Computer-generated Maps Research Articles

Changes in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health Components "Activity/Participation" as Predicted Through Patient-Reported Outcomes Along With Comprehensive Back Pain Rehabilitation.

Objectives:The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) but its use in clinical practice is sparse. This study investigated the limitations and restrictions in the most relevant brief ICF core set categories for chronic low back pain (cLBP) as automatically predicted from routinely measured outcomes using a novel, validated mapping algorithm.Materials and Methods:Of 2718 cLBP patients recruited, data from 1541 (64% females) were available from before and at the end of 6 months comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation. Assessments included the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) and Pain Disability Index (PDI) questionnaires, the percentage of patients with predicted limitations and restrictions in important activity and participation ICF categories, bodily functional measurements, pain intensity, and anxiety/depression (EQ-5D).Results:At baseline, both the RMDQ and the PDI measures were within the third of the lowest disability scores whilst 80% of the patients had limitations with “maintaining a body position” and 30% with “walking” ICF categories. Intervention-associated gains in the maximum isometric lumbar extension and flexion strength and the lumbar range of motion were significant overall, but improvements in patients’ ICF limitations/restrictions varied. Anxiety/depression, lumbar range of motion, and extension strength all had a significant impact on the majority of the ICF categories, whereas flexion strength had none.Discussion:The rate of patients with predicted limitations/restrictions in activity/participation ICF core categories for cLBP partly mirrored disability levels and the impact of the body function scores on these limitations/restrictions in ICF categories was varied. Thus, assessing problems in the ICF activity/participation core categories is of relevance to clinical practice for both treatment goal setting and intervention planning. This may be achieved by computer-generated mapping without additional time burden.

Topographic Organization of the 'Third-Tier' Dorsomedial Visual Cortex in the Macaque.

The boundaries of the visual areas located anterior to V2 in the dorsomedial region of the macaque cortex remain contentious. This region is usually conceptualized as including two functional subdivisions: the dorsal component of area V3 (V3d) laterally and another area named the parietooccipital area (PO) or V6 medially. However, the nature of the putative border between V3d and PO/V6 has remained undefined. We recorded the receptive fields of multiunit clusters in male macaques and reconstructed the locations of recording sites using histological sections and computer-generated maps. Immediately adjacent to dorsomedial V2, we observed a representation of the lower contralateral quadrant that represented the vertical meridian at its rostral border. This region formed a simple eccentricity gradient from ∼<5° in the annectant gyrus to >60° in the parietooccipital medial sulcus. There was no topographic reversal where one would expect to find the border between V3d and PO/V6. Rather, near the midline, this lower quadrant map continued directly into a representation of the peripheral upper visual field without an intervening lower quadrant representation. Therefore, cortex previously assigned to the medial part of V3d and to PO/V6 forms a single map that includes parts of both quadrants. Together with previous observations that V3d and PO/V6 are densely myelinated relative to adjacent cortex and share similar input from V1, these results suggest that they are parts of a single area (for which we suggest the designation V6), which is distinct from the one forming the ventral component of the third-tier complex.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The primate visual cortex has a large number of areas. Knowing the extent of each visual area and how they can be distinguished from each other is essential for the interpretation of experiments aimed at understanding visual processing. Currently, there are conflicting models of the organization of the dorsomedial visual cortex rostral to area V2 (one of the earliest stages of cortical processing of vision). By conducting large-scale electrophysiological recordings, we found that what were originally thought to be distinct areas in this region (dorsal V3 and the parietooccipital area PO/V6), together form a single map of the visual field. This will help to guide future functional studies and the interpretation of the outcomes of lesions involving the dorsal visual cortex.

