Algorithm for the numerical calculation of the serial components of the normal form of depolarizing Mueller matrices

The normal form of a depolarizing Mueller matrix constitutes an important tool for the phenomenological interpretation of experimental polarimetric data. Due to its structure as a serial combination of three Mueller matrices, namely a canonical depolarizing Mueller matrix sandwiched between two pure (nondepolarizing) Mueller matrices, it overcomes the necessity of making a priori choices on the order of the polarimetric components, as this occurs in other serial decompositions. Because Mueller polarimetry addresses more and more applications in a wide range of areas in science, engineering, medicine, etc., the normal form decomposition has an enormous potential for the analysis of experimentally determined Mueller matrices. However, its systematic use has been limited to some extent because of the lack of numerical procedure for the calculation of each polarimetric component, in particular in the case of Type II Mueller matrices. In this work, an efficient algorithm applicable to the decomposition of both Type II and Type I Mueller matrices is presented

Physical significance of the determinant of a Mueller matrix

The determinant of a Mueller matrix M plays an important role in both polarization algebra and the interpretation of polarimetric measurements. While certain physical quantities encoded in M admit a direct interpretation, the understanding of the physical and geometric significance of the determinant of M (detM) requires a specific analysis, performed in this work by using the normal form of M, as well as the indices of polarimetric purity (IPP) of the canonical depolarizer associated with M. We derive an expression for detM in terms of the diattenuation, polarizance and a parameter proportional to the volume of the intrinsic ellipsoid of M. We likewise establish a relation existing between the determinant of M and the rank of the covariance matrix H associated with M, and determine the lower and upper bounds of detM for the two types of Mueller matrices by taking advantage of their geometric representation in the IPP space

Representative elementary area for multifractal analysis of soil porosity using entropy dimension

International audienceThe notion of representative elementary area (REA) developed to address heterogeneity and scale problems in quantitative soil pedology comes from the notion of representative elementary volume of fluid dynamics in porous media. The REA allows the identification of the minimum area of a soil block section that is required to represent the pedofeature of interest based on its distribution in soil space. In this paper eight samples were imaged with two different techniques: the confocal microscope and the conventional film camera. These techniques provided information about pore sizes between 3.62 ?m and 161.98 ?m, and between 39.72 ?m and 1776.34 ?m, respectively. Sixteen of the resulting digital images were then analyzed to investigate the representative elementary area of the multifractal patterns of the spatial distribution of voids related to the micro and macroporosity by means of the entropy dimension. Our results permit the location of the REA region over the domain of the microstructures rendered by the analysis of the microscope images. They also suggest that this region seemingly spans scales of the macrostructures as revealed by the analysis of the camera pictures

Tendinitis aquílea en el anciano

IntroducciónLas quinolonas son un grupo de agentes antibacterianos sintéticos relacionados estructuralmente con el ácido nalidíxico1. Atendiendo al espectro antibacteriano se clasifican en quinolonas no fluoradas o de primera generación (ácidos nalidíxicos, pipemídico y oxolínico), que tienen un espectro limitado y no alcanzan niveles sistémicos eficaces; fluoroquinolonas de segunda generación (ciprofloxacino, norfloxacino, ofloxacino y perfloxacino), con gran potencia frente a gramnegativos incluidas Pseudomonas, y fluoroquinolonas de tercera generación (levofloxacino y moxifloxacino), con actividad frente a microorganismos grampositivoso y gramnegativos y atípicos. Entre las precauciones que se deben tener en cuenta al prescribir este grupo terapéutico están el evitar la exposición solar prolongada por la fototoxicidad que ocasionan y restringir su uso en niños y adolescentes por la afección del cartílago de crecimiento2.Caso clínicoVarón de 74 años que acudió a nuestra consulta al presentar de forma brusca dificultad a la deambulación por dolor en el pie izquierdo de 48 h de evolución que posteriormente se hizo bilateral. No refería ningún sobreesfuerzo físico ni traumatismo directo y no mejoró tras la toma de antiinflamatorios. En la exploración física no se observaba deformidad, hematoma ni inflamación en ambos tobillos, y destacaba el dolor selectivo en ambos tendons aquíleos, así como la limitación de la flexión dorsal del pie. Al repasar la historia clínica se comprobó que se trataba de un paciente alérgico a las penicilinas y asmático en tratamiento habitual con una inhalación cada 12 h de salmeterol 50 μg/fluticasona 250 μg, y que en ocasiones había necesitado pautas de corticoides por vía oral. Había sido tratado hacía 4 días por una reagudización asmática leve secundaria a una bronquitis aguda, para cuyo tratamiento se aconsejó doblar la dosis de los broncodilatodores y añadir moxifloxacino 400mg/24 h/5 días. Ante la sospecha de una reacción adversa medicamentosa secambió la antibioterapia, y desde entonces el paciente notó una mejoría progresiva de su cuadro clínico. El hecho se notificó al Centro de Farmacovigilancia.Discusión y conclusionesLa tendinitis se considera un efecto adverso poco frecuente del grupo de las quinolonas que puede ocasionar rotura del tendón en el 31% de los casos. El tendón de Aquiles es el más afectado y hasta en un 50% de los casos la afección es bilateral3. La sintomatología aparece dentro de las primeras 2 semanas de tratamiento y cede espontáneamente al retirar la medicación, aunque hasta en un 11% de los pacientes puede persistir 2 meses después. Un número importante de pacientes suele ser anciano y/o recibe tratamiento con corticoides4

Hydrodynamic Aspects and Correlations for the Design of Draft-Tube Conical Spouted Beds

A study has been carried out on the hydrodynamics of conical spouted beds with draft tube. Correlations have been proposed for calculating minimum spouting velocity, operating pressure drop and peak pressure drop as functions of dimensionless module that take into account geometric factors, particle characteristics and operating conditions

Web based hybrid volumetric visualisation of urban GIS data: Integration of 4D Temperature and Wind Fields with LoD-2 CityGML models

City models visualisation, buildings, structures and volumetric information, is an important task in Computer Graphics and Urban Planning -- The different formats and data sources involved in the visualisation make the development of applications a big challenge -- We present a homogeneous web visualisation framework using X3DOM and MEDX3DOM for the visualisation of these urban objects -- We present an integration of different declarative data sources, enabling the utilization of advanced visualisation algorithms to render the models -- It has been tested with a city model composed of buildings from the Madrid University Campus, some volumetric datasets coming from Air Quality Models and 2D layers wind datasets -- Results show that the visualisation of all the urban models can be performed in real time on the Web -- An HTML5 web interface is presented to the users, enabling real time modifications of visualisation parameter

