Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
USION F OR A CTION R ECOGNITION F ROM K INECT

The recognition of human actions based on three-dimensional depth data has become a very active research field in computer vision. In this paper, we study the fusion at the feature and decision levels for depth data captured by a Kinect camera to improve action recognition. More precisely, from each depth video sequence, we compute Depth Motion Maps (DMM) from three projection views: front, side and top. Then shape and texture features are extracted from the obtained DMMs. These features are based essentially on Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) and Local Binary Patterns (LBP) descriptors. We propose to use two fusion levels. The first is a feature fusion level and is based on the concatenation of HOG and LBP descriptors. The second, a score fusion level, based on the naive-Bayes combination approach, aggregates the scores of three classifiers: a collaborative representation classifier, a sparse representation classifier and a kernel based extreme learning machine classifier. The experimental results conducted on two public datasets, Kinect v2 and UTD-MHAD, show that our approach achieves a high recognition accuracy and outperforms several existing methods.
Comparative biology of chronic and aggressive periodontitis: introduction.

The overall aim of this volume of Periodontology 2000 is to compare the biological features of chronic and aggressive forms of periodontitis in order to identify similarities and differences between these phenotypic expressions of periodontal diseases. The contributors were asked to compare the features of chronic and aggressive periodontitis, with an emphasis on shared characteristics (i.e. similarities) and unique characteristics (i.e. differences). This task has been a formidable one, as many details of the etiology and pathogenesis of periodontal infections are unknown. In addition, studies dealing with these diseases often use different terminology and case definitions , thereby complicating any attempt at effective analysis of the existing literature (6). Indeed, all of the contributors to this volume of Periodontology 2000 expressed frustration about the inconsistent use of criteria to define cases of the different forms of periodontitis in the periodontal literature.
Reduction of mismatch of global ventilation and perfusion on exercise is related to exercise capacity in chronic heart failure.

BACKGROUND--The inability to match lung perfusion to ventilation because of a reduced cardiac output on exercise contributes to reduced exercise capacity in chronic heart failure. OBJECTIVE--To quantify ventilation to perfusion matching at rest and at peak exercise in patients with chronic heart failure and relate this to haemodynamic and ventilatory variables of exercise capacity. DESIGN--Eight men in New York Heart Association class II underwent maximal bicycle ergometry with expired gas analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--On separate days, ventilation and perfusion gamma camera imaging was performed at rest, and at 80% of previous peak exercise heart rate during bicycle ergometry. The vertical distribution of mismatch between ventilation and perfusion (V/Q) was estimated from subtracted profiles of activity (ventilation and perfusion) to derive a numerical index of global mismatch. RESULTS--Maximal mean (SD) oxygen consumption on bicycle ergometry was 16.0 (4.5) ml min-1 kg-1. There was a reduction in the global V/Q mismatch index from 23.96 (5.90) to 14.88 (7.90) units (p < 0.01) at rest and at peak exercise. Global V/Q mismatch index at peak exercise correlated negatively with maximal minute ventilation (R = -0.90, p < 0.01) and with maximal mean arterial pressure (R = -0.79, p < 0.05), although no relation was seen with maximal oxygen consumption. The reduction in global V/Q mismatch index from rest to peak exercise correlated with maximal oxygen consumption (R = 0.88, p < 0.01), and with maximal minute ventilation (R = 0.87, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS--During exercise in patients with chronic heart failure, there is a reduction in the global V/Q mismatch index. A lower global V/Q mismatch index at peak exercise is associated with higher maximal ventilation. The reduction in global V/Q mismatch index on exercise correlates well with maximal exercise capacity. This may imply that the inability to perfuse adequately all regions of lung on exercise and match this to ventilation is a factor determining exercise capacity in chronic heart failure.
Impact of ventricular-peritoneal shunt valve design on clinical outcome of pediatric patients with hydrocephalus: Lessons learned from randomized controlled trials

