A Data Fusion Perspective on Human Motion Analysis Including Multiple Camera Applications

Proceedings of: 5th International Work-Conference on the Interplay Between Natural and Artificial Computation, (IWINAC 2013). Mallorca, Spain, June 10-14.Human motion analysis methods have received increasing attention during the last two decades. In parallel, data fusion technologies have emerged as a powerful tool for the estimation of properties of objects in the real world. This papers presents a view of human motion analysis from the viewpoint of data fusion. JDL process model and Dasarathy's input-output hierarchy are employed to categorize the works in the area. A survey of the literature in human motion analysis from multiple cameras is included. Future research directions in the area are identified after this review.Publicad

Optical coherence tomography angiography in Purtscher-like retinopathy associated with dermatomyositis : a case report

Purpose: To describe a multimodal imaging diagnosis of retinopathy in dermatomyositis. Case presentation: A 21-year-old white woman with a history of fatigue and a cutaneous rash complained of visual impairment in her left eye. A funduscopic examination showed multiple confluent cotton-wool spots in both eyes. Swept source-optical coherence tomography presented macular edema in both eyes; optical coherence tomography angiography revealed superficial and deep capillary occlusion in all areas affected by cotton-wool spots; and fluorescein angiography showed vascular walls enhancement, veins dilatation, and capillary leakage. After large doses of intravenously administered glucocorticoid therapy, followed by a cyclophosphamide regimen, best corrected visual acuity returned to 20/20 in both eyes. Conclusions: This case report presents optical coherence tomography angiography clinical findings in a rare case of dermatomyositis-associated retinopathy, remarking the importance of a multi-imaging approach for a correct diagnosis and treatment of eye injuries, in order to avoid serious complications and permanent sequelae

Human metapneumovirus as cause of severe community-acquired pneumonia in adults: insights from a ten-year molecular and epidemiological analysis

Human metapneumovirus; Severe community-acquired pneumonia; BiomarkersMetapneumovirus humano; Neumonía severa adquirida en la comunidad; BiomarcadoresMetapneumovirus humà; Pneumònia greu adquirida a la comunitat; BiomarcadorsBackground Information on the clinical, epidemiological and molecular characterization of human metapneumovirus in critically ill adult patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and the role of biomarkers identifying bacterial coinfection is scarce. Methods This is a retrospective epidemiological study of adult patients with hMPV severe CAP admitted to ICU during a ten-year period with admission PSI score ≥ 3. Results The 92.8% of the 28 patients with severe CAP due to human metapneumovirus were detected during the first half of the year. Median age was 62 years and 60.7% were male. The genotyping of isolated human metapneumovirus showed group B predominance (60.7%). All patients had acute respiratory failure. Median APACHE II and SOFA score were 13 and 6.55, respectively. The 25% were coinfected with Streptococcus pneumoniae. 60.7% of the patients had shock at admission and 50% underwent mechanical ventilation. Seven patients developed ARDS, three of them younger than 60 years and without comorbidities. Mortality in ICU was 14.3%. Among survivors, ICU and hospital stay were 6.5 and 14 days, respectively. Plasma levels of procalcitonin were higher in patients with bacterial coinfection (18.2 vs 0.54; p < 0.05). The levels of C-reactive protein, however, were similar. Conclusion Human metapneumovirus was associated with severe CAP requiring ICU admission among elderly patients or patients with comorbidities, but also in healthy young subjects. These patients often underwent mechanical ventilation with elevated health resource consumption. While one out of four patients showed pneumococcal coinfection, plasma procalcitonin helped to implement antimicrobial stewardship

Color fundus autofluorescence to determine activity of macular neovascularization in age-related macular degeneration

Purpose: To evaluate with color fundus autofluorescence (FAF) different lesion components of macular neovascularization (MNV) secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and to assess its activity. Methods: In total, 137 eyes (102 patients) with MNV underwent a complete eye exami-nation, including color fundus photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT), OCT angiography, and confocal color FAF, with an excitation wavelength at 450 nm. Each image was imported into a custom-image analysis software for quantitative estimation of emission wavelength and green and red emission fluorescence (GEFC/REFC) inten-sity, considering both single components of neovascular AMD and different MNV types (type 1 and type 2 MNV, active and inactive MNV). Results: Subretinal fluid (SRF) had significantly higher values of GEFC (P = 0.008 and P = 0.0004) and REFC intensity (P = 0.005 and P = 0.0003) versus fibrosis and atrophy. The emission wavelength from SRF was lower compared to atrophy (P = 0.024) but not to fibrosis (P = 0.46). No significant differences were detected between type 1 and 2 MNV. Considering active versus inactive MNVs, a difference was detected for all evaluated parameters (P < 0.001). Mean FAF wavelength of both MNV with SRF and intrareti-nal fluid (IRF) was lower versus inactive MNV (P < 0.001 and P = 0.005). MNV with SRF (P < 0.001) had higher values of GEFC and REFC versus inactive MNV (P < 0.001). MNV with IRF had higher values of GEFC versus inactive MNV (P = 0.05). Conclusions: Quantitative color FAF can differentiate active versus inactive MNV, whereas no differences were found between type 1 and type 2 MNV. If these data can be further confirmed, color FAF may be useful for automatic detection of active MNV in AMD and as a guide for treatment. Translational Relevance: Automatic quantitative evaluation of green and red emission components of FAF in AMD can help determine the activity of MNV and guide the treatment

