Ayuda técnica para la autonomía en el desplazamiento

The project developed in this thesis involves the design, implementation and evaluation of a new technical assistance aiming to ease the mobility of people with visual impairments. By using processing and sounds synthesis, the users can hear the sonification protocol (through bone conduction) informing them, after training, about the position and distance of the various obstacles that may be on their way, avoiding eventual accidents. In this project, surveys were conducted with experts in the field of rehabilitation, blindness and techniques of image processing and sound, which defined the user requirements that served as guideline for the design. The thesis consists of three self-contained blocks: (i) image processing, where 4 processing algorithms are proposed for stereo vision, (ii) sonification, which details the proposed sound transformation of visual information, and (iii) a final central chapter on integrating the above and sequentially evaluated in two versions or implementation modes (software and hardware). Both versions have been tested with both sighted and blind participants, obtaining qualitative and quantitative results, which define future improvements to the project. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------El proyecto desarrollado en la presente tesis doctoral consiste en el diseño, implementación y evaluación de una nueva ayuda técnica orientada a facilitar la movilidad de personas con discapacidad visual. El sistema propuesto consiste en un procesador de estereovisión y un sintetizador de sonidos, mediante los cuales, las usuarias y los usuarios pueden escuchar un código de sonidos mediante transmisión ósea que les informa, previo entrenamiento, de la posición y distancia de los distintos obstáculos que pueda haber en su camino, evitando accidentes. En dicho proyecto, se han realizado encuestas a expertos en el campo de la rehabilitación, la ceguera y en las técnicas y tecnologías de procesado de imagen y sonido, mediante las cuales se definieron unos requisitos de usuario que sirvieron como guía de propuesta y diseño. La tesis está compuesta de tres grandes bloques autocontenidos: (i) procesado de imagen, donde se proponen 4 algoritmos de procesado de visión estéreo, (ii) sonificación, en el cual se detalla la propuesta de transformación a sonido de la información visual, y (iii) un último capítulo central sobre integración de todo lo anterior en dos versiones evaluadas secuencialmente, una software y otra hardware. Ambas versiones han sido evaluadas con usuarios tanto videntes como invidentes, obteniendo resultados cualitativos y cuantitativos que permiten definir mejoras futuras sobre el proyecto finalmente implementado

Limitations of Standard Accessible Captioning of Sounds and Music for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People: An EEG Study

Captioning is the process of transcribing speech and acoustical information into text to help deaf and hard of hearing people accessing to the auditory track of audiovisual media. In addition to the verbal transcription, it includes information such as sound effects, speaker identification, or music tagging. However, it just takes into account a limited spectrum of the whole acoustic information available in the soundtrack, and hence, an important amount of emotional information is lost when attending just to the normative compliant captions. In this article, it is shown, by means of behavioral and EEG measurements, how emotional information related to sounds and music used by the creator in the audiovisual work is perceived differently by normal hearing group and hearing disabled group when applying standard captioning. Audio and captions activate similar processing areas, respectively, in each group, although not with the same intensity. Moreover, captions require higher activation of voluntary attentional circuits, as well as language-related areas. Captions transcribing musical information increase attentional activity, instead of emotional processing

Stereo Vision Matching using Characteristics Vectors

Stereo vision is a usual method to obtain depth information from images. The problems encountered when applying the majority of well established algorithms to provide this information are due to the high computational load required. This occurs in both the block matching and graphical cues (such as edges) matching. In this article we address this issue by performing an image analysis which considers each pixel only once, thus enhancing the efficiency of the image processing. Additionally, when matching is carried out over statistical descriptors of the image regions, commonly referred to as characteristic vectors, whose number of these vectors is, by definition, lower than the possible block matching possibilities, the algorithm achieves an improved level of performance. In this paper we present a new algorithm which has been specifically designed to solve the commonly observed problems which arise from other well know techniques. This algorithm was designed using a previous work carried out by the authors in this area to determine the descriptors extraction processes. The complete analysis has been carried out over gray scale images. The results obtained from both real and synthetic images are presented in terms of matching quality and time consumption and compared to other published results. Finally, a discussion is provided on additional features related to the matching process

Vibrotactile captioning of musical effects in audio-visual media as an alternative for deaf and hard of hearing people: An EEG study