A web-based application for generating 2D-unfolded cortical maps to analyze the location and extent of cortical lesions following traumatic brain injury in adult rats

BackgroundBoth the type and severity of functional impairments caused by damage to the cerebral cortex depend on the functional cortical areas and networks affected, as well as the lesion extent and type. New methodTo accelerate the laborious quantitative analysis of cortical lesion location and size, we created user-friendly software that generates two-dimensional unfolded cortical maps of the lesions in adult rats. The program imports and superimposes simple user-made measurements, e.g., from histologic sections, on a template. The software then quantifies the total lesion area and the area of damage in each cortical cytoarchitechtonic region. To validate the accuracy of the software, we compared computer-generated maps with manually created unfolded maps from 32 rats with lateral fluid-percussion-induced traumatic brain injury. ResultsThe total area of the cortical lesions varied from 7.37 to 38.45 mm2 in the automated analysis and from 7.26 to 38.97 mm2 in the manual analysis (p > 0.05). The Pearson correlation coefficient between the automated and manual analyses was 0.998 (p < 0.001). The mean difference between the automated and manual measurements was 0.50 ± 0.69 mm2 (range 0.00–3.30 mm2). The slight differences between the analyses related to human error in positioning the measurements to the anteroposterior coordinates on the template map. Comparison with existing methodsCompared with the manual method, the automated method accurately and quickly generates unfolded cortical maps of lesioned cortical areas. ConclusionsApplication provides a novel tool for accurately positioning the lesioned area on the cortical mantle and quantifying the lesion area in histologic sections or magnetic resonance images.

Abstract TP58: A Novel Deep Learning Approach for Automated Diagnosis of Cerebral Infarction on Computed Tomography

Introduction: Deep learning is a novel machine learning approach that enables automated extraction and classification of imaging features. We aimed to use deep learning to enhance detection of brain infarction. Methods: Patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to our institution between 2011-2015 were prospectively registered in an IRB-approved database. On a subset of these patients, radiologists annotated the images by marking infarct area. Data was split randomly into a training set and test set (80:20). Deep learning models, including a 3D multi-scale fully convolutional neural network, were developed and trained on the training set and independently tested on the test set. The performance of this model was compared to the expert consensus interpretation. Diagnostic test characteristics including the area under the curve (AUC) for the deep learning algorithm were calculated both at a voxel and imaging-study level. Computer-generated heat maps were created to denote the possibility of infarct. Results: The study group included 114 patients (training set n = 92, test set n = 22). In the training set of 5,888 images, infarction was present in 602 (10.2%) images. In the testing set of 920 images, infarction was present in 130 (14.1%) images. A total of 1.5 billion voxels were used to train the model. The AUC for the deep learning algorithm for voxel accuracy was 0.973 (95% CI 0.972-0.974). Voxel accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were 92%, 93%, and 92%, respectively. Positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were 86% and 92%, respectively. The AUC for the deep learning algorithm for automated diagnosis of infarction at the imaging-study level was 0.91 (95% CI 0.90-0.94). Diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were 88%, 65%, and 91%, respectively. PPV and NPV were 49% and 95%, respectively. Conclusions: A machine-learned algorithm employing a novel deep learning algorithm enabled accurate diagnosis of brain infarction.

An Image Encryption Scheme of Logistic Modulation Using Computer-Generated Hologram and Chaotic Map

We introduce an image encryption method based on computer-generated hologram (CGH) and two-dimensional Sine Logistic modulation map (2D-SLMM). We combine CGH and 2D-SLMM to improve encryption security. During the encryption process, the hologram needs to be logistically modulated by 2D-SLMM. This logistic modulation technique can avoid complex algorithms. Simulation results and security analysis demonstrate that the proposed approach has a high security level, good invisibility of image information in ciphertext, large key space, and strong robustness.

