Kinds Of Patterns Research Articles

Surface profile inspection of a moving object by using dual-frequency Fourier transform profilometry

The 2π phase ambiguity caused by surface isolations and large height step can be solved by dual-frequency projection grating profilometry. However, in the Fourier transform profilometry (FTP) of a moving object, only one single deformed fringe pattern can be obtained. In order to introduce the dual-frequency technique into the FTP of moving object, a novel experimental system is designed to capture two fringe patterns with different frequency at the same time. A grating structure comprising two regions with different frequencies is projected upon the surface of the detected object. Two line-scan CCD cameras are used to capture the surface images encoded by the two kinds of patterns, respectively. By getting the corresponding image intensity at the same point of the object surface in the two acquired images, the dual-frequency technique is applied to extract the real phase without phase ambiguity. The surface profile of a specimen with a large height step is measured to prove the feasibility of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the proposed method can solve the 2π phase ambiguity problem successfully in the surface profile inspection of a moving object.

Perception of Munker–White illusion in 4–8-month-old infants

There have been numerous studies of the Munker–White illusion, but few have focused on the perceptual development of it in human infants. Therefore, this study explores the perceptual development of the Munker–White illusion in infants. In this study, we created two kinds of Munker–White illusion patterns that had different subjective saturation, and investigated infants’ preference for these two kinds of patterns. Previous studies have shown that infants had a preference for high colorimetric saturation stimuli. Therefore, if infants could perceive the Munker–White illusion, we postulated that they would show a preference for stimuli that have high subjective saturation. In experiment 1, 4–8-month-old infants showed a preference for the stimuli that had a higher subjective saturation. In experiment 2, we confirmed that the preference shown in experiment 1 was not dependent on the difference of the ‘color area ratio’ that existed in the stimuli of experiment 1. Our results suggest that 4–8-month-old infants can perceive Munker–White illusion.

Hierarchical cluster structures in a one-dimensional swarm oscillator model

Swarm oscillator model derived by one of the authors (Tanaka), where interacting motile elements form various kinds of patterns, is investigated. We particularly focus on the cluster patterns in one-dimensional space. We mathematically derive all static and stable configurations in final states for a particular but a large set of parameters. In the derivation, we introduce renormalized expression of this model. We find that the static final states are hierarchical cluster structures in which a cluster consists of smaller clusters in a nesting manner.

A Reaction-Diffusion Model of Human Brain Development

Cortical folding exhibits both reproducibility and variability in the geometry and topology of its patterns. These two properties are obviously the result of the brain development that goes through local cellular and molecular interactions which have important consequences on the global shape of the cortex. Hypotheses to explain the convoluted aspect of the brain are still intensively debated and do not focus necessarily on the variability of folds. Here we propose a phenomenological model based on reaction-diffusion mechanisms involving Turing morphogens that are responsible for the differential growth of two types of areas, sulci (bottom of folds) and gyri (top of folds). We use a finite element approach of our model that is able to compute the evolution of morphogens on any kind of surface and to deform it through an iterative process. Our model mimics the progressive folding of the cortical surface along foetal development. Moreover it reveals patterns of reproducibility when we look at several realizations of the model from a noisy initial condition. However this reproducibility must be tempered by the fact that a same fold engendered by the model can have different topological properties, in one or several parts. These two results on the reproducibility and variability of the model echo the sulcal roots theory that postulates the existence of anatomical entities around which the folding organizes itself. These sulcal roots would correspond to initial conditions in our model. Last but not least, the parameters of our model are able to produce different kinds of patterns that can be linked to developmental pathologies such as polymicrogyria and lissencephaly. The main significance of our model is that it proposes a first approach to the issue of reproducibility and variability of the cortical folding.

