Nonlinear estimators from ICA mixture models

"NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Signal Processing. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Signal Processing, 155, (2019) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sigpro.2018.10.003"[EN] Independent Component Analyzers Mixture Models (ICAMM) are versatile and general models for a large variety of probability density functions. In this paper we assume ICAMM to derive new MAP and LMSE estimators. The first one (MAP-ICAMM) is obtained by an iterative gradient algorithm, while the second (LMSE-ICAMM) admits a closed-form solution. Both estimators can be combined by using LMSE-ICAMM to initialize the iterative computation of MAP-ICAMM .The new estimators are applied to the reconstruction of missed channels in EEG multichannel analysis. The experiments demonstrate the superiority of the new estimators with respect to: Spherical Splines, Hermite, Partial Least Squares, Support Vector Regression, and Random Forest Regression. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work was supported by Spanish Administration (Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad) and European Union (FEDER) under grant TEC2014-58438-R, and Generalitat Valenciana under grant PROMETEO II/2014/032.Safont Armero, G.; Salazar Afanador, A.; Vergara Domínguez, L.; Rodriguez Martinez, A. (2019). Nonlinear estimators from ICA mixture models. Signal Processing. 155:281-286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sigpro.2018.10.003S28128615

Extensions of Independent Component Analysis Mixture Models for classification and prediction of EEG signals

[EN] This paper presents two applications of Independent Component Analysis Mixture Modeling (ICAMM) for the classification and prediction of data. The first one of these extensions is Sequential ICAMM (SICAMM), an ICAMM structure that takes into account the sequential dependence in the feature record. This algorithm can be used to classify input observations in a given set of mutually-exclusive classes. The performance of SICAMM is tested with simulations and compared against that of the base ICAMM algorithm and of a Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN). All three methods are also used to classify real electroencephalographic (EEG) signals to compute hypnograms, a clinical tool used to help in the diagnosis of sleep disorders. The second extension of ICAMM is PREDICAMM, an estimation algorithm that makes use of the ICAMM parameters in order to reconstruct missing samples from a set of data. This predictor is used to reconstruct real EEG data from a working memory experiment, and its performance is compared to that of a classical predictor for EEG signals: sphere splines. Prediction performance is measured with four error indicators: signal-to-interference ratio, KullbackLeibler divergence, correlation, and mean structural similarity index. Both extensions of the base ICAMM algorithm have achieved a higher performance than other methodsThis work has been supported by Universitat Politècnica de Valencia under grant 20130072, Generalitat Valenciana under grants PROMETEO/2010/040 and ISIC/2012/006; and Spanish Administration and European Union FEDER Programme under grant TEC2011-23403 01/01/2012. The PSG signals and annotated hypnograms were provided by the Electroencephalography Department of Hospital Universitario La Fe, Valencia, SpainSafont Armero, G.; Salazar Afanador, A.; Rodriguez Martinez, A.; Vergara Domínguez, L. (2013). Extensions of Independent Component Analysis Mixture Models for classification and prediction of EEG signals. WAVES. 5:59-68. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/52797S5968

Shared task representation for human–robot collaborative navigation: the collaborative search case

© The Author(s) 2023Recent research in Human Robot Collaboration (HRC) has spread and specialised in many sub-fields. Many show considerable advances, but the human–robot collaborative navigation (HRCN) field seems to be stuck focusing on implicit collaboration settings, on hypothetical or simulated task allocation problems, on shared autonomy or on having the human as a manager. This work takes a step forward by presenting an end-to-end system capable of handling real-world human–robot collaborative navigation tasks. This system makes use of the Social Reward Sources model (SRS), a knowledge representation to simultaneously tackle task allocation and path planning, proposes a multi-agent Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) planner for human–robot teams, presents the collaborative search as a testbed for HRCN and studies the usage of smartphones for communication in this setting. The detailed experiments prove the viability of the approach, explore collaboration roles adopted by the human–robot team and test the acceptability and utility of different communication interface designs.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This work was supported under the Spanish State Research Agency through the Maria de Maeztu Seal of Excellence to IRI (MDM-2016-0656) and ROCOTRANSP project (PID2019- 106702RB-C21 / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033), the European research grant TERRINet (H2020-INFRAIA-2017-1-730994) and by JST Moonshot R & D Grant Number JPMJMS2011-85.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Uma abordagem para o conhecimento da presença de marcadores neurobiológicos nagênese do suicídio

