Intelligent Video Analytics for Human Action Recognition: The State of Knowledge.

The paper presents a comprehensive overview of intelligent video analytics and human action recognition methods. The article provides an overview of the current state of knowledge in the field of human activity recognition, including various techniques such as pose-based, tracking-based, spatio-temporal, and deep learning-based approaches, including visual transformers. We also discuss the challenges and limitations of these techniques and the potential of modern edge AI architectures to enable real-time human action recognition in resource-constrained environments.

Nanoelectropulse delivery for cell membrane perturbation and oxidation in human colon adenocarcinoma cells with drug resistance.

Ultrashort electric pulses in the nanosecond range (nsPEF) can affect extra- and intracellular lipid structures and can also alternate cell functioning reversibly and irreversibly. Several of the nsPEF effects are due to the abrupt rise in intracellular free calcium levels and calcium ions influx from the outside. Calcium is one of the most important factors in cell proliferation, differentiation, and cell death (apoptosis or necrosis). Manipulating calcium levels using electroporation can have different effects on normal and malignant cells. This study aimed to examine the impact of nsPEFs, combined with 1 mM Ca2+ in human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines: sensitive- LoVo and drug resistant-LoVoDX. In this study 200 pulses of 10 ns and high voltage (12.5-50 kVcm-1) were used. Cell viability was determined by MTT and clonogenic assay. Proteasomal activity, GSH/GSSG assay, ROS production, and PALS-1 protein were evaluated as oxidative stress markers and protein damage. Cell morphology was visualized by AFM, SEM, and confocal microscopy imaging. The results revealed that nsPEF with 1 mM Ca2+ is cytotoxic, particularly for LoVoDX cells, and safe for normal cells. NsPEF provoked ROS release, altered cell polarity, and destabilized cell morphology. These results can be important for future protocols for colon adenocarcinoma using calcium nsPEF.

Nanosecond PEF Induces Oxidative Stress and Apoptosis via Proteasomal Activity Inhibition in Gastric Adenocarcinoma Cells with Drug Resistance.

Nanosecond (ns) pulsed electric field (PEF) is a technology in which the application of ultra-short electrical pulses can be used to disrupt the barrier function of cell plasma and internal membranes. Disruptions of the membrane integrity cause a substantial imbalance in cell homeostasis in which oxidative stress is a principal component. In the present study, nsPEF-induced oxidative stress was investigated in two gastric adenocarcinoma cell lines (EPG85-257P and EPG85-257RDB) which differ by their sensitivity to daunorubicin. Cells were exposed to 200 pulses of 10 ns duration, with the amplitude and pulse repetition frequency at 1 kHz, with electric field intensity varying from 12.5 to 50 kV/cm. The electroporation buffer contained either 1 mM or 2 mM calcium chloride. CellMask DeepRed visualized cell plasma permeabilization, Fluo-4 was used to visualize internal calcium ions content, and F-actin was labeled with AlexaFluor®488 for the cytoskeleton. The cellular viability was determined by MTT assay. An alkaline and neutral comet assay was employed to detect apoptotic and necrotic cell death. The luminescent method estimated the modifications in GSSG/GSH redox potential and the imbalance of proteasomal activity (chymotrypsin-, trypsin- and caspase-like). The reactive oxygen species (ROS) level was measured by flow cytometry using dihydroethidium (DHE) dye. Morphological visualization indicated cell shrinkage, affected cell membranes (characteristic bubbles and changed cell shape), and the reorganization of actin fibers with sites of its dense concentration; the effect was more intense with the increasing electric field strength. The most significant decrease in cell viability and GSSG/GSH redox potential was noted at the highest amplitude of 50 kV/cm, and calcium ions amplified this effect. nsPEF, particularly with calcium ions, inhibited proteasomal activities, resulting in increased protein degradation. nsPEF increased the percentage of apoptotic cells and ROS levels. The EPG85-257 RDB cell line, which is resistant to standard chemotherapy, was more sensitive to applied nsPEF protocols. The applied nsPEF method disrupted the metabolism of cancer cells and induced apoptotic cell death. The nsPEF ability to cause apoptosis, oxidative stress, and protein degradation make the nsPEF methodology a suitable alternative to current anticancer pharmacological methods.

People Lifting Patterns-A Reference Dataset for Practitioners.

Many health professionals do not use correct person transfer techniques in their daily practice. This results in damage to the paraspinal musculature over time, resulting in lower back pain and injuries. In this work, we propose an approach for the accurate multimodal measurement of people lifting and related motion patterns for ergonomic education regarding the application of correct patient transfer techniques. Several examples of person lifting were recorded and processed through accurate instrumentation and the well-defined measurements of kinematics, kinetics, surface electromyography of muscles as well as multicamera video. This resulted in a complete measurement protocol and unique reference datasets of correct and incorrect lifting schemes for caregivers and patients. This understanding of multimodal motion patterns provides insights for further independent investigations.

Detection of linear features including bone and skin areas in ultrasound images of joints.

Identifying the separate parts in ultrasound images such as bone and skin plays a crucial role in the synovitis detection task. This paper presents a detector of bone and skin regions in the form of a classifier which is trained on a set of annotated images. Selected regions have labels: skin or bone or none. Feature vectors used by the classifier are assigned to image pixels as a result of passing the image through the bank of linear and nonlinear filters. The filters include Gaussian blurring filter, its first and second order derivatives, Laplacian as well as positive and negative threshold operations applied to the filtered images. We compared multiple supervised learning classifiers including Naive Bayes, k-Nearest Neighbour, Decision Trees, Random Forest, AdaBoost and Support Vector Machines (SVM) with various kernels, using four classification performance scores and computation time. The Random Forest classifier was selected for the final use, as it gives the best overall evaluation results.

