A Customer Behavior Recognition Method for Flexibly Adapting to Target Changes in Retail Stores.

To provide analytic materials for business management for smart retail solutions, it is essential to recognize various customer behaviors (CB) from video footage acquired by in-store cameras. Along with frequent changes in needs and environments, such as promotion plans, product categories, in-store layouts, etc., the targets of customer behavior recognition (CBR) also change frequently. Therefore, one of the requirements of the CBR method is the flexibility to adapt to changes in recognition targets. However, existing approaches, mostly based on machine learning, usually take a great deal of time to re-collect training data and train new models when faced with changing target CBs, reflecting their lack of flexibility. In this paper, we propose a CBR method to achieve flexibility by considering CB in combination with primitives. A primitive is a unit that describes an object's motion or multiple objects' relationships. The combination of different primitives can characterize a particular CB. Since primitives can be reused to define a wide range of different CBs, our proposed method is capable of flexibly adapting to target CB changes in retail stores. In experiments undertaken, we utilized both our collected laboratory dataset and the public MERL dataset. We changed the combination of primitives to cope with the changes in target CBs between different datasets. As a result, our proposed method achieved good flexibility with acceptable recognition accuracy.

A Hierarchy-Based System for Recognizing Customer Activity in Retail Environments.

Customer activity (CA) in retail environments, which ranges over various shopper situations in store spaces, provides valuable information for store management and marketing planning. Several systems have been proposed for customer activity recognition (CAR) from in-store camera videos, and most of them use machine learning based end-to-end (E2E) CAR models, due to their remarkable performance. Usually, such E2E models are trained for target conditions (i.e., particular CA types in specific store spaces). Accordingly, the existing systems are not malleable to fit the changes in target conditions because they require entire retraining of their specialized E2E models and concurrent use of additional E2E models for new target conditions. This paper proposes a novel CAR system based on a hierarchy that organizes CA types into different levels of abstraction from lowest to highest. The proposed system consists of multiple CAR models, each of which performs CAR tasks that belong to a certain level of the hierarchy on the lower level's output, and thus conducts CAR for videos through the models level by level. Since these models are separated, this system can deal efficiently with the changes in target conditions by modifying some models individually. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed system in adapting to different target conditions.

Impact of pre-existing hypertension and control status before atrial fibrillation onset on cardiovascular prognosis in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation: A real-world database analysis in Japan.

Hypertension is an important risk factor for non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) and its prognosis. However, there is no study to clarify the impact of pre-existing hypertension and BP control status before the onset of AF on the prognosis after the onset of AF. This retrospective real-world cohort analysis used data from the Japan Medical Data Center Co., Ltd database. The presence of NVAF and hypertension, plus the occurrence of adverse events, was based on ICD-10 codes in the database. The primary composite AF-related cardiovascular event end point included ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, and acute myocardial infarction. Of the 21 523 patients identified as having new-onset NVAF between January 2005 and June 2016, 7885 had blood pressure (BP) data before the onset of NVAF available and were included in the analysis (4001 with pre-existing hypertension and 3884 without pre-existing hypertension). The rate of primary composite end point events was 10.3 and 4.4 per 1000 patient-years in patients with and without hypertension, respectively (P < .001). In addition, lower systolic BP (<120 mm Hg) before the onset of NVAF was associated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular events after the development of NVAF (P < .001). This highlights the importance of earlier and tighter 24-hour BP control before the onset of NVAF in patients with hypertension, not only for reducing the occurrence of new-onset of NVAF, but also for reducing both hemorrhagic and ischemic cardiovascular events after the onset of NVAF.

SDN Based End-to-End Inter-Domain Routing Mechanism for Mobility Management and Its Evaluation.

Nowadays, due to the widespread usage of mobile devices and wireless network technologies, we can use various ICT services almost anytime, anywhere even if we are changing our location at that moment. Therefore, mobility management technology have been attracting attention. This technology is to keep communication alive even when a mobile node (MN), which is communicating with the server or some nodes, moves to another network domain. Software Defined Networking (SDN) is used for mobility management to realize effective intra-domain routing that optimizes routes when an MN moves inside an SDN domain. However, many of the approaches mainly focus on intra-domain routing and it is difficult to optimize inter-domain route. In this paper, we focus on this routing optimization problem and propose an SDN based end-to-end routing mechanism specified for mobility management. The proposed routing mechanism can optimize an end-to-end route based on various parameters such as bandwidth, number of domains, and flow operations for mobility after an MN has moved across SDN domains. We carried out some simulational experimentations to evaluate the effect of proposal. It is shown that the proposed routing mechanism can reduce communication delay and enhance network performance. Thus, the proposed routing mechanism can realize effective ICT services.