Standard captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing people cannot transmit the emotional information that music provides in support of the narrative in audio-visual media. We explore an alternative method using vibrotactile stimulation as a possible channel to transmit the emotional information contained in an audio-visual soundtrack and, thus, elicit a greater emotional reaction in hearing-impaired people. To achieve this objective, we applied two one-minute videos that were based on image sequences that were unassociated with dramatic action, maximizing the effect of the music and vibrotactile stimuli. While viewing the video, using EEG we recorded the brain activity of 9 female participants with normal hearing, and 7 female participants with very severe and profound hearing loss. The results show that the same brain areas are activated in participants with normal hearing watching the video with the soundtrack, and in participants with hearing loss watching the same video with a soft and rhythmic vibrotactile stimulation on the palm and fingertips, although in different hemispheres. These brain areas (auditory cortex, superior temporal cortex, medial frontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, superior temporal pole and insula) have been consistently reported as areas involved in the emotional perception of music. We conclude that vibrotactile stimuli can generate cortex activation while watching audio-visual media in a similar way to sound. Thus, a further in-depth study of the possibilities of these stimuli can contribute to an alternative subtitling channel for enriching the audiovisual experience of hearing-impaired people.This work was supported in part by the Comunidad de Madrid through the SINFOTON2-CM Research Program under Grant S2018/NMT-4326-SINFOTON2-CM

Relation between EEG resting-state power and modulation of P300 task-related activity in theta band in schizophrenia

Producción CientíficaThere is some consistency in previous EEG findings that patients with schizophrenia have increased resting-state cortical activity. Furthermore, in previous work, we have provided evidence that there is a deficit in the modulation of bioelectrical activity during the performance of a P300 task in schizophrenia. Our hypothesis here is that a basal hyperactivation would be related with altered ability to change or modulate cortical activity during a cognitive task. However, no study so far, to the best of our knowledge, has studied the association between resting-state activity and task-related modulation. With this aim, we used a dual EEG paradigm (resting state and oddball task for elicitation of the P300 evoked potential) in a sample of patients with schizophrenia (n = 100), which included a subgroup of patients with first episode psychosis (n = 30), as well as a group of healthy controls (n = 93). The study measures were absolute power for resting-state; and spectral entropy (SE) and connectivity strength (CS) for P300-task data, whose modulation had been previously found to be altered in schizophrenia. Following the literature on P300, we focused our study on the theta frequency band. As expected, our results showed an increase in resting state activity and altered task-related modulation. Moreover, we found an inverse relationship between the amount of resting-state activity and modulation of task-related activity. Our results confirm our hypothesis and support the idea that a greater amount of resting theta-band synchrony could hamper the modulation of signal regularity (quantified by SE) and activity density (measured by CS) during the P300 task performance. This association was found in both patients and controls, suggesting the existence of a common mechanism and a possible ceiling effect in schizophrenia patients in relation to a decreased inhibitory function that limits their cortical reactivity to the task

Treatment with tocilizumab or corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients with hyperinflammatory state: a multicentre cohort study (SAM-COVID-19)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the association between tocilizumab or corticosteroids and the risk of intubation or death in patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) with a hyperinflammatory state according to clinical and laboratory parameters. Methods: A cohort study was performed in 60 Spanish hospitals including 778 patients with COVID-19 and clinical and laboratory data indicative of a hyperinflammatory state. Treatment was mainly with tocilizumab, an intermediate-high dose of corticosteroids (IHDC), a pulse dose of corticosteroids (PDC), combination therapy, or no treatment. Primary outcome was intubation or death; follow-up was 21 days. Propensity score-adjusted estimations using Cox regression (logistic regression if needed) were calculated. Propensity scores were used as confounders, matching variables and for the inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTWs). Results: In all, 88, 117, 78 and 151 patients treated with tocilizumab, IHDC, PDC, and combination therapy, respectively, were compared with 344 untreated patients. The primary endpoint occurred in 10 (11.4%), 27 (23.1%), 12 (15.4%), 40 (25.6%) and 69 (21.1%), respectively. The IPTW-based hazard ratios (odds ratio for combination therapy) for the primary endpoint were 0.32 (95%CI 0.22-0.47; p < 0.001) for tocilizumab, 0.82 (0.71-1.30; p 0.82) for IHDC, 0.61 (0.43-0.86; p 0.006) for PDC, and 1.17 (0.86-1.58; p 0.30) for combination therapy. Other applications of the propensity score provided similar results, but were not significant for PDC. Tocilizumab was also associated with lower hazard of death alone in IPTW analysis (0.07; 0.02-0.17; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Tocilizumab might be useful in COVID-19 patients with a hyperinflammatory state and should be prioritized for randomized trials in this situatio

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field