Multiple Body Parts Research Articles

Interactive tracking of insect posture

In this paper, we present an association based tracking approach to track multiple insect body parts in a set of low frame-rate videos. The association is formulated as a MAP problem and solved by the Hungarian algorithm. Different from a traditional track-and-then-rectification scheme, this framework refines the tracking hypotheses in an interactive fashion: it integrates a key frame selection approach to minimize the number of frames for user correction while optimizing the final hypotheses. Given user correction, it takes user inputs to rectify the incorrect hypotheses on the other frames. Thus, the framework improves the tracking accuracy by introducing active key frame selection and interactive components, enabling a flexible strategy to achieve a trade-off between human effort and tracking precision. Given the refined tracks at a bounding box (BB) level, the tip of each body part is estimated, and multiple body parts in a BB are further differentiated. The efficiency and the effectiveness of the framework are verified on challenging video datasets for insect behavioral experiments.

Childhood casualties during civil war: Syrian experience

In war areas a lot of children die as well as adults. According to UNICEF, almost 2 million children have died in the wars took place in the last 10 years. In this study, we aimed to evaluate demographical data and injury characteristics of Syrian children who were wounded in Syria Civil War and died while being treated in Turkey.Postmortem examination and autopsy reports of 985 forensic deaths from Hatay -a Syrian neighborhood city of Turkey-between January 2012 and August 2014 were analyzed retrospectively. Among 763 Syrian people who were wounded in the war and died while being treated in Turkey, 140 cases (18.3%) who were younger than 18 years of age were taken into the scope of this study.Among those cases 77.9% (n = 109) were male and 22.1% were female. Median ages of female cases are 14 (min–max: 2–18) and median age of female cases are 9 (min–max: 1–18). Frequency distribution is highest between 13 and 18 years of age (n: 71, 50.7%). In 70% (n: 98) of cases, cause of death is bombing and shrapnel injuries, 13.6% (19) of them were killed by gunshot wounds. According to injury sites most of the injuries were reported to be on multiple body parts (54.3%, n: 76) and only head and neck injuries (%30). Cause of death was intracranial bleeding and cerebral parenchymal injury in most of the cases (n: 66, %47.1) followed by vascular damage with external bleeding (n: 15, %10.7) and internal organ damage with internal bleeding (n: 15, %10.7). The cases had very high level Abbreviated Injury Scales and Injury Severity Sores.In conclusion, a lot of children have died in the Civil War of Syria. Their average abbreviated injury scale and injury severity score values reported very high. Children that we evaluated were mostly died of head and neck injuries predominantly caused by bombing attacks and Autopsies of them revealed fatal intracranial hemorrhages and parenchymal injuries.

High-resolution radar imaging of moving humans using doppler processing and compressed sensing

Frontal radar imaging of human activities may be useful in certain applications, such as through-wall surveillance, where cameras and x-ray sensors cannot be deployed. High-resolution radar images are currently obtained using electrically large antenna apertures operating at high frequencies. However, high frequencies are heavily attenuated by most walls. Also, the implementation of a radar with lots of array elements and associated data acquisition channels is costly and complex. In this paper, we propose methods to generate high-resolution Doppler-enhanced radar images of moving humans at low carrier frequencies with limited number of antenna elements. When a human moves, different body parts give rise to distinct Doppler returns. The key feature of our method is to dynamically resolve multiple body parts of the human across three dimensions: Doppler, azimuth, and elevation. The additional Doppler dimension allows us to relax the resolution requirements in terms of the carrier frequency and number of array elements across the other dimensions. We further reduce the number of array elements below the Nyquist limits by incorporating compressed sensing principles into two-dimensional beamforming because compressed sensing is particularly suited for solving certain types of under-resolved problems.We test our technique on simulated electromagnetic radar scattered data from a moving human for different radar configurations.We also study the robustness of the proposed technique to noise.

Aging Workers and Trade-Related Injuries in the US Construction Industry.

The study was designed to identify any trends of injury type as it relates to the age and trade of construction workers. The participants for this study included any individual who, while working on a heavy and highway construction project in the Midwestern United States, sustained an injury during the specified time frame of when the data were collected. During this period, 143 injury reports were collected. The four trade/occupation groups with the highest injury rates were laborers, carpenters, iron workers, and operators. Data pertaining to injuries sustained by body part in each age group showed that younger workers generally suffered from finger/hand/wrist injuries due to cuts/lacerations and contusion, whereas older workers had increased sprains/strains injuries to the ankle/foot/toes, knees/lower legs, and multiple body parts caused by falls from a higher level or overexertion. Understanding these trade-related tasks can help present a more accurate depiction of the incident and identify trends and intervention methods to meet the needs of the aging workforce in the industry.

1P2-H04 装着型デバイスの追従性向上のための上体背面の動作解析

In this paper, a structure determination method for wearable devices mounted on multiple joints of body parts are proposed. Motion of back part of the upper half body is more complex than that of simple joint part such as leg, arm and so on. There are no structure determination methods suitable for multiple body parts. Therefore, the motions on the back parts are captured through a sensor (Kinect for Windows V2) and analyzed based on relationship between markers mounted on back. The link parts and joint parts are distinguished based on standard deviation of relative distances of markers.

10 Times 10 by Hervé Tullet, and: Mix It Up! by Hervé Tullet (review)

Reviewed by: 10 Times 10 by Hervé Tullet, and: Mix It Up! by Hervé Tullet Elizabeth Bush Tullet, Hervé 10 Times 10; written and illus. by Hervé Tullet. Tate, 2014 112 p ISBN 978-1-84976-247-2 $15.95 R 3–6 yrs Mix It Up!; written and illus. by Hervé Tullet. Handprint/Chronicle, 2014 64 p ISBN 978-1-4521-3735-3 $15.99 R 3–6 yrs These stylish concept books bring fresh pizzazz to a pair of well-worn topics, counting and colors. 10 Times 10 offers ten different ways to get from one to ten, from the simplest (the requisite number of numerals written on each of ten pages), to inventive stories that play out largely in images. Finger counting, for example, begins by sequentially lifting five fingers on one hand, and then continuing to ten fingers on that same hand, which results in a coral-like organism through which fish can swim. A wordless retelling of the Genesis creation story adds elements of nature through to Adam, Eve, and the serpent. Cubist-inspired art is achieved by adding multiple body parts to a giant pink head. Mix It Up! invites kids to interact with the book and predict what will happen when they imaginatively smear, shake, drip, or press blotches and streaks of colors together. For example, swaths of yellow and blue face each other across the gutter, while the narrator encourages, “So shake the book really hard. What do you think will happen?” The page turn reveals a messy marbling of green where the imaginary paint has dripped. Both titles suggest oversized board book format with their chunky covers and square trims, but the relatively large page count necessitates paper pages, which, though sturdy, are not as hefty as cardboard. Holiday shoppers who rightly suspect their preschool recipients probably already have Pat the Bunny and The Very Hungry Caterpillar can put these on their lists. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Single/multi-view human action recognition via regularized multi-task learning

This paper proposes a unified single/multi-view human action recognition method via regularized multi-task learning. First, we propose the pyramid partwise bag of words (PPBoW) representation which implicitly encodes both local visual characteristics and human body structure. Furthermore, we formulate the task of single/multi-view human action recognition into a part-induced multi-task learning problem penalized by graph structure and sparsity to discover the latent correlation among multiple views and body parts and consequently boost the performances. The experiment shows that this method can significantly improve performance over the standard BoW+SVM method. Moreover, the proposed method can achieve competing performance simply with low dimensional PPBoW representation against the state-of-the-art methods for human action recognition on KTH and MV-TJU, a new multi-view action dataset with RGB, depth and skeleton data prepared by our group.

