Understanding action concepts from videos and brain activity through subjects' consensus.

In this paper, we investigate brain activity associated with complex visual tasks, showing that electroencephalography (EEG) data can help computer vision in reliably recognizing actions from video footage that is used to stimulate human observers. Notably, we consider not only typical "explicit" video action benchmarks, but also more complex data sequences in which action concepts are only referred to, implicitly. To this end, we consider a challenging action recognition benchmark dataset-Moments in Time-whose video sequences do not explicitly visualize actions, but only implicitly refer to them (e.

Natural Reweighted Wake-Sleep.

Helmholtz Machines (HMs) are a class of generative models composed of two Sigmoid Belief Networks (SBNs), acting respectively as an encoder and a decoder. These models are commonly trained using a two-step optimization algorithm called Wake-Sleep (WS) and more recently by improved versions, such as Reweighted Wake-Sleep (RWS) and Bidirectional Helmholtz Machines (BiHM). The locality of the connections in an SBN induces sparsity in the Fisher Information Matrices associated to the probabilistic models, in the form of a finely-grained block-diagonal structure.

Perioperative complications following major vascular surgery. Correlations with preoperative clinical, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic features.

Background And Aim: We investigated the incidence rate of perioperative complications following major vascular surgery, as well as identified the risk factors and preoperative clinical, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic determinants, related to these complications.

Methods: We studied 241 patients with asymptomatic intact abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) subjected to open surgical repair, 182 with critical carotid stenosis subjected to endarterectomy (CEA), and 158 with severe symptomatic occlusive peripheral artery disease subjected to aortofemoral bypass (AFB). Preoperatively, all subjects provided a medical history and underwent physical, laboratory examinations, a standard ECG, and transthoracic echocardiography.

Evidence for a Prehypertensive Water Dysregulation Affecting the Development of Hypertension: Results of Very Early Treatment of Vasopressin V1 and V2 Antagonism in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats.

In addition to long-term regulation of blood pressure (BP), in the kidney resides the initial trigger for hypertension development due to an altered capacity to excrete sodium and water. Betaine is one of the major organic osmolytes, and its betaine/gamma-aminobutyric acid transporter (BGT-1) expression in the renal medulla relates to interstitial tonicity and urinary osmolality and volume. This study investigated altered water and sodium balance as well as changes in antidiuretic hormone (ADH) activity in female spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and normotensive Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats from their 3-5 weeks of age (prehypertensive phase) to SHR's 28-30 weeks of age (established hypertension-organ damage).

Perivascular Adipose Tissue Attenuation on Computed Tomography beyond the Coronary Arteries. A Systematic Review.

(1) Background: Perivascular adipose tissue attenuation, measured with computed tomography imaging, is a marker of mean local vascular inflammation since it reflects the morphological changes of the fat tissue in direct contact with the vessel. This method is thoroughly validated in coronary arteries, but few studies have been performed in other vascular beds. The aim of the present study is to provide insight into the potential application of perivascular adipose tissue attenuation through computed tomography imaging in extra-coronary arteries.

Antidepressant Drugs Effects on Blood Pressure.

Individuals suffering from depressive disorders display a greater incidence of hypertension compared with the general population, despite reports of the association between depression and hypotension. This phenomenon may depend, at least in part, on the use of antidepressant drugs, which may influence blood pressure through different effects on adrenergic and serotoninergic pathways, as well as on histaminergic, dopaminergic, and cholinergic systems. This review summarizes extant literature on the effect of antidepressant drugs on blood pressure.

Unrecognised pheochromocytoma in pregnancy discovered through metoclopramide-triggered hypertensive emergency.

Purpose: Pheochromocytoma, a catecholamine-secreting tumour leading to neurological and cardiovascular life-threatening conditions through hypertension crisis, occurs in 0.1-0.5% of hypertensive patients, but it is extremely rare in pregnancy (0.

High renin hypertension in focal renal fibromuscular dysplasia: turn off of renin system angiotensin overactivation by renal angioplasty cured high blood pressure and quickly reversed myocardial hypertrophy.

