In-Door Surveillance Module Based on an Associative Memory

Cyclic Strain Is a Weak Inducer of Prostacyclin Synthase Expression in Bovine Aortic Endothelial Cells

The development of mathematical models for detecting moving objects in real-time video streams is a significant task, especially in light of the growing demands for security and process automation. This paper proposes a detection system based on the Faster Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) model, utilizing various backbone architectures, including Residual Network-50 (ResNet-50), Feature Pyramid Network (FPN), MobileNet Version 3 Large, and Efficient Network-B0 (EfficientNetB0) with a Self-Attention mechanism. The model extracts object features by combining deep neural networks and scaling mechanisms, enabling adaptation to various operating conditions. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves high accuracy, with the MobileNet Version 3 Large model achieving 95.70% accuracy and the Residual Network-50 model reaching 100% accuracy within the first three training cycles (epochs). The Faster Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network model using Efficient Network-B0 with the Self-Attention mechanism reaches 100% accuracy by the third training cycle, maintaining consistent performance throughout the remaining training cycles. The model with the Residual Network-50 and Feature Pyramid Network backbone architecture shows an average loss reduction from 0.0922 in the first training cycle to 0.0102 by the 15th training cycle, confirming its high stability and performance. Future research could focus on optimizing the proposed approach to handle even more complex and dynamic video sequences and improving data processing to reduce computational costs and increase processing speed.

Research background and hypothesis. There is a lack of information on BMX cyclists’ training. Information about athletes’ of this cycling event training and their organism adaptation to physical loads practically does not exist in Lithuania. Consequently, it is relevant to reveal the main characteristics of alternation of Lithuanian high performance international class female cyclists’ physical and functional powers. The hypothesis that physical and functional power indices between BMX cyclist and track cyclist differ is being tested.Research aim was to reveal characteristics of Lithuanian high performance female BMX cyclist’s physical and functional power indices and their alteration during yearly training cycle; to compare them to analogical data of other cycling event athletes. Research methods. Research of a Lithuanian BMX female cyclist (A) was organized in VPU Sport Science Institute in 2010–2011. Research was carried out during these yearly cycle periods: preparatory (I), competition (II), and transitional (III).Research results. Physical development indices were established and muscular power in various energy producing zones was analyzed. Maximal anaerobic alactate glycolytic capacity (MAAGC) with applied 30-s test was established as well. Functional capacity of blood circulation and respiratory system was evaluated under resting heart rate, its rate alteration after standard physical load, and after one minute recovery; under these data Roufier index was calculated. Indices of female BMX cyclist’s physical and functional powers were compared to analogical results of female sprint track cyclist – 200 m event World champion (B), and female track cyclist – 3 km pursuit event World championship bronze winner (C).Discussion and conclusions. Our analyzed BMX cyclist’s SMCP is very high and exceeds the same index of cyclists in other various specializations analyzed. However, AAMP and mixed anaerobic alactate glycolytic muscular power indices are insignificantly lower than analogical indices of one of the best World track sprinters. Elite cyclist’s (C), whose part of energy, during competition period, is produced in aerobic way, functional capacity of blood circulation system is the highest and these indices of the investigated BMX cyclist are lower than aerobic capacity of cyclist C.Keywords: bicycle motocross, physical development, muscular power, functional capacity.

During the past 2 decades, the elucidation of susceptibility and causative genes for Alzheimer disease as well as proteins involved in the pathogenic process has greatly facilitated the development of genetically altered mouse models. These models have played a major role in defining critical disease-related mechanisms and in evaluating novel therapeutic approaches, with many treatments currently in clinical trial owing their origins to studies initially performed in mice. This review discusses the utility of transgenic mice as a research tool and their contributions to our understanding of Alzheimer disease.

This paper gives an overview of the various potential applications involved in human motion tracking. Also, a review of some relevant algorithms in this area are summarised based on three main components: the human target extraction, the features extraction, and the motion model. In addition, a proposed generative and discriminative human tracking method is presented. This proposed method is based on the hybridisation of Kalman filter (KF) and the support vector machines (SVMs). Numerous experiments illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method against several state of the art trackers. These experiments are applied on several real world image sequences with various challenges that make the tracker vulnerable which are: partial and full occlusions, illumination changes, scale variation, out-of-plane, rotation, motion blur, low resolution, deformation, fast motion and background clutter.

Coccygodynia can cause severe pain and disability in patients. There are contradictions in the literature regarding the final results of coccygectomy for coccygodynia. We evaluated the long-term effects of coccygectomy on the intensity, characteristics, and manifestation of pain caused by coccygodynia to determine the adequacy of operation among treatment modalities. Thirty-four patients with coccygodynia were treated by coccygectomy. In 22 cases, trauma, and in one case childbirth was the cause. 11 cases were regarded as idiopathic. The intensity, characteristics of pain, and the most painful activities were evaluated at an average of 7.6 (3–18) years of follow-up time. Before the operation, all 34 patients had pain while sitting, moreover, 26 of them had pain during standing, walking, at night or a combination of these. 21 patients had intolerable or very intensive, mainly acute, sharp or burning pain. 11 patients had dyschesia, 2 had dysuria and 6 had dyspareunia. At follow-up, 7 patients were completely free of pain, 15 others had moderate, 11 medium, and only one patient had severe, but none had intolerable pain. Only seven patients had acute, sharp or burning pain postoperatively. The decrease of average pain score from 8.0 to 3.2 was significant (P < 10−12). The number of the patients with dyschesia and dyspareunia decreased from 11 to 7 and from 6 to 3, respectively. Two patients had dysuria, but their complaints did not change after the operation. One of the two patients who needed reoperation had an excellent final result, while the other remained unchanged. 12 and 16 patients (together 82%) regarded the final result of the operation excellent and good, respectively. The condition of five others did not change, while one became worse. The patients with younger age, smaller body mass index, and less co-morbidities had better final result. There were no serious complications. Coccygectomy for coccygodynia is a safe method to decrease the intensity of pain and other complaints of the patients. The operation can be the choice of treatment if conservative measures fail.

Changes in morphology in specific brain regions are observed in various neurodegenerative diseases, e.g. Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases as well as in chronic alcohol abusers and adolescents involved in 'binge dirnking'. Such changes are known to be associated with alterations in motor function as well as in cognitive impairment. The exact triggers for each of these neurodegenerative processes are unknown, although alcohol and its metabolite acetaldehyde contribute to alcohol-induced brain damage. A common factor in all of these diseases is the occurrence of neuroinflammation, which occurs at an early stage of the disease process and drives the disease pathology. The signalling pathways that are involved in such neuroinflammation include various transition metals, iron and copper, mitochondrial dysfunction as well as activation of the innate immune system. Metals as well as alcohol metabolism can generate reactive oxygen species that can initiate lipid peroxidation by attacking polyunsaturated fatty acids in membrane phospholipids, generating a family of reactive aldehydes, which can undergo Michael-type additions to protein thiol, imidazole and amino groups. Together with other oxidative modifications, this generates protein carbonyls, causing protein denaturation and aggregation. In turn, this overwhelms the ubiquitin/proteasome system, which can no longer eliminate these defective, damaged proteins. Aggregates of these ubiquinated proteins are a prominent pathological feature found within intracellular inclusion bodies in specific brain regions in many 'protein conformational' neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS and Huntington's disease.

Intensification of training and competitive activity in sports creates the need to searchand develop new training methods. This study was conducted with the aim to study theinfluence of the author's methodology of paired-connected development (PCD) ofphysical qualities on the level of technical readiness and performing skills in aestheticgymnastics (AG). For 13 girls - gymnasts (12±1.2 years old), training according to thestandard method (control group), and 12 gymnasts of the same age and qualifications,using PSD in the training cycle (main group), the level of development of flexibility,strength, speed, coordination, endurance, technical readiness and success ofcompetitive activity was studied. It was shown that the use of PCD improves theflexibility in the hip joints by 4.24% and 2.28% for the right and left legs, respectively,and the flexibility of the spine by 7.04%. Coordination indicators improved by 32.66-41.25%, strength by 10.02%. The increase in speed indicators was 18.71-21.09%, theindicators of special endurance increased by 11.13-25.16%. For balance, the marksincreased by 25.75%, for turns by 19.38%, for jumps by 24.58% and for the flexibilitymovements they increased by 15.47%. The average scores for the technical value of thecomposition increased from 4.5±0.07 to 5.45±0.06 points (21.1%), and the averageindicators of the final competitive scores increased from 14.49±0.04 to 15.73±0.08(8.56%). As a result of the experiment, the positive influence of the developed PCDmethodology on the level of physical and technical readiness of female gymnasts, aswell as on the final competitive result, was confirmed.