A Novel Method of Synovitis Stratification in Ultrasound Using Machine Learning Algorithms: Results From Clinical Validation of the MEDUSA Project.

Ultrasound is widely used in the diagnosis and follow-up of chronic arthritis. We present an evaluation of a novel automatic ultrasound diagnostic tool based on image recognition technology. Methods used in developing the algorithm are described elsewhere. For the purpose of evaluation, we collected 140 ultrasound images of metacarpophalangeal and proximal interphalangeal joints from patients with chronic arthritis. They were classified, according to hypertrophy size, into four stages (0-3) by three independent human observers and the algorithm. An agreement ratio was calculated between all observers and the standard derived from results of human staging using κ statistics. Results was significant in all pairs, with the highest p value of 3.9 × 10-6. κ coefficients were lower in algorithm/human pairs than between human assessors. The algorithm is effective in staging synovitis hypertrophy. It is, however, not mature enough to use in a daily practice because of limited accuracy and lack of color Doppler recognition. These limitations will be addressed in the future.

Analysis, Recognition, and Classification of Biological Membrane Images.

Biological membrane images contain a variety of objects and patterns, which convey information about the underlying biological structures and mechanisms. The field of image analysis includes methods of computation which convert features and objects identified in images into quantitative information about biological structures represented in these images. Microscopy images are complex, noisy, and full of artifacts and consequently require multiple image processing steps for the extraction of meaningful quantitative information. This review is focused on methods of analysis of images of cells and biological membranes such as detection, segmentation, classification and machine learning, registration, tracking, and visualization. These methods could make possible, for example, to automatically identify defects in the cell membrane which affect physiological processes. Detailed analysis of membrane images could facilitate understanding of the underlying physiological structures or help in the interpretation of biological experiments.

The Effect of Millisecond Pulsed Electric Fields (msPEF) on Intracellular Drug Transport with Negatively Charged Large Nanocarriers Made of Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLN): In Vitro Study.

Drug delivery technology is still a dynamically developing field of medicine. The main direction in nanotechnology research (nanocarriers, nanovehicles, etc.) is efficient drug delivery to target cells with simultaneous drug reduction concentration. However, nanotechnology trends in reducing the carrier sizes to several nanometers limit the volume of the loaded substance and may pose a danger of uncontrolled access into the cells. On the other hand, nanoparticles larger than 200 nm in diameter have difficulties to undergo rapid diffusional transport through cell membranes. The main advantage of large nanoparticles is higher drug encapsulation efficiency and the ability to deliver a wider array of drugs. Our present study contributes a new approach with large Tween 80 solid lipid nanoparticles SLN (i.e., hydrodynamic GM-SLN-glycerol monostearate, GM, as the lipid and ATO5-SLNs-glyceryl palmitostearate, ATO5, as the lipid) with diameters DH of 379.4 nm and 547 nm, respectively. They are used as drug carriers alone and in combination with electroporation (EP) induced by millisecond pulsed electric fields. We evaluate if EP can support the transport of large nanocarriers into cells. The study was performed with two cell lines: human colon adenocarcinoma LoVo and hamster ovarian fibroblastoid CHO-K1 with coumarin 6 (C6) as a fluorescent marker for encapsulation. The biological safety of the potential treatment procedure was evaluated with cell viability after their exposure to nanoparticles and EP. The EP efficacy was evaluated by FACS method. The impact on intracellular structure organization of cytoskeleton was visualized by CLSM method with alpha-actin and beta-tubulin. The obtained results indicate low cytotoxicity of both carrier types, free and loaded with C6. The evaluation of cytoskeleton proteins indicated no intracellular structure damage. The intracellular uptake and accumulation show that SLNs do not support transport of C6 coumarin. Only application of electroporation improved the transport of encapsulated and free C6 into both treated cell lines.

Doxorubicin delivery enhanced by electroporation to gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma cells with P-gp overexpression.

Electroporation (EP) can effectively support the penetration of macromolecules from the extracellular space into cells. Electropores induced by the influence of electromagnetic field generate additional paths of transport for macromolecules. The aim of this study was evaluation of the electroporation effect on doxorubicin transport efficiency to human colon (LoVo and LoVo/DX) and gastric (EPG85-257/P and EPG85-257/RDB) adenocarcinoma cells with overexpression of P-glycoprotein and murine macrophage cell line (P388/D1). In our EP experiments cells were placed into a cuvette with aluminum electrodes and pulsed with five square electric pulses of 1300 V/cm and duration of 50 µs each. Cells were also treated with low doxorubicin concentration ([DOX]=1.7 µM). The ultrastructure (TEM) and changes of P-glycoprotein expression of tumor cells subjected to electric field were monitored. The mitochondrial cell function and trypan blue staining were evaluated after 24h. Our results indicate the most pronounced effect of EP with DOX and disturbed ultrastructure in resistant gastric and colon cells with decrease of P-gp expression. Electroporation may be an attractive delivery method of cytostatic drugs in chemotherapy, enabling reduction of drug dose, exposure time and side effects.