Apraxia: the rise, fall and resurrection of diagrams to explain how the brain works

The purpose of brains is to make movement. A brain has to identify what is going on in the environment and in its attached body and generate movements to stay alive and procreate to keep the species going. Movements of a person, which includes speech, are all that other people know of another person. The repertoire of movements that people can make is very broad, and even most ordinary movements are complex. Eating and dressing, for example, involve multiple body parts making a series of coordinated multi-joint movements. The movements of highly skilled athletes and musicians are so well tuned that most persons cannot match them. These complex movements that form the behaviour of everyday life are praxis movements. Their failure is apraxia. To call such a failure apraxia, of course, requires that the deficit cannot be explained by a more basic abnormality such as weakness, sensory loss, ataxia or aphasia. The range of capability of the brain to make movement is so large that there can be many types of failures. This has generated different classification schemes with a variety of different terms, sometimes with the same term meaning something else in a different classification. The book by Goldenberg on apraxia contains a comprehensive description of different manifestations of apraxia and addresses the different classifications. Chapters 6 through 14 deal with topics such as imitation, body part specificity, and use of single tools. Chapters 1 to 5 give the historical background and set the stage for the rest of the book. I found the historical part particularly interesting, both as relates to apraxia but also ideas as to how the brain works. While there were some historical precedents, the first well described cases of apraxia and pathological explanation were from Hugo Liepmann from 1900 to 1908 (Fig. 1). On …

Exploring physical exposures and identifying high-risk work tasks within the floor layer trade

IntroductionFloor layers have high rates of musculoskeletal disorders yet few studies have examined their work exposures. This study used observational methods to describe physical exposures within floor laying tasks. MethodsWe analyzed 45 videos from 32 floor layers using Multimedia-Video Task Analysis software to determine the time in task, forces, postures, and repetitive hand movements for installation of four common flooring materials. We used the WISHA checklists to define exposure thresholds. ResultsMost workers (91%) met the caution threshold for one or more exposures. Workers showed high exposures in multiple body parts with variability in exposures across tasks and for different materials. Prolonged exposures were seen for kneeling, poor neck and low back postures, and intermittent but frequent hand grip forces. ConclusionsFloor layers experience prolonged awkward postures and high force physical exposures in multiple body parts, which probably contribute to their high rates of musculoskeletal disorders.

English

BACKGROUND: Firearms and explosives constitute convenient means of destroying human life from considerable distance. OBJECTIVE: Study of wounds in victims of homicide by fireams and explosives. METHODS: The present study comprised of one hundred cases of homicidal firearms and explosives injuries drawn from the medicolegal autopsies held in the mortuary of the department of Forensic Medicine. RESULTS: There was presence of firearms erntry wounds in all (100%) victims and presense of exitwounds only in 61.36 % Victims. In majority (61.36)% of victims firearm exit wounds were present.One exit wound was present in 16(18.18%) Victims. Two exit wounds in 17(19.31%) victims, three exit wound in 9 (10.22%) victims and more then three firearm exit wounds in 12(13.63%) victims. It was revealed that in maximum (46.59%) brain and meninges were injured, followed by pleura and lungs (20.45%) pericardium and heart in 18.18 per cent. These were followed by ribs (15.90%), liver in 13.63 per cent. Aorta (9.9%), stomach (6.80), small intestine (5.68%) and large intestine in 4.54 per cent. All (100.00%) homicidal victims of explosive injuries showed burning, abrasions and contusions. Lacerations were seen in 91.66 percent victims. However, blackening was seen in 83.33 per cent and tattooing in 75 per cent victims. It was found in three fourth (75%) of victims of fatal explosive injuries there were no other associated injuries by any other weapon than explosive. In one victim (8.33%) associated injuries by firearm was present and that caused his death. However, in two victims (16.66%) associated injuries (by fire arm and blunt weapon) were present but they were not fatal. In all 12 (100%) victims recived injuries on multiple body parts amongst whish injuries on chest were in 9 (91.66%), neck (75%), head (66.66%), abdomen (66.66%). Injuries on upper extremity was seen in 50 per cent and on the lower extremity in33.33 per cent. Findings on frequency of involvement of various internal organs and structures in the victim of homicides by explosives showed that in well over three fourth of victims(83.33%) pleura and lungs were involved followed by pericardium and heart(75%), ribs(75%), aorta(66.66%),(58.23%).In the equal number of victims i.e.(58.33%) vessels inneck and pharynx were involved. In 50 % if victims oesphagus,theoric vertebrae and major abdominal blood vessels were involved.In 41.66 % victims of explosive injuries,cervical vertebrae , thoracic cord,Pancreas,stomach,lumber vertebrae,spleen and bones of upper extremities were involved.In one third of victims (33.33%) small intestine, large intestine,uraniry bladder,joints of upper extremity, muscles and vessels of lower extremity were involved.In only one fourth (25%) of victim menstery, bones and joints of lower extremity were injured. CONCLUSION: In view of the complexities created by the introduction of newer and newer improvised and conventional firearms and explosives in most of the areas, the establishment of various facts in a cases of firearm death, such as the type of weapon used, the range of firing, the direction of fire, the number of shots fired, wound of entry and exit and the damage to vital parts and the like, have become fraught with serious and many fold difficulties and complexities for the Forensic Pathologists and ballistic experts.

