Marche Polytechnic University

About: Marche Polytechnic University is a education organization based out in Ancona, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 5905 authors who have published 15769 publications receiving 382286 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitá Politecnica delle Marche & Universita Politecnica delle Marche.

Sentic Computing for social media marketing

Abstract: In a world in which millions of people express their opinions about commercial products in blogs, wikis, fora, chats and social networks, the distillation of knowledge from this huge amount of unstructured information can be a key factor for marketers who want to create an image or identity in the minds of their customers for their product, brand or organization. Opinion mining for product positioning, in fact, is getting a more and more popular research field but the extraction of useful information from social media is not a simple task. In this work we merge AI and Semantic Web techniques to extract, encode and represent this unstructured information. In particular, we use Sentic Computing, a multi-disciplinary approach to opinion mining and sentiment analysis, to semantically and affectively analyze text and encode results in a semantic aware format according to different web ontologies. Eventually we represent this information as an interconnected knowledge base which is browsable through a multi-faceted classification website.

Endogenous Truncated TrkB.T1 Receptor Regulates Neuronal Complexity and TrkB Kinase Receptor Function in vivo

Abstract: Pathological or in vitro overexpression of the truncated TrkB (TrkB.T1) receptor inhibits signaling through the full-length TrkB (TrkB.FL) tyrosine kinase receptor. However, to date, the role of endogenous TrkB.T1 is still unknown. By studying mice lacking the truncated TrkB.T1 isoform but retaining normal spatiotemporal expression of TrkB.FL, we have analyzed TrkB.T1-specific physiological functions and its effect on endogenous TrkB kinase signaling in vivo. We found that TrkB.T1-deficient mice develop normally but show increased anxiety in association with morphological abnormalities in the length and complexity of neurites of neurons in the basolateral amygdala. However, no behavioral abnormalities were detected in hippocampal-dependent memory tasks, which correlated with lack of any obvious hippocampal morphological deficits or alterations in basal synaptic transmission and long-term potentiation. In vivo reduction of TrkB signaling by removal of one BDNF allele could be partially rescued by TrkB.T1 deletion, which was revealed by an amelioration of the enhanced aggression and weight gain associated with BDNF haploinsufficiency. Our results suggest that, at the physiological level, TrkB.T1 receptors are important regulators of TrkB.FL signaling in vivo. Moreover, TrkB.T1 selectively affects dendrite complexity of certain neuronal populations.

Health-related quality of life in fibromyalgia patients: a comparison with rheumatoid arthritis patients and the general population using the SF-36 health survey.

Abstract: Objective. To compare health-related quality of life (HRQL) in fibromyalgia (FM) patients with that of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the general population, and investigate if the factors are associated with the greater impact of FM. Methods. This cross-sectional study involved 380 patients with FM, 693 patients with RA and 1579 healthy controls. HRQL was evaluated using the Medical Outcome Study Short-Form 36 (SF-36), and the measures included disease-related characteristics, demographic variables and comorbidities. S-scores were calculated for comparisons with the norm, and multivariate analyses were used to assess the relationships between HRQL and clinical and demographic variables. Results. In comparison with the general population, the FM patients showed significant impairment in relation to all of the eight scales of the SF-36 (p<0.0001), as well as the physical and mental component summary scores (PCS and MCS) (p<0.0001). The mean PCS and MCS of the FM patients were 38.5 (SD=6.9) and 32.8 (SD=10.9), whereas those of the RA patients were 33.5 (SD=6.4) (p<0.01 ) and 40.2 (SD=11.9) (p<0.001). The dimensions typically affected by FM were vitality (s-score -1.61), mental health (s-score -1.46) and general health (s-score-1.47), whereas physical functioning (s-score-1.63) and role limitations due to physical function (s - score -0.94) were more impaired in the RA patients; the bodily pain scores were similar in the two groups. The PCS was lower than the MCS in the RA patients (s-scores -1.80 vs. -0.62), but the two scores were similar in the FM patients (s-scores -1.20 vs. -1.08). Multiple regression models showed that the physical component of the SF-36 was associated with widespread pain (the SAPS score) (p<0.0001), educational level (p=0.0017), and the body mass index (p=0.007), and the mental component was associated with the widespread pain (p=0.0005), sleep abnormalities (p=0.0033), physical function (p=0.015), fatigue (p=0.029), gender (p=0.014) and a low educational level (p=0.0007). Conclusion. Patients with FM see the disease as having a worse health than RA patients and the general population, especially in terms of mental health.