Fully Automatic Camera for Personalized Highlight Generation in Sporting Events.

Personally curated content in short-form video formats provides added value for participants and spectators but is often disregarded in lower-level events because it is too labor-intensive to create or is not recorded at all. Our smart sensor-driven tripod focuses on supplying a unified sensor and video solution to capture personalized highlights for participants in various sporting events with low computational and hardware costs. The relevant parts of the video for each participant are automatically determined by using the timestamps of his/her received sensor data.

Characterization of the human fetal gonad and reproductive tract by single-cell transcriptomics.

During human fetal development, sex differentiation occurs not only in the gonads but also in the adjacent developing reproductive tract. However, while the cellular composition of male and female human fetal gonads is well described, that of the adjacent developing reproductive tract remains poorly characterized. Here, we performed single-cell transcriptomics on male and female human fetal gonads together with the adjacent developing reproductive tract from first and second trimesters, highlighting the morphological and molecular changes during sex differentiation.

Human Intestinal Organoids: Promise and Challenge.

The study of human intestinal biology in healthy and diseased conditions has always been challenging. Primary obstacles have included limited tissue accessibility, inadequate maintenance and ethical constrains. The development of three-dimensional organoid cultures has transformed this entirely.

Improving In Vitro Culture of Human Male Fetal Germ Cells.

Male human fetal germ cells (hFGCs) give rise to spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), which are the adult precursors of the male gametes. Human SSCs are a promising (autologous) source of cells for male fertility preservation; however, in contrast to mouse SSCs, we are still unable to culture them in the long term. Here, we investigated the effect of two different culture media and four substrates (laminin, gelatin, vitronectin and matrigel) in the culture of dissociated second trimester testes, enriched for hFGCs.

Sex-Specific Isolation and Propagation of Human Premeiotic Fetal Germ Cells and Germ Cell-Like Cells.

The second trimester of human development is marked by asynchronous gonadal development hampering the isolation of homogenous populations of early and late fetal germ cells (FGCs). We evaluated the feasibility of using surface markers TNAP, PDPN, EPCAM and ITGA6 to isolate FGCs as well as human primordial germ cell-like cells (hPGCLCs) derived from embryonic stem cells (hESCs) from both sexes by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Our results suggest that a combination of TNAP and PDPN was sufficient to separate populations of premeiotic FGCs and hPGCLCs in both sexes.

Activin A-derived human embryonic stem cells show increased competence to differentiate into primordial germ cell-like cells.

Protocols for specifying human primordial germ cell-like cells (hPGCLCs) from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) remain hindered by differences between hESC lines, their derivation methods, and maintenance culture conditions. This poses significant challenges for establishing reproducible in vitro models of human gametogenesis. Here, we investigated the influence of activin A (ActA) during derivation and maintenance on the propensity of hESCs to differentiate into PGCLCs.

Untargeted histone profiling during naive conversion uncovers conserved modification markers between mouse and human.

Recent progress has enabled the conversion of primed human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to the naive state of pluripotency, resembling the well-characterized naive mouse ESCs (mESCs). However, a thorough histone epigenetic characterization of this conversion process is currently lacking, while its likeness to the mouse model has not been clearly established. Here, we profile the histone epigenome of hESCs during conversion in a time-resolved experimental design, using an untargeted mass spectrometry-based approach.

Human blastocyst outgrowths recapitulate primordial germ cell specification events.

Our current knowledge of the mechanisms leading to human primordial germ cell (PGC) specification stems solely from differentiation experiments starting from human pluripotent stem cells. However, information regarding the origin of PGCs in vivo remains obscure. Here we apply an improved system for extended in vitro culture of human embryos to investigate the presence of PGC-like cells (PGCLCs) 12 days post fertilization (dpf).

Extended in vitro culture of human embryos demonstrates the complex nature of diagnosing chromosomal mosaicism from a single trophectoderm biopsy.

Study Question: What is the accuracy of preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (PGT-A) when considering human peri-implantation outcomes in vitro?

Study Answer: The probability of accurately diagnosing an embryo as abnormal was 100%, while the proportion of euploid embryos classified as clinically suitable was 61.9%, yet if structural and mosaic abnormalities were not considered accuracy increased to 100%, with a 0% false positive and false negative rate.

What Is Already Known: Embryo aneuploidy is associated with implantation failure and early pregnancy loss.

WNT Inhibition and Increased FGF Signaling Promotes Derivation of Less Heterogeneous Primed Human Embryonic Stem Cells, Compatible with Differentiation.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) hold great value for future clinical applications. However, standard culture conditions maintain hESCs in a primed state, which bears heterogeneity in pluripotency and a tendency for spontaneous differentiation. To counter these drawbacks, primed hESCs have been converted to a naive state, but this has restricted the efficiency of existing directed differentiation protocols.

Transcriptional landscape changes during human embryonic stem cell derivation.

Study Question: What are the transcriptional changes occurring during the human embryonic stem cell (hESC) derivation process, from the inner cell mass (ICM) to post-ICM intermediate stage (PICMI) to hESC stage, that have downstream effects on pluripotency states and differentiation?

Summary Answer: We reveal that although the PICMI is transcriptionally similar to the hESC profile and distinct from ICM, it exhibits upregulation of primordial germ cell (PGC) markers, dependence on leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) signaling, upregulation of naïve pluripotency-specific signaling networks and appears to be an intermediate switching point from naïve to primed pluripotency.

What Is Known Already: It is currently known that the PICMI exhibits markers of early and late-epiblast stage. It is suggested that hESCs acquire primed pluripotency features due to the upregulation of post-implantation genes in the PICMI which renders them predisposed towards differentiation cues.

A smartphone-based solution to monitor daily physical activity in a care home.