Fast Unified Mining of Hyperclique Patterns and Maximal Hyperclique Patterns

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 快速统一挖掘超团模式和极大超团模式 DOI: 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: Supported by the National High-Tech Research and Development Plan of China under Grant No.2007AA01Z417 (国家高技术研究发展计划(863)); the “111 Project” of China under Grant No.B08004 (高等学校学科创新引智计划) Fast Unified Mining of Hyperclique Patterns and Maximal Hyperclique Patterns Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:超团模式是一种新型的关联模式,这种模式所包含的项目相互间具有很高的亲密度.超团模式中某个项目在事务中的出现很强地暗示了模式中其他项目也会相应地出现.极大超团模式是一组超团模式更加紧凑的表示,可被用于多种应用.挖掘这两种模式的标准算法是完全不同的.提出一种基于FP-tree(frequent pattern tree)的快速挖掘算法——混合超团模式增长(hybrid hyperclique pattern growth,简称HHCP-growth),统一了两种模式的挖掘.算法采用递归挖掘方法,并应用多种有效的剪枝策略.提出并证明几个相关命题来说明剪枝策略的有效性和算法的正确性.实验结果表明,HHCP-growth算法相对于标准的超团模式挖掘算法和极大超团模式挖掘算法都具有更高的效率,尤其对于大数据集或在低支持度条件下更为显著. Abstract:The hyperclique pattern is a new type of association pattern, in which items are highly affiliated with each other. The presence of an item in one transaction strongly implies the presence of every other item in the same hyperclique pattern. The maximal hyperclique pattern is a more compact representation of a group of hyperclique patterns, which is desirable for many applications. The standard algorithms mining the two kinds of patterns are different. This paper presents a fast algorithm called hybrid hyperclique pattern growth (HHCP-growth) based on FP-tree (frequent pattern tree), which unifies the mining processes of the two patterns. This algorithm adopts recursive mining method and exploits many efficient pruning strategies. Some propositions are also presented and proved to indicate the effectiveness of the strategies and the validity of the algorithm. The experimental results show that HHCP-growth is more effective than the standard hyperclique pattern and maximal hyperclique pattern mining algorithms, particularly for large-scale datasets or at low levels of support. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Theopoetics and Social Change

Theopoetics and Social Change Matt Guynn We open up the hungers and longings of our age. We enter into a conversation with the deepest places of our selves and our audience. To engage in the theopoetic is to tempt the radical nature of ourselves, it is to follow in the footsteps of the God‐Speakers that could upset the republic, could speak from the margins of our hungers and unspeakable truths.: Jason Derr, In Consideration of the Theopoetic1 What is the activity of a priestess of the social imagination? What focus shall a theopoetic social change agent take? How can we as social change organizers both “upset the republic,” in Derr’s language, and also awaken the hungers and strengths of the human heart, accessing the power and Presence of imagination and of God‐Deity‐Divinity‐Mystery? This essay is a report from the field, an update about ways that theopoetic intent has informed one set of experiments in social change organizing. The theopoet argues that, in many cases, like old soda pop, language has gone flat in our religious traditions. We use the same language again and again without examining and refreshing it, and often no one really wants to drink it any longer. Bound up with the flatness of language, our rituals become rote. Instead of actually interacting with Deity‐Divinity‐Essence‐God, rituals and religious conversation become routinized. Rather than paths of power, we tread paths of habit.2 In Theopoetic: Theology and the Religious Imagination, Amos Wilder asserted that when language gets too encrusted, it fails to produce either new theophanies or Spirit‐fed enactments of ancient truth. The conversation in which Wilder participated, with artists, musicians, mystics, and psychologists, was about the integration of soul into spirit, the re‐introduction of ecstasy into religion, the renewed embrace of vision/hymn/poem as categories of God‐talk.3 There is a risk that theopoetics will remain just a conversation corner in the academy: Yes, the writing may evoke more writing, but these rivers of words deserve to also flow into the sanctuary and toward the streets. If theopoetics is to keep growing toward its real promise of more powerful engagements with Mystery‐Absence‐God‐Presence, then theopoetics will need to find life not only in the pages of journals, but also in worship services that midwife the new/ancient humanity, and in incarnate experiments of struggles for justice/peace. The latter is the focus of this essay. Theopoetics as a stance promises to deepen and develop social change organizing, by enriching issue‐based organizing with a search for an empowerment rooted in Presence and Power. The theopoetic activist wants not just words—but enfleshed initiative. The theopoet change‐maker seeks new re‐engagements of faith stories. Not only community change, but individual regeneration. And not only individual salvations, but full‐bodied wholeness, for the person, the faith community, the neighborhood. The theopoet leader is a change agent who speaks not just in slogan and catchphrase, but from the currents of a deeper Life. I am concerned that many times, those of us in spiritual social change leadership fall short of the mark. Too often, it is possible to fall into the kinds of patterns that theopoetics train us to be skeptical about—for example, to fall into the rhetorical trap of using the same tired constructions of Us vs. Them, instead of seeking new framings that catalyze the imagination and spirit in the direction of hopeful action. And it is far too easy for faith‐based leaders to retell scripture stories only to make moral points about justice or peace, but not to dwell in them with their people, to access power in new/ancient ways. Far too easy to continue to plan the same old vigil, the same kinds of rote civil disobedience, which become themselves a kind of tired and flat language that no one hears anymore. I have at times taken these easier roads. But I am hungry, and I think I join many others in my yearning, for faith‐rooted social change activism which draws from wells the run from a deeper Source, and achieves fresh and generative political relevance. I...

