ROAD EXTRACTION FROM HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGES

Roads are significant objects of an infrastructure and the extraction of roads from aerial and satellite images are important for different applications such as automated map generation and change detection. Roads are also important to detect other structures such as buildings and urban areas. In this paper, the road extraction approach is based on Active Contour Models for 1-meter resolution gray level images. Active Contour Models contains Snake Approach. During applications, the road structure was separated as salient-roads, non-salient roads and crossings and extraction of these is provided by using Ribbon Snake and Ziplock Snake methods. These methods are derived from traditional snake model. Finally, various experimental results were presented. Ribbon and Ziplock Snake methods were compared for both salient and non-salient roads. Also these methods were used to extract roads in an image. While Ribbon snake is described for extraction of salient roads in an image, Ziplock snake is applied for extraction of non-salient roads. Beside these, some constant variables in literature were redefined and expressed in a formula as depending on snake approach and a new approach for extraction of crossroads were described and tried

An assessment in terms of mechanization of timber harvesting operations in Artvin forest regional directorate

Bu çalışmada Artvin Orman Bölge Müdürlüğü (OBM)’nde gerçekleştirilen odun hammaddesi üretim çalışmaları mekanizasyon açısından değerlendirilmiştir. Bu amaçla 2004-2009 yılları arasında bölge müdürlüğünde odun hammaddesi üretimi, bölge müdürlüğünün sahip olduğu üretim makineleri, odun hammaddesi üretiminde mekanizasyon kullanım oranı ve bölgedeki kış üretimi incelenmiştir. Sonuçta; Artvin OBM, odun hammaddesi üretim çalışmalarında mekanizasyon kullanımı açısından ülkemizin dikkat çeken bölge müdürlüğü olduğu, son 5 yıl dikkate alındığında bölgede üretilen odun hammaddesinin yaklaşık % 30’unun mekanizasyona dayalı yöntemlerle bölmeden çıkarıldığı belirlenmiştir. Yörede odun hammaddesi üretim çalışmalarında kullanılan üretim makinelerinin ekonomik ömürlerini tamamlaması nedeniyle eskiyen hava hatları ve orman traktörleri yeni model hava hattı ve traktörler alınarak yenilenmesi, makinelerin daha etkin ve ekonomik olarak kullanılması açısından gereklidir.In this paper, timber harvesting operations of Artvin Forest Regional Directorate (FRD) have been evaluated in terms of mechanization. For this purpose, timber harvesting at regional directorate, timber harvesting machinery owned by regional directorate, mechanization ratio in harvesting and winter harvesting in the region between 2004 and 2009 have been examined. As a result, it has been found out that Artvin FRD is one of the remarkable regional directorates of our country in terms of mechanization in timber harvesting operations, and that mechanization ratio is almost 30% on logging of wood raw material. As the harvesting machines used during timber harvesting in the area have completed their economic lives, the skylines and forest tractors worn have to replace with new model skylines and tractors, so that machines can be used more effectively and economically

Acyclic partitioning of large directed acyclic graphs

We investigate the problem of partitioning the vertices of a directed acyclic graph into a given number of parts. The objective function is to minimize the number or the total weight of the edges having end points in different parts, which is also known as edge cut. The standard load balancing constraint of having an equitable partition of the vertices among the parts should be met. Furthermore, the partition is required to be acyclic, i.e., the inter-part edges between the vertices from different parts should preserve an acyclic dependency structure among the parts. In this work, we adopt the multilevel approach with coarsening, initial partitioning, and refinement phases for acyclic partitioning of directed acyclic graphs. We focus on two-way partitioning (sometimes called bisection), as this scheme can be used in a recursive way for multi-way partitioning. To ensure the acyclicity of the partition at all times, we propose novel and efficient coarsening and refinement heuristics. The quality of the computed acyclic partitions is assessed by computing the edge cut. We also propose effective ways to use the standard undirected graph partitioning methods in our multilevel scheme. We perform a large set of experiments on a dataset consisting of (i) graphs coming from an application and (ii) some others corresponding to matrices from a public collection. We report improvements, on average, around 59% compared to the current state of the art

Total antioxidant and oxidant status in obese children without insulin resistance

Objective: Oxidative stress in obese children may lead in adulthood serious conditions such as coronary heart diseases or type 2 diabetes mellitus. In childhood oxidative stress is associated with insulin resistance or extreme obesity. In this study, we aimed to evaluate oxidative stress status in moderately obese children without insulin resistance. Methods: A total of 38 obese children (21 male, 17 female) without insulin resistance, mean aged 9.4±3.8 years) and 51 normal weight children (25 male, 26 female) as the control group, mean aged 9.3±3.9 years) were enrolled to the study. Total oxidative status (TOS), total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were measured and oxidative stress index (OSI) was calculated. Results: The results reveal that obese children had lower TAC than normal weight children (2,27±0,28 vs. 2.76±0.35 mmol Trolox Eq./L; p<0,001). There was no statistical difference between obese and control groups regarding TOS (6,08±3,63 vs 5.25±4.16 μmol H2O2 Eq./L; p=0.333). OSI was higher in obese group (2.65±1.52 vs 1.92±1.56; p=0.029) Conclusion: Balance between oxidant and antioxidant system is disrupted due to the reduced TAC even in moderately obese children without insulin resistance. Further studies should also be performed to evaluate the beneficial effects of dietary intake of antioxidants in these children

The effect of ticagrelor and clopidogrel on angiographic parameters according to diabetic status in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction

Aim. We aimed to compare post-interventional angiographic outcomes of ticagrelor versus clopidogrel according to glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction.Material and methods. The study included a total of 532 patients, with 334 receiving ticagrelor (62,8%) and 198 clopidogrel (37,2%). Diabetic status of the patients was assessed with HbA1c. TIMI flow grade and TIMI frame count were calculated and compared between two groups.Results. TIMI flow grade 3 was higher and TFC was lower after percutaneous coronary intervention of the infarct-related artery in patients treated with ticagrelor compared to clopidogrel (89,2% vs. 73,7%; p&lt; 0,001, 20 vs. 24; p&lt; 0,001). There was a positive correlation between the increases in HbA1c and TFC levels in the whole group (r=0,225; p=0,004). In subgroup analysis, higher HbA1c levels did not affect TFC in patients using ticagrelor (r=-0,060; p=0,326 for patients with noreflow, r=-0,133; p=0,321 for patients with TIMI-3 flow). While level of HbA1c did not affect TFC in patients with TIMI-3 flow, the presence of post-procedural no-reflow caused worsening of TFC in patients using clopidogrel as HbA1c levels increased (r=0,374; p=0,005).Conclusion. Ticagrelor was found to be better in terms of angiographic parameters regardless of diabetes

Adaptive Optimal Feedback Control with Learned Internal Dynamics Models

Optimal Feedback Control (OFC) has been proposed as an attractive movement generation strategy in goal reaching tasks for anthropomorphic manipulator systems. Recent developments, such as the Iterative Linear Quadratic Gaussian (ILQG) algorithm, have focused on the case of non-linear, but still analytically available, dynamics. For realistic control systems, however, the dynamics may often be unknown, difficult to estimate, or subject to frequent systematic changes. In this chapter, we combine the ILQG framework with learning the forward dynamics for simulated arms, which exhibit large redundancies, both, in kinematics and in the actuation. We demonstrate how our approach can compensate for complex dynamic perturbations in an online fashion. The specific adaptive framework introduced lends itself to a computationally more efficient implementation of the ILQG optimisation without sacrificing control accuracy – allowing the method to scale to large DoF systems

Ancient mitogenomes from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Central Anatolia and the effects of a Late Neolithic bottleneck in sheep (Ovis aries)

Occupied between ~10,300 and 9300 years ago, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Aşıklı Höyük in Central Anatolia went through early phases of sheep domestication. Analysis of 629 mitochondrial genomes from this and numerous sites in Anatolia, southwest Asia, Europe, and Africa produced a phylogenetic tree with excessive coalescences (nodes) around the Neolithic, a potential signature of a domestication bottleneck. This is consistent with archeological evidence of sheep management at Aşıklı Höyük which transitioned from residential stabling to open pasturing over a millennium of site occupation. However, unexpectedly, we detected high genetic diversity throughout Aşıklı Höyük's occupation rather than a bottleneck. Instead, we detected a tenfold demographic bottleneck later in the Neolithic, which caused the fixation of mitochondrial haplogroup B in southwestern Anatolia. The mitochondrial genetic makeup that emerged was carried from the core region of early Neolithic sheep management into Europe and dominates the matrilineal diversity of both its ancient and the billion-strong modern sheep populations

Urticaria and infections

Urticaria is a group of diseases that share a distinct skin reaction pattern. Triggering of urticaria by infections has been discussed for many years but the exact role and pathogenesis of mast cell activation by infectious processes is unclear. In spontaneous acute urticaria there is no doubt for a causal relationship to infections and all chronic urticaria must have started as acute. Whereas in physical or distinct urticaria subtypes the evidence for infections is sparse, remission of annoying spontaneous chronic urticaria has been reported after successful treatment of persistent infections. Current summarizing available studies that evaluated the course of the chronic urticaria after proven Helicobacter eradication demonstrate a statistically significant benefit compared to untreated patients or Helicobacter-negative controls without urticaria (p < 0.001). Since infections can be easily treated some diagnostic procedures should be included in the routine work-up, especially the search for Helicobacter pylori. This review will update the reader regarding the role of infections in different urticaria subtypes

Generation of neutralizing antibodies and divergence of SIVmac239 in cynomolgus macaques following short-term early antiretroviral therapy.

Neutralizing antibodies (NAb) able to react to heterologous viruses are generated during natural HIV-1 infection in some individuals. Further knowledge is required in order to understand the factors contributing to induction of cross-reactive NAb responses. Here a well-established model of experimental pathogenic infection in cynomolgus macaques, which reproduces long-lasting HIV-1 infection, was used to study the NAb response as well as the viral evolution of the highly neutralization-resistant SIVmac239. Twelve animals were infected intravenously with SIVmac239. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) was initiated ten days post-inoculation and administered daily for four months. Viral load, CD4(+) T-cell counts, total IgG levels, and breadth as well as strength of NAb in plasma were compared simultaneously over 14 months. In addition, envs from plasma samples were sequenced at three time points in all animals in order to assess viral evolution. We report here that seven of the 12 animals controlled viremia to below 10(4) copies/ml of plasma after discontinuation of ART and that this control was associated with a low level of evolutionary divergence. Macaques that controlled viral load developed broader NAb responses early on. Furthermore, escape mutations, such as V67M and R751G, were identified in virus sequenced from all animals with uncontrolled viremia. Bayesian estimation of ancestral population genetic diversity (PGD) showed an increase in this value in non-controlling or transient-controlling animals during the first 5.5 months of infection, in contrast to virus-controlling animals. Similarly, non- or transient controllers displayed more positively-selected amino-acid substitutions. An early increase in PGD, resulting in the generation of positively-selected amino-acid substitutions, greater divergence and relative high viral load after ART withdrawal, may have contributed to the generation of potent NAb in several animals after SIVmac239 infection. However, early broad NAb responses correlated with relatively preserved CD4(+) T-cell numbers, low viral load and limited viral divergence