Carpal valgus angle deviation in thoroughbred foals corrected using single transphyseal screw implant

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the single transphyseal screw technique in foals diagnosed with carpal valgus deviation. This study included 22 thoroughbred animals of both sexes, with a mean age of 30 days. All animals had a carpal valgus deviation >5° with irregular development of the distal epiphysis of the radius. All animals were surgically treated to correct the carpal valgus deviation by creating a bridge using a single transphyseal screw. Surgical intervention was performed for 40 limbs, comprising 19 right and 21 left thoracic limbs. This corresponded to four animals with carpal valgus deviation >5° in only one of the limbs and 18 with the deviation in both limbs. It was observed that 38/40 treated limbs (95%) achieved normal angulation according to the literature, i.e., angulation between 0° and 5°. No statistical differences were observed between the affected limbs. The single transphyseal screw technique can be used for the correction of carpal valgus deviation in foals. It is indicated in animals with an average age of 30 days (20-55 days), as its main advantages are rapid application, simple execution, and limited trans- and post-surgical complications, making it an effective procedure in thoroughbred foals with carpal valgus angular deviation

Integrating Economic Costs And Biological Traits Into Global Conservation Priorities For Carnivores

Background: Prioritization schemes usually highlight species-rich areas, where many species are at imminent risk of extinction. To be ecologically relevant these schemes should also include species biological traits into area-setting methods. Furthermore, in a world of limited funds for conservation, conservation action is constrained by land acquisition costs. Hence, including economic costs into conservation priorities can substantially improve their conservation cost-effectiveness. Methodology/Principal Findings: We examined four global conservation scenarios for carnivores based on the joint mapping of economic costs and species biological traits. These scenarios identify the most cost-effective priority sets of ecoregions, indicating best investment opportunities for safeguarding every carnivore species, and also establish priority sets that can maximize species representation in areas harboring highly vulnerable species. We compared these results with a scenario that minimizes the total number of ecoregions required for conserving all species, irrespective of other factors. We found that cost-effective conservation investments should focus on 41 ecoregions highlighted in the scenario that consider simultaneously both ecoregion vulnerability and economic costs of land acquisition. Ecoregions included in priority sets under these criteria should yield best returns of investments since they harbor species with high extinction risk and have lower mean land cost. Conclusions/Significance: Our study highlights ecoregions of particular importance for the conservation of the world's carnivores defining global conservation priorities in analyses that encompass socioeconomic and life-history factors. 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Hierarchical And Dynamic Som Applied To Image Compression

A new hierarchical structure of the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) with dynamic growth is presented and applied to codebook design in vector quantization (VQ) and image compression. The tree-structured approach for codebook design is motivated for reducing the high computational efforts in the training and image coding phases in traditional VQ algorithms. The DHSOM has the ability to self determine the structure of the network through heuristically rules, and its final structure reflects the variability of the data (image blocks). It is shown that training and coding times obtained with DHSOM algorithm are faster than conventional SOM and LBG algorithms, while the qualitative results are equivalent.1753758Erickson, D.S., Thyagarajan, K.S., A neural network approach to image compression, Circuits and Systems (1992) ISCAS '92. Proceedings., IEEE International Symposium on, 6, pp. 2921-2924. , 10-13 May, vol.6Linde, Y., Buzo, A., Gray, R.M., An Algorithm for Vector Quantization Design (1980) IEEE Trans. Commun., 28, pp. 84-95Setiono, R., Guojun, L., Image compression using a feedforward neural network (1994) Neural Networks, 1994. IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence, 7, pp. 4761-4765. , 27 Jun-2 Jul, vol.7Qiu, G., Varley, M.R., Terrell, T.J., Variable bit rate block truncation coding for image compression using Hopfield neural networks (1993) Artificial Neural Networks, 1993., Third International Conference on, pp. 233-237. , 25-27 MayBarbalho, J.M., Neto, A.D., Costa, J.A.F., Netto, M.L., Hierarchical SOM applied to image compression (2001) IJCNNGray, R.M., Neuhoff, D.L., Quantization (1998) IEEE Trans. on Information Theory, 44, pp. 2325-2383Kohonen, T., (1997) "Self-organizing Maps," 2nd Ed., , Springer-Verlag: BerlimNasrabadi, N.M., King, Y., Vector Quantization of Images Based upon the Kohonen Self-Organizing Feature Maps (1988) Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Neural NetwoksCosta, J.A.F., (1999) Automatic Classification and Data Analysis by Self-Organizing Neural Networks, , Dr. Eng. Thesis, State Univ. of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil (In Portuguese)Koikkalainen, P., Progress with the Tree-Structured Self-Organizing Map (1994) Proc. of the 11 th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 211-215Lampinen, J., Oja, E., Clustering properties of hierarchical self-organizing maps (1992) Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision, 2, pp. 261-272(2000) SOM Toolbox, , http;/www.cis.hut.fi/projects/somtoolbox