Infrastructure-Less Communication Platform for Off-The-Shelf Android Smartphones.

As smartphones and other small portable devices become more sophisticated and popular, opportunities for communication and information sharing among such device users have increased. In particular, since it is known that infrastructure-less device-to-device (D2D) communication platforms consisting only of such devices are excellent in terms of, for example, bandwidth efficiency, efforts are being made to merge their information sharing capabilities with conventional infrastructure. However, efficient multi-hop communication is difficult with the D2D communication protocol, and many conventional D2D communication platforms require modifications of the protocol and terminal operating systems (OSs). In response to these issues, this paper reports on a proposed tree-structured D2D communication platform for Android devices that combines Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi functions. The proposed platform, which is expected to be used with general Android 4.0 (or higher) OS equipped terminals, makes it possible to construct an ad hoc network instantaneously without sharing prior knowledge among participating devices. We will show the feasibility of our proposed platform through its design and demonstrate the implementation of a prototype using real devices. In addition, we will report on our investigation into communication delays and stability based on the number of hops and on terminal performance through experimental confirmation experiments.

Hydration structures of lactic acid: characterization of the ionic clathrate hydrate formed with a biological organic acid anion.

Ionic clathrate hydrates are water-based materials that have unique properties, such as a wide range of melting temperatures and high gas capacities. In their structure, water molecules coordinate around ionic substances, which is regarded as the actual hydration structure and also linking of the hydrate clusters, giving insight into the dynamics of the water molecules and ions. This paper reports the synthesis and characterization of the ionic clathrate hydrate of tetra-n-butylammonium lactate (TBAL), the anion of which is a biological organic material. Phase equilibrium measurements and optical observations of the crystal morphology and crystal structure analysis were performed. The TBAL hydrate has a melting temperature of 284.8 K suitable for cool energy storage applications. The actual hydration patterns around a lactate anion are shown in the form of ionic clathrate hydrate structure.

Cytomegalovirus infection associated with onset of ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND: In 2009, a trigger role of cytomegalovirus (CMV) was shown in the development of ulcerative colitis (UC) in mice. Fifteen cases of synchronous onset of CMV colitis and UC have been reported in literature. A careful prospective and retrospective survey identified CMV colitis in newly diagnosed UC patients at 4.5% (3/65 cases) and 8.2% (5/61 cases), respectively. This means that a majority of synchronous CMV colitis may be missed in newly diagnosed UC patients in routine practice. Such a case is presented. CASE PRESENTATION: A 50-year-old woman, with a history of right partial mastectomy two years ago, had a persistent high fever for 9 days, after which a thickness of the colonic wall was detected on abdominal ultrasonography. Laboratory data showed inflammation and 2% atypical lymphocytes with the normal number of white blood cells. Although there was no bloody stool, fecal occult blood was over 1000 ng/ml. Colonoscopy showed diffuse inflammation in the entire large bowel and pseudomembranes in the sigmoid colon. The diagnosis was UC with antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis. Metronidazole followed by sulfasalazine resulted in defervescence and improvement in laboratory data of inflammation. It took one month for normalization of fecal occult blood. Endoscopic remission was simultaneously confirmed. Later, it was found that a report of positive CMV antigenaemia (2/150,000) had been missed. Reevaluation of biopsy specimens using a monoclonal antibody against CMV identified positive cells, although inclusion bodies were not found in hematoxylin and eosin sections. Finally, the case was concluded to be synchronous onset of CMV colitis and UC. CONCLUSION: Synchronous CMV colitis is not routinely investigated in newly diagnosed UC patients. Together with a recent observation in animal studies, it is plausible that a subset (a few to several per cent) of UC patients develop synchronous CMV infection. Further studies are needed to elucidate the plausibility.

Naphthodithiophene-Based Donor-Acceptor Polymers: Versatile Semiconductors for OFETs and OPVs.

We report the synthesis, characterization, and OFET and OPV properties of a series of novel naphthodithiophene (NDT3)-based donor-acceptor semiconducting polymers. A striking feature of the present polymers is the very close π-π stacking of 3.5 Å, most likely as a result of the large π system and the D-A system in the polymer backbone. PNDT3NTz-DT, in particular, is found to be one of the few examples of versatile polymers that exhibit both the field-effect mobility of ∼0.5 cm2/(V s) and the PCE of ∼5%. These results indicate that NDT3 is a promising versatile core unit for semiconducting polymers and that the use of highly π-extended heteroarenes as both the donor and the acceptor unit is a promising design strategy to develop high performance polymers.

Impact of isomeric structures on transistor performances in naphthodithiophene semiconducting polymers.