Hydrocephalus is one of the most common diseases managed by pediatric neurosurgeons. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunting has been the mainstay of durable treatment for hydrocephalus for many decades. There are two main categories of shunt designs for regulating the extent of CSF diversion: (1) Fixed-parameter valves and (2) adjustable valves. Furthermore, these valves can also function with and without an anti-siphon device. Here, we review randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that examined the impact of these valve designs on the clinical outcome of pediatric patients afflicted with hydrocephalus. All three RCTs suggested no significant differences in clinical outcome as a function of shunt design. Implications of these findings are discussed.
The Human Blastocyst Regulates Endometrial Epithelial Apoptosis in Embryonic Adhesion1

Abstract The implanting blastocyst must appose and adhere to the endometrial epithelium and, subsequently, invade it. Locally regulated uterine epithelial apoptosis induced by the embryo is a crucial step of the epithelial invasion in rodents. To address the physiological relevance of this process in humans, we investigated the effect of single human blastocysts on the regulation of apoptosis in cultured human endometrial epithelial cells (hEEC) in both apposition and adhesion phases of implantation. Here, we report a co-ordinated embryonic regulation of hEEC apoptosis. In the apposition phase, the presence of a blastocyst rescues hEEC from the apoptotic pathway. However, when the human blastocyst adheres to the hEEC monolayer, it induces a paracrine apoptotic reaction. Fas ligand (Fas-L) was present at the embryonic trophoectoderm. Fas was localized at the apical cell surface of hEEC, and flow cytometry revealed that 60% of hEEC express Fas. Neutralizing adhesion assays revealed that the Fas/Fas-L death system may be an important mechanism to cross the epithelial barrier, which is crucial for embryonic adhesion, and the manipulation of this system could have potential clinical implications as an interceptive mechanism.
Molecular Mechanisms in Basement Membrane Complications of Diabetes: Alterations in Heparin, Laminin, and Type IV Collagen Association

We report alterations in the ligand-binding properties of laminin, the major noncollagenous protein of basement membranes, resulting from nonenzymatic glycosylation in vitro. Mouse laminin was incubated in vitro with 500 mM glucose, and the level of nonenzymatically glycosylated amino acids increased 2-, 6.2-, and 12-fold after incubation for 1, 3, and 12 days, respectively. Ligand binding assays conducted in solution with varying concentrations of [3H]heparin and a constant amount of control or nonenzymatically glycosylated laminin showed a reduction in heparin binding proportional to laminin glycosylation. An analysis of the stoichiometry of [3H]heparin binding to control and nonenzymatically glycosylated laminin at saturating levels of heparin was performed. The results indicated that the total number of heparin binding sites on laminin decreased 4.7- and 14.7-fold due to nonenzymatic glycosylation of laminin for 1 and 3 days, respectively. [3H]heparin binding to 12-day nonenzymatically glycosylated laminin was abolished. Scatchard analyses of the binding data for heparin and laminin gave a dissociation constant (Kd) of 3.4 × 10−8 M. The data for nonenzymatic glycosylation of laminin for 1 day in vitro resulted in a biphasic heparin binding curve. Both high- and low-affinity binding was observed (Kd values of 3.3 × 10−8 and 2.6 × 10−7 M, respectively). Similar high- and low-affinity binding sites were seen on 3-day nonenzymatically glycosylated laminin (Kd values of 2.1 × 10−8 and 3.9 × 10−7 M, respectively). [3H]heparin binding at a fixed concentration to a constant amount of control or 12-day nonenzymatically glycosylated laminin and type IV collagen was also studied. Under control conditions, [3H]heparin binding to laminin was increased 3-fold in the presence of type IV collagen. The nonenzymatic glycosylation of laminin or type IV collagen substantially reduced type IV collagen–enhanced binding of heparin to laminin. The nonenzymatic glycosylation of both laminin and type IV collagen abolished type IV collagen–enhanced binding of heparin and reduced heparin binding to background levels. These observations are discussed in relation to the loss of heparan sulfate proteoglycan from the glomerular basement membrane in diabetes mellitus and in relation to the production of an initial lesion in the basement membranes of diabetic animals and humans.
The safety and effectiveness of riociguat to treat chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is an insidious, progressive disease with a poor prognosis. The treatment of choice is pulmonary thromboendarterectomy, although not all patients benefit from surgery at a specialized center. Riociguat, an oral soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulator is the first pharmacotherapeutic agent that has been shown to improve exercise capacity and hemodynamics in a large multicenter, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial for the treatment of patients with inoperable or persistent CTEPH. Riociguat stimulates sGC directly in a nitric oxide (NO)-independent manner, thereby increasing the sensitivity of sGC to NO, and also in synergy with NO, leading to increased production of cyclic guanosine monophosphate, an intracellular messenger involved in regulating vascular tone, smooth muscle cell proliferation, fibrosis and inflammation. This review will summarize the pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics as well as safety and efficacy data of riociguat in inoperable or persistent CTEPH.
PCR Detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Directly from Stools: Evaluation of Commercial Extraction Methods for Purifying Fecal DNA

