•A real time ADAS, based on video cameras and iconic classifiers, is proposed.•Iconic classifiers use simplified learning, based on a small dictionary of poses.•On-board experiments demonstrate ...robustness and effectiveness of the approach.•The system is almost independent from the actual user, requiring limited training.•Various categories of users and adverse light conditions are easily managed.
Real time monitoring of driver attention by computer vision techniques is a key issue in the development of advanced driver assistance systems. While past work mostly focused on structured feature-based approaches, characterized by high computational requirements, emerging technologies based on iconic classifiers recently proved to be good candidates for the implementation of accurate and real-time solutions, characterized by simplicity and automatic fast training stages.
In this work the combined use of binary classifiers and iconic data reduction, based on Sanger neural networks, is proposed, detailing critical aspects related to the application of this approach to the specific problem of driving assistance. In particular it is investigated the possibility of a simplified learning stage, based on a small dictionary of poses, that makes the system almost independent from the actual user.
On-board experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach, even in case of noise and adverse light conditions. Moreover the system proved unexpected robustness to various categories of users, including people with beard and eyeglasses. Temporal integration of classification results, together with a partial distinction among visual distraction and fatigue effects, make the proposed technology an excellent candidate for the exploration of adaptive and user-centered applications in the automotive field.
Factors linked to glucose metabolism are involved in the etiology of several cancers. High glycemic index (GI) or high glycemic load (GL) diets, which chronically raise postprandial blood glucose, ...may increase cancer risk by affecting insulin-like growth factor. We prospectively investigated cancer risk and dietary GI/GL in the EPIC-Italy cohort. After a median 14.9 years, 5112 incident cancers and 2460 deaths were identified among 45,148 recruited adults. High GI was associated with increased risk of colon and bladder cancer. High GL was associated with: increased risk of colon cancer; increased risk of diabetes-related cancers; and decreased risk of rectal cancer. High intake of carbohydrate from high GI foods was significantly associated with increased risk of colon and diabetes-related cancers, but decreased risk of stomach cancer; whereas high intake of carbohydrates from low GI foods was associated with reduced colon cancer risk. In a Mediterranean population with high and varied carbohydrate intake, carbohydrates that strongly raise postprandial blood glucose may increase colon and bladder cancer risk, while the quantity of carbohydrate consumed may be involved in diabetes-related cancers. Further studies are needed to confirm the opposing effects of high dietary GL on risks of colon and rectal cancers.
Specific nutrients or foods have been inconsistently associated with ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn's disease (CD) risks. Thus, we investigated associations between diet as a whole, as dietary ...patterns, and UC and CD risks.
Within the prospective EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer) study, we set up a nested matched case-control study among 366,351 participants with inflammatory bowel disease data, including 256 incident cases of UC and 117 of CD, and 4 matched controls per case. Dietary intake was recorded at baseline from validated food frequency questionnaires. Incidence rate ratios of developing UC and CD were calculated for quintiles of the Mediterranean diet score and a posteriori dietary patterns produced by factor analysis.
No dietary pattern was associated with either UC or CD risks. However, when excluding cases occurring within the first 2 years after dietary assessment, there was a positive association between a "high sugar and soft drinks" pattern and UC risk (incidence rate ratios for the fifth versus first quintile, 1.68 1.00-2.82; Ptrend = 0.02). When considering the foods most associated with the pattern, high consumers of sugar and soft drinks were at higher UC risk only if they had low vegetables intakes.
A diet imbalance with high consumption of sugar and soft drinks and low consumption of vegetables was associated with UC risk. Further studies are needed to investigate whether microbiota alterations or other mechanisms mediate this association.
We conducted a meta-analysis of studies reporting on the risk of extra-ovarian malignancies among women with endometriosis. Summary relative risk (SRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were ...calculated through random effect models. We explored causes of between-studies heterogeneity and assessed the presence of publication bias. We included 32 studies published between 1989 and 2018. We found an increased risk of endometrial (SRR 1.38, 95%CI 1.10–1.74) and thyroid cancer (SRR 1.38, 95%CI 1.17–1.63), and inverse association with cervical cancer (SRR 0.78, 95%CI 0.60–0.95). No association emerged for breast cancer (SRR 1.04, 95%CI 0.99–1.09) and melanoma (SRR 1.31, 95%CI 0.86–1.96). Between-study heterogeneity was large for breast and endometrial cancer and melanoma. Associations were generally stronger in case-control, cross-sectional, and cohort studies with internal control group, compared to cohort studies with external control group. No indication for publication bias was found. Our conclusions need to be confirmed in properly designed cohort studies with clinical confirmation of endometriosis.