English

BACKGROUND: Though homicide, in general seems universal, the type and pattern are specific to particular societies and particular times. OBJECTIVE: Medicolegal study of homicide by firearms and explosives. METHODS: The present study comprised of 100 (one hundred) cases of homicidal firearms and explosives deaths drawn from the medicolegal autopsies held in the mortuary of the department of Forensic Medicine accompanied by sufficient number of relevant persons who were thoroughly interviewed at the time of autopsy on the body of deceased victim of homicide by firearm and explosives. RESULTS: It was found that in max (40%) victims shot gun was used followed by countrymade firearms 21%, rifel14%, revolver 12%,bombs 1 2%,Pistol was used in 10 % and AK47 rifle was used in 2 % Victims. Over majority (77%) of victims were not hospitalized. Very less no of victims 13% were hospitalized but not operated.Few Victims 10% were hospitalized and operated. Over majority 55% of victims died at the scene of crime followed by 23 % Victims who died following admission into th hospital.Only few 5% victims died on way to the hospital.In 17 % victims place of death could not be known. In 43 % of victims death was instanlaneous.Victims survived for less than one hr in 13 % followed by, 1 hr to 6hr 6%, 6 hr to 24 hr 3% and more then 24 hrs 18%.Survival period in 17 % victims could not be ascertained as only dead body was recovered.It was found that that max 43% victims died instantaneously due to injuries to vital organ (s) followed by death due to shock and haemorrhage 25%, septicaemia 14%,Coma 12%,blast lungs 4% and asphyxia due to aspiration of blood in the respiratory tract. In max no 61.36% of victims, single weapon was used followed by used of double weapon in 14.78% and in vary few victims 4.54% more than two weapon were used. However, in 19.31% victims it could not be known. In 46.59% victim, location of entry wound was on multiple body parts followed by on head 40.90%, chest 27.27%, abdomen 7.95%,neck 2.27%,Upper extremity 2.27%,lower extremity 1.13%.In majority 53.40% of the victims had one entry wound followed by two in 15.90 %, three %, and more then Three 19.31%.Findings on range of firearm discharge clearly depict that max no of victims (40.90%) of homicide by firearm, were shot at from close/Near range.This was followed by contact wound in 29.54 % and distat range in 20.45 %.Combination of near and distant range was seen in 9.09%.It was found that in three fourth (75%) victims there were no associated injuries by any weapon other than firearm.In only 2(2.27%) Victims associated fatal injuries were present.However, in as many as 20 (22.75%) victims associated injuries by other weapons were present but they were not fatal. CONCLUSION: Over three fourth of the victims of homicide by firearms die on the spot due to injuries to vital organs followed by shock and hemorrhage.

A victim identification methodology for rescue robots operating in cluttered USAR environments

Our research focuses on developing an automated victim identification methodology for rescue robots in order to aid robot operators with the complex and stressful task of searching for victims in cluttered urban search and rescue (USAR) environments. In this paper, we present an approach that utilizes 2D and 3D sensory information from a real-time 3D sensory system for robust victim identification using both human geometric and skin region features. Our technique, uniquely, allows for the identification of partially occluded victims and single body parts that may be visible in cluttered USAR scenes using a Support Vector Machine-based classifier based on the aforementioned features. Unlike other approaches that focus on the recognition of one specific body part (such as the head) or the recognition of a small set of fixed body poses, we aim to identify multiple different body parts in a number of varying configurations to increase recognition rate. Experimental results illustrate the robustness of our methodology to find human victims in a variety of different poses in a rubble-filled USAR-like scene and its ability to potentially reduce operator workload.

