Sign language recognition using Kinect sensor based on color stream and skeleton points

This paper presents a sign language recognition system based on color stream and skeleton points. Several approaches have been established to address sign language recognition problems. However, most of the previous approaches still have poor recognition accuracy. The proposed approach uses Kinect sensor based on color stream and skeleton points from the depth stream to improved recognition accuracy. Techniques within this approach use hand trajectories and hand shapes in combating sign recognition challenges. Therefore, for a particular sign a representative feature vector is extracted, which consists of hand trajectories and hand shapes. A sparse dictionary learning algorithm, Label Consistent K-SVD (LC-KSVD) is applied to obtain a discriminative dictionary. Based on that, the system was further developed to a new classification approach for better results. The proposed system was fairly evaluated based on 21 sign words including one-handed signs and two-handed signs. It was observed that the proposed system gets high recognition accuracy of 98.25%, and obtained an average accuracy of 95.34% for signer independent recognition. Keywords: Sign language, Color stream, Skeleton points, Kinect sensor, Discriminative dictionary

Continuous Human Activity Tracking over a Large Area with Multiple Kinect Sensors

In recent years, researchers had been inquisitive about the use of technology to enhance the healthcare and wellness of patients with dementia. Dementia symptoms are associated with the decline in thinking skills and memory severe enough to reduce a person’s ability to pay attention and perform daily activities. Progression of dementia can be assessed by monitoring the daily activities of the patients. This thesis encompasses continuous localization and behavioral analysis of patient’s motion pattern over a wide area indoor living space using multiple calibrated Kinect sensors connected over the network. The skeleton data from all the sensor is transferred to the host computer via TCP sockets into Unity software where it is integrated into a single world coordinate system using calibration technique. Multiple cameras are placed with some overlap in the field of view for the successful calibration of the cameras and continuous tracking of the patients. Localization and behavioral data are stored in a CSV file for further analysis

ESTABLISHING THE FOUNDATION TO ROBOTIZE COMPLEX WELDING PROCESSES THROUGH LEARNING FROM HUMAN WELDERS BASED ON DEEP LEARNING TECHNIQUES

As the demand for customized, efficient, and high-quality production increases, traditional manufacturing processes are transforming into smart manufacturing with the aid of advancements in information technology, such as cyber-physical systems (CPS), the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence (AI). The key requirement for integration with these advanced information technologies is to digitize manufacturing processes to enable analysis, control, and interaction with other digitized components. The integration of deep learning algorithm and massive industrial data will be critical components in realizing this process, leading to enhanced manufacturing in the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF). This work takes welding manufacturing as the case study to accelerate its transition to intelligent welding by robotize a complex welding process. By integrate process sensing, data visualization, deep learning-based modeling and optimization, a complex welding system is established, with the systematic solution to generalize domain-specific knowledge from experienced human welder. Such system can automatically perform complex welding processes that can only be handled by human in the past. To enhance the system\u27s tracking capabilities, we trained an image segmentation network to offer precise position information. We incorporated a recurrent neural network structure to analyze dynamic variations during welding. Addressing the challenge of human heterogeneity in data collection, we conducted experiments illustrating that even inaccurate datasets can effectively train deep learning models with zero mean error. Fine-tuning the model with a small portion of accurate data further elevates its performance

Human movements evaluation using depth sensors

ABSTRACT: This works explore the use of depth sensor data to determine whether a human being is executing a movement according to an specification. The sensor chosen to collect data was a kinect V1. Several different techniques are explored: Finite State Machines, Multi-Dimensional Dynamic Time Warping, discrete Hidden Markov Models and Continuous Hidden Markov Models. A set of activities chosen according to an expert’s criteria is used to test the applicability of the different approaches to the task at hand. Results are presented for each technique

The mechanisms of androgen effects on body composition: mesenchymal pluripotent cell as the target of androgen action

Testosterone supplementation increases muscle mass primarily by inducing muscle fiber hypertrophy; however, the mechanisms by which testosterone exerts its anabolic effects on the muscle are poorly understood. The prevalent view is that testosterone improves net muscle protein balance by stimulating muscle protein synthesis, decreasing muscle protein degradation, and improving the reutilization of amino acids. However, the muscle protein synthesis hypothesis does not adequately explain testosterone-induced changes in fat mass, myonuclear number, and satellite cell number. We postulate that testosterone promotes the commitment of pluripotent stem cells into the myogenic lineage and inhibits their differentiation into the adipogenic lineage. The hypothesis that the primary site of androgen action is the pluripotent stem cell provides a unifying explanation for the observed reciprocal effects of testosterone on muscle and fat mass

The aesthetics of metamorphosis: Ovidian poetics in the works of Maria Luisa Bombal and Elena Garro.

