GReTA - a novel Global and Recursive Tracking Algorithm in three dimensions

Tracking multiple moving targets allows quantitative measure of the dynamic behavior in systems as diverse as animal groups in biology, turbulence in fluid dynamics and crowd and traffic control. In three dimensions, tracking several targets becomes increasingly hard since optical occlusions are very likely, i.e. two featureless targets frequently overlap for several frames. Occlusions are particularly frequent in biological groups such as bird flocks, fish schools, and insect swarms, a fact that has severely limited collective animal behavior field studies in the past. This paper presents a 3D tracking method that is robust in the case of severe occlusions. To ensure robustness, we adopt a global optimization approach that works on all objects and frames at once. To achieve practicality and scalability, we employ a divide and conquer formulation, thanks to which the computational complexity of the problem is reduced by orders of magnitude. We tested our algorithm with synthetic data, with experimental data of bird flocks and insect swarms and with public benchmark datasets, and show that our system yields high quality trajectories for hundreds of moving targets with severe overlap. The results obtained on very heterogeneous data show the potential applicability of our method to the most diverse experimental situations.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables. Version 3 was slightly shortened, and new comprative results on the public datasets (thermal infrared videos of flying bats) by Z. Wu and coworkers (2014) were included. in A. Attanasi et al., "GReTA - A Novel Global and Recursive Tracking Algorithm in Three Dimensions", IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell., vol.37 (2015

The development and co-design of the PATHway intervention: a theory-driven eHealth platform for the self-management of cardiovascular disease.

Background Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a leading cause of premature death and disability and an economic burden worldwide. International guidelines recommend routine availability and delivery of all phases of cardiac rehabilitation (CR). Uptake of traditional cardiac rehabilitation remains suboptimal, as attendance at formal hospital-based CR programmes is low, with community-based CR rates and individual long-term exercise maintenance even lower. Home-based CR programs have been shown to be equally effective in clinical and health-related quality of life outcomes, and yet are not readily available. Purpose The aim of the current study was to develop the PATHway intervention (Physical Activity Towards Health) for the self-management of cardiovascular disease. Increasing physical activity in individuals with CVD was the primary behaviour. Methods The PATHway intervention was theoretically informed by the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). All relevant intervention functions, behaviour change techniques (BCTs) and policy categories were identified and translated into intervention content. Furthermore, a person-centred approach was adopted involving an iterative co-design process and extensive user-testing. Results Education, enablement, modelling, persuasion, training and social restructuring were selected as appropriate intervention functions. Twenty-two BCTs, linked to the 6 intervention functions and 3 policy categories were identified for inclusion and translated into PATHway intervention content. Conclusions This paper details the use of the BCW and SCT within a person-centred framework to develop an eHealth intervention for the self-management of CVD. The systematic and transparent development of the PATHway intervention will facilitate the evaluation of intervention effectiveness and future replication. The Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist was used to specify details of the intervention including the who, what, how and where of proposed intervention delivery

Multicenter Observational Retrospective Study on Febrile Events in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treated with Cpx-351 in "Real-Life": The SEIFEM Experience

: In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the absolute risk of infection in the real-life setting of AML patients treated with CPX-351. The study included all patients with AML from 30 Italian hematology centers of the SEIFEM group who received CPX-351 from July 2018 to June 2021. There were 200 patients included. Overall, 336 CPX-351 courses were counted: all 200 patients received the first induction cycle, 18 patients (5%) received a second CPX-351 induction, while 86 patients (26%) proceeded with the first CPX-351 consolidation cycle, and 32 patients (10%) received a second CPX-351 consolidation. A total of 249 febrile events were recorded: 193 during the first or second induction, and 56 after the first or second consolidation. After the diagnostic work-up, 92 events (37%) were classified as febrile neutropenia of unknown origin (FUO), 118 (47%) were classifiable as microbiologically documented infections, and 39 (17%) were classifiable as clinically documented infections. The overall 30-day mortality rate was 14% (28/200). The attributable mortality-infection rate was 6% (15/249). A lack of response to the CPX-351 treatment was the only factor significantly associated with mortality in the multivariate analysis [p-value: 0.004, OR 0.05, 95% CI 0.01-0.39]. Our study confirms the good safety profile of CPX-351 in a real-life setting, with an incidence of infectious complications comparable to that of the pivotal studies; despite prolonged neutropenia, the incidence of fungal infections was low, as was infection-related mortality

Immediate versus delayed integrated point-of-care-ultrasonography to manage acute dyspnea in the emergency department

Background: Dyspnea is one of the most frequent complaints in the Emergency Department. Thoracic ultrasound should help to differentiate cardiogenic from non-cardiogenic causes of dyspnea. We evaluated whether the diagnostic accuracy can be improved by adding a point-of-care-ultrasonography (POC-US) to routine exams and if an early use of this technique produces any advantage. Methods: One hundred sixty-eight patients were enrolled and randomized in two groups: Group 1 received an immediate POC-US in addition to routine laboratory and instrumental tests; group 2 received an ultrasound scan within 1 h from the admission to the Emergency Department. The concordance between initial and final diagnosis and the percentage of wrong diagnosis in the two groups were evaluated. Mortality, days of hospitalization in Emergency Medicine department and transfers to other wards were compared. Sensitivity and specificity of the routine protocol and the one including ultrasonography for the diagnosis of the causes of dyspnea were also analyzed. Results: Eighty-eight patients were randomized in group 1 and 80 in group 2. The concordance rate between initial and final diagnoses was significantly different (0.94 in group 1 vs. 0.22 in group 2, p < 0.005). The percentage of wrong initial diagnosis was 5% in group 1 and 50% in group 2 (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Adding POC-US to routine exams improves the diagnostic accuracy of dyspnea and reduces errors in the Emergency Department

Left Ventricular Assist Device Implantation in a Thrombosed Apical Aneurysm

Left ventricular assist device implantation is a challenging procedure in the presence of a giant thrombosed aneurysm, and no standard surgical techniques are currently recommended in this setting. In this case, we report the successful implantation of a left ventricular assist device (HeartMate III) in a patient with a massive thrombosed apical aneurysm. The patient presented with extended antero-apical necrosis as a result of a delay in hospital admission for acute coronary syndrome due to the patient’s concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak

Growth arrest-inducing genes are activated in Dbl-transformed mouse fibroblasts

The Dbl oncogene is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for Rho GTPases and its activity has been linked to the regulation of gene transcription. Dbl oncogene expression in NIH3T3 cells leads to changes in morphological and proliferative properties of these cells, inducing a highly transformed phenotype. To gain insights into Dbl oncogene-induced transformation we compared gene expression profiles between Dbl oncogene-transformed and parental NIH3T3 cells by cDNA microarray. We found that Dbl oncogene expression is associated with gene expression modulation involving upregulation of 51 genes and downregulation of 49 genes. Five of the overexpressed genes identified are known to exert antiproliferative functions. Our observations suggest that the expression of Dbl oncogene in NIH3T3 may lead to the induction of genes associated with cell cycle arrest, possibly through the activation of stress-induced kinases