Memory for past events: movement and action chains in high-functioning autism spectrum disorders

In the present study, we assessed whether individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show memory impairments for previously performed actions, as previously suggested for people suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (Ecker and Engelkamp in Behav Cogn Psychother 23:349-371, 1995; Merckelbach and Wessel in J Nerv Ment Dis 188(12):846-848, 2000). To test this possibility, we explored verbal memory for actions in individuals with a diagnosis of ASD, with and without co-morbidity for OCD, and in controls matched for age and gender. Participants observed or observed and enacted a number of actions while listening to the corresponding phrases being spoken. After a suitable delay, they were submitted to an old/new recognition task. Results showed that ASD individuals with OCD were less accurate and slower in responding compared to ASD individuals without OCD and controls, particularly when dealing with phrases describing simple movements. In contrast, ASD participants without OCD were more impaired when phrases described complex actions that involved pantomiming object use or coordinating movements of multiple body parts. These findings are discussed in terms of differential organization of the motor trace for simple versus complex actions in ASD individuals according to the concurrent presence of OCD.

Homicide in southern India—A five-year retrospective study

Homicide has become a common practice reflecting anger in southern India. The purpose of this study was to identify the potential risk factors and susceptible victims. This retrospective study analyses the data of 590 cases. Our study revealed that the victims were mostly males of 21 - 30 years, married (63.56%), illiterates (44.07%), low socioeconomic status and belong to rural areas. The laborers and farmers were almost equally affected in males and housewives in females. Outdoor incidents were more (61.86%). Majority of victims were innocent (82.20%) with no previous history of cognizable offence. Blood alcohol was found positive in 30.23% of victims. Sharp cutting weapons were mostly used, with hemorrhage and shock being the most common cause of death. Previous enmity and familial disharmony were the two common causes behind such heinous crime. Most victims had injuries over multiple body parts. Some potential risk factors and their preventive measures pointed at the end.

Congenital syphilis, still a reality

Congenital syphilis is a potentially serious pathology affecting newborns of infected mothers. Even one case of congenital syphilis is a sentinel public health event, since timely diagnosis and treatment of syphilis infected pregnant woman should prevent transmission almost entirely. Here, we are reporting a case of early symptomatic congenital syphilis presented with severe desquamating papulosquamous lesions over multiple body parts along with erosive lesions around oral cavity and nostrils.

Early childhood severe scalds in a developing country: A 3-year retrospective study.

The burns intensive care unit (BICU) staff observed an increasing number of pediatric scald burn admissions as a result of increase injuries associated with the scald burns. A retrospective study was conducted to identify scalds demographics, etiologies, and mortality risk factors. This descriptive study comprised a total of 166 patients aged 0-5 years, who were admitted to the BICU of the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit (RPSBU) through the Accident and Emergency (A and E) Centre of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH)from May 1st 2009 to April 30th 2012. Source of information was the BICU Computerized Database System. Data extracted included demographics as well as treatment methods and outcomes. The study population was 166; 92 (55.4%) males and 74 (44.6%) females. Scalds admissions were 141 (84.9%); 13 (9.2%) of them died, 83 (58.9%) discharged, and 45 (31.9%) transferred-out to another burn ward and pediatric surgery ward in the hospital. Scald patients’ demographics included 78 males (55.3%) and 63 females (44.7%); mean age was 2.18 years. Mortality risk factors identified were age <3 years (P = 0.044); scalds from hot water (P = 0.033), total burns surface area >30% (P = 0.017), and multiple body parts affected (P = 0.049). The current study showed age, hot water, and Total Burns Surface Area (TBSA) as risk factors of early childhood scalds. Education on scalds prevention targeting mothers/caregivers is needed to create awareness of the frequency, severity, and danger associated with pediatric scalds.