The study begins with an analysis of the Ovidian concept of metamorphosis and its effects on the body, identity, and the corpus of the text. Chapter Two addresses the notion of "literary myth, " and contextualizes Bombal's and Garro's work within a tradition that allows the authors to reinscribe and transform myths (both Western and Mesoamerican) in their texts. Chapter Three locates Bombal's Impressionistic aesthetic within French Symbolist and Post-Symbolist poetics, and establishes Bombal as one of the first novelists to translate its aesthetic for Latin America. Chapter Four provides an explication of Bombal's La ultima niebla through the interpretation of the myths of Narcissus, Orpheus, and Pygmalion---myths that illustrate her protagonist's psychic transformation and reveal a deconstruction of discourses on romantic love through parody and irony. Chapter Five both contextualizes Elena Garro within the avant-garde that characterized post-Revolutionary Mexico, and scrutinizes Garro's critical response to the ideology of liberation. Chapter Six explores textual and temporal transformations in Garro's Los recuerdos del porvenir, a work that reinterprets both the Surrealist myth of a golden age and the Mesoamerican myths of cosmic periodicity. The conclusion argues that, through the intertextual aesthetics of metamorphosis, these authors exploit the ambivalence of language in order to subvert essential notions of feminine identity and convey the paradoxes of Otherness, gender, and limitation.Maria Luisa Bombal's La ultima niebla and Elena Garro's Los recuerdos del porvenir represent two models of the evolving tradition of literary myth. Their novels offer examples of enigmatic female characters whose negations of reality are aesthetically rendered as transformations that end in either figurative stasis or literal petrification. Bombal and Garro revise some of Ovid's most fascinating myths in order to draw attention to the aesthetic dimension of their own complex texts, as well as to address fundamental questions concerning feminine subjectivity

Modulation of tumor necrosis factor related apoptosis-inducing ligand (trail) receptors in a human osteoclast model in vitro

Il a été démontré dans notre laboratoire que les ostéoclastes ( OCLs) provenant de patients atteints de myélome multiple (MM) présentaient une variation de l'expression des récepteurs de TRAIL en comparaison avec des ostéoclastes normaux. Il a également été montré que TRAIL (TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand), un membre de la famille TNF, était capable d'induire l'apoptose des cellules exprimant ses récepteurs, en liant les récepteurs DR4 et DRS, mais pas DcRl et DcR2, qui sont des récepteurs "decoy", dont le domaine intracellulaire de mort est absent. La modulation observée de ces récepteurs pourrait créer une résistance à l'apoptose dans le microenvironment du MM et pourrait être associée au profil cytokinique de cette maladie, caractérisé par une forte expression du « Receptor Activator of NF-KB Ligand" (RANKL) et de "Macrophage Inflammatory Protein lei' (MIP-la), cytokines majeures de la résorption osseuse. Le but de notre étude a été de déterminer quelles cytokines présentes dans cette pathologie pourraient en être responsables. Lors de la maturation cellulaire, les précurseurs d'OCL provenant de sang cordon et mis en présence de M-CSF et RANKL se différencient en cellules multinucléées (MNCs) qui expriment des marqueurs OCL et sont capables de résorber l'os. Par immunocytochimie, il avait été montré que ces cellules OCL exprimaient les 4 récepteurs de TRAIL. En stimulant de telles cultures d'OCLs avec différentes cytokines (RANKL, MIP-la, Transforming Factor (3 (TGF-{3), osteoprotegerin (OPG), TRAIL) et la parathormone (PTH), nous avons observé une modulation de l'expression de ces récepteurs de TRAIL, au niveau mARN par RT-PCR, au niveau protéique par immunobuvardage de type western et au niveau de la membrane cellulaire par immunocytochimie. Afin de voir si ces changements conduisaient à une modulation du niveau de résistance à l'apoptose, des MNCs, cultivées en présence de ces différentes cytokines pendant 5 jours, ont été stimulées avec TRAIL pendant 24h. L'apoptose des OCLs a été évaluée par la méthode TUNEL. Aucune corrélation n'a pu être établie entre la modification de l'expression de ces récepteurs et le niveau d'apoptose, mais le nombre d'expériences est encore trop faible pour conclure, et de nouvelles expériences doivent être réalisées afin de pouvoir analyser cette corrélation de manière adéquate. Nos résultats suggèrent néanmoins la possibilité qu'une modulation des récepteurs de TRAIL à la surface des OCLs soit induite par certaines cytokines fortement exprimées dans les maladies osseuses avec hyperrésorption osseuse, et puisse ainsi induire une résistance à l'apoptose de ces cellules. En prolongeant la vie des OCLs, ces influences régulatrices pourraient rendre compte en partie de l'augmentation de la résorption dans le micro environnement osseux des maladies comme l'ostéoporose, la maladie de Paget, ou le myélome multiple.Abstract: We have previously shown that osteoclasts (OCLs) from multiple myeloma (MM) specimens vary from healthy OCLs in their expression of the TRAIL receptors. TRAIL (TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand), a member of the TNF superfamily, has been shown to induce apoptosis in cells by binding receptors DR4 and DR5, but not DcR1 and DcR2, its decoy receptors, which lack the necessary internal death domain. The observed modulation of these receptors may confer a resistance to apoptosis in the MM environment, and could be related to the cytokine pattern that primarily involves the resorption promoting Receptor Activator of NF-[kappa]B Ligand (RANKL) and Macrophage Inflammatory Protein 1 (MIP-1[alpha]). The aim of our study was to determine which cytokines present in the disease might be responsible for this modulation. In long term cultures of OCL precursors from cord blood in the presence of M-CSF and RANKL, multinucleated cells (MNCs) that express OCL markers form, and can resorb bone. Through immunocytochemistry we showed that these MNCs can express all four TRAIL receptors. By stimulating with various cytokines (RANKL, MIP-1[alpha], Transforming Factor [bêta] (TGF[bêta]), osteoprotegerin (OPG), TRAIL), and parathyroid hormone (PTH) in OCL cultures, we were able to observe receptor modulation at the mRNA level using real time PCR, the protein level using Western blot analysis, and cell surface expression via immunocytochemistry. To determine if these changes translated to a difference in resistance to apoptosis, cells treated with [with] apoptosis-inducing levels of TRAIL after 5 days of stimulation with the selected cytokines were evaluated via TUNEL to quantify apoptosis. While no correlation has yet been established between the observed receptor modification and apoptosis induction, sample size is a factor, and further tests will be performed. Our results suggest the possibility that TRAIL receptor modification is induced by multiple cytokines present in bone diseases, capable of altering both the susceptibility and resistance pathways in osteoclasts. By potentially prolonging the lifespan of the OCL, these regulatory influences may ultimately be contributory factors to the augmentation of resorption in the micro-environment of bone resorptive diseases like multiple myeloma, Paget's disease of bone, or osteoporosis

