Closed-loop primitives: A method to generate and recognize reaching actions from demonstration

The studies on mirror neurons observed in monkeys indicate that recognition of other's actions activates neural circuits that are also responsible for generating the very same actions in the animal. The mirror neuron hypothesis argues that such an overlap between action generation and recognition can provide a shared worldview among individuals and be a key pillar for communication. Inspired by these findings, this paper extends a learning by demonstration method for online recognition of observed actions. The proposed method is shown to recognize and generate different reaching actions demonstrated by a human on a humanoid robot platform. Experiments show that the proposed method is robust to both occlusions during the observed actions as well as variances in the speed of the observed actions. The results are successfully demonstrated in an interactive game with the iCub humanoid robot platform

Przydatność oznaczania NT−proBNP i różnych metod echokardiograficznych w określaniu subklinicznej późnej toksyczności spowodowanej doksorubicyną

Background and aim: Our aims were to investigate the utility of plasma N terminal-pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) level and find the most beneficial echocardiographic parameters to detect subclinical cardiotoxicity in childhood- cancer survivors treated with doxorubicin.Methods: The study included 23 patients with a mean age of 17.1 years, who had received doxorubicin therapy with a mean cumulative dose of 241.1 mg/m2 with a median time period of 10.5 years since the last dose of doxorubicin. The control group consisted of 19 healthy volunteers matched for age, sex, and weight.Results: The serum NT-proBNP levels of the patient group were higher than the control group. The measurements of myocardial performance index (MPI), tissue Doppler mitral septal annulus systolic (S’s) and early diastolic (E’s) velocities, ratio of early mitral flow velocity (E) to E’s (E/E’s), left ventricular diastolic volume (LVDV), tricuspid early diastolic velocity (TE) and percentage of left ventricular posterior wall thickness (%LVPWt) were found to be significantly different from the control group. MPI values were significantly correlated with NT-proBNP levels and cumulative doxorubicin doses.Conclusions: Elevated MPI values, associated with high NT-pro BNP levels and high cumulative doxorubicin doses, could be a useful indicator of subclinical cardiotoxicity. NT-proBNP could be an effective marker in the long-term follow up of subclinical cardiotoxicity.Wstęp i cel: Celem pracy była ocena przydatności osoczowego stężenia N-końcowego fragmentu propeptydu natriuretycznego typu B (NT-proBNP) i ustalenie echokardiograficznych parametrów najbardziej pomocnych w wykrywaniu subklinicznej kardiotoksyczności u dzieci, które przebyły leczenie doksorubicyną z powodu choroby nowotworowej.Metody: Badaniem objęto 23 chorych w wieku średnio 17,1 roku, którzy otrzymywali doksorubicynę w średniej skumulowanej dawce 241,1 mg/m2; mediana czasu od przyjęcia ostatniej dawki doksorubicyny wynosiła 10,5 roku. Grupa kontrolna składała się z 19 zdrowych ochotników dopasowanych pod względem wieku, płci i masy ciała.Wyniki: Stężenia NT-proBNP były wyższe w grupie leczonej niż w grupie kontrolnej. Wskaźnik wydolności mięśnia sercowego (MPI), określony na podstawie badania techniką doplera tkankowego, skurczowa (S’s) i wczesnorozkurczowa prędkość pierścienia mitralnego (E’s) w części przegrodowej, stosunek prędkości wczesnorozkurczowej napływu mitralnego (E) do E’s (E/E’s), objętość rozkurczowa lewej komory (LVDV), wczesnorozkurczowa prędkość pierścienia trójdzielnego (TE) i skurczowy przyrost grubości tylnej ściany lewej komory (LVPWt) różniły się istotnie między grupami. Stwierdzono istotne korelacje między wartościami MPI a stężeniami NT-proBNP i skumulowanymi dawkami doksorubicyny. Podwyższone wartości MPI w połączeniu z wysokimi stężeniami NT-proBNP i dużą skumulowaną dawką doksorubicyny mogą być przydatnym wskaźnikiem subklinicznej kardiotoksyczności. Stężenie NT-proBNP może być stosowane jako skuteczny wskaźnik w długookresowej obserwacji subklinicznej kardiotoksyczności poantracyklinowej.Conclusions: Elevated MPI values, associated with high NT-pro BNP levels and high cumulative doxorubicin doses, could be a useful indicator of subclinical cardiotoxicity. NT-proBNP could be an effective marker in the long-term follow up of subclinical cardiotoxicity

Reference Values of the 6-Minute Walk Test in Healthy Turkish Children and Adolescents Between 11 and 18 Years of Age

