Objective Classes for Micro-Facial Expression Recognition

Micro-expressions are brief spontaneous facial expressions that appear on a face when a person conceals an emotion, making them different to normal facial expressions in subtlety and duration. Currently, emotion classes within the CASME II dataset are based on Action Units and self-reports, creating conflicts during machine learning training. We will show that classifying expressions using Action Units, instead of predicted emotion, removes the potential bias of human reporting. The proposed classes are tested using LBP-TOP, HOOF and HOG 3D feature descriptors. The experiments are evaluated on two benchmark FACS coded datasets: CASME II and SAMM. The best result achieves 86.35\% accuracy when classifying the proposed 5 classes on CASME II using HOG 3D, outperforming the result of the state-of-the-art 5-class emotional-based classification in CASME II. Results indicate that classification based on Action Units provides an objective method to improve micro-expression recognition.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures and 5 tables. This paper will be submitted for journal revie

Cardiovascular Remodeling Experienced by Real-World, Unsupervised, Young Novice Marathon Runners.

Aims: Marathon running is a popular ambition in modern societies inclusive of non-athletes. Previous studies have highlighted concerning transient myocardial dysfunction and biomarker release immediately after the race. Whether this method of increasing physical activity is beneficial or harmful remains a matter of debate. We examine in detail the real-world cardiovascular remodeling response following competition in a first marathon. Methods: Sixty-eight novice marathon runners (36 men and 32 women) aged 30 ± 3 years were investigated 6 months before and 2 weeks after the 2016 London Marathon race in a prospective observational study. Evaluation included electrocardiography, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, echocardiography, and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging. Results: After 17 weeks unsupervised marathon training, runners revealed a symmetrical, eccentric remodeling response with 3-5% increases in left and right ventricular cavity sizes, respectively. Blood pressure (BP) fell by 4/2 mmHg (P < 0.01) with reduction in arterial stiffness, despite only 11% demonstrating a clinically meaningful improvement in peak oxygen consumption with an overall non-significant 0.4 ml/min/kg increase in peak oxygen consumption (P = 0.14). Conclusion: In the absence of supervised training, exercise-induced cardiovascular remodeling in real-world novice marathon runners is more modest than previously described and occurs even without improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness. The responses are similar in men and women, who experience a beneficial BP reduction and no evidence of myocardial fibrosis or persistent edema, when achieving average finishing times

Hybrid Region-based Image Compression Scheme for Mamograms and Ultrasound Images

The need for transmission and archive of mammograms and ultrasound Images has dramatically increased in tele-healthcare applications. Such images require large amount of' storage space which affect transmission speed. Therefore an effective compression scheme is essential. Compression of these images. in general. laces a great challenge to compromise between the higher compression ratio and the relevant diagnostic information. Out of the many studied compression schemes. lossless . IPl. (i- LS and lossy SPII IT are found to he the most efficient ones. JPEG-LS and SI'll IT are chosen based on a comprehensive experimental study carried on a large number of mammograms and ultrasound images of different sizes and texture. The lossless schemes are evaluated based on the compression ratio and compression speed. The distortion in the image quality which is introduced by lossy methods evaluated based on objective criteria using Mean Square Error (MSE) and Peak signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). It is found that lossless compression can achieve a modest compression ratio 2: 1 - 4: 1. bossy compression schemes can achieve higher compression ratios than lossless ones but at the price of the image quality which may impede diagnostic conclusions. In this work, a new compression approach called Ilvbrid Region-based Image Compression Scheme (IIYRICS) has been proposed for the mammograms and ultrasound images to achieve higher compression ratios without compromising the diagnostic quality. In I LYRICS, a modification for JPI; G-LS is introduced to encode the arbitrary shaped disease affected regions. Then Shape adaptive SPIT IT is applied on the remaining non region of interest. The results clearly show that this hybrid strategy can yield high compression ratios with perfect reconstruction of diagnostic relevant regions, achieving high speed transmission and less storage requirement. For the sample images considered in our experiment, the compression ratio increases approximately ten times. However, this increase depends upon the size of the region of interest chosen. It is also föund that the pre-processing (contrast stretching) of region of interest improves compression ratios on mammograms but not on ultrasound images

Effects of Novel Synthetic Nucleosides as Anti-Tumor Agents on Human Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Cell Line (HL-60)

