A novel medical image compression using Ripplet transform

In spite of great advancements in multimedia data storage and communication technologies, compression of medical data remains challenging. This paper presents a novel compression method for the compression of medical images. The proposed method uses Ripplet transform to represent singularities along arbitrarily shaped curves and Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees encoder to encode the significant coefficients. The main objective of the proposed method is to provide high quality compressed images by representing images at different scales and directions and to achieve high compression ratio. Experimental results obtained on a set of medical images demonstrate that besides providing multiresolution and high directionality, the proposed method attains high Peak Signal to Noise Ratio and significant compression ratio as compared with conventional and state-of-art compression methods.     

Water Pipeline Leak Measurement Using Wavelet Packet-based Adaptive ICA

Water Resources Management - The localization of the leaks is estimated using the time difference method in the past decade. Generalized and Basic Cross-correlation techniques are frequently...     

Misidentification rate in the Israeli dairy cattle population and its implications for genetic improvement

The DNA microsatellites can be efficiently used to determine incorrect paternity attribution of cattle without genotyping of dams. Allelic frequencies of the population were determined for 12 microsatellites using the maternal alleles of 102 AI sires. The frequency of the most common microsatellite allele ranged from 0.27 to 0.58. Most loci had at least one allele that was present in only a single individual. Paternity of 9 of 173 cows (5.2%) and 3 of 102 bulls (2.9%) was excluded because putative paternal alleles were not present in progeny for at least one locus. For 4 of the 9 cows and all 3 bulls, exclusion was based on at least two loci. Mean probability of exclusion was 0.85 for cows and 0.99 for bulls. With an assumed cost of US $5 per genotype, a misidentification rate of 5%, and a discount rate of 0.05, additional profit for the Israeli-Holstein breeding program from genotyping 100 test daughters of each young sire becomes positive within 10 yr and reaches nearly US $2.4 million after 20 yr.     

Lymphocytic infiltration in endometrial adenocarcinoma. Correlation with histologic differentiation, clinical staging and prognosis

Lymphocytic infiltration in endometrial adenocarcinoma was evaluated in curettings from 50 patients and correlated with histologic differentiation, clinical staging and prognosis. In spite of the absence of any significant correlation between lymphocytic infiltration and the various parameters investigated, the presence of a marked infiltrate in 46% of the cases suggests that in endometrial adenocarcinoma, as in other neoplasms, a cell-mediated immune response does indeed exist, but warrants further investigation by more refined methods.     

Determination of spatial distribution in two-phase flow using scattered gamma radiation

A procedure has been developed and tested for measurement of the phase distribution along a chord of the flow channel in steady state two-phase flow. The method involves measurement of the zeroth and first moments of the energy spectra of Compton scattered radiation. This information allows determination of the mean position and thickness of each condensed phase region along the interrogated chord in the flow channel. Preparation of empirical calibration curves employing perspex disks, rods or tubes is explained. An iterative procedure for correcting the calibration curves for self-absorption is developed. The procedure has enabled determination of the position and thickness to within a few percent in simulated steady state tests.     

Safety implications of stochastic analysis of nuclear reactor transients

A ‘neutron-temperature random process’ is formulated by means of a probability generating function technique. The model accounts for the effect of the negative temperature feedback by treating the temperature as a continuous random variable, thereby making possible the computation of the expected values of the temperature, neutron and cumulative fission densities as well as their standard deviations. The special relationship of the stochastic behavior of the nuclear reactor to safety considerations is discussed. Typical numerical results are presented related to startup accidents and Anticipated Transient Without Scram (ATWS) in thermal reactors.     

Association of conception rate with pattern and level of somatic cell count elevation relative to time of insemination in dairy cows

The aim was to evaluate the effects of mastitis, determined by the pattern and level of somatic cell count (SCC) around first artificial insemination (AI), on conception rate (CR). Data from 287,192 first AI and milk records covering a 7-yr period were obtained from the Israeli Herd Book. Analyses examined the association of probability of conception with SCC elevation relative to timing of AI, using generalized linear mixed models. A SCC threshold of 150,000 cells/mL of milk was set to distinguish between uninfected cows and cows with mastitis. Accordingly, cows with high SCC before and low SCC after AI were designated cured, those with low SCC before and high SCC after AI were designated newly infected, and cows with high SCC before and after AI were designated chronic (likely subclinical) mastitic cows. Compared with uninfected cows, the cured, newly infected, and chronic subgroups showed reduced CR (39.4 ± 0.1, 36.6 ± 0.2, 32.9 ± 0.3, and 31.5 ± 0.2, respectively). In the chronic, subclinical group, probability of conception was lowered by 14.5% in the mild and moderately elevated SCC subgroups and by 20.5% in cows with high SCC elevation compared with the uninfected group (CR of 29.7 vs. 39.4%, respectively). A single high elevation of SCC (>10⁶ cells/mL on only 1 milk test day) lowered the probability of conception by 23.6% when it occurred during the 10 d immediately before AI, but not when it occurred earlier. For 30 d after AI, probability of conception was lowered by about 23%, as reflected in a CR of about 27% compared with the uninfected group. Probability of conception was lowered in cows with uterine and foot health problems (33.9%), in multiparous cows (34.1%), and in cows in the summer (29.1%), but no interactions with mastitis were detected. Results indicate that SCC elevation around AI, typical for subclinical mastitis, was associated with a significant reduction in probability of conception, and that even mild SCC elevation reduced CR. Severe elevation of SCC before AI, typical for clinical intramammary infection, reduced the probability of conception.     

Genetic analysis of persistency in the israeli holstein population by the multitrait animal model

Persistency was defined as the predicted milk production 180 d after peak divided by peak production (in %). Heritability of persistency in a multitrait analysis including parities 1 through 5 increased from 0.16 to 0.27 from first through third parity, and then declined through fifth parity. Genetic correlations for persistency between consecutive parities were all > 0.8. First-parity genetic correlations of the traits included in the Israeli selection index with persistency were all < 0.1, except for fertility and herdlife, which were 0.20 and 0.25; whereas second-parity genetic correlations of persistency with the 3 milk production traits were all > 0.34, and the genetic correlation with fertility was only 0.10. The genetic correlation between second-parity persistency and herdlife was 0.58. Persistency in the Israeli Holstein population was analyzed by the multitrait animal model. The genetic trend since 1985 for the multiparity index was 0.22% persistency/yr, even though there was no direct selection on persistency.     

The effects of group expectations and self-esteem upon self-evaluation.

This study explores the effect of a specific level of achievement upon an individual's evaluations of his performance when the achievement is relative to an aspiration level set by a group and to the member's stabilized expectations about himself as represented by his self-esteem. Ss were assigned to one of 4 conditions, composed of the combinations of high and low group expectations and relevance and non-relevance of task to the purposes of the group. Half of the Ss within each experimental condition were allowed to succeed and the other half made to fail. Several specific hypotheses within this framework were tested. "The group's expectations appear to have been more potent as a scale of reference than the individual's self-esteem in determining his evaluation of his performance. When the influence of the group was weakest (task was non-relevant) persons high in self-esteem… differed in the way they evaluated their performance. When the influence of the group was strongest (task was relevant) there was no difference in the way that persons high or low in self-esteem rated their achievement." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)