Scalable Detection of Crowd Motion Patterns

Studying the movements of crowds is important for understanding and predicting the behavior of large groups of people. When analyzing crowds, one is often interested in the long-term macro-level motions of the crowd as a whole, as opposed to the micro-level short-term movements of individuals. A high-level representation of these motions is thus desirable. In this work, we present a scalable method for detection of crowd motion patterns, i.e., spatial areas describing the dominant motions within crowds. For measuring crowd movements, we propose a fast, scalable, and low-cost method based on proximity graphs. For analyzing crowd movements, we utilize a three-stage pipeline: (1) represents the behavior of each person at each moment in time as a low-dimensional data point, (2) cluster these data points based on spatial relations, and (3) concatenate these clusters based on temporal relations. Experiments on synthetic datasets reveals our method can handle various scenarios including curved lanes and diverging flows. Evaluation on real-world datasets shows our method is able to extract useful motion patterns which could not be properly detected by existing methods. Overall, we see our work as an initial step towards rich pattern recognition.</p

Lightning: Scaling the GPU Programming Model Beyond a Single GPU

The GPU programming model is primarily aimed at the development of applications that run one GPU. However, this limits the scalability of GPU code to the capabilities of a single GPU in terms of compute power and memory capacity. To scale GPU applications further, a great engineering effort is typically required: work and data must be divided over multiple GPUs by hand, possibly in multiple nodes, and data must be manually spilled from GPU memory to higher-level memories. We present Lightning: a framework that follows the common GPU programming paradigm but enables scaling to large problems with ease. Lightning supports multi-GPU execution of GPU kernels, even across multiple nodes, and seamlessly spills data to higher-level memories (main memory and disk). Existing CUDA kernels can easily be adapted for use in Lightning, with data access annotations on these kernels allowing Lightning to infer their data requirements and the dependencies between subsequent kernel launches. Lightning efficiently distributes the work/data across GPUs and maximizes efficiency by overlapping scheduling, data movement, and kernel execution when possible. We present the design and implementation of Lightning, as well as experimental results on up to 32 GPUs for eight benchmarks and one real-world application. Evaluation shows excellent performance and scalability, such as a speedup of 57.2 x over the CPU using Lighting with 16 GPUs over 4 nodes and 80 GB of data, far beyond the memory capacity of one GPU. </p

The ATF6-Met [67] Val substitution is associated with increased plasma cholesterol levels

Objective— Activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6) is a sensor of the endoplasmic reticulum stress response and regulates expression of several key lipogenic genes. We used a 2-stage design to investigate whether ATF6 polymorphisms are associated with lipids in subjects at increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methods and Results— In stage 1, 13 tag-SNPs were tested for association in Dutch samples ascertained for familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCHL) or increased risk for CVD (CVR). In stage 2, we further investigated the SNP with the strongest association from stage 1, a Methionine/Valine substitution at amino-acid 67, in Finnish FCHL families and in subjects with CVR from METSIM, a Finnish population-based cohort. The combined analysis of both stages reached region-wide significance (P=9x10–4), but this association was not seen in the entire METSIM cohort. Our functional analysis demonstrated that Valine at position 67 augments ATF6 protein and its targets Grp78 and Grp94 as well as increases luciferase expression through Grp78 promoter. Conclusions— A common nonsynonymous variant in ATF6 increases ATF6 protein levels and is associated with cholesterol levels in subjects at increased risk for CVD, but this association was not seen in a population-based cohort. Further replication is needed to confirm the role of this variant in lipids. We report the association of the ATF6-methionine [67]valine amino-acid substitution with plasma cholesterol levels. Association analyses in 2674 subjects and functional data suggest that the ATF6 gene may influence cholesterol levels in subjects at increased risk to develop cardiovascular disease

THE PREV A LENCE OF AN TI BOD IES AGAINST EQUINE IN FLU ENZA VI RUS, EQUINE HERPESVIRUS 1 AND 4, EQUINE ARTERITIS VI RUS AND EQUINE RHINOVIRUS 1 AND 2 IN DUTCH STAN DARD BRED HORSES