Nucleosides and their analogs are considered a clinically proven class of therapeutic agents possessing anticancer and antiviral activity. Several trifluoromethyl-substituted pyrazole N-nucleosides (coded NIA, NIIA and NIIA) and their nucleobases were synthesized and tested for the ability to induce apoptosis in acute human promyelocytic cell line (HL-60). The growth and proliferation of HL-60 was more effectively inhibited by NIA, NIIA and their nucleobases compared to NIIIA and its nucleobase. In addition, DNA fragmentation was detected in a concentration-dependent manner as a result of nucleosides treatment. A caspase-3-dependent apoptosis was observed based on the Western blot analysis of poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) and caspase-3. Nucleosides and nucleobases also trigger the release of cytochrome-c from the mitochondria by disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential and ROS formation. Furthermore, the use of zDEVD-fmk (caspase-3 inhibitor) and zLEHD-fmk (caspase-9 inhibitor) resulted in an inhibition of the activity of caspase-3 and 9, accompined with no change in the activity of caspase-8 after the use of zIETD-fmk (casapse-8 inhibitor). These findings implicate the involvement of the caspase-9-dependent mitochondrial pathway. Treatment with nucleosides also resulted in a concentration-dependent upregulation and translocation of the proapoptotic molecule Bax, increased expression of other proapoptotic proteins Bad, Bak, decreased expression of antiapoptotic proteins (i.e. Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL), and enhancement of p53 expression. Moreover, treatment with these agents resulted in accumulation of cells in the G0-G1 phase of the cell cycle, indicating the degradation of the cellular DNA. Interestingly, these nucleosides were found to posses anti-histone deacetyl transferase(s) (HDACs) potential, which is an exciting turn in cancer therapy. This conclusion was based on the observed decease in the expressed level of HDAC-1, -2 and -3. Our results suggest that these novel synthetic nucleosides can induce apoptosis via the mitochondrial pathway, and therefore they could be considered as candidate anti-tumor agents

Abnormal ECG Findings in Athletes: Clinical Evaluation and Considerations.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Pre-participation cardiovascular evaluation with electrocardiography is normal practice for most sporting bodies. Awareness about sudden cardiac death in athletes and recognizing how screening can help identify vulnerable athletes have empowered different sporting disciplines to invest in the wellbeing of their athletes. RECENT FINDINGS: Discerning physiological electrical alterations due to athletic training from those representing cardiac pathology may be challenging. The mode of investigation of affected athletes is dependent on the electrical anomaly and the disease(s) in question. This review will highlight specific pathological ECG patterns that warrant assessment and surveillance, together with an in-depth review of the recommended algorithm for evaluation

Anterior T-Wave Inversion in Young White Athletes and Nonathletes: Prevalance and Significance

BACKGROUND: Anterior T-wave inversion (ATWI) on electrocardiography (ECG) in young white adults raises the possibility of cardiomyopathy, specifically arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). Whereas the 2010 European consensus recommendations for ECG interpretation in young athletes state that ATWI beyond lead V1 warrants further investigation, the prevalence and significance of ATWI have never been reported in a large population of asymptomatic whites. OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the prevalence and significance of ATWI in a large cohort of young, white adults including athletes. METHODS: Individuals 16 to 35 years of age (n = 14,646), including 4,720 females (32%) and 2,958 athletes (20%), were evaluated by using a health questionnaire, physical examination, and 12-lead ECG. ATWI was defined as T-wave inversion in ≥2 contiguous anterior leads (V1 to V4). RESULTS: ATWI was detected in 338 individuals (2.3%) and was more common in women than in men (4.3% vs. 1.4%, respectively; p < 0.0001) and more common among athletes than in nonathletes (3.5% vs. 2.0%, respectively; p < 0.0001). T-wave inversion was predominantly confined to leads V1 to V2 (77%). Only 1.2% of women and 0.2% of men exhibited ATWI beyond V2. No one with ATWI fulfilled diagnostic criteria for ARVC after further evaluation. During a mean follow-up of 23.1 ± 12.2 months none of the individuals with ATWI experienced an adverse event. CONCLUSIONS: ATWI confined to leads V1 to V2 is a normal variant or physiological phenomenon in asymptomatic white individuals without a relevant family history. ATWI beyond V2 is rare, particularly in men, and may warrant investigation

Histopathological pattern of gynaecological malignancies: National Health Laboratory (NHL), Sudan

Gynaecological malignancies (GM) is a common cancer problem in both developing and developed countries .The burden of GM is more critical in developing countries, this is due to lack or deficient screening and late clinical presentation. The aim of this study is to study the histopathological pattern of GM in the NHL (National Health Laboratory) Sudan. Material &amp;Methods: Clinical data, histopathological reports, stained tissue slides of patients diagnosed histologically as GM were revised from the archive of the department of histopathology and cytology at the NHL .Results: 372 patients diagnosed histologically as GM from 1st Jan 2009-31st Dec to the 1st Jan 2013 were studied. The commonest GM histological type was cervical malignancies, followed by ovarian, endometrial, vaginal, vulvar, choriocarcinoma and tubal cancer respectively .Conclusion: There is an urgent need for screening, early detection and prompt management for GM.Keywords: ,