Holonomy groups of pseudo-quaternionic-K\"ahlerian manifolds of non-zero scalar curvature

The holonomy group $G$ of a pseudo-quaternionic-K\"ahlerian manifold of signature $(4r,4s)$ with non-zero scalar curvature is contained in \Sp(1)\cdot\Sp(r,s) and it contains \Sp(1). It is proved that either $G$ is irreducible, or $s=r$ and $G$ preserves an isotropic subspace of dimension $4r$, in the last case, there are only two possibilities for the connected component of the identity of such $G$. This gives the classification of possible connected holonomy groups of pseudo-quaternionic-K\"ahlerian manifolds of non-zero scalar curvature.Comment: 7 pages; Dedicated to Dmitri Vladimirovich Alekseevsky at the occasion of his 70th birthda

Assessing the availability of terrestrial biotic materials in product systems (BIRD)

Availability of abiotic resources has been a topic of concern in recent years, resulting in several approaches being published to determine their availability on country and product level. However, the availability of biotic materials has not been analyzed to this extent yet. Therefore, an approach to determine possible limitations to availability of terrestrial biotic materials over the entire supply chain is introduced. The approach considers 24 categories overall as well as associated category indicators for the five dimensions: physical, socio-economic, abiotic, social and environmental constraints. This ensures a comprehensive availability assessment of bio-based product systems. The approach is applied to a case study comparing biodiesel produced from rapeseed and soy beans. The study shows that the determination of indicator values is feasible for most categories and their interpretation leads to meaningful conclusions. Thus, the approach leads to a more comprehensive assessment of availability aspects and supports better informed decision making in industry and policy.DFG, 325093850, Open Access Publizieren 2017 - 2018 / Technische Universität Berli

Holonomy algebras of pseudo-quaternionic-K\"ahlerian manifolds of signature (4,4)(4,4)

Possible holonomy algebras of pseudo-quaternionic-K\"ahlerian manifolds of signature $(4,4)$ are classified. Using this, a new proof of the classification of simply connected pseudo-quaternionic-K\"ahlerian symmetric spaces of signature $(4,4)$ is obtained.Comment: 16 page

Hybrid approach for the evaluation of organizational indirect impacts (AVOID): combining product-related, process-based, and monetary-based methods

Purpose: Environmental burden caused by an organization occurs both within its boundaries and in its value chain. Organizational life cycle assessment (LCA) was proposed as a method for calculating impacts of an organization throughout its life cycle; nevertheless, companies are still lacking a universal approach to conduct inventory analysis and face challenges in data collection. This paper introduces a hybrid approach for compiling the inventory for the indirect activities on organizational level in an effective manner. Methods: Three existing accounting methods (namely product related, process based, and monetary based) are connected within the hybrid approach. The potential to apply each method for an indirect activity is analyzed with regard to the system boundary requirements and availability of activity data and emission factors. The calculation procedures are introduced for selected activities. The advantages and limitations of the hybridization on organizational level are discussed. The developed approach is applied in a case study to the automotive supplier Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co.KG. Results and discussion: The framework for application of the hybrid approach including the required activity data and emission factors for every indirect activity and each accounting method is provided. The product-related and process-based methods are recommended as more robust; nevertheless, hybridization with the monetary-based method might be essential for compiling a comprehensive inventory by limited data availability. Such limitations as double counting, truncation error, and insufficient data resolution may influence the results and should be considered when applying the hybrid approach. The case study demonstrated that the proposed approach allowed establishing an inventory for all relevant indirect activities. However, due to missing emission factors, only the impact category climate change was calculated for all activities; acidification and water use were quantified for six activities. Conclusions: The introduced hybrid approach enables selecting the most suitable accounting method for the indirect activities depending on data availability. This promotes application of the organizational life cycle assessment in particular for small and medium enterprises and companies that do not have access to the commercial LCA datasets. Availability of the emission factors for all impact categories in public databases is essential to provide robust results using the hybrid approach

Enhancing the assessment of critical resource use at the country level with the SCARCE method – Case study of Germany

