Pharmaco-fMRI: A Tool to Predict the Response to Antiepileptic Drugs in Epilepsy

Pharmacological treatment with antiepilepticmedications (AEDs) in epilepsy is associated with a variety of neurocognitive side effects. However, the mechanisms underlying these side effects, and why certain brain anatomies are more affected still remain poorly understood. Advanced functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods, such as pharmaco-fMRI, can investigate medication-related effects on brain activities using task and resting state fMRI and showing reproducible activation and deactivation patterns. This methodological approach has been used successfully to complement neuropsychological studies of AEDs. Here we review pharmaco-fMRI studies in people with epilepsy targeting the most-widely prescribed AEDs. Pharmco-fMRI has advanced our understanding of the impact of AEDs on specific brain networks and thus may provide potential biomarkers to move beyond the current “trial and error” approach when commencing anti-epileptic medication

Learning 3D Human Pose from Structure and Motion

3D human pose estimation from a single image is a challenging problem, especially for in-the-wild settings due to the lack of 3D annotated data. We propose two anatomically inspired loss functions and use them with a weakly-supervised learning framework to jointly learn from large-scale in-the-wild 2D and indoor/synthetic 3D data. We also present a simple temporal network that exploits temporal and structural cues present in predicted pose sequences to temporally harmonize the pose estimations. We carefully analyze the proposed contributions through loss surface visualizations and sensitivity analysis to facilitate deeper understanding of their working mechanism. Our complete pipeline improves the state-of-the-art by 11.8% and 12% on Human3.6M and MPI-INF-3DHP, respectively, and runs at 30 FPS on a commodity graphics card.Comment: ECCV 2018. Project page: https://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~rdabral/3DPose

Sequence variation in TgROP7 gene among Toxoplasma gondii isolates from different hosts and geographical regions

Toxoplasma gondii can infect a wide range of hosts including mammals and birds, causing toxoplasmosis which is one of the most common parasitic zoonoses worldwide. The present study examined sequence variation in rhoptry 7 (ROP7) gene among different T. gondii isolates from different hosts and geographical localities. Phylogenetic analysis of the examined T. gondii isolates was conducted using the maximum likelihood (ML) method. Sequence analysis revealed that 60 nucleotide positions were variable in the ROP7 gene sequences among the 19 examined T. gondii isolates, corresponding to sequence variations of 0 to 1.7%, which occurred at the first, second and third codons. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that sequence variation in ROP7 gene was low among the examined T. gondii isolates from different hosts and geographical localities, and that the ROP7 sequence was not suitable as genetic marker for the differentiation of T. gondii isolates. The results of the present study suggest that ROP7 gene may be a suitable vaccine candidate.Key words: Sequence variation, rhoptry 7 (ROP7) gene, Toxoplasma gondii, toxoplasmosis, phylogenetic analysis

Spectral weight transfer in a disorder-broadened Landau level

In the absence of disorder, the degeneracy of a Landau level (LL) is $N=BA/\phi_0$, where $B$ is the magnetic field, $A$ is the area of the sample and $\phi_0=h/e$ is the magnetic flux quantum. With disorder, localized states appear at the top and bottom of the broadened LL, while states in the center of the LL (the critical region) remain delocalized. This well-known phenomenology is sufficient to explain most aspects of the Integer Quantum Hall Effect (IQHE) [1]. One unnoticed issue is where the new states appear as the magnetic field is increased. Here we demonstrate that they appear predominantly inside the critical region. This leads to a certain ``spectral ordering'' of the localized states that explains the stripes observed in measurements of the local inverse compressibility [2-3], of two-terminal conductance [4], and of Hall and longitudinal resistances [5] without invoking interactions as done in previous work [6-8].Comment: 5 pages 3 figure

Comparison of interfacial and electrical characteristics of HfO₂and HfAlO high-k dielectrics on compressively strained Si[sub 1−x]Ge[sub x]

Author name used in this publication: P. F. LeeAuthor name used in this publication: J. Y. Dai2005-2006 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

