Inter- and intra-annual C and N isotopic variability of C3 and C4 grasses in a temperate-humid dune environment

Seasonal and annual variations in foliar δ13C and δ15N of a C3 grass Ammophila breviligulata and a C4 grass Calamovilfa longifolia from the sand dunes of Pinery Provincial Park in southern Ontario, Canada were investigated to assess isotopic variability at a single site within a temperate-humid climatic zone. This work quantifies seasonal δ13C and δ15N variation, tests for correlation of δ13C and δ15N with weather parameters, and evaluates the isotopic responses of these grasses to location within the dune system. Throughout the 2014 growing season, there was ~ 1 to 2 ‰ change in δ13C and ~ 3 to 4 ‰ change in δ15N that was related to plant development. Foliar δ13C and δ15N are significantly correlated to total summer precipitation amount and, under some conditions, temperature. The foliar isotopic variations are too small, however, to affect paleoclimatic interpretation of such proxies within such a climatic regime

A method for vibration-based structural interrogation and health monitoring based on signal cross-correlation

Vibration-based structural interrogation and health monitoring is a field which is concerned with the estimation of the current state of a structure or a component from its vibration response with regards to its ability to perform its intended function appropriately. One way to approach this problem is through damage features extracted from the measured structural vibration response. This paper suggests to use a new concept for the purposes of vibration-based health monitoring. The correlation between two signals, an input and an output, measured on the structure is used to develop a damage indicator. The paper investigates the applicability of the signal cross-correlation and a nonlinear alternative, the average mutual information between the two signals, for the purposes of structural health monitoring and damage assessment. The suggested methodology is applied and demonstrated for delamination detection in a composite beam

Accelerated Nonrigid Intensity-Based Image Registration Using Importance Sampling

Nonrigid image registration methods using intensity-based similarity metrics are becoming increasingly common tools to estimate many types of deformations. Nonrigid warps can be very flexible with a large number of parameters and gradient optimization schemes are widely used to estimate them. However, for large datasets, the computation of the gradient of the similarity metric with respect to these many parameters becomes very time consuming. Using a small random subset of image voxels to approximate the gradient can reduce computation time. This work focuses on the use of importance sampling to reduce the variance of this gradient approximation. The proposed importance sampling framework is based on an edge-dependent adaptive sampling distribution designed for use with intensity-based registration algorithms. We compare the performance of registration based on stochastic approximations with and without importance sampling to that using deterministic gradient descent. Empirical results, on simulated magnetic resonance brain data and real computed tomography inhale-exhale lung data from eight subjects, show that a combination of stochastic approximation methods and importance sampling accelerates the registration process while preserving accuracy.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/85955/1/Fessler13.pd

Gradient Based Image Registration Using Importance Sampling

Analytical gradient based non-rigid image registration methods, using intensity based similarity measures (e.g. mutual information), have proven to be capable of accurately handling many types of deformations. While their versatility is largely in part to their high degrees of freedom, the computation of the gradient of the similarity measure with respect to the many warp parameters becomes very time consuming. Recently, a simple stochastic approximation method using a small random subset of image pixels to approximate this gradient has been shown to be effective. We propose to use importance sampling to improve the accuracy and reduce the variance of this approximation by preferentially selecting pixels near image edges. Initial empirical results show that a combination of stochastic approximation methods and importance sampling greatly improves the rate of convergence of the registration process while preserving accuracy.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86019/1/Fessler217.pd

A Correlational Analysis of Academic Stress in Adolescents in Respect of Socio-economic Status

For students, the adolescent is a major transition in their lives since they make various decisions regarding all aspects of their lives such as academics, social life, and leisure activities. They have to struggle to meet the expectations of their parents which include desires related to their academic performance. In addition, society believes that studies with a high-rank from the reputed institute are a “passport” to a good job, high salaries, and high social status which is expected from students. As a result, the students are indirectly subjected to a variety of stressors mainly linked to academic success

Improved fMRI Time-Series Registration Using Joint Probability Density Priors

Functional MRI (fMRI) time-series studies are plagued by varying degrees of subject head motion. Faithful head motion correction is essential to accurately detect brain activation using statistical analyses of these time-series. Mutual information (MI) based slice-to-volume (SV) registration is used for motion estimation when the rate of change of head position is large. SV registration accounts for head motion between slice acquisitions by estimating an independent rigid transformation for each slice in the time-series. Consequently each MI optimization uses intensity counts from a single time-series slice, making the algorithm susceptible to noise for low complexity endslices (i.e., slices near the top of the head scans). This work focuses on improving the accuracy of MI-based SV registration of end-slices by using joint probability density priors derived from registered high complexity centerslices (i.e., slices near the middle of the head scans). Results show that the use of such priors can significantly improve SV registration accuracy.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/85928/1/Fessler236.pd

Women Education in Rural India

In India, the status of the girl child has been a subject of much discussion, contro­versy, and debate. From the start, girl children are seen as burdens rather than blessings, bearers of exorbitant dowries, who will eventually move into the homes of their husbands. There are some overwhelming cultural and economic reasons why female children are not receiving the same medical, emotional, and educational attention as their male counterparts. The result is a low literacy rate among women in rural areas. There has been an increasing proportion of women, who are literate in just 20 years. Despite the improvements, there continues to be a large gap between the educational levels of men and women in rural India. The present study is focused on status, causes, and recommendations for rural women education

Introduction About Child Health Status in India

Child health is a multifaceted problem which is directly linked to a large extent to mother’s health conditions, safe delivery conditions, socio-economic conditions of the family and the health care system. Over the time, the nation has implemented a number of child-centric programs, the poor health status of women and children in terms of high mortality and morbidity was another health priority in this country. Health facilities like hospitals and health centers were established for providing Maternal and Child Healthcare through antenatal, intra-natal and postnatal services. In addition, a number of special programs and schemes like immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases, nutrition interventions like iron and folic acid distribution and vitamin A supplementation, diarrheal disease control through Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT), Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) control program etc. were implemented over the past. In order to, ensure maximum benefit from these programs and to provide services in an integrated manner to these vulnerable groups strong monitoring system required

Impact of Socio Economic Trends on Students in Quality Education System

Awareness for quality education, studies in English medium schools, girl's education promotion, participation in activities, advance teaching pedagogy, learning by activities, expense on education, family support are current socio-economic trends. These trends influence positively quality education concept. Students are influenced by current socio-economic trends