BIOMECHANICS TOOLBOX: A SOFTWARE FOR BIOMECHANICAL DATA PROCESSING AND MODELLING

INTRODUCTION: One of the main problems in biomechanics and especially in teaching is that software modules implementing the different data processing and modelling methods are usually part of integrated data collection systems such as optoelectronic, force plate and electromyography systems. The cost and the specific function of these systems does not allow easy access to the different data processing methods for practice especially when teaching large classes of students. To overcome these problems we have developed a user-friendly, stand alone, Windows based software that implements the main data processing and modelling techniques in biomechanics. METHODS: The Biomechanics Toolbox (Infomedia Ltd) was developed for the Microsoft Windows operating system in order to provide a familiar, user friendly and consistent environment. The biomechanical signal processing methods include filtering factor determination, various filtering methods (such as recursive and non-recursive digital filters and cubic and quintic splines), frequency spectrum analysis using different Fourier transformation methods and numerical differentiation and integration methods. There are also other time domain processing tools such as signal rectification, normalisation, extension and windowing. These methods accept standard text files as input so that data exported from different instrumentation systems (e.g. kinematic, force plate or electromyography signals) can be processed in the time or frequency domain, making the system independent of any particular data collection system. The output of these methods can be presented graphically or saved in text files for further processing. The software also includes inverse dynamics tools using the actual or the resultant force and moment methods. Indeterminate systems can be solved using different linear or non-linear optimisation procedures. There is also a simple, interactive, single segment forward dynamics simulation where the user can adjust the various parameters of the muscle model and the inertial properties and explore their effects on the resultng movement of the segment. These tools allow extensive interactive practice using standard biomechanical modelling methods. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of this software in a large class of students indicated that it is a very effective teaching and learning tool. Installation of the software on a computer network together with example text files exported from laboratory data collection systems allows teaching, access and practice of a large number of students. This enables independent practice and effective learning of the main biomechanical data processing and modelling methods without the need to use laboratory equipment for data analysis by large groups

ReSEED: Social Event dEtection Dataset

Reuter T, Papadopoulos S, Mezaris V, Cimiano P. ReSEED: Social Event dEtection Dataset. In: MMSys '14. Proceedings of the 5th ACM Multimedia Systems Conference . New York: ACM; 2014: 35-40.Nowadays, digital cameras are very popular among people and quite every mobile phone has a build-in camera. Social events have a prominent role in people’s life. Thus, people take pictures of events they take part in and more and more of them upload these to well-known online photo community sites like Flickr. The number of pictures uploaded to these sites is still proliferating and there is a great interest in automatizing the process of event clustering so that every incoming (picture) document can be assigned to the corresponding event without the need of human interaction. These social events are defined as events that are planned by people, attended by people and for which the social multimedia are also captured by people. There is an urgent need to develop algorithms which are capable of grouping media by the social events they depict or are related to. In order to train, test, and evaluate such algorithms and frameworks, we present a dataset that consists of about 430,000 photos from Flickr together with the underlying ground truth consisting of about 21,000 social events. All the photos are accompanied by their textual metadata. The ground truth for the event groupings has been derived from event calendars on the Web that have been created collaboratively by people. The dataset has been used in the Social Event Detection (SED) task that was part of the MediaEval Benchmark for Multimedia Evaluation 2013. This task required participants to discover social events and organize the related media items in event-specific clusters within a collection of Web multimedia documents. In this paper we describe how the dataset has been collected and the creation of the ground truth together with a proposed evaluation methodology and a brief description of the corresponding task challenge as applied in the context of the Social Event Detection task

Heterotopic ossification in patients previously hospitalized in an intensive care unit

BACKGROUND: Heterotopic ossification (HO) is a potential complication in patients hospitalized in an intensive care unit (ICU). In this study we examined the association of HO diagnosed with three-phase bone scan (3pBS) in association with various parameters in patients previously hospitalized in ICU. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrieved patient records of the last 12 years subjected to 3pBS and diagnosed with HO from the Department of Nuclear Medicine (2004 up to 2016) and searched for a name match from ICU records. RESULTS: We found 61 patients that had a positive 3pBS for HO of whom 17 patients were hospitalized in the ICU. Among the 17 patients, twelve fulfilled the study criteria and were included in the study. The mean age was 38 years and 92% were males. HO was unilateral in 7 and bilateral in 5 patients. Patients with unilateral HO had up to 2 joints with HO, while those with bilateral had up to 4 joints. HO was most frequently observed in lower limbs, with hip being the most common joint affected. In the upper limbs, HO occurred predominantly in bilateral joints with elbow being the most frequently involved joint. Patients with longer duration of ICU stay had more joints affected. CONCLUSION: HO is a potential complication in patients with ICU hospitalization. Since 3pBS is an imaging method for early detection of HO, patients hospitalized in ICU should be screened with 3pBS for appropriate management

