Elevated hepatocyte paraffin 1 and neprilysin expression in hepatocellular carcinoma are correlated with longer survival

Hepatocyte paraffin 1 (Hep Par 1) and neprilysin (CD10) are well-known markers of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To assess their potential prognostic role, we conducted a retrospective analysis of 97 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded HCC from patients treated by surgery with curative intent, using standard immunohistochemical procedures and semiquantitative analysis. Strong Hep Par 1 expression and canalicular CD10 staining pattern were significantly correlated with smaller tumor size (p=0.007 and 0.04, respectively). On univariate analysis, longer overall survival was observed in patients with strong Hep Par 1 expression (p=0.0005) and in patients with a CD10can staining pattern (p=0.02). On multivariate analysis, the combined immunohistochemical score (CIS) obtained by addition of Hep Par 1 and CD10can scores and subtraction of cytoplasmic CD10 score was retained as the single most important prognostic factor (p=0.001). Patients with a CIS <4 had a 3.5-fold increased risk of death, as compared to those with a CIS ≥4. In conclusion, strong Hep Par 1 expression, presence of CD10can labeling, and absence of CD10cyt staining are favorable prognostic factors in HCC, which can be easily combined into a single immunohistochemical score for routine clinical us

Lessons Learned from Robotic Vacuum Cleaners Entering in the Home Ecosystem

This article considers the suitability of current robots designed to assist humans in accomplishing their daily domestic tasks. With several million units sold worldwide, robotic vacuum cleaners are currently the figurehead in this field. As such, we will use them to investigate the following key question: How does a service cleaning robot performs in a real household? One must consider not just how well a robot accomplishes its task, but also how well it integrates inside the user's space and perception. We took a holistic approach to addressing these topics by combining two studies in order to build a common ground. In the first of these studies, we analyzed a sample of seven robots to identify the influence of key technologies, like the navigation system, on technical performance. In the second study, we conducted an ethnographic study within nine households to identify users' needs. This innovative approach enables us to recommend a number of concrete improvements aimed at fulfilling users' needs by leveraging current technologies to reach new possibilities

The Utility of Video Diaries for Organizational Research

This article assesses the utility of video diaries as a method for organization studies. While it is frequently suggested that video-based research methodologies have the capacity to capture new data about the minutiae of complex organizational affairs, as well as offering new forms of dissemination to both academic and professional audiences, little is known about the specific benefits and drawbacks of video diaries. We compare video diaries with two established and &ldquo;adjacent&rdquo; methods: traditional diary studies (written or audio) and other video methods. We evaluate each in relation to three key research areas: bodily expressions, identity, and practice studies. Our assessment of video diaries suggests that the approach is best used as a complement to other forms of research and is particularly suited to capturing plurivocal, asynchronous accounts of organizational phenomena. We use illustrations from an empirical research project to exemplify our claims before concluding with five points of advice for researchers wishing to employ this method

Evolutionary optimisation of neural network models for fish collective behaviours in mixed groups of robots and zebrafish

Animal and robot social interactions are interesting both for ethological studies and robotics. On the one hand, the robots can be tools and models to analyse animal collective behaviours, on the other hand, the robots and their artificial intelligence are directly confronted and compared to the natural animal collective intelligence. The first step is to design robots and their behavioural controllers that are capable of socially interact with animals. Designing such behavioural bio-mimetic controllers remains an important challenge as they have to reproduce the animal behaviours and have to be calibrated on experimental data. Most animal collective behavioural models are designed by modellers based on experimental data. This process is long and costly because it is difficult to identify the relevant behavioural features that are then used as a priori knowledge in model building. Here, we want to model the fish individual and collective behaviours in order to develop robot controllers. We explore the use of optimised black-box models based on artificial neural networks (ANN) to model fish behaviours. While the ANN may not be biomimetic but rather bio-inspired, they can be used to link perception to motor responses. These models are designed to be implementable as robot controllers to form mixed-groups of fish and robots, using few a priori knowledge of the fish behaviours. We present a methodology with multilayer perceptron or echo state networks that are optimised through evolutionary algorithms to model accurately the fish individual and collective behaviours in a bounded rectangular arena. We assess the biomimetism of the generated models and compare them to the fish experimental behaviours.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Interdependence in Action: People with Visual Impairments and their Guides Co-constituting Common Spaces