IntroductionOsteoarthritis (OA) is a multifactorial disease, and recent studies have suggested that cell cycle–related proteins play a role in OA pathology. p21 was initially identified as a potent inhibitor of cell cycle progression. However, it has been proposed that p21 is a regulator of transcription factor activity. In this study, we evaluated the role of p21 in response to biomechanical stress.MethodsHuman chondrocytes were treated with p21-specific small interfering RNA (siRNA), and cyclic tensile strain was introduced in the presence or absence of a signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3)-specific inhibitor. Further, we developed an in vivo OA model in a p21-knockout background for in vivo experiments.ResultsThe expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP13) mRNA increased in response to cyclic tensile strain following transfection with p21 siRNA, whereas the expression of aggrecan was decreased. Phospho-STAT3 and MMP-13 protein levels increased following downregulation of p21, and this was reversed by treatment with a STAT3 inhibitor. p21-deficient mice were susceptible to OA, and this was associated with increased STAT3 phosphorylation, elevated MMP-13 expression, and elevation of synovial inflammation. The expression of p21 mRNA was decreased and phosphorylation of STAT3 was elevated in human OA chondrocytes.ConclusionsThe lack of p21 has catabolic effects by regulation of aggrecan and MMP-13 expression through STAT3 phosphorylation in the cartilage tissue. p21 may function as a regulator of transcriptional factors other than the inhibitor of cell cycle progression in the cartilage tissue. Thus, the regulation of p21 may be a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of OA.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13075-015-0828-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Penang has been the popular cultural heritage tourism attractions in Malaysia. Penang has great potential to develop and offers its cultural and heritage products and experiences to local and foreign visitors. Georgetown is one of the most visited sites in Penang. Georgetown is awarded the UNESCO listing for its unique architecture and cultural townscape. The variety of cultures on display within the heritage area, such as Muslim, Chinese, Indian and European, is unique to Georgetown. The city is also known as Malaysia's food capital, home to multicultural distinct cuisines, cheap and delicious open-air hawker centers. Apart from that, Georgetown also offers unique and affordable budget hotels to enrich backpacker’s experiences. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the facilities and services provided by budget hotels in Georgetown. The evaluation was based on backpackers’ opinions on the importance and performance rating of the listed attributes. This study adopted the simple random sample method of data collection. About 30 questionnaires were distributed to the backpackers during weekdays and weekends. The socio-demographic data were evaluated using Frequency Analysis. The data showed the different socio-demographic, socio-economic, and trip characteristics of the backpackers. The demographic and trip characteristics data provided the information of visitor’s motivation and activity during their visit to Penang. The Importance-Performance Analysis (IP Analysis) was used to evaluate the overall budget hotels’ facility and service attributes, and the final result has been translated into Importance-Performance action grid. The action grid showed all the 23 attributes of general and specific facilities, and services provided were plotted on the High Importance and Performance quadrant. Attributes plotted on the action grid showed that all of the attributes were evaluated high on importance and performance suggested that the cultural village management should maintain the status of performance in all attributes area. The Ratio Analysis indicated the ranking of priority which needed special attention from the management of the budget hotels. From the analysis, availability of mini bar, hotel safe box availability, and hotel F&B are value for money were ranked at the highest priority and needed special intention from the management of the budget hotels. Overall, the result of the study was, all of the attributes were evaluated as High Importance and High Performance. The management of the budget hotels in Georgetown has to keep up the good work and maintain the attributes. Hopefully, the findings of this study will be useful for the management of budget hotels to manage and maintain the facilities and services provided to enhance the quality of backpackers’ experiences.

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The problem of fake attendance (proxy) is growing day by day. There are many technologies used to develop the attendance system like RFID, biometrics, bar code. Because all these technologies have been used, many students are able to mark the fake attendance (proxy) and some systems are very time consuming. There is a need to develop the riskless and shielded attendance monitoring and management system which is our main motto. The technology which we are going to use in the proposed system is “iBeacon Technology” which is mostly used for indoor positioning system and proximity detection and also beneficial in removing the problem of fake attendance. The newer technology which is found out to interact with hardware is iBeacon. An iBeacon works on Bluetooth Low Energy technology which is used to send a signal in a definite format. The iBeacon devices give accurate results in an indoor system in spite of the influencing factors of radio waves. In iBeacon devices, we can adjust the range of beacon up to which the device can transmit. The range of iBeacon is up to 200 m, which can vary according to the type of iBeacon used. An infinite number of devices can be connected to the iBeacon. The main advantage of the proposed system is to overcome the human intervention and follow the concept of paperless smart work. The accuracy of our proposed system is very high, i.e., 100%, and removes human intervention to almost zero.