Future trends in data mining

Over recent years data mining has been establishing itself as one of the major disciplines in computer science with growing industrial impact. Undoubtedly, research in data mining will continue and even increase over coming decades. In this article, we sketch our vision of the future of data mining. Starting from the classic definition of “data mining”, we elaborate on topics that — in our opinion — will set trends in data mining.     

透水性混凝土路面砖路面现场的长期渗透性能研究

因为混凝土路面砖的渗透性能是道路排水和排污体系设计的一个指标,所以它对道路工程的使用寿命有着重大意义.由于矿物或有机物的细颗粒会进入多孔混凝土路面砖的孔洞中,或进入接缝料中,所以可以认为混凝土路面砖路面的渗透性能将会有不可逆转的衰减趋势.研究结果表明,使用几年以后,路面渗透性以近10的幂次方下降.采用一种专用渗透测量仪在现场进行的实测试验,证实了这一结果.这种仪器考虑局部条件(如龄期、交通荷载等)后,可立即准确地测得其放置处的渗透量.渗透曲线则以所测的平均渗透值的回归曲线来表示.可连续地重复进行试验,以观察路面的长期性能.这些试验表明,渗透性与龄期之间有着重要联系.而且研究还表明,长期的现场渗透性及其观察到的降低程度,由填缝的颗粒尺寸所决定.此外,有别于多孔混凝土砌块孔洞尺寸的透水性路面的开孔率,也会部分地使渗透性下降.总之,虽然透水性混凝土路面砖路面不能完全排干整个交通路面上的水,但它们仍对整个集水区的径流过程起着极大的作用.由于部分雨水将被保留下来,所以这部分水不会加入到总径流量中,使径流峰值由于延时而被消减.对于一个过载的排污体系来说,由于透水性混凝土路面砖路面可减低这种过度荷载,因此在生态学上具有极其重要的作用,而且还可避免排入伴有污染物的水.根据表面径流与实际渗透量之间的关系,可为确定排水体系的尺寸提供更精确的设计方法.由于透水性路面砖路面的渗透性能会不断下降,所以要求精确地设计、使用和保养透水性路面,使渗透性能长期保持在一个较高的水平,使低成本的排水及排污体系可持续运作,且具有有效的环境管理方法.     

Early sexual experience fails to enhance sexual performance in male goats

We studied the effects of early sexual experience on the adult sexual performance of male dairy goats. Seven postpubertal males were exposed to an estrous female on four occasions during their 1st yr of life. These males were housed with six additional males (controls) that received no early sexual experience. As yearlings, the 13 males were individually exposed to two estrous does for 30 min on three occasions at weekly intervals. Mounts with and without ejaculation were recorded. Sexually experienced and inexperienced males did not differ for either of these variables or a measure of mating efficiency (mounts per ejaculation). Mating efficiency improved for the experimental males during their four initial exposures to estrous females (P < .05). We conclude that male goats, in contrast to male sheep, are not likely to exhibit substandard sexual performance if denied heterosexual experience in their 1st yr.     

PET/MRI in cancer patients: first experiences and vision from Copenhagen

Combined PET/MRI systems are now commercially available and are expected to change the medical imaging field by providing combined anato-metabolic image information. We believe this will be of particular relevance in imaging of cancer patients. At the Department of Clinical Physiology, Nuclear Medicine & PET at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen we installed an integrated PET/MRI in December 2011. Here, we describe our first clinical PET/MR cases and discuss some of the areas within oncology where we envision promising future application of integrated PET/MR imaging in clinical routine. Cases described include brain tumors, pediatric oncology as well as lung, abdominal and pelvic cancer. In general the cases show that PET/MRI performs well in all these types of cancer when compared to PET/CT. However, future large-scale clinical studies are needed to establish when to use PET/MRI. We envision that PET/MRI in oncology will prove to become a valuable addition to PET/CT in diagnosing, tailoring and monitoring cancer therapy in selected patient populations.