Indefinite Boundaries Research Articles

SellaMorph-Net: A Novel Machine Learning Approach for Precise Segmentation of Sella Turcica Complex Structures in Full Lateral Cephalometric Images

Background: The Sella Turcica is a critical structure from an orthodontic perspective, and its morphological characteristics can help in understanding craniofacial deformities. However, accurately extracting Sella Turcica shapes can be challenging due to the indistinct edges and indefinite boundaries present in X-ray images. This study aimed to develop and validate an automated Sella Morphology Network (SellaMorph-Net), a hybrid deep learning pipeline for segmenting Sella Turcica structure and extracting different morphological types; Methods: The SellaMorph-Net model proposed in this study combined attention-gating and recurrent residual convolutional layers (AGM and RrCL) to enhance the encoder’s abilities. The model’s output was then passed through a squeeze-and-excitation (SE) module to improve the network’s robustness. In addition, dropout layers were added to the end of each convolution block to prevent overfitting. A Zero-shot classifier was employed for multiple classifications, and the model’s output layer used five colour codes to represent different morphological types. The model’s performance was evaluated using various quantitative metrics, such as global accuracy and mean pixel-wise Intersection over Union (IoU) and dice coefficient, based on qualitative results; Results: The study collected 1653 radiographic images and categorised them into four classes based on the predefined shape of Sella Turcica. These classes were further divided into three subgroups based on the complexity of the Sella structures. The proposed SellaMorph-Net model achieved a global accuracy of 97.570, mean pixel-wise IoU scores of 0.7129, and a dice coefficient of 0.7324, significantly outperforming the VGG-19 and InceptionV3 models. The publicly available IEEE ISBI 2015 challenge dataset and our dataset were used to evaluate the test performance between the state-of-the-art and proposed models. The proposed model provided higher testing results, which were 0.7314 IoU and 0.7768 dice for our dataset and 0.7864 IoU and 0.8313 dice for the challenge dataset; Conclusions: The proposed hybrid SellaMorph-Net model provides an accurate and reliable pipeline for detecting morphological types of Sella Turcica using full lateral cephalometric images. Future work will focus on further improvement and utilisation of the developed model as a prognostic tool for predicting anomalies related to Sella structures.

AWANet: Attentive-Aware Wide-Kernels Asymmetrical Network with Blended Contour Information for Salient Object Detection.

Although deep learning-based techniques for salient object detection have considerably improved over recent years, estimated saliency maps still exhibit imprecise predictions owing to the internal complexity and indefinite boundaries of salient objects of varying sizes. Existing methods emphasize the design of an exemplary structure to integrate multi-level features by employing multi-scale features and attention modules to filter salient regions from cluttered scenarios. We propose a saliency detection network based on three novel contributions. First, we use a dense feature extraction unit (DFEU) by introducing large kernels of asymmetric and grouped-wise convolutions with channel reshuffling. The DFEU extracts semantically enriched features with large receptive fields and reduces the gridding problem and parameter sizes for subsequent operations. Second, we suggest a cross-feature integration unit (CFIU) that extracts semantically enriched features from their high resolutions using dense short connections and sub-samples the integrated information into different attentional branches based on the inputs received for each stage of the backbone. The embedded independent attentional branches can observe the importance of the sub-regions for a salient object. With the constraint-wise growth of the sub-attentional branches at various stages, the CFIU can efficiently avoid global and local feature dilution effects by extracting semantically enriched features via dense short-connections from high and low levels. Finally, a contour-aware saliency refinement unit (CSRU) was devised by blending the contour and contextual features in a progressive dense connected fashion to assist the model toward obtaining more accurate saliency maps with precise boundaries in complex and perplexing scenarios. Our proposed model was analyzed with ResNet-50 and VGG-16 and outperforms most contemporary techniques with fewer parameters.

Metatheatre of Pirandello as an Attempt to (Re)define the Theatre

Luigi Pirandello is one of the greatest creators of the metatheatre. The Italian Nobel Prize winner has tried for years to explore the unclear status of theatrical performances, exposing the paradoxical truths and relations in which the spectacle is implicated. The metatheatrical trilogy of Pirandello includes the following dramas: Six characters in search of an author, Tonight we improvise and Each in his own way. Despite the fact that these texts put emphasis on various aspects of the same problem, they constitute an extremely coherent and – most importantly – up-to-date reflection on the nature of the medium they represent. The action of these dramas take place within a microcosm of indefinite boundaries and its fiction, contrary to accepted conventions, blends into the real world, blurring the border between art and life, imitation and original, truth and falsehood. The author of the article investigates the metatheatrical experiments of the Sicilian master in the three above-mentioned dramas, demonstrating how Pirandellian games with theatre’s conventions and stage illusion changes (broadens) the understanding of the theatrical spectacle and stage fiction. Keywords: Pirandello, metatheatre, modern drama, stage illusion, act of creation, imitation, truth, awareness of fiction

In vivo dynamic monitoring of the biological behavior of labeled C6 glioma by MRI

Gliomas are the most common type of intracranial tumor and have the highest rate of mortality. The aims of this study were to investigate the long-term course and biological behavior of orthotopically implanted C6 gliomas and to dynamically monitor the distribution of superparamagnetic iron oxide(SPIO) nanocomposite-labeled C6 glioma cells in rats using 7.0TMRI. We observed that in the MRI of the rats implanted with SPIO-labeled cells, there were pronounced hypointense signal bands, which faded over time, but remained visible up to day27 after implantation. We observed that the first tumors were detected as early as 2days after implantation, presenting as slightly hyperintense regions with indefinite boundaries in the T1-weighted images (T1WIs). On the 9thday, thick tumor feeder vessels, ~0.2mm in diameter, were observed and these increased rapidly over time. Edema was observed in the labeled and unlabeled groups in the T2WIs. Both the central hypointense signal area and the peripheral cogwheel-shaped hypointense signal band in the tumor were observed on the post-contrast T1WIs, in accordance with the necrosis observed in the photomicrographs following hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining. In conclusion, labeling tumor cells with SPIO and performing an MRI scan dynamically monitors the development and biological behavior of glioma at a very early stage.

Diagnosis of peripheral intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma using color Doppler ultrasound

Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of color Doppler ultrasound for peripheral intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC).Methods Ninety- five patients with ICC which were confirmed histopathologically were retrospectively studied.The features on color Doppler ultrasound were analyzed.Results There were 102 tumors which ranged from 20 mm× 20 mm to 130 mm× 100 mm in size.On gray-scale ultrasonic imaging,a large proportion of the tumors presented with inhomogeneous echo (n=75,73.5％), indefinite boundaries (n =70, 68.6％),and irregular shape (n=55,53.9％).On color Doppler ultrasonic imaging,most tumors had flow signals (75,73.5％) mainly in the shape of areatus,short- line and color-dot.Most flow signals had a resistant index greater than 0.6.Of the 102 tumors,thirty-seven (36.3％) were observed to produce streak hyperecho,twentynine (28.4％) slight attenuation in the rear and 22 (21.6％) unbilical depression.The coincidence rate with ultrasound was 84.2％ (80/95). Conclusions The features of peripheral intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma on color Doppler ultrasound are characteristic.To be able to appreciate these features is helpful to improve on the accuracy rate of ultrasound. Key words: Intrahcpatic cholangiocarcinoma; Color Doppler ultrasound; Diagnosis

Delineating Childhood Autism Spectrum Symptoms from a Maladaptive Trait Perspective

Children with autism spectrum disorders comprise a highly heterogeneous group within the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association 1994) Pervasive Developmental Disorder section. Inadequate inclusion criteria and indefinite boundaries between different manifestations tend to hamper unambiguous diagnosis within the current DSM-IV taxonomy, resulting in a large group of children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (Myhr, Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 43:589–595, 1998) or diagnoses that do not comprehensively cover the symptomatology of the individual child. Suggestions for DSM-V include a reconceptualization of the autism spectrum in terms of two distinct symptom dimensions characterized by communication deficits and repetitive behaviours respectively (Swedo 2009) that may provide a more comprehensive description of autism manifestations. The current study corroborates this suggestion and introduces a new perspective on the autism spectrum at a young age, exploring the contribution of specific developmental personality pathology facets in characterizing these underlying dimensions of autism symptoms.

