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The ubiquitous availability of wearable sensors is responsible for driving the Internet-of-Things but is also making an impact on sport sciences and precision medicine. While human activity recognition from smartphone data or other types of inertial measurement units (IMU) has evolved to one of the most prominent daily life examples of machine learning, the underlying process of time-series feature engineering still seems to be time-consuming. This lengthy process inhibits the development of IMU-based machine learning applications in sport science and precision medicine. This contribution discusses a feature engineering workflow, which automates the extraction of time-series feature on based on the FRESH algorithm (FeatuRe Extraction based on Scalable Hypothesis tests) to identify statistically significant features from synchronized IMU sensors (IMeasureU Ltd., NZ). The feature engineering workflow has five main steps: time-series engineering, automated time-series feature extraction, optimized feature extraction, fitting of a specialized classifier, and deployment of optimized machine learning pipeline. The workflow is discussed for the case of a user-specific running-walking classification, and the generalization to a multi-user multi-activity classification is demonstrated. more...

Short looping videos concisely capture the dynamism of natural scenes. Creating seamless loops usually involves maximizing spatiotemporal consistency and applying Poisson blending. We take an end-to-end view of the problem and present new techniques that jointly improve loop quality while also significantly reducing processing time. A key idea is to relax the consistency constraints to anticipate the subsequent blending, thereby enabling looping of low-frequency content like moving clouds and changing illumination. We also analyze the input video to remove an undesired bias toward short loops. The quality gains are demonstrated visually and confirmed quantitatively using a new gradient-domain consistency metric. We improve system performance by classifying potentially loopable pixels, masking the 2D graph cut, pruning graph-cut labels based on dominant periods, and optimizing on a coarse grid while retaining finer detail. Together these techniques reduce computation times from tens of minutes to nearly real-time. more...

We present our results on the manipulation of individual viruses using an advanced interface for atomic force microscopes (AFMs). We show that the viruses can be dissected, rotated, and translated with great facility. We interpret the behavior of tobacco mosaic virus with a mechanical model that makes explicit the competition between sample-substrate lateral friction and the flexural rigidity of the manipulated object. The manipulation behavior of tobacco mosaic virus on graphite is shown to be consistent with values of lateral friction observed on similar interfaces and the flexural rigidity expected for macromolecular assemblies. The ability to manipulate individual samples broadens the scope of possible studies by providing a means for positioning samples at specific binding sites or predefined measuring devices. The mechanical model provides a framework for interpreting quantitative measurements of virus binding and mechanical properties and for understanding the constraints on the successful, nondestructive AFM manipulation of delicate samples. more...

Recent work defines vector graphics using diffusion between colored curves. We explore higher-order fairing to enable more natural interpolation and greater expressive control. Specifically, we build on thin-plate splines which provide smoothness everywhere except at user-specified tears and creases (discontinuities in value and derivative respectively). Our system lets a user sketch discontinuity curves without fixing their colors, and sprinkle color constraints at sparse interior points to obtain smooth interpolation subject to the outlines. We refine the representation with novel contour and slope curves, which anisotropically constrain interpolation derivatives. Compound curves further increase editing power by expanding a single curve into multiple offsets of various basic types (value, tear, crease, slope, and contour). The vector constraints are discretized over an image grid, and satisfied using a hierarchical solver. We demonstrate interactive authoring on a desktop CPU. more...

V-ATPases are molecular motors that reversibly disassemble in vivo. Anchored in the membrane is subunit a. Subunit a has a movable N terminus that switches positions during disassembly and reassembly. Deletions were made at residues securing the N terminus of subunit a (yeast isoform Vph1) to its membrane-bound C-terminal domain in order to understand the role of this conserved region for V-ATPase function. Shrinking of the tether made cells pH-sensitive (vma phenotype) because assembly of V(0) subunit d was harmed. Subunit d did not co-immunoprecipitate with subunit a and the c-ring. Cells contained pools of V(1) and V(0)(-d) that failed to form V(1)V(0), and very low levels of V-ATPase subunits were found at the membrane. Although subunit d expression was stable and at wild-type levels, growth defects were rescued by exogenous VMA6 (subunit d). Stable V(1)V(0) assembled after yeast cells were co-transformed with VMA6 and mutant VPH1. Tether-less V(1)V(0) was delivered to the vacuole and active. It retained 63-71% of the wild-type activity and was responsive to glucose. Tether-less V(1)V(0) disassembled and reassembled after brief glucose depletion and readdition. The N terminus retained binding to V(1) subunits and the C terminus to phosphofructokinase. Thus, no major structural change was generated at the N and C termini of subunit a. We concluded that early steps of V(0) assembly and trafficking were likely impaired by shorter tethers and rescued by VMA6. more...

The increasing restructuring of health care into managed care organizations (MCOs) offers new opportunities for rethinking public health strategies and initiatives in sexually transmitted disease (STD) control. Managed care organizations offer an important organizational network through which STD prevention initiatives can be deployed. A major barrier is the need for an information technology infrastructure to link thousands of providers, many in small groups or sole proprietor offices, to the centralized databases of large network model MCOs. Internet/intranet technology and electronic medical records represent important developments that could expand the capacity of MCOs to meet these needs. more...