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Volume of interest-based [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose PET discriminates MCI converting to Alzheimer\u27s disease from healthy controls. A European Alzheimer\u27s Disease Consortium (EADC) study
Get PDFAn emerging issue in neuroimaging is to assess the diagnostic reliability of PET and its application in clinical practice. Weaimed at assessing the accuracy of brain FDG-PET in discriminating patients withMCI due to Alzheimer3s disease and healthy controls. Sixty-two patients with amnestic MCI and 109 healthy subjects recruited in five centers of the European AD Consortium were enrolled. Group analysis was performed by SPM8 to confirm metabolic differences. Discriminant analyseswere then carried out using the mean FDG uptake values normalized to the cerebellumcomputed in 45 anatomical volumes of interest (VOIs) in each hemisphere (90 VOIs) as defined in the Automated Anatomical Labeling (AAL) Atlas and on 12 meta-VOIs, bilaterally, obtained merging VOIs with similar anatomo-functional characteristics. Further, asymmetry indexes were calculated for both datasets. Accuracy of discrimination by a Support Vector Machine and the AAL VOIs was tested against a validated method (PALZ). At the voxel level SMP8 showed a relative hypometabolism in the bilateral precuneus, and posterior cingulate, temporo-parietal and frontal cortices. Discriminant analysis classified subjects with an accuracy ranging between .91 and .83 as a function of data organization. The best values were obtained from a subset of 6 meta- VOIs plus 6 asymmetry values reaching an area under the ROC curve of .947, significantly larger than the one obtained by the PALZ score. High accuracy in discriminatingMCI converters from healthy controls was reached by a non-linear classifier based on SVM applied on predefined anatomo-functional regions and inter-hemispheric asymmetries. Data pre-processingwas automated and simplified by an in-house created Matlab-based script encouraging its routine clinical use. Further validation toward nonconverter MCI patients with adequately long follow-up is needed
CMT and FDE: tools to bridge the gap between natural language documents and feature diagrams.
No full textA business subject who wishes to enter an established technological market is required to accurately analyse the features of the products of the different competitors. Such features are normally accessible through natural language (NL) brochures, or NL Web pages, which describe the products to potential customers. Building a feature model that hierarchically summarises the different features available in competing products can bring relevant benefits in market analysis. A company can easily visualise existing features, and reason about aspects that are not covered by the available solutions. However, designing a feature model starting from publicly available documents of existing products is a time consuming and error-prone task. In this paper, we present two tools, namely Commonality Mining Tool (CMT) and Feature Diagram Editor (FDE), which can jointly support the feature model definition process. CMT allows mining common and variant features from NL descriptions of existing products, by leveraging a natural language processing (NLP) approach based on contrastive analysis, which allows identifying domain-relevant terms from NL documents. FDE takes the commonalities and variabilities extracted by CMT, and renders them in a visual form. Moreover, FDE allows the graphical design and refinement of the final feature model, by means of an intuitive GUI
Business Architecture for Process-Oriented Learning in Public Administration
No full textPublic Administrations are undergoing a transformation of their perceived role from controllers to proactive service providers in modern society. Moreover, the PAs are under pressure to improve their service quality constantly while coping with quickly changing contexts and decreasing budgets. The Learn PAd project supports process-driven collaborative knowledge sharing and process improvement on a user-friendly basis of wiki pages together with guidance based on formalized models. This approach was described in chapter that was written for book - Business and Dynamic Change: the Arrival of Business Architecture (http://www.amazon.com/Business-Dynamic-Change-Arrival-Architecture/dp/0986321427/). The chapter describes the approach of how to use Business Architecture for Process-Oriented Learning in Public Administration
Sustainable dyeing methods for managing Tineola bisselliella (hummel) infestations of woolen fabrics
No full textThis work studies the possible functionalisation provided by natural dyes to wool fabrics against moths attacks. Wool flannel samples were dyed with extracts from Daphne gnidium L., Helichrysum italicum (Roth) G. Don, Rubia peregrina L., Castanea sativa Mill.. Tests on the textile resistance to mature larvae of T. bisselliella were performed together with the quantitative characterization of second metabolites of the plants extracts. The test allowed to preliminary elicit the contribute of natural dyes and mordants to protect wool textile
Multi-scale modelling in breast cancer: Personalized Medicine in population-based healthcare.