Differences in land cover interpretation in landscapes rich in cover gradients: reflections based on the montado of South Portugal

This paper contributes to the discussion on current issues in methodologies of mapping land cover in the agro-silvo-pastoral landscapes of the Mediterranean. These landscapes, characterized by intermixed land use and indefinite boundaries, require particular attention in applying the patch-corridor-matrix model when classifying patches and their delineation. In a case study area in southeast Portugal, mainly characterized by agro-silvo pastoral systems, the land cover for 1990 has been mapped. The paper discusses the consequences of the complexity of some Mediterranean land use systems for land cover mapping dealing with detailed landscape dynamics. Within this scope a land cover mapping project in a small case study area is compared with the mapping undertaken within a national land cover database. Both studies were carried out on the same scale and through visual interpretation of aerial photographs. Differences in land cover classification and allocation are explored using matrix with levels of agreement. Recommendations for future land cover mapping projects are: the application of fuzzy approaches to land cover mapping in agro-silvo-pastoral landscapes should be explored and land cover classifications should be standardized in order to enhance consistency between databases. On the other hand, the fuzziness of the boundaries in this kind of landscapes is inherent to the system and should be accepted as such. The accompanying uncertainties should be taken into account when undertaking landscape analysis on the basis of land cover data.

Good Faith in WTO Dispute Settlement

The definition of good faith in international law has been largely elusive, and its indefinite boundaries complicate its use in the World Trade Organization. Nevertheless, good faith is almost certainly a general principle of law and a principle of customary international law. It is also a principle of WTO law that is reflected in several provisions of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes. WTO Tribunals may use the principle of good faith not merely to interpret WTO provisions, but also in the exercise of their inherent jurisdiction, such as when employing the doctrine of estoppel, which is one particularisation of good faith. However, the use of good faith in WTO dispute settlement entails three important considerations and qualifications. First, the principle should not be used to overwhelm WTO provisions that appear to be based on concepts similar to those underlying the principle of good faith, such as non-violation complaints, which are subject to detailed rules. Second, the principle should not be confused with other principles that may appear to be related, particularly due process. Third, in my view, WTO Tribunals have no legal basis for finding that a Member has violated a principle of good faith independent of a violation of a WTO provision. Some existing reports err in this regard.

Managing Indefinite Boundaries: The Strategy and Structure of a Chinese Business Firm

This paper examines the status of boundaries in organizational theory. Tacitly if not explicitly, most researchers view organizations as bounded, tightly coupled and more or less rational systems. Yet organizations may also be open, loosely coupled, hierarchically nested systems whose boundaries are indefinite. In the case of China, incomplete separation of firms from the state, incomplete integration of firms and partial listing of assets have left most Chinese firms with indefinite boundaries. While many Chinese firms are disadvantaged by indefinite boundaries, some have managed their boundaries advantageously. The Chinese group corporation described here has resisted interference from its state owners, one of whom tried but failed to turn it into a captive supplier. It has secured full operational and financial control of subsidiaries despite their independent legal status, fractional local government ownership, and local government representation on their boards. And it has successfully funded and executed an aggressive acquisition strategy and now dominates its industry globally. There are lessons specific to the Chinese context. The most important is that boundaries should be assumed indefinite unless shown otherwise. And there are lessons about firms in emerging economies. Indefinite boundaries are characteristic of such firms; indefinite boundaries pose either threats or opportunities depending on the strategic response; lastly managing indefinite boundaries will be a key strategic priority and a precondition of finding and exploiting market opportunities.

Image Segmentation via Fractal Transformation: Improving Ida's Image Segmentation Scheme

AbstractIda and colleagues have proposed an image segmentation scheme in which a new application of fractal coding is used to iterate pixel transformations on the image plane. However, in Ida's segmentation scheme some problems remain because domains with multiple labels or indefinite boundaries are generated. In this paper, a solution to these problems is proposed, in which labeling is performed by periodic points and labels are corrected by fractal transformation. © 2001 Scripta Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 3, 85(4): 66–72, 2002

Dystonia after striatopallidal and thalamic stroke: clinicoradiological correlations and pathophysiological mechanisms

OBJECTIVETo establish the pathophysiological mechanisms of striatopallidal and thalamic dystonia.METHODSFive patients from among 26 who presented (between March 1987 and July 1996) with focal dystonia, segmental dystonia, or hemidystonia caused...

Forms of life: Unprogrammability constitutes the outside of a system and its autonomy

The question “What is life,” has long been discussed, and many concepts representing what are regarded as essential properties of life have been proposed, namely information generating processes, complex systems, indefinite boundaries, and self- reference. Self-referential forms in particular play a central role in autonomous life, because both in ontogenetic and phylogenetic processes we find self-referential forms and self-reference introduces other important features of life. However, because self-reference is strongly connected with self-contradiction and/or unprogrammability, it cannot be described in the paradigm of prediction or dynamics. It is inevitable to estimate the problem of instability of the description itself. We here discuss self-reference and unprogrammability with respect to the mixture between inter- and intracellular computations in biological systems, and we replace the difference between computation velocities at different levels by the difference between the velocity of observation propagation and that of a particle. We also define the formal system of communication and transplant the problem of unprogrammability resulting from the finite velocity of observation propagation in that system. Here it is illustrated that unprogrammability is isomorphic to the incompleteness of a formal system. Further, we formally estimate the relationship of unprogrammability and one-to-many type mapping and propose the formalization using a universal arrow, based on Wittgenstein's idea, language games, and performativeness. Because unprogrammability does not exist as a real entity, but is constituted, we can formalize one-to-many type mapping and even unstable formal description. The concept of autonomy is not beyond formal description; however it is beyond the paradigm of prediction.

Transorganizational Development in Urban Policy Coalitions

Transorganizational Development (TD) is a purposive, planned change strategy concerned with creating and improving the effectiveness of interorganizational coalitions. Unlike bounded, overorganized systems found within most organizations, coalitions frequently exhibit indefinite boundaries and underorganization. As such, they may demand more than the traditional organization development (OD) strategies to effect change. This research focuses on four social problem solving coalitions in an urban setting. Based on field research and a review of recent writings on TD and coalitions, a TD checklist was developed to guide change agents in dealing with coalitions. Borrowing from political science literature, we suggest that a “policy entrepreneur” may possess the centrality and purpose to serve as a TD intervener. Developing or increasing shared norms and values, and establishing predictable, regular structures, roles, and technologies are primary tasks of the policy entrepreneur/TD change agent.

Evoked potentials to dynamic random dot stereograms in upper, center and lower fields.

Dynamic random dot stereograms consisting of square, crossed disparities subtending 3 degrees, exposure duration 100 ms, were presented in the midplane centrally (surrounding the fixation point) and in the upper and lower fields at 3.5 degrees vertical displacement from fixation. Stereoscopic cerebral evoked potentials (EPs) recorded from scalp sites 02, 01, T6 and T5 (10-20 system) were analyzed in a group of normal young adults (N = 28). Fourteen were able to perceive and report the stereophenomenon (perceivers); the other half were unable to do so (nonperceivers). Mean response amplitudes were significantly larger to center field stimuli than to those in the upper field. Responses were larger in perceivers than nonperceivers, maximal at T5, and larger to stimuli with definite than indefinite boundaries. Peak EP latencies were shortest to lower field stimuli (243 ms) but not significantly different than to center (247 ms) or upper (253 ms) field stimuli. A separate experiment comparing EP amplitudes and latencies with crossed and uncrossed disparities of varying magnitudes confirmed greater responses to the crossed.

Social Economy and Community

My interest in social economics was very much stimulated by Dr. George F. Rohrlich, in our years as colleagues at Temple University. More than once, our conversations on this and related topics have been interrupted by my comment (not, I must confess, without mischievious intent) that I really had no clear idea what social economics was. Not to be diverted by my grouchiness, George responded that, after all, the limits of social economics are yet to be discovered. Indeed they are, of course, and any living science or humane study is sure to have somewhat indefinite boundaries. To define is to delimit, and whatever may be defined without the least ambiguity or vagueness must surely be dead.

