Markerless mouse tracking for social experiments

Automated behavior quantification requires accurate tracking of animals. Simultaneous tracking of multiple animals, particularly those lacking visual identifiers, is particularly challenging. Here we propose a markerless video-based tool to simultaneously track two socially interacting mice of the same color. It incorporates conventional handcrafted tracking and deep learning based techniques, which are trained on a small number of labeled images from a very basic, uncluttered experimental setup. The output consists of body masks and coordinates of the snout and tail-base for each mouse. The method was tested on a series of cross-setup videos recorded under commonly used experimental conditions including bedding in the cage and fiberoptic or headstage implants on the mice. Results obtained without any human intervention showed the effectiveness of the proposed approach, evidenced by a near elimination of identities switches and a 10% improvement in tracking accuracy. This suggests that the hybrid approach could be valuable for studying group behaviors, such as social interaction. This novel approach addresses problems of mistaken identities and lost information on key anatomical features that are common in existing methods. Finally, we demonstrated an application of this approach in studies of social behaviour of mice, by using it to quantify and compare interactions between pairs of mice in which some are anosmic, i.e. unable to smell. Our results indicated loss of olfaction impaired typical snout-directed social recognition behaviors of mice, while non-snout-directed social behaviours were enhanced.

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HPM: A Hybrid Model for User’s Behavior Prediction Based on N-Gram Parsing and Access Logs

Scientific Programming ◽

10.1155/2020/8897244 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Sonia Setia ◽

Verma Jyoti ◽

Neelam Duhan

Keyword(s):

Web Mining ◽

Contextual Information ◽

Hybrid Approach ◽

Web Pages ◽

Continuous Growth ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Content Mining ◽

Long Access ◽

N Gram ◽

The Individual

The continuous growth of the World Wide Web has led to the problem of long access delays. To reduce this delay, prefetching techniques have been used to predict the users’ browsing behavior to fetch the web pages before the user explicitly demands that web page. To make near accurate predictions for users’ search behavior is a complex task faced by researchers for many years. For this, various web mining techniques have been used. However, it is observed that either of the methods has its own set of drawbacks. In this paper, a novel approach has been proposed to make a hybrid prediction model that integrates usage mining and content mining techniques to tackle the individual challenges of both these approaches. The proposed method uses N-gram parsing along with the click count of the queries to capture more contextual information as an effort to improve the prediction of web pages. Evaluation of the proposed hybrid approach has been done by using AOL search logs, which shows a 26% increase in precision of prediction and a 10% increase in hit ratio on average as compared to other mining techniques.

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Axillary pullout syndrome: A novel approach to managing a devastating complication

Vascular ◽

10.1177/17085381211048999 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 170853812110489

Author(s):

Nathan W Kugler ◽

Brian D Lewis ◽

Michael Malinowski

Keyword(s):

Stent Graft ◽

Effective Means ◽

Bypass Graft ◽

Hybrid Approach ◽

Inpatient Rehabilitation ◽

Anastomotic Dehiscence ◽

Open Approach ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Life Threatening ◽

History Of

Objectives Axillary pullout syndrome is a complex, potentially fatal complication following axillary-femoral bypass graft creation. The re-operative nature, in addition to ongoing hemorrhage, makes for a complicated and potentially morbid repair. Methods We present the case of a 57-year-old man with history of a previous left axillary-femoral-femoral bypass who presented with acute limb-threatening ischemia as a result of bypass thrombosis managed with a right axillary-femoral bypass for limb salvage. His postoperative course was complicated by an axillary anastomotic dehiscence while recovering in inpatient rehabilitation resulting in acute, life-threatening hemorrhage. He was managed utilizing a novel hybrid approach in which a retrograde stent graft was initially placed across the anastomotic dehiscence for control of hemorrhage. He then underwent exploration, decompression, and interposition graft repair utilizing the newly placed stent graft to reinforce the redo axillary anastomosis. Results and Conclusion Compared with a traditional operative approach, the hybrid endovascular and open approach limited ongoing hemorrhage while providing a more stable platform for repair and graft revascularization. A hybrid approach to the management of axillary pullout syndrome provides a safe, effective means to the management of axillary anastomotic dehiscence while minimizing the morbidity of ongoing hemorrhage.