Pre va len tie van an ti stof fen te gen equi e ne in flu en za vi rus, equi e ne her pes vi rus 1 en -4, equi ABSTRACT A ran dom cross-sec ti o nal se ropre va len ce stu dy was con duc ted in 1996 by ta king blood sam ples from 330 dif fe rent Stand ard bred hor ses on all ra cet racks in the Ne ther lands. This blood sam pling took pla ce on four con se cu ti ve days, with each hor se being sam pled only once. Sam ples were in ves ti ga ted for an ti bo dies against se ver al strains of equi ne in flu en za vi rus, equi ne her pes vi rus ty pes 1 and 4, equi ne ar te ri tis vi rus, and equi ne rhi no vi rus ty pes 1 and 2. A type spe ci fic gG ELISA was used to de ter mi ne spe ci fic se ropre va lences of equi ne her pes vi ru ses 1 and 4. Influ en za se ro lo gy, using in flu en za A/equi/1/Pra gue/56 as an in di ca tor vi rus for vac ci na ti on, de mon stra ted that 38% of the hor ses were eit her un vac ci na ted or in ade qua te ly vac cina ted. Many of the se hor ses ap pe a red to have ex pe rien ced an in flu en za A/equi-2 field in fec ti on. Neut ra lizing and com ple ment fixing an ti bo dies against both EHV1 and EHV4 were found in a high per cen ta ge of the sam ples. Ho we ver, for EHV1 this high se ropre va len ce was pu ta ti ve ly cau sed by cross-re ac ting EHV4 an ti bo dies sin ce, in a type-spe ci fic gG ELISA, the EHV1 se ropre va len ce was only 28%, as com pa red with a 99% se ropre va len ce for EHV4. High se ropre va len ces were also found for equi ne rhi no vi rus type 1 and for the equi ne ar te ri tis vi rus, thus in di ca ting the en de mic na tu re of the se vi ru ses. Many of the se in fec ti ons may be sub cli ni cal. The se ropre va len ce of equi ne rhi no vi rus type 2 was sur pri sing ly low. The pos si ble re la ti onship be tween vi ral in fec ti ons and up per res pi ra to ry tract dis e a se and/or in flam ma to ry air way dis e a se is discus sed. SAMENVATTING Een ge ran do mi seerd &apos;cross-sectional&apos; se ropre va len tie on der zoek werd uit ge voerd bij warm bloed paar den (n=330) op alle draf-en ren ba nen in Ne der land door het een ma lig ne men van een bloed staal op vier op een vol gen de da gen. De se rum sta len wer den on der zocht op an ti stof fen te gen ver schei de ne equi e ne in flu en zas tam men, equi e ne her pes vi rus type 1 en 4, equi e ne ar te ri tis vi rus en rhi no vi rus type 1 en 2. Voor het be pa len van de af zon der lij ke seropre va len tie van EHV1 en EHV4 werd een ty pes pe ci fie ke gG ELISA ge bruikt. De in flu en zas ero lo gie op ba sis van in flu en za A/equi-1/Praag/56 als in di ca tor vi rus toon de aan dat 38 % van de paar den niet of on vol doen de gevac ci neerd was. Veel van deze paar den ble ken wel een in flu en za A/equi-2 veld in fec tie te heb ben door ge maakt. In een hoog per cen ta ge van de sta len wer den neu tra li se ren de en com ple ment bin den de an ti stof fen te gen EHV1/4 aang etoond. Voor EHV1 werd deze hoge se ropre va len tie waar schijn lijk ver oor zaakt door kruis re a ge ren de an tiVlaams Dier ge nees kun dig Tijd schrift, 2005, 74, 140-145 Ori gi nal Arti cle 140 stof fen te gen EHV4, de se ropre va len tie van 28 % te gen EHV1 en 99 % te gen EHV4 in een ty pes pe ci fie ke gG ELISA in acht ge no men. Ge zien de re la tief hoge se ropre va len ties die bij de Ne der land se warm bloed po pu la tie gevon den wer den, moe ten hier ook equi e ne rhi no vi rus type 1 en equi e ne ar te ri tis vi rus als en zo ötisch wor den beschouwd . Veel van deze in fec ties lij ken sub kli nisch te ver lo pen. De se ropre va len tie van equi e ne rhi no vi rus type 2 was ver ras send laag. In de dis cus sie wordt aan dacht be steed aan het mo ge lij ke ver band tus sen vi ra le in fec ties en ziek te ver schijn se len van de bo ven ste lucht we gen

Development and external validation of preoperative clinical prediction models for postoperative outcomes including preoperative aerobic fitness in patients approaching elective colorectal cancer surgery