Suicide has always been one of the great enigmas of humanity. The present work aims to address the most current elements of the neurobiological genesis of suicidal behavior that can contribute to its prevention. Various searches were made of printed and digital materials based on queries in the online catalog of the Infomed virtual library, in multidisciplinary databases as well as certified digital journals. Among the most prominent neurobiological markers currently described are low levels of 5-HIAA in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), increased density of 5-HT1A receptors in the prefrontal cortex, decreased receptor binding sites serotonergic in the same region, decrease in platelet serotonin receptors, modification of the GABA-ergic system and benzodiazepine receptors, among others. Suicide has multidimensional qualities and a multifactorial etiopathogenesis, therefore, in the consummation of the suicidal act, genetic factors -neurobiological - psychopathological - family interaction - psychosocial stress should be considered. By way of conclusion, the neurobiological and psychosocial markers described seek to identify those individuals with a potential risk of suicide to establish a prevention measure, which requires their detection and intervention in time, seeking to avoid the occurrence of the first attempt and, in turn, the repetition of the act that entails to the fatal outcome.El suicidio ha constituido desde siempre uno de los grandes enigmas de la humanidad. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo abordar los elementos más actuales de la génesis neurobiológica de la conducta suicida que puedan contribuir a su prevención. Se realizaron diversas búsquedas en materiales impresos y digitales a partir de las consultas del catálogo online de la biblioteca virtual de Infomed, en bases de datos multidisciplinarias así como las revistas digitales certificadas. Entre los marcadores neurobiológicos descritos en la actualidad más destacados están bajos niveles del 5-HIAA en el líquido cefalorraquídeo (LCR), aumento de la densidad de los receptores 5-HT1A en la corteza pre- frontal, disminución de los sitios de unión del receptor serotoninérgico en la misma región, modificación del sistema GABA-érgico y los receptores benzodiazepínicos entre otros. A modo de conclusión se puede decir que los marcadores neurobiológicos y los factores psicopatológicos- de interacción familiar- de stress psicosocial descritos buscan identificar aquellos individuos con potencial riesgo de suicidio para establecer medidas de prevención, lo cual exige su detección e intervención a tiempo buscando evitar la ocurrencia del primer intento y a su vez la repetición del acto que conlleve al desenlace fatal.O suicídio sempre foi um dos grandes enigmas da humanidade. Este trabalho tem como objetivo abordar os elementos mais atuais da gênese neurobiológica do comportamento suicida que podem contribuir para sua prevenção. Diversas pesquisas foram realizadas em materiais impressos e digitais a partir das consultas de catálogo online da biblioteca virtual do Infomed, em bancos de dados multidisciplinares, bem como revistas digitais certificadas. Entre os marcadores neurobiológicos descritos hoje estão baixos níveis de 5-HIAA em fluido cefalorraquidiano (CSF), aumento da densidade de receptores 5-HT1A no córtex pré-frontal, diminuição dos locais de ligação do receptor de serotonina na mesma região, modificação do sistema alérgico-gaba e receptores benzodiazepínicos, entre outros. Por meio da conclusão, pode-se dizer que os marcadores neurobiológicos e psicopatológicos da interação familiar do estresse psicossocial descrito buscam identificar aqueles indivíduos com potencial risco de suicídio para estabelecer medidas de prevenção, o que requer sua detecção e intervenção no tempo buscando evitar a ocorrência da primeira tentativa e, por sua vez, a repetição do ato que leva ao desfecho fatal

Sustained high serum malondialdehyde levels are associated with severity and mortality in septic patients

This book digs into an area of international migration studies that has gained prominence in the past couple of decades: migrant smuggling. The regional focus is southern Europe, which receives immigrants from many African and Asian countries. Migrant smuggling is discussed in relation to EU and national policies, aimed at combating irregular migration, including increased surveillance and border controls.The authors are no newcomers to the field. Anna Triandafyllidou is a leading scholar in migration studies, having published extensively on various topics dealing with migration in Europe, and with a special interest in Greece and southern Europe. Thanos Maroukis, on the other hand, is an early career academic whose publications have focused specifically on migration in Greece. It is, therefore, not surprising that the authors approached this topic of migrant smuggling from Africa and Asia to Europe by focusing mainly on the situation in Greece and the Turkish-Greek route. The book is based on fieldwork, participant observation and interviews conducted in Athens. The empirical material is extensive, covering a broad range of actors.peer-reviewe

Evaluation of P22 ELISA for the Detection of Mycobacterium bovis-Specific Antibody in the Oral Fluid of Goats