Retroflexion in South Asia: Typological, genetic, and areal patterns

Abstract Retroflexion in South Asia has been the subject of at least two previous typological studies: Ramanujan and Masica (1969. Toward a phonological typology of the Indian linguistic area. In T. A. Sebeok (ed.), Current trends in linguistics, volume 5: Linguistics in South Asia, 543–577. Paris: Mouton) and Tikkanen (1999. Archaeological-linguistic correlations in the formation of retroflex typologies and correlating areal features in South Asia. In Roger Blench &amp; Matthew Spriggs (eds.), Archaeology and language IV: Language change and cultural transformation, 138–148. London &amp; New York: Routledge). Despite their many virtues, these studies are limited by the size of their data samples, their dependence on qualitative data without quantitative analysis, and their use of hand-drawn maps. This paper presents the results of an entirely new survey of retroflexion in South Asia – one that incorporates a larger language sample, quantitative analysis, and computer-generated maps. The study focuses on the genetic and geographic distribution of various retroflex subsystems, including retroflex obstruents, nasals, liquids, approximants and vowels. While it is possible to establish broad statistical correlations between specific types of contrast and individual language families (or sub-families), the study finds that the distribution of most retroflex systems is more geographic in nature than genetic. Thus, while retroflexion is characteristic of South Asia as a whole, each type of retroflex system tends to cut across genetic lines, marking out its own space within the broader linguistic area.

Concept maps and simulations in a computer system for learning Psychology

Abstract PSICO-A is a computer system for learning Psychology. It is specially designed for secondary school children. It is the first system in Psychology designed for learning didactic units of the subject. PSICO-A is based on many pedagogical influences, such as concept maps, free retrieval practice, effective feedback, simulations, digital games, and metacognition. A significant improvement has been shown in the conceptual performance in those children that constructed computer-generated maps using the system compared to those that have drawn them by hand. An evaluation was also made of the interactions between concept mapping and simulations, demonstrating that the first group of pupils performed better in simulations than the second group. Further studies are needed to study the influence of these two conditions of concept mapping on the performance of digital games.

Computer-Generated Concept Maps

Computer-Generated Concept Maps

Towards Ubiquitous Cartography

Computer-generated maps have become commonplace over the past decade. Most internet search engines, for example, have the ability to generate maps in response to spatial queries and routes between specified origins and destinations. Advances in mobile computing technologies provide access to these mapping capabilities from virtually any location on the Earth's surface. Maps and map-making have become ubiquitous, and this phenomenon requires cartographers to rethink basic concepts about map design and map use. In this special issue we present five research projects that are focused on the emerging field of ubiquitous cartography. These projects were selected, in part, because they are representative of key research challenges that face the cartographic research community. In this introductory paper, key terms are defined and research challenges outlined. By way of this collected set of papers, ubiquitous cartography is presented as a new and important arena for cartographic research.

Decoding 2D-PAGE complex maps: Relevance to proteomics☆

This review describes two mathematical approaches useful for decoding the complex signal of 2D-PAGE maps of protein mixtures. These methods are helpful for interpreting the large amount of data of each 2D-PAGE map by extracting all the analytical information hidden therein by spot overlapping. Here the basic theory and application to 2D-PAGE maps are reviewed: the means for extracting information from the experimental data and their relevance to proteomics are discussed. One method is based on the quantitative theory of statistical model of peak overlapping (SMO) using the spot experimental data (intensity and spatial coordinates). The second method is based on the study of the 2D-autocovariance function (2D-ACVF) computed on the experimental digitised map. They are two independent methods that are able to extract equal and complementary information from the 2D-PAGE map. Both methods permit to obtain fundamental information on the sample complexity and the separation performance and to single out ordered patterns present in spot positions: the availability of two independent procedures to compute the same separation parameters is a powerful tool to estimate the reliability of the obtained results. The SMO procedure is an unique tool to quantitatively estimate the degree of spot overlapping present in the map, while the 2D-ACVF method is particularly powerful in simply singling out the presence of order in the spot position from the complexity of the whole 2D map, i.e., spot trains. The procedures were validated by extensive numerical computation on computer-generated maps describing experimental 2D-PAGE gels of protein mixtures. Their applicability to real samples was tested on reference maps obtained from literature sources. The review describes the most relevant information for proteomics: sample complexity, separation performance, overlapping extent, identification of spot trains related to post-translational modifications (PTMs).