Predictable structure of Miocene insectivore (Lipotyphla) faunas in Western Europe along a latitudinal gradient

The insectivores (Grandorder Lipotyphla) have been seldom used in mammal-based paleoenvironmental inferences because this group is generally considered insufficiently represented or studied. Nevertheless, a recent compilation on the insectivore record of Western Europe has shown that this is not the case. From the insectivore occurrences themselves a major paleobiogeographical pattern seems to be present: the faunas of the Mediterranean regions of Western Europe are poorer and seem to be a subset of those occurring at higher latitudes. This kind of pattern, where smaller assemblages seem to be a ‘nested subset’ of the richer ones, is known as nestedness. In this work we analyze the prevalence of nestedness in the Miocene insectivore record of western Europe. The calculations are carried separately for each MN (Mammal Neogene) zone and a measure of nestedness or order is given. The probability that a similarly nested pattern could be obtained at random for each MN is assessed by permutation. Our results show the prevalence of nestedness in all the MN zones except the MN 1. In the second step, we study the causes of nestedness. A significant correlation of the nested structure with latitude is found in 8 out of 12 matrices, thus confirming that the southern assemblages are a subset of the northern ones. This must be related to some underlying latitudinal gradient that already existed during the Miocene. Latitudinal gradients in temperature seem to have been unimportant until the Late Miocene yet the nested pattern existed as early as the Early Miocene. A precipitation gradient, which was already present by the Early Miocene, seems to be the most important structuring factor. Independent evidence has confirmed that the Central European regions were more humid than the Mediterranean ones thus explaining the higher diversity of insectivores in that area as this group is more diverse in humid climates. The structure of the southern assemblages is a highly predictable subset of that of the northern ones. In the south the species that seem to have required higher levels of environmental moisture are missing. This applies for instance to many talpids and dimylids which never reached the Iberian Peninsula.

LIKE A LION

1 8 Y L I K E A L I O N C A R L P H I L L I P S Fallopian, estranged somehow, forgetless against a backdrop of plain sky, the limbs of the trees fail, and rally. Everywhere the kinds of patterns that should be breakable, but by now it’s been this way, it seems, forever. The wind strikes. The wind dies down. To amplify what’s true past recognition – never mind the cost . . . Hard to believe, though I do believe it, that that’s all pleasure meant, once. Why not? Why not be totally changed into fire, as they used to say, I say, to no one. Cargo; rift; nostalgia; gold. I fairly sway with my own aloneness, the only half-blinding after all and, therefore, not so unbearable flash of it, and the years of my life, reducible to a shuddering scant reflection in a body of water nowhere visible, stir, stir back. ...

Hyperbolic Planforms in Relation to Visual Edges and Textures Perception

We propose to use bifurcation theory and pattern formation as theoretical probes for various hypotheses about the neural organization of the brain. This allows us to make predictions about the kinds of patterns that should be observed in the activity of real brains through, e.g., optical imaging, and opens the door to the design of experiments to test these hypotheses. We study the specific problem of visual edges and textures perception and suggest that these features may be represented at the population level in the visual cortex as a specific second-order tensor, the structure tensor, perhaps within a hypercolumn. We then extend the classical ring model to this case and show that its natural framework is the non-Euclidean hyperbolic geometry. This brings in the beautiful structure of its group of isometries and certain of its subgroups which have a direct interpretation in terms of the organization of the neural populations that are assumed to encode the structure tensor. By studying the bifurcations of the solutions of the structure tensor equations, the analog of the classical Wilson and Cowan equations, under the assumption of invariance with respect to the action of these subgroups, we predict the appearance of characteristic patterns. These patterns can be described by what we call hyperbolic or H-planforms that are reminiscent of Euclidean planar waves and of the planforms that were used in previous work to account for some visual hallucinations. If these patterns could be observed through brain imaging techniques they would reveal the built-in or acquired invariance of the neural organization to the action of the corresponding subgroups.

