Antral follicular count is a tool that may allow the selection of more precocious Bradford heifers at weaning

Although antral follicle count is a repeatable parameter across life that is positively associated with fertility, its use at weaning as a tool to discard less fertile heifers has not been extensively evaluated. The hypotheses of this work are: 1) maximum antral follicle count (MAFC) is repeatable between weaning and pre breeding evaluations, allowing selection of more fertile heifers at an early age, 2) heifers with high MAFC have growth and development parameters linked to an earlier puberty and pregnancy, 3) MAFC has a positive correlation with AMH concentrations, so that both could be used inter changeably. In this study, Hereford (n = 42 and n = 50) and Braford (n = 40 and n = 50) females were used in years 1 and 2; respectively, in a completely randomized experimental design. Heifers were examined for five to ten days at two different moments (post weaning and pre service), to determine MAFC. The concentrations of Anti müllerian hormone (AMH) were evaluated on the day of MAFC assessment. Growth and development parameters were evaluated post weaning and pre service. The repeatability of MAFC between post weaning and pre service evaluations was poor in three cases (Hereford Year 1 = 0.36 and 2 = 0.39 and Braford, Year 2 = 0.32) but it was high for Braford in Year 2 (0.72). The AMH repeatability between post weaning and pre service evaluations was high in one case (Braford Year 2 = 0.72) and moderate in the others (Year 1, Hereford = 0.50 and Braford = 0.52 and Year 2, Hereford = 0.50). In Year 2, Braford heifers with greater MAFC attained puberty at an earlier age (r2 = 0.129; P = 0.0196). Also, diminished MAFC corresponded with decreased growth and development, thus less Braford heifers with low MAFC were inseminated (2/16), compared to those with medium (12/17) and high MAFC (7/17; P \u3c 0.01). Moreover, Braford heifers with low AFC had less progesterone in the cycle post insemination but pregnancy rate was not affected. In Braford heifers in Year 2, there was a high correlation between MAFC and AMH concentrations (0.85 P \u3c 0.001). The results of these experiments indicate that post weaning MAFC and AMH concentrations may be applied to select those Braford heifers that attain puberty at an early age, but these tools are not useful in Hereford heifers

Follicular nodules (Thy3) of the thyroid: is total thyroidectomy the best option?

BACKGROUND: Identification of the best management strategy for nodules with Thy3 cytology presents particular problems for clinicians. This study investigates the ability of clinical, cytological and sonographic data to predict malignancy in indeterminate nodules with the scope of determining the need for total thyroidectomy in these patients. METHODS: The study population consisted of 249 cases presenting indeterminate nodules (Thy3): 198 females (79.5%) and 51 males (20.5%) with a mean age of 52.43 ± 13.68 years. All patients underwent total thyroidectomy. RESULTS: Malignancy was diagnosed in 87/249 patients (34.9%); thyroiditis co-existed in 119/249 cases (47.79%) and was associated with cancer in 40 cases (40/87; 45.98%). Of the sonographic characteristics, only echogenicity and the presence of irregular margins were identified as being statistically significant predictors of malignancy. 52/162 benign lesions (32.1%) and 54/87 malignant were hypoechoic (62.07%); irregular margins were present in 13/162 benign lesions (8.02%), and in 60/87 malignant lesions (68.97%). None of the clinical or cytological features, on the other hand, including age, gender, nodule size, the presence of microcalcifications or type 3 vascularization, were significantly associated with malignancy. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of malignancy in cytologically indeterminate lesions was high in the present study sample compared to other reported rates, and in a significant number of cases Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was also detected. Thus, considering the fact that clinical and cytological features were found to be inaccurate predictors of malignancy, it is our opinion that surgery should always be recommended. Moreover, total thyroidectomy is advisable, being the most suitable procedure in cases of multiple lesions, hyperplastic nodular goiter, or thyroiditis; the high incidence of malignancy and the unreliability of intraoperative frozen section examination also support this preference for total over hemi-thyroidectomy

