Bounds for the global cyclicity index of a general network via weighted majorization

n/

Face Video Competition

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01793-3_73Person recognition using facial features, e.g., mug-shot images, has long been used in identity documents. However, due to the widespread use of web-cams and mobile devices embedded with a camera, it is now possible to realise facial video recognition, rather than resorting to just still images. In fact, facial video recognition offers many advantages over still image recognition; these include the potential of boosting the system accuracy and deterring spoof attacks. This paper presents the first known benchmarking effort of person identity verification using facial video data. The evaluation involves 18 systems submitted by seven academic institutes.The work of NPoh is supported by the advanced researcher fellowship PA0022121477of the Swiss NSF; NPoh, CHC and JK by the EU-funded Mobio project grant IST-214324; NPC and HF by the EPSRC grants EP/D056942 and EP/D054818; VS andNP by the Slovenian national research program P2-0250(C) Metrology and Biomet-ric System, the COST Action 2101 and FP7-217762 HIDE; and, AAS by the Dutch BRICKS/BSIK project.Poh, N.; Chan, C.; Kittler, J.; Marcel, S.; Mc Cool, C.; Rua, E.; Alba Castro, J.... (2009). Face Video Competition. En Advances in Biometrics: Third International Conference, ICB 2009, Alghero, Italy, June 2-5, 2009. Proceedings. 715-724. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01793-3_73S715724Messer, K., Kittler, J., Sadeghi, M., Hamouz, M., Kostyn, A., Marcel, S., Bengio, S., Cardinaux, F., Sanderson, C., Poh, N., Rodriguez, Y., Kryszczuk, K., Czyz, J., Vandendorpe, L., Ng, J., Cheung, H., Tang, B.: Face authentication competition on the BANCA database. In: Zhang, D., Jain, A.K. (eds.) ICBA 2004. LNCS, vol. 3072, pp. 8–15. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)Messer, K., Kittler, J., Sadeghi, M., Hamouz, M., Kostin, A., Cardinaux, F., Marcel, S., Bengio, S., Sanderson, C., Poh, N., Rodriguez, Y., Czyz, J., Vandendorpe, L., McCool, C., Lowther, S., Sridharan, S., Chandran, V., Palacios, R.P., Vidal, E., Bai, L., Shen, L.-L., Wang, Y., Yueh-Hsuan, C., Liu, H.-C., Hung, Y.-P., Heinrichs, A., Muller, M., Tewes, A., vd Malsburg, C., Wurtz, R., Wang, Z., Xue, F., Ma, Y., Yang, Q., Fang, C., Ding, X., Lucey, S., Goss, R., Schneiderman, H.: Face authentication test on the BANCA database. In: Int’l. Conf. Pattern Recognition (ICPR), vol. 4, pp. 523–532 (2004)Phillips, P.J., Flynn, P.J., Scruggs, T., Bowyer, K.W., Chang, J., Hoffman, K., Marques, J., Min, J., Worek, W.: Overview of the Face Recognition Grand Challenge. In: IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pp. 947–954 (2005)Bailly-Baillière, E., Bengio, S., Bimbot, F., Hamouz, M., Kittler, J., Marithoz, J., Matas, J., Messer, K., Popovici, V., Porée, F., Ruiz, B., Thiran, J.-P.: The BANCA Database and Evaluation Protocol. In: Kittler, J., Nixon, M.S. (eds.) AVBPA 2003. LNCS, vol. 2688. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)Turk, M., Pentland, A.: Eigenfaces for Recognition. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 3(1), 71–86 (1991)Martin, A., Doddington, G., Kamm, T., Ordowsk, M., Przybocki, M.: The DET Curve in Assessment of Detection Task Performance. In: Proc. Eurospeech 1997, Rhodes, pp. 1895–1898 (1997)Bengio, S., Marithoz, J.: The Expected Performance Curve: a New Assessment Measure for Person Authentication. In: The Speaker and Language Recognition Workshop (Odyssey), Toledo, pp. 279–284 (2004)Poh, N., Bengio, S.: Database, Protocol and Tools for Evaluating Score-Level Fusion Algorithms in Biometric Authentication. Pattern Recognition 39(2), 223–233 (2005)Martin, A., Przybocki, M., Campbell, J.P.: The NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation Program, ch. 8. Springer, Heidelberg (2005

El correo electrónico en la consulta de Parkinson: ¿soluciones a un clic? // Use of e-mail for Parkinson's disease consultations: Are answers just a clic away?