Myth and Realism in Recent Criticism of the American Literary West

Although the vast American West, with its indefinite boundaries, has provided the inspiration and setting for countless narratives, it was not until the late 1920s, as Richard W. Etulain has indicated, that the first significant criticism of literature appeared.1 The work of Franklin Walker exemplifies this first phase of criticism, in which literature was discussed chiefly in terms of biography and historical backgrounds.2 After 1950, Henry Nash Smith's Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth became the major influence, with its dual emphases on the mythic and symbolic value of the West and on the cultural in sights to be gained from a study of popular, usually ephemeral, literature. Etulain points out that in the 1960s a great surge of interest developed in literature studies, as can be seen in the multitude of new critical books and essays published and in the appearance of two new journals (South Dakota Review and American Literature) expressly devoted to the study of American letters. As a result, he concludes that Western literary studies are no longer in their adolescent stage; they have taken on a new maturity. Though Etulain's belief in their maturity may have been a little premature on behalf of the bicentennial, the publication in 1980 of John R. Milton's long-awaited study, The Novel of the

Crater frequencies on lava-covered areas related to the moon's thermal history

Making use of Orbiter and Apollo photographs, frequency counts of craters down to 2 km diam as indicators of the relative ages of lunar features, have been made on 264 areas, including 15 terrae, 27 recognized maria, 174 flat-floored craters and 48 lava-covered areas with indefinite boundaries designated as ‘marets’. Analysis of frequency counts on flat-floored craters on the basis of this data and re-assessment of former results, combined with the relatively restricted age range of lunar samples, make it unlikely that the present observations are able to reach back in time to impacts on an assumed primordial floating crust. The range of crater frequencies on the marets, together with their wide distribution over the lunar surface, suggest lava migrations to the surface within autonomous domains each with its own chronology, covering an extensive period of lunar history. The close association of marets with flat-floored craters provides a reasonable origin for the floor material of these latter objects. The lava migrations associated with the marets suggest that internal heating may be a more important factor in the origin of lunar surface features than had formerly been supposed. Kopal's views on the origin of the moon's multiple moments of intertia (1972) are considered to support the concept of autonomous domains. It is considered that the time sequence of separate lava flows represented by the marets may be a reflection of physical processes within the moon responsible for the successive lava flows associated with the larger maria.

Body image boundary differentiation and self-steering behavior in African paraplegics.

Summary Body image and self-steering behavior in a group of 40 African hospitalized paraplegics and two control groups of non-hospitalized Ss were investigated using the DAP and the PUTCO African TAT. It was hypothesized that the paraplegics would demonstrate a body image characterized by significant pathology and would have a higher loading on the passive-submission dimension than a control group of Ss. The results failed to substantiate the research hypotheses. Instead, the findings suggest that both groups were characterized by a field-dependent perceptual framework associated with indefinite body image boundaries and a lack of self-steering behavior. These findings are accounted for in terms of a developmental cultural interpretation.

Electrophysiological investigations on the pigeon's optic tectum.

Electrical responses of the cells at different depths of the pigeon's optic tectum to different visual stimuli were recorded.Point to point representation of the upper visual field on the dorsal surface of the tectum was obtained as a projection on a horizontal stereotaxic plane.Different units in the stratum griseum et fibrosum superficiale of the tectal cortex are all sensitive to stationary and moving stimuli and all have very small (2–3 degrees in diameter) visual receptive fields. The most noticeable difference between units from the superficial sublayers of the stratum griseum et fibrosum superficiale and those from the deeper sublayers of the stratum griseum et fibrosum superficiale is that the deeper units show much more rapid habituation to repetitive stationary stimuli, while they remain equally sensitive to all types of moving visual stimuli. All the units in the stratum griseum centrale are either insensitive to stationary stimuli or habituate very rapidly to them. They are very sensitive to moving stimuli. These movement detectors have large receptive fields mostly rectangular in shape with long axes vertical or horizontal but never oblique.The nucleus isthmi showed different types of special units all with large receptive fields, the majority of which had indefinite boundaries. A small group had sharp boundaries and rectangular fields and resembled those seen in the stratum griseum centrale. These units are insensitive to stationary target and habituate very rapidly to steadily moving targets. Some of them behave as if they were sensitive to more complex types of movement.