Eye-CU: Sleep Pose Classification for Healthcare using Multimodal Multiview Data

Manual analysis of body poses of bed-ridden patients requires staff to continuously track and record patient poses. Two limitations in the dissemination of pose-related therapies are scarce human resources and unreliable automated systems. This work addresses these issues by introducing a new method and a new system for robust automated classification of sleep poses in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environment. The new method, coupled-constrained Least-Squares (cc-LS), uses multimodal and multiview (MM) data and finds the set of modality trust values that minimizes the difference between expected and estimated labels. The new system, Eye-CU, is an affordable multi-sensor modular system for unobtrusive data collection and analysis in healthcare. Experimental results indicate that the performance of cc-LS matches the performance of existing methods in ideal scenarios. This method outperforms the latest techniques in challenging scenarios by 13% for those with poor illumination and by 70% for those with both poor illumination and occlusions. Results also show that a reduced Eye-CU configuration can classify poses without pressure information with only a slight drop in its performance.Comment: Ten-page manuscript including references and ten figure

The Expression and Roles of Nde1 and Ndel1 in the Adult Mammalian Central Nervous System

Open Access funded by Wellcome Trust Under a Creative Commons license Acknowledgments We thank Prof Angelo Sementilli, Department of Pathology, Universidade Metropolitana de Santos, SP, Brazil, for the human sample collection. This study is funded by Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (HR07019 to S. Shen and C.D. McCaig), Medical Research Scotland (384 FRG to B. Lang, United Kingdom), Tenovus Scotland (G12/25 to B. Lang), Sino-UK Higher Education Research Partnership for PhD Studies (C.D. McCaig and Y.Q. Ding) and Wellcome Trust (WT081633MA-NCE to P.J.A. McCaffery, United Kingdom).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Understanding Drought Dynamics during Dry Season in Eastern Northeast Brazil

Eastern Northeast Brazil (ENEB) generally experiences a high variability in precipitation in the dry season, with amplitudes that can overcome 500mm. The understanding of this variability can help in mitigating the socio-economic issues related to the planning and management of water resources this region, which is highly vulnerable to drought. This work aims to assess spatio-temporal variability of precipitation during the dry season and investigate the relationships between climate phenomena and drought events in the ENEB, using univariate (Spearman correlation) and multivariate statistical techniques, such as Principal Component Analysis, Cluster Analysis, and Maximum Covariance Analysis. The results indicate that the variability of precipitation in the dry season can be explained mainly (62%) by local physical conditions and climate conditions have a secondary contribution. Further analysis of the larger anomalous events suggests that the state of Atlantic and Pacific oceans can govern the occurrence of those events, and the conditions of Atlantic Ocean can be considered a potential modulator of anomalous phenomena of precipitation in ENEB

Resistência a inseticidas piretróides em populações de Sitophilus zeamais (Coleoptera: curculionidae) coletadas em unidades armazenadoras de arroz no Estado do Tocantins.

O Estado do Tocantins tem um grande potencial agrícola, com extensas áreas propícias à prática da agricultura e, vem se destacando no cenário nacional como grande produtor de grãos, principalmente arroz, segunda cultura em área plantada, encontrando-se já instalados grandes complexos de armazenagem e beneficiamento. Nas unidades armazenadoras tocantinenses o uso de inseticidas para o controle preventivo ou curativo de insetos-praga é uma prática comum, o que levanta a suspeita das populações já terem desenvolvido resistência aos inseticidas usados em seu controle. Nesse contexto, informações sobre resistência a inseticidas para esta espécie são necessárias e úteis para implementação de programas de manejo de resistência a inseticidas

Danos causados por percevejos da panícula em grãos de arroz no Estado do Tocantins.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar materiais (linhagens/cultivares) de arroz quanto à resistência ao ataque de percevejos do gênero Oebalus sugadores das espiguetas e efeitos da alimentação destes insetos sobre o rendimento e grãos inteiros

Brazil certificate - rice export value added.

The rice produced in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) has quantity (productivity + technologie) that contributes to food security, quality (organoleptide + food safety + varietal identification) that contributes to value addition and positive image and meets safety, requirements environmental (environmental licensing + rural land register) that contribute to the preservation of the Pampa Biome. All these positive aspects are the basis for an official certification of the Brazilian government whose identification label is Brazil Certificate: Quality Agriculture. The rice industry in RS also has technology to focus the concept of quality with consumers and associate positive image, enabling innovation for a market that requires traceability and certification. The challenges faced by Brazilian rice exporters include overcoming phytosanitary and environmental barriers, consolidating sales to newly conquered markets and ensuring customer loyalty. In this context, an internationally recognized certification, such as the Brazil Certified: Quality Agriculture, which has National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology as the certifying agency provides confidence to the markets and, consequently, transparency for consumers

Incidência de percevejos em genótipos de arroz no Tocantins.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi a avaliação da intensidade de ataque de percevejos dos grãos em diferentes genótipos de arroz irrigado tropical. Espera-se com isso que não haja diferenças estatísticas entre os genótipos avaliados

Modulatory effect of BclI GR gene polymorphisms on the obesity phenotype in Brazilian patients with Cushing's disease

OBJECTIVES: Patients with Cushing's disease exhibit wide phenotypic variability in the severity of obesity, diabetes and hypertension. In the general population, several glucocorticoid receptor genes (NR3C1) and HSD11B1 polymorphisms are associated with altered glucocorticoid sensitivity and/or metabolism, resulting in an increased or reduced risk of an adverse metabolic profile. Our aim was to analyze the association of NR3C1 and HSD11B1 gene variants with the severity of some clinical and hormonal features of Cushing's disease. METHODS: Sixty-four patients presenting with Cushing's disease were diagnosed based on adrenocorticotrophic hormone levels, high-dose dexamethasone suppression tests and/or inferior petrosal sinus sampling and magnetic resonance imaging. The A3669G, ER22/23EK, N363S BclI-NR3C1 and HSD11B1-rs12086634 variants were screened. RESULTS: The BclI, HSD11B1-rs12086634 and A3669G variants were found in 36%, 19.5% and 14% of alleles, respectively. The N363S and ER22/23EK polymorphisms were identified in heterozygosis once in only two patients (1.5% of alleles). There were no differences in the weight gain or prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in the patients carrying the abovementioned alleles compared to the wild-type carriers. Interestingly, the mean body mass index (BMI) of the BclI carriers was significantly higher than the non-carriers (34.4±7 kg/m2 vs. 29.6±4.7 kg/m2, respectively). None of the polymorphisms were associated with the basal adrenocorticotrophic hormone, FU levels or F level after dexamethasone suppression testing. CONCLUSION: Although Cushing's disease results from increased glucocorticoid secretion, we observed that interindividual variability in the peripheral glucocorticoid sensitivity, mediated by the glucocorticoid receptor, could modulate the obesity phenotype