INTRODUCCION: La problemática de los trastornos del movimiento (TM) es compleja y la duración y frecuencia de las consultas presenciales puede estar limitada por problemas de espacio y tiempo. Analizamos el funcionamiento de un servicio de atención por correo electrónico institucional para médicos de Atención Primaria (MAP) y pacientes en la Unidad de Trastornos del Movimiento (UTM). METODOS: Se revisaron retrospectivamente los correos electrónicos enviados y recibidos en un periodo de 4 meses, un año tras su implantación. La dirección se proporcionaba en consulta y mediante sesiones informativas a los MAP del área. Se analizaron datos clínicos y demográficos de los pacientes, tipo de interlocutor, número de consultas, motivo y actuaciones derivadas de ellas. RESULTADOS: Del 1 de enero al 30 de abril de 2015 se recibieron 137 correos de 63 pacientes (43% varones; edad 71 ± 10,5 años) diagnosticados de enfermedad de Parkinson (76%), parkinsonismos atípicos (10%) y otros (14%), y se enviaron 116 respuestas. En 20 casos (32%) fueron redactados por el paciente, en 38 (60%) por sus familiares y en 5 (8%) por MAP. Los motivos de consulta fueron clínicos en 50 casos (80%): deterioro clínico (16; 32%), nuevos síntomas (14; 28%), efectos secundarios o dudas sobre medicación (20; 40%). Como consecuencia, se adelantó una cita programada en 9 casos (14%), mientras que el resto se solucionaron por correo electrónico. En 13 (20%), el motivo de consulta fue burocrático: relacionado con citas (11, 85%) y solicitud de informe (2, 15%). La satisfacción fue generalizada, sin constituir una sobrecarga asistencial excesiva para los facultativos responsables. CONCLUSIONES: La implantación de una consulta por correo electrónico es factible en UTM, facilita la comunicación médico-paciente y la continuidad asistencial con Atención Primaria. // INTRODUCTION: The clinical problems of patients with movement disorders (MD) are complex, and the duration and frequency of face-to-face consultations may be insufficient to meet their needs. We analysed the implementation of an e-mail-based query service for our MD unit's patients and their primary care physicians (PCPs). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed all consecutive emails sent and received over a period of 4 months, one year after implementation of the e-mail inquiry system. All patients received the during consultations, and PCPs, during scheduled informative meetings. We recorded and later analysed the profile of the questioner, patients’ demographic and clinical data, number of queries, reason for consultation, and actions taken. RESULTS: From 1 January 2015 to 30 April 2015, the service received 137 emails from 63 patients (43% male, mean age 71 ± 10.5) diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (76%), atypical parkinsonism (10%), and others (14%); 116 responses were sent. Twenty (32%) emails were written by patients, 38 (60%) by their caregivers, and 5 (8%) by their PCPs. The reasons for consultation were clinical in 50 cases (80%): 16 (32%) described clinical deterioration, 14 (28%) onset of new symptoms, and 20 (40%) side effects or concerns about medications. In 13 cases (20%), the query was bureaucratic: 11 were related to appointments (85%) and 2 were requests for clinical reports (15%). In response, new appointments were scheduled in 9 cases (14%), while the rest of the questions were answered by email. Patients were satisfied overall and the additional care burden on specialists was not excessive. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing an e-mail-based consultation system is feasible in MD units. It facilitates both communication between neurologists and patients and continued care in the primary care setting

Switching of magnetization by non-linear resonance studied in single nanoparticles

