Unconstrained video monitoring of breathing behavior and application to diagnosis of sleep apnea

This paper presents a new real-time automated infrared video monitoring technique for detection of breathing anomalies, and its application in the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea. We introduce a novel motion model to detect subtle, cyclical breathing signals from video, a new 3-D unsupervised self-adaptive breathing template to learn individuals' normal breathing patterns online, and a robust action classification method to recognize abnormal breathing activities and limb movements. This technique avoids imposing positional constraints on the patient, allowing patients to sleep on their back or side, with or without facing the camera, fully or partially occluded by the bed clothes. Moreover, shallow and abdominal breathing patterns do not adversely affect the performance of the method, and it is insensitive to environmental settings such as infrared lighting levels and camera view angles. The experimental results show that the technique achieves high accuracy (94% for the clinical data) in recognizing apnea episodes and body movements and is robust to various occlusion levels, body poses, body movements (i.e., minor head movement, limb movement, body rotation, and slight torso movement), and breathing behavior (e.g., shallow versus heavy breathing, mouth breathing, chest breathing, and abdominal breathing). © 2013 IEEE

Alien Rights in the United States in Wartime

The large number of aliens in the United States presents one of the many problems with which the Government has had to deal in the present war. Technically every immigrant from Germany and Austria-Hungary who has not taken out papers of naturalization and who therefor still owes allegiance to the Fatherland is an enemy alien. But while the great majority of these aliens are naturally sympathetic with German war aims, or at least are not ready to give their wholehearted support to the Allies, they are not a source of danger to the United States. Only a small section have given evidence of disaffection, or have tried to cause trouble

Elements of Proximal Formative Assessment in Learners’ Discourse about Energy

Proximal formative assessment, the just-in-time elicitation of students\u27 ideas that informs ongoing instruction, is usually associated with the instructor in a formal classroom setting. However, the elicitation, assessment, and subsequent instruction that characterize proximal formative assessment are also seen in discourse among peers. We present a case in which secondary teachers in a professional development course at SPU are discussing energy flow in refrigerators. In this episode, a peer is invited to share her thinking (elicitation). Her idea that refrigerators move heat from a relatively cold compartment to a hotter environment is inappropriately judged as incorrect (assessment). The instruction (peer explanation) that follows is based on the second law of thermodynamics, and acts as corrective rather than collaborative

Paper Session II-B - A Reusable Commercial Space Transport in a World of Expendables: Development, Certification and Operation

Full reusability, combined with intact abort capability during all phases of flight, will have a profound effect upon the development, certification and operation of space launch vehicles. The effect will be to dramatically lessen third-party safety and liability concerns, while at the same time eliminating the need for individual flight licensing which are unnecessarily cumbersome and counterproductive. Because these future vehicles will have attributes of full reuse, intact abort and routine operations, their development, certification and operation will have much more in common with aircraft than expendable launch vehicles (ELYs). This paper argues for a clear distinction between the regulations imposed by governmental authorities upon ELVs and those for commercial reusable space transports (RSTs). This distinction must be based on a clear understanding of the engineering principles which underlie the RST. Several types of RSTs will be discussed initially, including vertical take-off and vertical landing vehicles (VTOVL), vertical take-off and horizontal landing vehicles (VTOHL) and horizontal take-off and horizontal landing vehicles of both ground (HTOHL) and air-launched (HATOHL) varieties. The VTOVL has been selected as a case in point for further discussion

Using RNA-Based Therapies To Target the Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease

RNA-based therapies are currently used for immunisation against infections and to treat metabolic diseases. They can modulate gene expression in immune cells and hepatocytes, but their use in other cell types has been limited by an inability to selectively target specific tissues. Potential solutions to this targeting problem involve packaging therapeutic RNA molecules into delivery vehicles that are preferentially delivered to cells of interest. In this review, we consider why the kidney is a desirable target for RNA-based therapies in cardiovascular disease and discuss how such therapy could be delivered. Because the kidney plays a central role in maintaining cardiovascular homeostasis, many extant drugs used for preventing cardiovascular disease act predominantly on renal tubular cells. Moreover, kidney disease is a major independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease and a global health problem. Chronic kidney disease is projected to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2040, with around half of affected individuals dying from cardiovascular disease. The most promising strategies for delivering therapeutic RNA selectively to kidney cells make use of synthetic polymers and engineered extracellular vesicles to deliver an RNA cargo. Future research should focus on establishing the safety of these novel delivery platforms in humans, on developing palatable routes of administration and on prioritising the gene targets that are likely to have the biggest impact in cardiovascular disease

II Zwicky 23 and Family

II Zwicky 23 (UGC 3179) is a luminous, nearby compact narrow emission line starburst galaxy with blue optical colors and strong emission lines. We present a photometric and morphological study of II Zw 23 and its interacting companions using data obtained with the WIYN 3.5-m telescope in Kitt Peak, Arizona. II Zwicky 23 has a highly disturbed outer structure with long trails of debris that may be feeding tidal dwarfs. Its central regions appear disky, a structure that is consistent with the overall rotation pattern observed in the H-alpha velocity field measured from Densepak observations obtained with WIYN. We discuss the structure of II Zwicky 23 and its set of companions and possible scenarios of debris formation in this system.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of ESO Astrophysics Symposia: "Groups of Galaxies in the Nearby Universe", eds. I. Saviane, V. Ivanov, J. Burissova (Springer