The Curriculum Of The Technical Course In Agriculture: Subverting The Concept Of Curriculum Matrix [o Currículo Do Curso Técnico Em Agropecuária: Subvertendo A Concepção De Grade Curricular]

This article analyzes the factors that have influenced the composition of the curriculum used in the Technical Course in Agriculture of the Center for Agriculture and Forrest Teaching and Development throughout its existence. We have tried to understand the way in which the modifications in the curriculum have happened, identifying the changes in themes developed during the formation of the professional, the sources of influence for the transformations that occurred, the actors involved, the demands coming from the society and, also, how curriculum modifications are incorporated into teaching practices. A survey of primary and secondary data was made. In the primary data survey we used school archive documents from the Technical Course in Agriculture, and we carried out interviews with teachers involved in the course, identifying their views on the context associated to the process of modifying the curriculum. The secondary data survey included a research into the specialized literature and in the legal documentation for the area of professional education. We can say that the theoretical viewpoint adopted in the present work - which conceives curriculum first as a configuration, and not as something given and, second, as a field of forces within which the imbalances between the actors involved in its configuration are established through the indisputability of reality - is here upheld. In other words, it is not admissible that the State should impose laws that cannot be implemented, nor that the school should ignore the changes coming from society and the State, nor that society should fail to adapt to these new directions.372375388Alves, N., (2002) (Org.). Criar currículo no cotidiano., , São Paulo: CortezApple, M.W., (2000) Política cultural e educação, , São Paulo: Cortez(1972), BRASIL., Conselho Federal de, Educação., Parecer n° 45/72, de 12 de janeiro de, 1972., Fixa os mínimos a serem exigidos em cada habitação profissional ou conjunto de habilitações afins no ensino do 2°, grau.Diário Oficial da União, Brasília(1996), BRASIL., Ministério da, Educação., Lei n° 9., 394, de 20 de dezembro de, 1996., Estabelece as diretrizes e bases da educação, nacional(1999) curriculares nacionais para, , BRASIL., Resolução, CNE/CEB., n(04/99, de 5 de outubro de, 1999., Institui as diretrizes a educação profissional de nível, técnicoForquin, J.C., (1993) Escola e cultura, , as bases sociais e epistemológicas do conhecimento escolar. Porto Alegre: Artes MédicasMoreira, A.F.B., Silva, T.T., Sociologia e teoria crítica do currículo: uma introdução (1995) Currículo, cultura e sociedade, pp. 7-37. , MOREIRA, A. F. B.SILVA, T. T. (Orgs.).2. ed. São Paulo: CortezMoreira, J.R., (2005) Natureza, ciência e saberes I, , Identidade social e técnico em agropecuária. Texto de apoio do Curso de Atualizaçãopara Técnicos da ATENS. Convênio CPDA/REDES - NEAD/INCRASacristán, J.G., Currículo e diversidade cultural (1995) Territórios contestados, pp. 82-113. , SILVA, T. T.MOREIRA, A. F. (Orgs.). Petrópolis: VozesSacristán, J.G., (2000) O currículo, , uma reflexão sobre a prática. 3. ed. Porto Alegre: ArtmedSilva, T.T., (1990) Cadernos de Pesquisa, 73, pp. 59-66. , Currículo, conhecimento e democracia: as lições e as dúvidas de duas décadasSilva, T.T., (2007) Documentos de identidade, , uma introdução às teorias do currículo. 2. ed. Belo Horizonte: Autêntic