On Person Authentication by Fusing Visual and Thermal Face Biometrics

Recognition algorithms that use data obtained by imaging faces in the thermal spectrum are promising in achieving invariance to extreme illumination changes that are often present in practice. In this paper we analyze the performance of a recently proposed face recognition algorithm that combines visual and thermal modalities by decision level fusion. We examine (i) the effects of the proposed data preprocessing in each domain, (ii) the contribution to improved recognition of different types of features, (iii) the importance of prescription glasses detection, in the context of both 1-to-N and 1-to-1 matching (recognition vs. verification performance). Finally, we discuss the significance of our results and, in particular, identify a number of limitations of the current state-of-the-art and propose promising directions for future research

Antibiotic resistance prediction for Mycobacterium tuberculosis from genome sequence data with Mykrobe [version 1; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

Two billion people are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, leading to 10 million new cases of active tuberculosis and 1.5 million deaths annually. Universal access to drug susceptibility testing (DST) has become a World Health Organization priority. We previously developed a software tool, Mykrobe predictor, which provided offline species identification and drug resistance predictions for M. tuberculosis from whole genome sequencing (WGS) data. Performance was insufficient to support the use of WGS as an alternative to conventional phenotype-based DST, due to mutation catalogue limitations. Here we present a new tool, Mykrobe, which provides the same functionality based on a new software implementation. Improvements include i) an updated mutation catalogue giving greater sensitivity to detect pyrazinamide resistance, ii) support for user-defined resistance catalogues, iii) improved identification of non-tuberculous mycobacterial species, and iv) an updated statistical model for Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing data. Mykrobe is released under MIT license at https://github.com/mykrobe-tools/mykrobe. We incorporate mutation catalogues from the CRyPTIC consortium et al. (2018) and from Walker et al. (2015), and make improvements based on performance on an initial set of 3206 and an independent set of 5845 M. tuberculosis Illumina sequences. To give estimates of error rates, we use a prospectively collected dataset of 4362 M. tuberculosis isolates. Using culture based DST as the reference, we estimate Mykrobe to be 100%, 95%, 82%, 99% sensitive and 99%, 100%, 99%, 99% specific for rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide and ethambutol resistance prediction respectively. We benchmark against four other tools on 10207 (=5845+4362) samples, and also show that Mykrobe gives concordant results with nanopore data. We measure the ability of Mykrobe-based DST to guide personalized therapeutic regimen design in the context of complex drug susceptibility profiles, showing 94% concordance of implied regimen with that driven by phenotypic DST, higher than all other benchmarked tools

Discovery of novel herpes simplexviruses in wild gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees supports zoonotic origin of HSV-2

Viruses closely related to human pathogens can reveal the origins of human infectious diseases. Human herpes simplexvirus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) are hypothesized to have arisen via host-virus codivergence and cross-species transmission. We report the discovery of novel herpes simplexviruses during a large-scale screening of fecal samples from wild gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that, contrary to expectation, simplexviruses from these African apes are all more closely related to HSV-2 than to HSV-1. Molecular clock-based hypothesis testing suggests the divergence between HSV-1 and the African great ape simplexviruses likely represents a codivergence event between humans and gorillas. The simplexviruses infecting African great apes subsequently experienced multiple cross-species transmission events over the past 3 My, the most recent of which occurred between humans and bonobos around 1 Ma. These findings revise our understanding of the origins of human herpes simplexviruses and suggest that HSV-2 is one of the earliest zoonotic pathogens

Automatsko brojanje putnika u javnom željezničkom prijevozu uporabom waveleta

Previously, we introduced a passengers’ counting algorithm in public rail transport. The main disadvantage of that algorithm is it lacks automatic event detection. In this article, we implement two automatic wavelet-based passengers counting algorithms. The new algorithms employ the spatial-domain Laplacian-of-Gaussian-based wavelet, and the frequency-domain applied Non-Linear Difference of Gaussians-based wavelet bandpass video scene filters to extract illumination invariant scene features and to combine them efficiently into the background reference frame. Manual segmentation of the scene into rectangles and tiles for detecting an object as seated is no longer needed as we now apply a boundary box tracker on the segmented moving objects’ blobs. A scene map is combined with the wavelet-based methods and the boundary box for multi-camera object registration. We have developed a novel holistic geometrical approach for exploiting the scene map and the recorded video sequences from both cameras installed in each train coach to separate the detected objects and locate their positions on the scene map. We test all the algorithms with several video sequences recorded from the both cameras installed in each train coach. We compare the previously developed non-automatic passengers’ counting algorithm with the two new automatic wavelet-based passengers’ counting algorithms, and an additional spatial-domain automatic non-wavelet based Simple Mixture of Gaussian Models algorithm.U prethodnim radovima uveli smo algoritam za brojanje putnika u javnom željezničkom prijevozu. Glavna manjkavost dosadašnjeg algoritma odsustvo je sustava za automatsko otkrivanje događaja. U ovom radu implementirali smo dva algoritma za automatsko brojanje putnika temeljena na waveletima. Novi algoritmi koriste LoG (Laplacian-of-Gaussian-based) wavelete u prostornoj domeni i pojasne filtre temeljene na waveletima nastalim na nelinearnim razlikama Gaussovih funkcija u frekvencijskoj domeni, pomoću kojih se izdvajaju značajke neosjetljive na razlike u osvjetljenju iz pojedine scene. Te značajke kombiniraju se u referentnu sliku koja prikazuje pozadinu scene. Ručna segmentacija scene u pravokutnike korištena u prethodnom algoritmu više nije potrebna jer se sada koristi automatsko praćenje rubova na segmentiranim objektima. Mapa scene kombinirana je s wavelet metodama i okvirom granica slike u svrhu registracije objekata pomoću više kamera. Razvili smo i novi cjeloviti geometrijski pristup koji koristi mapu scene i snimljeni videozapis iz dvije kamere postavljene u svakom vagonu vlaka pomoću kojeg možemo odvojiti detektirane objekte i locirati njihove položaje na mapi scene. Algoritmi su ispitani na nekoliko videosekvenci snimljenih s dvije kamere u vagonima. Usporedili smo ranije razvijene neautomatske algoritme za brojanje putnika s dva nova algoritma i s jednostavnim MoG algoritmom u prostornoj domeni