Statistical analysis of solar activity variations of total electron content derived at Jet Propulsion Laboratory from GPS observations

We analyzed the data series of the total electron content (TEC) derived at Jet Propulsion Laboratory from Global Positioning System (GPS) observations to investigate the solar activity effects of TEC on a global scale. The daily values of the solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) fluxes in 0.1–50 nm wavelengths, 10.7 cm radio flux F10.7, and F10.7P (the average of daily F10.7 and its 81‐day mean F10.7A) are adopted to represent the solar EUV variability, respectively. The EUV fluxes are measured by the Solar EUV Monitor (SEM) spectrometer aboard Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Three kinds of patterns (linearity, saturation, and amplification) can be detected in TEC versus F10.7P and EUV. A saturation feature exists in TEC versus F10.7 in the daytime, more pronounced at low latitudes than at middle and high latitudes. The saturation in the equatorial anomaly regions is strongest in equinoxes and weakest in the June solstice. In contrast, the amplification in TEC, as a novel feature, is mainly distributed in the northern middle, and high latitudes in the December solstice and in the Southern Hemisphere in the June solstice and the March equinox. It is the first time to determine where and when the linear, saturation, and amplification patterns are distributed in TEC. Further, the solar activity sensitivity of TEC is stronger at day than at night and more evident at lower latitudes than at higher latitudes. The solar activity dependent rates of TEC in the equatorial and low‐latitude regions have a minimum around the dip equator and maxima on both sides of the dip equator (near the crest of the equatorial anomaly). This structure is roughly aligned along the dip equator, being strongest in equinoxes and weakest in the June solstice, which highlights the importance of ionospheric dynamics related with E × B drift. In addition, this analysis confirms that in a statistical sense, a quadrate polynomial can well capture the long‐term solar activity dependency of TEC at specified local time.

Solar activity dependence of the topside ionosphere at low latitudes

We investigated the solar activity dependence of the topside ionosphere with ROCSAT‐1 observations. The distribution of the plasma density at 600 km altitude shows features with considerable local time, season, and solar activity differences. In the daytime, plasma density peaks around the dip equator. This peak is more distinct in equinoxes and weaker in May–July, and it enhances with solar activity in all seasons. The seasonal behavior of this peak is primarily controlled by the seasonal variations of neutral density and E × B vertical drift. The enhancement of the peak with solar activity is related to the effect of E × B vertical drift. Around sunset, double peaks are found in the latitudinal distribution of plasma density in solar maximum equinoxes and December solstice, which are mainly attributed to the effects of strong prereversal enhancement (PRE) vertical drift. Moreover, the plasma density at 600 km altitude strongly depends on the solar proxy P = (F107 + F107A)/2. At higher altitudes, e.g., 800 km, the amplification trend prevails in the solar activity variations of plasma density. In contrast, the plasma density at 600 km altitude presents three kinds of patterns (linear, amplification, and saturation), which has not been reported. Saturation effect is found at equinox sunset around the dip equator. This saturation effect is attributed to the increase in the PRE vertical drift with solar activity. Solar activity effects of ROCSAT‐1 plasma density are argued to be the combined effects induced by the changes in the peak height, the scale height, and the peak electron density, respectively. Among these factors, the rise of the F2 peak is more important for the equatorial plasma density at 600 km altitude.

