A nationwide, multi-center, retrospective study of symptomatic small bowel stricture in patients with Crohn\u27s disease.

BACKGROUND:Small bowel stricture is one of the most common complications in patients with Crohn\u27s disease (CD). Endoscopic balloon dilatation (EBD) is a minimally invasive treatment intended to avoid surgery; however, whether EBD prevents subsequent surgery remains unclear. We aimed to reveal the factors contributing to surgery in patients with small bowel stricture and the factors associated with subsequent surgery after initial EBD.METHODS:Data were retrospectively collected from surgically untreated CD patients who developed symptomatic small bowel stricture after 2008 when the use of balloon-assisted enteroscopy and maintenance therapy with anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) became available.RESULTS:A total of 305 cases from 32 tertiary referral centers were enrolled. Cumulative surgery-free survival was 74.0% at 1 year, 54.4% at 5 years, and 44.3% at 10 years. The factors associated with avoiding surgery were non-stricturing, non-penetrating disease at onset, mild severity of symptoms, successful EBD, stricture length < 2 cm, and immunomodulator or anti-TNF added after onset of obstructive symptoms. In 95 cases with successful initial EBD, longer EBD interval was associated with lower risk of surgery. Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that an EBD interval of ≤ 446 days predicted subsequent surgery, and the proportion of smokers was significantly high in patients who required frequent dilatation.CONCLUSIONS:In CD patients with symptomatic small bowel stricture, addition of immunomodulator or anti-TNF and smoking cessation may improve the outcome of symptomatic small bowel stricture, by avoiding frequent EBD and subsequent surgery after initial EBD

Human Behavior Recognition for an Intelligent Video Production System

We propose a novel framework for automated video capturing and production for desktop manipulations. We focus on the system&apos;s ability to select relevant views by recognizing types of human behavior

Virtual assistant: Enhancing content acquisition by eliciting information from humans

In this paper, we propose the "Virtual Assistant, " a novel framework for supporting knowledge capturing in videos. The Virtual Assistant is an artificial agent that simulates a human assistant shown in TV programs and prompts users to provide feedback by asking questions. This framework ensures that sufficient information is provided in the captured content while users interact in a natural and enjoyable way with the agent. We developed a prototype agent based on a chatbot-like approach and applied it to a daily cooking scene. Experimental results demonstrate the potential of the Virtual Assistant framework, as it allows a person to provide feedback easily with few interruptions and elicits a variety of useful information

Y.: Simple and robust tracking of hands and objects for video-based multimedia production

We propose a simple and robust method for detecting hands and hand-held objects involved in desktop manipulation and its use for indexing the videos. In order to achieve robust tracking with few constraints, we use multiple image sensors, that is, a RGB camera, a stereo camera, and an infrared (IR) camera. By integrating these sensors, our system realized robust tracking without prior knowledge of an object, even if there was movement whether of people or objects in the background. We experimentally verified the object tracking performance and evaluated the effectiveness of integration.

Virtual Assistant – An Agent Framework for Activating Interactions in Teaching and Learning

We propose a novel framework of virtual assistant for activating interactions in teaching and learning. The virtual assistant is a robot agent or a CG agent that supports both contents production and presentation. For realizing a virtual assistant, we need the following approaches: 1) Video capturing and editing environment including a virtual assistant, 2) Hardware design of a virtual assistant, 3) Interaction design of a virtual assistant, and 4) Planning of speech based on background knowledge. In this paper, we discuss these fundamental technologies, and then explain our previous and ongoing research.

Object Tracking and Task Recognition for Producing Interactive Video Content — Semi-automatic indexing for QUEVICO

Abstract. This paper presents a semi-automatic indexing method for “QUEVICO ” — A QA model for video-based interactive media. We first provide an overview of QUEVICO, and then discuss which indices are acquired from the scenario and which must be acquired by manual or automated processing. To obtain these indices, we implemented a prototype system whose processes include human behavior recognition, object tracking, and speech recognition. Through some experiments applying the prototype system to actual indexing of QUEVICO video data, the strong potential of our framework are demonstrated.

Thymoma Metastasis to the Semimembranosus Muscle

Thymoma is the most common thymic epithelial tumor whose classification was first introduced in 1999. Type B2 thymoma is considered a moderate/high-risk tumor; however, extrathoracic metastases are extremely rare with limited reports to date. In this report, we present a rare thymoma metastasis to the semimembranosus muscle, which was resected with a wide margin after confirmation by open biopsy. At the final follow-up after 1 year, no local recurrence has been observed

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis Results for Estimating Body Composition Are Associated with Glucose Metabolism Following Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy in Obese Japanese Patients

We investigated the association between body composition and changes in glucose metabolism following laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) in obese Japanese patients. Thirty-two Class III obese patients were assessed before LSG and 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively. Variables including fat mass (FM), % body fat (%FM), total and skeletal muscle mass (MM), the ratio of lower extremity MM to body weight (BW) (L/W), and the ratio of upper extremity MM to BW (U/W) were measured while using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). LSG significantly decreased BW, FM, and %FM in all time periods observed after surgery with concomitant improvements in metabolic markers. MM was decreased at three months but maintained from 3&ndash;12 months post-surgery. Importantly, %MM, U/W, and the L/W ratio increased after LSG. Furthermore, change in FM was positively correlated with change in BW 12 months after LSG, whereas changes in %MM were negatively correlated with fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). Finally, multivariable stepwise regression analyses showed that changes in % total MM was an independent determinant of FPG and change in % skeletal MM was a significant independent determinant of HbA1c in Class III obese Japanese patients after LSG