Chronic low-grade inflammation plays a role in the pathogenesis of several chronic diseases including cancer. Physical activity (PA) and diet have been supposed to modulate inflammatory markers. We ...evaluated the effects of a 24-month dietary and/or PA intervention on plasma levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, a secondary analysis in the DAMA factorial trial. The 234 study participants (healthy postmenopausal women with high breast density, 50-69 years, non smokers, no hormone therapy) were randomised to four arms: (1) isocaloric dietary intervention mainly based on plant-foods; (2) moderate-intensity PA intervention with at least 1 h/week of supervised strenuous activity; (3) both interventions; (4) general recommendations on healthy dietary and PA patterns. Interleukins (IL)-1α, -1β, -6, tumor necrosis factor-α and C-reactive protein were measured at baseline and at the end of the intervention. Intention-to-treat-analyses were carried out using Tobit regression. Although all cytokines tended to increase over time, after 24 months women in the PA intervention (arms 2 + 3) showed lower levels of IL-1α (exp(β) = 0.66; p = 0.04) and IL-6 (exp(β) = 0.70; p = 0.01) in comparison with women in the control group (arms 1 + 4). No effects of the dietary intervention emerged. In healthy postmenopausal women with high breast density a moderate-intensity PA appears to slow the age-related increase of pro-inflammatory cytokines.
The marching cube algorithm is one of the most popular algorithms for isosurface triangulation. It is based on a division of the data volume into elementary cubes, followed by a standard ...triangulation inside each cube. In the original formulation, the marching cube algorithm is based on 15 basic triangulations and a total of 256 elementary triangulations are obtained from the basic ones by rotation, reflection, conjugation, and combinations of these operations.
The original formulation of the algorithm suffers from well-known problems of connectivity among triangles of adjacent cubes, which has been solved in various ways. We developed a variant of the marching cube algorithm that makes use of 21 basic triangulations. Triangles of adjacent cubes are always well connected in this approach. The output of the code is a triangulated model of the isosurface in raw format or in VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language) format.
Program title: TRIANGOLATE
Catalogue identifier: AENS_v1_0
Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AENS_v1_0.html
Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen’s University, Belfast, N. Ireland
Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html
No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 147558
No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 26084066
Distribution format: tar.gz
Programming language: C.
Computer: Pentium 4, CPU 3.2 GHz and 3.24 GB of RAM (2.77 GHz).
Operating system: Tested on several Linux distribution, but generally works in all Linux-like platforms.
RAM: Approximately 2 MB
Classification: 6.5.
Nature of problem: Given a scalar field μ(x,y,z) sampled on a 3D regular grid, build a discrete model of the isosurface associated to the isovalue μIso, which is defined as the set of points that satisfy the equation μ(x,y,z)=μIso.
Solution method: The proposed solution is an improvement of the Marching Cube algorithm, which approximates the isosurface using a set of triangular facets. The data volume is divided into logical volumes where the topology of the triangulation is selected through a look-up table, while the metric is computed by linear interpolation.
Running time: It is dependent on the input data, but the test provided takes 8 seconds.
The competitive pressure from non-vaccine serotypes may have helped pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) to limit vaccine-type (VT) serotype prevalence. We aimed to investigate if, consequently, ...the indirect protection of vaccines targeting most pneumococcal serotypes could fall short of the profound effects of current formulations. We compared three previously described pneumococcal models harmonized to simulate 20 serotypes with a combined pre-vaccination prevalence in children younger than 5-years-old of 40%. We simulated vaccines of increasing valency by adding serotypes in order of their competitiveness and explored their ability to reduce VT carriage by 95% within 10 years after introduction. All models predicted that additional valency will reduce indirect vaccine effects and hence the overall vaccine impact on carriage both in children and adults. Consequently, the minimal effective coverage (efficacy against carriage×vaccine coverage) needed to eliminate VT carriage increased with increasing valency. One model predicted this effect to be modest, while the other two predicted that high-valency vaccines may struggle to eliminate VT pneumococci unless vaccine efficacy against carriage can be substantially improved. Similar results were obtained when settings of higher transmission intensity and different PCV formulations were explored. Failure to eliminate carriage as a result of increased valency could lead to overall decreased impact of vaccination if the disease burden caused by the added serotypes is low. Hence, a comparison of vaccine formulations of varying valency, and pan-valent formulations in particular, should consider the invasiveness of targeted serotypes, as well as efficacy against carriage.
A carbohydrate‐rich diet, resulting in high blood glucose and insulin, has been hypothesized as involved in colorectal cancer etiology. We investigated dietary glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load ...(GL), in relation to colorectal cancer, in the prospectively recruited EPIC‐Italy cohort. After a median 11.7 years, 421 colorectal cancers were diagnosed among 47,749 recruited adults. GI and GL were estimated from validated food frequency questionnaires. Multivariable Cox modeling estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for associations between colorectal cancer and intakes of total, high GI and low GI carbohydrate and GI and GL. The adjusted HR of colorectal cancer for highest versus lowest GI quartile was 1.35; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03–1.78; p trend 0.031. Increasing high GI carbohydrate intake was also significantly associated with increasing colorectal cancer risk (HR 1.45; 95% CI 1.04–2.03; p trend 0.034), whereas increasing low GI carbohydrate was associated with reducing risk (HR 0.73; 95% CI 0.54–0.98; p trend 0.033). High dietary GI and high GI carbohydrate were associated with increased risks of cancer at all colon sites (HR 1.37; 95% CI 1.00–1.88, HR 1.80; 95% CI 1.22–2.65, respectively), whereas high GI carbohydrate and high GL were associated with increased risk of proximal colon cancer (HR 1.94; 95% CI 1.18–3.16, HR 2.01; 95% CI 1.08–3.74, respectively). After stratification for waist‐to‐hip ratio (WHR), cancer was significantly associated with GI, and high GI carbohydrate, in those with high WHR. These findings suggest that high dietary GI and high carbohydrate intake from high GI foods are associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer.
What's new?
Diets rich in carbohydrate trigger increases in blood glucose and insulin levels, events that may be involved in the etiology of colorectal cancer. But carbohydrates vary in their impact on blood glucose levels, reflected in their glycemic index (GI) values, and whether high GI carbohydrates raise cancer risk remains much debated. Here, high dietary GI and elevated intake of carbohydrates from high GI foods were associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer. A diet rich in low GI carbohydrates, by contrast, was associated with a reduced risk of disease.
Background
Although modifiable risk factors have been included in previous models that estimate or project breast cancer risk, there remains a need to estimate the effects of changes in modifiable ...risk factors on the absolute risk of breast cancer.
Methods
Using data from a case-control study of women in Italy (2569 case patients and 2588 control subjects studied from June 1, 1991, to April 1, 1994) and incidence and mortality data from the Florence Registries, we developed a model to predict the absolute risk of breast cancer that included five non-modifiable risk factors (reproductive characteristics, education, occupational activity, family history, and biopsy history) and three modifiable risk factors (alcohol consumption, leisure physical activity, and body mass index). The model was validated using independent data, and the percent risk reduction was calculated in high-risk subgroups identified by use of the Lorenz curve.
Results
The model was reasonably well calibrated (ratio of expected to observed cancers = 1.10, 95% confidence interval CI = 0.96 to 1.26), but the discriminatory accuracy was modest. The absolute risk reduction from exposure modifications was nearly proportional to the risk before modifying the risk factors and increased with age and risk projection time span. Mean 20-year reductions in absolute risk among women aged 65 years were 1.6% (95% CI = 0.9% to 2.3%) in the entire population, 3.2% (95% CI = 1.8% to 4.8%) among women with a positive family history of breast cancer, and 4.1% (95% CI = 2.5% to 6.8%) among women who accounted for the highest 10% of the total population risk, as determined from the Lorenz curve.
Conclusions
These data give perspective on the potential reductions in absolute breast cancer risk from preventative strategies based on lifestyle changes. Our methods are also useful for calculating sample sizes required for trials to test lifestyle interventions.
Purpose
Several foods and nutrients have been independently associated with systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure values. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of combined dietary ...habits on SBP and DBP values in a large cohort of healthy adults, with a cross-sectional design. Adherence of participants to four a priori dietary patterns was considered: the Healthy Eating Index 2010 (HEI-2010); the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH); the Greek Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS); and the Italian Mediterranean Index (IMI).
Methods
Overall, 13,597 volunteers (35–64 years) were enrolled in 1993–1998 in the EPIC-Florence cohort. Information on dietary habits, anthropometry, smoking status, education, physical activity habits, previous diagnosis of hypertension and SBP and DBP measurements were collected at baseline. Multivariate regression models were performed on 10,163 individuals (7551 women) after excluding subjects with prevalent hypertension.
Results
IMI, DASH and HEI-2010 were significantly and inversely associated with SBP and DBP values in the total population. The strongest association emerged between IMI and SBP (
β
− 1.80 excellent adherence vs low adherence, 95% CI − 2.99; − 0.61,
p
trend 0.001) and DBP (
β
− 1.12, 95% CI − 1.869; − 0.39,
p
trend 0.001) values. In sub-group analyses, an inverse association also emerged between IMI and SBP and DBP values among females and between DASH and DBP among males. MDS was not associated with SBP or DBP.
Conclusion
Overall, this study, carried out in a large cohort of healthy adults from Tuscany (Central Italy), showed inverse significant associations between specific a priori dietary patterns, identifying general models of health-conscious diet, and blood pressure values.
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