An examination of methodologies to assess high-resolution noninvasive sensing of near-surface perched water

Previous studies have proven the rate that pollutants move through the soil is directly related to the rate that water moves through the soil. The rate that water moves through the soil increases under saturated conditions due to increased macropore flow. When an impermeable layer exists in a soil, the downward movement of water is restricted. If a saturated layer of soil exists above an unsaturated layer, a perched water table forms. A perched water table creates saturated conditions and increased macropore flow above the impermeable layer in the soil profile. Therefore, a perched water table may provide a rapid pathway for pollutants to nearby water resources. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is proposed as a tool that will noninvasively sense underground perched water. The research objectives of this study are to identify a perched water table in a shallow sandy loam soil lying atop sandstone bedrock, and to validate statistically the developed technique with the use of blind tests. Previous exploratory studies at the Environmental Research Tract (Plateau Experiment Station) are built on, refined, and developed to map morphological features that influence subsurface perched water. Perched water produces an area of signal scatter that occurs near the perched water surface within GPR data. Extensive lab processing of the data attempts to apply filtering methods to the data. The filtering processes aspire to divide the data into low and high frequencies, thus better distinguishing the actual perched water table surface and the orientation of this surface (e.g., slope). Blind tests are used to validate the filtering techniques developed in the lab and to ensure a non-biased interpretation. At present, results have not provided a repeatable method that can enhance the perched water surface so that it can be accurately measured

Modeling and implementation of an automatic Access control system for secure permises using facial recognition

Security is a major concern within companies to prevent access to information by unauthorized persons.  In this work, we are interested in access control through facial recognition. To realize this access control system based on facial recognition, we used an embedded system under Arduino which gives us the possibility to assemble the performances of programming and electronics, more precisely, we programmed electronic systems for the automatic opening of doors without the action of a human being. From a sample of 100 individuals composed of 40 women and 60 men, 75 of whom were registered and 25 non-registered, our access control system obtained the results of 70 true positives, 5 false negatives, 8 false positives and 17 true negatives that constitute our confusion matrix. However, from the set of tests performed we can conclude that multi-modality fusion can be leveraged to increase the performance of the verification system as the verification performance of multimodal systems (feature fusion or score fusion) can be applied to give even better results

Alternative Sources of Accurate Agricultural Topography

Bob Recker started Cedar Valley Innovation, CVI, in 2004 following his retirement from John Deere after 41 years. CVI works on many small-scale experiments to test if they can be applied in large-scale settings. CVI is a small business hoping to make a big impact on agriculture. On this project specifically, our client’s goal is to study the relative accuracy of alternative methods of data collection to create topographical data of agricultural fields for purpose of water flow and related field analysis.Our group understands the possible solutions for the problem of analyzing water flow are tractor-based ground units, drones, and satellite imagery. We also know relative costs for each system or method. CVI is seeking a definitive answer on which method is best and which method would be easiest for farmers to replicate. If our group tells people how we analyzed field A, would they be able to go analyze field B on their own? Our group has not been able to find specific examples of other companies working on analyzing the pros and cons amongst all three methods. There are plenty of companies working on improving, or trying to sell one method, but very few are attempting to determine which one of the three is the best. While determining which method is best for topographical data for water flow analysis, we will also be able to determine other areas farmers could use the topographical data. Mapping fields, scouting crop health, monitoring weeds or need for fertilizer could all be solved with some of the same methods (Darr, 2018)

Probability of Occult Ankle Fracture Based on Radiograph-Measured Swelling

INTRODUCTION: Pediatric ankle injuries are a common presentation in the emergency department (ED). A quarter of pediatric ankle fractures show no radiographic evidence of a fracture. Physicians often correlate non-weight bearing and tenderness with an occult fracture. We present this study to predict the probability of an occult fracture using radiographic soft-tissue swelling on initial ED radiographs. METHODS: This is a retrospective study at a Level 1 pediatric trauma center from 2021 to 22. Soft-tissue swelling between the lateral malleolus and skin was measured on radiographs, and weight-bearing status was documented. Statistical analysis was conducted using Stata software. DISCUSSION: The study period involved 32 patients with an occult fracture, with 8 (25%) diagnosed with a fracture on follow-up radiographs. The probability of an occult fracture was calculated as a function of the ankle swelling in millimeters (mm) using a computer-generated predictive model. False-negative and false-positive rates were plotted as a function of the degree of ankle swelling. CONCLUSION: Magnitude of ankle soft-tissue swelling as measured on initial ED radiographs is predictive of an occult fracture. Although weight-bearing status was not a sign of occult fracture, it improves the predictive accuracy of soft-tissue swelling

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

Dietary levels of pure flavonoids improve spatial memory performance and increase hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor.

