Learning to Dress {3D} People in Generative Clothing

Three-dimensional human body models are widely used in the analysis of human pose and motion. Existing models, however, are learned from minimally-clothed 3D scans and thus do not generalize to the complexity of dressed people in common images and videos. Additionally, current models lack the expressive power needed to represent the complex non-linear geometry of pose-dependent clothing shapes. To address this, we learn a generative 3D mesh model of clothed people from 3D scans with varying pose and clothing. Specifically, we train a conditional Mesh-VAE-GAN to learn the clothing deformation from the SMPL body model, making clothing an additional term in SMPL. Our model is conditioned on both pose and clothing type, giving the ability to draw samples of clothing to dress different body shapes in a variety of styles and poses. To preserve wrinkle detail, our Mesh-VAE-GAN extends patchwise discriminators to 3D meshes. Our model, named CAPE, represents global shape and fine local structure, effectively extending the SMPL body model to clothing. To our knowledge, this is the first generative model that directly dresses 3D human body meshes and generalizes to different poses. The model, code and data are available for research purposes at https://cape.is.tue.mpg.de.Comment: CVPR-2020 camera ready. Code and data are available at https://cape.is.tue.mpg.d

Multimorbidity patterns with K-means nonhierarchical cluster analysis

This is the final version. Available on open access from BMC via the DOI in this recordAvailability of data and materials: The datasets are not available because researchers have signed an agreement with the Information System for the Development of Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP) concerning confidentiality and security of the dataset that forbids providing data to third parties. This organization is subject to periodic audits to ensure the validity and quality of the data.BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to ascertain multimorbidity patterns using a non-hierarchical cluster analysis in adult primary patients with multimorbidity attended in primary care centers in Catalonia. METHODS: Cross-sectional study using electronic health records from 523,656 patients, aged 45-64 years in 274 primary health care teams in 2010 in Catalonia, Spain. Data were provided by the Information System for the Development of Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP), a population database. Diagnoses were extracted using 241 blocks of diseases (International Classification of Diseases, version 10). Multimorbidity patterns were identified using two steps: 1) multiple correspondence analysis and 2) k-means clustering. Analysis was stratified by sex. RESULTS: The 408,994 patients who met multimorbidity criteria were included in the analysis (mean age, 54.2 years [Standard deviation, SD: 5.8], 53.3% women). Six multimorbidity patterns were obtained for each sex; the three most prevalent included 68% of the women and 66% of the men, respectively. The top cluster included coincident diseases in both men and women: Metabolic disorders, Hypertensive diseases, Mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use, Other dorsopathies, and Other soft tissue disorders. CONCLUSION: Non-hierarchical cluster analysis identified multimorbidity patterns consistent with clinical practice, identifying phenotypic subgroups of patients.The project has been funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain) through the Network for Prevention and Health Promotion in Primary Health Care (redIAPP, RD12/0005), by a grant for research projects on health from ISCiii (PI12/00427) and co-financed with European Union ERDF funds). Jose M. Valderas was supported by the National Institute for Health Research Clinician Scientist Award NIHR/CS/010/024

Multimorbidity Patterns in Elderly Primary Health Care Patients in a South Mediterranean European Region: A Cluster Analysis.

Published onlineJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tThis is the final version of the article. Available from Public Library of Science via the DOI in this record.OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify clusters of diagnoses in elderly patients with multimorbidity, attended in primary care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: 251 primary care centres in Catalonia, Spain. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals older than 64 years registered with participating practices. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Multimorbidity, defined as the coexistence of 2 or more ICD-10 disease categories in the electronic health record. Using hierarchical cluster analysis, multimorbidity clusters were identified by sex and age group (65-79 and ≥80 years). RESULTS: 322,328 patients with multimorbidity were included in the analysis (mean age, 75.4 years [Standard deviation, SD: 7.4], 57.4% women; mean of 7.9 diagnoses [SD: 3.9]). For both men and women, the first cluster in both age groups included the same two diagnoses: Hypertensive diseases and Metabolic disorders. The second cluster contained three diagnoses of the musculoskeletal system in the 65- to 79-year-old group, and five diseases coincided in the ≥80 age group: varicose veins of the lower limbs, senile cataract, dorsalgia, functional intestinal disorders and shoulder lesions. The greatest overlap (54.5%) between the three most common diagnoses was observed in women aged 65-79 years. CONCLUSION: This cluster analysis of elderly primary care patients with multimorbidity, revealed a single cluster of circulatory-metabolic diseases that were the most prevalent in both age groups and sex, and a cluster of second-most prevalent diagnoses that included musculoskeletal diseases. Clusters unknown to date have been identified. The clusters identified should be considered when developing clinical guidance for this population.This study was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Instituto Carlos III (ISCiii) in the 2012 call for Strategic Health Action proposals under the National Plan for Scientific Research, Development and Technological Innovation 2008–2011; by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (IP12/00427), as part of the Primary Care Prevention and Health Promotion Research Network (rediAPP), by ISCiii-RETICS (RD12/0005), by a 2011–2013 scholarship that aims to promote research in Primary Health Care by health professionals who have completed their specialty training, awarded by Institut Universitari d’Investigació en Atenció Primària Jordi Gol (IDIAP Jordi Gol), by a National Institute for Health Research Clinician Scientist Award (Jose M Valderas, NIHR/CS/010/024) and by a grant from the XIX call for research projects in the elderly population by Agrupació Mútua Foundation (Premio ámbito para las personas mayores, 2012). The funders had no role in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the manuscript or decision to submit for publication

