Synthesizing Human Actions with Emotion

Realistic synthesis of human actions is a challenging problem. This thesis investigates the problem of synthesizing actions, with individual variability, under different emotions. Current actions/gesture synthesis, understanding and recognition models do not provide a general framework for synthesizing an extensive range of actions over a large range of emotions.The literature on spectral style transfer provides a plethora of viable approaches for transferring the style of action learned from one individual to another. Our idea is to consider an emotion as a style then use a style transfer algorithm for transferring an emotion from one action to another. This allows us to synthesize any action over a large range of emotions. Experiments reported in this thesis are based on genarating18 actions with five emotions using the Kinect skeleton. The quality of the synthesized actions over time is evaluated through a subjective perception test, which is a standard in the domain of gesture synthesis

Assessment of serum nitrate-nitrite ratio vis-a-vis insulin sensitivity and resistance in type 2 diabetics in a tertiary hospital in Eastern India

Background: Insulin Resistance is of paramount importance in the pathophysiology of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus along with endothelial dysfunction is mediated by Nitric Oxide (NO). Central to this endothelial dysfunction is the action of Insulin on the Nitric oxide synthase enzyme. Since NO cannot be measured because of its short half-life, metabolites of NO (namely nitrite and nitrate) are measured towards assessing their relationship along with different direct and surrogate markers of insulin resistance in patients of Diabetes Mellitus attending a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India. Aim of the study was to assess the level of Insulin resistance with the direct and surrogate markers of insulin resistance in patients of Diabetes Mellitus attending a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India.Methods: Blood samples from newly diagnosed Type 2 Diabetic patients were assayed for fasting and postprandial sugar and insulin, lipid profile and serum nitrate and nitrite and different anthropological parameters were measured. After that, HOMA-IR and QUICKI’ index were measured.Results: Values of anthropological parameters and the direct and surrogate markers of insulin resistance showed statistically significant difference between cases and controls. Bivariate analysis of post-prandial blood glucose showed strong co-relation with HOMA-IR while serum total nitrate-nitrite ratio showed a strong co-relation with QUICKI.Conclusions: Serum nitrate-nitrite ratio showed a strong co-relation with HOMA-IR and QUICKI. The significance of this study lies in the fact that measurement of the serum nitrate-nitrite may give an idea of the level of insulin resistance of a diabetic patient

Colour based nutraceutical potential of some traditional rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica) varieties of India

153-157Consumption of unpolished grain, rather than polished grain has become a modern trend and consumers are mainly putting their thoughts and effort to consume products with more antioxidant capacity. Rice is the main staple food and apart from being considered as the main source of energy, it contains many nutraceutical properties because of its enriched secondary metabolites. This study is an effort to bring back the indigenous traditional rice landraces that almost disappeared from the farm fields after the advent of the Green Revolution in India. This article focuses on colour-based nutritional properties of six coloured and four non-coloured indigenous rice varieties based on antioxidant potential, total phenol and flavonoid content along with secondary metabolites profiling by high performance liquid chromatography. The biochemical uniqueness of these varieties has been explored that opens the gate for the conservation of more indigenous rice varieties for food security, as a cheap source of nutritional food and to construct a better niche for public health in developing country like India

Colour based nutraceutical potential of some traditional rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica) varieties of India

Consumption of unpolished grain, rather than polished grain has become a modern trend and consumers are mainly putting their thoughts and effort to consume products with more antioxidant capacity. Rice is the main staple food and apart from being considered as the main source of energy, it contains many nutraceutical properties because of its enriched secondary metabolites. This study is an effort to bring back the indigenous traditional rice landraces that almost disappeared from the farm fields after the advent of the Green Revolution in India. This article focuses on colour-based nutritional properties of six coloured and four non-coloured indigenous rice varieties based on antioxidant potential, total phenol and flavonoid content along with secondary metabolites profiling by high performance liquid chromatography. The biochemical uniqueness of these varieties has been explored that opens the gate for the conservation of more indigenous rice varieties for food security, as a cheap source of nutritional food and to construct a better niche for public health in developing country like India

