13 research outputs found
An integrated approach for automatic semantic structure extraction in document images
Abstract. In this paper we present an integrated approach for semantic structure extraction in document images. Document images are initially processed to extract both their layout and logical structures on the base of geometrical and spatial information. Then, textual content of logical components is employed for automatic semantic labeling of layout structures. To support the whole process different machine learning techniques are applied. Experimental results on a set of biomedical multi-page documents are discussed and future directions are drawn.
Interactions between transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and pharmacological interventions in the major depressive episode: findings from a naturalistic study
BACKGROUND:
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive, neuromodulatory technique with an emerging role for treating major depression.
OBJECTIVE:
To investigate the interactions between tDCS and drug therapy in unipolar and bipolar depressed patients who were refractory for at least one pharmacological treatment.
METHODS:
This was a naturalistic study using data from 54 female and 28 male patients (mean age of 54 years) that consecutively visited our psychiatric unit. They received active tDCS (five consecutive days, 2mA, anodal stimulation over the left and cathodal over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, twice a day, 20minutes). The outcome variable (mood) was evaluated using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). Predictor variables were age, gender, disorder and pharmacological treatment (seven dummy variables). We performed univariate and multivariate analyses as to identify predictors associated to the outcome.
RESULTS:
After 5 days of treatment, BDI and HDRS scores decreased significantly (29%\ub136%, 18%\ub19%, respectively, P<0.01 for both). Benzodiazepine use was independently associated with a worse outcome in both univariate (\u3b2=4.92, P<0.01) and multivariate (\u3b2=5.8, P<0.01) analyses; whereas use of dual-reuptake inhibitors positively changed tDCS effects in the multivariate model (\u3b2=-4.7, P=0.02). A similar trend was observed for tricyclics (\u3b2=-4, P=0.06) but not for antipsychotics, non-benzodiazepine anticonvulsants and other drugs.
CONCLUSION:
tDCS over the DLPFC acutely improved depressive symptoms. Besides the inherent limitations of our naturalistic design, our results suggest that tDCS effects might vary according to prior pharmacological treatment, notably benzodiazepines and some antidepressant classes. This issue should be further explored in controlled studies
High-resolution Structures of Ribosomal Subunits: Initiation, Inhibition, and Conformational Variability
Cognitive Performance in Euthymic Patients with Bipolar Disorder vs Healthy Controls: A Neuropsychological Investigation
Comparative Studies of Glutamine Synthetase Levels in the Brains of Patients with Schizophrenia and Mentally Healthy People
Premorbid academic and social functioning in patients with schizophrenia and its associations with negative symptoms and cognition
Objective: The study aimed to explore premorbid academic and social functioning in patients with schizophrenia, and its associations with the severity of negative symptoms and neurocognitive impairment. Method: Premorbid adjustment (PA) in patients with schizophrenia was compared to early adjustment in unaffected first-degree relatives and healthy controls. Its associations with psychopathology, cognition, and real-life functioning were investigated. The associations of PA with primary negative symptoms and their two factors were explored. Results: We found an impairment of academic and social PA in patients (P 64 0.000001) and an impairment of academic aspects of early adjustment in relatives (P 64 0.01). Patients with poor PA showed greater severity of negative symptoms (limited to avolition after excluding the effect of depression/parkinsonism), working memory, social cognition, and real-life functioning (P 64 0.01 to 640.000001). Worse academic and social PA were associated with greater severity of psychopathology, cognitive impairment, and real-life functioning impairment (P 64 0.000001). Regression analyses showed that worse PA in the academic domain was mainly associated to the impairment of working memory, whereas worse PA in the social domain to avolition (P 64 0.000001). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that poor early adjustment may represent a marker of vulnerability to schizophrenia and highlight the need for preventive/early interventions based on psychosocial and/or cognitive programs
Skewness and kurtosis of mean transverse momentum fluctuations at the LHC energies