Introduction: In an ageing population, increasing chronic disease prevalence puts a high economic burden on society. Physical activity plays an important role in disease prevention and should therefore be promoted in the elderly.

Methods: In this study, a mobile health (mHealth) system was implemented in a care home setting to monitor and promote elderly peoples' daily activity.

Chromosomal mosaicism in human blastocysts: the ultimate challenge of preimplantation genetic testing?

Study Question: To what extent does a trophectoderm (TE) biopsy reliably reflect the chromosomal constitution of the inner cell mass (ICM) in human blastocysts?

Summary Answer: Concordance between TE and ICM was established in 62.1% of the embryos analysed.

What Is Known Already: Next generation sequencing (NGS) platforms have recently been optimised for preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (PGT-A).

Direct comparison of distinct naive pluripotent states in human embryonic stem cells.

Until recently, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) were shown to exist in a state of primed pluripotency, while mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) display a naive or primed pluripotent state. Here we show the rapid conversion of in-house-derived primed hESCs on mouse embryonic feeder layer (MEF) to a naive state within 5-6 days in naive conversion media (NCM-MEF), 6-10 days in naive human stem cell media (NHSM-MEF) and 14-20 days using the reverse-toggle protocol (RT-MEF). We further observe enhanced unbiased lineage-specific differentiation potential of naive hESCs converted in NCM-MEF, however, all naive hESCs fail to differentiate towards functional cell types.

Application Of Small Molecules Favoring Naïve Pluripotency during Human Embryonic Stem Cell Derivation.

In mice, inhibition of both the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase/extracellular-signal regulated kinase (MEK/Erk) and the Wnt signaling inhibitor glycogen synthase-3β (GSK3β) enables the derivation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) from nonpermissive strains in the presence of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). Whereas mESCs are in an uncommitted naïve state, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) represent a more advanced state, denoted as primed pluripotency. This burdens hESCs with a series of characteristics, which, in contrast to naïve ESCs, makes them not ideal for key applications such as cell-based clinical therapies and human disease modeling.

Exogenous supplementation of Activin A enhances germ cell differentiation of human embryonic stem cells.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) derived in the presence of Activin A (ActA) demonstrate an increased differentiation propensity toward the germ cell lineage. In addition, mouse epiblast stem cells and mouse epiblast-like cells are poised toward germ cell differentiation and are derived in the presence of ActA. We therefore investigated whether supplementation with ActA enhances in vitro hESC differentiation toward germ cell lineage.

Time-frequency heart rate variability characteristics of young adults during physical, mental and combined stress in laboratory environment.

The goal of this study was to evaluate the changes in heart rate variability (HRV) parameters due to a specific physical, mental or combined load. More specifically, the difference in effect between mental load and physical activity is studied. In addition, the effect of the combined physical and mental demand on the HRV parameters was examined and compared with the changes during the single task.

Estimation of muscle fatigue using surface electromyography and near-infrared spectroscopy.

This study looks at various parameters, derived from surface electromyography (sEMG) and Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) and their relationship in muscle fatigue during a static elbow flexion until exhaustion as well as during a semidynamic exercise.We found a linear increasing trend for a corrected amplitude parameter and a linear decreasing slope for the frequency content of the sEMG signal. The tissue oxygenation index (TOI) extracted from NIRS recordings showed a four-phase response for all the subjects.

Instantaneous changes in heart rate regulation due to mental load in simulated office work.

The cardiac regulation effects of a mental task added to regular office work are described. More insight into the time evolution during the different tasks is created by using time-frequency analysis (TFA). Continuous wavelet transformation was applied to create time series of instantaneous power and frequency in specified frequency bands (LF 0.

Detection algorithm for single motor unit firing in surface EMG of the trapezius muscle.

Background: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) of the neck and the shoulders are a growing problem in society. An interesting pattern of spontaneous muscle activity, the firing of a single motor unit, in the trapezius muscle is observed during a laboratory study in a rest state or a state with a mental load.

Objective: In this study, we report on the finding of the single motor unit firing and we present a detection algorithm to localize these single motor unit firings.

Source separation from single-channel recordings by combining empirical-mode decomposition and independent component analysis.

In biomedical signal processing, it is often the case that many sources are mixed into the measured signal. The goal is usually to analyze one or several of them separately. In the case of multichannel measurements, several blind source separation techniques are available for decomposing the signal into its components [e.

Sigh rate and respiratory variability during mental load and sustained attention.

Spontaneous breathing consists of substantial correlated variability: Parameters characterizing a breath are correlated with parameters characterizing previous and future breaths. On the basis of dynamic system theory, negative emotion states are predicted to reduce correlated variability whereas sustained attention is expected to reduce total respiratory variability. Both are predicted to evoke sighing.

Take a deep breath: the relief effect of spontaneous and instructed sighs.

Spontaneous sighing is related to subjective relief of negative emotional states. Whether this also applies to instructed sighing is not known. The present study aimed to investigate sEMG and respiratory variability (1) during recovery from mental stress with and without an instructed sigh; (2) before and after spontaneous sighs throughout the experiment.

Textile integrated contactless EMG sensing for stress analysis.

Stress has become an important issue in today's society. Forty to fifty percent of the work related illnesses are directly or indirectly related to stress. In the ConText project, a biofeedback shirt for daily use is being developed to register muscle activity.

Wavelet-independent component analysis to remove electrocardiography contamination in surface electromyography.

Removing artifacts from biomedical signals, such as surface electromyography (sEMG), has become a major research topic in biomedical signal processing. In electromyography signals, a source of contamination is the electrophysiological signal of the heart (ECG signals). This contamination influences features extracted from the sEMG, especially during low-activity measurements of the muscles such as during mental stress.