Burden of multimorbidity, socioeconomic status and use of health services across stages of life in urban areas: a cross-sectional study

This is a freely-available open access publication. Please cite the published version which is available via the DOI link in this record.Background The burden of chronic conditions and multimorbidity is a growing health problem in developed countries. The study aimed to determine the estimated prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity in urban areas of Catalonia, stratified by sex and adult age groups, and to assess whether socioeconomic status and use of primary health care services were associated with multimorbidity. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in Catalonia. Participants were adults (19+ years) living in urban areas, assigned to 251 primary care teams. Main outcome: multimorbidity (≥2 chronic conditions). Other variables: sex (male/female), age (19–24; 25–44; 45–64; 65–79; 80+ years), socioeconomic status (quintiles), number of health care visits during the study. Results We included 1,356,761 patients; mean age, 47.4 years (SD: 17.8), 51.0% women. Multimorbidity was present in 47.6% (95% CI 47.5-47.7) of the sample, increasing with age in both sexes but significantly higher in women (53.3%) than in men (41.7%). Prevalence of multimorbidity in each quintile of the deprivation index was higher in women than in men (except oldest group). In women, multimorbidity prevalence increased with quintile of the deprivation index. Overall, the median (interquartile range) number of primary care visits was 8 (4–14) in multimorbidity vs 1 (0–4) in non-multimorbidity patients. The most prevalent multimorbidity pattern beyond 45 years of age was uncomplicated hypertension and lipid disorder. Compared with the least deprived group, women in other quintiles of the deprivation index were more likely to have multimorbidity than men until 65 years of age. The odds of multimorbidity increased with number of visits in all strata. Conclusions When all chronic conditions were included in the analysis, almost 50% of the adult urban population had multimorbidity. The prevalence of multimorbidity differed by sex, age group and socioeconomic status. Multimorbidity patterns varied by life-stage and sex; however, circulatory-endocrine-metabolic patterns were the most prevalent multimorbidity pattern after 45 years of age. Women younger than 80 years had greater prevalence of multimorbidity than men, and women’s multimorbidity prevalence increased as socioeconomic status declined in all age groups. Identifying multimorbidity patterns associated with specific age-related life-stages allows health systems to prioritize and to adapt clinical management efforts by age group.Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Instituto Carlos III (ISCiii)ISCiii-RETICSISCiiiInstitut Universitari d’Investigació en Atenció Primària Jordi Gol (IDIAP Jordi Gol

Further investigation of white dwarfs in the open clusters NGC2287 and NGC3532

We report the results of a CCD imaging survey, complimented by astrometric and spectroscopic follow-up studies, that aims to probe the fate of heavy-weight intermediate mass stars by unearthing new, faint, white dwarf members of the rich, nearby, intermediate age open clusters NGC3532 and NGC2287. We identify a total of four white dwarfs with distances, proper motions and cooling times which can be reconciled with membership of these populations. We find that WDJ0643-203 in NGC2287, with an estimated mass of M=1.02-1.16Msun, is potentially the most massive white dwarf so far identified within an open cluster. Guided by the predictions of modern theoretical models of the late-stage evolution of heavy-weight intermediate mass stars, we conclude that there is a distinct possibility it has a core composed of O and Ne. We also determine that despite the cooling times of the three new white dwarfs in NGC3532 and the previously known degenerate member NGC3532-10 spanning ~90Myr, they all have remarkably similar masses (M~0.9-1Msun). This is fully consistent with the results from our prior work on a heterogeneous sample of ~50 white dwarfs from 12 stellar populations, on the basis of which we argued that the stellar initial mass-final mass relation is less steep at Minit>4Msun than in the adjacent lower initial mass regime. This change in the gradient of the relation could account for the secondary peak observed in the mass distribution of the field white dwarf population and mitigate the need to invoke close binary evolution to explain its existence. Spectroscopic investigation of numerous additional candidate white dwarf members of NGC3532 unearthed by a recent independent study would be useful to confirm (or otherwise) these conclusions.Comment: 8 Figures, 8 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Auto-labelling of Markers in Optical Motion Capture by Permutation Learning

