Perception and Automatic Recognition of Laughter from Whole-Body Motion: Continuous and Categorical Perspectives

Despite its importance in social interactions, laughter remains little studied in affective computing. Intelligent virtual agents are often blind to users’ laughter and unable to produce convincing laughter themselves. Respiratory, auditory, and facial laughter signals have been investigated but laughter-related body movements have received less attention. The aim of this study is threefold. First, to probe human laughter perception by analyzing patterns of categorisations of natural laughter animated on a minimal avatar. Results reveal that a low dimensional space can describe perception of laughter “types”. Second, to investigate observers’ perception of laughter (hilarious, social, awkward, fake, and non-laughter) based on animated avatars generated from natural and acted motion-capture data. Significant differences in torso and limb movements are found between animations perceived as laughter and those perceived as non-laughter. Hilarious laughter also differs from social laughter. Different body movement features were indicative of laughter in sitting and standing avatar postures. Third, to investigate automatic recognition of laughter to the same level of certainty as observers’ perceptions. Results show recognition rates of the Random Forest model approach human rating levels. Classification comparisons and feature importance analyses indicate an improvement in recognition of social laughter when localized features and nonlinear models are used.

FKBPL Is a Critical Antiangiogenic Regulator of Developmental and Pathological Angiogenesis

OBJECTIVE: The antitumor effects of FK506-binding protein like (FKBPL) and its extracellular role in angiogenesis are well characterized; however, its role in physiological/developmental angiogenesis and the effect of FKBPL ablation has not been evaluated. This is important as effects of some angiogenic proteins are dosage dependent. Here we evaluate the regulation of FKBPL secretion under angiogenic stimuli, as well as the effect of FKBPL ablation in angiogenesis using mouse and zebrafish models.

APPROACH AND RESULTS: FKBPL is secreted maximally by human microvascular endothelial cells and fibroblasts, and this was specifically downregulated by proangiogenic hypoxic signals, but not by the angiogenic cytokines, VEGF or IL8. FKBPL's critical role in angiogenesis was supported by our inability to generate an Fkbpl knockout mouse, with embryonic lethality occurring before E8.5. However, whilst Fkbpl heterozygotic embryos showed some vasculature irregularities, the mice developed normally. In murine angiogenesis models, including the ex vivo aortic ring assay, in vivo sponge assay, and tumor growth assay, Fkbpl(+/-) mice exhibited increased sprouting, enhanced vessel recruitment, and faster tumor growth, respectively, supporting the antiangiogenic function of FKBPL. In zebrafish, knockdown of zFkbpl using morpholinos disrupted the vasculature, and the phenotype was rescued with hFKBPL. Interestingly, this vessel disruption was ineffective when zcd44 was knocked-down, supporting the dependency of zFkbpl on zCd44 in zebrafish.

CONCLUSIONS: FKBPL is an important regulator of angiogenesis, having an essential role in murine and zebrafish blood vessel development. Mouse models of angiogenesis demonstrated a proangiogenic phenotype in Fkbpl heterozygotes.

Cross-age tutoring in kindergarten and elementary school settings: a systmeatic review and meta-analysis

Background: Qualified teaching staffs are neither available nor affordable to provide large numbers of children with individual attention. One solution to providing individual tuition has been the development of tutoring programs that are delivered by nonprofessional tutors, such as classmates, older children and community volunteers. Objectives: We have conducted a systematic review of cross-age tutoring interventions delivered by non-professional tutors to children between 5 and 11 years old. Only randomized controlled trials with reliable measures of academic outcomes, and continuing for at least 12 weeks, compared to instruction as usual, were included. Results: Searches of electronic databases and previous reviews, and contacts with researchers yielded 11,564 titles; after screening, 15 studies were included in the analysis. Cross-age tutoring showed small significant effects for tutees on the composite measure of reading (g=0.18, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.27, N=8251), decoding skills (g=0.29, 95% CI: 0.13, 0.44, N=7081), and reading comprehension (g=0.11, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.21, N=6945). No significant effects were detected for other reading sub-skills or for mathematics. The quality of evidence is decreased by study limitations and high heterogeneity of effects. Conclusions: The benefits for tutees of non-professional peer and cross-age tutoring can be given a positive but weak recommendation, considering the low quality of evidence and lack of cost information. Subgroup analyses suggested that highly-structured reading programs may be more useful than loosely-structured programs. Large-scale replication trials using factorial design, process evaluations, reliable outcome measures and logic models are needed to better understand under what conditions, and for whom, cross-age non-professional tutoring may be effective.

