Detection and classification of man-made objects for the autonomy of underwater robots

Recent developments in marine technologies allow underwater vehicles to perform survey missions for data collection in an automatic way. The scientific community is now focusing on endowing these vehicles with strong perception capabilities, aiming at full autonomy and decision-making skills. Such abilities would bring benefits to a wide range of field applications, e.g. Inspection and Maintenance (I&M) of man-made structures, port security, and marine rescue. Indeed, most of these tasks are currently carried out employing remotely operated vehicles, making the presence of humans in water necessary. Projects like Metrological Evaluation and Testing of Robots in International CompetitionS (METRICS), funded by the European Commission, are promoting research on this field by organising events such as the Robotics for Asset Maintenance and Inspection (RAMI) competition. In particular, this competition requires participants to develop perception techniques capable of identifying a set of specific targets. Within such context, this paper presents an algorithm able to detect and classify Objects of Potential Interest (OPIs) in underwater camera images. First, the proposed solution compensates for the quality degradation of underwater images by applying color enhancement and restoration procedures. Then, it exploits deep-learning techniques, as well as color and shape based methods, to recognize and correctly label the predefined OPIs. Preliminary results of the implemented neural network using restored images are provided, and a mean Average Precision (mAP) of about 92% was achieved on the dataset provided to the RAMI competition participating teams by the NATO Science and Technology Organization Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (STO CMRE)

Increased emotional eating during COVID-19 associated with lockdown, psychological and social distress

Due to the spread of COVID 2019, the Italian government imposed a lockdown on the national territory. Initially, citizens were required to stay at home and not to mix with others outside of their household (Phase 1); eventually, some of these restrictions were lifted (Phase 2). To investigate the impact of lockdown on emotional and binge eating, an online survey was conducted to compare measures of self-reported physical (BMI), psychological (Alexithymia), affective (anxiety, stress, and depression) and social (income, workload) state during Phase 1 and Phase 2. Data from 365 Italian residents showed that increased emotional eating was predicted by higher depression, anxiety, quality of personal relationships, and quality of life, while the increase of bingeing was predicted by higher stress. Moreover, we showed that higher alexithymia scores were associated by increased emotional eating and higher BMI scores were associated with both increased emotional eating and binge eating. Finally, we found that from Phase 1 to Phase 2 binge and emotional eating decreased. These data provide evidence of the negative effects of isolation and lockdown on emotional wellbeing, and, relatedly, on eating behaviour

Shear-induced reaction-limited aggregation kinetics of Brownian particles at arbitrary concentrations

The aggregation of interacting Brownian particles in sheared concentrated suspensions is an important issue in colloid and soft matter science per se. Also, it serves as a model to understand biochemical reactions occurring in vivo where both crowding and shear play an important role. We present an effective medium approach within the Smoluchowski equation with shear which allows one to calculate the encounter kinetics through a potential barrier under shear at arbitrary colloid concentrations. Experiments on a model colloidal system in simple shear flow support the validity of the model in the range considered. By generalizing Kramers' rate theory to the presence of collective hydrodynamics, our model explains the significant increase in the shear-induced reaction-limited aggregation kinetics upon increasing the colloid concentration

Adaptive filtering for removing nonstationary physiological noise from resting state fMRI BOLD signals

fMRI is used to investigate brain functional connectivity after removing nonneural components by General Linear Model (GLM) approach with a reference ventricle-derived signal as covariate. Ventricle signals are related to low-frequency modulations of cardiac and respiratory rhythms, which are nonstationary activities. Herein, we employed an adaptive filtering approach to improve removing physiological noise from BOLD signals. Comparisons between filtering approaches were performed by evaluating the amount of removed signal variance and the connectivity between homologous contralateral regions of interest (ROIs). The global connectivity between ROIs was estimated with a generalized correlation named RV coefficient. The mean ROI decrease of variance was -52% and -11%, for adaptive filtering and GLM, respectively. Adaptive filtering led to higher connectivity between grey matter ROIs than that obtained with GLM. Thus, adaptive filtering is a feasible method for removing the physiological noise in the low frequency band and to highlight resting state functional networks

Central nervous system myeloma and unusual extramedullary localizations: real life practical guidance

Central nervous system localization of multiple myeloma (CNS-MM) accounts for about 1% of all MM during disease course or even rarer at diagnosis. A difference in the origin, i.e., osteodural or primary dural vs leptomeningeal/intraparenchymal, seems to define two distinct types of intracranial myeloma, with different clinical behavior. CNS-MM may occur also as a presentation of MM. Treatment is still unsatisfactory and many treatments have been reported: chemotherapy, intrathecal therapy, and radiotherapy, with dismal prognosis. Other sites of myeloma localization could be also of interest and deserve description. Because of the rarity and aggressiveness of the disease clinicians are often doubtful on how to treat it since there is no general agreement. Moreover, recent drugs such as the anti CD38 monoclonal antibody, immunomodulatory drugs, and proteasome inhibitors have changed the treatment of patients with MM with a significant improvement in overall response and survival. The role of novel agents in CNS MM management and unusual presentations will be discussed as well as the potential role of other new immunomodulatory drugs and proteasome inhibitors that seem to cross the blood-brain barrier. The purpose of this review is to increase awareness of the clinical unusual presentation and neuroradiological findings, give practical diagnostic advice and treatment options algorithm

Cardiocirculatory intraoperative assessment during single-shot caudal anaesthesia in children: comparison between levobupivacaine and ropivacaine

BACKGROUND: Caudal block with levobupivacaine or ropivacaine is the most commonly used regional anaesthesia in children. METHODS: The aim of study was to compare the cardiocirculatory profile induced in two matched groups of young patients, submitted to caudal anaesthesia with levobupivacaine or ropivacaine for an elective subumbilical surgery. Sixty children were enrolled: thirty received levopubivacaine 0.25% and thirty ropivacaine 0.2%. Intraoperative heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were monitored at following times: Ta0 (after anaesthesia induction), Tal (after caudal anaesthesia), Ta2 (five minutes later), Ta3 (ten minutes later), Ts1 (at surgical incision), Ts2, Ts3, Ts4, Ts5 (every 10 minutes during surgery), Taw (at the awakening). RESULTS: In both groups the cardiocirculatory trend remained within normal ranges at all times considered, demonstrating the safety of the method with both drugs. Both groups showed a similar trend at the different monitoring times: low decrease in HR, SBP and DBP after caudal block, slight increase in parameters after skin incision, slight decrease during surgery, increase at awakening. Regarding SBP and DBP, the levobupivacaine group children generally showed higher levels compared to the ropivacaine group, especially for DBP. CONCLUSIONS: Paediatric caudal anaesthesia is an effective method with an very infrequent complication rate. Possible hypotheses for differing haemodynamic behaviour could include a stronger vasoconstriction reflex of innervated areas during caudal anaesthesia with levobupivacaine and a lower levobupivacaine induced block of the sympathetic fibers, related to different pharmacokinetic profile of low concentrations of the local anaesthetics used in paediatric epidural space

Multimodal sensing in rewritable, data matrix azobenzene-based devices

Here, we exploited the UV light and thermal triggered E <-> Z photoisomerization of an azobenzene compound to fabricate multimodal readable and rewritable data matrix based devices. We first demonstrated that the UV light sensing capabilities can be simultaneously monitored by the change in optical, spectroscopic, and electrical properties. Then we exploited this capability by integrating tetra(azobenzene)methane crystals in a micrometric TAG whose information can be modified and repristinated by local UV treatment and thermal annealing. The system was characterized by polarized optical microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, conductive atomic force microscopy and Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy