Vision-based movement recognition reveals badminton player footwork using deep learning and binocular positioning

Coordinating dynamic interceptive actions in sports like badminton requires skilled performance in getting the racket into the right place at the right time. For this reason, the strategic movement and placement of one's feet, or footwork, is an important part of competitive performance. Developing an automated, efficient, and economical method to record individual movement characteristics of players is critical and can benefit athletes and motor control specialists. Here, we propose new methods for recording data on the footwork of individual badminton players, in which deep learning is used to obtain image coordinates (2D) of their shoes and binocular positioning to reconstruct the 3D coordinates of the shoes. Results show that the final positioning accuracy is 74.7%. Using the proposed methods, we revealed inter-individual adaptations in the footwork of several participants during competitive performance. The data provided insights on how individual participants coordinated footwork to intercept the projectile, by varying the distance traveled on court and jump height. Compared with visual observations by biomechanists and motor control specialists, the proposed methods can obtain quantitative data, provide analysis and evaluation of each participant's performance, revealing personal characteristics that could be targeted to shape the individualized training programs of players to refine their badminton footwork

Enhanced gas-liquid mass transfer of an oscillatory constricted-tubular reactor

The mass transfer performance has been tested for gas-liquid flow in a new tubular reactor system, the oscillating mesotube (OMT), which features the oscillatory movement of fluid across a series of smooth constrictions located periodically along the vertical 4.4 mm internal diameter tube. The effect of the fluid oscillations (frequency,f, and center-to-peak amplitude, x(0), in the range of 0-20 s(-1) and 0-3 mm, respectively) on the overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient (k(L)a) has been tested by measuring the oxygen saturation levels with a fiber-optical microprobe (oxygen micro-optrode), and a mathematical model has been produced to describe the oxygen mass transport in the OMT. The oxygen mass transfer rates were about I order of magnitude higher (k(L)a values up to 0.16 s(-1)) than those values reported for gas-liquid contacting in a 50 mm internal diameter oscillatory flow reactor (OFR), for the same peak fluid oscillatory velocity, i.e., 2 pi fx(0). This represents remarkable oxygen transfer efficiencies, especially when considering the very low mean superficial gas velocity involved in this work (0.37 mm s(-1)). The narrower constrictions helped to increase the gas fraction (holdup) by reducing the rise velocity of the bubbles. However, the extent of radial mixing and the detachment of vortex rings from the surface of the periodic constrictions are actually the main causes of bubbles retention and effective gas-liquid contacting and are, thus, responsible for the enhancement of k(L)a in the OMT.N.R. thanks the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for financial support of his work (SFRH/BD/6954/2001)

Inhibition of Chondrosarcoma Growth by mTOR Inhibitor in an In Vivo Syngeneic Rat Model

BACKGROUND: Chondrosarcomas are the second most frequent primary malignant type of bone tumor. No effective systemic treatment has been identified in advanced or adjuvant phases for chondrosarcoma. The aim of the present study was to determine the antitumor effects of doxorubicin and everolimus, an mTOR inhibitor on chondrosarcoma progression. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Doxorubin and/or everolimus were tested in vivo as single agent or in combination in the rat orthotopic Schwarm chondrosarcoma model, in macroscopic phase, as well as with microscopic residual disease. Response to everolimus and/or doxorubicin was evaluated using chondrosarcoma volume evolution (MRI). Histological response was evaluated with % of tumor necrosis, tumor proliferation index, metabolism quantification analysis between the treated and control groups. Statistical analyses were performed using chi square, Fishers exact test. Doxorubicin single agent has no effect of tumor growth as compared to no treatment; conversely, everolimus single agent significantly inhibited tumor progression in macroscopic tumors with no synergistic additive effect with doxorubicin. Everolimus inhibited chondrosarcoma proliferation as evaluated by Ki67 expression did not induce the apoptosis of tumor cells; everolimus reduced Glut1 and 4EBP1 expression. Importantly when given in rats with microscopic residual diseases, in a pseudo neoadjuvant setting, following R1 resection of the implanted tumor, everolimus significantly delayed or prevented tumor recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: MTOR inhibitor everolimus blocks cell proliferation, Glut1 expression and HIF1a expression, and prevents in vivo chondrosarcoma tumor progression in both macroscopic and in adjuvant phase post R1 resection. Taken together, our preclinical data indicate that mTOR inhibitor may be effective as a single agent in treating chondrosarcoma patients. A clinical trial evaluating mTOr inhibitor as neo-adjuvant and adjuvant therapy in chondrosarcoma patients is being constructed

Proteoglycans and osteolysis.

