A Probabilistic Method For Foreground And Shadow Segmentation

10.1111/1539-6924.00371IEEE International Conference on Image Processing3937-94085QT

Ecological Impacts of Diesel Engine Emissions

This article deals with the ecological impacts of chemical substances that are found in the structure of Diesel engine exhaust gases and provides an overview of legislation that limits their maximum allowable emissions. Special consideration is given to the previously mostly neglected negative impact of particulate matter compared to the impact of carbon dioxide. Negative impact of particulates is especially noted as direct negative impact on human health whereby the expenses associated with medical treatment exceed the financial savings resulting from the usage of Diesel powered vehicles. Therefore, the paper presents the knowledge acquired through previous scientific research in the economically most developed countries, as well as the tendencies for the reduction of negative impacts of Diesel exhaust gases

Hidden geometric correlations in real multiplex networks

Real networks often form interacting parts of larger and more complex systems. Examples can be found in different domains, ranging from the Internet to structural and functional brain networks. Here, we show that these multiplex systems are not random combinations of single network layers. Instead, they are organized in specific ways dictated by hidden geometric correlations between the individual layers. We find that these correlations are strong in different real multiplexes, and form a key framework for answering many important questions. Specifically, we show that these geometric correlations facilitate: (i) the definition and detection of multidimensional communities, which are sets of nodes that are simultaneously similar in multiple layers; (ii) accurate trans-layer link prediction, where connections in one layer can be predicted by observing the hidden geometric space of another layer; and (iii) efficient targeted navigation in the multilayer system using only local knowledge, which outperforms navigation in the single layers only if the geometric correlations are sufficiently strong. Our findings uncover fundamental organizing principles behind real multiplexes and can have important applications in diverse domains.Comment: Supplementary Materials available at http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v12/n11/extref/nphys3812-s1.pd

The older, the wiser? profiles of string instrument teachers with different experience according to their conceptions of teaching, learning, and evaluation

When posting or re-using the article, you should provide a link/URL from the article posted to the SAGE Journals Online site where the article is published: http://online.sagepub.com and please make the following acknowledgment: ‘The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in , Vol/Issue, Month/Year by SAGE Publications Ltd, All rights reserved. © [The Author(s)]Recent research on music teaching and the curricula proposed in different countries increasingly insists on moving towards teaching centered on managing students' mental processes according to the constructivist approach. However, studies on conceptions and practices of teaching-learning show that these still largely focus on transmitting the musical and technical knowledge needed to produce the correct sound. Our main aim was to study the conceptions of teaching-learning held by 53 string teachers at elementary levels, and to test how they are affected by the variable teaching experience (in three groups: [a] less than 7 years; [b] 7-14 years; and [c] more than 14 years). We also wanted to determine whether these conceptions give rise to consistent profiles in three pedagogical dimensions: teaching, learning, and evaluation. We collected data by means of a multiple-choice questionnaire, and applied cluster analysis, correlations, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and post hoc tests. Agreeing with prior research, we found three distinct profiles in the answers to the questionnaire: direct, interpretative, and constructive. Teachers' beliefs were more constructive regarding teaching and evaluation than regarding learning, although younger teachers held more complex positions regarding teaching and learning music, in contrast to much research on teaching-expertise

4 modalities of periodontal treatment compared over 5 years *

The purpose of the present study was to assess in a clinical trial over 5 years the results following 4 different modalities of periodontal therapy (pocket elimination or reduction surgery, modified Widman flap surgery, subgingival curettage, and scaling and root planing). 90 patients were treated. The treatment methods were applied on a random basis to each of the 4 quadrants of the dentition. The patients were given professional tooth cleaning and oral hygiene instructions every 3 months. Pocket depth and attachment levels were scored once a year. 72 patients completed the 5 years of observation. Both patient means for pocket depth and attachment level as well as % distribution of sites with loss of attachment ≥2 mm and ≥3 mm were compared. For 1-3 mm probing depth, scaling and root planing, as well as subgingival curettage led to significantly less attachment loss than pocket elimination and modified Widman flap surgery. For 4 6 mm pockets, scaling and root planing and curettage had better attachment results than pocket elimination surgery. For the 7-12 mm pockets, there was no statistically significant difference among the results following the various procedures.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72788/1/j.1600-051X.1987.tb02249.x.pd

