Giovanni Neri

The Sakbot System for Moving Object Detection and Tracking

This paper presents Sakbot, a system for moving object detection in traffic monitoring and video surveillance applications. The system is endowed with robust and efficient detection techniques, which main features are the statistical and knowledge-based background update and the use of HSV color information for shadow suppression. Tracking is provided by a symbolic reasoning module allowing flexible object tracking over a variety of different applications. This system proves effective on many different situations, both from the point of view of the scene appearance and the purpose of the application.

The use of microsatellite instability, immunohistochemistry and other variables in determining the clinical significance of MLH1 and MSH2 unclassified variants in Lynch syndrome.

Missense changes constitute approximately 1/3 and 1/5 of all rare sequence constitutional variations identified in the MLH1 and MSH2 genes by mutation screening. They represent a challenge for the clinician and for the genetic counselor, who often cannot use them for the management of Lynch syndrome families. Several parameters can be evaluated to gain insight into the significance of such unclassified variants (UVs). These include analysis of microsatellite instability (MSI), immunohistochemistry of mismatch repair (MMR) proteins, segregation data, frequency of the variants in control samples, presence of other pathogenic mutations, and functional and mRNA analyses. While none of these variables can be used alone to predict the significance of UVs in a single case, combined evaluation can lead to clinically useful conclusions. This review reports available information on a sample of MLH1 and MSH2 missense UVs, for which MSI and immunohistochemical data could be retrieved from the literature. Currently, since MSI analysis is routinely performed as a diagnostic test for Lynch syndrome, tumor MSI status represents the most important factor for determining the pathogenicity of UVs in MMR genes.

Analysis of pixel-level algorithms for video surveillance applications

We propose a classification for a set of pixel-level algorithms employed in video surveillance applications and define a performance evaluation metric, based on an analysis of experimental data, for comparing the addressed algorithms. The results of such a comparison are presented and discussed. The set of algorithms considered in this work includes several algorithms widely known in the literature.

Long-term cytogenetic effects of antineoplastic treatment in relation to secondary leukemia☆

Chromosome translocations are consistently present in leukemias and lymphomas and are likely to represent primary events in the development of these neoplasias. A study of conditions that predispose to leukemia could shed some light on the origin of these translocations and therefore help in clarifying their exact role in the process of neoplastic transformation. Based on this assumption, we studied a group of individuals treated with radiochemotherapy for previous lymphoma and who were at increased risk of developing a secondary leukemia. The group comprised 14 Hodgkins disease patients, 11 non-Hodgkins lymphoma patients, and 13 controls. The patients were in remission and had been off therapy for at least 6 months. Chromosomes were studied from phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated peripheral lymphocytes and from bone marrow cells by the direct method and after short-term cultures (72 hours). The latter were also exposed to 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). Metaphases were scored for chromosome breaks, gaps, and other rearrangements. The percentage of gaps and breaks was significantly higher in patients than in controls. The difference was induced by BrdU and was apparent in bone marrow cells, but not in peripheral lymphocytes. We conclude that individuals exposed to the action of mutagenic agents (radiochemotherapy) have an increased chromosome instability that could be related to their increased risk of developing a secondary leukemia.

A real-time hardware implementation of the Hough transform

The paper presents a hardware implementation of algorithms based on the Hough transform (HT) for real-time straight line detection. In particular, the basic HT on the edge points (EHT) and the Gradient-Weighted Hough transform (GWHT) for gray-level images are analyzed in detail and implemented on a pipelined architecture using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). Algorithms execution times are compared with other hardware and software based systems in order to assess the efficiency of the presented approach. The paper shows how the achievable performance can meet the real-time requirements of an industrial inspection application.

Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer: An Approach to the Selection of Candidates to Genetic TestingBased on Clinical and MolecularCharacteristics

Objective: Identification of clinical and molecular characteristics associated with constitutional MLH1 and MSH2 mutations and definition of a stepwise strategy for the selection of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients amenable to MLH1 and MSH2 genetic testing. Methods: 90 unrelated CRC patients were initially selected on the basis of either familial or early onset occurrence of CRC. They were screened for the presence of constitutional MLH1 and MSH2 mutations and for microsatellite instability (MSI). Results: 16 pathogenetic mutations (9 MLH1 and 7 MSH2) were identified in 41% of Amsterdam hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) families, 5% of suspected HNPCC families, and 14% of sporadic early-onset CRC patients. The presence of the mutations correlated with MSI, with early age of onset and proximal location of the tumor, and with the presence of some extracolonic tumors of the HNPCC spectrum and/or multiple tumors in the family. Conclusions: Evaluation of clinical and molecular characteristics is useful for the identification of candidates to MLH1 and MSH2 mutational analysis and allows the application of a rational approach to genetic testing.

Chronic myelogenous leukemia in the course of chronic lymphocytic leukemia: Evidence for an independent clonal origin

We report on a 69-year-old man who developed Ph-positive CML 6 years after the onset of B-cell CLL. When CML was diagnosed, both malignant cell populations were detected in bone marrow and peripheral blood. Peripheral leukocytes were fractionated by Ficoll-Hypaque density gradient, and cytogenetic and molecular studies were performed on mononuclear cell and granulocyte-enriched populations. Mononuclear cells were stimulated with either PHA or PWM. In PHA-treated cultures 76% of the metaphases were Ph-negative, while after PWM stimulation 87% were Ph-positive. A bcr rearrangement was observed in DNA from the granulocyte-enriched fraction, but not in mononuclear cells. On the contrary the IgH locus resulted in monoclonally rearranged DNA, only in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These results indicate that the two neoplastic populations originated independently.

A Reliable Control Protocol for High-Speed Packet Transmission

This paper describes a control protocol for high-speed transfers between transceivers in a data communication system. One particularly suitable application of current topical interest would be to control lines linking nodes in a local area packet-switching system. The protocol applies for fixed-length data packets which must ultimately be received at their destination in sequence. With these specifications, a set of rules which is easy to implement in practice is established. The result is a packet interlock method of numbering packet transmissions and jumping back to retransmit a series of packets under error conditions. Problems associated with multiple errors, dummy packets, initial synchronization and resynchronization are investigated and found to be readily overcome by the proposed protocol.

Dense stereo based on the uniqueness constraint

The paper presents the matching core of a stereo algorithm suitable for real-time applications. Unlike most area-based algorithms, the proposed approach relies on a single matching phase (i.e. do not include the check for left-right consistency). Unreliable disparity measurements are primarly detected on the basis of the violation of the uniqueness constraint. In order to further improve the reliability of the matches we enforce additional contraints based on the behaviour of the error function that can be verified at a very small computational cost. Experimental results show that the proposed approach provides reliable disparity measurements and that it is significantly fast.

Silent beginning: Early silencing of the MED1/MBD4 gene in colorectal tumorigenesis

Commentary to: Epigenetic Downregulation of the DNA Repair Gene MED1/MBD4 in Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer J. Harrison Howard, Andrey Frolov, Ching-Wei D. Tzeng, Ashley Stewart , Andrew Midzak, Amar Majmundar, Andrew Godwin, Martin Heslin, Martin Heslin, Alfonso Bellacosa