Osteolysis is a complex mechanism resulting from an exacerbated activity of osteoclasts associated or not with a dysregulation of osteoblast metabolism leading to bone loss. This bone defect is not compensated by bone apposition or by apposition of bone matrix with poor mechanical quality. Osteolytic process is regulated by mechanical constraints, by polypeptides including cytokines and hormones, and by extracellular matrix components such as proteoglycans (PGs) and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Several studies revealed that GAGs may influence osteoclastogenesis, but data are very controversial: some studies showed a repressive effect of GAGs on osteoclastic differentiation, whereas others described a stimulatory effect. The controversy also affects osteoblasts which appear sometimes inhibited by polysaccharides and sometimes stimulated by these compounds. Furthermore, long-term treatment with heparin leads to the development of osteoporosis fueling the controversy. After a brief description of the principal osteoclastogenesis assays, the present chapter summarizes the main data published on the effect of PGs/GAGs on bone cells and their functional incidence on osteolysis

The Major Antigenic Membrane Protein of “Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris” Selectively Interacts with ATP Synthase and Actin of Leafhopper Vectors

Phytoplasmas, uncultivable phloem-limited phytopathogenic wall-less bacteria, represent a major threat to agriculture worldwide. They are transmitted in a persistent, propagative manner by phloem-sucking Hemipteran insects. Phytoplasma membrane proteins are in direct contact with hosts and are presumably involved in determining vector specificity. Such a role has been proposed for phytoplasma transmembrane proteins encoded by circular extrachromosomal elements, at least one of which is a plasmid. Little is known about the interactions between major phytoplasma antigenic membrane protein (Amp) and insect vector proteins. The aims of our work were to identify vector proteins interacting with Amp and to investigate their role in transmission specificity. In controlled transmission experiments, four Hemipteran species were identified as vectors of “Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris”, the chrysanthemum yellows phytoplasmas (CYP) strain, and three others as non-vectors. Interactions between a labelled (recombinant) CYP Amp and insect proteins were analysed by far Western blots and affinity chromatography. Amp interacted specifically with a few proteins from vector species only. Among Amp-binding vector proteins, actin and both the α and β subunits of ATP synthase were identified by mass spectrometry and Western blots. Immunofluorescence confocal microscopy and Western blots of plasma membrane and mitochondrial fractions confirmed the localisation of ATP synthase, generally known as a mitochondrial protein, in plasma membranes of midgut and salivary gland cells in the vector Euscelidius variegatus. The vector-specific interaction between phytoplasma Amp and insect ATP synthase is demonstrated for the first time, and this work also supports the hypothesis that host actin is involved in the internalization and intracellular motility of phytoplasmas within their vectors. Phytoplasma Amp is hypothesized to play a crucial role in insect transmission specificity

Restriction associated DNA-genotyping at multiple spatial scales in Arabidopsis lyrata reveals signatures of pathogen-mediated selection

Background: Genome scans based on outlier analyses have revolutionized detection of genes involved in adaptive processes, but reports of some forms of selection, such as balancing selection, are still limited. It is unclear whether high throughput genotyping approaches for identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms have sufficient power to detect modes of selection expected to result in reduced genetic differentiation among populations. In this study, we used Arabidopsis lyrata to investigate whether signatures of balancing selection can be detected based on genomic smoothing of Restriction Associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) data. We compared how different sampling approaches (both within and between subspecies) and different background levels of polymorphism (inbreeding or outcrossing populations) affected the ability to detect genomic regions showing key signatures of balancing selection, specifically elevated polymorphism, reduced differentiation and shifts towards intermediate allele frequencies. We then tested whether candidate genes associated with disease resistance (R-gene analogs) were detected more frequently in these regions compared to other regions of the genome. Results: We found that genomic regions showing elevated polymorphism contained a significantly higher density of R-gene analogs predicted to be under pathogen-mediated selection than regions of non-elevated polymorphism, and that many of these also showed evidence for an intermediate site-frequency spectrum based on Tajima’s D. However, we found few genomic regions that showed both elevated polymorphism and reduced FST among populations, despite strong background levels of genetic differentiation among populations. This suggests either insufficient power to detect the reduced population structure predicted for genes under balancing selection using sparsely distributed RAD markers, or that other forms of diversifying selection are more common for the R-gene analogs tested. Conclusions: Genome scans based on a small number of individuals sampled from a wide range of populations were sufficient to confirm the relative scarcity of signatures of balancing selection across the genome, but also identified new potential disease resistance candidates within genomic regions showing signatures of balancing selection that would be strong candidates for further sequencing efforts