459 research outputs found
Estimation of nasal cavity and conchae volumes by stereological method
Background: Studies evaluating the mean volumes of nasal cavity and concha
are very rare. Since there is little date on the mentioned topic, we aimed to
carry out the presented study to obtain a volumetric index showing the relation
between the nasal cavity and concha.
Material and methods: The volumes of the nasal cavity and concha were
measured in 30 males and 30 females (18–40 years old) on computed tomography
images using stereological methods.
Results: The mean volumes of nasal cavity, concha nasalis media, and concha
nasalis inferior were 5.95 ± 0.10 cm3, 0.56 ± 0.22 cm3, and 1.45 ± 0.68 cm3;
7.01 ± 0.18 cm3, 0.67 ± 0.31 cm3 and 1.59 ± 0.98 cm3 in females and males,
respectively. There were statistically significant differences in the volume of the
nasal cavity and concha nasalis media (p < 0.05) between males and females,
except for concha nasalis inferior (p > 0.05).
Conclusions: Our results could provide volumetric indexes for the nasal cavity
and concha, which could help the physician to manage surgical procedures
related to the nasal cavity and concha
Mapping spot blotch resistance genes in four barley populations
Bipolaris sorokiniana (teleomorph: Cochliobolus sativus) is the fungal pathogen responsible for spot blotch in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and occurs worldwide in warmer, humid growing conditions. Current Australian barley varieties are largely susceptible to this disease and attempts are being made to introduce sources of resistance from North America. In this study we have compared chromosomal locations of spot blotch resistance reactions in four North American two-rowed barley lines; the North Dakota lines ND11231-12 and ND11231-11 and the Canadian lines TR251 and WPG8412-9-2-1. Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT)-based PCR, expressed sequence tag (EST) and SSR markers have been mapped across four populations derived from crosses between susceptible parental lines and these four resistant parents to determine the location of resistance loci. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) conferring resistance to spot blotch in adult plants (APR) were detected on chromosomes 3HS and 7HS. In contrast, seedling resistance (SLR) was controlled solely by a locus on chromosome 7HS. The phenotypic variance explained by the APR QTL on 3HS was between 16 and 25% and the phenotypic variance explained by the 7HS APR QTL was between 8 and 42% across the four populations. The SLR QTL on 7HS explained between 52 to 64% of the phenotypic variance. An examination of the pedigrees of these resistance sources supports the common identity of resistance in these lines and indicates that only a limited number of major resistance loci are available in current two-rowed germplasm
Estimation of Fiber Orientations Using Neighborhood Information
Data from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) can be used to
reconstruct fiber tracts, for example, in muscle and white matter. Estimation
of fiber orientations (FOs) is a crucial step in the reconstruction process and
these estimates can be corrupted by noise. In this paper, a new method called
Fiber Orientation Reconstruction using Neighborhood Information (FORNI) is
described and shown to reduce the effects of noise and improve FO estimation
performance by incorporating spatial consistency. FORNI uses a fixed tensor
basis to model the diffusion weighted signals, which has the advantage of
providing an explicit relationship between the basis vectors and the FOs. FO
spatial coherence is encouraged using weighted l1-norm regularization terms,
which contain the interaction of directional information between neighbor
voxels. Data fidelity is encouraged using a squared error between the observed
and reconstructed diffusion weighted signals. After appropriate weighting of
these competing objectives, the resulting objective function is minimized using
a block coordinate descent algorithm, and a straightforward parallelization
strategy is used to speed up processing. Experiments were performed on a
digital crossing phantom, ex vivo tongue dMRI data, and in vivo brain dMRI data
for both qualitative and quantitative evaluation. The results demonstrate that
FORNI improves the quality of FO estimation over other state of the art
algorithms.Comment: Journal paper accepted in Medical Image Analysis. 35 pages and 16
figure
Escaping the Big Brother: an empirical study on factors influencing identification and information leakage on the Web
This paper presents a study on factors that may increase the risks of personal information leakage, due to the possibility of connecting user profiles that are not explicitly linked together. First, we introduce a technique for user identification based on cross-site checking and linking of user attributes. Then, we describe the experimental evaluation of the identification technique both on a real setting and on an online sample, showing its accuracy to discover unknown personal data. Finally, we combine the results on the accuracy of identification with the results of a questionnaire completed by the same subjects who performed the test on the real setting. The aim of the study was to discover possible factors that make users vulnerable to this kind of techniques. We found out that the number of social networks used, their features and especially the amount of profiles abandoned and forgotten by the user are factors that increase the likelihood of identification and the privacy risks
Zero-DeepSub: Zero-Shot Deep Subspace Reconstruction for Rapid Multiparametric Quantitative MRI Using 3D-QALAS
Purpose: To develop and evaluate methods for 1) reconstructing
3D-quantification using an interleaved Look-Locker acquisition sequence with T2
preparation pulse (3D-QALAS) time-series images using a low-rank subspace
method, which enables accurate and rapid T1 and T2 mapping, and 2) improving
the fidelity of subspace QALAS by combining scan-specific deep-learning-based
reconstruction and subspace modeling. Methods: A low-rank subspace method for
3D-QALAS (i.e., subspace QALAS) and zero-shot deep-learning subspace method
(i.e., Zero-DeepSub) were proposed for rapid and high fidelity T1 and T2
mapping and time-resolved imaging using 3D-QALAS. Using an ISMRM/NIST system
phantom, the accuracy of the T1 and T2 maps estimated using the proposed
methods was evaluated by comparing them with reference techniques. The
reconstruction performance of the proposed subspace QALAS using Zero-DeepSub
was evaluated in vivo and compared with conventional QALAS at high reduction
factors of up to 9-fold. Results: Phantom experiments showed that subspace
QALAS had good linearity with respect to the reference methods while reducing
biases compared to conventional QALAS, especially for T2 maps. Moreover, in
vivo results demonstrated that subspace QALAS had better g-factor maps and
could reduce voxel blurring, noise, and artifacts compared to conventional
QALAS and showed robust performance at up to 9-fold acceleration with
Zero-DeepSub, which enabled whole-brain T1, T2, and PD mapping at 1 mm
isotropic resolution within 2 min of scan time. Conclusion: The proposed
subspace QALAS along with Zero-DeepSub enabled high fidelity and rapid
whole-brain multiparametric quantification and time-resolved imaging.Comment: 17 figures, 3 table
Effective and Efficient Similarity Index for Link Prediction of Complex Networks
Predictions of missing links of incomplete networks like protein-protein
interaction networks or very likely but not yet existent links in evolutionary
networks like friendship networks in web society can be considered as a
guideline for further experiments or valuable information for web users. In
this paper, we introduce a local path index to estimate the likelihood of the
existence of a link between two nodes. We propose a network model with
controllable density and noise strength in generating links, as well as collect
data of six real networks. Extensive numerical simulations on both modeled
networks and real networks demonstrated the high effectiveness and efficiency
of the local path index compared with two well-known and widely used indices,
the common neighbors and the Katz index. Indeed, the local path index provides
competitively accurate predictions as the Katz index while requires much less
CPU time and memory space, which is therefore a strong candidate for potential
practical applications in data mining of huge-size networks.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 3 table
Cultures of conflict:Protests, violent repression, and community values
What are the cultural origins of societal conflicts that revolve around democratization, women’s rights, and modern libertarian values? We propose that deep-seated differences in community-based collective values (at the micro-level) may be related to why people support anti-government protest and why they support repression of such protests (at the macro-level). The hypothesis was examined among residents of Turkey (N = 500). Cultural values, measured at the individual level and community level with the community collectivism scale, correlated with political orientation and emotions, as well as with subsequent support for anti-governmental protest or its repression. The main conclusions are that both support for protest and support for repression are related to the cultural values people hold and their subsequent political orientations and emotions. Micro-level cultural values in local communities may thus play a role in explaining macro-level socio-political divides
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Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine: Brussels, Belgium. 15-18 March 2016.
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]
Wheat-barley hybridization – the last forty years
Abstract Several useful alien gene transfers have
been reported from related species into wheat (Triticum
aestivum), but very few publications have dealt
with the development of wheat/barley (Hordeum
vulgare) introgression lines. An overview is given
here of wheat 9 barley hybridization over the last
forty years, including the development of
wheat 9 barley hybrids, and of addition and translocation
lines with various barley cultivars. A short
summary is also given of the wheat 9 barley hybrids
produced with other Hordeum species. The meiotic
pairing behaviour of wheat 9 barley hybrids is presented,
with special regard to the detection of wheat–
barley homoeologous pairing using the molecular
cytogenetic technique GISH. The effect of in vitro
multiplication on the genome composition of intergeneric
hybrids is discussed, and the production and
characterization of the latest wheat/barley translocation
lines are presented. An overview of the agronomical
traits (b-glucan content, earliness, salt tolerance,
sprouting resistance, etc.) of the newly developed
introgression lines is given. The exploitation and
possible use of wheat/barley introgression lines for
the most up-to-date molecular genetic studies
(transcriptome analysis, sequencing of flow-sorted
chromosomes) are also discussed
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