Background Fibromuscolar dysplasia (FMD) is an idiopathic, non-atherosclerotic and non-inflammatory stenotic lesion of renal arteries causing renovascular hypertension up-regulating renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Case report: A 18-year-old man was referred to our Hypertension Center (Clinica e Terapia Medica) for the recent onset of hypertension, poorly controlled on calcium channel blockers, already associated to electrocardiographic and echocardiography signs of left ventricular hypertrophy and significant albuminuria (728 mg/24 h). An increased plasma renin activity (PRA), aldosterone level and a mild hypokalemia raised the suspicion of renovascular hypertension.

Changing the Geometry of Representations: -Embeddings for NLP Tasks.

Word embeddings based on a conditional model are commonly used in Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks to embed the words of a dictionary in a low dimensional linear space. Their computation is based on the maximization of the likelihood of a conditional probability distribution for each word of the dictionary. These distributions form a Riemannian statistical manifold, where word embeddings can be interpreted as vectors in the tangent space of a specific reference measure on the manifold.

Alcohol use disorders among adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs): Gene-environment resilience factors.

Both genetic and early environmental factors contribute to the pathogenesis of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Gender and psychopathology symptoms might further moderate this association, resulting in an impairment of both the dopaminergic and serotoninergic pathways that sustain the binge, withdrawal and craving cycle. In a sample of of adult children of alcoholic parents (ACOAs) (n = 107) we compared those with and without an AUD, on socio-demographic variables, adverse childhood experiences, psychopathology symptoms and two polymorphisms associated with an impaired serotoninergic and dopaminergic neurotransmission (5HTTLPR and Taq1A/DRD2).

Modeling a population of retinal ganglion cells with restricted Boltzmann machines.

The retina is a complex circuit of the central nervous system whose aim is to encode visual stimuli prior the higher order processing performed in the visual cortex. Due to the importance of its role, modeling the retina to advance in interpreting its spiking activity output is a well studied problem. In particular, it has been shown that latent variable models can be used to model the joint distribution of Retinal Ganglion Cells (RGCs).

Electrolyte Disorders Induced by Antineoplastic Drugs.

The use of antineoplastic drugs has a central role in treatment of patients affected by cancer but is often associated with numerous electrolyte derangements which, in many cases, could represent life-threatening conditions. In fact, while several anti-cancer agents can interfere with kidney function leading to acute kidney injury, proteinuria, and hypertension, in many cases alterations of electrolyte tubular handling and water balance occur. This review summarizes the mechanisms underlying the disturbances of sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and phosphate metabolism during anti-cancer treatment.

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome in an oncological normotensive patient: evidence for a pathogenic role of concomitant low magnesium serum levels and chemotherapy treatment.

Background: Posterior reversible encephalopathy (PRES) is a rare syndrome characterized by headache, confusion, seizures, visual changes and white matter edema at radiological imaging. Its pathophysiology is not clarified and different causes, including uncontrolled hypertension, eclampsia, chemotherapy and hypomagnesemia have been suggested.

Case Report: A woman affected by stage IV breast cancer with lower extremity deep vein thrombosis treated with low-molecular-weight-heparin, currently in therapy with Palbociclib/Fulvestrant (antiCDK4 and 6/estrogen receptor antagonist) but previously treated with several other chemotherapy lines (including VEGF inhibitor bevacizumab), was admitted to our Internal Medicine department because of ascites and abdominal pain.

Atrial Natriuretic Peptide: A Molecular Target of Novel Therapeutic Approaches to Cardio-Metabolic Disease.

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) is a cardiac hormone with pleiotropic cardiovascular and metabolic properties including vasodilation, natriuresis and suppression of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Moreover, ANP induces lipolysis, lipid oxidation, adipocyte browning and ameliorates insulin sensitivity. Studies on ANP genetic variants revealed that subjects with higher ANP plasma levels have lower cardio-metabolic risk.

Fibrocytes in Chronic Periaortitis: A Novel Mechanism Linking Inflammation and Fibrosis.