The demand for many resources has increased significantly over the last decades due to their growing importance for industrial and technological development. Thus, various methods were developed to assess availability constraints of resources in relation to their vulnerability within countries and/or sectors (criticality). However, these methods display several short-comings. Thus, the aim of the introduced approach is, to enhance the assessment of critical resource use on country level with the SCARCE method, by considering the two dimensions criticality (with the sub dimensions availability and vulnerability) and societal acceptance (with the sub dimensions compliance with social standards and compliance with environmental standards). For five of the 12 introduced categories measuring availability constraints the country specific import mix is used to determine availability constraints of resources individually for the country under consideration. These results can further be compared with global constraints (which are calculated based on global production data) to determine if the country under consideration performs worse or better than the global average. To measure social aspects the categories small scale mining, geopolitical risk and human rights abuse are introduced. Environmental aspects are considered within the categories sensitivity of the local biodiversity, climate change and water scarcity. Additionally, next to metals also fossil fuels are included allowing a direct comparison of both abiotic resources. The SCARCE method is applied for the case study of Germany for which criticality results are presented and their plausibility is validated. It is shown that for Germany tungsten is the raw material showing high risks in all considered dimensions excluding the sub dimension vulnerability. Its high availability constraints are defined by the categories political stability, primary material use and price fluctuations. Further, due to the countries tungsten is imported from (e.g. Bolivia), its compliance with social and environmental standards is low. To enhance the applicability of the SCARCE method, indicator results are provided for 40 resources to assess their availability constraints as well as their compliance with social and environmental standards.BWRE, 1601, ReBaWü - Entwicklung einer Methode zur Bewertung der Ressourceneffizienz von Baden- WürttembergResearch Council of Norway, 255199/E20, Environmental assessment of electric vehicle deployment pathways for Europ

Dedicated Breast Computed Tomography With a Photon-Counting Detector: Initial Results of Clinical In Vivo Imaging

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this work is to present the data obtained from the first clinical in vivo application of a new dedicated spiral breast computed tomography (B-CT) equipped with a photon-counting detector. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The institutional review board approved this retrospective study. Twelve women referred for breast cancer screening were included and underwent bilateral spiral B-CT acquired in prone position. Additional sonography was performed in case of dense breast tissue or any B-CT findings. In 3 women, previous mammography was available for comparison. Soft tissue (ST) and high-resolution (HR) images were reconstructed. Two independent radiologists performed separately the readout for subjective image quality and for imaging findings detection. Objective image quality evaluation was performed in consensus and included spatial resolution, contrast resolution, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-to-noise ratio. All women were asked to report about positioning comfort and overall comfort during data acquisition. RESULTS: The major pectoral muscle was included in 15 breast CT scans (62.5%); glandular component was partially missing in 2 (8.3%) of the 24 scanned breasts. A thin "ring artifact" was present in all scans but had no influence on image interpretations; no other artifacts were present. Subjective image quality assessment showed excellent agreement between the 2 readers (κ = 1). Three masses were depicted in B-CT and were confirmed as simple cysts in sonography. Additional 5 simple cysts and 2 solid benign lesions were identified only in sonography. A total of 12 calcifications were depicted with a median size of 1.1 mm (interquartile range, 0.7-1.7 mm) on HR and 1.4 mm (interquartile range, 1.1-1.8 mm) on ST images. Median SNRgl, SNRfat, and contrast-to-noise ratio were significantly higher in ST than in HR reconstructions (each, P < 0.001). A mild discomfort due to positioning of the rib cage on the table was reported by 2 women (16.7%); otherwise, no discomfort was reported. CONCLUSIONS: The new dedicated B-CT equipped with a photon-counting detector provides high-quality images with potential for screening of breast cancer along with minor patient discomfort

Polimorfismo del gen del receptor de la hormona de crecimiento. Crecimiento postnatal espontáneo en niños pequeños para la edad gestacional