Multicamera Action Recognition with Canonical Correlation Analysis and Discriminative Sequence Classification

Proceedings of: 4th International Work-Conference on the Interplay Between Natural and Artificial Computation, IWINAC 2011, La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, May 30 - June 3, 2011.This paper presents a feature fusion approach to the recognition of human actions from multiple cameras that avoids the computation of the 3D visual hull. Action descriptors are extracted for each one of the camera views available and projected into a common subspace that maximizes the correlation between each one of the components of the projections. That common subspace is learned using Probabilistic Canonical Correlation Analysis. The action classification is made in that subspace using a discriminative classifier. Results of the proposed method are shown for the classification of the IXMAS dataset.Publicad

Neuropeptide S (NPS) variants modify the signaling and risk effects of NPS Receptor 1 (NPSR1) variants in asthma

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) close to the gain-of-function substitution, Asn(107) Ile (rs324981, A>T), in Neuropeptide S Receptor 1 (NPSR1) have been associated with asthma. Furthermore, a functional SNP (rs4751440, G>C) in Neuropeptide S (NPS) encodes a Val(6)Leu substitution on the mature peptide that results in reduced bioactivity. We sought to examine the effects of different combinations of these NPS and NPSR1 variants on downstream signaling and genetic risk of asthma. In transfected cells, the magnitude of NPSR1-induced activation of cAMP/PKA signal transduction pathways and downstream gene expression was dependent on the combination of the NPS and NPSR1 variants with NPS-Val(6)/NPSR1-Ile(107) resulting in strongest and NPS-Leu(6)/NPSR1-Asn(107) in weakest effects, respectively. One or two copies of the NPS-Leu(6) (rs4751440) were associated with physician-diagnosed childhood asthma (OR: 0.67, 95% CI 0.49-0.92, p = 0.01) and together with two other linked NPS variants (rs1931704 and rs10830123) formed a protective haplotype (p = 0.008) in the Swedish birth cohort BAMSE (2033 children). NPS rs10830123 showed epistasis with NPSR1 rs324981 encoding Asn(107)Ile (p = 0.009) in BAMSE and with the linked NPSR1 rs17199659 (p = 0.005) in the German MAGIC/ISAAC II cohort (1454 children). In conclusion, NPS variants modify asthma risk and should be considered in genetic association studies of NPSR1 with asthma and other complex diseases.Peer reviewe

Broken symmetries and directed collective energy transport

We study the appearance of directed energy current in homogeneous spatially extended systems coupled to a heat bath in the presence of an external ac field E(t). The systems are described by nonlinear field equations. By making use of a symmetry analysis we predict the right choice of E(t) and obtain directed energy transport for systems with a nonzero topological charge Q. We demonstrate that the symmetry properties of motion of topological solitons (kinks and antikinks) are equivalent to the ones for the energy current. Numerical simulations confirm the predictions of the symmetry analysis and, moreover, show that the directed energy current drastically increases as the dissipation parameter $\alpha$ reduces. Our results generalize recent rigorous theories of currents generated by broken time-space symmetries to the case of interacting many-particle systems.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Calcium phosphate particles stimulate interleukin-1β release from human vascular smooth muscle cells: A role for spleen tyrosine kinase and exosome release

Aims: Calcium phosphate (CaP) particle deposits are found in several inflammatory diseases including atherosclerosis and osteoarthritis. CaP, and other forms of crystals and particles, can promote inflammasome formation in macrophages leading to caspase-1 activation and secretion of mature interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Given the close association of small CaP particles with vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in atherosclerotic fibrous caps, we aimed to determine if CaP particles affected pro-inflammatory signalling in human VSMCs. Methods and results: Using ELISA to measure IL-1β release from VSMCs, we demonstrated that CaP particles stimulated IL-1β release from proliferating and senescent human VSMCs, but with substantially greater IL-1β release from senescent cells; this required caspase-1 activity but not LPS-priming of cells. Potential inflammasome agonists including ATP, nigericin and monosodium urate crystals did not stimulate IL-1β release from VSMCs. Western blot analysis demonstrated that CaP particles induced rapid activation of spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) (increased phospho-Y525/526). The SYK inhibitor R406 reduced IL-1β release and caspase-1 activation in CaP particle-treated VSMCs, indicating that SYK activation occurs upstream of and is required for caspase-1 activation. In addition, IL-1β and caspase-1 colocalised in intracellular endosome-like vesicles and we detected IL-1β in exosomes isolated from VSMC media. Furthermore, CaP particle treatment stimulated exosome secretion by VSMCs in a SYK-dependent manner, while the exosome-release inhibitor spiroepoxide reduced IL-1β release. Conclusions: CaP particles stimulate SYK and caspase-1 activation in VSMCs, leading to the release of IL-1β, at least in part via exosomes. These novel findings in human VSMCs highlight the pro-inflammatory and procalcific potential of microcalcification