A review of data abstraction.

It is well-known that Artificial Intelligence (AI), and in particular Machine Learning (ML), is not effective without good data preparation, as also pointed out by the recent wave of data-centric AI. Data preparation is the process of gathering, transforming and cleaning raw data prior to processing and analysis. Since nowadays data often reside in distributed and heterogeneous data sources, the first activity of data preparation requires collecting data from suitable data sources and data services, often distributed and heterogeneous. It is thus essential that providers describe their data services in a way to make them compliant with the FAIR guiding principles, i.e., make them automatically Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). The notion of data abstraction has been introduced exactly to meet this need. Abstraction is a kind of reverse engineering task that automatically provides a semantic characterization of a data service made available by a provider. The goal of this paper is to review the results obtained so far in data abstraction, by presenting the formal framework for its definition, reporting about the decidability and complexity of the main theoretical problems concerning abstraction, and discuss open issues and interesting directions for future research.

Focus on the Correlations between Alzheimer's Disease and Type 2 Diabetes.

BACKGROUND: In the last decades, both diabetes mellitus and Alzheimer's disease are constantly increasing. Affected individuals, therefore, represent an enormous problem for the society, governments and global organizations. These diseases are usually considered as independent conditions, but increasing evidence shows that there are links between these two disorders. METHODS: In this review, we analyzed common features present in Alzheimer's disease and diabetes mellitus, showing how these two diseases are strictly correlated to each other. RESULTS: Some pathogenetic factors are shared by Type 2 Diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease: chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, adiponectin deficiency, different expression of plasma cholinesterase activity and vascular damage could represent a possible explanation for the coexistence of these two conditions in many patients. CONCLUSION: A better understanding of this issue and an appropriate management of diabetes by means of physical activity, low fat diet, and drugs to achieve a good glycemic control, avoiding both hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia, can represent a way to prevent cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease.

Processing-Induced Electrically Active Defects in Black Silicon Nanowire Devices.

Silicon nanowires (Si NWs) are widely investigated nowadays for implementation in advanced energy conversion and storage devices, as well as many other possible applications. Black silicon (BSi)-NWs are dry etched NWs that merge the advantages related to low-dimensionality with the special industrial appeal connected to deep reactive ion etching (RIE). In fact, RIE is a well established technique in microelectronics manufacturing. However, RIE processing could affect the electrical properties of BSi-NWs by introducing deep states into their forbidden gap. This work applies deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) to identify electrically active deep levels and the associated defects in dry etched Si NW arrays. Besides, the successful fitting of DLTS spectra of BSi-NWs-based Schottky barrier diodes is an experimental confirmation that the same theoretical framework of dynamic electronic behavior of deep levels applies in bulk as well as in low dimensional structures like NWs, when quantum confinement conditions do not occur. This has been validated for deep levels associated with simple pointlike defects as well as for deep levels associated with defects with richer structures, whose dynamic electronic behavior implies a more complex picture.

The association between diabetes and depression: a very disabling condition.

Rates of depression are significantly increased in diabetic patients, and even more in the elderly. About 20-30% of patients with diabetes suffer from clinically relevant depressive disorders, 10% of which being affected by the major depression disorder. Moreover, people with depression seem to be more prone to develop an associated diabetes mellitus, and depression can worsen glycemic control in diabetes, with higher risk to develop complications and adverse outcomes, whereas improving depressive symptoms is generally associated with a better glycemic control. Thus, the coexistence of depression and diabetes has a negative impact on both lifestyle and quality of life, with a reduction of physical activity and an increase in the request for medical care and prescriptions, possibly increasing the healthcare costs and the susceptibility to further diseases. These negative aspects are particularly evident in the elderly, with further decrease in the mobility, worsening of disability, frailty, geriatric syndromes and increased mortality. Healthcare providers should be aware of the possible coexistence of depression and diabetes and of the related consequences, to better manage the patients affected by these two pathological conditions.

Mapping early changes of cortical motor output after subcortical stroke: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study.

After acute stroke several changes in cortical excitability occur involving affected (AH) and unaffected hemisphere (UH) but whether they contribute to motor recovery is still controversial. We performed transcranial magnetic stimulation mapping of several upper limb muscles over the two hemispheres in thirteen patients at 4-12 days from subcortical stroke and after 1 month. The occurrence of mirror movements (MMs) on the healthy side during contraction of paretic muscles was measured. At baseline, cortical excitability parameters over the AH decreased in comparison with controls, while excitability over the UH increased correlating with severity of motor deficits of the affected arm at baseline as well as with poor recovery. At follow-up, map parameters of the UH became closer to those of controls independently from recovery, while for the AH the number of responsive sites increased significantly. Ipsilateral motor evoked responses (iMEPs) in the affected arm were never elicited. We observed an early impairment in dexterity of the ipsilesional hand that recovered over-time but persistently differed in comparison with controls. MMs occurrence increased at baseline correlating with reduced cortical excitability of the AH as well as with increased map density over the UH. The acute increased excitability of the UH after stroke has a negative prognostic value on recovery and negatively affects motor performance of the ipsilesional hand. Moreover, the absence of iMEPs and the normalization of motor cortical excitability at follow-up indicate that the UH primary motor area does not contribute to recovery.