Objective: Chronic periaortitis (CP) is a rare disease characterized by periaortic and periiliac fibroinflammatory tissue. The pathogenic mechanisms leading to tissue accumulation and activation of fibroblasts are unclear. This study was undertaken to explore the role of fibrocytes, circulating precursors of tissue fibroblasts, in patients with CP.

Clinical, Electrocardiographic, and Echocardiographic Features in Hospitalized Nonagenarians (90+): Comparison between the Genders.

Objectives: We investigated the clinical, electrocardiographic, and echocardiographic determinants of the cardiac status in nonagenarian patients.

Methods: We consecutively examined 654 Caucasian patients (232 males and 422 females) aged ≥90 years. All patients underwent clinical examination, ECG, and transthoracic echocardiography.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug effects on renal and cardiovascular function: from physiology to clinical practice.

Excessive or inappropriate use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can affect cardiovascular and renal function. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, both non-selective and selective cyclooxygenase 2 inhibitors, are among the most widely used drugs, especially in the elderly, with multiple comorbidities. Exposition to a polypharmacy burden represents a favourable substrate for the onset of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug-induced deleterious effects.

Electrocardiographic and echocardiographic features in patients with major arterial vascular disease assigned to surgical revascularization.

We aimed to depict the electrocardiographic and echocardiographic aspects in patients before elective major vascular surgery. We evaluated through standard 12 lead electrocardiography and transthoracic echocardiography 469 patients with asymptomatic large abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), 334 with critical carotid stenosis (CAS), and 238 with advanced peripheral artery disease (PAD) before surgical revascularization. Patients with AAA were predominantly males ( < .

A Paradigmatic Interplay between Human Cytomegalovirus and Host Immune System: Possible Involvement of Viral Antigen-Driven CD8+ T Cell Responses in Systemic Sclerosis.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a highly prevalent opportunistic agent in the world population, which persists as a latent virus after a primary infection. Besides the well-established role of this agent causing severe diseases in immunocompromised individuals, more recently, HCMV has been evoked as a possible factor contributing to the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases such as systemic sclerosis (SSc). The interplay between HCMV and immune surveillance is supposed to become unbalanced in SSc patients with expanded anti-HCMV immune responses, which are likely involved in the exacerbation of inflammatory processes.

Correction to: Parma consensus statement on metabolic disruptors.

After publication of the article [1], it has been brought to our attention that the thirteenth author of this article has had their name spelt incorrectly. In the original article the spelling "Laura Rizzir" was used. In fact the correct spelling should be "Laura Rizzi".

Performance and antrhropometric characteristics of Elite Rugby Players.

Background And Aim Of The Study: Physical performance is the result of a complex combination of several factors such as genetic and anthropometric aspects, nutrition and hormonal status. In the past few years many studies have considered the impact of vitamin D on muscular strength and athletic performance.The aim of the present study was to assess the anthropometric measures impacting on physical performance in a group of professional rugby athletes.

Modelling charge transport of discotic liquid-crystalline triindoles: the role of peripheral substitution.

We have performed a multiscale approach to study the influence of peripheral substitution in the semiconducting properties of discotic liquid-crystalline triindoles. Charge carrier mobility as high as 1.4 cm V s was experimentally reported for triindoles substituted with alkynyl chains on the periphery (Gómez-Lor et al.

Atherosclerotic vascular diseases have really the same risk factors? Comparison between large abdominal aortic aneurysm and obstructive non-coronary arterial disease.

Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are differences among clinical conditions and traditional atherosclerotic risk factors between patients with large abdominal aortic aneurysm and those with occlusive non-coronary arterial disease. Methods We clinically examined 519 patients with asymptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysm and 672 with severe obstructive arterial diseases before surgical repair. Results In patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm, we identified a clear predominance of males ( p < 0.

Study of the cold charge transfer state separation at the TQ1/PC BM interface.

Charge transfer (CT) state separation is one of the most critical processes in the functioning of an organic solar cell. In this article, we study a bilayer of TQ1 and PC BM molecules presenting disorder at the interface, obtained by means of Molecular Dynamics. The study of the CT state splitting can be first analyzed through the CT state splitting diagram, introduced in a previous work.