Space-time Zernike Moments and Pyramid Kernel Descriptors for Action Classification

Action recognition in videos is a relevant and challenging task of automatic semantic video analysis. Most successful approaches exploit local space-time descriptors. These descriptors are usually carefully engineered in order to obtain feature invariance to photometric and geometric variations. The main drawback of space-time descriptors is high dimensionality and efficiency. In this paper we propose a novel descriptor based on 3D Zernike moments computed for space-time patches. Moments are by construction not redundant and therefore optimal for compactness. Given the hierarchical structure of our descriptor we propose a novel similarity procedure that exploits this structure comparing features as pyramids. The approach is tested on a public dataset and compared with state-of-the art descriptors

Minimally invasive (flapless) crown lengthening by erbium: YAG laser in aesthetic zone

Crown lengthening is a surgical procedure aimed at exposure of a larger tooth surface by gingivectomy alone or with cortical bone remodelling for aesthetic purposes in the anterior zone of the maxilla or for reconstruction of teeth affected by subgingival caries. We report two cases of crown lengthening in the anterior maxilla for aesthetic purposes by gingival and bone re-contouring performed by erbium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (erbium:YAG) laser. As highlighted in this report, the erbium:YAG laser-assisted crown lengthening is less invasive and also leads to faster clinical outcomes in contrast to the conventional surgical technique by scalpel incision, flap elevation and osteoplastic

A minimally invasive technique for short spiral implant insertion with contextual crestal sinus lifting in the atrophic maxilla: A preliminary report

The most recently reported techniques for the rehabilitation of the atrophic posterior maxilla are increasingly less invasive, as they are generally oriented to avoid sinus floor elevation with lateral access. The authors describe a mini-invasive surgical technique for short spiral implant insertion for the prosthetic rehabilitation of the atrophic posterior maxilla, which could be considered a combination of several previously described techniques based on the under-preparation of the implant site to improve fixture primary stability and crestal approach to the sinus floor elevation without heterologous bone graft. Eighty short spiral implants were inserted in the molar area of the maxilla in patients with 4.5–6 mm of alveolar bone, measured on pre-operative computed tomography. The surgical technique involved careful drilling for the preparation of implant sites at differentiated depths, allowing bone dislocation in the apical direction, traumatic crestal sinus membrane elevation, and insertion of an implant (with spiral morphology) longer than pre-operative measurements. Prostheses were all single crowns. In all cases, a spiral implant 2–4 mm longer than the residual bone was placed. Only two implants were lost due to peri-implantitis but subsequently replaced and followed-up. Bone loss values around the implants after three months (at the re-opening) ranged from 0 to 0.6 mm, (median value: 0.1 mm), while after two years, the same values ranged from 0.4 to 1.3 mm (median value: 0.7 mm). Clinical post-operative complications did not occur. After ten years, no implant has been lost. Overall, the described protocol seems to show good results in terms of predictability and patient compliance

Fibrolipoma gigante de la mejilla: a propósito de un caso

El fibrolipoma es una neoplasia de origen mesenquimal, rara en la cavidad oral, representando el 1% de todos los tumores benignos orales. Es una variante histológica del lipoma simple, que normalmente se manifiesta a nivel de la mucosa oral, suelo de la boca, lengua y labios. La etiología suele ser traumática cuando afecta localizaciones extraorales, mientras se considera idiopática al manifestarse a nivel bucal. En este artículo se presenta un raro caso de fibrolipoma de mejilla, y se discuten los aspectos diagnósticos, histo-patológicos y de tratamiento de acuerdo a la literatura. Lipomas are common soft tissue mesenchymal neoplasms, rare in the oral cavity, representing 1% of all benign oral tumors. Fibrolipoma is a histological variant of the classic lipoma which normally affects buccal mucosa, floor of the mouth, tongue and lips. In this article is presented a rare case of fibrolipoma of the cheek and are discussed all the aspects of diagnosis, histology and surgical treatment, according to literature data

Evaluating the impact of sex-biased genetic admixture in the americas through the analysis of haplotype data

A general imbalance in the proportion of disembarked males and females in the Americas has been documented during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the Colonial Era and, although less prominent, more recently. This imbalance may have left a signature on the genomes of modern-day populations characterised by high levels of admixture. The analysis of the uniparental systems and the evaluation of continental proportion ratio of autosomal and X chromosomes revealed a general sex imbalance towards males for European and females for African and Indigenous American ancestries. However, the consistency and degree of this imbalance are variable, suggesting that other factors, such as cultural and social practices, may have played a role in shaping it. Moreover, very few investigations have evaluated the sex imbalance using haplotype data, containing more critical information than genotypes. Here, we analysed genome-wide data for more than 5000 admixed American individuals to assess the presence, direction and magnitude of sex-biased admixture in the Americas. For this purpose, we applied two haplotype-based approaches, ELAI and NNLS, and we compared them with a genotype-based method, ADMIXTURE. In doing so, besides a general agreement between methods, we unravelled that the post-colonial admixture dynamics show higher complexity than previously described

Assessing temporal and geographic contacts across the Adriatic Sea through the analysis of genome-wide data from Southern Italy

Southern Italy was characterised by a complex prehistory that started with different Palaeolithic cultures, later followed by the Neolithization and the demic dispersal from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe during the Bronze Age. Archaeological and historical evidences point to a link between Southern Italians and the Balkans still present in modern times. To shed light on these dynamics, we analysed around 700 South Mediterranean genomes com-bined with informative ancient DNAs. Our findings revealed high affinities of South-Eastern Italians with modern Eastern Peloponnesians, and a closer affinity of ancient Greek genomes with those from specific regions of South Italy than modern Greek genomes. The higher similarity could be associated with a Bronze Age component ultimately originating from the Caucasus with high Iranian and Anatolian Neolithic ancestries. Furthermore, extremely differentiated allele frequencies among Northern and Southern Italy revealed putatively adapted SNPs in genes involved in alcohol metabolism, nevi features and immunological traits

