Verso le Città Cognitive. Un esempio di classificatore fuzzy: il bot parcheggiatore

Le città cognitive (Portmann, Seising e Tabacchi, 2017) sono una possibile evoluzione delle smart cities (Portmann e Fingers, 2016). Nella progettazione di una città cognitiva si tiene conto, oltre che della rete di sensori ed attuatori che contribuiscono alla condivisione dei dati, anche del rapporto tra la città ed il cittadino; a questo fine sono utilizzate una serie di tecnologie proprie della Computational Intelligence (Kacprzyk e Pedrycz, 2015), quali Metaeuristiche, Algoritmi evolutivi e genetici e metodologie Soft Computing per includere nel dialogo non solo vaste moli di dati, ma la possibilità di analisi introspettive che utilizzino come interfaccia da e verso gli utenti i linguaggi naturali e le logiche imprecise (Perticone e Tabacchi, 2016, D’Asaro et al., 2017). In questo lavoro presentiamo un esempio schematico di assistente virtuale basato sui classificatori a regole fuzzy (Magdalena, 2015), che utilizza ed integra gli open data prodotti dalla smart city con metodi linguistici per la classificazione al fine di indicare all’utente la convenienza nella scelta di un parcheggio in una realtà non conosciuta

Physical activity measured by implanted devices predicts atrial arrhythmias and patient outcome: Results of IMPLANTED (Italian Multicentre Observational Registry on Patients With Implantable Devices Remotely Monitored)

Background--To determine whether daily physical activity (PA), as measured by implanted devices (through accelerometer sensor), was related to the risk of developing atrial arrhythmias during long-term follow-up in a population of heart failure (HF) patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). Methods and Results--The study population was divided into 2 equally sized groups (PA cutoff point: 3.5 h/d) according to their mean daily PA recorded by the device during the 30- to 60-day period post-ICD implantation. Propensity score matching was used to compare 2 equally sized cohorts with similar characteristics between lower and higher activity patients. The primary end point was time free from the first atrial high-rate episode (AHRE) of duration 656 minutes. Secondary end points were: first AHRE 656 hours, first AHRE 6548 hours, and a combined end point of death or HF hospitalization. Data from 770 patients (65\ub115 years; 66% men; left ventricular ejection fraction 35\ub112%) remotely monitored for a median of 25 months were analyzed. A PA =3.5 h/d was associated with a 38% relative reduction in the risk of AHRE 656 minutes (72-month cumulative survival: 75.0% versus 68.1%; log rank P=0.025), and with a reduction in the risk of AHRE 656 hours, AHRE 6548 hours, and the combined end point of death or HF hospitalization (all P < 0.05). Conclusions--In HF patients with ICD, a low level of daily PA was associated with a higher risk of atrial arrhythmias, regardless of the patients' baseline characteristics. In addition, a lower daily PA predicted death or HF hospitalization

Accessing and Selecting Menu Items by In-Air Touch

Is it possible to realize a non-visual, purely tactile version of an icon-based menu? Driven by such question, a hierarchical tactile dock was designed for an array of ultrasound emitters. The icons were conceived as spatio-temporal variable-speed sequences of tactile stimulation points, that are passively perceived as trajectories drawn on the palm of the hand. The recognition rate on four icons largely improved prior performance results obtained by active haptic exploration. As a result, a four-icons set can be used as the first level of a hierarchy of symbols that can be navigated by touch and gesture. The design process, based on controlled recognition experiments and exploration of dissimilarity data, can be iterated to converge to a set of icons that are suitable for a functional tactile doc

Network Centralities and Node Ranking

An important problem in network analysis is understanding how much nodes are important in order to “propagate” the information across the input network. To this aim, many centrality measures have been proposed in the literature and our main goal here is that of providing an overview of the most important of them. In particular, we distinguish centrality measures based on walks computation from those based on shortest-paths computation. We also provide some examples in order to clarify how these measures can be calculated, with special attention to Degree Centrality, Closeness Centrality and Betweennes Centrality

Comparison of the effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy in patients with class II versus class III and IV heart failure (from the InSync/InSync ICD Italian Registry)

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is recommended for patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III or IV heart failure and wide QRS complexes. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of CRT in patients in NYHA class II with those in NYHA class III or IV. Nine hundred fifty-two patients (188 in NYHA class II) consecutively implanted with biventricular devices and enrolled in a national observational registry were studied. Clinical outcomes were estimated after 12 months of CRT, and long-term survival was assessed. At a median follow-up of 16 months, significantly fewer major cardiovascular events were reported in patients in NYHA class II compared with NYHA class III or IV (rate 13 vs 23 per 100 patient-years of follow-up, p<0.001). The percentage of patients who improved in NYHA class status after 12 months of CRT was lower in those in class II than in those in class III or IV (34% vs 69%, p<0.001), whereas the absolute increase in the ejection fraction was similar (8+/-9% vs 9+/-11%, p=NS), as well as the reductions in end-diastolic diameter (-3+/-8 vs -3+/-8 mm, p=NS) and end-systolic diameter (-4+/-10 vs -6+/-10 mm, p=NS). The NYHA class II group experienced lower all-cause mortality (log-rank test p=0.018). In the 2 groups, patients with major cardiovascular events during follow-up exhibited less or no reverse remodeling compared with those with better long-term clinical outcomes. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that CRT induced similar improvements in ventricular function in the 2 groups, whereas the improvement in functional status was significantly lower for patients in NYHA class II than for those in class III or IV. A positive effect of CRT on cardiac dimensions was associated with a long-term beneficial effect on disease progression in patients in NYHA class II

Temporary transvenous cardiac pacing: a survey on current practice

Temporary transvenous cardiac pacing (TTCP) is a standard procedure in current practice, despite limited coverage in consensus guidelines. However, many authors reported several complications associated with TTCP, especially development of infections of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED). The aim of this survey was to provide a country-wide picture of current practice regarding TTCP.BACKGROUND: Temporary transvenous cardiac pacing (TTCP) is a standard procedure in current practice, despite limited coverage in consensus guidelines. However, many authors reported several complications associated with TTCP, especially development of infections of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED). The aim of this survey was to provide a country-wide picture of current practice regarding TTCP. METHODS: Data were collected using an online survey that was administered to members of the Italian Association of Arrhythmology and Cardiac Pacing. RESULTS: We collected data from 102 physicians, working in 81 Italian hospitals from 17/21 regions. Our data evidenced that different strategies are adopted in case of acute bradycardia with a tendency to limit TTCP mainly to advanced atrioventricular block. However, some centers reported a greater use in elective procedures. TTCP is usually performed by electrophysiologists or interventional cardiologists and, differently from previous reports, mainly by a femoral approach and with nonfloating catheters. We found high inhomogeneity regarding prevention of infections and thromboembolic complications and in post-TTCP management, associated with different TTCP volumes and a strategy for management of acute bradyarrhythmias. CONCLUSION: This survey evidenced a high inhomogeneity in the approaches adopted by Italian cardiologists for TTCP. Further studies are needed to explore if these divergences are associated with different long-term outcomes, especially incidence of CIED-related infections