Automatic neural generalized font identification

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1599-1_116Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, Skövde, Sweden, 2–4 September 1998Neural methods are gaining a steady acceptance as powerful tools in a variety of pattern detection problems, OCR certainly being one of them. The concrete implementation of these neural OCR systems is of course a well guarded corporate secret, but in broad terms it can be said that in most of the cases, multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) are used. There are several reasons for the MLPs’ success. To begin with, they are based in well understood mathematical and statistical principles and there are efficient tools and methodologies for their training and evaluation. Furthermore they have good generalization properties.With partial support of grant TIC 95-965 of Spain's CICy

La sociedad de gananciales como régimen supletorio en un sistema convencional de libertad restringida. Contraste entre Perú y España

Este trabajo ofrece un estudio sobre la configuración de la sociedad de gananciales como régimen supletorio en los sistemas jurídicos peruano y español. Existen notables diferencias entre ambos sistemas. El sistema peruano conjuga las características de un régimen convencional, restringido en su ámbito de aplicación —pues se limita a la libre elección de uno de los regímenes patrimoniales legalmente establecidos, como a su sustitución—, con las de un régimen legal. La ley fija el contenido de cada uno de los regímenes entre los que pueden elegir los cónyuges, sin que estos puedan alterar ese contenido ni el régimen supletorio que operará a falta de voluntad expresa. Hay un contraste con el Derecho español común, que tiene, a este respecto, un sistema convencional de libertad absoluta. Los cónyuges tienen amplia autonomía privada para otorgar capitulaciones matrimoniales y pueden incluso pactar la exclusión de la sociedad de gananciales como régimen supletorio. Estas cuestiones son analizadas desde la óptica del derecho comparado. This work offers a study on the configuration of community of property as a suppletive regime in the Peruvian and Spanish legal systems. There are remarkable differences between both systems. Peruvian system combines the characteristics of a conventional regime, restricted in their scope -because it is limited only to the free choice of one of the legally established property regimes, as well as to their replacement-, with the characteristics of a legal regime. The law establishes the content of each of the matrimonial property regimes that spouses can choose, without them being able to alter its contents or the suppletive regime that will operate in the absence of expressed will. There is a contrast with common Spanish Low which has a conventional system of absolute freedom. Spouses hove extensive private autonomy to conclude marriage agreements and may agree to the exclusion of community of property as a suppletive regime. All these issues are analysed from a comparative law perspective

Analysis and forecasting of time series by averaged scalar products of flow vectors

The relationship between the quality of state space reconstruction and the accuracy in time series forecasting is analyzed. The averaged scalar product of the dynamical system flowvectors has been used to give a degree of determinism to the selected state space reconstruction. This value helps distinguish between those regions of the state space here predictions will be accurate and those where they are not . A time series measured in an industri al environment where noise is present is used as an example. It is shown that prediction methods used to estimate futu re values play a less important role than a good reconstruction of the state space itself.Grateful acknowledgment is due to the ESPRIT project HI T E6447 for support of this work. One of us (R. H.) wants to thank to the M.E.C. for financial suppor

Algoritmo mixto mínima entropía-máxima información para la selección de ítems en un test adaptativo informatizado

El objetivo del estudio que presentamos es comparar la eficacia como estrategia de selección de ítems de tres algoritmos diferentes: a) basado en máxima información; b) basado en mínima entropía; y c) mixto mínima entropía en los ítems iniciales y máxima información en el resto; bajo la hipótesis de que el algoritmo mixto, puede dotar al TAI de mayor eficacia. Las simulaciones de procesos TAI se realizaron sobre un banco de 28 ítems de respuesta graduada calibrado según el modelo de Samejima, tomando como respuesta al TAI la respuesta original de los sujetos que fueron utilizados para la calibración. Los resultados iniciales muestran cómo el criterio mixto es más eficaz que cualquiera de los otros dos tomados independientemente. Dicha eficacia se maximiza cuando el algoritmo de mínima entropía se restringe a la selección de los primeros ítems del TAI, ya que con las respuestas a estos primeros ítems la estimación de θ comienza a ser relevante y el algoritmo de máxima información se optimiza.Item selection algorithms in computerized adaptive testing. The aim of this paper is to compare the efficacy of three different item selection algorithms in computerized adaptive testing (CAT). These algorithms are based as follows: the first one is based on Item Information, the second one on Entropy, and the last algorithm is a mixture of the two previous ones. The CAT process was simulated using an emotional adjustment item bank. This item bank contains 28 graded items in six categories, calibrated using Samejima (1969) Graded Response Model. The initial results show that the mixed criterium algorithm performs better than the other ones

