3D scanning of cultural heritage with consumer depth cameras

Three dimensional reconstruction of cultural heritage objects is an expensive and time-consuming process. Recent consumer real-time depth acquisition devices, like Microsoft Kinect, allow very fast and simple acquisition of 3D views. However 3D scanning with such devices is a challenging task due to the limited accuracy and reliability of the acquired data. This paper introduces a 3D reconstruction pipeline suited to use consumer depth cameras as hand-held scanners for cultural heritage objects. Several new contributions have been made to achieve this result. They include an ad-hoc filtering scheme that exploits the model of the error on the acquired data and a novel algorithm for the extraction of salient points exploiting both depth and color data. Then the salient points are used within a modified version of the ICP algorithm that exploits both geometry and color distances to precisely align the views even when geometry information is not sufficient to constrain the registration. The proposed method, although applicable to generic scenes, has been tuned to the acquisition of sculptures and in this connection its performance is rather interesting as the experimental results indicate

A real-world retrospective, observational study of first-line pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy for metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer with PD-L1 tumor proportion score < 50% (PEMBROREAL)

IntroductionThe phase III Keynote-189 trial established a first-line treatment combining pembrolizumab with pemetrexed and platinum as a standard treatment for patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without known EGFR and ALK driver mutations and independent of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression. However, in Italy, eligibility for the National Health Service payment program is limited to patients with PD-L1 &lt;50%. The PEMBROREAL study assesses the real-world effectiveness and safety of pembrolizumab in patients eligible for the National Health Service payment program.MethodsPEMBROREAL is a retrospective, observational study on patients with NSCLC who started pembrolizumab combined with pemetrexed and platinum within the reimbursability time window, considered as December 2019 to December 2020. The primary endpoints were to assess progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS; using the Kaplan–Meier method), response to therapy, and tolerability.ResultsUntil February 2022, 279 patients (median follow-up: 19.7 months) have been observed. The median PFS was 8.0 months (95% confidence interval: 6.5–9.2). OS was not reached, but we can estimate a 12- to 24-month survival rate for the combined treatment: 66.1% and 52.5%, respectively. PD-L1 expression and Eastern Cooperative Group (ECOG) Performance Status were both associated with PFS and OS. Overall, only 44.4% of patients reported an adverse event, whereas toxicity led to a 5.4% discontinuation rate.ConclusionThe results of the PEMBROREAL study have shown that the combined treatment of pembrolizumab with pemetrexed and platinum is effective for metastatic non-squamous NSCLC, even for patients with PD-L1 levels below 50%, despite the differences in patient demographics and pathological features compared to the Keynote-189 study. The adverse events reported during the study were more typical of chemotherapy treatment rather than immunotherapy, and physicians were able to manage them easily

Costruzione di modelli 3D a colori con videocamere e sensori a tempo di volo

La tesi tratta la ricostruzione di modelli tridimensionali a colori a partire dai dati acquisiti da un sensore a tempo di volo e da una videocamer

Handheld scanning with 3D cameras

Novel real-time depth acquisition devices, like Microsoft Kinect, allow a very fast and simple acquisition of 3D views. These sensors have been used in many applications but their employment for 3D scanning purposes is a very challenging task due to the limited accuracy and reliability of their data. In this paper we present a 3D reconstruction pipeline explicitly targeted to the Kinect. The proposed scheme aims at obtaining a reliable reconstruction that is not affected by the limiting issues of these cameras and is at the same time simple and fast in order to allow to use the Kinect sensor as an handheld scanner. In order to achieve these targets a novel algorithm for the extraction of salient points exploiting both depth and color data is firstly used. The extracted points are then used within a modified version of the ICP algorithm that exploits both geometry and color distances to precisely align the views produced by the Kinect even when the geometry information is not sufficient to constrain the registration. Experimental results show how the proposed approach is able to produce reliable 3D reconstructions from the Kinect data

Mapping and preliminary analysis of infrastructures, observation -data and human capacity building