Prior work on AI-enabled assistive technology (AT) for people with visual impairments (VI) has treated navigation largely as an independent activity. Consequently, much effort has focused on providing individual users with wayfinding details about the environment, including information on distances, proximity, obstacles, and landmarks. However, independence is also achieved by people with VI through interacting with others, such as in collaboration with sighted guides. Drawing on the concept of interdependence, this research presents a systematic analysis of sighted guiding partnerships. Using interaction analysis as our primary mode of data analysis, we conducted an empirical, qualitative study with 4 couples, each made up of person with a vision impairment and their sighted guide. Our results show how pairs used interactional resources such as turn-taking and body movements to both co-constitute a common space for navigation, and repair moments of rupture to this space. This work is used to present an exemplary case of interdependence and draws out implications for designing AI-enabled AT that shifts the emphasis away from independent navigation, and towards the carefully coordinated actions between people navigating togethe

Rethinking bodies and objects in social interaction: A multimodal and multisensorial approach to tasting.

This chapter reflects on the contributions of ethnomethodology and multimodal conversation analysis to current debates about materiality, including both bodies and objects as they are mobilized, made accountable, seen and interpreted by participants within social interaction. Video studies have enabled a new detailed analytical gaze on multimodality – including language, the body, and the manipulation of objects. In this chapter, I show that multimodality can be farther developed by taking into account how sensoriality is intersubjectively achieved in social interaction. The chapter discusses the conceptual, analytical, and methodological challenges that this constitutes for the approach of materialities in human action. Using the video recording of a tasting session as an exemplary empirical case, the analysis shows how participants orchestrate their bodies as both communicating bodies and sensing bodies. Moreover, it shows how the multimodally organized activity of tasting manipulates different types of objects, materials to be tasted, and artifacts supporting tasting. Taking into account not only the multimodality of interactional exchanges (in which embodied and linguistic resources secure a form of intersubjectivity based on the mutual understanding of the participants), but also their multisensoriality (in which the bodies access, feel, and experience the world) invites thinking about a different form of intersubjectivity, in which bodies sense other bodies sensing, and align with other objects within various spatial and material configurations

Challenges of multimodality: Language and the body in social interaction

This article reflects on recent challenges emerging from the study of language and the body in social interaction. There is a general interest in language and the body across disciplines that has invited a reconceptualization of the broader issues relative to action, cognition, culture, knowledge, social relations and identities, spatiality and temporality. The study of social interaction focuses on how multimodal resources - including language and bodily movements - are holistically and situatedly used in building human action. This article discusses some consequences and challenges of putting the body at the center of attention: it repositions language as one among other modalities, and invites us to consider the involvement of entire bodies in social interaction, overcoming a logo-centric vision of communication, as well as a visuo-centric vision of embodiment. These issues are developed through a series of conversation analytic studies, firstly of classic topics in linguistics like deixis, then of more recent topics, such as mobility and sensoriality

Activity tracking in vivo

While recent research has emphasized the importance of understanding the lived experience of personal tracking, very little is known about the everyday coordination between tracker use and the surrounding environment. We combine behavioral data from trackers with video recordings from wearable cameras, in an attempt to understand how usage unfolds in daily life and how it is shaped by the context of use. We recorded twelve participants' daily use of activity trackers, collecting and analyzing 244 incidents where activity trackers were used. Among our findings, tracker use was strongly driven by reflection and learning-in action, contrasting the traditional view that learning is one of deep exploration, following the collection of data on behaviors. We leverage on these insights and propose three directions for the design of activity trackers: facilitating learning through glances, providing normative feedback and facilitating micro-plans