Indicadores anatômicos de dominância entre as artérias coronárias em caprinos

O interesse crescente em se utilizar artérias coronárias de caprinos em experiências como uma etapa para sua aplicação em coronárias humanas justifica o conhecimento anatômico mais detalhado dessas artérias principalmente para se avaliar as semelhanças e as diferenças. Em corações humanos utilizando-se a crux cordis e a procedência do ramo interventricular posterior como referências consideram-se três tipos de padrões: dominância direita, balanceada e dominância esquerda. No entanto, não encontramos citações na literatura sobre os indicadores anatômicos de dominância coronária em caprinos. Material e método: Utilizamos 31 corações de caprinos de ambos os sexos, fixados em formalina a 10%. Os ramos das artérias coronárias eram dissecados com especial atenção para os níveis considerados como referências. O ramo presente no interior do sulco interventricular subsinuoso procedia do ramo circunflexo, ramo da artéria coronária esquerda. O ramo interventricular subsinuoso apresentou pelo menos um pequeno ramo que ultrapassava a crux cordis. A região do ápice apresentou predominância dos ramos da artéria coronária esquerda: interventricular paraconal e interventricular subsinuoso. A artéria coronária esquerda, através de seus ramos, também predominou no comprimento total e na emissão de ramos ventriculares inclusive para o ventrículo direito. Utilizando como referências os diversos critérios inclusive, os propostos por esta pesquisa, concluímos que em corações de caprinos o padrão arterial é dominância esquerda. A diversidade em relação ao padrão arterial entre caprinos e humanos requer que nas experiências efetuadas, em coronárias de caprinos, essa importante diferença seja observada.

Overview of intelligent data retrieval methods for waveforms and images in massive fusion databases

JET database contains more than 42 Tbytes of data (waveforms and images) and it doubles its size about every 2 years. ITER database is expected to be orders of magnitude above this quantity. Therefore, data access in such huge databases can no longer be efficiently based on shot number or temporal interval. Taking into account that diagnostics generate reproducible signal patterns (structural shapes) for similar physical behaviour, high level data access systems can be developed. In these systems, the input parameter is a pattern and the outputs are the shot numbers and the temporal locations where similar patterns appear inside the database. These pattern oriented techniques can be used for first data screening of any type of morphological aspect of waveforms and images. The article shows a new technique to look for similar images in huge databases in a fast an efficient way. Also, previous techniques to search for similar waveforms and to retrieve time-series data or images containing any kind of patterns are reviewed.

More MOF and Mallalieu-related Rows

More MOF and Mallalieu related rows Caleb Morgan and Michael Davis IN POLYPHONIC MUSIC, SEPARATE MELODIC STRANDS combine to form a meaningful whole. No matter what the style, the combina tion is controlled and deliberate. In the history of 12-tone music, there have been many efforts to control the "harmonies" created by multiple rows sounding at once. How to create amusic inwhich vertical combi nations relate to the original series in some way?so that the harmonies are made from the same cloth as the lines?seems to be an enduring problem. Multiple-order-function series (MOF rows) are one solution to thisproblem. They also have a number of other uses. As we will see, themost impressiveMOF row is theMallalieu series. Because it is unique?to within multiplicative transforms?we are motivated to find other series that have a good deal of theMallalieu row's MOF properties. By approaching the generation of MOF rows from several angles, we can produce a number of different lists of series ?large and varied enough to satisfydifferent composer's sensibilities. MOF and Mallalieu-Related Rows 101 We extend previous work of music theorists such as Babbitt, Morris, and others in fiveways: 1) a handy algorithm for generating MOF rows; 2) a list of 73+ "limited-interval" series for use in creation and expansion of series; 3) software which performs brute-force generate and -test techniques to findMOF rows; 4) a "ranking" technique for generating "fuzzy" MOF rows from the discrete logarithms of power residue series; 5) another simple technique for deriving MOF rows from any power-residue series. Starting with the Mallalieu series?named after its discoverer, Pohlman Mallalieu?we will examine various MOF rows and their methods for generation. (We will also consider some self-similar pitch class sequences that are not 12-tone rows.) Definitions ofMOF row A succinct definition seems difficult.Morris does not produce a defini tion per se, but he implies that a MOF row X has a certain series of successive contiguous segments that are found in another transformation of the row, FX, such that each segment fromX occurs in either forward or retrograde order and the segments are merged contiguously or non contiguously in FX. Philip Batstone attempts no definition, but gives a technique for generating MOF rows. Andrew Mead has this to say about theMallalieu row: The row has the property that when it is divided into chains of equally spaced order numbers and the resulting partition isproperly concatenated, the ordered aggregate so produced is itself some transposition of the row.1 In an article by Brian Alegant, we find thisdefinition of the properties of theMallalieu row: ". . .the cyclic-interval patterns of this row generate its own transpositions."2 George Perle, in a mention of the series of Schoenberg's Quintet for Wind Instruments, Op. 26?a very early 12 tone composition perhaps employing the first MOF row?says "(it) is based upon a set that is cyclically permuted to produce an approximate transposition of the theme originally derived from the set."3 Our defini tion here is slightly broader and more pragmatic. For our purposes, a MOF row is any 12-tone series containing embedded sequences of pcs? especially sequences formed by skipping some pcs?which clearly resem ble another related series (usually in the same row-class). The 102 PerspectivesofNew Music resemblance can be imprecise and may involve sequences or motifs that are shorter than twelve notes. We are concerned with two kinds ofMOF rows: 1) Exact sequences of pcs that are found multiple times in the other related rows in the row-class with variable or irregular patterns of intervening pcs. 2) Inexact sequences of pcs (altered by small intervals) that are found multiple times in other related rows in the row-class with regular patterns of intervening pcs (or permutation). The self-similar patterns desired involve either imperfect resemblances or irregular patterns of permutation, but not both at once. Both kinds of pattern may be found in the same series, however, in different parts of the series. Both kinds of self-similarity at once is beyond the scope of thispaper. Illustration ofMOF concept with Mallalieu matrix The basic concept isperhaps more...

