4,775 research outputs found
Building trust through lymphatic filariasis elimination:A platform to address social exclusion and human rights in the Dominican Republic
Unveiling the Active Nucleus of Centaurus A
We report new HST WFPC2 and NICMOS observations of the center of the nearest
radio galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) and discuss their implications for our
understanding of the active nucleus and jet. We detect the active nucleus in
the near-IR (K and H) and, for the first time, in the optical (I and V),
deriving the spectral energy distribution of the nucleus from the radio to
X-rays. The optical and part of the near-IR emission can be explained by the
extrapolation of the X-ray power law reddened by A_V~14mag, a value consistent
with other independent estimates.
The 20pc-scale nuclear disk discovered by Schreier et al. (1998) is detected
in the [FeII] 1.64mic line and presents a morphology similar to that observed
in Pa alpha with a [FeII]/Pa alpha ratio typical of low ionization Seyfert
galaxies and LINERs. NICMOS 3 Pa alpha observations in a 50"x50" circumnuclear
region suggest enhanced star formation (~0.3Msun/yr) at the edges of the
putative bar seen with ISO, perhaps due to shocks driven into the gas.
The light profile, reconstructed from V, H and K observations, shows that
Centaurus A has a core profile with a resolved break at ~4" and suggests a
black--hole mass of ~10^9 Msun. A linear blue structure aligned with the
radio/X-ray jet may indicate a channel of relatively low reddening in which
dust has been swept away by the jet.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, Astrophysical Journal, in press. High quality
figures available at http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~marconi/colpic.htm
Exact Histogram Specification Optimized for Structural Similarity
An exact histogram specification (EHS) method modifies its input image to
have a specified histogram. Applications of EHS include image (contrast)
enhancement (e.g., by histogram equalization) and histogram watermarking.
Performing EHS on an image, however, reduces its visual quality. Starting from
the output of a generic EHS method, we maximize the structural similarity index
(SSIM) between the original image (before EHS) and the result of EHS
iteratively. Essential in this process is the computationally simple and
accurate formula we derive for SSIM gradient. As it is based on gradient
ascent, the proposed EHS always converges. Experimental results confirm that
while obtaining the histogram exactly as specified, the proposed method
invariably outperforms the existing methods in terms of visual quality of the
result. The computational complexity of the proposed method is shown to be of
the same order as that of the existing methods.
Index terms: histogram modification, histogram equalization, optimization for
perceptual visual quality, structural similarity gradient ascent, histogram
watermarking, contrast enhancement
A Rigourous Treatment of the Lattice Renormalization Problem of F_B
The -meson decay constant can be measured on the lattice using a
expansion. To relate the physical quantity to Monte Carlo data one has to know
the renormalization coefficient, , between the lattice operators and their
continuum counterparts. We come back to this computation to resolve
discrepancies found in previous calculations. We define and discuss in detail
the renormalization procedure that allows the (perturbative) computation of
. Comparing the one-loop calculations in the effective Lagrangian approach
with the direct two-loop calculation of the two-point -meson correlator in
the limit of large -quark mass, we prove that the two schemes give
consistent results to order . We show that there is, however, a
renormalization prescription ambiguity that can have sizeable numerical
consequences. This ambiguity can be resolved in the framework of an
improved calculation, and we describe the correct prescription in that case.
Finally we give the numerical values of that correspond to the different
types of lattice approximations discussed in the paper.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures (Plain TeX, figures in an appended postscript
file
Bayes-optimal inverse halftoning and statistical mechanics of the Q-Ising model
On the basis of statistical mechanics of the Q-Ising model, we formulate the
Bayesian inference to the problem of inverse halftoning, which is the inverse
process of representing gray-scales in images by means of black and white dots.
Using Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate statistical properties of the
inverse process, especially, we reveal the condition of the Bayes-optimal
solution for which the mean-square error takes its minimum. The numerical
result is qualitatively confirmed by analysis of the infinite-range model. As
demonstrations of our approach, we apply the method to retrieve a grayscale
image, such as standard image `Lenna', from the halftoned version. We find that
the Bayes-optimal solution gives a fine restored grayscale image which is very
close to the original.Comment: 13pages, 12figures, using elsart.cl
Digestão ácida de materiais biológicos assistida por radiação microondas: emprego de RMN1H para investigação dos produtos reacionais.
On the algebraic invariant curves of plane polynomial differential systems
We consider a plane polynomial vector field of degree
. To each algebraic invariant curve of such a field we associate a compact
Riemann surface with the meromorphic differential . The
asymptotic estimate of the degree of an arbitrary algebraic invariant curve is
found. In the smooth case this estimate was already found by D. Cerveau and A.
Lins Neto [Ann. Inst. Fourier Grenoble 41, 883-903] in a different way.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, to appear in J.Phys.A:Math.Ge
The use of classification and regression trees to predict the likelihood of seasonal influenza
Background Individual signs and symptoms are of limited value for the diagnosis of influenza. Objective To develop a decision tree for the diagnosis of influenza based on a classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. Methods Data from two previous similar cohort studies were assembled into a single dataset. The data were randomly divided into a development set (70%) and a validation set (30%). We used CART analysis to develop three models that maximize the number of patients who do not require diagnostic testing prior to treatment decisions. The validation set was used to evaluate overfitting of the model to the training set. Results Model 1 has seven terminal nodes based on temperature, the onset of symptoms and the presence of chills, cough and myalgia. Model 2 was a simpler tree with only two splits based on temperature and the presence of chills. Model 3 was developed with temperature as a dichotomous variable (≥38°C) and had only two splits based on the presence of fever and myalgia. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCC) for the development and validation sets, respectively, were 0.82 and 0.80 for Model 1, 0.75 and 0.76 for Model 2 and 0.76 and 0.77 for Model 3. Model 2 classified 67% of patients in the validation group into a high- or low-risk group compared with only 38% for Model 1 and 54% for Model 3. Conclusions A simple decision tree (Model 2) classified two-thirds of patients as low or high risk and had an AUROCC of 0.76. After further validation in an independent population, this CART model could support clinical decision making regarding influenza, with low-risk patients requiring no further evaluation for influenza and high-risk patients being candidates for empiric symptomatic or drug therap
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