Multi-task multiple kernel learning reveals relevant frequency bands for critical areas localization in focal epilepsy

The localization of epileptic zone in pharmacoresistant focal epileptic patients is a daunting task, typically performed by medical experts through visual inspection over highly sampled neural recordings. For a finer localization of the epileptogenic areas and a deeper understanding of the pathology both the identification of pathogenical biomarkers and the automatic characterization of epileptic signals are desirable. In this work we present a data integration learning method based on multi-level representation of stereo-electroencephalography recordings and multiple kernel learning. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to tackle both aspects simultaneously, as our approach is devised to classify critical vs. non-critical recordings while detecting the most discriminative frequency bands. The learning pipeline is applied to a data set of 18 patients for a total of 2347 neural recordings analyzed by medical experts. Without any prior knowledge assumption, the data-driven method reveals the most discriminative frequency bands for the localization of epileptic areas in the high-frequency spectrum (>=80 Hz) while showing high performance metric scores (mean balanced accuracy of 0.89 +- 0.03). The promising results may represent a starting point for the automatic search of clinical biomarkers of epileptogenicity

Catalogue of knowledge and skills for sleep medicine.

Sleep medicine is evolving globally into a medical subspeciality in its own right, and in parallel, behavioural sleep medicine and sleep technology are expanding rapidly. Educational programmes are being implemented at different levels in many European countries. However, these programmes would benefit from a common, interdisciplinary curriculum. This 'catalogue of knowledge and skills' for sleep medicine is proposed, therefore, as a template for developing more standardized curricula across Europe. The Board and The Sleep Medicine Committee of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) have compiled the catalogue based on textbooks, standard of practice publications, systematic reviews and professional experience, validated subsequently by an online survey completed by 110 delegates specialized in sleep medicine from different European countries. The catalogue comprises 10 chapters covering physiology, pathology, diagnostic and treatment procedures to societal and organizational aspects of sleep medicine. Required levels of knowledge and skills are defined, as is a proposed workload of 60 points according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). The catalogue is intended to be a basis for sleep medicine education, for sleep medicine courses and for sleep medicine examinations, serving not only physicians with a medical speciality degree, but also PhD and MSc health professionals such as clinical psychologists and scientists, technologists and nurses, all of whom may be involved professionally in sleep medicine. In the future, the catalogue will be revised in accordance with advances in the field of sleep medicine.Journal ArticleFLWINSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe