Mean shift clustering for personal photo album organization

In this paper we propose a probabilistic approach for the automatic organization of pictures in personal photo album. Images are analyzed in term of faces and low-level visual features of the background. The description of the background is based on RGB color histogram and on Gabor filter energy accounting for texture information. The face descriptor is obtained by projection of detected and rectified faces on a common low dimensional eigenspace. Vectors representing faces and background are clustered in an unsupervised fashion exploiting a mean shift clustering technique. We observed that, given the peculiarity of the domain of personal photo libraries where most of the pictures contain faces of a relatively small number of different individuals, clusters tend to be not only visually but also semantically significant. Experimental results are reported

Sex offenders dichiarati non imputabili per infermità mentale: caratteristiche cliniche e legali

Sexual offenders constitute a diversified group with mixed specifics, motive and criminal acts. Significant evidences in research suggest that these offenders suffer from large proportions of psychiatric disorders, along with psychotic disorders, mood disorders, paraphilic disorders and Substance Use Disorders. It has been recently ascertained considerable percentages of personality disorders among sex offenders as well: borderline/narcisistic/antisocial. This is a cross-sectional study in which we included all the patients admitted in the 8 REMSs in Castiglione delle Stiviere from January 2009 to December 2018 sentenced for sexual offenses. The result of this study is that most of individuals found NGRI for a sexual offense have a psychotic disorder as a primary diagnosis. The majority of our sample was known by the local mental health services, even if the proportion of whom were not known was high.I sex offender rappresentano un gruppo eterogeneo di autori di reato con motivazioni varie. Le evidenze scientifiche suggeriscono che questi autori di reato, in larga parte sono affetti da disturbi mentali. Fra di essi disturbi psicotici, disturbi dell’umore, disturbi parafilici e disturbi da uso di sostanze e, del tutto recentemente, disturbi di personalità, fra cui in particolare, disturbo borderline, narcisitico ed antisociale di personalità. Il presente studio è trasversale: abbiamo incluso tutti i pazienti ammessi nelle 8 REMS di Castiglione delle Stiviere da gennaio 2009 a dicembre 2018 per aver commesso reati sessuali. Lo studio ha dimostrato che la grande maggioranza dei sex offender con vizio totale di mente erano affetti da un disturbo psicotico. Per lo più si trattava di pazienti già noti ai servizi psichiatrici, sebbene fosse alta anche la percentuali di quelli sconosciuti

Experimentant les Matemàtiques

En aquest treball farem un breu resum de les activitats que s'estan fent al departament de Matemàtiques de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) per mostrar quina és la presència de les matemàtiques en el món actual i compartir la passió per aquesta ciència amb tota la societat i molt en particular amb els estudiants no universitaris

Novel Mechanisms of Tumor Promotion by the Insulin Receptor Isoform A in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells

The insulin receptor isoform A (IR-A) plays an increasingly recognized role in fetal growth and tumor biology in response to circulating insulin and/or locally produced IGF2. This role seems not to be shared by the IR isoform B (IR-B). We aimed to dissect the specific impact of IR isoforms in modulating insulin signaling in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. We generated murine 4T1 TNBC cells deleted from the endogenous insulin receptor (INSR) gene and expressing comparable levels of either human IR-A or IR-B. We then measured IR isoform-specific in vitro and in vivo biological effects and transcriptome in response to insulin. Overall, the IR-A was more potent than the IR-B in mediating cell migration, invasion, and in vivo tumor growth. Transcriptome analysis showed that approximately 89% of insulin-stimulated transcripts depended solely on the expression of the specific isoform. Notably, in cells overexpressing IR-A, insulin strongly induced genes involved in tumor progression and immune evasion including chemokines and genes related to innate immunity. Conversely, in IR-B overexpressing cells, insulin predominantly induced the expression of genes primarily involved in the regulation of metabolic pathways and, to a lesser extent, tumor growth and angiogenesis

Clusters of patients with candidaemia due to genotypes of Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis: differences in frequency between hospitals

The presence of clusters (identical genotypes infecting different patients) suggests patient-to-patient transmission or a common source for strains. We report the results of a genotyping study based on microsatellite markers of Candida albicans (n = 179) and Candida parapsilosis (n = 76) causing candidaemia, to assess and compare the percentage of patients grouped in clusters during the study period (January 2010 to December 2012). The study was performed in two large tertiary hospitals in Madrid, Spain. We detected 145 C. albicans genotypes (21 in clusters) and 63 C. parapsilosis genotypes (seven in clusters). Clusters involved two to seven patients each. Most of the clusters in the two centres involved two patients for both species, but the number of patients included in each cluster differed between hospitals. Considering both species, the percentage of patients per cluster ranged from 19% to 38% (p < 0.05) in Hospital A and B respectively. Up to 2.9% of genotypes were present in both hospitals. Clusters of C. albicans and C. parapsilosis genotypes causing candidaemia differed between hospitals, suggesting differences in strain transmission. Occasionally, the same genotypes were found in patients admitted to different hospitals located in the same city