Cross-age tutoring in kindergarten and elementary school settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review summarizes effects of peer tutoring delivered to children between 5 and 11 years old by non-professional tutors, such as classmates, older children and adult community peer volunteers. Inclusion criteria for the review included tutoring studies with a randomized controlled trial design, reliable measures of academic outcomes, and duration of at least 12 weeks. Searches of electronic databases, previous reviews, and contacts with researchers yielded 11,564 titles. After screening, 15 studies were included in the analysis. Cross-age tutoring showed small significant effects for tutees on the composite measure of reading (g = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.27, N = 8251), decoding skills (g = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.13, 0.44, N = 7081), and reading comprehension (g = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.21, N = 6945). No significant effects were detected for other reading sub-skills or for mathematics. The benefits to tutees of non-professional cross-age peer tutoring can be given a positive, but weak recommendation. Effect Sizes were modest and in the range −0.02 to 0.29. Questions regarding study limitations, lack of cost information, heterogeneity of effects, and the relatively small number of studies that have used a randomized controlled trial design means that the evidence base is not as strong as it could be. Subgroup analyses of included studies indicated that highly-structured reading programmes were of more benefit than those that were loosely-structured. Large-scale replication trials using factorial designs, reliable outcome measures, process evaluations and logic models are needed to better understand under what conditions, and for whom, cross-age non-professional peer tutoring may be most effective.

Concomitant osmotic and chaotropicity-induced stresses in Aspergillus wentii: compatible solutes determine the biotic window

Whereas osmotic stress response induced by solutes has been well-characterized in fungi, less is known about the other activities of environmentally ubiquitous substances. The latest methodologies to define, identify and quantify chaotropicity, i.e. substance-induced destabilization of macromolecular systems, now enable new insights into microbial stress biology (Cray et al. in Curr Opin Biotechnol 33:228–259, 2015a, doi:10.​1016/​j.​copbio.​2015.​02.​010; Ball and Hallsworth in Phys Chem Chem Phys 17:8297–8305, 2015, doi:10.​1039/​C4CP04564E; Cray et al. in Environ Microbiol 15:287–296, 2013a, doi:10.​1111/​1462-2920.​12018). We used Aspergillus wentii, a paradigm for extreme solute-tolerant fungal xerophiles, alongside yeast cell and enzyme models (Saccharomyces cerevisiae and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) and an agar-gelation assay, to determine growth-rate inhibition, intracellular compatible solutes, cell turgor, inhibition of enzyme activity, substrate water activity, and stressor chaotropicity for 12 chemically diverse solutes. These stressors were found to be: (i) osmotically active (and typically macromolecule-stabilizing kosmotropes), including NaCl and sorbitol; (ii) weakly to moderately chaotropic and non-osmotic, these were ethanol, urea, ethylene glycol; (iii) highly chaotropic and osmotically active, i.e. NH4NO3, MgCl2, guanidine hydrochloride, and CaCl2; or (iv) inhibitory due primarily to low water activity, i.e. glycerol. At ≤0.974 water activity, Aspergillus cultured on osmotically active stressors accumulated low-M r polyols to ≥100 mg g dry weight−1. Lower-M r polyols (i.e. glycerol, erythritol and arabitol) were shown to be more effective for osmotic adjustment; for higher-M r polyols such as mannitol, and the disaccharide trehalose, water-activity values for saturated solutions are too high to be effective; i.e. 0.978 and 0.970 (25 ºC). The highly chaotropic, osmotically active substances exhibited a stressful level of chaotropicity at physiologically relevant concentrations (20.0–85.7 kJ kg−1). We hypothesized that the kosmotropicity of compatible solutes can neutralize chaotropicity, and tested this via in-vitro agar-gelation assays for the model chaotropes urea, NH4NO3, phenol and MgCl2. Of the kosmotropic compatible solutes, the most-effective protectants were trimethylamine oxide and betaine; but proline, dimethyl sulfoxide, sorbitol, and trehalose were also effective, depending on the chaotrope. Glycerol, by contrast (a chaotropic compatible solute used as a negative control) was relatively ineffective. The kosmotropic activity of compatible solutes is discussed as one mechanism by which these substances can mitigate the activities of chaotropic stressors in vivo. Collectively, these data demonstrate that some substances concomitantly induce chaotropicity-mediated and osmotic stresses, and that compatible solutes ultimately define the biotic window for fungal growth and metabolism. The findings have implications for the validity of ecophysiological classifications such as ‘halophile’ and ‘polyextremophile’; potential contamination of life-support systems used for space exploration; and control of mycotoxigenic fungi in the food-supply chain.

The impact of accretion disc winds on the optical spectra of cataclysmic variables

Many high-state non-magnetic cataclysmic variables (CVs) exhibit blueshifted absorption or P-Cygni profiles associated with ultraviolet (UV) resonance lines. These features imply the existence of powerful accretion disc winds in CVs. Here, we use our Monte Carlo ionization and radiative transfer code to investigate whether disc wind models that produce realistic UV line profiles are also likely to generate observationally significant recombination line and continuum emission in the optical waveband. We also test whether outflows may be responsible for the single-peaked emission line profiles often seen in high-state CVs and for the weakness of the Balmer absorption edge (relative to simple models of optically thick accretion discs). We find that a standard disc wind model that is successful in reproducing the UV spectra of CVs also leaves a noticeable imprint on the optical spectrum, particularly for systems viewed at high inclination. The strongest optical wind-formed recombination lines are H alpha and He ii lambda 4686. We demonstrate that a higher density outflow model produces all the expected H and He lines and produces a recombination continuum that can fill in the Balmer jump at high inclinations. This model displays reasonable verisimilitude with the optical spectrum of RW Trianguli. No single-peaked emission is seen, although we observe a narrowing of the double-peaked emission lines from the base of the wind. Finally, we show that even denser models can produce a single-peaked H alpha line. On the basis of our results, we suggest that winds can modify, and perhaps even dominate, the line and continuum emission from CVs.

Patience, Persistence and Pragmatism: Experiences and Lessons Learnt from the Implementation of Clinically Integrated Teaching and Learning of Evidence-Based Health Care - A Qualitative Study

Background

Clinically integrated teaching and learning are regarded as the best options for improving evidence-based healthcare (EBHC) knowledge, skills and attitudes. To inform implementation of such strategies, we assessed experiences and opinions on lessons learnt of those involved in such programmes.

Methods and Findings

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 EBHC programme coordinators from around the world, selected through purposive sampling. Following data transcription, a multidisciplinary group of investigators carried out analysis and data interpretation, using thematic content analysis. Successful implementation of clinically integrated teaching and learning of EBHC takes much time. Student learning needs to start in pre-clinical years with consolidation, application and assessment following in clinical years. Learning is supported through partnerships between various types of staff including the core EBHC team, clinical lecturers and clinicians working in the clinical setting. While full integration of EBHC learning into all clinical rotations is considered necessary, this was not always achieved. Critical success factors were pragmatism and readiness to use opportunities for engagement and including EBHC learning in the curriculum; patience; and a critical mass of the right teachers who have EBHC knowledge and skills and are confident in facilitating learning. Role modelling of EBHC within the clinical setting emerged as an important facilitator. The institutional context exerts an important influence; with faculty buy-in, endorsement by institutional leaders, and an EBHC-friendly culture, together with a supportive community of practice, all acting as key enablers. The most common challenges identified were lack of teaching time within the clinical curriculum, misconceptions about EBHC, resistance of staff, lack of confidence of tutors, lack of time, and negative role modelling.