No full textODINet - Online Data Integration Network
Get PDFAlong with the expansion of Open Data and according to the latest EU directives for open access, the attention of public administration, research bodies and business is on web publishing of data in open format. However, a specialized search engine on the datasets, with similar role to that of Google for web pages, is not yet widespread. This article presents the Online Data Integration Network (ODINet) project, which aims to define a new technological framework for access to and online dissemination of structured and heterogeneous data through innovative methods of cataloging, searching and display of data on the web. In this article, we focus on the semantic component of our platform, emphasizing how we built and used ontologies. We further describe the Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques we exploited to analyze it and to retrieve the required information. The testing phase of the project, that is still in progress, has already demonstrated the validity of the ODINet approach
"Internetopoli, alla scoperta della Rete" in "Atti Didamatica 2015"
No full textL\u27articolo ? dedicato all\u27applicazione multimediale Internetopoli, uno strumento didattico per insegnare ai bambini delle scuole primarie l\u27importanza di una navigazione responsabile e le opportunit? offerte dalla Ret
There are Two Sides to Every Question - Controller Versus Attacker.
Get PDFWe investigate security enforcement mechanisms that run in parallel with a system; the aim is to check and modify the run-time behaviour of a possible attacker in order to guarantee that the system satisfies some security policies. We focus on a CSP-like quantitative process-algebra to model such processes. Weights on actions are modelled with semirings, which represent a parametric structure where to cast different metrics. The basic tools are represented by a quantitative logic and a model checking function. First, the behaviour of the system is removed from the parallel computation with respect to some security property to be satisfied. Secondly, what remains is refined in two formulas with respect to the given operator executed by a controller. The result describes what a controller has to do to prevent a given attack
Design of Web-based Tools to Study Blind People?s Touch-Based Interaction with Smartphones
Get PDFNowadays touchscreen smartphones are the most common kind of mobile devices. However, gesture-based interaction is a difficult task for most visually impaired people, and even more so for blind people. This difficulty is compounded by the lack of standard gestures and the differences between the main screen reader platforms available on the market. Therefore, our goal is to investigate the differences and preferences in touch gesture performance on smartphones among visually impaired people. During our study, we implemented a web-based wireless system to facilitate the capture of participants? gestures. In this paper we present an overview of both the study and the system used
Introducing new technology into italian certified electronic mail: a proposal
Get PDFOver the last decade, an increasing number of Certified E-Mail systems (CEM) have been implemented in Europe and worldwide, but their diffusion and validity are mainly restricted in a national arena. Despite the effort of European Union (EU) that recently defined a specification for guaranteeing interoperability of CEM systems between Member States, its adoption has not be not yet fuelled, mainly since any CEM system receives a legal value by its State legislation. It is difficult to extend the legal value of CEM security mechanisms, e.g. receipts with timestamps which are considered evidences and legal proofs in disputes that may arise from different Parties inside a State, unless a common political and legal agreement will be created. At this aim, recently EU introduce the new Regulation on Electronic Identification and Trust Services (eIDAS), to address this issue. We believe that the first step for encouraging a more large adoption between communities is to implement CEMs using standard worldwide recognized solutions.In this paper we propose a technical evolution of the Italian CEM, called Posta Elettronica Certificata (PEC) moving from a close mechanisms to the adoption of a more standardized, distributed solution, based on DNS Security Extensions (DNSSec). This proposal would have a minimal impact on the legislation, restricted to the annex that defines PEC technical rules.