Falling and landing motion control for character animation

We introduce a new method to generate agile and natural human landing motions in real-time via physical simulation without using any mocap or pre-scripted sequences. We develop a general controller that allows the character to fall from a wide range of heights and initial speeds, continuously roll on the ground, and get back on its feet, without inducing large stress on joints at any moment. The character's motion is generated through a forward simulator and a control algorithm that consists of an airborne phase and a landing phase. During the airborne phase, the character optimizes its moment of inertia to meet the ideal relation between the landing velocity and the angle of attack, under the laws of conservation of momentum. The landing phase can be divided into three stages: impact, rolling, and getting-up. To reduce joint stress at landing, the character leverages contact forces to control linear momentum and angular momentum, resulting in a rolling motion which distributes impact over multiple body parts. We demonstrate that our control algorithm can be applied to a variety of initial conditions with different falling heights, orientations, and linear and angular velocities. Simulated results show that our algorithm can effectively create realistic action sequences comparable to real world footage of experienced freerunners.

Mapping multisensory parietal face and body areas in humans

Detection and avoidance of impending obstacles is crucial to preventing head and body injuries in daily life. To safely avoid obstacles, locations of objects approaching the body surface are usually detected via the visual system and then used by the motor system to guide defensive movements. Mediating between visual input and motor output, the posterior parietal cortex plays an important role in integrating multisensory information in peripersonal space. We used functional MRI to map parietal areas that see and feel multisensory stimuli near or on the face and body. Tactile experiments using full-body air-puff stimulation suits revealed somatotopic areas of the face and multiple body parts forming a higher-level homunculus in the superior posterior parietal cortex. Visual experiments using wide-field looming stimuli revealed retinotopic maps that overlap with the parietal face and body areas in the postcentral sulcus at the most anterior border of the dorsal visual pathway. Starting at the parietal face area and moving medially and posteriorly into the lower-body areas, the median of visual polar-angle representations in these somatotopic areas gradually shifts from near the horizontal meridian into the lower visual field. These results suggest the parietal face and body areas fuse multisensory information in peripersonal space to guard an individual from head to toe.

Mid-level features and spatio-temporal context for activity recognition

Local spatio-temporal features have been shown to be effective and robust in order to represent simple actions. However, for high level human activities with long-range motion or multiple interactive body parts and persons, the limitation of low-level features blows up because of their localness. This paper addresses the problem by suggesting a framework that computes mid-level features and takes into account their contextual information.First, we represent human activities by a set of mid-level components, referred to as activity components, which have consistent structure and motion in spatial and temporal domain respectively. These activity components are extracted hierarchically from videos, i.e., extracting key-points, grouping them into trajectories and finally clustering trajectories into components. Second, to further exploit the interdependencies of the activity components, we introduce a spatio-temporal context kernel (STCK), which not only captures local properties of features but also considers their spatial and temporal context information. Experiments conducted on two challenging activity recognition datasets show that the proposed approach outperforms standard spatio-temporal features and our STCK context kernel improves further the performance.

Monitoring Stage Fright Outside the Laboratory: An Example in a Professional Musician Using Wearable Sensors

We implemented and tested a wearable sensor system to measure patterns of stress responses in a professional musician under public performance conditions. Using this sensor system, we monitored the cellist's heart activity, the motion of multiple body parts, and their gradual changes during three repeated performances of a skill-demanding piece in front of a professional audience. From the cellist and her teachers, we collected stage fright self-reports and performance ratings that were related to our sensor data analysis results. Concomitant to changes in body motion and heart rate, the cellist perceived a reduction in stage fright. Performance quality was objectively improved, as technical playing errors decreased throughout repeated renditions. In particular, from performance 1 to 3, the wearable sensors measured a significant increase in the cellist's bowing motion dynamics of approximately 6% and a decrease in heart rate. Bowing motion showed a marginal correlation to the observed heart rate patterns during playing. The wearable system did not interfere with the cellist's performance, thereby allowing investigation of stress responses during natural public performances.