Relationship between design patterns defects and crosscutting concern scattering degree: an empirical study

Design patterns are solutions to recurring design problems, aimed at increasing reuse, code quality and, above all, maintainability and resilience to changes. Despite such advantages, the usage of design patterns implies the presence of crosscutting code implementing the pattern usage and access from other system components. When the system evolves, the presence of crosscutting code can cause repeated changes, possibly introducing defects. This study reports an empirical study, in which it is showed that, for three open source projects, the number of defects in design-pattern classes is in several cases correlated with the scattering degree of their induced crosscutting concerns, and also varies among different kinds of patterns.

A multi-layer method to study genome-scale positions of nucleosomes

The basic unit of eukaryotic chromatin is the nucleosome, consisting of about 150 bp of DNA wrapped around a protein core made of histone proteins. Nucleosomes position is modulated in vivo to regulate fundamental nuclear processes. To measure nucleosome positions on a genomic scale both theoretical and experimental approaches have been recently reported. We have developed a new method, Multi-Layer Model ( MLM), for the analysis of nucleosome position data obtained with microarray-based approach. The MLM is a feature extraction method in which the input data is processed by a classifier to distinguish between several kinds of patterns. We applied our method to simulated-synthetic and experimental nucleosome position data and found that besides a high nucleosome recognition and a strong agreement with standard statistical methods, the MLM can identify distinct classes of nucleosomes, making it an important tool for the genome wide analysis of nucleosome position and function. In conclusion, the MLM allows a better representation of nucleosome position data and a significant reduction in computational time.

MILPRIT*

In this article, we consider a new kind of temporal pattern where both interval and punctual time representation are considered. These patterns, which we call temporal point-interval patterns, aim at capturing how events taking place during different time periods or at different time instants relate to each other. The datasets where these kinds of patterns may appear are temporal relational databases whose relations contain point or interval timestamps. We use a simple extension of Allen’s Temporal Interval Logic as a formalism for specifying these temporal patterns. We also present the algorithm MILPRIT* for mining temporal point-interval patterns, which uses variants of the classical levelwise search algorithms. In addition, MILPRIT* allows a broad spectrum of constraints to be incorporated into the mining process. An extensive set of experiments of MILPRIT* executed over synthetic and real data is presented, showing its effectiveness for mining temporal relational patterns.

Differential wedging of vertebral body and intervertebral disc in thoracic and lumbar spine in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis - A cross sectional study in 150 patients.