Technical standards and guidelines: Prenatal screening for open neural tube defects: This new section on “Prenatal Screening for Open Neural Tube Defects,” together with the new section on “Prenatal Screening for Down Syndrome,” replaces the previous Section H of the American College of Medical Genetics Standards and Guidelines for Clinical Genetics Laboratories

Technical standards and guidelines: Prenatal screening for open neural tube defects: This new section on “Prenatal Screening for Open Neural Tube Defects,” together with the new section on “Prenatal Screening for Down Syndrome,” replaces the previous Section H of the American College of Medical Genetics Standards and Guidelines for Clinical Genetics Laboratories *

Frontier Contact between Choson Korea and Tokugawa Japan, and: To the Ends of Japan: Premodern Frontiers, Boundaries, and Interactions (review)

Reviewed by: Frontier Contact between Chŏson Korea and Tokugawa Japan, and: To the Ends of Japan: Premodern Frontiers, Boundaries, and Interactions Kären Wigen (bio) Frontier Contact between Chŏson Korea and Tokugawa Japan. By James B. Lewis. RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2003. xiii, 322 pages. $149.95. To the Ends of Japan: Premodern Frontiers, Boundaries, and Interactions. By Bruce L. Batten. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2003. xiii, 337 pages. $42.00. Transgressing traditional specialties of period and place, increasing numbers of social and cultural historians are pursuing research in intercultural contact zones. Such projects place a heavy burden on the scholar, who must master multiple histories and often work in multiple languages. But the rewards can be impressive, as evidenced in new books by James Lewis and Bruce Batten. Both Lewis and Batten start from a fascination with the fluid world of premodern East Asia. Although evidently unaware of each other's work, both have been engaged in ground-breaking research on the southwestern frontiers of Japan for over a decade. Both also share a social-scientific bent, assaying forms of model-building explanation rarely seen in the monographic literature on Japan since the 1980s. Yet these similarities of theme and approach throw into stark relief what is distinctive about their respective books: notably, their scale and scope. While one study focuses tightly on a single maritime outpost during one historical era, the other offers a sweeping overview of war, trade, and cultural exchange across all the archipelago's major borders for over a millennium. Naturally, such discrepancies of coverage dictate corresponding differences of method. James Lewis is a resolute localist, albeit one whose locality happens to be a transnational region. Working from Japanese and Korean archives, the author has painstakingly amassed a detailed picture of the early modern Tsushima-Pusan frontier, encompassing Kyongsang Province, Tsushima Island, and the waters in between. As he asserts early on, this constellation of Japanese and Korean territories is "best thought of as a single region that straddled numerous boundaries [yet] possessed a single economy and an interactive political culture" (p.45). Before turning to examine in detail the complex geography and impact of Tsushima's Korean outpost, the waegwan or Japan House in Pusan, Frontier Contact appropriately opens with a brief exploration of Tsushima's own ambivalent early modern identity. The Japanese and Korean rulers nursed sharply contrasting perspectives on Tsushima. From the viewpoint of the shoguns, the island was subordinate yet privileged, an indispensable intermediary in one of Japan's most crucial trade relationships. From Hansong, by contrast, Tsushima was viewed as an [End Page 201] integral Korean territory temporarily occupied by barbarous foreigners with a penchant for piracy. Given the island's proximity to the peninsula, its severe agricultural limitations (Tokugawa-era Tsushima depended on Korea for two-thirds of its grain), and its people's long history of seafaring, it is not surprising to discover a host of Korean-influenced cultural practices in the island. Lewis sketches the evidence for cultural hybridity in Tsushima proper before offering a physical and administrative description of Pusan's Japan House, an "extension of Tsushima onto Korean soil" (p.34). Serving as the official point of contact between Japanese and Koreans from the end of the ill-fated Hideyoshi invasions to the early nineteenth century, the Japan House emerges as the focus of the remaining chapters of the book. Fully half of Frontier Contact is devoted to depicting "the structures that resulted from the presence of Japanese in post-1600 Korea" (p.13). In successive chapters, Lewis assesses these structures systematically in political, demographic, and economic terms. This entails not only mapping the geography of Japan House and its hinterland in detail, but subjecting the region's rich quantitative data to an elaborate set of manipulations, intended to measure the significance of the Tsushima trade for Korean demography, economy, and politics in turn. In chapter three, a dozen computer-generated maps and tables are marshaled to illustrate the high concentration of population—and particularly of men—in the coastal province that housed the waegwan. (Lewis also chooses to relate here a complex and inconclusive debate over the profitability of the private trade...