Conclusions

Implementing clinically integrated EBHC curricula requires institutional support, a critical mass of the right teachers and role models in the clinical setting combined with patience, persistence and pragmatism on the part of teachers.

Not all jellyfish are equal: isotopic evidence for inter- and intraspecific variation in jellyfish trophic ecology

Jellyfish are highly topical within studies of pelagic food-webs and there is a growing realisation that their role is more complex than once thought. Efforts being made to include jellyfish within fisheries and ecosystem models are an important step forward, but our present understanding of their underlying trophic ecology can lead to their oversimplification in these models. Gelatinous zooplankton represent a polyphyletic assemblage spanning >2,000 species that inhabit coastal seas to the deep-ocean and employ a wide variety of foraging strategies. Despite this diversity, many contemporary modelling approaches include jellyfish as a single functional group feeding at one or two trophic levels at most. Recent reviews have drawn attention to this issue and highlighted the need for improved communication between biologists and theoreticians if this problem is to be overcome. We used stable isotopes to investigate the trophic ecology of three co-occurring scyphozoan jellyfish species (Aurelia aurita, Cyanea lamarckii and C. capillata) within a temperate, coastal food-web in the NE Atlantic. Using information on individual size, time of year and ;delta C-13 and delta N-15 stable isotope values, we examined: (1) whether all jellyfish could be considered as a single functional group, or showed distinct inter-specific differences in trophic ecology; (2) Were size-based shifts in trophic position, found previously in A. aurita, a common trait across species?; (3) When considered collectively, did the trophic position of three sympatric species remain constant over time? Differences in delta N-15 (trophic position) were evident between all three species, with size-based and temporal shifts in delta N-15 apparent in A. aurita and C. capillata. The isotopic niche width for all species combined increased throughout the season, reflecting temporal shifts in trophic position and seasonal succession in these gelatinous species. Taken together, these findings support previous assertions that jellyfish require more robust inclusion in marine fisheries or ecosystem models.

The progress in understanding and treatment of diabetic retinopathy

In most countries, diabetic retinopathy is the most frequently occurring complication of diabetes mellitus and remains a leading cause of vision loss globally. Its etiology and pathology have been extensively studied for half a century, yet there are disappointingly few therapeutic options. Although some new treatments have been introduced for diabetic macular edema (DME) (e.g. intravitreal vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors ('anti-VEGFs') and new steroids), up to 50% of patients fail to respond. Furthermore, for people with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), laser photocoagulation remains a mainstay therapy, even though it is inherently a destructive procedure. This review summarizes the clinical features of diabetic retinopathy and its risk factors. It describes details of retinal pathology and the cell culture approaches and animal models that are used to mimic its key components, advance understanding of its pathogenesis, and enable identification of new therapeutic targets. We emphasise that although there have been significant advances, there is still a pressing need for a better understanding basic mechanisms to enable development of reliable and robust means to identify patients at highest risk, and to intervene effectively before vision loss occurs.

CD44-Mediated Activaton of α5β1-Intergrin, Cortactin and Paxillin Signaling Underpins Ashesion of basal-like breat cancer cells to Endotherlium and Fibronectin- enriched Matrices