Medical biology

BIOLOGY MEDICALTEXTBOOKБИОЛОГИЯ МЕДИЦИНСКАЯУЧЕБНИКИIn this textbook the main divisions and aims of biology are described accordinary to life organization level

Insinuated Bodies, Corporeal Resignification and Disembodied Desire in Novels by Jeanette Winterson

My dissertation examines the various ways in which the following novels written by Jeanette Winterson Written on the Body (1992), Gut Symmetries (1997), The.PowerBook (2000), and The Stone Gods (2007) interrogate and denaturalize preexisting power structures by disentangling the body from the discursively inscribed identity categories of gender and sex. Dominant conceptions concerning desire, commonly thought to be an innate byproduct of a wholly natural body, are likewise disrupted in the unraveling of gender and sex from corporeality. Desire is thus opened up to possibilities that exist beyond the limited purview of gendered, heterosexist ideologies. Much like the field of queer theory, this dissertation draws together different branches of knowledge poststructuralism and resignification, psychoanalysis, nomadism, posthumanism, cyborg narratives in order to closely analyze what Wintersons works do to bodies, to language, to gender, to sexuality. The novels studied here offer a way of re-insinuating bodies to desire in ways that are much more inclusive and much less prohibitive. Although my consideration of these novels critically engages with many theorists throughout, there are four key thinkers that helped to shape each chapter: Judith Butler, Elizabeth Grosz, Katherine N. Hayles and Donna Haraway. My first chapter examines the parallels between Butlers theory of the sex/gender/desire matrix and Written on the Body, assessing the novels twofold operation of resignification: the body is first extricated from its naturalization before becoming reformulated in ways that move outside of the framework of the current grand narratives on desire. My second chapter surveys the relationship between Grosz and the Deleuzian Bodies without Organs (BwOs) in Gut Symmetries, while my third chapter explores Hayless version of posthumanism alongside Haraways figure of the cyborg, in relation to The.PowerBook and The Stone Gods, respectively. These novels widen the cracks in the signifying system, shifting conceptions of materiality and desire elsewhere. If we are to acknowledge that desire does indeed come from outside rather than from within the subject, then sexuality can be dissociated from the subjects body subsequently endangering genders impact on how we conceive of our desire