Introduction: Preoperative aerobic fitness is associated with postoperative outcomes after elective colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery. This study aimed to develop and externally validate two clinical prediction models incorporating a practical test to assess preoperative aerobic fitness to distinguish between patients with and without an increased risk for 1) postoperative complications and 2) a prolonged time to in-hospital recovery of physical functioning after elective colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery. Materials and methods: Models were developed using prospective data from 256 patients and externally validated using prospective data of 291 patients. Postoperative complications were classified according to Clavien-Dindo. The modified Iowa level of assistance scale (mILAS) was used to determine time to postoperative in-hospital physical recovery. Aerobic fitness, age, sex, body mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification, neoadjuvant treatment, surgical approach, tumour location, and preoperative haemoglobin level were potential predictors. Areas under the curve (AUC), calibration plots, and Hosmer-Lemeshow tests evaluated predictive performance. Results: Aerobic fitness, sex, age, ASA, tumour location, and surgical approach were included in the final models. External validation of the model for complications and postoperative recovery presented moderate to fair discrimination (AUC 0.666 (0.598–0.733) and 0.722 (0.651–0.794), respectively) and good calibration. High sensitivity and high negative predictive values were observed in the lower predicted risk categories (&lt;40 %). Conclusion: Both models identify patients with and without an increased risk of complications or a prolonged time to in-hospital physical recovery. They might be used for improving patient-tailored preoperative risk assessment and targeted and cost-effective application of prehabilitation interventions.</p

Development and external validation of preoperative clinical prediction models for postoperative outcomes including preoperative aerobic fitness in patients approaching elective colorectal cancer surgery

Introduction: Preoperative aerobic fitness is associated with postoperative outcomes after elective colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery. This study aimed to develop and externally validate two clinical prediction models incorporating a practical test to assess preoperative aerobic fitness to distinguish between patients with and without an increased risk for 1) postoperative complications and 2) a prolonged time to in-hospital recovery of physical functioning after elective colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery. Materials and methods: Models were developed using prospective data from 256 patients and externally validated using prospective data of 291 patients. Postoperative complications were classified according to Clavien-Dindo. The modified Iowa level of assistance scale (mILAS) was used to determine time to postoperative in-hospital physical recovery. Aerobic fitness, age, sex, body mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification, neoadjuvant treatment, surgical approach, tumour location, and preoperative haemoglobin level were potential predictors. Areas under the curve (AUC), calibration plots, and Hosmer-Lemeshow tests evaluated predictive performance. Results: Aerobic fitness, sex, age, ASA, tumour location, and surgical approach were included in the final models. External validation of the model for complications and postoperative recovery presented moderate to fair discrimination (AUC 0.666 (0.598–0.733) and 0.722 (0.651–0.794), respectively) and good calibration. High sensitivity and high negative predictive values were observed in the lower predicted risk categories (&lt;40 %). Conclusion: Both models identify patients with and without an increased risk of complications or a prolonged time to in-hospital physical recovery. They might be used for improving patient-tailored preoperative risk assessment and targeted and cost-effective application of prehabilitation interventions.</p

The ambiguity of human ashes: exploring encounters with cremated remains in the Netherlands

This article explores cremation and disposal practices in the Netherlands, focusing on the attitudes and experiences of bereaved Dutch people in relation to cremated remains. In academic and professional narratives, human ashes are commonly described as “important,” as “sacred,” and as a vehicle to continue intense and physical relationships with the dead. Based on quantitative and qualitative data this article illustrates the ambiguity of such relationships. It highlights the diverse experiences, unexpected challenges, and moral obligations that can be evoked by the deceased’s ashes, where the latter are seen as embedded in material practices and entangled in social relationships

Transforming bonds: ritualising post-mortem relationships in the Netherlands

People continue relationships with their dead in a variety of ways. Since the 1990s, the idea of ‘continuing bonds’ has provided a framework for exploring and understanding post-mortem relationships. However, the dynamics of the bonds between the living and the dead have received little attention. By looking at the intersection of things, practices and spaces, this paper demonstrates that expressions of continuing bonds do not always point to continuity, and indeed can signify discontinuity. It explores the ‘transforming bonds’ between the recently bereaved and their deceased in the Netherlands, illustrating how post-mortem relationships change and how such changes affect the social location of the deceased and the bereaved. By attending to the ritual dynamics of separation, transition and integration, two aspects of the social and material relationships between the living and the dead are highlighted. First, attention is given to the ways wherein the bereaved relocate their deceased through material objects within and outside of their homes, enabling them to renegotiate the absence–presence of the deceased. Second, the paper illustrates that personalised incorporation practices are inevitably linked to negotiations and contestations in the social sphere, and the norms and values of the social environment