CD44 expression is elevated in basal-like breast cancer (BLBC) tissue, and correlates with increased efficiency of distant metastasis in patients and experimental models. We sought to characterize mechanisms underpinning CD44-promoted adhesion of BLBC cells to vascular endothelial monolayers and extracellular matrix (ECM) substrates. Stimulation with hyaluronan (HA), the native ligand for CD44, increased expression and activation of β1-integrin receptors, and increased α5-integrin subunit expression. Adhesion assays confirmed that CD44-signalling potentiated BLBC cell adhesion to endothelium and Fibronectin in an α5B1-integrin-dependent mechanism. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments confirmed HA-promoted association of CD44 with talin and the β1-integrin chain in BLBC cells. Knockdown of talin inhibited CD44 complexing with β1-integrin and repressed HA-induced, CD44-mediated activation of β1-integrin receptors. Immunoblotting confirmed that HA induced rapid phosphorylation of cortactin and paxillin, through a CD44-dependent and β1-integrin-dependent mechanisms. Knockdown of CD44, cortactin or paxillin independently attenuated the adhesion of BL-BCa cells to endothelial monolayers and Fibronectin. Accordingly, we conclude that CD44 induced, integrin-mediated signaling not only underpins efficient adhesion of BLBC cells to BMECs to facilitate extravasation but initiates their adhesion to Fibronectin, enabling penetrant cancer cells to adhere more efficiently to underlying Fibronectin-enriched matrix present within the metastatic niche.

Simultaneous biosorption of methylene blue and trivalent chromium onto olive stone

In this work, olive stone (OS) was utilized to investigate its capacity as biosorbent for methylene blue (MB) and Cr(III), which are usually present in textile industry effluents. Equilibrium and kinetic experiments were performed in batch experiments. The biosorption process followed pseudo-second-order kinetics. The equilibrium data were fitted with several models, but Langmuir and Sips models best reproduced the experimental results. Maximum biosorption capacities were 3.296 mg/g (0.0116 mmol/g) and 4.990 mg/g (0.0960 mmol/g) for MB and Cr(III), respectively. Several operation variables, such as
biosorbent mass, flow rate, and initial concentration on the removal of dye and metal, were evaluated in column system. The removal efficiency improved as OS mass increased and decreased when flow rate and initial concentration increased. Also, MB uptake was substantially decreased by increasing the initial concentration of Cr(III), ranging from 6.09 to 2.75 mg/g. These results show that the presence of Cr(III) significantly modifies the biosorption capacity of MB by the OS. These results suggest that OS is a potential low-cost food industry waste for textile industry wastewater treatment.

Can Leakage Models Be More Efficient? Non-Linear Models in Side Channel Attacks

In the last decade, many side channel attacks have been published in academic literature detailing how to efficiently extract secret keys by mounting various attacks, such as differential or correlation power analysis, on cryptosystems. Among the most efficient and widely utilized leakage models involved in these attacks are the Hamming weight and distance models which give a simple, yet effective, approximation of the power consumption for many real-world systems. These leakage models reflect the number of bits switching, which is assumed proportional to the power consumption. However, the actual power consumption changing in the circuits is unlikely to be directly of that form. We, therefore, propose a non-linear leakage model by mapping the existing leakage model via a transform function, by which the changing power consumption is depicted more precisely, hence the attack efficiency can be improved considerably. This has the advantage of utilising a non-linear power model while retaining the simplicity of the Hamming weight or distance models. A modified attack architecture is then suggested to yield the correct key efficiently in practice. Finally, an empirical comparison of the attack results is presented.

Gamma-ray diagnostics of Type Ia supernovae. Predictions of observables from three-dimensional modeling