THE EFFECT OF STATIC STRETCHING ON MAXIMAL VOLUNTARY CONTRACTION AND FORCE-TIME CURVE CHARACTERISTICS

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of static stretching of the lower limbs on maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) and isometric force-time curve characteristics (IFTC) of leg extensor muscles and integrated electromyographic activity of rectus femoris (EMGRF), biceps femoris (EMGBF) and gastrocnemius (EMGGS) muscles. Ten healthy physical education students were tested for MVC, IFTC, and EMG activity of the above muscles after a jogging and a jogging/stretch protocol of the lower limbs. There were no significant changes in MVC, IFTC, EMGBF, and EMGGS between jogging and jogging/stretch measurements. A significant decrease was observed in EMGRF. The results of this study indicated that a moderate volume of static stretching of the lower limbs did not impact significantly the majority of the variables examined

Desmoid tumor in Gardner's Syndrome presented as acute abdomen

BACKGROUND: Gardner's syndrome can occasionally be complicated with intra-abdominal desmoid tumor. These tumors usually remain asymptomatic but can exhibit symptoms due to intestinal, vascular and ureteral compression and obstruction. CASE PRESENTATION: A rare case of a 41-year-old male patient with Gardner's syndrome complicated with intra-abdominal desmoid tumor, which first presented as acute abdomen, is presented. CONCLUSION: Extra-abdominal manifestations of Gardner's syndrome along with a palpable abdominal mass would raise suspicion for the presence of a desmoid tumor in the majority of cases. In life-threatening cases, surgical treatment should be considered as a palliative approach, though the extent of excision remains debatabl

Yorkie controls tube length and apical barrier integrity during airway development

Epithelial organ size and shape depend on cell shape changes, cell-matrix communication, and apical membrane growth. The Drosophila melanogaster embryonic tracheal network is an excellent model to study these processes. Here, we show that the transcriptional coactivator of the Hippo pathway, Yorkie (YAP/TAZ in vertebrates), plays distinct roles in the developing Drosophila airways. Yorkie exerts a cytoplasmic function by binding Drosophila Twinstar, the orthologue of the vertebrate actin-severing protein Cofilin, to regulate F-actin levels and apical cell membrane size, which are required for proper tracheal tube elongation. Second, Yorkie controls water tightness of tracheal tubes by transcriptional regulation of the δ-aminolevulinate synthase gene (Alas). We conclude that Yorkie has a dual role in tracheal development to ensure proper tracheal growth and functionality

Comparative performance and external validation of three different scores in predicting inadequate bowel preparation among Greek inpatients undergoing colonoscopy

Background Predictive scores aim to predict bowel preparation adequacy among hospitalized patients undergoing colonoscopy. We evaluated the comparative efficacy of these scores in predicting inadequate bowel cleansing in a cohort of Greek inpatients. Methods We performed a post hoc analysis of data generated from a cohort of inpatients undergoing colonoscopy in 4 tertiary Greek centers to validate the 3 models currently available (models A, B and C). We used the Akaike information criterion to quantify the performance of each model, while Harrell's C-index, as the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC), verified the discriminative ability to predict inadequate bowel prep. Primary endpoint was the comparison of performance among models for predicting inadequate bowel cleansing. 70.7 +/- 15.4 years-were included in the analysis. Model B showed the highest performance (Harrell's C-index: AUC 77.2% vs. 72.6% and 57.5%, compared to models A and C, respectively). It also achieved higher performance for the subgroup of mobilized inpatients (Harrell's C-index: AUC 72.21% vs. 64.97% and 59.66%, compared to models A and C, respectively). Model B also performed better in predicting patients with incomplete colonoscopy due to inadequate bowel preparation (Harrell's C-index: AUC 74.23% vs. 69.07% and 52.76%, compared to models A and C, respectively).Conclusions Predictive model B outperforms its comparators in the prediction of inpatients with inadequate bowel preparation. This model is particularly advantageous when used to evaluate mobilized inpatients