Knowledge Distillation for Action Anticipation via Label Smoothing

Human capability to anticipate near future from visual observations and non-verbal cues is essential for developing intelligent systems that need to interact with people. Several research areas, such as human-robot interaction (HRI), assisted living or autonomous driving need to foresee future events to avoid crashes or help people. Egocentric scenarios are classic examples where action anticipation is applied due to their numerous applications. Such challenging task demands to capture and model domain's hidden structure to reduce prediction uncertainty. Since multiple actions may equally occur in the future, we treat action anticipation as a multi-label problem with missing labels extending the concept of label smoothing. This idea resembles the knowledge distillation process since useful information is injected into the model during training. We implement a multi-modal framework based on long short-term memory (LSTM) networks to summarize past observations and make predictions at different time steps. We perform extensive experiments on EPIC-Kitchens and EGTEA Gaze+ datasets including more than 2500 and 100 action classes, respectively. The experiments show that label smoothing systematically improves performance of state-of-the-art models for action anticipation.Comment: Accepted to ICPR 202

IGF-1 Restores Visual Cortex Plasticity in Adult Life by Reducing Local GABA Levels

The central nervous system architecture is markedly modified by sensory experience during early life, but a decline of plasticity occurs with age. Recent studies have challenged this dogma providing evidence that both pharmacological treatments and paradigms based on the manipulation of environmental stimulation levels can be successfully employed as strategies for enhancing plasticity in the adult nervous system. Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is a peptide implicated in prenatal and postnatal phases of brain development such as neurogenesis, neuronal differentiation, synaptogenesis, and experience-dependent plasticity. Here, using the visual system as a paradigmatic model, we report that IGF-1 reactivates neural plasticity in the adult brain. Exogenous administration of IGF-1 in the adult visual cortex, indeed, restores the susceptibility of cortical neurons to monocular deprivation and promotes the recovery of normal visual functions in adult amblyopic animals. These effects were accompanied by a marked reduction of intracortical GABA levels. Moreover, we show that a transitory increase of IGF-1 expression is associated to the plasticity reinstatement induced by environmental enrichment (EE) and that blocking IGF-1 action by means of the IGF-1 receptor antagonist JB1 prevents EE effects on plasticity processes

Intranasal delivery of BDNF rescues memory deficits in AD11 mice and reduces brain microgliosis

A decrease in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a neurotrophin essential for synaptic function, plasticity and neuronal survival, is evident early in the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD), being apparent in subjects with mild cognitive impairment or mild AD, and both proBDNF and mature BDNF levels are positively correlated with cognitive measures. BDNF delivery is, therefore, considered of great interest as a potentially useful therapeutic strategy to contrast AD. Invasive BDNF administration has indeed been recently used in animal models of AD with promising results in rescuing memory deficits, synaptic density and cell loss. Here, we tested whether non-invasive intranasal administration of different BDNF concentrations after the onset of cognitive and anatomical deficits (6 months of age) could rescue neuropathological and memory deficits in AD11 mice, a model of NGF deprivation-induced neurodegeneration. In addition to AD hallmarks, we investigated BDNF effects on microglia presence in the brain of AD11 mice, since alterations in microglia activation have been associated with ageing-related cognitive decline and with the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, including AD. We found that intranasal delivery of 42 pmol BDNF (1 mu M), but not PBS, was sufficient to completely rescue performance of AD11 mice both in the object recognition test and in the object context test. No further improvement was obtained with 420 pmol (10 mu M) BDNF dose. The strong improvement in memory performance in BDNF-treated mice was not accompanied by an amelioration of AD-like pathology, A beta burden, tau hyperphosphorylation and cholinergic deficit, but there was a dramatic decrease of CD11b immunoreactive brain microglia. These results reinforce the potential therapeutic uses of BDNF in AD and the non-invasive intranasal route as an effective delivery strategy of BDNF to the brain. They also strengthen the connection between neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative dementia and suggest microglia as a possible mediator of BDNF therapeutic actions in the brain

Effect of centre volume on pathological outcomes and postoperative complications after surgery for colorectal cancer: results of a multicentre national study