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The Use of Reverse Mirage Spectroscopy to Determine the Absorption Coefficient of Liquid Methanol at CO2 Laser Wavelengths

Applied Spectroscopy ◽

10.1366/0003702894202003 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 148-153 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Dane Bićanić ◽

Siegfried Krüger ◽

Paul Torfs ◽

Bruno Bein ◽

Frans Harren

Keyword(s):

Absorption Coefficient ◽

Co2 Laser ◽

Probe Beam ◽

Laser Emission ◽

Wavelength Region ◽

Experimental Setup ◽

Absorption Coefficients ◽

Experimental Conditions ◽

Liquid Samples

An experimental setup for performance of reverse mirage spectroscopy at CO2 laser wavelengths on liquid samples having high values of absorption coefficients is described. One and the same liquid is used as both the absorbing and deflecting medium. The Rosencwaig-Gersho theory has been applied, and the choice of experimental conditions that would enable determination of absorption coefficient β from the magnitude of photothermal signals measured at two different probe beam distances (probing locations) is discussed. The usefulness of this technique (essentially not inhibited by the requirements imposed on the sample's thickness) is tested on methanol having absorption coefficients β close to 300 cm−1 in the wavelength region covered by CO2 laser emission.

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A Novel Approach to the Syntax of Chinese Adjectival Predicates: Differences between Standard Mandarin and Sichuanese Mandarin

International Journal of Languages Literature and Linguistics ◽

10.18178/ijlll.2021.7.3.298 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 122-126

Author(s):

Haoyue Fu ◽

Keyword(s):

Mandarin Chinese ◽

Hybrid Approach ◽

Present Theory ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Crosslinguistic Variation

In Mandarin Chinese, bare adjectives can only function as predicates when they co-occur with some other elements in certain contexts, most typically the degree adverb hen ‘very’. This phenomenon cannot be found in other languages like English. To explain this crosslinguistic variation, researchers have developed different theories, among them the most developed theory regards hen ‘very’ as an overt positive morpheme. Previous studies have all focused on just one Mandarin variety, namely Standard Mandarin (STM). However, the present theory cannot apply to other Mandarin varieties like Sichuanese Mandarin which, as this paper demonstrates, does not have an overt positive morpheme. This paper provides new data from Sichuanese Mandarin and proposes that register grammar should be taken into consideration. A novel, hybrid approach to explain this crossdialectal variation is given in this paper.

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A novel approach to the creation of a labelling lexicon for improving emotion analysis in text

The Electronic Library ◽

10.1108/el-04-2020-0110 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Alejandra Segura Navarrete ◽

Claudia Martinez-Araneda ◽

Christian Vidal-Castro ◽

Clemente Rubio-Manzano

Keyword(s):

Hybrid Approach ◽

Software Tool ◽

Gender Violence ◽

Target Language ◽

Automatic Process ◽

Emotion Analysis ◽

Content Type ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Emotion Lexicon ◽

And Gender

Purpose This paper aims to describe the process used to create an emotion lexicon enriched with the emotional intensity of words and focuses on improving the emotion analysis process in texts. Design/methodology/approach The process includes setting, preparation and labelling stages. In the first stage, a lexicon is selected. It must include a translation to the target language and labelling according to Plutchik’s eight emotions. The second stage starts with the validation of the translations. Then, it is expanded with the synonyms of the emotion synsets of each word. In the labelling stage, the similarity of words is calculated and displayed using WordNet similarity. Findings The authors’ approach shows better performance to identification of the predominant emotion for the selected corpus. The most relevant is the improvement obtained in the results of the emotion analysis in a hybrid approach compared to the results obtained in a purist approach. Research limitations/implications The proposed lexicon can still be enriched by incorporating elements such as emojis, idioms and colloquial expressions. Practical implications This work is part of a research project that aids in solving problems in a digital society, such as detecting cyberbullying, abusive language and gender violence in texts or exercising parental control. Detection of depressive states in young people and children is added. Originality/value This semi-automatic process can be applied to any language to generate an emotion lexicon. This resource will be available in a software tool that implements a crowdsourcing strategy allowing the intensity to be re-labelled and new words to be automatically incorporated into the lexicon.

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A Hybrid Context Aware Recommender System with Combined Pre and Post-Filter Approach

International Journal of Information Technology Project Management ◽

10.4018/ijitpm.2019100101 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 1-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mugdha Sharma ◽

Laxmi Ahuja ◽

Vinay Kumar

Keyword(s):

Performance Improvement ◽

Recommender System ◽

Contextual Information ◽

Hybrid Approach ◽

Experimental Setup ◽

Context Aware ◽

Contextual Modeling ◽

Filter Approach ◽

Post Filter

The domain of context aware recommender approaches has made substantial advancement over the last decade, but many applications still do not include contextual information while providing recommendations. Contextual information is crucial for various application areas and should not be ignored. There are generally three algorithms which can be used to include context and those are: pre-filter approach, post-filter approach, and contextual modeling. Each of the algorithms has their own drawbacks. The proposed approach modifies the post filter approach to rectify its shortcomings and combines it with the pre-filter approach based on the importance of contextual attribute provided by the user. The results of experimental setup also demonstrate that the proposed system improves the precision and ranking of the recommendations provided to user. With the help of this hybrid approach, the proposed system eliminates the problem of sparsity which is present in the pre-filter algorithm, and has performance improvement over the traditional post-filter approach.

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Cooperative Task Assignment and Trajectory Planning of Unmanned Systems Via HFLC and PSO

Unmanned Systems ◽

10.1142/s2301385019500018 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 07 (02) ◽

pp. 65-81 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ahmed T. Hafez ◽

Mohamed A. Kamel

Keyword(s):

Trajectory Planning ◽

Optimization Problem ◽

Fuzzy Logic Controller ◽

Hybrid Approach ◽

Task Assignment ◽

Time Discretization ◽

Planning Problem ◽

Dynamic Constraints ◽

Ground Station ◽

Novel Approach

This paper investigates the problems of cooperative task assignment and trajectory planning for teams of cooperative unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A novel approach of hierarchical fuzzy logic controller (HFLC) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed. Initially, teams of UAVs are moving in a pre-defined formation covering a specified area. When one or more targets are detected, the teams send a package of information to the ground station (GS) including the target’s degree of threat, degree of importance, and the separating distance between each team and each detected target. Based on the gathered information, the ground station assigns the teams to the targets. HFLC is implemented in the GS to solve the assignment problem ensuring that each team is assigned to a unique target. Next, each team plans its own path by formulating the path planning problem as an optimization problem. The objective in this case is to minimize the time to reach their destination considering the UAVs dynamic constraints and collision avoidance between teams. A hybrid approach of control parametrization and time discretization (CPTD) and PSO is proposed to solve this optimization problem. Finally, numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

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Stereoselective Oxidation of Titanium(IV) Enolates with Oxygen

Synthesis ◽

10.1055/s-0037-1609966 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 50 (14) ◽

pp. 2721-2726 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Pedro Romea ◽

Fèlix Urpí ◽

Alejandro Gómez-Palomino

Keyword(s):

Experimental Conditions ◽

Enantiomerically Pure ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Stereoselective Oxidation

A novel approach to synthesize enantiomerically pure α-hydroxy carboxylic derivatives is reported. A highly stereoselective oxidation of titanium(IV) enolates from chiral N-acyloxazolidinones is performed with oxygen under simple experimental conditions that do not require any reducing steps. The success of this approach depends on the biradical character of titanium(IV) enolates.

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InterFrost Project Phase 2: Updated experiment results for the validation of Cryohydrogeological codes (Frozen Inclusion)

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-4865 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Christophe Grenier ◽

Francois Costard

Keyword(s):

Porous Medium ◽

Thermal State ◽

Thermal Evolution ◽

Initial Position ◽

Second Phase ◽

Test Cases ◽

Experimental Setup ◽

Experimental Conditions ◽

Single Experiment ◽

Implementation Phase

Recent field and modelling studies indicate that a fully-coupled, multi-dimensional, thermo-hydraulic (TH) approach is required to accurately model the evolution of permafrost-impacted landscapes and groundwater systems. However, the relatively new and complex numerical codes being developed for coupled non-linear freeze-thaw systems require validation. This issue was first addressed within the InterFrost IPA Action Group, by means of an intercomparison of thirteen numerical codes for two-dimensional TH test cases (TH2 & TH3). The main results (cf. Grenier et al. 2018 and wiki.lsce.ipsl.fr/interfrost) demonstrate that these codes provide robust results for the test cases considered.The second phase of the InterFrost project is devoted to the simulation of a cold-room reference experiment based on test case TH2 (Frozen Inclusion). In a first implementation phase of the experimental setup, the initial frozen inclusion was inserted in the setup prior to the complete filling of the porous medium and the flow initiation. The thermal evolution of the system was monitored by thermistors located at the center of the initial inclusion and along the downgradient centerline. This setup provided optimal conditions to control the initial experiment geometries but resulted in slight differences in the initialization time for different experiments.In a second implementation strategy, we now consider &#8220;in place&#8221; generation of an initial frozen inclusion through a cooling coil. The initial frozen inclusion is obtained after the initial cooling time and its initial thermal state is measured by means of an array of thermistors. In a second step, the flow is initiated, and the thermal evolution is monitored through an array of 11 thermistors (within the initial position and downgradient).The experimental setup and an overview of all monitoring results as well as preliminary numerical simulations are presented. In an attempt to prevent formerly observed drifts in total water flowrates, the porous medium is renewed for each single experiment considering some key experimental conditions (full-flow vs. no-flow). A repetition of experiments provides an estimation of experimental uncertainty bounds. Derived results and conclusions from this experiment will form the basis for the next phase within the InterFrost validation exercise.

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Optimization ofs-Polarization Sensitivity in Apertureless Near-Field Optical Microscopy

International Journal of Optics ◽

10.1155/2012/962317 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2012 ◽

pp. 1-6 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Yuika Saito ◽

Yoshiro Ohashi ◽

Prabhat Verma

Keyword(s):

Spatial Resolution ◽

Rayleigh Scattering ◽

Incident Light ◽

Near Field ◽

Polarized Light ◽

Polarization Sensitivity ◽

Experimental Setup ◽

Experimental Conditions ◽

General Belief ◽

Polarization Configuration

It is a general belief in apertureless near-field microscopy that the so-calledp-polarization configuration, where the incident light is polarized parallel to the axis of the probe, is advantageous to its counterpart, thes-polarization configuration, where the incident light is polarized perpendicular to the probe axis. While this is true for most samples under common near-field experimental conditions, there are samples which respond better to thes-polarization configuration due to their orientations. Indeed, there have been several reports that have discussed such samples. This leads us to an important requirement that the near-field experimental setup should be equipped with proper sensitivity for measurements withs-polarization configuration. This requires not only creation of effective s-polarized illumination at the near-field probe, but also proper enhancement of s-polarized light by the probe. In this paper, we have examined thes-polarization enhancement sensitivity of near-field probes by measuring and evaluating the near-field Rayleigh scattering images constructed by a variety of probes. We found that thes-polarization enhancement sensitivity strongly depends on the sharpness of the apex of near-field probes. We have discussed the efficient value of probe sharpness by considering a balance between the enhancement and the spatial resolution, both of which are essential requirements of apertureless near-field microscopy.

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