Differentiation and identification of iron-oxidizing acidophilic bacteria using cultivation techniques and amplified ribosomal DNA restriction enzyme analysis

Acidophilic iron-oxidizing microorganisms are important both environmentally and in biotechnological applications. Although, as a group, they are readily detected by their ability to generate ferric iron (resulting in a distinctive color change in liquid media), these microbes highly diverse phylogenetically. Various other characteristics, such as optimum growth temperature, response to organic carbon sources, and cellular morphologies, facilitate, in some cases, identification of isolates to a genus or species level, although this approach has limitations and may give erroneous results. In this study, a combined approach of using physiological traits together with amplified ribosomal DNA restriction enzyme analysis (ARDREA) has been successful in identifying all known acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria to the species level. Computer-generated maps were used to identify restriction enzymes that allow the differentiation of the acidophiles, and these were confirmed experimentally using authentic bacterial strains. To test further the validity of this approach, six acidophilic moderately thermophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria isolated from Montserrat (West Indies) were analysed using the ARDREA protocol. Three of the isolates were identified as Sulfobacillus acidophilus-like, and one as Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans-like bacteria. The fifth isolate gave DNA digest patterns that were distinct from all known strains of iron-oxidizing acidophiles. Subsequent sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes of these isolates confirmed the identity of the four Sulfobacillus isolates, and also that the fifth isolate was a novel species. Schematic diagrams showing how ARDREA may be used to rapidly identify all known acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria are presented.

Mapping Land-Use Change and Monitoring the Impacts of Hardwood-to-Pine Conversion on the Southern Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee

Abstract Over the past two decades, forests in the southeastern United States have undergone dramatic changes as the result of urban sprawl and conversion to intensively managed pine plantations. The Cumberland Plateau, an important ecoregion in the southeastern United States, contains some of the largest remaining tracts of privately owned, native hardwood forest in North America. These ecologically important forests have been undergoing increasingly rapid rates of hardwood-to-pine conversion, much of which has gone undetected by large-scale statewide inventories. Forest conversion in Tennessee's southern Cumberland Plateau provides a case study highlighting the need for interdisciplinary and spatially explicit assessments of the impact and drivers of land-use change at smaller scales. Aerial and satellite imagery were used to create computer-generated maps of land use and forest cover for a 243 000 ha study area within a seven-county region of the southern Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee to track and do...

Empirical Validation of the Saliency-based Model of Visual Attention

Visual attention is the ability of the human vision system to detect salient parts of the scene, on which higher vision tasks, such as recognition, can focus. In human vision, it is believed that visual attention is intimately linked to the eye movements and that the fixation points correspond to the location of the salient scene parts. In computer vision, the paradigm of visual attention has been widely investigated and a saliency-based model of visual attention is now available that is commonly accepted and used in the field, despite the fact that its biological grounding has not been fully assessed. This work proposes a new method for quantitatively assessing the plausibility of this model by comparing its performance with human behavior. The basic idea is to compare the map of attention - the saliency map - produced by the computational model with a fixation density map derived from eye movement experiments. This human attention map can be constructed as an integral of single impulses located at the positions of the successive fixation points. The resulting map has the same format as the computer-generated map, and can easily be compared by qualitative and quantitative methods. Some illustrative examples using a set of natural and synthetic color images show the potential of the validation method to assess the plausibility of the attention model.

ASSESSING NEST-SITE SELECTION IN OWLS: RANDOM IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER

Abstract Smith et al. (1999) assessed nest-site selection in Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus) by comparing data from 75 owl nests with data recorded at random sites derived from computer-generated map coordinates. The authors concluded that owl nests differed significantly from random sites for nearly all of the eight habitat variables that they measured. I consider some of these conclusions tentative because Smith et al. (1999) ignored the fact that owls do not build their own nests and thus are not free to nest wherever they choose. Although Smith et al.'s approach is adequate for assessing selection of some macrohabitat features, a more appropriate way to assess nest-site selection per se would have been to compare characteristics of owl nests with those measured at a similar number of suitable but unused stick nests in the same study area where the owls nested.