The growth hormone receptor (GHR) mediates the effect of growth hormone (GH) on linear growth and metabolism. In humans, it exists as two isoforms differing by the retention or exclusion of exon 3; a full-length GHR isoform (GHRfl) and the exon 3-deleted isoform (GHRd3). The genotypic frequency of this polymorphism was analyzed in several studies and in different human populations. However scarce information in Argentinean population is available. Associations between GHRd3 and growth have been reported previously. Some studies have shown that the presence of GHRd3 polymorphism might be a potential variant that improves growth response to recombinant human GH (rhGH) therapy in patients born small for gestational age (SGA), among others. However, over the years the results have been controversial and inconclusive. Based on this, it would be proposed that variants at the genomic level are not completely reflected at the mRNA level. Our aim was to evaluate the genotypic frequencies (%) of the GHR gene polymorphism (GHRfl/GHRfl; GHRfl/GHRd3; GHRd3/GHRd3) in normal Argentinean population (n = 94) and SGA patients (n = 65), and the expression of these polymorphisms at mRNA level in the fetal side of placenta tissues was analyzed. In addition, their association with spontaneous postnatal catch-up growth in SGA patients was also evaluated. In this study, we show a significant increment of compensatory growth in small for gestational age children (SGA) associated to the presence of the GHRd3 allele polymorphism. In addition, the expression of GHR in healthy placentas revealed that no alternative splicing mechanism occurs.Fil: Perez Garrido, Natalia Isabel. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan"; ArgentinaFil: Pujana, Matias. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan"; ArgentinaFil: Berger, Malena. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan"; ArgentinaFil: Ramirez, Pablo. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan"; ArgentinaFil: Guercio, Gabriela Viviana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Hospital de Pediatra Garrahan; ArgentinaFil: Belgorosky, Alicia. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Marino, Roxana. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan"; Argentin

Desarrollo de un sistema automático de clasificación y estimación de parámetros de calidad de granos de soja

En la actualidad, las tecnologías de la información están siendo aplicadas para la automatización diversas tareas del ámbito público y privado. En este sentido, este proyecto pretende el uso de técnicas basadas en procesamiento de imágenes y aprendizaje automático para el reconocimiento de muestras de granos de soja. El proceso de clasificación manual consiste en la inspección visual y pesaje de los granos de la muestra realizado por un operador experto en granos. De acuerdo a esta inspección el operador decide si la muestra cumple con los requisitos de la norma de aprobación correspondiente, donde se establecen los márgenes de tolerancia en peso y composición de la misma. El objetivo de este proyecto es el desarrollo de un sistema que sea capaz de determinar en forma automática el tipo y peso de granos en una muestra que puede estar compuesta por granos de soja, chamico, y otros elementos. La metodología apunta al desarrollo de prototipos incrementales de los módulos propuestos para el sistema. Los resultados muestran que el modelo de clasificación implementado posee la capacidad de clasificar granos de soja sanos, soja partida, soja quebrada y chamico, con un nivel de exactitud aceptable. Este proyecto está enmarcado en un convenio especifico entre el Laboratorio de Ciencias de las Imágenes, la Universidad Nacional del Sur y la empresa Acondicionadora de Cereales Bahía S.A.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Plataforma para la clasificación inteligente de espermatozoides humanos

La infertilidad es una enfermedad que afecta aproximadamente 48 millones de parejas en todo el mundo. En este sentido, el análisis de semen es considerado el estudio principal para la evaluación de la capacidad reproductiva del hombre. Aun así, el estudio continúa siendo subjetivo de acuerdo a la interpretación del analista, que analiza de forma manual la muestra de semen. La morfología, en particular, es uno de los factores determinantes en este análisis. En la búsqueda de nuevos criterios para la evaluación de semen surgen los sistemas para el análisis de semen basado en computadoras (CASA, Computer Aided Semen Analysis), los cuales en su gran mayoría aún no analizan morfología espermática en forma automática. Esto se debe a las dificultades que presentan las imágenes de estos sistemas de análisis computarizados y una dificultad no menor se centra en la segmentación adecuada de las diferentes partes de los espermatozoides. El desarrollo de una plataforma para el análisis de semen sirve para el estudio de muestras de espermatozoides humanos así como base para analizar otras especies de producción animal. El objetivo de este proyecto es la investigación y desarrollo de algoritmos de segmentación, extracción de características morfológicas y clasificación de imágenes de espermatozoides humanos y de animales por medio del procesamiento de imágenes y técnicas de Inteligencia Artificial.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