Author name cluster

F. De Carli

Possible papers associated with this exact author name in Arrow. This page groups case-insensitive exact name matches and is not a full identity disambiguation profile.

3 papers

1 author row

YNICL Journal 2015 Journal Article

Volume of interest-based [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose PET discriminates MCI converting to Alzheimer's disease from healthy controls. A European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium (EADC) study

M. Pagani
F. De Carli
S. Morbelli
J. Öberg
A. Chincarini
G.B. Frisoni
S. Galluzzi
R. Perneczky

An emerging issue in neuroimaging is to assess the diagnostic reliability of PET and its application in clinical practice. We aimed at assessing the accuracy of brain FDG-PET in discriminating patients with MCI due to Alzheimer's disease and healthy controls. Sixty-two patients with amnestic MCI and 109 healthy subjects recruited in five centers of the European AD Consortium were enrolled. Group analysis was performed by SPM8 to confirm metabolic differences. Discriminant analyses were then carried out using the mean FDG uptake values normalized to the cerebellum computed in 45 anatomical volumes of interest (VOIs) in each hemisphere (90 VOIs) as defined in the Automated Anatomical Labeling (AAL) Atlas and on 12 meta-VOIs, bilaterally, obtained merging VOIs with similar anatomo-functional characteristics. Further, asymmetry indexes were calculated for both datasets. Accuracy of discrimination by a Support Vector Machine and the AAL VOIs was tested against a validated method (PALZ). At the voxel level SMP8 showed a relative hypometabolism in the bilateral precuneus, and posterior cingulate, temporo-parietal and frontal cortices. Discriminant analysis classified subjects with an accuracy ranging between .91 and .83 as a function of data organization. The best values were obtained from a subset of 6 meta-VOIs plus 6 asymmetry values reaching an area under the ROC curve of .947, significantly larger than the one obtained by the PALZ score. High accuracy in discriminating MCI converters from healthy controls was reached by a non-linear classifier based on SVM applied on predefined anatomo-functional regions and inter-hemispheric asymmetries. Data pre-processing was automated and simplified by an in-house created Matlab-based script encouraging its routine clinical use. Further validation toward nonconverter MCI patients with adequately long follow-up is needed.

Details DOI

YNIMG Journal 2014 Journal Article

Hippocampal sleep spindles preceding neocortical sleep onset in humans

S. Sarasso
P. Proserpio
A. Pigorini
F. Moroni
M. Ferrara
L. De Gennaro
F. De Carli
G. Lo Russo

The coexistence of regionally dissociated brain activity patterns –with some brain areas being active while other already showing sleep signs– may occur throughout all vigilance states including the transition from wakefulness to sleep and may account for both physiological as well as pathological events. These dissociated electrophysiological states are often characterized by multi-domain cognitive and behavioral impairment such as amnesia for events immediately preceding sleep. By performing simultaneous intracerebral electroencephalographic recordings from hippocampal as well as from distributed neocortical sites in neurosurgical patients, we observed that sleep spindles consistently occurred in the hippocampus several minutes before sleep onset. In addition, hippocampal spindle detections consistently preceded neocortical events, with increasing delays along the cortical antero-posterior axis. Our results support the notion that wakefulness and sleep are not mutually exclusive states, but rather part of a continuum resulting from the complex interaction between diffuse neuromodulatory systems and intrinsic properties of the different thalamocortical modules. This interaction may account for the occurrence of dissociated activity across different brain structures characterizing both physiological and pathological conditions.

Details DOI

TCS Journal 2009 Journal Article

Lattices of local two-dimensional languages

F. De Carli
A. Frosini
S. Rinaldi
A. Sorbi

The aim of this paper is to study local two-dimensional languages from an algebraic point of view. We show that local two-dimensional languages over a finite alphabet, with the usual relation of set inclusion, form a lattice. The simplest case L oc 1 of local languages defined over the alphabet consisting of one element yields a distributive lattice, which can be easily described. In the general case of the lattice L oc n of local languages over an alphabet of n ≥ 2 symbols, we show that L oc n is not semimodular, and we exhibit sublattices isomorphic to M 5 and N 5. We characterize the meet-irreducible elements, the coatoms, and the join-irreducible elements of L oc n. We point out some undecidable problems which arise in studying the lattices L oc n, n ≥ 2. We study in some detail atoms and chains of L oc 2. Finally we examine the lattice L oc 2 h of local string languages, i. e. the local languages over the binary alphabet consisting of objects of only one row. L oc 2 h is an ideal of L oc 2. As a lattice, it is not semimodular but satisfies the Jordan–Dedekind condition.

Details DOI