IDENTIFICATION OF SENSITIVE AREAS FOR AREA CONTINGENCY PLANS IN ALASKA

ABSTRACT The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 requires identification of sensitive areas through the area contingency planning process. In 1992, a process was begun in Alaska to identify and document information about sensitive areas that could be affected by oil spills. Sensitive areas are based on natural resources and human uses, such as wildlife habitats, land management designations, fish hatcheries, cultural resources, hunting and fishing locations, and community water intakes. At the request of the U.S. Coast Guard, a Sensitive Areas Work Group (SAWG) was established in 1992 to prepare the “Sensitive Areas Section” of Alaska's first Subarea Contingency Plan (SCP). The SAWG continues to identify sensitive areas for all 10 subareas of the state, covering 365 million acres of land and 47,000 miles of shoreline. The SAWG coordinates with and reviews sensitive areas identification and mapping carried out by federal and state agencies and oil spill response cooperatives. SAWG participants vary by subarea, but include federal and state natural resource trustee agencies, local governments, nonprofit organizations, oil spill response cooperatives, and oil industry companies. In 1995, the SAWG prepared a 5-year strategic plan with these objectives: (1) establish a process to develop and maintain sensitive areas information; (2) present, in a standard format, sensitive areas information in all 10 SCPs; (3) map sensitive areas and develop more detailed computer-generated maps; and (4) provide input to the development of detailed response plans. Results to date include: (1) establishment of the SAWG as a statewide team for identifying and maintaining sensitive areas information for spill response planning; (2) completion of sensitive areas sections for all 10 SCPs; (3) participation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in preparing environmental sensitivity index (ESI) maps/data files for four subareas and initiating work on five others; and (4) participation in the creation of over 75 site-specific response strategies prepared by stakeholder teams for high-risk sensitive areas. The cooperative process used in Alaska could serve as a model for sensitive areas identification elsewhere.

Preliminary Report on the Topographic Survey of Ramla 1997 and 1999

A brief report on two seasons of topographic survey at Ramla on the coastal plain of Israel summarises the preliminary results of topographical analysis based on the new computer-generated contour map.

The almanac of state legislatures: changing patterns, 1990-1997

This second edition of The Almanac of State Legislatures covers all 6,743 state senate and house districts to bring researchers the most current, accurate and detailed state-level information available on the economic and political landscape of the United States.Data from the first edition, which was based on the 1990 census, has been updated to reflect late-decade census estimates. Included are many other sources of data so readers can easily spot the changes in the state legislatures and identify the emerging trends of today. Percentage changes from the 1990 census data, including population, average household income, district type, unemployment rate, college education, and ethnicity are also revealed.Statistical profiles give a detailed snapshot of the current geographic, economic, political, and sociological composition of each district. District-by-district data profiles describe residents, including their age, ethnicity, income, education, and occupation. For the first time, one book provides comparison between the socio-economic makeup of each individual legislative district.In addition, nearly 300 full-color computer-generated maps plot the precise geographic boundaries of each state legislative district, including 186 maps for dense urban areas, all based on district political boundaries drawn for the 1990s.

Experience in developing erosion resistant agrolandscapes on large watersheds (a case study from the Ukraine)

Designing reliable anti-erosion protection strategies requires the existence of conceptual and functional models of anti-erosionally maintained agrolandscapes. The degree of agrolandscape reliability corresponds to the degree of soil erosion danger. Designing antierosion protection in accordance with actual soil erosion data causes gross errors. A computer-generated map of soil erosion danger of Ukrainian soils is represented; 25 erosionally endangered regions have been differentiated. Conceptual models correspond to each degree of soil erosion danger. The work could serve as a basis for the Governmental Program of anti-erosional maintenance of agricultural lands of the Ukraine.