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In recent years, speech emotion recognition (SER) has emerged as one of the most active human-machine interaction research areas. Innovative electronic devices, services and applications are increasingly aiming to check the user emotional state either to issue alerts under some predefined conditions or to adapt the system responses to the user emotions. Voice expression is a very rich and noninvasive source of information for emotion assessment. This paper presents a novel SER approach based on that is a hybrid of a time-distributed convolutional neural network (TD-CNN) and a long short-term memory (LSTM) network. Mel-frequency log-power spectrograms (MFLPSs) extracted from audio recordings are parsed by a sliding window that selects the input for the TD-CNN. The TD-CNN transforms the input image data into a sequence of high-level features that are feed to the LSTM, which carries out the overall signal interpretation. In order to reduce overfitting, the MFLPS representation allows innovative image data augmentation techniques that have no immediate equivalent on the original audio signal. Validation of the proposed hybrid architecture achieves an average recognition accuracy of 73.98% on the most widely and hardest publicly distributed database for SER benchmarking. A permutation test confirms that this result is significantly different from random classification ([Formula: see text]). The proposed architecture outperforms state-of-the-art deep learning models as well as conventional machine learning techniques evaluated on the same database trying to identify the same number of emotions.

Noninvasive behavior observation techniques allow more natural human behavior assessment experiments with higher ecological validity. We propose the use of gaze ethograms in the context of user interaction with a computer display to characterize the user's behavioral activity. A gaze ethogram is a time sequence of the screen regions the user is looking at. It can be used for the behavioral modeling of the user. Given a rough partition of the display space, we are able to extract gaze ethograms that allow discrimination of three common user behavioral activities: reading a text, viewing a video clip, and writing a text. A gaze tracking system is used to build the gaze ethogram. User behavioral activity is modeled by a classifier of gaze ethograms able to recognize the user activity after training. Conventional commercial gaze tracking for research in the neurosciences and psychology science are expensive and intrusive, sometimes impose wearing uncomfortable appliances. For the purposes of our behavioral research, we have developed an open source gaze tracking system that runs on conventional laptop computers using their low quality cameras. Some of the gaze tracking pipeline elements have been borrowed from the open source community. However, we have developed innovative solutions to some of the key issues that arise in the gaze tracker. Specifically, we have proposed texture-based eye features that are quite robust to low quality images. These features are the input for a classifier predicting the screen target area, the user is looking at. We report comparative results of several classifier architectures carried out in order to select the classifier to be used to extract the gaze ethograms for our behavioral research. We perform another classifier selection at the level of ethogram classification. Finally, we report encouraging results of user behavioral activity recognition experiments carried out over an inhouse dataset.

We introduce a hybrid algorithm for the self-semantic location and autonomous navigation of robots using entropy-based vision and visual topological maps. In visual topological maps the visual landmarks are considered as leave points for guiding the robot to reach a target point (robot homing) in indoor environments. These visual landmarks are defined from images of relevant objects or characteristic scenes in the environment. The entropy of an image is directly related to the presence of a unique object or the presence of several different objects inside it: the lower the entropy the higher the probability of containing a single object inside it and, conversely, the higher the entropy the higher the probability of containing several objects inside it. Consequently, we propose the use of the entropy of images captured by the robot not only for the landmark searching and detection but also for obstacle avoidance. If the detected object corresponds to a landmark, the robot uses the suggestions stored in the visual topological map to reach the next landmark or to finish the mission. Otherwise, the robot considers the object as an obstacle and starts a collision avoidance maneuver. In order to validate the proposal we have defined an experimental framework in which the visual bug algorithm is used by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in typical indoor navigation tasks.