Synthesizing Skeletal Motion and Physiological Signals as a Function of a Virtual Human's Actions and Emotions

Round-the-clock monitoring of human behavior and emotions is required in many healthcare applications which is very expensive but can be automated using machine learning (ML) and sensor technologies. Unfortunately, the lack of infrastructure for collection and sharing of such data is a bottleneck for ML research applied to healthcare. Our goal is to circumvent this bottleneck by simulating a human body in virtual environment. This will allow generation of potentially infinite amounts of shareable data from an individual as a function of his actions, interactions and emotions in a care facility or at home, with no risk of confidentiality breach or privacy invasion. In this paper, we develop for the first time a system consisting of computational models for synchronously synthesizing skeletal motion, electrocardiogram, blood pressure, respiration, and skin conductance signals as a function of an open-ended set of actions and emotions. Our experimental evaluations, involving user studies, benchmark datasets and comparison to findings in the literature, show that our models can generate skeletal motion and physiological signals with high fidelity. The proposed framework is modular and allows the flexibility to experiment with different models. In addition to facilitating ML research for round-the-clock monitoring at a reduced cost, the proposed framework will allow reusability of code and data, and may be used as a training tool for ML practitioners and healthcare professionals

Parental involvement and mathematics anxiety in a multicultural society

In this thesis, the relationships between parents' perceptions of the value of mathematics education, parents' involvement in the mathematics learning of their children, and the mathematics anxiety of students from three ethnic communities within the multicultural society of Australia were investigated. The existing literature indicates that parents' attitudes and parenting styles vary widely across different cultures, and these variations significantly affect children's academic performance (Stevenson, Lee, & Stigler, 1986; Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts & Farleigh, 1987). The specific relationships that were explored in this study were: i) the association between parental beliefs about mathematics (i.e. the value they placed on mathematics education) and students' mathematics anxiety, ii) the relationship between parental involvement in mathematics learning and the mathematics anxiety of students, iii) the influence of culture on parental beliefs about, and involvement in, mathematics education, and the influence of culture on students' mathematics anxiety and iv) the influence of culture on the relationship between parental beliefs/involvement and students' mathematics anxiety. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to a sample of parents and students from Years 6, 7 and 8, carefully drawn from three different cultural backgrounds (Greek, Arabic and Chinese). Parents' beliefs and involvement were measured using the Value of Mathematics Scale (V Scale) (Aiken 1974) and the Parental Involvement Questionnaire (PIQ) (Cai, Moyer, & Wang, 1996) respectively. The mathematics anxiety of each student was measured using the Mathematics Anxiety Questionnaire (MAQ) (Wigfield & Meece, 1988). The findings of the study showed that there was no significant relationship between parental beliefs and students' mathematics anxiety. However, parental involvement in terms of providing mathematics content advice, and their role in providing mathematics learning resources, significantly predicted low mathematics anxiety among students. The cross-cultural comparison suggested that in general there was no significant cultural difference in parental beliefs and involvement except that the Greek parents were found to monitor their children's mathematics learning more than the parents from the other communities. The data also showed that the Chinese students experienced significantly lower levels of fear or nervousness about mathematics learning than the other students

