A CNN cascade for landmark guided semantic part segmentation

This paper proposes a CNN cascade for semantic part segmentation guided by pose-specifc information encoded in terms of a set of landmarks (or keypoints). There is large amount of prior work on each of these tasks separately, yet, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time in literature that the interplay between pose estimation and semantic part segmentation is investigated. To address this limitation of prior work, in this paper, we propose a CNN cascade of tasks that firstly performs landmark localisation and then uses this information as input for guiding semantic part segmentation. We applied our architecture to the problem of facial part segmentation and report large performance improvement over the standard unguided network on the most challenging face datasets. Testing code and models will be published online at http://cs.nott.ac.uk/~psxasj/

If cooperation is likely punish mildly: Insights from economic experiments based on the snowdrift game

Punishment may deter antisocial behavior. Yet to punish is costly, and the costs often do not offset the gains that are due to elevated levels of cooperation. However, the effectiveness of punishment depends not only on how costly it is, but also on the circumstances defining the social dilemma. Using the snowdrift game as the basis, we have conducted a series of economic experiments to determine whether severe punishment is more effective than mild punishment. We have observed that severe punishment is not necessarily more effective, even if the cost of punishment is identical in both cases. The benefits of severe punishment become evident only under extremely adverse conditions, when to cooperate is highly improbable in the absence of sanctions. If cooperation is likely, mild punishment is not less effective and leads to higher average payoffs, and is thus the much preferred alternative. Presented results suggest that the positive effects of punishment stem not only from imposed fines, but may also have a psychological background. Small fines can do wonders in motivating us to chose cooperation over defection, but without the paralyzing effect that may be brought about by large fines. The later should be utilized only when absolutely necessary.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures; accepted for publication in PLoS ON

West Highland White Terriers under primary veterinary care in the UK in 2016: demography, mortality and disorders

The West Highland White Terrier (WHWT) is a relatively common breed in the UK, although Kennel Club registrations have declined in recent years. The VetCompass™ Programme collates de-identified clinical data from primary-care veterinary practices in the UK for epidemiological research. Using VetCompass clinical data, this study aimed to characterise the demography, longevity and common disorders of WHWTs under primary veterinary care in the UK

Miniature Schnauzers under primary veterinary care in the UK in 2013: demography, mortality and disorders

Individual dog breeds are often reported as predisposed to specific breed-related disorders but reliable epidemiological data on disease prevalence are sparse. The Miniature Schnauzer in the UK is a popular small breed dog that is often considered as relatively healthy and long-lived, but is this really true? This study aimed to use data from the VetCompass™ Programme at the Royal Veterinary College to characterise the demography, mortality and common disorders of the general population of Miniature Schnauzers under veterinary care in the UK

A study of prognostic factors in Chinese patients with diabetic foot ulcers

Objective: Few studies have identified factors as predictors of clinical prognosis of patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs), especially of Chinese patients. In this study, we assessed the prognostic factors of Chinese patients with DFUs. Methods and materials: This was a retrospective study (January 2009–January 2011) of 194 DFUs conducted in an inpatient population at PLA 454 Hospital in Nanjing, China, to determine the prognostic influential factors of DFUs in Chinese patients. All of the studied patients were grouped into an amputation group, a non-healing group, and a cured group, according to the clinical prognosis. Patient parameters, including gender, age, smoking habits, education level, family history of diabetes mellitus, medical history, duration of foot lesions and complications, ankle-brachial index (ABI), transcutaneous oxygen pressure (TcPO2), urinary albumin/creatinine ratio (Alb/Cr), fundus oculi, electrocardiogram, DFU characteristics, bacterial nature, and neuropathy, were cross-studied among the three groups. Results: Compared with the other two groups, the amputation group showed a higher number of males, older in age, lower ABI and TcPO2 levels, higher Wagner wound grading and size, and significantly higher urinary Alb/Cr ratio, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, white blood cell count, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Compared to the cured group (162 patients), more patients with an older age, smoking, family history of diabetes mellitus, medical history of foot ulcerations, lower ABI and TcPO2 levels, higher urine Alb/Cr ratio, and serum creatinine were found in the non-healing group. Regression analysis was used to study the correlation between various factors and clinical prognosis, and the results were as follows: age, Wagner wound classification, and heel ulcerations were negatively correlated to the DFU prognosis, whereas the female population, ABI, and TcPO2 were positively correlated with DFU prognosis. Conclusion: In this retrospective study, we conclude that the DFU prognosis may be related to age, gender, wound location (heel), Wagner wound classification, ABI, and TcPO2 levels in the Chinese population

Exact exchange-correlation potential of a ionic Hubbard model with a free surface

We use Lanczos exact diagonalization to compute the exact exchange-correlation (xc) potential of a Hubbard chain with large binding energy ("the bulk") followed by a chain with zero binding energy ("the vacuum"). Several results of density functional theory in the continuum (sometimes controversial) are verified in the lattice. In particular we show explicitly that the fundamental gap is given by the gap in the Kohn-Sham spectrum plus a contribution due to the jump of the xc-potential when a particle is added. The presence of a staggered potential and a nearest-neighbor interaction V allows to simulate a ionic solid. We show that in the ionic regime in the small hopping amplitude limit the xc-contribution to the gap equals V, while in the Mott regime it is determined by the Hubbard U interaction. In addition we show that correlations generates a new potential barrier at the surface

