe asthma exacerbations treated with systemic glucocorticoids did not differ significantly between groups (0.48 exacerbations per year in the high‐dose group and 0.37 exacerbations per year in the low‐dose group; relative rate, 1.3; 95% confidence interval, 0.8 to 2.1; P=0.30). The time to the first exacerbation, the rate of treatment failure, symptom scores, and albuterol use during yellow‐zone episodes did not differ significantly between groups. The total glucocorticoid exposure was 16% higher in the high‐dose group than in the low‐dose group. The difference in linear growth between the high‐dose group and the low‐dose group was ‐0.23 cm per year (P=0.06). CONCLUSIONS In children with mild‐to‐moderate persistent asthma treated with daily inhaled glucocorticoids, quintupling the dose at the early signs of loss of asthma control did not reduce the rate of severe asthma exacerbations or improve other asthma outcomes and may be associated with diminished linear growth. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; STICS ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02066129.)
FGF signaling enforces cardiac chamber identity in the developing ventricle

Atrial and ventricular cardiac chambers behave as distinct subunits with unique morphological, electrophysiological and contractile properties. Despite the importance of chamber-specific features, chamber fate assignments remain relatively plastic, even after differentiation is underway. In zebrafish, Nkx transcription factors are essential for the maintenance of ventricular characteristics, but the signaling pathways that operate upstream of Nkx factors in this context are not well understood. Here, we show that FGF signaling plays an essential part in enforcing ventricular identity. Loss of FGF signaling results in a gradual accumulation of atrial cells, a corresponding loss of ventricular cells, and the appearance of ectopic atrial gene expression within the ventricle. These phenotypes reflect important roles for FGF signaling in promoting ventricular traits, both in early-differentiating cells that form the initial ventricle and in late-differentiating cells that append to its arterial pole. Moreover, we find that FGF signaling functions upstream of Nkx genes to inhibit ectopic atrial gene expression. Together, our data suggest a model in which sustained FGF signaling acts to suppress cardiomyocyte plasticity and to preserve the integrity of the ventricular chamber. Summary: The FGF signaling pathway suppresses plasticity in the developing ventricle by promoting ventricular chamber characteristics and inhibiting atrial gene expression via Nkx factors.
Comparison between the effect of kartogenin and TGFβ3 on chondrogenesis of human adipose- derived stem cells in fibrin scaffold.

BACKGROUND Due to very sluggish turnover at the molecular and cellular level, the healing of chondral damages has been considered difficult. In the current study, the effects of the Kartogenin, a small heterocyclic molecule on chondrogenic differentiation of stem cells was compared to TGF-β3. METHODS Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells were extracted during an elective surgery. Cell viability was estimated by MTT assay, differentiated cells evaluated by histological and immunohistochemical techniques. Expression of cartilage specific genes (SOX9, Aggrecan, type II and X collagens) assessed by real-time PCR. RESULTS The real-time PCR assay has revealed the expression of gene marker of chondrogenesis, SOX9, Aggrecan and type II collagen, both in Kartogenin and TGFβ3 groups compared to the control group, significantly (p < 0.05). A low expression level of collagen type X as a hypertrophic marker was seen in cartilage produced by using Kartogenin. Meanwhile, the level of type X collagen protein in Kartogenin group was significantly decreased (p > 0.05) compared to TGF-β3 group. CONCLUSION Kartogenin was suitable for successful chondrogenic differentiation of human adipose- derived stem cells and a suppressor of the consequent hypertrophy (Tab. 1, Fig. 5, Ref. 31).
Roboscope: A flexible and bendable surgical robot for single portal Minimally Invasive Surgery

