196,155 research outputs found
Prioritizing Family-Centered Mental Health Care for Pediatric Patients with Eating Disorders
No full textEditorial: Neural and Epigenetic Factors in Parenting, Individual Differences and Dyadic Processes
No full text: Human parenting is a fundamental educational context including complex caregiving tasks finalized to nurture and protect young children [...]
Foundations of Gyro-gauge theories
No full textA novel mathematical model of color perception based on a quantum mechanical formalism has been developed in prior work by E. Provenzi, M. Berthier et al. Further development of the model, and in particular the modeling of the phenomenon of chromatic induction, requires the investigation of geometric objects analogous to connections on vector bundles and principal bundles – in physics commonly referred to as gauge theories – in which the fibers are replaced by nonassociative algebraic structures known as gyrovector spaces and gyrogroups. We refer to this generalization as "gyro-gauge theories". The aim of this thesis work is to present some preliminary results in this direction specializing to the case of the Einstein gyrogroup, which is relevant to the color model discussed above
Rating behavioral problems in adolescent eating disorders: Parent-child differences
No full textThe primary objective of this study was to investigate the discrepancies among the perception of behavioral problems self-reported by adolescent patients with restrictive eating disorders (REDs) and rated by their mothers and fathers. Forty-eight female adolescents with RED filled in the Youth Self-Report, their mothers and fathers separately completed the Child Behavior Check List. Patients reported lower scores for somatic complaints, thought problems, and rule-breaking behaviors compared to their mothers and fathers. These findings may inform clinical consultation and treatment
Methodological challenges in developmental human behavioral epigenetics: Insights into study design
No full textDevelopmental human behavioral epigenetics (DHBE) holds potential for contributing to better understanding of how early life exposures contribute to human developmental trajectories and to inform clinical practice and early interventions. Nonetheless, DHBE research to date is challenged by two major issues: (a) the frequent use of retrospective study designs; and (b) the major focus on epigenetic variations associated with early life adversities, rather than protective care exposures. In order for DHBE research to maintain its promises, these issues need to be addressed in a systematic way according to a careful methodological planning of study design. In this contribution, we provide pragmatic insights on methodological aspects that should be dealt with while designing DHBE studies. We propose different study designs for the retrospective and prospective investigation of both adversity- and care-related epigenetic variations. Examples from available scientific literature are provided to better describe the advantages and the limitations of each study design
A spatially variant white-patch and gray- world method for color image enhancement driven by local contrast
No full textStarting from the revolutionary Retinex by Land and McCann, several further perceptually inspired color correction models have been developed with different aims, e.g. reproduction of color sensation,
robust features recognition, enhancement of color images. Such models have a differential, spatially-variant and non-linear nature and they can coarsely be distinguished between white-patch (WP) and
gray-world (GW) algorithms. In this paper we show that the combination of a pure WP algorithm (RSR: Random Spray Retinex) and
an essentially GW one (ACE) leads to a more robust and better performing model (RACE). The choice of RSR and ACE follows from the
recent identification of a unified spatially-variant approach for both algorithms. Mathematically, the originally distinct non-linear and differential mechanisms of RSR and ACE have been fused using the spray technique and local average operations. The investigation of RACE allowed us to put in evidence a common drawback of differential
models: corruption of uniform image areas. To overcome this intrinsic defect, we devised a local and global contrast-based and
image-driven regulation mechanism that has a general applicability to perceptually inspired color correction algorithms. Tests,
comparisons and discussions are presented
Telomere length and salivary cortisol stress reactivity in very preterm infants
No full textDuring the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay, very preterm (VPT) infants are exposed to life-saving yet pain-inducing skin-breaking procedures (i.e., NICU pain-related stress) which contribute to the programming of hypo-responsive HPA axis development during the first months of life. Unfortunately, to date the mechanisms linking NICU pain-related stress and altered HPA axis regulation are only limitedly known. Telomere length (TL) regulation is an epigenetic mechanism previously shown to be affected by early stress exposures and capable of associating with HPA axis reactivity in children. In VPT infants, NICU pain-related stress was found to associate with decreased TL from birth to discharge, but there is no evidence for the association between TL and HPA axis in these infants. In this study, we prospectively examined the relationship between NICU pain-related stress and HPA axis reactivity to an age-appropriate socio-emotional condition (i.e., the Still-Face Procedure, SFP) in healthy VPT infants at 3-month corrected age. NICU pain-related stress was computed as the ratio between the number of skin-breaking procedures and length of NICU stay. A differential score (i.e., ∆TL) was obtained subtracting TL at birth from TL at discharge. A normalized (log10) cortisol reactivity index (CRI) was obtained by averaging post-stress (20 min after SFP) salivary cortisol sample on baseline value. A regression model controlling for neonatal and socio-demographic confounders showed that ∆TL was the only significant predictor of CRI. Although preliminary, these findings contribute to our knowledge of the mechanisms linking early exposures to adversity and later in life regulation of the HPA axis in VPT infants
Methodological challenges in developmental human behavioral epigenetics: Insights into study design
No full textDevelopmental human behavioral epigenetics (DHBE) holds potential for contributing to better understanding of how early life exposures contribute to human developmental trajectories and to inform clinical practice and early interventions. Nonetheless, DHBE research to date is challenged by two major issues: (a) the frequent use of retrospective study designs; and (b) the major focus on epigenetic variations associated with early life adversities, rather than protective care exposures. In order for DHBE research to maintain its promises, these issues need to be addressed in a systematic way according to a careful methodological planning of study design. In this contribution, we provide pragmatic insights on methodological aspects that should be dealt with while designing DHBE studies. We propose different study designs for the retrospective and prospective investigation of both adversity- and care-related epigenetic variations. Examples from available scientific literature are provided to better describe the advantages and the limitations of each study design
Editorial: Understanding the socio-emotional and socio-cognitive developmental pathways in children with sensory impairment
No full textPerceptual color correction through variational techniques
No full textIn this paper we present a discussion about perceptual-based color correction of digital images in the framework of variational
techniques. We propose a novel image functional whose minimization produces a perceptually inspired color enhanced version of the original. The variational formulation permits a more flexible local control of contrast adjustment and attachment to data. We show that a numerical implementation of the gradient descent technique applied
to this energy functional coincides with the equation of ACE, a particular perceptual-based model of color enhancement. Moreover, we prove that a numerical approximation of the Euler-Lagrange equation reduces the computational complexity of ACE from
O(N^2) to O(N log N), where N is the
total number of pixels in the image
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