Mobile Robot Localization using Panoramic Vision and Combinations of Feature Region Detectors

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2008, Pasadena, California, May 19-23, 2008), pp. 538-543.This paper presents a vision-based approach for mobile robot localization. The environmental model is topological. The new approach uses a constellation of different types of affine covariant regions to characterize a place. This type of representation permits a reliable and distinctive environment modeling. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated using a database of panoramic images from different rooms. Additionally, we compare different combinations of complementary feature region detectors to find the one that achieves the best results. Our experimental results show promising results for this new localization method. Additionally, similarly to what happens with single detectors, different combinations exhibit different strengths and weaknesses depending on the situation, suggesting that a context-aware method to combine the different detectors would improve the localization results.This work was partially supported by USC Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE), the FI grant from the Generalitat de Catalunya, the European Social Fund, and the MID-CBR project grant TIN2006-15140-C03-01 and FEDER funds and the grant 2005-SGR-00093

Correction to: Health-related qualify of life, angina type and coronary artery disease in patients with stable chest pain

The original article [1] contained an error in coauthor, Balazs Ruzsics’s name which has since been corrected

Health-related qualify of life, angina type and coronary artery disease in patients with stable chest pain

Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is impaired in patients with stable angina but patients often present with other forms of chest pain. The aim of this study was to compare the pre-diagnostic HRQoL in patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) according to angina type, gender, and presence of obstructive CAD. Methods: From the pilot study for the European DISCHARGE trial, we analysed data from 24 sites including 1263 patients (45.9% women, 61.1 ± 11.3 years) who were clinically referred for invasive coronary angiography (ICA; 617 patients) or coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA; 646 patients). Prior to the procedures, patients completed HRQoL questionnaires: the Short Form (SF)-12v2, the EuroQoL (EQ-5D-3 L) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Results: Fifty-five percent of ICA and 35% of CTA patients had typical angina, 23 and 33% had atypical angina, 18 and 28% had non-anginal chest discomfort and 5 and 5% had other chest discomfort, respectively. Patients with typical angina had the poorest physical functioning compared to the other angina groups (SF-12 physical component score; 41.2 ± 8.8, 43.3 ± 9.1, 46.2 ± 9.0, 46.4 ± 11.4, respectively, all age and gender-adjusted p < 0.01), and highest anxiety levels (8.3 ± 4.1, 7.5 ± 4.1, 6.5 ± 4.0, 4.7 ± 4.5, respectively, all adjusted p < 0.01). On all other measures, patients with typical or atypical angina had lower HRQoL compared to the two other groups (all adjusted p < 0.05). HRQoL did not differ between patients with and without obstructive CAD while women had worse HRQoL compared with men, irrespective of age and angina type. Conclusions: Prior to a diagnostic procedure for stable chest pain, HRQoL is associated with chest pain characteristics, but not with obstructive CAD, and is significantly lower in women. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02400229

Gene therapy for monogenic liver diseases: clinical successes, current challenges and future prospects

Over the last decade, pioneering liver-directed gene therapy trials for haemophilia B have achieved sustained clinical improvement after a single systemic injection of adeno-associated virus (AAV) derived vectors encoding the human factor IX cDNA. These trials demonstrate the potential of AAV technology to provide long-lasting clinical benefit in the treatment of monogenic liver disorders. Indeed, with more than ten ongoing or planned clinical trials for haemophilia A and B and dozens of trials planned for other inherited genetic/metabolic liver diseases, clinical translation is expanding rapidly. Gene therapy is likely to become an option for routine care of a subset of severe inherited genetic/metabolic liver diseases in the relatively near term. In this review, we aim to summarise the milestones in the development of gene therapy, present the different vector tools and their clinical applications for liver-directed gene therapy. AAV-derived vectors are emerging as the leading candidates for clinical translation of gene delivery to the liver. Therefore, we focus on clinical applications of AAV vectors in providing the most recent update on clinical outcomes of completed and ongoing gene therapy trials and comment on the current challenges that the field is facing for large-scale clinical translation. There is clearly an urgent need for more efficient therapies in many severe monogenic liver disorders, which will require careful risk-benefit analysis for each indication, especially in paediatrics

Radiological versus histological diagnosis in UIP and NSIP: survival implications

Background: High resolution computed tomography (HRCT) has an important diagnostic role in idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (IIP). We hypothesised that the HRCT appearance would have an impact on survival in patients with IIP. Methods: HRCT scans from patients with histological usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP; n=73) or histological non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP; n=23) were characterised as definite UIP, probable UIP, indeterminate, probable NSIP, or definite NSIP. Cox regression analysis examined the relationships between histopathological and radiological diagnoses and mortality, controlling for patient age, sex, and smoking status. Results: All 27 patients with definite or probable UIP on HRCT had histological UIP; 18 of 44 patients with probable or definite NSIP on HRCT had histological NSIP. Patients with HRCT diagnosed definite or probable UIP had a shorter survival than those with indeterminate CT (hazards ratio (HR) 2.43, 95% CI 1.06 to 5.58; median survival 2.08 v 5.76 years) or HRCT diagnosed definite or probable NSIP (HR 3.47, 95% CI 1.58 to 7.63; median survival 2.08 v 5.81 years). Patients with histological UIP with no HRCT diagnosis of probable or definite UIP fared better than patients with histological UIP and an HRCT diagnosis of definite or probable UIP (HR 0.49, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.98; median survival 5.76 v 2.08 years) and worse than those with a histological diagnosis of NSIP (HR 5.42, 95% CI 1.25 to 23.5; median survival 5.76 v >9 years). Conclusions: Patients with a typical HRCT appearance of UIP experience the highest mortality. A surgical lung biopsy is indicated for patients without an HRCT appearance of UIP to differentiate between histological UIP and NSIP