Buspirone for the treatment of dementia with behavioral disturbance

Behavioral disturbances are common but serious symptoms in patients with dementia. Currently there are no FDA approved drugs for this purpose. There have been case reports and small case series of the use of buspirone. In this retrospective study, we review 179 patients prescribed buspirone for treatment of behavioral disturbance in dementia to better characterize the efficacy and potential side effects. All patients prescribed buspirone for behavioral disturbance due to dementia from a geropsychiatric outreach program were reviewed. Data was collected and analyzed using SPSS. One hundred-seventy-nine patients met criteria for the study with a mean age of 83.8 + 7. Alzheimer’s dementia was the most common dementia (n=111; 62%) followed by vascular type (n=81; 45.5%). Behavioral disturbances were mainly verbal aggression (n= 125; 72.3%), and physical aggression (n=116; 47.5%). Using the Clinical Global Impression scale, 72.8% of patients responded to buspirone, with 30.8% being moderately to markedly improved. The mean dose of buspirone was 25.7 mg ±12.50. Buspirone appears to be effective in treating behavioral disturbances in dementia. Future prospective and double blinded studies are needed

Enabling immersive simulation.

The object of the 'Enabling Immersive Simulation for Complex Systems Analysis and Training' LDRD has been to research, design, and engineer a capability to develop simulations which (1) provide a rich, immersive interface for participation by real humans (exploiting existing high-performance game-engine technology wherever possible), and (2) can leverage Sandia's substantial investment in high-fidelity physical and cognitive models implemented in the Umbra simulation framework. We report here on these efforts. First, we describe the integration of Sandia's Umbra modular simulation framework with the open-source Delta3D game engine. Next, we report on Umbra's integration with Sandia's Cognitive Foundry, specifically to provide for learning behaviors for 'virtual teammates' directly from observed human behavior. Finally, we describe the integration of Delta3D with the ABL behavior engine, and report on research into establishing the theoretical framework that will be required to make use of tools like ABL to scale up to increasingly rich and realistic virtual characters

Geoquímica del extenso depósito de flujo piroclástico hiperalcalino del NW de México, basada en fluorescencia de rayos X convencional y portátil. Implicaciones en un contexto regional

Chemical analyses conducted on the surface of rock slabs under a combination of two X-ray spectrometry methods, wavelength dispersive XRF and energy dispersive XRF, are used to establish a geochemical correlation between the studied samples. This proves to be an excellent method for the characterization of volcanic glasses, particularly when particles of exotic origin are present, because the effect of these is not easily eliminated by conventional whole rock analysis. Analyses of glassy rhyolites (ignimbrites and lava flows) in northwestern Mexico establish a geochemical signature for the samples, providing criteria that allow us to: a) correlate them with a peralkaline volcanic event, previously reported, that occurred during Middle Miocene time; b) distinguish them from other metaluminous varieties in the region and, c) propose a correlation between all the peralkaline vitrophyres that crop out within the studied area, of at least 50.000 km2, validating the hypothesis that they are related to the same volcanic event. Finally, based on the results of this study and previous geological investigations, it is proposed that a distance of more than 100 km between the geographical location of the thickest peralkaline deposits in Sonora, is probably related to a displacement along transtensional dextral faults during the Late Miocene.El análisis químico realizado en secciones de roca bajo la combinación de dos métodos de espectrometría de fluorescencia de rayos x, por dispersión de longitudes de onda y por dispersión de energías, permitió establecer una correlación geoquímica entre las muestras estudiadas, resultando ser un excelente método para la caracterización de vidrios volcánicos, en particular cuando contienen partículas ajenas al magma que no pueden ser eliminadas por el análisis de roca total convencional. Los resultados obtenidos sobre las riolitas vítreas estudiadas (ignimbritas y coladas) del Noroeste de México permiten establecer una firma geoquímica de las muestras que proporciona criterios permitiendo: a) correlacionarlas con un evento volcánico, anteriormente descrito, de tipo hiperalcalino que ocurrió durante el Mioceno medio; b) diferenciarlas de las ignimbritas metaluminosas también presentes en la región y, c) proponer una correlación entre los vitrófiros de la zona estudiada, de al menos 50000 km2, haciendo válida la hipótesis de que todos ellos provienen de una misma erupción. Finalmente, basados en los resultados de este estudio y de trabajos geológicos previos, se propone que una diferencia de hasta más de 100 km en la ubicación geográfica de los depósitos hiperalcalinos de mayor espesor, es probablemente relacionada con un desplazamiento a lo largo de fallas dextrales asociadas a un evento extensivo en transtensión ocurrido durante el Mioceno superior