BackgroundHueter-Volkmann's law regarding growth modulation suggests that increased pressure on the end plate of bone retards the growth (Hueter) and conversely, reduced pressure accelerates the growth (Volkmann). Literature described the same principle in Rat-tail model. Human spine and its deformity i.e. scoliosis has also same kind of pattern during the growth period which causes wedging in disc or vertebral body.MethodsThis cross sectional study in 150 patients of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis was done to evaluate vertebral body and disc wedging in scoliosis and to compare the extent of differential wedging of body and disc, in thoracic and lumbar area. We measured wedging of vertebral bodies and discs, along with two adjacent vertebrae and disc, above and below the apex and evaluated them according to severity of curve (curve < 30° and curve > 30°) to find the relationship of vertebral body or disc wedging with scoliosis in thoracic and lumbar spine. We also compared the wedging and rotations of vertebrae.ResultsIn both thoracic and lumbar curves, we found that greater the degree of scoliosis, greater the wedging in both disc and body and the degree of wedging was more at apex supporting the theory of growth retardation in stress concentration area. However, the degree of wedging in vertebral body is more than the disc in thoracic spine while the wedging was more in disc than body in lumbar spine. On comparing the wedging with the rotation, we did not find any significant relationship suggesting that it has no relation with rotation.ConclusionFrom our study, we can conclude that wedging in disc and body are increasing with progression on scoliosis and maximum at apex; however there is differential wedging of body and disc, in thoracic and lumbar area, that is vertebral body wedging is more profound in thoracic area while disc wedging is more profound in lumbar area which possibly form 'vicious cycle' by asymmetric loading to spine for the progression of curve.

Diseases of the Chest: Imaging Diagnosis Based on Pattern Classification

A new and unique approach to evaluating chest radiographs This book takes a unique approach to diagnostic imaging of the chest. Rather than simply providing examples of image findings in respiratory diseases, a link is drawn between types of pathology and the kinds of patterns that are elicited in the radiologic images. In a cooperative effort between specialists in radiology, respiratory medicine, and oncology, a logical and comprehensive classification of the patterns that may appear in images, caused by underlying pathology, is presented in 20 types of patterns. Based on this classification, creating a differential diagnosis is simplified, and made more efficient. Highly illustrated and with only a minimum of necessary text, classes of findings such as increased radiolucency or alveolar shadow: atelectasis are used to orient the user toward the underlying medical problem. Tables help to organize the basic findings so as to be able to arrive at a differential diagnosis confidently. While the emphasis is on the chest X-ray, a strong supporting role is played by appropriate CT images, drawings, and photographs of pathologic specimens. Even the index to this book is unique, making reference primarily not to topics, but to the types of images, whether radiograph, CT, or pathologic specimen.

Population trends in a community of large Procellariiforms of Indian Ocean: Potential effects of environment and fisheries interactions

Despite the worrying conservation status of several albatross and petrel population, the long-term trends of many populations remain largely unknown and the causes of decline in many cases are known or very strongly suspected to be incidental mortality in fisheries. Here we combine long-term monitoring of population trends, breeding success and band recoveries to examine the past and current status of five species of albatrosses and giant petrels breeding at the same site: sooty albatross ( Phoebetria fusca), light-mantled albatross ( Phoebetria palpebrata), wandering albatross ( Diomedea exulans), northern giant ( Macronectes halli) and southern giant petrels ( Macronectes giganteus) on Possession Island, Crozet archipelago. We identified three groups of trends over a 25-years period (1980–2005) suggesting common underlying causes for these species in relation to their bioclimatic foraging ranges. The Antarctic species – light-mantled albatross and southern giant petrel – appeared stable and increased recently, the Sub-Antarctic species – wandering albatross and northern giant petrel – declined with intermediate periods of increase, and finally the subtropical species – sooty albatross – declined all over the period. Breeding success, indicative of environmental conditions, showed two kinds of pattern (low and fluctuating versus high and/or increasing) which were consistent with oceanographic variations as found in a previous study. We present the analysis of fisheries-related recoveries, indicative of fisheries bycatch risks showing specific catch rates. No direct relationship between population trends and longline fishing effort was detected, probably because census data alone are not sufficient to capture the potentially complex response of demographic parameters of different life stages to environmental variation. This study highlights the contrasted changes of procellariiform species and the particularly worrying status of the subtropical sooty albatrosses, and in a lesser extent of Sub-Antarctic species.