White blood cell detection using saliency detection and CenterNet: A two-stage approach

White blood cell (WBC) detection plays a vital role in peripheral blood smear analysis. However, cell detection remains a challenging task due to multi-cell adhesion, different staining and imaging conditions. Owing to the powerful feature extraction capability of deep learning, object detection methods based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been widely applied in medical image analysis. Nevertheless, the CNN training is time-consuming and inaccuracy, especially for large-scale blood smear images, where most of the images are background. To address the problem, we propose a two-stage approach that treats WBC detection as a small salient object detection task. In the first saliency detection stage, we use the Itti's visual attention model to locate the regions of interest (ROIs), based on the proposed adaptive center-surround difference (ACSD) operator. In the second WBC detection stage, the modified CenterNet model is performed on ROI sub-images to obtain a more accurate localization and classification result of each WBC. Experimental results showed that our method exceeds the performance of several existing methods on two different data sets, and achieves a state-of-the-art mAP of over 98.8%.     

The Presence of a Therapy Dog Results in Improved Object Recognition Performance in Preschool Children

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the presence of a dog would have an impact on object recognition memory performance of preschool children. This work represents an extension of previous research which found that preschoolers require fewer instructional prompts to complete this type of memory task when in the presence of a dog. If children require fewer instructional prompts it is possible that they are better able to focus on the task itself and as a result, improved memory performance is likely. Because the earlier experiment utilized a very simple version of the task that was readily completed by the preschool children, the overall performance data were at ceiling. The current study, involving 20 preschool children, included a manipulation of task difficulty through varying the number of distracters (one versus four) present at test. Increasing the number of distractors in a simple recognition task is known to make that task more challenging, and thus performance was expected to be slower and less accurate in the four distracter conditions relative to the one-distracter conditions. The collaborators in the study were either a therapy dog or a human. A two-way repeated measures design was used such that each child served as his/her own control and was tested in each of four separate conditions: dog present (one and four distracters) and human present (one and four distracters). The results showed that the preschool children performed the object recognition task faster and more accurately in the presence of the therapy dog relative to a human and also in the one-distracter versus four-distracter condition. The authors conclude that these effects result from increased focus and/or motivation resulting from the presence of the dog.     

Dissecting neural circuits for multisensory integration and crossmodal processing

We rely on rich and complex sensory information to perceive and understand our environment. Our multisensory experience of the world depends on the brain''s remarkable ability to combine signals across sensory systems. Behavioural, neurophysiological and neuroimaging experiments have established principles of multisensory integration and candidate neural mechanisms. Here we review how targeted manipulation of neural activity using invasive and non-invasive neuromodulation techniques have advanced our understanding of multisensory processing. Neuromodulation studies have provided detailed characterizations of brain networks causally involved in multisensory integration. Despite substantial progress, important questions regarding multisensory networks remain unanswered. Critically, experimental approaches will need to be combined with theory in order to understand how distributed activity across multisensory networks collectively supports perception.     

Sensory Perception: Lessons from Synesthesia: Using Synesthesia to Inform the Understanding of Sensory Perception

Synesthesia, the conscious, idiosyncratic, repeatable, and involuntary sensation of one sensory modality in response to another, is a condition that has puzzled both researchers and philosophers for centuries. Much time has been spent proving the condition’s existence as well as investigating its etiology, but what can be learned from synesthesia remains a poorly discussed topic. Here, synaesthesia is presented as a possible answer rather than a question to the current gaps in our understanding of sensory perception. By first appreciating the similarities between normal sensory perception and synesthesia, one can use what is known about synaesthesia, from behavioral and imaging studies, to inform our understanding of “normal” sensory perception. In particular, in considering synesthesia, one can better understand how and where the different sensory modalities interact in the brain, how different sensory modalities can interact without confusion ― the binding problem ― as well as how sensory perception develops.     

Parallel Sequence Matching with TACO's Distributed Object Groups – A Case Study from Molecular Biology

TACO is a template library that implements higher-order parallel operations on distributed object sets by means of reusable topology classes and C++ function templates. In this paper we discuss an experimental application that exploits TACO's distributed object groups and collective operations for computing the similarity between groups of molecular sequences, a computationally intensive core problem in molecular biology research. In particular we show how TACO's distributed collections can be conveniently combined with well known concepts found in the C++ standard template library (STL) to solve matching and sorting problems effectively on distributed hardware platforms. The resulting implementation is concise and gives excellent parallel performance on PC- and workstation clusters.     