Transformando uma muralha em fronteira: a conexão do Vale do Paraíba do Sul ao litoral no Brasil oitocentista

Communication between productive areas and ports was of extreme importance in the colonial system. Cattle cars, on smaller slopes, and mules' troops, used on more rugged terrain, were the primary means of transporting goods during colonization. The creation, maintenance, and use of roads produced changes in the landscape noticeable until the present day. The Serra da Bocaina, a geographical accident between the port of Mambucaba and the Paraíba do Sul River Valley, is an emblematic example of the changes generated by human agents crossing  the mountain range with mules' troops towards the coast. The opening of tracts in the forest centuries ago for rest and animal feed has altered the biota of some portions of the mountain, replacing the previously existing flora with areas of open vegetation composed of exotic and native grasses and herbaceous. The "Bocaina fields" can be interpreted as ecological results of the stumbling in the Serra do Mar, a geographical phenomenon that highlights the hidden work in the landscape, observable in the vegetation physiognomy of such areas.Abstract Communication between productive areas and ports was of extreme importance in the colonial system. Cattle cars, on smaller slopes, and mules' troops, used on more rugged terrain, were the primary means of transporting goods during colonization. The creation, maintenance, and use of roads produced changes in the landscape noticeable until the present day. The Serra da Bocaina, a geographical accident between the port of Mambucaba and the Paraíba do Sul River Valley, is an emblematic example of the changes generated by human agents crossing the mountain range with mules' troops towards the coast. The opening of tracts in the forest centuries ago for rest and animal feed has altered the biota of some portions of the mountain, replacing the previously existing flora with areas of open vegetation composed of exotic and native grasses and herbaceous. The "Bocaina Fields" can be interpreted as ecological results of the stumbling in the Serra do Mar, a geographical phenomenon that highlights the hidden work in the landscape, observable in the vegetation physiognomy of such areas.A comunicação entre as áreas produtivas e os portos era de extrema relevância no sistema colonial. Carros de boi, em menores declividades, e tropas de mulas, utilizadas em terrenos mais acidentados, foram os principais meios de transporte de mercadorias durante a colonização. A criação, manutenção e uso dos caminhos produziu alterações na paisagem perceptíveis até os dias atuais. A Serra da Bocaina, acidente geográfico interposto entre o porto de Mambucaba e o Vale do Paraíba do Sul é um exemplo emblemático de modificações geradas por agentes humanos ao atravessarem a serrania com as tropas de mulas em direção ao litoral. A abertura de tratos na floresta há séculos para repouso e alimentação animal alterou a fitofisionomia de algumas porções da serra, substituindo a flora anteriormente existente por áreas de vegetação aberta, compostas por gramíneas e herbáceas exóticas e nativas. Os “Campos da Bocaina” podem ser interpretados como resultantes ecológicas do tropeirismo na Serra do Mar, um fenômeno geográfico que evidencia o trabalho oculto na paisagem, observável na fitofisionomia de tais áreas. &nbsp