Novelty Response of Wild African Apes to Camera Traps

Temperament and personality research in humans and nonhuman animals measures behavioral variation in individual, population, or species-specific traits with implications for survival and fitness, such as social status, foraging and mating success [1–5]. Curiosity and risk-taking tendencies have been studied extensively across taxa by measuring boldness and exploration responses to experimental novelty exposure [3,4,6–15]. Here, we conduct a natural field experiment using wildlife monitoring technology to test variation in the reaction of wild great apes (43 groups of naïve chimpanzees, bonobos and western gorillas, across 14 field sites in Africa) to a novel object, the camera-trap. Bonobo and gorilla groups demonstrated a stronger looking impulse towards the camera-trap device compared to chimpanzees, suggesting higher visual attention and curiosity. Bonobos were also more likely to show alarm and other fearful behaviors, although such neophobic (and conversely, neophilic) responses were generally rare. Among all three species, individuals looked at cameras longer when they were young, were associating with fewer individuals, and did not live near a long-term research site. Overall, these findings partially validate results from great ape novelty paradigms in captivity [7,8]. We further suggest that species-typical leadership styles [16] and social and environmental effects, including familiarity with humans, best explain novelty responses of wild great apes. In sum, this study illustrates the feasibility of large-scale field experiments and the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors in shaping animal curiosity

PAD4-Mediated Neutrophil Extracellular Trap Formation Is Not Required for Immunity against Influenza Infection

During an inflammatory response, neutrophils migrate to the site of infection where they can kill invading pathogens by phagocytosis, secretion of anti-microbicidal mediators or the release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). NETs are specialized anti-microbial structures comprised of decondensed chromatin decorated with microbicidal agents. Increased amount of NETs have been found in patients suffering from the chronic lung inflammatory disease cystic fibrosis, correlating with increased severity of pulmonary obstruction. Furthermore, acute lung inflammation during influenza A infection is characterized by a massive influx of neutrophils into the lung. The role of NETs during virus-mediated lung inflammation is unknown. Peptidylarginine deiminase 4 (PAD4)-mediated deimination of histone H3 and H4 is required for NET formation. Therefore, we generated a PAD4-deficient mouse strain that has a striking inability to form NETs. These mice were infected with influenza A/WSN, and the disease was monitored at the level of leukocytic lung infiltration, lung pathology, viral replication, weight loss and mortality. PAD4 KO fared comparable to WT mice in all the parameters tested, but they displayed slight but statistically different weight loss kinetics during infection that was not reflected in enhanced survival. Overall, we conclude that PAD4-mediated NET formation is dispensable in a mouse model of influenza A infection

Role of TNF-alpha during central sensitization in preclinical studies

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) is a principal mediator in pro-inflammatory processes that involve necrosis, apoptosis and proliferation. Experimental and clinical evidence demonstrate that peripheral nerve injury results in activation and morphological changes of microglial cells in the spinal cord. These adjustments occur in order to initiate an inflammatory cascade in response to the damage. Between the agents involved in this reaction, TNF-α is recognized as a key player in this process as it not only modulates lesion formation, but also because it is suggested to induce nociceptive signals. Nowadays, even though the function of TNF-α in inflammation and pain production seems to be generally accepted, diverse sources of literature point to different pathways and outcomes. In this review, we systematically searched and reviewed original articles from the past 10 years on animal models of peripheral nervous injury describing TNF-α expression in neural tissue and pain behavior

Population dynamics and genetic connectivity in recent chimpanzee history

Knowledge on the population history of endangered species is critical for conservation, but whole-genome data on chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) is geographically sparse. Here, we produced the first non-invasive geolocalized catalog of genomic diversity by capturing chromosome 21 from 828 non-invasive samples collected at 48 sampling sites across Africa. The four recognized subspecies show clear genetic differentiation correlating with known barriers, while previously undescribed genetic exchange suggests that these have been permeable on a local scale. We obtained a detailed reconstruction of population stratification and fine-scale patterns of isolation, migration, and connectivity, including a comprehensive picture of admixture with bonobos (Pan paniscus). Unlike humans, chimpanzees did not experience extended episodes of long-distance migrations, which might have limited cultural transmission. Finally, based on local rare variation, we implement a fine-grained geolocalization approach demonstrating improved precision in determining the origin of confiscated chimpanzees

Physiological roles of macrophages

Macrophages are present in mammals from midgestation, contributing to physiologic homeostasis throughout life. Macrophages arise from yolk sac and foetal liver progenitors during embryonic development in the mouse and persist in different organs as heterogeneous, self-renewing tissue-resident populations. Bone marrow-derived blood monocytes are recruited after birth to replenish tissue-resident populations and to meet further demands during inflammation, infection and metabolic perturbations. Macrophages of mixed origin and different locations vary in replication and turnover, but are all active in mRNA and protein synthesis, fulfilling organ-specific and systemic trophic functions, in addition to host defence. In this review we emphasise selected properties and non-immune functions of tissue macrophages which contribute to physiologic homeostasis