Background: Extraintestinal symptoms and signs may be the only manifestations of celiac sprue., Methods: We report a case of a patient with hypochromic microcytic anemia as the only expression of the disease., Results: Was asymptomatic the patient with pallor at physical examination. The laboratory showed only hypochromic microcytic anemia due to iron deficiency. She was previously was treated twice with oral iron without achieving good results. The upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, the colonoscopy, and the small bowel barium contrast study were normal. The small bowel biopsy showed villous atrophy and a chronic inflammatory infiltrate of the lamina propria. The antiendomysial and antireticulin antibodies were negative. The IgA antigliadin antibody was positive (1:120). The patient was initiated on a gluten free diet and oral iron. After four months of treatment, hemoglobin and the iron serum levels were normal and at 6 months, the small bowel biopsy showed striking improvement., Conclusions: Familiarity with the diverse extraintestinal features of celiac sprue and a high index of suspicion are essential for accurate diagnosis in patients with subtle presentations.

Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the treatment of choice for patients with symptomatic gallstones. The management of choledocholithiasis in these patients remains controversial. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with ductal stone clearance prior to laparoscopic cholecystectomy is one of the options., Objective: To evaluate the results of ERCP prior to laparoscopic cholecystectomy in patients with suspected ductal stones., Methods: We performed a retrospective study from patients who underwent ERCP prior to laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a four years period., Results: ERCP was successful in 86 out of 88 patients (97.7%). Common bile duct (CBD) stones were found in 34 patients (39.5%). Sixty two of 86 patients had symptomatic gallstones with abnormal liver function test and/or ultrasound. CBD stones were found in 25 of the 62 symptomatic patients (40.3%). Twenty four patients had acute biliary pancreatitis. CBD stones were found in nine of these patients (37.5%). All patients with CBD stones underwent stone extraction after endoscopic sphincterotomy (ES). Sixteen other patients underwent ES for suspected obstruction at the ampulla. Stone extraction was successful in 100% of patients. There were six patients with complications (6.9%). Four patients had pancreatitis (4.6%), one patient hemorrhage (1.1%) and one patient cholangitis (1.1%). Analysis using logistic regression model showed that CBD stones on ultrasonography was the only variable significantly associated with choledocholithiasis (P < 0.001)., Conclusions: Preoperative ERCP is useful in the management of CBD stones prior to laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Background: Clostridium difficile is the cause of 25-30% of cases of antibiotic-induced diarrhea. Pseudomembranous colitis is the most dramatic manifestation of C. difficile infection., Methods: We report four cases of pseudomembranous colitis and review the literature., Results: Three of the four patients, were over 80 years old and had other underlying illnesses. Before they developed colitis, all had received cephalosporins (cefuroxime, ceftriaxone, cefalexine) and one of them also clindamycin. All the patients had severe watery bowel movements, with mucus (one patient had also bloody stools), abdominal pain, nausea, vomit and fever. Blood tests disclosed leucocytosis with neutrophilia and increased band neutrophils in all patients. One patient had anasarca and hypo-albuminemia, suggestive of protein losing enteropathy. Sigmoidoscopy showed raised, yellow plaques covering the rectum, sigmoid and descendent colon mucosa. The response to oral metronidazole or vancomycin was good. The response to intravenous metronidazole was good in one patient and poor in another one. Two of our patients had relapses. The response of the relapses to oral metronidazole was good. One patient had two relapses eventually responding to oral metronidazole and Saccharomyces boulardii., Conclusions: Pseudomem-branous colitis has high morbility in debilitated elderly patients. Relapses are frequent in these patients. If other studies should confirm it, Saccharomyces boulardii could be useful in the prevention and treatment of relapses of this colitis.

Abdominal epilepsy is a rare cause of abdominal pain. We report an adult patient with intermittent, paroxysmal epigastric abdominal pain, accompanied by nausea, vomiting, restlessness and anxiety. Physical examination was normal. Blood analysis disclosed only leucocytosis with neutrophilia. X ray examinations, ultrasound and CT abdominal scan, mesenteric arteriography and exploratory laparotomy did not show evidence of pathology. The electroencephalogram (EEG) showed bilateral theta slow activity during hyperventilation. We started treatment with carbamazepine and the patient remained asymptomatic for nine months. However he had a relapse because he did'nt take his medication regularly. At that time the serum levels of carbamazepine were low. The EEG showed bursts of diffuse paroxysmal acute waves. Once therapeutic serum levels of carbamazepine were achieved the pain disappeared. He has remained asymptomatic during the last twelve months, while taking his treatment regularly.