INTRODUCTION: Normal values of the 6-min walk distance (6MWD) for children have not been well demonstrated. This limits the interpretation of the 6MWD in children. METHODS: A cross-sectional prospective study was designed. A total of 949 (467 males, 482 females) healthy children were recruited randomly from 7 Turkish secondary schools in Ankara. The 6-min walk tests were conducted according to the American Thoracic Society guidelines. RESULTS: The mean 6MWD decreased between the ages of 12 and 14 y for both boys and girls, and then gradually increased until 17 y of age. In the best fitting and most efficient linear, quadratic, and categorical regression models, the age of the subjects, heart rate after the test, and physical activity level of the subjects were significantly related to the 6MWD. Nevertheless, these variables explained <20% of the variance in the 6MVVD. CONCLUSIONS: The 6MWD does not increase in a straight linear fashion from the age of 12 until adulthood. Correlation of the 6MWD with anthropometric features is very weak, so in evaluating the 6MWD, the standard curves should be used

Evaluation of pulmonary vascular resistance and vasoreactivity testing with oxygen in children with congenital heart disease and pulmonary arterial hypertension

cevik, berna saylan/0000-0002-5384-4982WOS: 000338107100021PubMed: 24566516

Event Extraction from Turkish Football Web-casting Texts Using Hand-crafted Templates

In this paper, we present a domain specific information extraction approach We use manually formed templates to extract information from unstructured documents where grammatical and syntactical errors occur frequently We applied our approach to primarily Turkish unstructured soccer web-casting texts Compared to automated approaches we achieve high precision-recall rates (97% - 85%). In addition to that, unlike automated approaches we do not use part-of-speech taggers, parsers, phrase chunkers or that kind of a linguistic tool. As a result, our approach can be applied to any domain or any language without the necessity of successful linguistic tools. The drawback of our approach is the time spent on crafting the templates. We also propose the means to decrease that time

Quantitative evaluation of right ventricle function by transthoracic echocardiography in childhood congenital heart disease patients with pulmonary hypertension

Introduction and Objective: The present study aims to quantitatively evaluate the right ventricle (RV) function by means of transthoracic echocardiography in normal children and childhood congenital heart disease patients with pulmonary hypertension. Patients and Methods: This study was conducted in a cohort including 40 healthy children and 30 pediatric patients with pulmonary hypertension who were diagnosed under close surveillance at the study center between October 2009 and November 2010. Results: Statistically significant differences were found between the patient and control groups for the right ventricle myocardial performance index (RVMPI), the left ventricle myocardial performance index (LVMPI), the tricuspid valve systolic flow velocity (Ts), the ratio of systolic pulmonary artery pressure to the right ventricle outflow tract systolic flow velocity time integral (sPAP/RVOT VTI), and the ratio of systolic pulmonary artery pressure to right ventricle outflow tract systolic flow velocity time integral × heart rate (sPAP/[RVOT VTI×HR]). When the children were divided into three groups based on their pulmonary vascular resistance significant differences emerged that predicted an increasing severity of RV dysfunction. Significant differences were also observed for the RVMPI, the LVMPI, and the Ts as well as for echocardiographic pulmonary flow (Qp) and systemic flow (Qs). Discussion: The present study demonstrates that echocardiographic parameters can be used for the quantitative detection of RV dysfunction in childhood congenital heart disease patients with high pulmonary artery pressure (systolic, diastolic, and mean) or pulmonary vascular resistance. © 2012, Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Doppler Tissue Imaging Provides an Estimate of Pulmonary Arterial Pressure in Children with Pulmonary Hypertension Due to Congenital Intracardiac Shunts

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the cardiac catheterization findings and pulsed-wave (PW) Doppler and Doppler tissue imaging (DTI) in pulmonary arterial hypertension patients with congenital heart disease with intracardiac shunts. Design and Patients: The present study aims to determine the relationship between the cardiac catheterization findings and PW Doppler and Doppler tissue imaging (DTI) in patients who have pulmonary arterial hypertension patients due to congenital heart disease with intracardiac shunts. Echocardiographic measurements were performed at the catheter angiography laboratory with concurrent catheterization. Left and right ventricle inflow velocities were recorded with PW Doppler and DTI studies. Maximum tricuspid regurgitation velocity (TS) was recorded in cases with measurable levels by continuous-wave Doppler. Moreover, the correlations among the echocardiographic values and invasive hemodynamic measures such as systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (PAPsystolic), mean pulmonary arterial pressure (PAPmean), diastolic pulmonary arterial pressure (PAPdiastolic) and pulmonary vascular resistance index (PVRI) were evaluated. Results: A negative correlation was found between TE'/TA' and PAPsystolic, PAPdiastolic and PAPmean (P = 0.008, r = -0.480; P = 0.001, r = -0.584; P = 0.001, r = -0.567, respectively). ME/ME' was also found to be negatively correlated with PAPdiastolic, PAPmean and PVRI (P = 0.002, r = -0.556; P = 0.005, r = -0.502; P = 0.027, r = -0.411, respectively). The concurrent use of TE'/TA' (cut-off value <2.6) and TS had a sensitivity of 79% and a specificity of 93% for distinguishing between patients with healthy controls. Conclusion: When used in conjunction with conventional methods, TE'/TA' has the highest sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing between patients and healthy controls. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc