University of Alcalá

About: University of Alcalá is a education organization based out in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 10795 authors who have published 20718 publications receiving 410089 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Alcala & University of Alcala de Henares.

Insulin-secretion abnormalities and clinical deterioration related to impaired glucose tolerance in cystic fibrosis.

Abstract: Objective: To evaluate insulin-secretion kinetics and insulin sensitivity in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with normal glucose tolerance (CF-NGT), impaired glucose tolerance (CF-IGT) or CF-related diabetes (CFRD), and the potential effects of moderate hyperglycemia on clinical and nutritional status. Design and methods: Cross-sectional study including 50 outpatients with CF. Patients underwent both oral (OGGT) and intravenous (IVGTT) glucose tolerance tests in order to assess insulin secretion and peripheral insulin sensitivity. Homeostasis assessment model and OGGT were used to investigate insulin sensitivity. Forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were measured to evaluate pulmonary function. Body mass index (BMI) was determined to assess nutritional status. Results: Insulin secretion was significantly decreased (and delayed at OGTT) in the CFRD group (n ¼ 9) versus the CF-IGT group (n ¼ 10) and the CF-IGT versus the CF-NGT group (n ¼ 31). Insulin sensitivity was significantly different in the CF-IGT and CFRD groups versus the CF-NGT group. FEV1, FVC and BMI presented a significant linear correlation with plasma glucose value at 120 min at OGTT and were significantly lower in both CF-IGT and CFRD versus the CF-NGT group, whereas no differences were found between the CF-IGT and CFRD groups. Conclusions: CF patients with IGT present diminished insulin secretion and increased peripheral insulin resistance, correlating with a worse clinical status, undernutrition and impaired pulmonary function. These findings open the question of whether early treatment of mild alterations of glucose metabolism with insulin secretagogues or short-action insulin may lead to improvement of clinical status in CF patients.

Text Detection and Recognition on Traffic Panels From Street-Level Imagery Using Visual Appearance

Abstract: Traffic sign detection and recognition has been thoroughly studied for a long time. However, traffic panel detection and recognition still remains a challenge in computer vision due to its different types and the huge variability of the information depicted in them. This paper presents a method to detect traffic panels in street-level images and to recognize the information contained on them, as an application to intelligent transportation systems (ITS). The main purpose can be to make an automatic inventory of the traffic panels located in a road to support road maintenance and to assist drivers. Our proposal extracts local descriptors at some interest keypoints after applying blue and white color segmentation. Then, images are represented as a “bag of visual words” and classified using Naive Bayes or support vector machines. This visual appearance categorization method is a new approach for traffic panel detection in the state of the art. Finally, our own text detection and recognition method is applied on those images where a traffic panel has been detected, in order to automatically read and save the information depicted in the panels. We propose a language model partly based on a dynamic dictionary for a limited geographical area using a reverse geocoding service. Experimental results on real images from Google Street View prove the efficiency of the proposed method and give way to using street-level images for different applications on ITS.

A pilot study of impulsivity and compulsivity in pathological gambling.

Abstract: We examined the relationship between gambling severity, impulsivity and obsessionality/compulsivity in 38 pathological gamblers, representing the complete Minnesota sample of a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of paroxetine for the treatment of pathological gambling (PG), using Pearson correlations and linear regression models at baseline and treatment endpoint. At baseline, Pathological Gambling Modification of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (PG-YBOCS) scores correlated significantly with those of the Eysenck Impulsiveness Questionnaire (EIQ) Impulsiveness subscale and Padua Inventory (PI) factors I and IV (corresponding to impaired control over mental and motor activities, respectively). None of the associations between PI factors and the PG-YBOCS were significant after adjusting for Impulsiveness scores. There were no differences in changes in the PG-YBOCS between the paroxetine and placebo group. Changes in PG-YBOCS scores after treatment correlated with changes in Impulsiveness scores. These changes appeared independent of paroxetine treatment. The results suggest that, although PG exhibits features of both obsessionality/compulsivity and impulsivity and elements of both decrease with treatment, impulsivity predominates and changes in gambling severity are most associated with changes in impulsivity.