University of Cagliari

About: University of Cagliari is a education organization based out in Cagliari, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Dopamine. The organization has 11029 authors who have published 29046 publications receiving 771023 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli Studi di Cagliari & Universita degli Studi di Cagliari.

Realities and expectations of pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine: impact of translating genetic knowledge into clinical practice.

Abstract: The implementation of genetic data for a better prediction of response to medications and adverse drug reactions is becoming a reality in some clinical fields. However, to be successful, personalized medicine should take advantage of an informational structured framework of genetic, phenotypic and environmental factors in order to provide the healthcare system with useful tools that can optimize the effectiveness of specific treatment. The impact of personalized medicine is potentially enormous, but the results that have so far been gathered are often difficult to translate into clinical practice. In this article we have summarized the most relevant applications of pharmacogenomics on diseases to which they have already been applied and fields in which they are currently emerging. The article provides an overview of the opportunities and shortcomings of the implementation of genetic information into personalized medicine and its full adoption in the clinic. In the second instance, it provides readers from different fields of expertise with an accessible interpretation to the barriers and opportunities in the use/adoption of pharmacogenomic testing between the different clinical areas.

Role of GABA(B) receptor in alcohol dependence: reducing effect of baclofen on alcohol intake and alcohol motivational properties in rats and amelioration of alcohol withdrawal syndrome and alcohol craving in human alcoholics.

Abstract: The present paper describes the results of recent preclinical and clinical studies conducted in this laboratory in order to characterize the anti-alcohol properties of the GABA(B) receptor agonist, baclofen. At a preclinical level, the repeated administration of non-sedative doses of baclofen dose-dependently suppressed the acquisition and maintenance of alcohol drinking behavior in selectively bred Sardinian alcohol-preferring (sP) rats tested under the homecage, 2-bottle "alcohol vs water" choice regimen. Acute injection of baclofen completely blocked the temporary increase in voluntary alcohol intake occurring after a period of alcohol abstinence (the so-called alcohol deprivation effect, which models alcohol relapses in human alcoholics). Acute treatment with baclofen also dose-dependently suppressed extinction responding for alcohol (an index of motivation to consume alcohol) in sP rats trained to lever-press for oral alcohol self-administration. Taken together, these results suggest the involvement of the GABA(B) receptor in the neural substrate mediating alcohol intake and alcohol motivational properties in an animal model of excessive alcohol consumption. Further, acutely administered baclofen dose-dependently reduced the severity of alcohol withdrawal signs in Wistar rats made physically dependent upon alcohol. Preliminary clinical surveys suggest that the anti-alcohol properties of baclofen observed in rats may generalize to human alcoholics. Indeed, a double-blind survey demonstrated that repeated daily treatment with baclofen was associated, when compared to placebo, with a higher percentage of subjects totally abstinent from alcohol and a higher number of days of total abstinence. Treatment with baclofen also suppressed the number of daily drinks and decreased the obsessive and compulsive components of alcohol craving. Finally, a single non-sedative dose of baclofen resulted in the rapid disappearance of alcohol withdrawal symptomatology, including delirium tremens, in alcohol-dependent patients. In both clinical studies, baclofen was well tolerated with minimal side effects. These results suggest that baclofen may represent a potentially effective medication in the treatment of alcohol-dependent patients.

Switched Observers for Switched Linear Systems With Unknown Inputs

Abstract: Two state observers are designed for some classes of switched linear systems with unknown inputs. The design of the proposed observers assumes that all switching subsystems fulfill a property of “strong detectability” that allows to implement suitable reduced-order unknown-input switched observers. The synthesis of the observers is based on the feasibility of a certain system of LMIs. Two main schemes are presented. For the case when the set of possible unknown-input distribution matrices are linearly dependent, an observer is suggested that guarantees the asymptotic state reconstruction without imposing any slow-switching dwell-time constraint about the sequence of the switching times. For the general case, the existence of a minimal average dwell-time for every switching sequence is assumed. By appropriate Lyapunov analysis, the convergence of the state estimate is proven to be exponential in both cases. Simulation results confirm the predicted performance.

Fingerprint liveness detection by local phase quantization

Abstract: Fingerprint liveness detection consists in verifying if an input fingerprint image, acquired by a fingerprint verification system, belongs to a genuine user or is an artificial replica. Although several hardware- and software-based approaches have been proposed so far, this issue still remains unsolved due to the very high difficulty in finding effective features for detecting the fingerprint liveness. In this paper, we present a novel features set, based on the local phase quantization (LPQ) of fingerprint images. LPQ method is well-known for being insensitive to blurring effects, thus we believe it could be useful for detecting the differences between an alive and a fake fingerprint, due to the loss of information which may occur during the replica fabrication process. The method is tested on the four data sets of the Second International Fingerprint Liveness Detection Competition, and shows promising and competitive results with other state-of-the-art features sets.