A novel intelligent system for securing cash levels using Markov random fields

Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Universities "Disruptive group decision making systems in fuzzy context: Applications in smart energy and people analytics" (PID2019-103880RB-I00), and Junta de Andalucia (SEJ340) is gratefully acknowledged.The maintenance of cash levels under certain security thresholds is key for the health of the banking sector. In this paper, the monitoring process of branch network cash levels is performed using a single intelligent system which should provide an alert when there are cash shortages at any point of the network. Such an integral solution would provide a unified insight that guarantees that branches with similar cash features are secured as a whole. That is to say, a triggered alarm at a specific branch would indicate that attention must also be paid to similar (in-cash-feature) branches. The system also incorporates a (complementary) specific treatment for individual branches. The Early Warning System for securing cash levels presented in this paper (cash level EWS) is deliberately free of local demographic specifications, thereby overcoming the current lack of worldwide definitions for local demographics. This aspect would be particularly valuable for banking institutions with branch networks all over the world. A further benefit is the cost reductions that are a result of replacing several approaches with a single global one. Instead of local demographic parameters, a solid theoretical model based on Markov random fields (MRFs) has been developed. The use of MRFs means a reduction in the amount of information required. This would mean a higher processing speed as well as a significant reduction in the amount of storage capacity required. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first time that MRFs have been applied to cash monitoring.Spanish Ministry of Universities PID2019-103880RB-I00Junta de Andalucia SEJ34

Effects of acute fatigue on the volitional and magnetically-evoked electromechanical delay of the knee flexors in males and females

Neuromuscular performance capabilities, including those measured by evoked responses, may be adversely affected by fatigue; however, the capability of the neuromuscular system to initiate muscle force rapidly under these circumstances is yet to be established. Sex-differences in the acute responses of neuromuscular performance to exercise stress may be linked to evidence that females are much more vulnerable to ACL injury than males. Optimal functioning of the knee flexors is paramount to the dynamic stabilisation of the knee joint, therefore the aim of this investigation was to examine the effects of acute maximal intensity fatiguing exercise on the voluntary and magnetically-evoked electromechanical delay in the knee flexors of males and females. Knee flexor volitional and magnetically-evoked neuromuscular performance was assessed in seven male and nine females prior to and immediately after: (i) an intervention condition comprising a fatigue trial of 30-seconds maximal static exercise of the knee flexors, (ii) a control condition consisting of no exercise. The results showed that the fatigue intervention was associated with a substantive reduction in volitional peak force (PFV) that was greater in males compared to females (15.0%, 10.2%, respectively, p < 0.01) and impairment to volitional electromechanical delay (EMDV) in females exclusively (19.3%, p < 0.05). Similar improvements in magnetically-evoked electromechanical delay in males and females following fatigue (21%, p < 0.001), however, may suggest a vital facilitatory mechanism to overcome the effects of impaired voluntary capabilities, and a faster neuromuscular response that can be deployed during critical times to protect the joint system

Multiple dynamical time-scales in networks with hierarchically nested modular organization

Many natural and engineered complex networks have intricate mesoscopic organization, e.g., the clustering of the constituent nodes into several communities or modules. Often, such modularity is manifested at several different hierarchical levels, where the clusters defined at one level appear as elementary entities at the next higher level. Using a simple model of a hierarchical modular network, we show that such a topological structure gives rise to characteristic time-scale separation between dynamics occurring at different levels of the hierarchy. This generalizes our earlier result for simple modular networks, where fast intra-modular and slow inter-modular processes were clearly distinguished. Investigating the process of synchronization of oscillators in a hierarchical modular network, we show the existence of as many distinct time-scales as there are hierarchical levels in the system. This suggests a possible functional role of such mesoscopic organization principle in natural systems, viz., in the dynamical separation of events occurring at different spatial scales.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

An adaptive technique for content-based image retrieval

We discuss an adaptive approach towards Content-Based Image Retrieval. It is based on the Ostensive Model of developing information needs—a special kind of relevance feedback model that learns from implicit user feedback and adds a temporal notion to relevance. The ostensive approach supports content-assisted browsing through visualising the interaction by adding user-selected images to a browsing path, which ends with a set of system recommendations. The suggestions are based on an adaptive query learning scheme, in which the query is learnt from previously selected images. Our approach is an adaptation of the original Ostensive Model based on textual features only, to include content-based features to characterise images. In the proposed scheme textual and colour features are combined using the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence combination. Results from a user-centred, work-task oriented evaluation show that the ostensive interface is preferred over a traditional interface with manual query facilities. This is due to its ability to adapt to the user's need, its intuitiveness and the fluid way in which it operates. Studying and comparing the nature of the underlying information need, it emerges that our approach elicits changes in the user's need based on the interaction, and is successful in adapting the retrieval to match the changes. In addition, a preliminary study of the retrieval performance of the ostensive relevance feedback scheme shows that it can outperform a standard relevance feedback strategy in terms of image recall in category search