Evidence suggests that flavonoid-rich foods are capable of inducing improvements in memory and cognition in animals and humans. However, there is a lack of clarity concerning whether flavonoids are the causal agents in inducing such behavioral responses. Here we show that supplementation with pure anthocyanins or pure flavanols for 6 weeks, at levels similar to that found in blueberry (2% w/w), results in an enhancement of spatial memory in 18 month old rats. Pure flavanols and pure anthocyanins were observed to induce significant improvements in spatial working memory (p = 0.002 and p = 0.006 respectively), to a similar extent to that following blueberry supplementation (p = 0.002). These behavioral changes were paralleled by increases in hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor (R = 0.46, p<0.01), suggesting a common mechanism for the enhancement of memory. However, unlike protein levels of BDNF, the regional enhancement of BDNF mRNA expression in the hippocampus appeared to be predominantly enhanced by anthocyanins. Our data support the claim that flavonoids are likely causal agents in mediating the cognitive effects of flavonoid-rich foods

Disposable blood pressure cuffs: A safer alternative

Background: Health care acquired infections are avoidable and not only cause patient suffering but are also costly to the hospitals. These unintentional infections cost hospitals approximately 35-45 billion dollars per year. Blood pressure (BP) cuffs are potential reservoirs for bacteria and using disposable cuffs could eliminate one way of transmission of disease from patient to patient. Clinical Question: Does the use of disposable BP cuffs as opposed to reusable BP cuffs decrease infection rates in inpatient adults during their hospital stay? Literature Search: A search on Medline, Academic Search Premier and CINAHL revealed one randomized control trial, one controlled trial, four case control studies, one qualitative study pertaining to our topic. The search of literature found research supporting the use of disposable BP cuffs to decrease the spread of bacteria, demonstrated the cost effectiveness of the cuffs and the financial benefits to the hospitals. Integration into Practice: Students presented findings to an orthopedic unit at a regional hospital in 2014. Many Registered Nurses were in attendance as well as a manager, human resources representatives, Chief Nursing Officer of the hospital and the Vice President of Operations. Students proposed, based on evidence, to change practice by adopting disposable BP cuffs. The presentations validity spurred action. Our information and suggestions were taken to Lean Six Sigma meeting and considered. Our exact goal was not implemented, but changes were made based on our findings. BP cuffs were replaced on some units to increase sanitation, but were the reusable type. The hospital\u27s microbiologist was prompted to conduct a more extensive literature search. Furthermore, the nursing students gained knowledge of evidence based practice principles as well as the power of evidence in affecting change in the clinical setting

Plant-based dietary index and body weight in people with type 1 diabetes: a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial

ObjectiveThis secondary analysis tested the relationship of a plant-based diet index (PDI), healthful PDI (hPDI), and unhealthful PDI (uPDI), with weight loss in adults with type 1 diabetes.MethodsFifty-eight adults with type 1 diabetes were randomized to follow an ad libitum low-fat vegan (n = 29) or a portion-controlled, energy-restricted diet (n = 29) for 12 weeks. Food records were analyzed and PDI indices were calculated. A repeated measure ANOVA, Spearman correlations, and a linear regression model were used for statistical analysis.ResultsThe PDI score increased on the vegan diet (p &lt; 0.001) from 51.8 to 60.4, and did not change on the portion-controlled diet [effect size +6.0 (95% CI + 1.0 to +10.9); p = 0.02]; the hPDI increased on both diets, more on the vegan diet [effect size +9.1 (95% CI + 3.7 to +14.5); p = 0.002]; and uPDI increased on the vegan diet, and did not change on the portion-controlled diet [effect size +7.3 (95% CI + 1.9 to +12.7); p = 0.01]. Changes in PDI and hPDI scores correlated with changes in body weight [r = −0.35; p = 0.04 for PDI; and r = −0.52; p = 0.001 for hPDI], even after adjustment for changes in energy intake [r = −0.37; p = 0.04 for PDI; and r = −0.53; p = 0.001 for hPDI]. An increase in hPDI by 6.1 points was associated with a 1-kg weight loss (p = 0.01). There was no association between the changes in uPDI and changes in body weight (r = −0.07; p = 0.68).ConclusionThe study results suggest that replacing animal foods with plant foods is an effective strategy for weight loss in adults with type 1 diabetes. The inclusion of “unhealthy” plant-based foods did not impair weight loss, and these benefits were independent of energy intake.Clinical trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT04944316

Recovery of a Digital Image Collection Through the SDSC/UMD/NARA Prototype Persistent Archive

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), the University of Maryland, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) are collaborating on building a pilot persistent archive using and extending data grid and digital library technologies. The current prototype consists of node servers at SDSC, University of Maryland, and NARA, connected through the Storage Request Broker (SRB) data grid middleware, and currently holds several terabytes of NARA selected collections. In particular, a historically important image collection that was on the verge of becoming inaccessible was fully restored and ingested into our pilot system. In this report, we describe the methodology behind our approach to fully restore this image collection and the process used to ingest it into the prototype persistent archive. (UMIACS-TR-2003-105

Architecture for access to a compute-intensive image mosaic service in the NVO

The National Virtual Observatory (NVO) will provide on-demand access to data collections, data fusion services and compute intensive applications. The paper describes the development of a framework that will support two key aspects of these objectives: a compute engine that will deliver custom image mosaics, and a "request management system," based on an e-business applications server, for job processing, including monitoring, failover and status reporting. We will develop this request management system to support a diverse range of astronomical requests, including services scaled to operate on the emerging computational grid infrastructure. Data requests will be made through existing portals to demonstrate the system: the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), the On-Line Archive Science Information Services (OASIS) at the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA); the Virtual Sky service at Caltech's Center for Advanced Computing Research (CACR), and the yourSky mosaic server at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)