ABSTRACT Rapid identification of Escherichia coli O157:H7 is important for patient management and for prompt epidemiological investigations. We evaluated one in-house method and three commercially available kits for their ability to extract E. coli O157:H7 DNA directly from stool specimens for PCR. Of the 153 stool specimens tested, 107 were culture positive and 46 were culture negative. The sensitivities and specificities of the in-house enrichment method, IsoQuick kit, NucliSens kit, and QIAamp kit were comparable, as follows: 83 and 98%, 85 and 100%, 74 and 98%, and 86 and 100%, respectively. False-negative PCR results may be due to the presence of either inherent inhibitors or small numbers of organisms. The presence of large amounts of bacteria relative to the amount of the E. coli O157:H7 target may result in the lower sensitivities of the assays. All commercial kits were rapid and easy to use, although DNA extracted with the QIAamp kit did not require further dilution of the DNA template prior to PCR.
Cooperative transport in unknown environment - application of real-time task assignment

This paper deals with a task-assignment architecture for cooperative transport by multiple mobile robots in unknown environment. The planner should satisfy three features: to deal with the variety of tasks in time and space; do deal with a large amount of tasks; and to decide behavior in real-time. The authors (1999) have proposed the following approach: 1) based on sensor information, tasks will be dynamically generated using task templates; 2) generation of task is tuned in quality by feeding back executed result and in the number by action suppression; 3) main part of the architecture consists of two real-time planner: priority-based task-assignment planner solved by using a linear programming method and motion planners based on short-time estimation. In this paper, we implement our task-assignment architecture on a real robot system and verify the effectiveness of the proposed method by cooperative transport experiment in unknown environment.
Two-way TCP traffic over rate controlled channels: effects and analysis

We study the performance of bidirectional TCP/IP connections over a network that uses rate-based flow and congestion control. An example of such a network is an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network using the available bit rate (ABR) service. The sharing of a common buffer by TCP packets and acknowledgment (acks) has been known to result in an effect called ack compression, where acks of a connection arrive at the source bunched together, resulting in unfairness and degraded throughput. It has been the expectation that maintaining a smooth flow of data using rate-based flow control would mitigate, if not eliminate, the various forms of burstiness experienced with the TCP window flow control. However, we show that the problem of TCP ack compression appears even while operating over a rate-controlled channel. The degradation in throughput due to bidirectional traffic can be significant. For example, even in the simple case of symmetrical connections with adequate window sizes, the throughput of each connection is only 66.67% of that under one-way traffic. By analyzing the periodic bursty behavior of the source IP queue, we derive estimates for the maximum queue size and arrive at a simple predictor for the degraded throughput, for relatively general situations. We validate our analysis using simulation on an ATM network using the explicit rate option of the ABR service. The analysis predicts the behavior of the queue and the throughput degradation in simple configurations and in more general situations.
Attraktionspunkte : multioptionale Erlebniswelten für wettbewerbsfähige Standorte

