Learning Variable-Length Markov Models of Behavior

In recent years there has been an increased interest in the modeling and recognition of human activities involving highly structured and semantically rich behavior such as dance, aerobics, and sign language. A novel approach for automatically acquiring stochastic models of the high-level structure of an activity without the assumption of any prior knowledge is presented. The process involves temporal segmentation into plausible atomic behavior components and the use of variable-length Markov models for the efficient representation of behaviors. Experimental results that demonstrate the synthesis of realistic sample behaviors and the performance of models for long-term temporal prediction are presented.     

The effect of viscoelastic brain on the dynamic characteristics of the human skull-brain system

Summary In this paper, we present a solution to the problem of free vibrations of the human head system taking into account the dissipative behaviour of the brain. The mathematical model is based on the three-dimensional theory of viscoelasticity and the representation of the displacement field in terms of the Navier eigenvectors. The frequency equation is solved numerically and the results for eigenfrequencies and damping coefficients are presented for various geometrical and physical parameters of the system. The results obtained are in excellent agreement with the measured eigenfrequencies, and the predicted damping coefficients are within the order of magnitude of the measured ones. From the proposed analysis we have obtained the information that the role of the viscoelastic neck as well as the viscoelastic properties of the skull-brain system have to be simultaneously taken into account in the study of the frequency spectrum of the human head. The analysis of the realistic model is under preparation.     

Postnatal Protein Intake as a Determinant of Skeletal Muscle Structure and Function in Mice—A Pilot Study

Sarcopenia is characterised by an age-related decrease in the number of muscle fibres and additional weakening of the remaining fibres, resulting in a reduction in muscle mass and function. Many studies associate poor maternal nutrition during gestation and/or lactation with altered skeletal muscle homeostasis in the offspring and the development of sarcopenia. The aim of this study was to determine whether the musculoskeletal physiology in offspring born to mouse dams fed a low-protein diet during pregnancy was altered and whether any physiological changes could be modulated by the nutritional protein content in early postnatal stages. Thy1-YFP female mice were fed ad libitum on either a normal (20%) or a low-protein (5%) diet. Newborn pups were cross-fostered to different lactating dams (maintained on a 20% or 5% diet) to generate three groups analysed at weaning (21 days): Normal-to-Normal (NN), Normal-to-Low (NL) and Low-to-Normal (LN). Further offspring were maintained ad libitum on the same diet as during lactation until 12 weeks of age, creating another three groups (NNN, NLL, LNN). Mice on a low protein diet postnatally (NL, NLL) exhibited a significant reduction in body and muscle weight persisting up to 12 weeks, unlike mice on a low protein diet only prenatally (LN, LNN). Muscle fibre size was reduced in mice from the NL but not LN group, showing recovery at 12 weeks of age. Muscle force was reduced in NLL mice, concomitant with changes in the NMJ site and changes in atrophy-related and myosin genes. In addition, μCT scans of mouse tibiae at 12 weeks of age revealed changes in bone mass and morphology, resulting in a higher bone mass in the NLL group than the control NNN group. Finally, changes in the expression of miR-133 in the muscle of NLL mice suggest a regulatory role for this microRNA in muscle development in response to postnatal diet changes. Overall, this data shows that a low maternal protein diet and early postnatal life low-protein intake in mice can impact skeletal muscle physiology and function in early life while postnatal low protein diet favours bone integrity in adulthood.     

New two-dimensional model for inhomogeneous permanent magnets

Existing solutions of the nucleation fields in inhomogeneous ferromagnets, based on the minimization of the energy equation of a soft magnetic inclusion implanted in a hard magnetic matrix, are reviewed and compared. A macroscopic two-dimensional (2-D) model based on the Preisach formalism is proposed. The properties of the model and the effect of the identification parameters on the major loop characteristics are investigated. The simulated results include major and minor loops and the rotational hysteresis loss calculation     

Identification of 1D and 2D Preisach models for ferromagnets and shape memory alloys

A least-squares parameter fitting procedure is used in conjunction with one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) formulations of the Preisach formalism. The model can use any operator from a selection of 1D and 2D hysteresis operators appropriate for the modeling of hysteresis in ferromagnets, and shape memory alloys. The performance of the hysteresis operators is evaluated, and their applicability is discussed. The model is applied to experimental data from ferromagnetic samples, and shape memory alloys. The results suggest that the proposed approach can be a useful and adjustable tool in the modeling of hysteresis in various systems regardless of the underlying physical mechanism.     

Review of Dreams and the growth of personality.

Reviews the book, Dreams and the growth of personality, 2nd ed by Ernest Lawrence Rossi. Rossi presents a step-by-step, concise procedure for using dream material as a way of changing how we look at and define ourselves; and thus of helping patients find new understanding of themselves, new ways of behaving, new aspects of personality. The setting for change is the psychotherapeutic environment. His book is an attempt to balance "laboratory research on biology of sleep and dreams, the place of dreams in the psychology of the individual" and what he calls "the significance of dreams as harbingers of broad developments in the evolution of consciousness and culture." A comprehensive review of current psychophysiological theories and research on dreaming comprises the last section of this highly useful book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

ChoiceNet: CNN learning through choice of multiple feature map representations

Pattern Analysis and Applications - We introduce a new architecture called ChoiceNet where each layer of the network is highly connected with skip connections and channelwise concatenations. This...