Data collection and management, marine research infrastructures, and capacity building are fundamental to ensure that Europe benefit from knowledge and innovations possible with marine and maritime research. Over the last years, many initiatives have been launched to better coordinate the marine research infrastructures’ development and use at EU level with the aim to create sustainable cost-efficiency in marine and maritime data collection and management, use of the different research infrastructures, provision of appropriate capacity building services, supporting models for knowledge-based policy-decisions and development of the maritime economy. However, in Europe these initiatives have traditionally been fragmented leading to overlaps and duplication of efforts while important gaps are left unattended. The overall aim of work package 6 of CSA Oceans is to draft optional solutions to overcome some of the major gaps, needs and bottlenecks related to marine research infrastructures, observations/data collection, human resources and capacity building. This will allow identification of where JPI Oceans can add value by providing a gaps and needs analysis as input to the development of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). As a first step, WP6 has integrated mapping efforts conducted over the last years into one single repository, gathering all information on infrastructures related to marine and maritime research activities. This repository, developed in cooperation with EUROCEAN, will ensure the storage on a long-term perspective of all this information. As part of this mapping exercise, a broad stakeholders and public consultation was conducted in cooperation with WP3, WP4 and WP5 in order to collect input on potential needs/actions/tools to achieve the JPI Oceans goals. Building on this mapping exercise, as well as on other existing initiatives (EURO-Argo, EMSO, EuroGOOS, EUROFLEETS, SEADATANET, JERICO, EuroSites, MyOcean, EMODNET, WISE Marine, Euromarine, SEAS-ERA etc.), WP6 conducted a preliminary analysis of marine research infrastructures and human capacity building. This preliminary analysis should be seen as an introduction to the needs and gaps analysis which will be delivered in a second phase of the project (Deliverable D6.2) in order to develop the SRIA of JPI Oceans. The objective of this document is to report on the first phase of the project: the mapping and preliminary analysis of marine research infrastructures and human capacity building. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the work package methodology, Chapter 3 to the mapping a preliminary analysis of marine research infrastructures including a presentation of the repository and Chapter 4 to the mapping and preliminary analysis of marine human capacity building including a case study

Needs and gaps in infrastructure and human capacity building to feed the SRIA

JPI Oceans aims to address broad priority thematic areas which lie at the intersections of the marine environment, climate change and human activities. In order to understand these interactions, capacities in terms of human resources and infrastructures are required. Because of the very nature of the marine system and climate interaction, there is a need for sustained long-time series as well as integrated observations bringing together physical, chemical, and biological data of the different parts of the seas and oceans. Added to this is the need for geological data to understand hazards and risk, in addition to measurements of sediments for instance in river basins, to measure natural historical vs. human induced climate change. All these infrastructures for ocean observation (permanent, temporary and exploratory) and experimentation/testing are expensive to build, upgrade, maintain and to operate and will benefit from the European planning approach offered by the JPI Oceans mechanism. In order to identify where JPI Oceans can add value in the field of infrastructures and human capacity building, this work package first conducted a mapping of existing infrastructures, observation/data and human capacity building based on a broad stakeholders consultation. The mapping exercise and the stakeholders’ consultation demonstrated that Europe benefits from a wide variety of MRI, existing, in continuous development or in construction, with a total of more than 900 facilities. A preliminary analysis allowed to highlight a number of key issues related to each types of marine research infrastructure2. Regarding Human Capacity Building (HCB), CSA Oceans has built on previous initiatives, in particular the achievements of the SEAS-ERA project to map the European landscape and instruments to support education, training, and mobility3. This mapping exercise has been completed by the analysis of a case study specifically addressing the ‘jobs of the sea’ issue, targeting technology districts dealing mainly with maritime transport activities. Based on the mapping and an in-depth analysis of the stakeholders consultation, the present report proposes needs and gaps that need to be covered for a sustained observation and collection of marine data and develop a long-term European observation system (Chapter 3.), existing gaps in infrastructures for laboratory research and experimentation in different marine and maritime fields (Chapter 4.), general marine research infrastructures gaps (Chapter 5.), as well as gaps and needs in human capacity building (Chapter 6.). These numerous gaps and needs call for an improved joint programming and coordination of marine RIs and HCB in Europe in terms of management and governing mechanisms. The structure of this report is based on the document “state of play - analysis of stakeholders’ consultation” presented to the JPI Oceans Strategic Advisory Board (StAB) and Management Board (MB) at the Oslo meeting (26-27 march 2014). In this structure, each sub-chapter corresponds to a category of needs identified by stakeholders (see also 2.2 analysis of the stakeholders’ consultation). Relevant gaps for JPI Oceans joint activities are listed for each of these issues. As a next step, Work Package 1 of the CSA Oceans project will integrate output of this gap analyses into a coherent Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and recommend joint actions based on an assessment of the suggested proposals

Cardiac Tumors: Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Treatment

Cardiac masses frequently present significant diagnostic and therapeutic clinical challenges and encompass a broad set of lesions that can be either neoplastic or non-neoplastic. We sought to provide an overview of cardiac tumors using a cardiac chamber prevalence approach and providing epidemiology, imaging, histopathology, diagnostic workup, treatment, and prognoses of cardiac tumors

cultural exclusion and frontier zones

The functioning of cultural memory is always accompanied by the emergence of suppression zones covering the experiences and phenomena which were excluded, for some reason or another, from conventional cultural practices. The scope of excluded phenomena is as broad as possible and reaches from inconvenient events, works of art, historical or cultural figures to certain forms of expression, gestures, emotions, material objects, attitudes, discourse frameworks and narration patterns. Being repressed as they are, they, however, still influence the drawing of cultural borderlines and the processes of identity construction. Such dialectics of repression and (re-) actualization can be best characterized through the notion of “cultural exclusion zones” (similar to Chernobyl exclusion zone). In the current issue of “Rivista di Estetica” we thus try to discover and to describe those exclusion zones, the mechanisms of their formation and their multifold impact upon the contents of culture in different social, historical, epistemological and cultural contexts