Optical marker-based motion capture is a vital tool in applications such as motion and behavioural analysis, animation, and biomechanics. Labelling, that is, assigning optical markers to the pre-defined positions on the body is a time consuming and labour intensive postprocessing part of current motion capture pipelines. The problem can be considered as a ranking process in which markers shuffled by an unknown permutation matrix are sorted to recover the correct order. In this paper, we present a framework for automatic marker labelling which first estimates a permutation matrix for each individual frame using a differentiable permutation learning model and then utilizes temporal consistency to identify and correct remaining labelling errors. Experiments conducted on the test data show the effectiveness of our framework

Bulk neutrinos and core collapse supernovae

We discuss the phenomenology of neutrino mixing with bulk fermions in the context of supernova physics. The constraints on the parameter space following from the usual energy loss argument can be relaxed by four orders of magnitude due to a feedback mechanism that takes place in a broad region of the parameter space. Such a mechanism also affects the protoneutron star evolution through a non trivial interplay with neutrino diffusion. The consistency with the SN 1987A signal is discussed, as well as the implications for deleptonization, cooling, composition of the neutrino flux and the delayed explosion scenario.Comment: 23 pages, 5 eps figures; v2: minor comments and references added, version to appear on Phys.Rev.

Beta defensin-2 is reduced in central but not in distal airways of smoker COPD patients

Background: Altered pulmonary defenses in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may promote distal airways bacterial colonization. The expression/activation of Toll Like receptors (TLR) and beta 2 defensin (HBD2) release by epithelial cells crucially affect pulmonary defence mechanisms. Methods: The epithelial expression of TLR4 and of HBD2 was assessed in surgical specimens from current smokers COPD (s-COPD; n = 17), ex-smokers COPD (ex-s-COPD; n = 8), smokers without COPD (S; n = 12), and from non-smoker non-COPD subjects (C; n = 13). Results: In distal airways, s-COPD highly expressed TLR4 and HBD2. In central airways, S and s-COPD showed increased TLR4 expression. Lower HBD2 expression was observed in central airways of s-COPD when compared to S and to ex-s-COPD. s-COPD had a reduced HBD2 gene expression as demonstrated by real-time PCR on micro-dissected bronchial epithelial cells. Furthermore, HBD2 expression positively correlated with FEV1/FVC ratio and inversely correlated with the cigarette smoke exposure. In a bronchial epithelial cell line (16 HBE) IL-1β significantly induced the HBD2 mRNA expression and cigarette smoke extracts significantly counteracted this IL-1 mediated effect reducing both the activation of NFkB pathway and the interaction between NFkB and HBD2 promoter. Conclusions: This study provides new insights on the possible mechanisms involved in the alteration of innate immunity mechanisms in COPD. © 2012 Pace et al

Nonequilibrium Weak Processes in Kaon Condensation II - Kinetics of condensation ---

The kinetics of negatively charged kaon condensation in the early stages of a newly born neutron star is considered. The thermal kaon process, in which kaons are thermally produced by nucleon-nucleon collisions, is found to be dominant throughout the equilibration process. Temporal changes of the order parameter of the condensate and the number densities of the chemical species are obtained from the rate equations, which include the thermal kaon reactions as well as the kaon-induced Urca and the modified Urca reactions. It is shown that the dynamical evolution of the condensate is characterized by three stages: the first, prior to establishment of a condensate, the second, during the growth and subsequent saturation of the condensate, and the third, near chemical equilibrium. The connection between the existence of a soft kaon mode and the instability of the noncondensed state is discussed. Implications of the nonequilibrium process on the possible delayed collapse of a protoneutron star are also mentioned.Comment: 27 pages, incl. 8 eps figures, RevTe