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) can reduce iatrogenic injury and decrease the possibility of surgical complications. This paper presents a novel flexible and bendable endoscopic device, “Roboscope”, which delivers two instruments, two miniature scanning fiber endoscopes, and a suction/irrigation port to the operation site through a single portal. Compared with existing bendable and steerable robotic surgical systems, Roboscope provides two bending degrees of freedom for its outer sheath and two insertion degrees of freedom, while simultaneously delivering two instruments and two endoscopes to the surgical site. Each bending axis and insertion freedom of Roboscope is independently controllable via an external actuation pack. Surgical tools can be changed without retracting the robot arm. This paper presents the design of the Roboscope mechanical system, electrical system, and control and software systems, design requirements and prototyping validation as well as analysis of Roboscope workspece.
Age-related Defects in CD4 T Cell Cognate Helper Function Lead to Reductions in Humoral Responses

With increasing age, the ability to produce protective antibodies in response to immunization declines, leading to a reduced efficacy of vaccination in the elderly. To examine the effect of age on the cognate function of CD4 T cells, we have used a novel adoptive transfer model that allows us to compare identical numbers of antigen-specific naive T cells from young and aged TCR transgenic (Tg) donors. Upon transfer of aged donor CD4 T cells to young hosts, there was significantly reduced expansion and germinal center (GC) differentiation of the antigen-specific B cell population after immunization. This reduced cognate helper function was seen at all time points and over a wide range of donor cell numbers. In hosts receiving aged CD4 cells, there were also dramatically lower levels of antigen-specific IgG. These age-related defects were not due to defects in migration of the aged CD4 T cells, but may be attributable to reduced CD154 (CD40L) expression. Furthermore, we found that there was no difference in B cell expansion and differentiation or in IgG production when young CD4 T cells were transferred to young or aged hosts. Our results show that, in this model, age-related reductions in the cognate helper function of CD4 T cells contribute significantly to defects in humoral responses observed in aged individuals.
Modelling Co-Infection of the Cystic Fibrosis Lung by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cenocepacia Reveals Influences on Biofilm Formation and Host Response

The Gram-negative bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cenocepacia are opportunistic human pathogens that are responsible for severe nosocomial infections in immunocompromised patients and those suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF). These two bacteria have been shown to form biofilms in the airways of CF patients that make such infections more difficult to treat. Only recently have scientists begun to appreciate the complicated interplay between microorganisms during polymicrobial infection of the CF airway and the implications they may have for disease prognosis and response to therapy. To gain insight into the possible role that interaction between strains of P. aeruginosa and B. cenocepacia may play during infection, we characterised co-inoculations of in vivo and in vitro infection models. Co-inoculations were examined in an in vitro biofilm model and in a murine model of chronic infection. Assessment of biofilm formation showed that B. cenocepacia positively influenced P. aeruginosa biofilm development by increasing biomass. Interestingly, co-infection experiments in the mouse model revealed that P. aeruginosa did not change its ability to establish chronic infection in the presence of B. cenocepacia but co-infection did appear to increase host inflammatory response. Taken together, these results indicate that the co-infection of P. aeruginosa and B. cenocepacia leads to increased biofilm formation and increased host inflammatory response in the mouse model of chronic infection. These observations suggest that alteration of bacterial behavior due to interspecies interactions may be important for disease progression and persistent infection.
Saccadic Adaptation to Moving Targets

Saccades are so called ballistic movements which are executed without online visual feedback. After each saccade the saccadic motor plan is modified in response to post-saccadic feedback with the mechanism of saccadic adaptation. The post-saccadic feedback is provided by the retinal position of the target after the saccade. If the target moves after the saccade, gaze may follow the moving target. In that case, the eyes are controlled by the pursuit system, a system that controls smooth eye movements. Although these two systems have in the past been considered as mostly independent, recent lines of research point towards many interactions between them. We were interested in the question if saccade amplitude adaptation is induced when the target moves smoothly after the saccade. Prior studies of saccadic adaptation have considered intra-saccadic target steps as learning signals. In the present study, the intra-saccadic target step of the McLaughlin paradigm of saccadic adaptation was replaced by target movement, and a post-saccadic pursuit of the target. We found that saccadic adaptation occurred in this situation, a further indication of an interaction of the saccadic system and the pursuit system with the aim of optimized eye movements.