Magnetization reversal in magnetic particles is one of the fundamental issues in magnetic data storage. Technological improvements require the understanding of dynamical magnetization reversal processes at nanosecond time scales. New strategies are needed to overcome current limitations. For example, the problem of thermal stability of the magnetization state (superparamagnetic limit) can be pushed down to smaller particle sizes by increasing the magnetic anisotropy. High fields are then needed to reverse the magnetization that are difficult to achieve in current devices. Here we propose a new method to overcome this limitation. A constant applied field, well below the switching field, combined with a radio-frequency (RF) field pulse can reverse the magnetization of a nanoparticle. The efficiency of this method is demonstrated on a 20 nm cobalt particle by using the micro-SQUID technique. Other applications of this method might be nucleation or depinning of domain walls.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Advances in prevention and therapy of neonatal dairy calf diarrhoea : a systematical review with emphasis on colostrum management and fluid therapy

Neonatal calf diarrhoea remains the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in preweaned dairy calves worldwide. This complex disease can be triggered by both infectious and non-infectious causes. The four most important enteropathogens leading to neonatal dairy calf diarrhoea are Escherichia coli, rota-and coronavirus, and Cryptosporidium parvum. Besides treating diarrhoeic neonatal dairy calves, the veterinarian is the most obvious person to advise the dairy farmer on prevention and treatment of this disease. This review deals with prevention and treatment of neonatal dairy calf diarrhoea focusing on the importance of a good colostrum management and a correct fluid therapy

A Functional Gene Array for Detection of Bacterial Virulence Elements

Emerging known and unknown pathogens create profound threats to public health. Platforms for rapid detection and characterization of microbial agents are critically needed to prevent and respond to disease outbreaks. Available detection technologies cannot provide broad functional information about known or novel organisms. As a step toward developing such a system, we have produced and tested a series of high-density functional gene arrays to detect elements of virulence and antibiotic resistance mechanisms. Our first generation array targets genes from Escherichia coli strains K12 and CFT073, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus. We determined optimal probe design parameters for gene family detection and discrimination. When tested with organisms at varying phylogenetic distances from the four target strains, the array detected orthologs for the majority of targeted gene families present in bacteria belonging to the same taxonomic family. In combination with whole-genome amplification, the array detects femtogram concentrations of purified DNA, either spiked in to an aerosol sample background, or in combinations from one or more of the four target organisms. This is the first report of a high density NimbleGen microarray system targeting microbial antibiotic resistance and virulence mechanisms. By targeting virulence gene families as well as genes unique to specific biothreat agents, these arrays will provide important data about the pathogenic potential and drug resistance profiles of unknown organisms in environmental samples

Advances in hormone replacement therapy: making the menopause manageable

The importance of the results of some large, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) has modified the risk/benefit perception of HRT. Recent literature review supports a different management

BRCA1 tumours correlate with a HIF-1α phenotype and have a poor prognosis through modulation of hydroxylase enzyme profile expression

BACKGROUND: There are limited data regarding the hypoxia pathway in familial breast cancers. We therefore performed a study of hypoxic factors in BRCA1, BRCA2 and BRCAX breast cancers. METHODS: Immunoperoxidase staining for HIF-1alpha, PHD1, PHD2, PHD3, VEGF and FIH was carried out in 125 (38 BRCA1, 33 BRCA2 and 54 BRCAX) breast carcinomas. These were correlated with clinicopathological parameters and the intrinsic breast cancer phenotypes. RESULTS: BRCA1 tumours correlated with positivity for HIF-1alpha (P=0.008) and negativity for PHD3 (P=0.037). HIF-1alpha positivity (P=0.001), PHD3 negativity (P=0.037) and nuclear FIH negativity (P=0.011) was associated with basal phenotype. HIF-1alpha expression correlated with high tumour grade (P=0.009), negative oestrogen receptor (ER) status (P=0.001) and the absence of lymph node metastasis (P=0.028). Nuclear FIH expression and PHD3 correlated with positive ER expression (P=0.024 and P=0.035, respectively). BRCA1 cancers with positive HIF-1alpha or cytoplasmic FIH had a significantly shorter relapse-free survival (P=0.007 and P=0.049, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The aggressive nature of BRCA1 and basal-type tumours may be partly explained by an enhanced hypoxic drive and hypoxia driven ER degradation because of suppressed PHD and aberrantly located FIH expression. This may have important implications, as these tumours may respond to compounds directed against HIF-1alpha or its downstream targets