Background: The association between volume, complications and pathological outcomes is still under debate regarding colorectal cancer surgery. The aim of the study was to assess the association between centre volume and severe complications, mortality, less-than-radical oncologic surgery, and indications for neoadjuvant therapy.Methods: Retrospective analysis of 16,883 colorectal cancer cases from 80 centres (2018-2021). Outcomes: 30-day mortality; Clavien-Dindo grade >2 complications; removal of >= 12 lymph nodes; non-radical resection; neoadjuvant therapy. Quartiles of hospital volumes were classified as LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, and VERY HIGH. Independent predictors, both overall and for rectal cancer, were evaluated using logistic regression including age, gender, AJCC stage and cancer site.Results: LOW-volume centres reported a higher rate of severe postoperative complications (OR 1.50, 95% c.i. 1.15-1.096, P = 0.003). The rate of >= 12 lymph nodes removed in LOW-volume (OR 0.68, 95% c.i. 0.56-0.85, P < 0.001) and MEDIUM-volume (OR 0.72, 95% c.i. 0.62-0.83, P < 0.001) centres was lower than in VERY HIGH-volume centres. Of the 4676 rectal cancer patients, the rate of >= 12 lymph nodes removed was lower in LOW-volume than in VERY HIGH-volume centres (OR 0.57, 95% c.i. 0.41-0.80, P = 0.001). A lower rate of neoadjuvant chemoradiation was associated with HIGH (OR 0.66, 95% c.i. 0.56-0.77, P < 0.001), MEDIUM (OR 0.75, 95% c.i. 0.60-0.92, P = 0.006), and LOW (OR 0.70, 95% c.i. 0.52-0.94, P = 0.019) volume centres (vs. VERY HIGH).Conclusion: Colorectal cancer surgery in low-volume centres is at higher risk of suboptimal management, poor postoperative outcomes, and less-than-adequate oncologic resections. Centralisation of rectal cancer cases should be taken into consideration to optimise the outcomes

Valorización de Hudbay Perú S.A.C. (al cierre del año 2017)

El trabajo consiste valorizar Hudbay Perú S.A.C. (HBP), para lo cual se tendrán en cuenta los estados financieros auditados y públicos al 31 diciembre de 2017, y de años anteriores. También se utilizará información pública de Hudbay Minerals (HBM Corporativo) dirigida a los inversionistas en las bolsas de New York y Toronto, donde se empleará datos futuros de producción e inversión. HBP es una empresa minera peruana que no cotiza en bolsa, el dueño del 100% de acciones es HBM. El método de flujos de caja descontados es el que se utilizó en el trabajo. El valor patrimonial de HBP es US$1,022 Millones. En el gráfico Football Field, se muestra el valor de HBP, obtenido con distintos métodos de valorización. La recomendación de inversión al 31 de diciembre 2017, es que las acciones de HBM (Hudbay Minerals corporativo), están sobrevalorados, porque el valor de HBP derivado del Market Cap es mayor al valor de HBP obtenido con el método de flujo de caja descontado en US$ 597 millones

Moti di larga ampiezza nel processo di diseccitazione dei nuclei pesanti

Dottorato di ricerca in fisica. 8. ciclo. Coordinatore G. Carini. Tutore G. GiardinaConsiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7, Rome; Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale - P.za Cavalleggeri, 1, Florence / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

Quantum–Classical Hybrid Systems and Ehrenfest’s Theorem

The conceptual analysis of quantum mechanics brings to light that a theory inherently consistent with observations should be able to describe both quantum and classical systems, i.e., quantum–classical hybrids. For example, the orthodox interpretation of measurements requires the transient creation of quantum–classical hybrids. Despite its limitations in defining the classical limit, Ehrenfest’s theorem makes the simplest contact between quantum and classical mechanics. Here, we generalized the Ehrenfest theorem to bipartite quantum systems. To study quantum–classical hybrids, we employed a formalism based on operator-valued Wigner functions and quantum–classical brackets. We used this approach to derive the form of the Ehrenfest theorem for quantum–classical hybrids. We found that the time variation of the average energy of each component of the bipartite system is equal to the average of the symmetrized quantum dissipated power in both the quantum and the quantum–classical case. We expect that these theoretical results will be useful both to analyze quantum–classical hybrids and to develop self-consistent numerical algorithms for Ehrenfest-type simulations

The influence of the entrance channel dynamics on the evaporation residue formation

The dynamical effects of the entrance channel on the competition between quasifission and fusion processes, and on the evaporation residue formation are investigated. We have analyzed the results and compared our calculations with the experimental data obtained in the 16O + 204Pb and 96Zr + 124Sn reactions having very different mass asymmetries and leading to the 220Th* compound nucleus. We have found that different partial capture cross-sections σlcap(E) for these reactions lead to different fusion-quasifission competitions and, consequently, to different partial fusion cross-sections σlfus(E) of the compound nucleus formed in the two reactions. The dynamical conditions also affect the fission-evaporation competition of the excited intermediate nuclei along the CN de-excitation cascade and, consequently, the evaporation residue formation. © Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2004.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Effect of the entrance channel on the fission of the compound nucleus

The effects of entrance channel with different projectile and target nuclei combinations on the fission of the 90220Th*, 102254No* and 104256Rf* compound nuclei are investigated. The dependence of the de-excitation of the compound nucleus on the dynamics of the entrance channel is analyzed for the first time. We find that the fission branching ratio Γf= Γtot of the compound nucleus formed in the two different reactions with massive nuclei is different due to the dynamical effects in the entrance channel even at the same excitation energy E*. It is caused by the different partial fusion cross section σlfus (E) for those reactions. Consequently, the excitation function of evaporation residues measured in such reactions is strongly related to the effect of the entrance channel. This phenomenon is explained by the dependence of the capture and fusion cross sections on the orbital angular momentum of collision. ©2005 The Physical Society of Japan.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe