Content-Based Video Retrieval in Historical Collections of the German Broadcasting Archive

The German Broadcasting Archive (DRA) maintains the cultural heritage of radio and television broadcasts of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). The uniqueness and importance of the video material stimulates a large scientific interest in the video content. In this paper, we present an automatic video analysis and retrieval system for searching in historical collections of GDR television recordings. It consists of video analysis algorithms for shot boundary detection, concept classification, person recognition, text recognition and similarity search. The performance of the system is evaluated from a technical and an archival perspective on 2,500 hours of GDR television recordings.Comment: TPDL 2016, Hannover, Germany. Final version is available at Springer via DO

In vitro evidence for senescent multinucleated melanocytes as a source for tumor-initiating cells

Oncogenic signaling in melanocytes results in oncogene-induced senescence (OIS), a stable cell-cycle arrest frequently characterized by a bi- or multinuclear phenotype that is considered as a barrier to cancer progression. However, the long-sustained conviction that senescence is a truly irreversible process has recently been challenged. Still, it is not known whether cells driven into OIS can progress to cancer and thereby pose a potential threat. Here, we show that prolonged expression of the melanoma oncogene N-RAS61K in pigment cells overcomes OIS by triggering the emergence of tumor-initiating mononucleated stem-like cells from senescent cells. This progeny is dedifferentiated, highly proliferative, anoikis-resistant and induces fast growing, metastatic tumors. Our data describe that differentiated cells, which are driven into senescence by an oncogene, use this senescence state as trigger for tumor transformation, giving rise to highly aggressive tumor-initiating cells. These observations provide the first experimental in vitro evidence for the evasion of OIS on the cellular level and ensuing transformation

Pyruvate: immunonutritional effects on neutrophil intracellular amino or alpha-keto acid profiles and reactive oxygen species production

For the first time the immunonutritional role of pyruvate on neutrophils (PMN), free α-keto and amino acid profiles, important reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced [superoxide anion (O2−), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)] as well as released myeloperoxidase (MPO) acitivity has been investigated. Exogenous pyruvate significantly increased PMN pyruvate, α-ketoglutarate, asparagine, glutamine, aspartate, glutamate, arginine, citrulline, alanine, glycine and serine in a dose as well as duration of exposure dependent manner. Moreover, increases in O2− formation, H2O2-generation and MPO acitivity in parallel with intracellular pyruvate changes have also been detected. Regarding the interesting findings presented here we believe, that pyruvate fulfils considerably the criteria for a potent immunonutritional molecule in the regulation of the PMN dynamic α-keto and amino acid pools. Moreover it also plays an important role in parallel modulation of the granulocyte-dependent innate immune regulation. Although further research is necessary to clarify pyruvate’s sole therapeutical role in critically ill patients’ immunonutrition, the first scientific successes seem to be very promising

Levumi: A Web-Based Curriculum-Based Measruement to Monitor Learning Progress in Inclusive Classrooms

Our paper introduces and assesses the Levumi platform’s web-based assessment of reading fluency. One challenges of inclusive education is meeting the needs of the learners with special education needs (SEN). Children with SEN and other risk factors face an increased risk of failing in schools and manifesting academic and social problems over the time. Web-based curriculum-based measurement (CBM) can provide an effective tool to track progress of learners and limit such risks. In particular, it can ease the challenges of test administration in inclusive classrooms through automation and providing multiple difficulty levels without the need of different paper-forms. Furthermore, Levumi can help educators track children and thus provide support for learners. Levumi takes advantage of the strengths of web-based CBM to assess reading fluency in primary school students. We confirmed the reading fluency test’s test-retest reliability (n = 334), its ability to measure learning over time in individual learners with SEN (n = 8, across 14 MPs), and its applicability to learners with SEN (n = 300, including n = 46 with SEN). We evaluate Levumi’s overall usefulness in assessing different types of learners, and discuss its contributions to CBM research

Blood Pressure During Endovascular Treatment Under Conscious Sedation or Local Anesthesia

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of blood pressure (BP) as mediator of the effect of conscious sedation (CS) compared to local anesthesia (LA) on functional outcome after endovascular treatment (EVT). METHODS: Patients treated in the Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial of Endovascular Treatment for Acute Ischemic Stroke in the Netherlands (MR CLEAN) Registry centers with CS or LA as preferred anesthetic approach during EVT for ischemic stroke were analyzed. First, we evaluated the effect of CS on area under the threshold (AUT), relative difference between baseline and lowest procedural mean arterial pressure (∆LMAP), and procedural BP trend, compared to LA. Second, we assessed the association between BP and functional outcome (modified Rankin Scale [mRS]) with multivariable regression. Lastly, we evaluated whether BP explained the effect of CS on mRS. RESULTS: In 440 patients with available BP data, patients treated under CS (n = 262) had larger AUTs (median 228 vs 23 mm Hg*min), larger ∆LMAP (median 16% vs 6%), and a more negative BP trend (-0.22 vs -0.08 mm Hg/min) compared to LA (n = 178). Larger ∆LMAP and AUTs were associated with worse mRS (adjusted common odds ratio [acOR] per 10% drop 0.87, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.78-0.97, and acOR per 300 mm Hg*min 0.89, 95% CI 0.82-0.97). Patients treated under CS had worse mRS compared to LA (acOR 0.59, 95% CI 0.40-0.87) and this association remained when adjusting for ∆LMAP and AUT (acOR 0.62, 95% CI 0.42-0.92). CONCLUSIONS: Large BP drops are associated with worse functional outcome. However, BP drops do not explain the worse outcomes in the CS group