Core markers of arithmetic competence in preschool children

Resumen: Las habilidades numéricas y aritméticas son predictores críticos del éxito académico. En trabajos recientes, se ha cuestionado qué habilidades numéricas básicas se relacionan con la ejecución en aritmética, si el procesamiento de magnitudes numéricas no simbólicas o el procesamiento de magnitudes simbólicas. En el presente estudio se tomó una muestra de 104 escolares del segundo curso de Educación Infantil (EI), que completaron una tarea de comparación de magnitudes numéricas no simbólicas, una de comparación de magnitudes numéricas simbólicas y una tarea de enumeración, así como un test estandarizado de rendimiento en matemáticas (TEMA-3). Además, se controlaron habilidades cognitivas generales como inteligencia, velocidad de procesamiento, amplitud de memoria, control inhibitorio y memoria visuo-espacial. Para comprobar si las variables de procesamiento numérico predicen más allá de las variables de control, se realizó un análisis de regresión jerárquica, utilizando como variable dependiente el TEMA-3, e introduciendo las variables de control y las tareas de procesamiento numérico en sucesivos pasos. El modelo explicó el 65.5% de la varianza. Pero solo la comparación de magnitudes simbólicas y la enumeración contribuyeron a la varianza en ejecución aritmética más allá de las variables de control, mientras que la comparación de magnitudes no simbólicas no contribuyó significativamente. Estos resultados sugieren que un buen conocimiento de los números simbólicos es importante para el desarrollo matemático de los niños, y que particularmente el acceso a la magnitud desde los números simbólicos más que la representación de la magnitud per se es crucial para este desarrollo de la aritmética Core markers of arithmetic competence in preschool children Abstract: The numerical and arithmetic skills are critical predictors of academic success. In current studies, it has been questioned what numerical skills relate with arithmetic achievement, whether the non-symbolic numerical magnitudes processing or the symbolic magnitudes processing. In the current study a sample of 104 preschool children was taken. They completed a non-symbolic numerical comparison task, a symbolic numerical comparison task and a dot enumeration task, as well as a standardized arithmetic performance test (TEMA-3). Moreover, general cognitive skills such a intelligence, processing speed, inhibitory control, memory span and visuo-spatial memory, were controlled. To test whether the variables of number processing predict in the absence of the above predictors, it was conducted a hierarchical regression analysis, taking the TEMA-3 as a dependent variable and introducing the other predictors and the numerical processing tasks in next steps. The model explained 65.5% of the variance. But only the symbolic magnitudes comparison and the enumeration contributed to the arithmetic achievement variance in absence of the control variables, while the non-symbolic magnitudes comparison did not contribute significantly. These results suggest that a good knowledge of symbolic numbers is important to the children’s mathematical development, being particularly crucial the access to the magnitude from symbolic numbers more than the magnitude representation per se.</jats:p

Setting conclitions, Petrology ancl Geochemistry of calc-alkaline rhyolites, stephanian-permian, in the iberian chains

[Resumen] Se exponen los caracteres del emplazamiento, la composición petrológica y geoquímica de unos sills riolíticos que, con afinidad calco-alcalina, se emplazaron, bajo un ambiente sin-colisional, en diversos sectores de la Cadena Ibérica. Estas riolitas representan un origen crustal, con baja tasa de fusión, previo a un magmatismo calco-alcalino de origen subcrustal.[Abstract] The setting characters, the petrological and geochemical composition are exposed for sorne rhyolitic sills, with calc-alkaline affinity, which were set, in a syncollisional environment, in several areas of the Iberian Chains. These rhyolites represent a crustal origin, with a low degree of fussion, previous to a calc-alkaline magmatism of subcrustal origino

Biomarker Localization From Deep Learning Regression Networks

Biomarker estimation methods from medical images have traditionally followed a segment-and-measure strategy. Deep-learning regression networks have changed such a paradigm, enabling the direct estimation of biomarkers in databases where segmentation masks are not present. While such methods achieve high performance, they operate as a black-box. In this work, we present a novel deep learning network structure that, when trained with only the value of the biomarker, can perform biomarker regression and the generation of an accurate localization mask simultaneously, thus enabling a qualitative assessment of the image locus that relates to the quantitative result. We showcase the proposed method with three different network structures and compare their performance against direct regression networks in four different problems: pectoralis muscle area (PMA), subcutaneous fat area (SFA), liver mass area in single slice computed tomography (CT), and Agatston score estimated from non-contrast thoracic CT images (CAC). Our results show that the proposed method improves the performance with respect to direct biomarker regression methods (correlation coefficient of 0.978, 0.998, and 0.950 for the proposed method in comparison to 0.971, 0.982, and 0.936 for the reference regression methods on PMA, SFA and CAC respectively) while achieving good localization (DICE coefficients of 0.875, 0.914 for PMA and SFA respectively, p < 0.05 for all pairs). We observe the same improvement in regression results comparing the proposed method with those obtained by quantify the outputs using an U-Net segmentation network (0.989 and 0.951 respectively). We, therefore, conclude that it is possible to obtain simultaneously good biomarker regression and localization when training biomarker regression networks using only the biomarker value.This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NHLBI) under Grant R01HL116931, Grant R21HL14042, and Grant R01HL149877, in part by the COPDGene Study through the NHLBI under Grant NCT00608764, Grant U01 HL089897, and Grant U01 HL089856, and in part by the COPD Foundation through contributions made to the Industry Advisory Committee comprised of AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Sunovion