The Role of Individual Variables, Organizational Variables and Moral Intensity Dimensions in Libyan Management Accountants’ Ethical Decision Making

This study investigates the association of a broad set of variables with the ethical decision making of management accountants in Libya. Adopting a cross-sectional methodology, a questionnaire including four different ethical scenarios was used to gather data from 229 participants. For each scenario, ethical decision making was examined in terms of the recognition, judgment and intention stages of Rest’s model. A significant relationship was found between ethical recognition and ethical judgment and also between ethical judgment and ethical intention, but ethical recognition did not significantly predict ethical intention—thus providing support for Rest’s model. Organizational variables, age and educational level yielded few significant results. The lack of significance for codes of ethics might reflect their relative lack of development in Libya, in which case Libyan companies should pay attention to their content and how they are supported, especially in the light of the under-development of the accounting profession in Libya. Few significant results were also found for gender, but where they were found, males showed more ethical characteristics than females. This unusual result reinforces the dangers of gender stereotyping in business. Personal moral philosophy and moral intensity dimensions were generally found to be significant predictors of the three stages of ethical decision making studied. One implication of this is to give more attention to ethics in accounting education, making the connections between accounting practice and (in Libya) Islam. Overall, this study not only adds to the available empirical evidence on factors affecting ethical decision making, notably examining three stages of Rest’s model, but also offers rare insights into the ethical views of practising management accountants and provides a benchmark for future studies of ethical decision making in Muslim majority countries and other parts of the developing world

Macromolecular Crowding Directs Extracellular Matrix Organization and Mesenchymal Stem Cell Behavior

Microenvironments of biological cells are dominated in vivo by macromolecular crowding and resultant excluded volume effects. This feature is absent in dilute in vitro cell culture. Here, we induced macromolecular crowding in vitro by using synthetic macromolecular globules of nm-scale radius at physiological levels of fractional volume occupancy. We quantified the impact of induced crowding on the extracellular and intracellular protein organization of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) via immunocytochemistry, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and AFM-enabled nanoindentation. Macromolecular crowding in extracellular culture media directly induced supramolecular assembly and alignment of extracellular matrix proteins deposited by cells, which in turn increased alignment of the intracellular actin cytoskeleton. The resulting cell-matrix reciprocity further affected adhesion, proliferation, and migration behavior of MSCs. Macromolecular crowding can thus aid the design of more physiologically relevant in vitro studies and devices for MSCs and other cells, by increasing the fidelity between materials synthesized by cells in vivo and in vitro

Crossing boundaries: Exploring the theory, practice and possibility of a ‘Future 3’ curriculum

In this article, we examine a case of innovation in curriculum and pedagogy at a new school in the UK. We begin by outlining the 3 Futures model, which we use as a methodological heuristic in the case study of the school that appears to be both knowledge‐led and learner‐engaged; characteristics of the Future 3 scenario. In considering the school's curriculum, we also draw on a number of concepts from the work of Basil Bernstein: classification, framing and the idea of open schools, and a curriculum integration model developed by us to consider the degree of epistemic emphasis in the school's predominantly interdisciplinary curriculum. Together, these concepts provide the means to examine the organising principles of practice operating in the school, as links are drawn between the 3 Futures model, Bernstein's concepts and the data. We theorise this as a form of ‘opening up’, suggesting that even within the context of an interdisciplinary curriculum, access to powerful knowledge may be maintained in a whole‐school approach where the demands of both knowledge and knowers are brought into balance. The school's approach and the theorisation we offer may provide insights for other schools embarking on a futures model for education and for twenty‐first‐century educational discourses more generally