Standorte und Kundenkontaktpunkte stehen nicht nur im Tourismus, sondern auch in anderen Dienstleistungs-bran-chen, wie z.B. im Handel, in einem zunehmenden Wett-be-werb. Steigerung der Attraktivitat durch Erlebnisse, Anlasse und Begegnungsmoglichkeiten ist eine Antwort auf diese Herausforderung. Mit dem Konzept «Attraktionspunkte» soll ein analytischer Rahmen fur die Diskussion von Erfolgsfaktoren und Ausgestaltungs-moglichkeiten geschaffen werden. Das vorliegende Buch entstand auf der Basis von Referaten anlasslich einer Tagung des IDT-HSG sowie nachfolgenden Forschungsarbeiten. Es richtet sich an Praktiker, Behorden-mitglieder, Berater und interessierte Studentinnen und Studenten im Bereich des Incoming-Tourismus in klassischen Tourismuslandern sowie an Raumplaner, Immobilienmanager und an-dere Verantwortliche fur Standorte. Zentrales Anliegen ist es, auf der Basis einer breiten theoretischen Einfuhrung in die Thematik sowie einer Anzahl von Fallbeispielen aus der Praxis den Lesern das Konzept «Attraktionspunkte» naher zu bringen und entsprechende Anhaltspunkte fur die Angebotsgestaltung zu geben.
Green Communications and Networking

This Special Issue includes the best revised selected papers from the The Second International Conference on Green Communications and Networking (GreeNets 2012), that took place in Gandia, Valencia, Spain, at October 25-26, 2012. This second edition of GreeNets received very good contributions. Then, this special issue includes the better conference papers after a rigorous review process in order to revise and enlarge the original contributions avoiding self-plagiarism.
Inhibition of phorbol ester‐induced COX‐2 expression by some edible African plants

Cancer bush (CB, Sutherlandia frutescens), Devil's claw (DEV, Harpagophytum procumbens), Rooibos tea (RT, Aspalathus linearis), and Bambara groundnut (BB, Vignea subterranean) have been used to treat some malignancies and inflammatory disorders in Africa. However, biochemical basis for chemopreventive effects of these medicinal plants remains unclear. An abnormally elevated expression of cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) has been implicated in pathogenesis and progression of carcinogenesis. In the present study, we found that the methanol extracts of CB, DEV, RT, and BB inhibited, to a different extent, 12‐O‐tetradecanoylphorbol‐13‐acetate (TPA)‐induced COX‐2 expression in human breast epithelial (MCF10A) cells and in mouse skin in vivo. To determine the molecular mechanism of COX‐2 inhibition by the above medicinal plants, we examined their effects on activation of NF‐κB which is one of the major transcription factors responsible for regulating COX‐2 expression. Methanol extracts of both CB and BB inhibited the DNA binding of NF‐κB activated by TPA in MCF10A cells in a dose‐dependent manner. Based on above findings, CB and BB are likely to inhibit TPA‐induced COX‐2 expression through suppression of DNA binding of NF‐κB, which may contribute to the chemopreventive or chemoprotective activity of these African plants.
A Case Report of an Unusual Case of Tuberculous Osteomyelitis Causing Spontaneous Pathological Fracture of Humerus in a Middle Aged Female