Context. Although the question of progenitor systems and detailed explosion mechanisms still remains a matter of discussion, it is commonly believed that Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are production sites of large amounts of radioactive nuclei. Even though the gamma-ray emission due to radioactive decays is responsible for powering the light curves of SNe Ia, gamma rays themselves are of particular interest as a diagnostic tool because they directly lead to deeper insight into the nucleosynthesis and the kinematics of these explosion events. Aims: We study the evolution of gamma-ray line and continuum emission of SNe Ia with the objective of analyzing the relevance of observations in this energy range. We seek to investigate the chances for the success of future MeV missions regarding their capabilities for constraining the intrinsic properties and the physical processes of SNe Ia. Methods: Focusing on two of the most broadly discussed SN Ia progenitor scenarios - a delayed detonation in a Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf (WD) and a violent merger of two WDs - we used three-dimensional explosion models and performed radiative transfer simulations to obtain synthetic gamma-ray spectra. Both chosen models produce the same mass of 56Ni and have similar optical properties that are in reasonable agreement with the recently observed supernova SN 2011fe. We examine the gamma-ray spectra with respect to their distinct features and draw connections to certain characteristics of the explosion models. Applying diagnostics, such as line and hardness ratios, the detection prospects for future gamma-ray missions with higher sensitivities in the MeV energy range are discussed. Results: In contrast to the optical regime, the gamma-ray emission of our two chosen models proves to be quite different. The almost direct connection of the emission of gamma rays to fundamental physical processes occurring in SNe Ia permits additional constraints concerning several explosion model properties that are not easily accessible within other wavelength ranges. Proposed future MeV missions such as GRIPS will resolve all spectral details only for nearby SNe Ia, but hardness ratio and light curve measurements still allow for a distinction of the two different models at 10 Mpc and 16 Mpc for an exposure time of 106 s. The possibility of detecting the strongest line features up to the Virgo distance will offer the opportunity to build up a first sample of SN Ia detections in the gamma-ray energy range and underlines the importance of future space observatories for MeV gamma rays.

Sound Art and Spatial Practices: Situating Sound Installation Art Since 1958

This dissertation examines the emergence and development of sound installation art, an under-recognized tradition that has developed between music, architecture, and media art practices since the late 1950s. Unlike many musical works, which are concerned with organizing sounds in time, sound installations organize sounds in space; they thus necessitate new theoretical and analytical models that take into consideration the spatial situated-ness of sound. Existing discourses on “spatial sound” privilege technical descriptions of sound localization. By contrast, this dissertation examines the ways in which concepts of space are socially, culturally, and politically construed, and how spatially-organized sound works reflect and resist these different constructions. Using an interdisciplinary methodology of critical spatial analysis and critical studies in music, this dissertation explores such topics as: conceptions of acoustic space in postwar Western art music, architecture, and media theory; the development of sound installation art in relation to philosophies of everyday life and social space; the historical links between musical performance, conceptual art, and sound sculpture; the body as a site for sound installations; and sonicspatial strategies that confront politics of race and gender. Through these different investigations, this dissertation proposes an “ontopological” model for considering sound: a critical model of analysis and reception that privileges an understanding of sound in relation to ontologies of space and place.

Statin use after diagnosis of breast cancer and survival: a population-based cohort study

BACKGROUND: Preclinical studies have shown that statins, particularly simvastatin, can prevent growth in breast cancer cell lines and animal models. We investigated whether statins used after breast cancer diagnosis reduced the risk of breast cancer-specific, or all-cause, mortality in a large cohort of breast cancer patients.

METHODS: A cohort of 17,880 breast cancer patients, newly diagnosed between 1998 and 2009, was identified from English cancer registries (from the National Cancer Data Repository). This cohort was linked to the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, providing prescription records, and to the Office of National Statistics mortality data (up to 2013), identifying 3694 deaths, including 1469 deaths attributable to breast cancer. Unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for breast cancer-specific, and all-cause, mortality in statin users after breast cancer diagnosis were calculated using time-dependent Cox regression models. Sensitivity analyses were conducted using multiple imputation methods, propensity score methods and a case-control approach.

RESULTS: There was some evidence that statin use after a diagnosis of breast cancer had reduced mortality due to breast cancer and all causes (fully adjusted HR = 0.84 [95% confidence interval = 0.68-1.04] and 0.84 [0.72-0.97], respectively). These associations were more marked for simvastatin 0.79 (0.63-1.00) and 0.81 (0.70-0.95), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: In this large population-based breast cancer cohort, there was some evidence of reduced mortality in statin users after breast cancer diagnosis. However, these associations were weak in magnitude and were attenuated in some sensitivity analyses.