Mir-214-Dependent Regulation of the Polycomb Protein Ezh2 in Skeletal Muscle and Embryonic Stem Cells

Arthur Manuscript date: 2010 October 9Polycomb group (PcG) proteins exert essential functions in the most disparate biological processes. The contribution of PcG proteins to cell commitment and differentiation relates to their ability to repress transcription of developmental regulators in embryonic stem (ES) cells and in committed cell lineages, including skeletal muscle cells (SMC). PcG proteins are preferentially removed from transcribed regions, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, PcG proteins are found to occupy and repress transcription from an intronic region containing the microRNA miR-214 in undifferentiated SMC. Differentiation coincides with PcG disengagement, recruitment of the developmental regulators MyoD and myogenin, and activation of miR-214 transcription. Once transcribed, miR-214 negatively feeds back on PcG by targeting the Ezh2 3′UTR, the catalytic subunit of the PRC2 complex. miR-214-mediated Ezh2 protein reduction accelerates SMC differentiation and promotes unscheduled transcription of developmental regulators in ES cells. Thus, miR-214 and Ezh2 establish a regulatory loop controlling PcG-dependent gene expression during differentiation.National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (U.S.) (Intramural Research Program

Age differences in physiological responses to self-paced and incremental V˙O2max\dot V O_{2max} testing

Purpose: A self-paced maximal exercise protocol has demonstrated higher $\dot V O_{2max}$ values when compared against traditional tests. The aim was to compare physiological responses to this self-paced $\dot V O_{2max}$ protocol (SPV) in comparison to a traditional ramp $\dot V O_{2max}$ (RAMP) protocol in young (18–30 years) and old (50–75 years) participants. Methods: Forty-four participants (22 young; 22 old) completed both protocols in a randomised, counter-balanced, crossover design. The SPV included 5 × 2 min stages, participants were able to self-regulate their power output (PO) by using incremental ‘clamps’ in ratings of perceived exertion. The RAMP consisted of either 15 or 20 W min$^{−1}$. Results: Expired gases, cardiac output (Q), stroke volume (SV), muscular deoxyhaemoglobin (deoxyHb) and electromyography (EMG) at the vastus lateralis were recorded throughout. Results demonstrated significantly higher $\dot V O_{2max}$ in the SPV (49.68 ± 10.26 ml kg$^{−1}$ min$^{−1}$) vs. the RAMP (47.70 ± 9.98 ml kg$^{−1}$ min$^{−1}$) in the young, but not in the old group (>0.05). Q and SV were significantly higher in the SPV vs. the RAMP in the young (0.05). No differences seen in deoxyHb and EMG for either age groups (>0.05). Peak PO was significantly higher in the SPV vs. the RAMP in both age groups (<0.05). Conclusion: Findings demonstrate that the SPV produces higher $\dot V O_{2max}$, peak Q and SV values in the young group. However, older participants achieved similar $\dot V O_{2max}$ values in both protocols, mostly likely due to age-related differences in cardiovascular responses to incremental exercise, despite them achieving a higher physiological workload in the SPV

Toxic mineral elements in Mytilus galloprovincialis from Sicilian coasts (Southern Italy)

We assessed the relationship between V, Cr, Mn, Hg, As, Cd, Sn, Sb and Pb concentrations in Mytilus galloprovincialis samples from the coasts of Sicily and the expression of metallothioneins. Toxic mineral elements assessment was carried out by A.A. Spectrometry and ICP-MS. The metallothioneins expression was performed by q-PCR method. Low metals' levels were found in the mussel samples examined, in comparison with what was reported in literature. The highest mean values of toxic mineral elements were found in Gela (Cr 0.178 ± 0.03 mg/Kg, Mn 4.325 ± 0.012 mg/Kg, As 3.706 ± 0.009 mg/Kg, Sn 0.148 ± 0.014 mg/Kg, Sb 0.009 ± 0.004 mg/Kg e Pb 0.364 ± 0.01 mg/Kg). Significant levels of Hg were found in samples from Catania (0.014 ± 0.005 mg/Kg). Only vanadium and lead concentrations showed significant differences between sampling areas (p &lt; 0.05). Molecular analysis verified a basal expression of Mt1 and the absence of over-expression of Mt2, confirming the low mineral's concentrations found in the samples examined