Four isomeric naphthodithiophenes (NDTs) with linear and angular shapes were introduced into the polythiophene semiconductor backbones, and their field-effect transistor performances were characterized. The polymers bearing naphtho[1,2-b:5,6-b']dithiophene (NDT3), an angular-shaped NDT, exhibited the highest mobilities of ∼0.8 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) among the four NDT-based polymers, which is among the highest reported so far for semiconducting polymers. Interestingly, the trend of the mobility in the NDT-based polymers was contrary to our expectations; the polymers with angular NDTs showed higher mobilities than those with linear NDTs despite the fact that naphtho[2,3-b:6,7-b']dithiophene (NDT1), a linear-shaped NDT, has shown the highest mobility in small-molecule systems. X-ray diffraction studies revealed that angular-NDT-based polymers gave the highly ordered structures with a very close π-stacking distance of 3.6 Å, whereas linear-NDT-based polymers had a very weak or no π-stacking order, which is quite consistent with the trend of the mobility. The nature of such ordering structures can be well understood by considering their molecular shapes. In fact, a linear NDT (NDT1) provides angular backbones and an angular NDT (NDT3) provides a pseudostraight backbone, the latter of which can pack into the highly ordered structure and thus facilitate the charge carrier transport. In addition to the ordering structure, the electronic structures seem to correlate with the carrier transport property. MO calculations, supported by the measurement of ionization potentials, suggested that, while the HOMOs are relatively localized within the NDT cores in the linear-NDT-based polymers, those are apparently delocalized along the backbone in the angular-NDT-based polymers. The latter should promote the efficient HOMO overlaps between the polymer backbones that are the main paths of the charge carrier transport, which also agrees with the trend of the mobility. With these results, we conclude that angular NDTs, in particular NDT3, are promising cores for high-performance semiconducting polymers. We thus propose that both the molecular shapes and the electronic structures are important factors to be considered when designing high performance semiconducting polymers.

Lifestyle-related disease in Crohn's disease: relapse prevention by a semi-vegetarian diet.

AIM: To investigate whether semi-vegetarian diet (SVD) has a preventive effect against relapse of Crohn's disease (CD) in patients who have achieved remission, who are a high-risk group for relapse. METHODS: A prospective, single center, 2-year clinical trial was conducted. Twenty-two adult CD patients who achieved clinical remission either medically (n = 17) or surgically (n = 5) and consumed an SVD during hospitalization were advised to continue with an SVD and avoid known high-risk foods for inflammatory bowel disease. The primary endpoint was clinical relapse defined as the appearance of active symptoms of CD. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to calculate the cumulative proportion of patients who had a relapse. A 2-year analysis of relapse rates of patients who followed an SVD and those who did not (an omnivorous diet group) was undertaken. RESULTS: SVD was continued by 16 patients (compliance 73%). Remission was maintained in 15 of 16 patients (94%) in the SVD group vs two of six (33%) in the omnivorous group. Remission rate with SVD was 100% at 1 year and 92% at 2 years. SVD showed significant prevention in the time to relapse compared to that in the omnivorous group (P = 0.0003, log rank test). The concentration of C-reactive protein was normal at the final visit in more than half of the patients in remission who were taking an SVD, who maintained remission during the study (9/15; 60%), who terminated follow-up (8/12; 67%), and who completed 2 years follow-up (7/10; 70%). There was no untoward effect of SVD. CONCLUSION: SVD was highly effective in preventing relapse in CD.

High-mobility semiconducting naphthodithiophene copolymers.

We have designed and synthesized novel semiconducting polymers by introducing naphtho[1,2-b:5,6-b']dithiophene (NDT) into the polythiophene backbone. These polymers, which have a highly pi-extended heteroarene unit, achieved mobilities (>0.5 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)) that are among the highest recorded to date for semiconducting polymers and most probably result from the highly ordered thin-film structures with crystalline close pi stacking. It is noteworthy that the choice of isomeric heteroarenes in the unit can dramatically change the physical and electronic structures and hence the OFET performance of the semiconducting polymers, even though the two isomers possess similar electronic structures; interestingly, this contrasts with the trend in small-molecule systems. We believe that these findings will give new insight into the design of new organic semiconducting materials and that the present polymers are promising materials for printable electronics.

Lansoprazole-associated collagenous colitis: diffuse mucosal cloudiness mimicking ulcerative colitis.

There have only been a few reports on lansoprazole-associated collagenous colitis. Colonic mucosa of collagenous colitis is known to be endoscopically normal. We present a case of collagenous colitis where the mucosa showed diffuse cloudiness mimicking ulcerative colitis. A 70-year-old woman developed watery diarrhea four to nine times a day. She had interstitial pneumonia at 67 and reflux esophagitis at 70 years. Lansoprazole 30 mg/d had been prescribed for reflux esophagitis for nearly 6 mo. Lansoprazole was withdrawn due to its possible side effect of diarrhea. Colonoscopy disclosed diffuse cloudiness of the mucosa which suggested ulcerative colitis. Consequently sulfasalazine 2 g/d was started. The patient's diarrhea dramatically disappeared on the following day. However, biopsy specimens showed subepithelial collagenous thickening and infiltration of inflammatory cells in the lamina propria, confirming the diagnosis of collagenous colitis. One month after sulfasalazine therapy was initiated, colonoscopic and histological abnormalities resolved completely. Five months later the diarrhea recurred. The findings on colonoscopy and histology were the same as before, confirming a diagnosis of collagenous colitis relapse. We found that the patient had begun to take lansoprazole again 3 mo ahead of the recent diarrhea. Withdrawal of lansoprazole promptly resolved the diarrhea. Endoscopic and histological abnormalities were also completely resolved, similar to the first episode. Retrospectively, the date of commencement of sulfasalazine and discontinuation of lansoprazole in the first episode was found to be the same. We conclude that this patient had lansoprazole-associated collagenous colitis.

Comparison of tacrolimus and mizoribine in a randomized, double-blind controlled study in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and safety of tacrolimus and mizoribine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Adult patients with RA with an insufficient response to at least one disease modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) were randomized to receive 28 weeks of double-blind treatment with tacrolimus 3 mg once daily or mizoribine 50 mg three times daily. The primary efficacy endpoint was the American College of Rheumatology 20% (ACR20) response. Safety was evaluated by adverse events. RESULTS: A total of 204 patients were enrolled for study (103 in the tacrolimus group, 101 in the mizoribine group). Significantly more patients receiving tacrolimus achieved an ACR20 response compared with mizoribine (48.5 vs 10.0%, respectively; p = 0.001). Tacrolimus was also superior to mizoribine in ACR50 and ACR70 response rate, tender and painful joint counts, swollen joint counts and patient and physician assessments of pain, disease activity, and patient's physical function assessment based on the Modified Health Assessment Questionnaire (p < 0.001). Adverse events were more frequent in the tacrolimus group than the mizoribine group (65.0 vs 59.4%); however, there were no statistically significant differences between treatment groups. CONCLUSION: Tacrolimus improves RA symptoms to a significantly greater extent than mizoribine in patients with RA inadequately controlled with at least one prior DMARD. Tacrolimus has the potential to be a useful and highly effective treatment for RA.

Incidence of cytomegalovirus reactivation in patients with inflammatory connective tissue diseases who are under immunosuppressive therapy.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the incidence and effect of cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation in patients with inflammatory connective tissue diseases (CTD) undergoing immunosuppressive therapy. METHODS: A total of 18 consecutive CMV seropositive patients undergoing immunosuppressive therapy for inflammatory CTD were enrolled. CMV reactivation was determined by detection of CMV-DNA in peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) or plasma using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: CMV reactivation was detected in PBL in 7 of 17 evaluable patients (41%), and in plasma in 5 of 17 patients (29%). Patients with detectable CMV-DNA in plasma were exclusively positive for CMV-DNA in PBL. Conclusion. Patients with inflammatory CTD under immunosuppressive therapy are at high risk for CMV reactivation. The clinical significance of such an event and indications for antiviral therapy should be examined further.

Efficacy and safety of tacrolimus (FK506) in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled dose-finding study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of tacrolimus (FK506) in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) exhibiting resistance to disease modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy, and to determine the optimal dosage. METHODS: A total of 212 patients with DMARD-resistant RA were enrolled in this double blind, multicenter, randomized, placebo controlled study and allocated to 3 groups. Patients were administered tacrolimus at a dosage of 1.5 mg/day (68 patients) or 3 mg/day (70 patients), or placebo (74 patients), for 16 weeks. They were allowed to continue taking prednisolone (< or = 5 mg/day) and/or one nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug (NSAID) during the study. Clinical assessment was based on the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 20% criteria. RESULTS: ACR 20% response rates were higher in both tacrolimus groups (3 mg: 48.3%; 1.5 mg: 24.6%) than in the placebo group (14.1%), with the rate in the 3 mg group significantly higher. There were no significant differences between the tacrolimus groups and placebo group in the incidence of adverse events. The main adverse events in the tacrolimus groups, especially in the 3 mg group, were renal function abnormalities and gastrointestinal symptoms. However, no significant differences were observed among the 3 groups in the incidence of any adverse event except decrease in serum Mg level. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate excellent dose-dependent efficacy of tacrolimus in patients with DMARD-resistant RA and strongly suggest the usefulness of tacrolimus for treatment of RA. The optimal dosage appears to be 3 mg/day in terms of efficacy and safety.