Parental involvement and mathematics anxiety in a multicultural society

In this thesis, the relationships between parents' perceptions of the value of mathematics education, parents' involvement in the mathematics learning of their children, and the mathematics anxiety of students from three ethnic communities within the multicultural society of Australia were investigated. The existing literature indicates that parents' attitudes and parenting styles vary widely across different cultures, and these variations significantly affect children's academic performance (Stevenson, Lee, & Stigler, 1986; Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts & Farleigh, 1987). The specific relationships that were explored in this study were: i) the association between parental beliefs about mathematics (i.e. the value they placed on mathematics education) and students' mathematics anxiety, ii) the relationship between parental involvement in mathematics learning and the mathematics anxiety of students, iii) the influence of culture on parental beliefs about, and involvement in, mathematics education, and the influence of culture on students' mathematics anxiety and iv) the influence of culture on the relationship between parental beliefs/involvement and students' mathematics anxiety. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to a sample of parents and students from Years 6, 7 and 8, carefully drawn from three different cultural backgrounds (Greek, Arabic and Chinese). Parents' beliefs and involvement were measured using the Value of Mathematics Scale (V Scale) (Aiken 1974) and the Parental Involvement Questionnaire (PIQ) (Cai, Moyer, & Wang, 1996) respectively. The mathematics anxiety of each student was measured using the Mathematics Anxiety Questionnaire (MAQ) (Wigfield & Meece, 1988). The findings of the study showed that there was no significant relationship between parental beliefs and students' mathematics anxiety. However, parental involvement in terms of providing mathematics content advice, and their role in providing mathematics learning resources, significantly predicted low mathematics anxiety among students. The cross-cultural comparison suggested that in general there was no significant cultural difference in parental beliefs and involvement except that the Greek parents were found to monitor their children's mathematics learning more than the parents from the other communities. The data also showed that the Chinese students experienced significantly lower levels of fear or nervousness about mathematics learning than the other students

Assessment of serum nitrate-nitrite ratio vis-a-vis insulin sensitivity and resistance in type 2 diabetics in a tertiary hospital in Eastern India

Background: Insulin Resistance is of paramount importance in the pathophysiology of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus along with endothelial dysfunction is mediated by Nitric Oxide (NO). Central to this endothelial dysfunction is the action of Insulin on the Nitric oxide synthase enzyme. Since NO cannot be measured because of its short half-life, metabolites of NO (namely nitrite and nitrate) are measured towards assessing their relationship along with different direct and surrogate markers of insulin resistance in patients of Diabetes Mellitus attending a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India. Aim of the study was to assess the level of Insulin resistance with the direct and surrogate markers of insulin resistance in patients of Diabetes Mellitus attending a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India.Methods: Blood samples from newly diagnosed Type 2 Diabetic patients were assayed for fasting and postprandial sugar and insulin, lipid profile and serum nitrate and nitrite and different anthropological parameters were measured. After that, HOMA-IR and QUICKI’ index were measured.Results: Values of anthropological parameters and the direct and surrogate markers of insulin resistance showed statistically significant difference between cases and controls. Bivariate analysis of post-prandial blood glucose showed strong co-relation with HOMA-IR while serum total nitrate-nitrite ratio showed a strong co-relation with QUICKI.Conclusions: Serum nitrate-nitrite ratio showed a strong co-relation with HOMA-IR and QUICKI. The significance of this study lies in the fact that measurement of the serum nitrate-nitrite may give an idea of the level of insulin resistance of a diabetic patient

Synthesizing skeletal motion and physiological signals as a function of a virtual human’s actions and emotions

Round-the-clock monitoring of human behavior and emotions is required in many healthcare applications which is very expensive but can be automated using machine learning (ML) and sensor technologies. Unfortunately, the lack of infrastructure for collection and sharing of such data is a bottleneck for ML research applied to healthcare. Our goal is to circumvent this bottleneck by simulating a human body in virtual environment. This will allow generation of potentially infinite amounts of shareable data from an individual as a function of his actions, interactions and emotions in a care facility or at home, with no risk of confidentiality breach or privacy invasion. In this paper, we develop for the first time a system consisting of computational models for synchronously synthesizing skeletal motion, electrocardiogram, blood pressure, respiration, and skin conductance signals as a function of an open-ended set of actions and emotions. Our experimental evaluations, involving user studies, benchmark datasets and comparison to findings in the literature, show that our models can generate skeletal motion and physiological signals with high fidelity. The proposed framework is modular and allows the flexibility to experiment with different models. In addition to facilitating ML research for round-the-clock monitoring at a reduced cost, the proposed framework will allow reusability of code and data, and may be used as a training tool for ML practitioners and healthcare professionals