The ante-mortem diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) in ruminants is based mainly on the intradermal tuberculin test and the IFN-γ assay. Antibody (Ab)-based tests have emerged as potential tools for the detection of TB infected animals using serum, plasma, or even milk samples. Oral fluids have also been evaluated as alternative samples with which to detect specific Abs against Mycobacterium bovis in pigs or wild boars, but not in ruminants. The objective of this study was, therefore, to evaluate the performance of an in house-ELISA for TB diagnosis (P22 ELISA) in goats as an experimental model for the diagnosis of TB using oral fluid samples. Oral fluid samples from 64 goats from a TB-infected herd (n = 197) and all the animals from a TB-free herd (n = 113) were analyzed using the P22 ELISA. The estimated sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) were 34.4% (95% CI: 22.4-45.6) and 100% (95% CI: 97.4-100), respectively. The optimal cut-off point was set at 100% according to the ROC analysis. Those animals with a higher level of Abs in their oral fluid attained a higher lesion score (p = 0.018). In fact, when taking into account only the setting of the animals with severe lesions (n = 16), the ELISA showed a Se of 75% (95% CI: 53.7-96.2). Results of the present study suggest that the P22 ELISA is highly specific but has a limited value detecting infected animals in oral fluid samples. Nevertheless, its performance is significantly higher in the presence of severe lesions.This study was funded by the Herramientas para alcanzar la erradicación de la tuberculosis caprina (GoaTBfree) project (PID2019-105155RB-C31) and the Spanish Government's Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación. JO was supported by an FPU (Formación de Profesorado Universitario) contract-fellowship provided by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (FPU18/05197).S

Fatty acid composition of lamb meat from Italian and German local breeds

The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the quality characteristics, chemical composition and lipid profile of lamb meat from Italian (Biellese and Sambucana) and German (Texel-Merino-Blackhead-Charollais [TMBC]) breeds reared in extensive and semi-extensive production systems. Meat samples from 89 animals were analysed. The meat of the lambs from semi-intensively reared Biellese, and extensively reared Sambucana and TMBC breeds produced lean meat, with slightly higher intramuscular fat content in TMBC. The latter also produced meat of darker colour (P lt 0.05) and higher protein content (P lt 0.05). The meat of Sambucana lambs presented the lowest total cholesterol content (P lt 0.05). The fatty acid profile of the meat showed a clear advantage of both extensively reared breeds, which had substantially lower proportion of saturated but higher of polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly n-3 (P lt 0.05). The beneficial effect of the extensive rearing conditions was associated with lower n-6/n3 ratio, and atherogenic and thrombogenic indices, thereby suggesting that production system can be used successfully to modify the fatty acid profile to achieve a positive effect for the human health.The authors are grateful to EU ERA-NET programme and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for funding the project “EcoLamb–Holistic Production to Reduce the Ecological Footprint of Meat (SusAn/0002/2016). CIMO authors are grateful to FCT and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020). Dr. Gonzales-Barron acknowledges the national funding by FCT, P.I., through the Institutional Scientific Employment Programme contract. Jos´e M. Lorenzo is member of the HealthyMeat network, funded by CYTED (ref. 119RT0568).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

CD69 expression on regulatory T cells protects from immune damage after myocardial infarction.

Increasing evidences advocate for an important function of T cells in controlling immune homeostasis and pathogenesis after myocardial infarction (MI), although the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. In this study, a broad analysis of immune markers in 283 patients revealed a significant CD69 overexpression on Treg cells after MI. Our results in mice showed that CD69 expression on Treg cells increased survival after left-anterior-descending coronary artery (LAD)-ligation. Cd69-/- mice developed strong IL-17+ γδT cell responses after ischemia that increased myocardial inflammation and, consequently, worsened cardiac function. CD69+ Treg cells, by induction of AhR-dependent CD39 ectonucleotidase activity, induced apoptosis and decreased IL-17A production in γδT cells. Adoptive transfer of CD69+ Treg cells to Cd69-/- mice after LAD-ligation reduced IL-17+ γδT cell recruitment, thus increasing survival. Consistently, clinical data from two independent cohorts of patients indicated that increased CD69 expression in peripheral blood cells after acute MI was associated with a lower risk of re-hospitalization for heart failure (HF) after 2.5 years of follow-up. This result remained significant after adjustment for age, sex and traditional cardiac damage biomarkers. Our data highlight CD69 expression on Treg cells as a potential prognostic factor and a therapeutic option to prevent HF after MI.This study was supported by competitive grants from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN), through the Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII)-Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (PI22/01759) to P.M.; RTI2018-094727-B-100 to J. M-G; Comunidad de Madrid grants S2017/BMD-3671-INFLAMUNE-CM to P.M. and FSM.; Fundació La Marató TV3 (20152330 31) to J.M-G and F.S-M.; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN) RTI2018-099357-B-I00, and CIBERFES (CB16/10/00282), Human Frontier Science Program (grant RGP0016/2018), and Leducq Transatlantic Networks (17CVD04) to JAE. AC is supported by Marie Skłodowska- Curie grant (agreement No. 713673). R.B-D. is supported by Formación de Profesorado Universitario (FPU16/02780) program from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. The CNIC is supported by the ISCIII, the MCIN and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2015-0505).S