The mitogenome portrait of Umbria in Central Italy as depicted by contemporary inhabitants and pre-Roman remains

Umbria is located in Central Italy and took the name from its ancient inhabitants, the Umbri, whose origins are still debated. Here, we investigated the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation of 545 present-day Umbrians (with 198 entire mitogenomes) and 28 pre-Roman individuals (obtaining 19 ancient mtDNAs) excavated from the necropolis of Plestia. We found a rather homogeneous distribution of western Eurasian lineages across the region, with few notable exceptions. Contemporary inhabitants of the eastern part, delimited by the Tiber River and the Apennine Mountains, manifest a peculiar mitochondrial proximity to central-eastern Europeans, mainly due to haplogroups U4 and U5a, and an overrepresentation of J (30%) similar to the pre-Roman remains, also excavated in East Umbria. Local genetic continuities are further attested to by six terminal branches (H1e1, J1c3, J2b1, U2e2a, U8b1b1 and K1a4a) shared between ancient and modern mitogenomes. Eventually, we identified multiple inputs from various population sources that likely shaped the mitochondrial gene pool of ancient Umbri over time, since early Neolithic, including gene flows with central-eastern Europe. This diachronic mtDNA portrait of Umbria fits well with the genome-wide population structure identified on the entire peninsula and with historical sources that list the Umbri among the most ancient Italic populations.We are grateful to Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria, to Istituto Comprensivo Statale Foligno 5 (Perugia) and to all the volunteers who generously participated in this survey and made this research possible. We thank our colleagues Prof. Fausto Panara and Dr. Livia Lucentini with whom we have been discussing the feasibility and the first steps of this project, and Prof. Cristina Cereda, Dr. Gaetano Grieco, Dr. Marialuisa Valente, Dr. Nicole Huber and Jannika Oeke for technical support. We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and thoughtful comments. This research received support from: the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research projects FIR2012 RBFR126B8I (to AO and AA), PRIN2017 20174BTC4R (to AA); Dipartimenti di Eccellenza Program (2018–2022)—Department of Biology and Biotechnology “L. Spallanzani,” University of Pavia (to AA, AO, OS and AT) and Department of Biology, University of Florence (to DC); the Fondazione Cariplo (project no. 2018–2045 to AA, AO and AT); the Fon-dazione Carifol (2008 to AA) and the Tiroler Wissenschaftsfonds (TWF) (UNI-404/1998) (to MB)

The Mitogenome Relationships and Phylogeography of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica)

The barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) poses a number of fascinating scientific questions, including the taxonomic status of postulated subspecies. Here, we obtained and assessed the sequence variation of 411 complete mitogenomes, mainly from the European H. r. rustica, but other subspecies as well. In almost every case, we observed subspecies-specific haplogroups, which we employed together with estimated radiation times to postulate a model for the geographical and temporal worldwide spread of the species. The female barn swallow carrying the Hirundo rustica ancestral mitogenome left Africa (or its vicinity) around 280 thousand years ago (kya), and her descendants expanded first into Eurasia and then, at least 51kya, into the Americas, from where a relatively recent (<20kya) back migration to Asia took place. The exception to the haplogroup subspecies specificity is represented by the sedentary Levantine H. r.Transitiva that extensively shares haplogroup A with the migratory European H. r. rustica and, to a lesser extent, haplogroup B with the Egyptian H. r. savignii. Our data indicate that rustica and transitiva most likely derive from a sedentary Levantine population source that split at the end of the Younger Dryas (YD) (11.7kya). Since then, however, transitiva received genetic inputs from and admixed with both the closely related rustica and the adjacent savignii. Demographic analyses confirm this species' strong link with climate fluctuations and human activities making it an excellent indicator for monitoring and assessing the impact of current global changes on wildlife

Development of CGEM technology for ultra-light tracking detectors : the KLOE-2 Inner Tracker

KLOE-2 at the $\phi$ -factory DA\Phi NE of INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF), is the first experiment using the GEM technology with a cylindrical geometry (CGEM), developed at the LNF by the Inner Tracker group and within the RD51 Collaboration. Four layers with 26$\div$ 41 cm diameters and L = 70 cm, each realized as a Triple-GEM detector, compose this new detector. To produce GEM foils of unprecedented size, the novel single-mask manufacturing procedure has been developed with the TE-MPE-EM CERN group, together with the realization of a novel XV readout pattern. The adopted solutions allowed the total material budget to be kept below 2% of the radiation length $X_{0}$. The final assembly of the Inner Tracker has been completed on March 14, 2014. The production procedure will be reported together with the validation test results

Archaeogenomic distinctiveness of the Isthmo-Colombian Area

The recently-enriched genomic history of Indigenous groups in the Americas is still meagre concerning continental Central America. Here, we report ten pre-Hispanic (plus two early colonial) genomes and 84 genome-wide profiles from seven groups presently living in Panama. Our analyses reveal that pre-Hispanic demographic events contributed to the extensive genetic structure currently seen in the area, which is also characterized by a distinctive Isthmo-Colombian Indigenous component. This component drives these populations on a specific variability axis and derives from the local admixture of different ancestries of northern North American origin(s). Two of these ancestries were differentially associated to Pleistocene Indigenous groups that also moved into South America leaving heterogenous genetic footprints. An additional Pleistocene ancestry was brought by UPopI, a still unsampled population that remained restricted to the Isthmian area, expanded locally during the early Holocene, and left genomic traces up to the present day