Cursive Eye-Writing With Smooth-Pursuit Eye-Movement Is Possible in Subjects With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder causing a progressive motor weakness of all voluntary muscles, whose progression challenges communication modalities such as handwriting or speech. The current study investigated whether ALS subjects can use Eye-On-Line (EOL), a novel eye-operated communication device allowing, after training, to voluntarily control smooth-pursuit eye-movements (SPEM) so as to eye-write in cursive. To that aim, ALS participants (n = 12) with preserved eye-movements but impaired handwriting were trained during six on-site visits. The primary outcome of the study was the recognition of eye-written digits (0–9) from ALS and healthy control subjects by naïve “readers.” Changes in oculomotor performance and the safety of EOL were also evaluated. At the end of the program, 69.4% of the eye-written digits from 11 ALS subjects were recognized by naïve readers, similar to the 67.3% found for eye-written digits from controls participants, with however, large inter-individual differences in both groups of “writers.” Training with EOL was associated with a transient fatigue leading one ALS subject to drop out the study at the fifth visit. Otherwise, itching eyes was the most common adverse event (3 subjects). This study shows that, despite the impact of ALS on the motor system, most ALS participants could improve their mastering of eye-movements, so as to produce recognizable eye-written digits, although the eye-traces sometimes needed smoothing to ease digit legibility from both ALS subjects and control participants. The capability to endogenously and voluntarily generate eye-traces using EOL brings a novel way to communicate for disabled individuals, allowing creative personal and emotional expression

Deep Artificial Neural Networks and Neuromorphic Chips for Big Data Analysis: Pharmaceutical and Bioinformatics Applications

[Abstract] Over the past decade, Deep Artificial Neural Networks (DNNs) have become the state-of-the-art algorithms in Machine Learning (ML), speech recognition, computer vision, natural language processing and many other tasks. This was made possible by the advancement in Big Data, Deep Learning (DL) and drastically increased chip processing abilities, especially general-purpose graphical processing units (GPGPUs). All this has created a growing interest in making the most of the potential offered by DNNs in almost every field. An overview of the main architectures of DNNs, and their usefulness in Pharmacology and Bioinformatics are presented in this work. The featured applications are: drug design, virtual screening (VS), Quantitative Structure–Activity Relationship (QSAR) research, protein structure prediction and genomics (and other omics) data mining. The future need of neuromorphic hardware for DNNs is also discussed, and the two most advanced chips are reviewed: IBM TrueNorth and SpiNNaker. In addition, this review points out the importance of considering not only neurons, as DNNs and neuromorphic chips should also include glial cells, given the proven importance of astrocytes, a type of glial cell which contributes to information processing in the brain. The Deep Artificial Neuron–Astrocyte Networks (DANAN) could overcome the difficulties in architecture design, learning process and scalability of the current ML methods.Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; GRC2014/049Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; R2014/039Instituto de Salud Carlos III; PI13/0028

Genetic and morphological diversity of germplasm collection from Lupinus mutabilis Sweet grown under Mediterranean climate

Doutoramento em Engenharia Agronómica / Instituto Superior de Agronomia. Universidade de LisboaLupinus mutabilis Sweet (tarwi) is recognized for its high protein and oil content, raising its interest worldwide. In Europe, work is underway to adapt it. In Portugal, a germplasm collection was created based on promising accessions, using seeds from the Andes. There is little knowledge about the genetic diversity of this collection, limiting its use. Thus, these objectives were established: to evaluate the genetic potential of the Portuguese tarwi collection for adaptability to Mediterranean climatic conditions through morphological and molecular tools; to characterize the response to anthracnose (caused by Colletotrichum lupini) in Lupinus mutabilis germplasm collection based on the severity and area under the disease-progress curve and ascertaining the effect of anthocyanin pigmentation on such responses; and genetically characterize contrasting genotypes in the integument colour (brown and white) based on DNA and gene expression studies. All accessions showed good adaptability. LM268 accession was more promising with productivity above 1.5 t/ha in rainfed conditions, showing similar behavior with Lupinus albus cultivars. ISSRs reveal a reduced base of genetic diversity among the tested accessions in relation to grouping according to the flowers and stem colour. Genomic analysis points to the existence of differences in the genome size between the evaluated accessions. Both genetic and genomic analysis point to a lack of correlation with morphological characters. The study of resistance to anthracnose revealed that no accession is resistant. However, accessions with anthocyanins were less susceptible than those without. The histological study allowed us to understand the degree of tissue destruction and the cause of the curl and amputation of the infected sites. The genetic characterization of contrasting genotypes in the integument (brown and white) based on DNA and gene expression allowed us to identify and isolate the flavanone 3-hydroxylase (LmF3h) gene in tarwi. Two LmF3h paralogues were identified in the brown seed, while in the white only one was identified. RT-qPCR showed that the paralogues identified in both genotypes show differences in expressiveness, but with similar patterns of expression during seed developmentN/

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand, 1937) occupies a central place within the history of global animation. Based on the German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, the film was the first feature-length animated film produced by the Disney Studio and served to announce the animated cartoon as an industrial art form. Yet Disney’s landmark version not only set in motion the Golden Age of the Hollywood cartoon, but has continued to stand as an international sensation, prompting multiple revisions and remakes within a variety of national filmmaking contexts. This book explores the enduring qualities that have marked Snow White’s influence and legacy, providing a collection of original chapters that reflect upon its pioneering use of technology and contributions to animation’s visual style, the film’s reception within an American context, and its status as a global cultural phenomenon

Developing affordable high-throughput plant phenotyping methods for breeding of cereals and tuber crops

High-throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP) is a fast, accurate, and non-destructive process for evaluating plants' health and environmental adaptability. HTPP accelerates the identification of agronomic traits of interest, eliminates subjectivism (which is innate to humans), and facilitates the development of adapted genotypes. Current HTPP methods often rely on imaging sensors and computer vision both in the field and under controlled (indoor) conditions. However, their use is limited by the costs and complexity of the necessary instrumentation, data analysis tools, and software. This issue could be overcome by developing more cost-efficient and user-friendly methods that let breeders, farmers, and stakeholders access the benefits of HTPP. To assist such efforts, this thesis presents an ensemble of dedicated affordable phenotyping methods using RGB imaging for a range of key applications under controlled conditions.  The affordable Phenocave imaging system for use in controlled conditions was developed to facilitate studies on the effects of abiotic stresses by gathering data on important plant characteristics related to growth, yield, and adaptation to growing conditions and cultivation systems. Phenocave supports imaging sensors including visible (RGB), spectroscopic (multispectral and hyperspectral), and thermal imaging. Additionally, a pipeline for RGB image analysis was implemented as a plugin for the free and easy-to-use software ImageJ. This plugin has since proven to be an accurate alternative to conventional measurements that produces highly reproducible results. A subsequent study was conducted to evaluate the effects of heat and drought stress on plant growth and grain nutrient composition in wheat, an important staple cereal in Sweden. The effects of stress on plant growth were evaluated using image analysis, while stress-induced changes in the abundance of key plant compounds were evaluated by analyzing the nutrient composition of grains via chromatography. This led to the discovery of genotypes whose harvest quality remains stable under heat and drought stress. The next objective was to evaluate biotic stress; for this case, the effect of the fungal disease Fusarium head blight (FHB) that affects grain development in wheat was investigated. For this purpose, seed phenotyping parameters were used to determine the components and settings of a statistical model, which predicts the occurrence of FHB. The results reveal that grain morphology evaluations, such as length and width, were found to be significantly affected by the disease. Another study was carried out to estimate the disease severity of the common scab (CS) in potatoes, a widely popular food source. CS occurs on the tubers and reduces their visual appeal, significantly affecting their market value. Tubers were analyzed by a deep learning-based method to estimate disease lesion areas caused by CS. Results showed a high correlation between the predictions and expert visual scorings of the disease and proved to be a potential tool for the selection of genotypes that fulfill the market standards and resistance to CS. Both case studies highlight the role of imaging in plant health monitoring and its integration into the larger picture of plant health management.  The methods presented in this work are a starting point for bridging the gap between costs and accessibility to imaging technology. These are affordable and user-friendly resources for generating pivotal knowledge on plant development and genotype selection. In the future, image acquisition of all the methods can be integrated into the Phenocave system, potentially allowing for a more automated and efficient plant health monitoring process, leading to the identification of tolerant genotypes to biotic and abiotic stresses

Music - Media - History: Re-Thinking Musicology in an Age of Digital Media

Music and sound shape the emotional content of audio-visual media and carry different meanings. This volume considers audio-visual material as a primary source for historiography. By analyzing how the same sounds are used in different media contexts at different times, the contributors intend to challenge the linear perspective of (music) history based on canonic authority. The book discusses AV-Documents (analysis in context), methodological questions (implications for research, education, and popularization of knowledge), archives of cultural memory (from the perspective of Cultural Studies) as well as digitalization and its consequences (organization of knowledge)

Development of new tools and germplasms for improvement of wheat resistance to Fusarium head blight

Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of AgronomyGuihua BaiXiaomao LinWheat Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a devastating disease of wheat worldwide, which can significantly reduce grain yield and quality. Although the application of fungicides can reduce FHB damage, growing FHB resistant wheat is the most effective and eco-friendly approach to reduce the losses. To develop locally adapted FHB-resistant hard winter wheat germplasm, we transferred three major QTLs: Fhb1, Qfhs.ifa-5A, and Qfhb.rwg-5A.2 into two hard winter wheat cultivars, ‘Everest’ and ‘Overland’, using marker-assisted backcrossing and multiplex restriction amplicon sequencing (MRASeq). Ten ‘Overland’ background lines and nine ‘Everest’ background lines with better FHB resistance, recurrent parent similar agronomic traits were selected. They can be used as FHB resistant bridge parents for hard winter wheat breeding. To identify native FHB resistant sources, a population of 201 U.S. breeding lines and cultivars were genotyped using 90K wheat SNP arrays and phenotyped for the percentage of symptomatic spikelets (PSS), Fusarium damaged kernels (FDK) and deoxynivalenol (DON), a toxin produced by the pathogen. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified significant trait associations with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosomes 1A, 1D, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, 5B and 5D. These marker-trait associations (MTAs) were significant for at least two of the three traits or a single trait in at least two experiments. To accelerate the evaluation of the FDK, we developed an algorithm that can separate FDK from healthy kernels with an accuracy of 90% based on color differences using image processing and unsupervised machine learning methods. Discovery and creation of the new FHB resistant germplasms and development of the fast FDK phenotyping algorithm will accelerate the improvement of U.S. hard winter wheat cultivars for FHB resistance

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand, 1937) occupies a central place within the history of global animation. Based on the German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, the film was the first feature-length animated film produced by the Disney Studio and served to announce the animated cartoon as an industrial art form. Yet Disney’s landmark version not only set in motion the Golden Age of the Hollywood cartoon, but has continued to stand as an international sensation, prompting multiple revisions and remakes within a variety of national filmmaking contexts. This book explores the enduring qualities that have marked Snow White’s influence and legacy, providing a collection of original chapters that reflect upon its pioneering use of technology and contributions to animation’s visual style, the film’s reception within an American context, and its status as a global cultural phenomenon

Music - Media - History

Music and sound shape the emotional content of audio-visual media and carry different meanings. This volume considers audio-visual material as a primary source for historiography. By analyzing how the same sounds are used in different media contexts at different times, the contributors intend to challenge the linear perspective of (music) history based on canonic authority. The book discusses AV-Documents (analysis in context), methodological questions (implications for research, education, and popularization of knowledge), archives of cultural memory (from the perspective of Cultural Studies) as well as digitalization and its consequences (organization of knowledge)

Genotype by environment interactions of industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) varieties under tropical conditions

Christmas Island, Australia, is a remote tropical island that relies predominantly on phosphate mining income. Given that mining operations will decline during the next decade, there is an urgent need to explore alternative industries to maintain local employment. This need could be met through activities such as a transition from mining to the production of high-value crops established in post-mined quarries. However, agriculture post-mining presents a series of challenges to growing crops, such as the lack of appropriate nutrients and organic matter, and the potential for soil compaction and the presence of heavy metals. Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) grows well in contaminated substrates, making it an ideal candidate for evaluation in the transition from mining to agriculture on Christmas Island. Hemp is a crop gaining increasing attention due to its wide range of commercial products and the relaxing of legal restrictions associated with its secondary metabolites. Preliminary experiments with hemp on Christmas Island identified a range of challenges to plant growth, such as the early onset of flowering, stunted growth, nutrient deficiency symptoms, low yield, and fluctuations in cannabinoid concentrations. Although some research has been carried out on hemp globally, there is limited information on optimal conditions for flowering, growth and nutrition, and cannabinoid production under tropical/subtropical environmental conditions. The current study examined a range of hemp varieties in terms of time to flowering, growth, biomass and seed yields, as well as cannabinoid production, in response to a series of abiotic stressors present under the tropical conditions of Christmas Island in postphosphate mined soil. Before undertaking these experiments, an improved method for extraction and detection of cannabinoids was developed. Following this, to investigate the challenges associated with growing hemp on Christmas Island, selected tropical/subtropical varieties (ECO-GH15, ECO-MC16 and ECO-YP16), bred by Ecofibre Limited, and the temperate hemp variety (Morphet Late) were evaluated under different daylengths, temperatures, nutrition and heavy metal substrate concentrations, in controlled growth rooms, to determine physiological, cannabinoids and growth responses. The combination of daylength and temperature affected time to flowering, and consequently, final biomass. Under short daylength (11.5 h and 12.5 h), temperature was shown to be the main driver for time to flowering, depending on genotype. Cannabinoid concentrations were affected by one extra hour of daylength, and varieties responded differently. These experiments revealed the responses of diverse ecotypes and the importance of environment by genotype interactions. Soil nutrient content impacted time to flowering, photosynthesis, leaf gas exchange and plant growth, resulting in significant differences in biomass, seed and cannabinoid production. The addition of nitrogen was associated with higher above ground biomass. Plants not receiving nitrogen had greatly diminished development and growth. Phosphate deficiency delayed time to flowering and flower development. Increasing phosphate concentrations and slow-release fertiliser application increased net photosynthesis under high photosynthetically active radiation (1800 μmol m-2s-1). Potassium deficiency resulted in increased stomatal conductance and gas exchange, possibly due to impaired stomatal function. The investigation of potential cadmium uptake confirmed that hemp could grow in soils containing cadmium and that the plants limit its translocation to leaves and seeds with increasing cadmium concentration in the soil. Overall, this work demonstrates the importance of genotype by environment studies to identify appropriate ecotypes and optimal plant nutrition to achieve consistent production from hemp in tropical/subtropical conditions. The results of this study contribute to our understanding of hemp production in terms of time to flowering, cannabinoid production, and physiology while providing a potential economic opportunity for Christmas Island. These findings could also inform other remote communities at similar latitudes with post-mining soils regarding the requirements for growing hemp as a high-value crop. Remote communities could take advantage of multipurpose applications of hemp as a viable option for high-value products. Knowledge of hemp cannabinoid production as affected by the environment will be essential, globally, to tailor cannabinoids for particular needs