The first measurements of skewness and kurtosis of mean transverse momentum (â©pTâȘ) fluctuations are reported in PbâPb collisions at sNN = 5.02 TeV, XeâXe collisions at sNN = 5.44 TeV and pp collisions at s=5.02 TeV using the ALICE detector. The measurements are carried out as a function of system size â©dNch/dηâȘ|η|<0.51/3, using charged particles with transverse momentum (pT) and pseudorapidity (η), in the range 0.2<pT<3.0 GeV/c and |η|<0.8, respectively. In PbâPb and XeâXe collisions, positive skewness is observed in the fluctuations of â©pTâȘ for all centralities, which is significantly larger than what would be expected in the scenario of independent particle emission. This positive skewness is considered a crucial consequence of the hydrodynamic evolution of the hot and dense nuclear matter created in heavy-ion collisions. Furthermore, similar observations of positive skewness for minimum bias pp collisions are also reported here. Kurtosis of â©pTâȘ fluctuations is found to be in good agreement with the kurtosis of Gaussian distribution, for most central PbâPb collisions. Hydrodynamic model calculations with MUSIC using Monte Carlo Glauber initial conditions are able to explain the measurements of both skewness and kurtosis qualitatively from semicentral to central collisions in PbâPb system. Color reconnection mechanism in PYTHIA8 model seems to play a pivotal role in capturing the qualitative behavior of the same measurements in pp collisions
System-size dependence of the hadronic rescattering effect at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
International audienceThe first measurements of K*(892)0 resonance production as a function of charged-particle multiplicity in Xe-Xe collisions at sNN=5.44 TeV and pp collisions ats=5.02 TeV using the ALICE detector are presented. The resonance is reconstructed at midrapidity (|y| < 0.5) using the hadronic decay channel K*0 âK±Ïâ. Measurements of transverse-momentum integrated yield, mean transverse-momentum, nuclear modification factor of K*0, and yield ratios of resonance to stable hadron (K*0/K) are compared across different collision systems (pp, p-Pb, Xe-Xe, and Pb-Pb) at similar collision energies to investigate how the production of K*0 resonances depends on the size of the system formed in these collisions. The hadronic rescattering effect is found to be independent of the size of colliding systems and mainly driven by the produced charged-particle multiplicity, which is a proxy of the volume of produced matter at the chemical freeze-out. In addition, the production yields of K*0 in Xe-Xe collisions are utilized to constrain the dependence of the kinetic freeze-out temperature on the system size using the hadron resonance gasâpartial chemical equilibrium model
Pseudorapidity dependence of anisotropic flow and its decorrelations using long-range multiparticle correlations in PbâPb and XeâXe collisions
The pseudorapidity dependence of elliptic (v2), triangular (v3), and quadrangular (v4) flow coefficients of charged particles measured in PbâPb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of sNN=5.02TeV and in XeâXe collisions at sNN=5.44TeV with ALICE at the LHC are presented. The measurements are performed in the pseudorapidity range â3.5<η<5 for various centrality intervals using two- and multi-particle cumulants with the subevent method. The flow probability density function (p.d.f.) is studied with the ratio of flow coefficient v2 calculated with four- and two-particle cumulant, and suggests that the variance of flow p.d.f. is independent of pseudorapidity. The decorrelation of the flow vector in the longitudinal direction is probed using two-particle correlations. The results measured with respect to different reference regions in pseudorapidity exhibit differences, argued to be a result of saturating decorrelation effect above a certain pseudorapidity separation, in contrast to previous publications which assign this observation to non-flow effects. The results are compared to 3+1 dimensional hydrodynamic and the AMPT transport model calculations. Neither of the models is able to simultaneously describe the pseudorapidity dependence of measurements of anisotropic flow and its fluctuations. The results presented in this work highlight shortcomings in our current understanding of initial conditions and subsequent system expansion in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, they provide input for its improvement
Accessing the strong interaction between Î baryons and charged kaons with the femtoscopy technique at the LHC
The interaction between Î baryons and kaons/antikaons is a crucial ingredient for the strangeness S=0 and S=â2 sector of the mesonâbaryon interaction at low energies. In particular, the ÎK⟠might help in understanding the origin of states such as the Î(1620), whose nature and properties are still under debate. Experimental data on ÎâK and ÎâK⟠systems are scarce, leading to large uncertainties and tension between the available theoretical predictions constrained by such data. In this Letter we present the measurements of ÎâKâ+ÎâŸâKâ and ÎâKââÎâŸâK+ correlations obtained in the high-multiplicity triggered data sample in pp collisions at s=13 TeV recorded by ALICE at the LHC. The correlation function for both pairs is modeled using the LednickĂœâLyuboshits analytical formula and the corresponding scattering parameters are extracted. The ÎâKââÎâŸâK+ correlations show the presence of several structures at relative momenta kâ above 200 MeV/c, compatible with the Ω baryon, the Î(1690), and Î(1820) resonances decaying into ÎâKâ pairs. The low kâ region in the ÎâKââÎâŸâK+ also exhibits the presence of the Î(1620) state, expected to strongly couple to the measured pair. The presented data allow to access the ÎK+ and ÎKâ strong interaction with an unprecedented precision and deliver the first experimental observation of the Î(1620) decaying into ÎKâ