Automatic annotation of tennis games: An integration of audio,vision, and learning

Fully automatic annotation of tennis game using broadcast video is a task with a great potential but with enormous challenges. In this paper we describe our approach to this task, which integrates computer vision, machine listening, and machine learning. At the low level processing, we improve upon our previously proposed state-of-the-art tennis ball tracking algorithm and employ audio signal processing techniques to detect key events and construct features for classifying the events. At high level analysis, we model event classification as a sequence labelling problem, and investigate four machine learning techniques using simulated event sequences. Finally, we evaluate our proposed approach on three real world tennis games, and discuss the interplay between audio, vision and learning. To the best of our knowledge, our system is the only one that can annotate tennis game at such a detailed level.     

Expression of pro form of prostate-specific antigen by mammalian cells and its conversion to mature, active form by human kallikrein 2

To study the expression, biosynthesis, and processing of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in mammalian cells, recombinant PSA was expressed in Syrian hamster tumor cell line AV12-664 (AV12-PSA). Expression of PSA was monitored by the Tandem-MP PSA assay. PSA was secreted into the medium during the logarithmic phase of cell growth at >9 microg/ml and was stable. The PSA purified from spent medium of AV12-PSA cells did not exhibit any enzymatic activity and did not complex with the protease inhibitor, alpha-1-antichymotrypsin. These findings indicated that an inactive form of PSA was expressed by AV12-PSA cells. NH2-terminal sequencing confirmed the identity of the PSA purified from the spent medium of AV12-PSA cells to be pro-PSA. This demonstrates that PSA is expressed as pro-PSA by mammalian cells and suggests that pro-PSA may be present in biological fluids. Human kallikrein 2 (hK2), another member of the hK family, is also expressed predominantly in prostate epithelium. Although hK2 has been shown to exhibit trypsin-like activity, little is known about its natural substrates. Using purified proteins, we show that hK2 can convert pro-PSA to mature, enzymatically active PSA, thus establishing a physiological connection between hK2 and PSA. These findings imply that hK2 may be regulating PSA activity in vivo.     

Effect of spinning conditions on the mechanical properties of polyacrylonitrile fibers modified with carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were used to modify polyacrylonitrile (PAN) polymer. The PAN/CNT composite fibers were spun from dimethylformamide solutions containing different types of CNTs. The effect of nanotube addition to the fiber precursor on the resulting mechanical properties is discussed. In this study, we examined the relationship of the rheological properties of PAN spinning solutions containing various types of CNTs and the tensile strength of the resulting PAN fibers. The presence of CNTs in the PAN spinning solution enhanced its deformability during the drawing stage. This effect resulted in a higher tensile strength in the fibers containing nanotubes, as compared to the pure fibers. The use of a three‐stage drawing process resulted in a significant increase in the tensile strength of PAN fibers modified with multiwalled nanotubes. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Food consumption frequency and perceived stress and depressive symptoms among students in three European countries

Background  

Certain foods might be more frequently eaten under stress or when higher levels of depressive symptoms are experienced. We examined whether poor nutritional habits are associated with stress and depressive symptoms and whether the relationships differ by country and gender in a sample from three European countries collected as part of a Cross National Student Health Survey.     

Human Kallikrein 2 (hK2) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA): two closely related, but distinct, kallikreins in the prostate

Recent studies on human kallikrein 2 (hK2) have revealed striking similarities and significant differences with the closely related kallikrein PSA. Both PSA and hK2 are primarily localized to the prostate and share close structural similarities. Although both kallikreins are produced by the same secretory epithelial cells in the prostate, hK2 is associated more with prostate tumors than PSA and is highly expressed in poorly differentiated cancer cells. The potent trypsin-like activity of hK2 contrasts with the weak chymotrypsin-like activity of PSA. The inactive precursor form of PSA, proPSA, is converted rapidly to active PSA by hK2, suggesting an important in vivo regulatory function by hK2 on PSA activity. The high homology between hK2 and PSA results in significant cross-reactivity to hK2 by polyclonal and some monoclonal antibodies to PSA. Future studies on both PSA and hK2 need to take into account this potential for cross-reactivity. Specific monoclonal antibodies to hK2 have now demonstrated that serum levels of hK2, like PSA, are correlated with prostate cancer. The production of hK2 protein in active protease form and specific monoclonal antibodies to the hK2 antigen will allow extensive future studies delineating the physiological and clinical utility of this new prostate antigen.     

A Comparison of Affine Region Detectors

The paper gives a snapshot of the state of the art in affine covariant region detectors, and compares their performance on a set of test images under varying imaging conditions. Six types of detectors are included: detectors based on affine normalization around Harris (Mikolajczyk and Schmid, 2002; Schaffalitzky and Zisserman, 2002) and Hessian points (Mikolajczyk and Schmid, 2002), a detector of ‘maximally stable extremal regions', proposed by Matas et al. (2002); an edge-based region detector (Tuytelaars and Van Gool, 1999) and a detector based on intensity extrema (Tuytelaars and Van Gool, 2000), and a detector of ‘salient regions', proposed by Kadir, Zisserman and Brady (2004). The performance is measured against changes in viewpoint, scale, illumination, defocus and image compression. The objective of this paper is also to establish a reference test set of images and performance software, so that future detectors can be evaluated in the same framework. First online version published in October, 2005