Entropic Uncertainty Relations in Quantum Physics

Uncertainty relations have become the trademark of quantum theory since they were formulated by Bohr and Heisenberg. This review covers various generalizations and extensions of the uncertainty relations in quantum theory that involve the R\'enyi and the Shannon entropies. The advantages of these entropic uncertainty relations are pointed out and their more direct connection to the observed phenomena is emphasized. Several remaining open problems are mentionedComment: 35 pages, review pape

Fragmentation of care threatens patient safety in peripheral vascular catheter management in acute care--a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The use of peripheral vascular catheters (PVCs) is an extremely common and necessary clinical intervention, but inappropriate PVC care poses a major patient safety risk in terms of infection. Quality improvement initiatives have been proposed to reduce the likelihood of adverse events, but a lack of understanding about factors that influence behaviours of healthcare professionals limits the efficacy of such interventions. We undertook qualitative interviews with clinical staff from a large group of hospitals in order to understand influences on PVC care behaviors and subsequent patient safety. METHODS: Ten doctors, ten clinical pharmacists, 18 nurses and one midwife at a National Health Service hospital group in London (United Kingdom) were interviewed between December 2010 and July 2011 using qualitative methods. Responses were analysed using a thematic framework. RESULTS: FOUR KEY THEMES EMERGED: 1) Fragmentation of management and care, demonstrated with a lack of general overview and insufficient knowledge about expected standards of care or responsibility of different professionals; 2) feelings of resentment and frustration as a result of tensions in the workplace, due to the ambiguity about professional responsibilities; 3) disregard for existing hospital policy due to perceptions of flaws in the evidence used to support it; and 4) low-risk perception for the impact of PVC use on patient safety. CONCLUSION: Fragmentation of practice resulted in ill-defined responsibilities and interdisciplinary resentment, which coupled with a generally low perception of risk of catheter use, appeared to result in lack of maintaining policy PVC standards which could reduced patient safety. Resolution of these issues through clearly defining handover practice, teaching interdisciplinary duties and increasing awareness of PVC risks could result in preventing thousands of BSIs and other PVC-related infections annually

Video classification with Densely extracted HOG/HOF/MBH features: an evaluation of the accuracy/computational efficiency trade-off

The current state-of-the-art in video classification is based on Bag-of-Words using local visual descriptors. Most commonly these are histogram of oriented gradients (HOG), histogram of optical flow (HOF) and motion boundary histograms (MBH) descriptors. While such approach is very powerful for classification, it is also computationally expensive. This paper addresses the problem of computational efficiency. Specifically: (1) We propose several speed-ups for densely sampled HOG, HOF and MBH descriptors and release Matlab code; (2) We investigate the trade-off between accuracy and computational efficiency of descriptors in terms of frame sampling rate and type of Optical Flow method; (3) We investigate the trade-off between accuracy and computational efficiency for computing the feature vocabulary, using and comparing most of the commonly adopted vector quantization techniques: k-means, hierarchical k-means, Random Forests, Fisher Vectors and VLAD

Clinical significance of the isolation of Staphylococcus epidermidis from bone biopsy in diabetic foot osteomyelitis

Introduction: Coagulase-negative staphylococci are considered as microorganisms with little virulence and usually as contaminants. In order to establish the role of Staphylococcus epidermidis as a pathogen in diabetic foot osteomyelitis, in addition to the isolation of the sole bacterium from the bone it will be necessary to demonstrate the histopathological changes caused by the infection. Methods: A consecutive series of 222 diabetic patients with foot osteomyelitis treated surgically in the Diabetic Foot Unit at La Paloma Hospital (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain) between 1 October 2002 and 31 October 2008. From the entire series including 213 bone cultures with 241 isolated organisms, we have analyzed only the 139 cases where Staphylococci were found. We analyzed several variables between the two groups: Staphylococcus aureus versus Staphylococcus epidermidis. Results: Of the 134 patients included in this study, Staphlylococcus epidermidis was found as the sole bacterium isolated in 11 cases and accompanied by other bacteria in 12 cases. Staphlylococcus aureus was found as the sole bacterium isolated in 72 cases and accompanied by other bacteria in 39 cases. Histopathological changes were found in the cases of osteomyelitis where Staphylococcus epidermidis was the sole bacterium isolated. Acute osteomyelitis was found to a lesser extent when Staphylococcus epidermidis was the sole bacterium isolated but without significant differences with the cases where Staphylococcus aureus was the sole bacterium isolated. Conclusion: Staphylococcus epidermidis should be considered as a real pathogen, not only a contaminant, in diabetic patients with foot osteomyelitis when the bacterium is isolated from the bone. No differences in the outcomes of surgical treatment have been found with cases which Staphlylococcus aureus was isolated