Introduction: Tuberculosis is a major health problem worldwide. Extrapulmonary tuberculosis is often secondary to some primary foci in lungs. There are reports of tuberculous osteomyelitis involving maxilla, ulna, femur, and shoulder joint but none have reported pathological fracture in humeral diaphysis due to tuberculosis osteomyelitis without shoulder joint involvement. We report a case of pathological fracture of humerus diaphysis due to tuberculous osteomyelitis with normal articular space. We noticed favorable outcome following surgery and antitubercular drugs. Case Report: A 62-year-old female diabetic patient presented with complaints of pain in the right shoulder of 2 weeks duration and inability to raise right arm. Initial clinical evaluation revealed local rise of temperature, tenderness over the right shoulder and proximal arm and restricted range of movements in all plane. Neurologically, the patient was normal. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate was raised. Computed tomography chest showed small area of consolidation in the left upper lobe. Plain radiograph of the right shoulder with humerus showed transverse fracture of proximal shaft of the right humerus. J-needle biopsy was done from proximal humerus fracture site. Histopathological examination of biopsy tissue from fracture site confirmed granuloma with epithelioid and Langhan’s giant cells. Mantoux test and culture for acid-fast bacilli were non-conclusive. Based on histopathology report, we concluded this to be tuberculous osteomyelitis of humerus and the patient was started on category 1 antitubercular drugs, under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme as per revised WHO guidelines. We performed open debridement and fixation of fracture with rush nail. Initial follow-up 4 months, post-operative and plain radiograph showed overall improvement in general condition of the patient, weight gain, and good fracture healing. One year following index surgery, rush nails were removed due to pain at insertion site. Fracture healed completely. Shoulder abduction and forward flexion were restricted in terminal 30°, internal and external rotation, and adduction was full compared to opposite shoulder. Conclusion: Tuberculosis is very common in India, but its presentation as spontaneous fracture of humerus is unusual. It is highly likely that most orthopedician will encounter and treat tuberculosis and our case highlights the high degree of suspicion one must have in diagnosing pathological fracture of long bones. Error in diagnosis and treatment burdens the medical resources and overall morbidity.
Synthesis of the protein cutting reagent iron (S)-1-(p-bromoacetamidobenzyl)ethylenediaminetetraacetate and conjugation to cysteine side chains.

Convenient methodology for preparation and conjugation of the protein-cutting iron chelate iron (S)-1-(p-bromoacetamidobenzyl) ethylenediaminetetraacetate (Fe-BABE) is given. This formulation of the reagent can be handled in a manner analogous to many other protein-labeling reagents, such as fluorescent probes or cross-linkers. By taking advantage of the recently discovered peptide hydrolysis reaction, the chelate may be tethered to a single site (e.g., a cysteine side chain) and used to map its proximity to individual peptide bonds by automated Edman sequencing of the protein fragments produced. The method is illustrated by conjugation of Fe-BABE to the carboxy terminal domain (amino acid residues 234-329) of the Escherichia coli RNA polymerase alpha subunit. The molecular mass of the protein conjugate was confirmed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.
Interactions between neutral phospholipid bilayer membranes.

We have obtained force vs. separation relations between bilayers in 10 different phospholipid preparations: dilauroyl-dimyristoyl-, dipalmitoyl-, distearoyl-, or dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (PC); egg phosphatidylethanolamine; cholesterol-containing bilayers of dipalmitoyl PC and of egg PC. The chemical potential of water in the multilamellar lattice is determined at all water contents and changes continuously with bilayer separation; no discrete classes of water are observed. The interbilayer van der Waals force is estimated from the balance of forces at the bilayer separation where the multilayer lattice is in equilibrium with pure water. Although quantitative differences are evident for different phospholipids, all force curves but one show a clear, exponentially decaying "hydration "repulsion" whose decay distance is 2-3 A . Estimates of forces between bilayer vesicles show great sensitivity to the identity of the phospholipid polar group and to the packing of the hydrocarbon acyl chains. On major implication of this is the likelihood of local structural changes and lipid segregation in the area of closest approach of interacting vesicles of mixed phospholipids.
Magnetic nanoparticles: Properties and potential applications

Abstract Magnetic particles may be used to selectively attach and manipulate or transport targeted species to a desired location under the influence of an external magnetic field. By virtue of their size, magnetic nanoparticles are superparamagnetic, offering great potential in a variety of applications in their bare form or through coating with a surface coating and functional group chosen for a specific application. In this paper, and in order to illustrate this concept, three applications for the use of magnetic nanoparticles will be discussed, namely, in magnetic liquids for densimetric separation, in therapeutic and diagnostic testing, and in effluent processing and metal ion removal.