The discovery of slowness: Time to deconstruct Gretzky’s and Messi’s predictive brains

Jafari and Smith hypothesized that time during games may pass slower for the world’s best football player, Lionel Messi, from Argentina. This hypothesis leads to two questions: How can we explain such temporal paradox and how could this explain his dominant performances? Remarkably, the Argentinian’s case was preceded by the equally astonishing case of Wayne Gretzky: The Canadian considered ice hockey as a rather slow game and was the best player in the sport’s history. Whether Messi’s and Gretzky’s motor neurons fire faster, (inter)act differently or whether other mechanisms are at (inter)play warrants targeted research. A further explanation for such dominance of football and ice hockey, respectively, could be that both athletes “buy time”: To this end, automized motor skills may allow their predictive brains to make better use of time than other players to read the games and plan ahead. Deconstructing predictive minds of outperforming individuals like Gretzky and Messi could provide unique options to elucidate how differential time perception may make performances in athletes, and beyond, more swift and more efficient.     

Shyness–Boldness,but not Exploration,Predicts Glucocorticoid Stress Response in Richardson's Ground Squirrels (Urocitellus richardsonii)

The relationship between stress and personality has often been studied using captive animals in a laboratory context, yet less often in wild populations. Wild populations, however, may reveal aspects of the personality–stress relationship that laboratory‐based studies cannot. Here, we assessed the personality and stress hormone response of adult females within a free‐living population of Richardson's ground squirrels (Urocitellus richardsonii). Personality was assessed by quantifying individual responses to a novel object, and physiological stress was measured from faecal glucocorticoid metabolites. Principal component and principal component regression analyses were performed to determine whether the behavioural and endocrine measures were related. Based on these analyses, shyness–boldness was found to best predict glucocorticoid levels, in that individuals expressing the greatest vigilance in response to the novel object also had the highest measured concentrations of faecal glucocorticoids. Exploration, however, was independent of measured glucocorticoid levels, consistent with a multidimensional interpretation of non‐human animal personality.     

Crop damage by African elephants assessment in kaftasheraro national park,Ethiopia

This study was conducted in Kafta‐Sheraro wereda in Northwest Tigray region of Ethiopia to assess community take on crop damage by the African Elephant, to identify visiting time of Elephants to agricultural plots and identify any other animals causing crop damage. A total of 240 households were selected from twelve villages using a stratified random sampling procedure. Half of the villages represented samples closer to the park and the other half, represented samples farther away. Whether the farmer owned or rented plots on which crops were grown as well as the distance to the park from the plots were the primary factors significantly (P < 0.05) influencing crop damage by elephants in the area. Time of the elephants visiting the agricultural plots was significantly (P < 0.05) higher at night. In a ranking exercise, among seven species considered, Elephants were ranked second in importance after Warthogs for crop destruction in villages close to the park but last in villages farther away. In the latter area, the most problematic animal was the Warthog followed by the Crested Porcupine. In the former areas where elephants' damage to crops was more frequent, farmers ranked fire as the most effective way of controlling the invasion. The study concludes that bringing the community to the discussion on elephant crop damage, increasing the time of keeping vigil during the night; improving the extension services and training in awareness creation and additional research's should be undertaken to evaluate in monetary terms the value of crop damage.     

The threat premium in economic bargaining

Costly punishment is thought to have evolved because it promotes cooperation and the equitable sharing of resources, but the costs associated with punishment – for both the punisher and the punished – limit the efficiency of this enforcement system in economic interactions. Reputation may also guide decision-making, but this information is not always available (e.g., in interactions involving strangers). Across several bargaining studies, we provide evidence of an efficient and flexible “threat-based” bargaining system that can influence the division of resources without the need for costly punishment and reputational information. We found that participants, without prompting, dynamically adjusted bargaining based on the perceived threat-potential (resource holding power and aggressiveness) of the bargaining partner, giving larger offers to individuals who appeared more threatening. These effects of perceived threat-potential were strongest among participants who were most vulnerable to harm in physical contests (women vs men and weaker men vs stronger men), despite that offers were made on-line and anonymously to photographs of the individuals rather than in face-to-face interactions. These results may reflect an overgeneralization of a real-world threat heuristic that allows low threat individuals to extract resources when possible, while avoiding physical retaliation and harm, and high threat individuals to appropriate larger shares of a resource through static facial cues of threat rather than by physically expressing their propensity to punish. Previously, researchers have highlighted the monetary advantages of attractiveness (the “beauty premium”), but the effects of threat either trumped, devalued, or were equivalent to those of attractiveness.     

Role of some physical characteristics in species recognition by pigtail monkeys

Three adult pigtail monkeys pressed a lever to see pictures of pigtail and Japanese monkeys with a variety of physical features being removed. The features included head, tail, body, background, and color. The duration and the interval of exposure of these visual stimuli were dependent upon subjects' responding. Preferences for those pictures were evaluated by the ratio of lever-pressing duration to interval of lever-pressing. Two of the subjects showed a consistent preference to see pictures of pigtail monkeys over those of Japanese monkeys. Though this preference tended to maintain when these physical features were removed, it became relatively weak when head and head + tail were removed. These results suggest that pigtail macaques may discriminate species based not on a single characteristics but on some combination of features, and that head may be relatively important than the other features.