Etude de l’apport de la reconstruction des régions occultées du visage pour la reconnaissance des expressions

International audienceLa reconnaissance des expressions faciales en contexte d'interaction non contrôlée est, encore aujourd'hui, confrontée à un certain nombre de défis qui réduisent considérablement les performances des systèmes. Parmi ces défis, les occultations induites par les variations de pose de la tête ou par des objets externes (accessoires, mains, ...) impliquent une perte d'informations sur le visage. Différentes méthodes proposées dans la littérature tendent à résoudre ces problèmes soit en reconstruisant les régions occultées, soit en exploitant uniquement les informations au sein des régions visibles du visage. Dans cet article, nous étudions l'apport de la reconstruction des régions occultées, par rapport à l'exploitation efficace de l'information contenue dans les régions visibles du visage lors de la reconnaissance des expressions faciales

Amplification of LH response to LHRH by dopamine infusion in eugonadal women

Although the role of biogenic amines in the regulation of gonadotropin release has been studied extensively, the precise role of dopamine (DA) in stimulating LHRH and/or LH release is still controversial. In the present study 6 eugonadal women, aged 20-30, were given an LHRH infusion on day 6 of the menstrual cycle and the pattern and magnitude of LH and FSH responses were estimated. On day 6 of the next cycle, the experiment was repeated and DA was also infused beginning 60 min after the start of the LHRH infusion. Following LHRH infusion plasma LH showed a marked and significant rise with a mean peak increment at 4 h, and with a cumulative response (CR) of 9136 ± 955 mlU/ml/6h. The pattern of FSH response tended to parallel that of LH; however, mean peak increment at 4 h and a CR of 2640 ± 169 mlU/ml/6h were markedly lower. Plasma prolactin levels remained unchanged. Addition of DA to LHRH at 60 min evoked a significantly greater mean peak LH increment at 4 h and a CR of 15514 ± 1836 mlU/ml/6h (p<0.001). There were no significant changes in either mean FSH peak at 4 hr or in the CR (3257 ± 309 mlU/ml/6h). As expected, a highly significant (p<0.001) decrease in circulating PRL from 12.1 ± 3.1 to 3.0 ± 1.5 ng/ml was seen during DA infusion. In conclusion, DA given by iv infusion enhances LH response to LHRH in eugonadal women under the conditions of the present investigation, supporting a role for a dopaminergic component in the control of LH release in women

Influence of coniugated oestrogens on circulating oestradiol, oestrone, LH, FSH and prolactin levels in postmenopausal women

The effects on plasma 17-β-oestradiol (E 2), oestrone (E 1), LH, FSH and prolactin (PRL) levels of 1.5 mg conjugated oestrogen, administered daily per os for 20 consecutive days, was investigated in six postmenopausal women aged 60-68. Both E 2 and E 1 increased progressively and significantly (p0.05). LH and FSH decreased progressively and significantly (pp>0.02) was observed for plasma PRL during and after oestrogen administration. Such results indicate that in postmenopausal women the specific enzymatic mechanism of oestrogen interconversion is maintained and that there is no increase of prolactin. In this way, the possible effects on the development of breast cancer by elevated levels of this hormone, usually observed during long-term oestrogen therapy, would be avoided

Further data on beta-blockers and cancer. Observational study and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

Background: The aim of the present paper is to provide some further data on the relationship between β-blocker treatment and the incidence of cancer, using two different approaches (epidemiological study and meta-analysis of clinical trials). Methods: In a consecutive series of 1340 diabetic patients starting insulin therapy, 112 cases of cancer during a mean follow-up of 75.9 months were identified as first hospital admission or death. For each case, the controls were chosen randomly from those members of the cohort matched for age, sex and BMI. The main predefined analysis was the comparison of cases and controls for length of exposure to β-blockers and proportion of patients exposed using a conditional logistic regression which takes into account the matching structure. For the meta-analytic sub-study, an extensive search of Medline and the Cochrane Library (any date up to December 31st, 2011) was performed for all trials in which a β-blocker was used. Mantel-Haenszel Odds Ratios (MH-OR) with 95% confidence intervals for incident malignancies were calculated using a random effect model. Results: After adjusting for mean daily dose of glargine and metformin, and ischemic heart disease, exposure to β-blockers was associated with a reduced overall risk of cancer (HR 0.33 [0.13; 0.83], p = 0.019; HR for each month of exposure 0.87 [0.77; 0.98], p = 0.025). In the meta-analysis sub-study, performed on nine trials, β-blockers were associated with a non-significant trend toward lower risk of cancer (MH-OR 0.93 [0.86; 1.01], p = 0.070). Study limitation: Limitations of the observational study are the small sample size that limits the statistical power of analyses, that it was performed on diabetic patients only, and that diagnoses of malignancies were derived from administrative data. Conclusions: In conclusion, this research seem to confirm a possible beneficial effect of β-blockers against the risk of cancer development