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Presented is an approach to a chest radiograph, paying particular attention to features commonly seen in the intensive care unit (ICU) with regards to iatrogenic lines and tubes, together with common pathologies that may be encountered. This is accompanied by helpful images to use as an aide memoire when reviewing ICU chest X-rays. Pitfalls in interpreting these often complex X-rays are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Formación Universitaria is the property of Centro de Informacion Tecnologica (CIT) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It is a classic result that a set of n non-collinear points in the Euclidean plane defines at least n different lines. Chen and Chvátal conjectured in 2008 that the same results is true in metric spaces for an adequate definition of line. More recently, this conjecture was studied in the context of quasi-metric spaces. One way to study lines in an space is though its betweenness. Given a quasi-metric space (V,ρ), its induced quasi-metric be-tweenness is the set of triples (x, y, z) ϵ V3 such that ρ(x, z) = ρ(x, y) +ρ(y, z). In this work, we prove the existence of a quasi-metric space on four points a, b, c and d whose quasi-metric betweenness is ẞ = {(c, a, b), (a, b, c), (d, b, a), (b, a, d)}. This space has only three lines, none of which has four points. Moreover, we show that the betweenness of any quasi-metric space on four points with this property is isomorphic to B. Since B is not metric, we conclude that Chen and Chvatal's conjecture is valid for any metric space on four points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presented is an approach to a chest radiograph, paying particular attention to features commonly seen in the intensive care unit (ICU) with regards to iatrogenic lines and tubes, together with common pathologies that may be encountered. This is accompanied by helpful images to use as an aide memoire when reviewing ICU chest X-rays. Pitfalls in interpreting these often complex X-rays are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Agronomica Sinica is the property of Crop Science Society of China and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Microgrids have an important role to play in achieving current international targets of electrifying poor rural communities around the world. In the East-African context, microgrid developers face challenges related to dispersed settlement patterns and high poverty levels that prevent many rural citizens from affording grid connections. Contextual factors influence demand for electricity, leading to uncertainties regarding development of consumption in newly electrified areas. Developers struggle with the sizing of microgrids and often initially oversize the system in anticipation of growing demand, which leads to significant investment costs and economic risk in case projected growth fails to appear. Our focus in this paper is to introduce an approach for flexible and adaptive distribution design – a process that can reduce initial investment cost and still be able to meet the long-term variations of the load in a controlled manner, thereby removing an entry barrier related to microgrid development. We exemplify the usefulness of this design approach in three different application areas: distribution capacity, transformation capacity and level of protection systems. Each application area consists of a number of steps based on mature technologies that correspond to change in capacity. The steps can be taken in sequence or in part, to achieve a system configuration adaptive enough to handle changes in electricity consumption, both increasing and, in some cases, also decreasing. Considerations on how steps would impact on system operation, power transfer capacity and demands on local technical expertise and maintenance are included. Importantly, the technical discussion details socio-economic aspects and the consequences for end-users as well as the utility. We exemplify the feasibility of the approach and provide a context for the discussion using real-world examples from East Africa. • Gradual development of grids is possible but have economic and social consequences. • A flexible distribution system is more resistant towards short-term shock and long-term stress. • Under certain conditions it can be desirable for utility and customers to reduce grid capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Études Inuit Studies is the property of Centre interuniversitaire d'etudes et de recherches autochtones (CIERA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Presented is an approach to a chest radiograph, paying particular attention to features commonly seen in the intensive care unit (ICU) with regards to iatrogenic lines and tubes, together with common pathologies that may be encountered. This is accompanied by helpful images to use as an aide memoire when reviewing ICU chest x-rays. Pitfalls in interpreting these often complex x-rays are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ziran Kexueshi Yanjiu (Studies in the History of Natural Sciences) is the property of Chinese Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Considering that public transport should provide availability, timeliness, convenience and effectiveness in service offered, concrete solutions for optimization of the public transport service in the town of Bitola, Republic of Macedonia, are proposed. These proposed solutions, i.e., two new public transportlines, connecting suburban areas with the town's centre are projected to coverthe entire territory of the town. Their implementation will provide regular, frequent and price competitive, well connected public transportnetwork. By implementing these solutions public transport will have a possibility to become a part of the modern qualitative way of urban life, and thus to contribute for sustainability in urban transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how in the aftermath of one of the worst environmental disasters ever to occur in Spain – the Aznalcóllar Disaster – various environmentalist and conservationist groups mobilised migratory birds to bring new insights and the need for new precautions to the controversy elicited by the spill. The case study, thus, revolves around how environmentalists established a “hybrid collective action” to draw attention to unconsidered risks and impacts of the disaster and thereby make the case for open debate. Building upon this, I engage with two different, though interrelated, theoretical debates that contribute to a rethinking of environmental management (EM) as a social and materially situated practice. Drawing on the idea of “tactic” (De Certeau, 1984), I draw attention to the devices, actions and procedures that environmentalists carried out to resist attempts to minimise the spill and to undermine administrations’ assumptions of control, coherence and singularity associated the idea of management. Drawing on Tim Ingold’s latest work (2007, 2008, 2011), I analyse environmentalists’ most successful tactic: the enactment of migratory birds as “lines”. Together with other authors in this special issue, I will use this notion to make an argument against some of the assumptions of the “hybrid ontology”. In contrast to more essentialists and static notions of non-human agency and politics, the idea of line is particularly useful as a way of understanding how nature(s) can be effectuated differently and how this leads to the imagining of new regimes of cohabitation, human and non-human management and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A methodical system for looking at every chest radiograph is suggested. Readers are encouraged to decide whether an opacity on a chest radiograph is due to pleural, alveolar or interstitial pathology and then to consider the cause. Lung and pleural masses are considered and contrasted and the features of asbestos exposure listed. Special consideration is given to the problems of interpretation of the chest radiograph in the intensive care unit (ICU), and the various appearances of lines and tubes are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production lines are complex mechatronic systems. They incorporate mechanical, electronic, software and control sub-systems in their structures. The complexity of these systems is in this case identified for mass production of sanitary products. As part of the task solution new models are being searched, aiming at the selection of optimal production line in terms of achieving the effect for both, the manufacturer and the customer, as well. One of the ways, which allows achieving the desired effects is a professionally executed multi-criteria problem optimization. The experimental basis is based on the specific conditions of one of the major worldwide companies. The identification of criteria is focused on specific production lines. The result is a model of multi-criteria assessment of the alternative lines for the production of sanitary products, processed in Microsoft Excel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents an approach to extract curvilinear structures (lines) and their widths from two-dimensional images with high accuracy. Models for asymmetric parabolic and Gaussian line profiles are proposed. These types of lines occur frequently in applications. Scale-space descriptions of parabolic and Gaussian lines are derived in closed form. A detailed analysis of these scale-space descriptions shows that parabolic and Gaussian lines are biased more significantly than the well-known asymmetric bar-shaped lines by the partial derivatives of the Gaussian filters that are used to extract the lines. A bias function is constructed that relates the parameters of the lines to biased measurements that can be extracted from the image. It is shown that this bias function can be inverted. This is used to derive an algorithm to remove the bias from the line positions and widths. Examples on synthetic and real images show the high subpixel accuracy that can be achieved with the proposed algorithm. In particular, the line extractor is tested on a publicly available data set that includes manually labeled ground truth. The results on this data set show that very accurate results can be achieved on real data if the appropriate line model is used. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: For plasmas in LTE at moderate or low temperatures (1–50 eV), the statistical approach for calculating emission or absorption spectra may become inaccurate and need improvement to account for the Boltzmann factor in the population of the levels. In this work, corrections to the transition rates are computed by using the moments of emission or absorption zones, which represent the set of levels within a configuration that provide the dominant part of the emissivity (or opacity). Partition functions are also improved by using high-order moments of level energy distributions. Corrections to the statistical models are derived in a non-relativistic framework as a function of these moments, which can be deduced from already published formulas. Numerical comparisons of detailed line-by-line and statistical calculations are presented that clearly illustrate the importance of correcting the models at low temperatures. Thus, these corrections are of great interest for applications such as Warm Dense Matter, LTE photo-absorption experiments where the targets are heated to ∼T e = 20 eV and astrophysical plasmas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A methodical system for looking at every chest radiograph is suggested. Readers are encouraged to decide whether an opacity on a chest radiograph is due to pleural, alveolar or interstitial pathology and then to consider the cause. Lung and pleural masses are considered and contrasted and the features of asbestos exposure listed. Special consideration is given to the problems of interpretation of the chest radiograph in the intensive care unit (ITU), and the various appearances of lines and tubes are outlined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The objective of this study is to characterize the hydroelectric unit and the electric lines of the Bapi village micro hydroelectric power plant (MHPP), Cameroon, and to recommend the possibilities for its modernization. Between January 2006 and January 2009, four monthly visits were carried out on the site of the MHPP. Data were collected to access the state and the functioning of the hydroelectric unit and the electric lines using observations, measurements, documentations, and direct interviews. The main results show that Bapi is not connected to the national grid. The main quarter where services are concentred has 1500 inhabitants, and a 4 kW MHPP was financed by the World Bank and implanted there in 1998. Because of the poor working conditions, it is necessary to upgrade the current equipment. This rehabilitation can increase the minimal power by up to 30 kW and cost about 36 billion of "Francs de la Communauté Francophone d'Afrique" (FCFA) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines ethical frameworks across levels of human development and via the quadrants of the AQAL model. The ethical line is examined as it progresses through stages of development, paying special attention to the role of the felt sense in the determination of right action. The role of unconscious forces, particularly the felt sense of disgust, is examined as the basis of moral intuition. Integral Ethics includes the ethical framework of the previous stages and an examination of personal motivation for right action. By inquiring into the unconscious drives that move us, we may begin to recognize the cultural prejudices and excessive survival drives that can influence our determination of right action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Jesus Christ as depicted in the Urantia Book. It provides an introduction to the Urantia Revelation, discusses its origination story and the unique nature of the document, and comments on the controversy surrounding it. Ken Wilber's concept of Kosmic address is introduced and Christ is examined through the lens of the four quadrants, his level of psychological development, lines of development related to his cognitive, moral, and spiritual capacities, his mastery of states of consciousness, and how he blended the masculine and feminine aspects of his personality. It searches for shadow in Christ's personality, his injunctions for practice, and the faith community that today follows the Urantia Revelation. In conclusion, I relate my experience studying the material over the past 20 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The inverse PCR method has been developed and applied employed for the identification of the integration sites of the Tc1-like transposons in the genome of the flounder, Platichthys flesus. One Tc1-like insertion instance was recognized and characterized, demonstrating an efficiency of the method for determining of transposon integration sites. The similarity of the sequence flanking transposon (SFT) to reverse transcriptase sequences (RVT) was demonstrated. It is likely that the insertion took place within currently degenerated LINE (long interspersed nuclear elements) retrotransposon. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Soybean rust, (Phakopsora pachyrhizi), currently the most devastating disease of soybeans worldwide, is known to challenge single resistance genes deployed against it and therefore, disease tolerance is indisputably the most viable measure in controlling the pathogen. Studies were conducted at Namulonge in Central Uganda to assess the level of tolerance to soybean rust among selected elite soybean lines. Seven elite lines together with three local checks were tested in a split-plot design where some plots were protected with fungicide to estimate the level of tolerance to soybean rust. The experiment was conducted for three cropping seasons beginning second rains of 2005. A rust tolerance index (RTI) was computed for each test line as the ratio of yield from unprotected plots to yield from protected plots. The study showed that high levels of tolerance to soybean rust were present in the test lines. The soybean lines that showed high levels of tolerance included MNG 10.3 and MNG 3.26 all showing RTIs higher than 0.93. These lines also out-yielded the local checks by about 400kgha−1 and are recommended for multi-location testing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Exact or statistical methods for determining the distribution of the MJ values (projection of total angular momentum J) in an electron configuration are presented. This distribution, noted P(MJ ), is used to calculate the allowed values of J and the number of electric-dipolar (E1) lines between two configurations. First, the difficulty to account for the Pauli exclusion principle for equivalent electrons is stressed. Showing the limit of the usual exact approach, a very efficient recursive technique is proposed for determining exactly the distribution P(MJ ). Second, the statistical approach of Bauche and Bauche-Arnoult [J. Phys. B Atom. Mol. Opt. Phys. 20 (1987) 1659] is extended in order to account for configurations with a high-ℓ spectator. In this case, identical consecutive values may exist in the center of P(MJ ), which can neither be modeled by a Gaussian nor by a Gram–Charlier type function. It is shown that the Generalized Gaussian function, with the exponent constrained by the kurtosis (reduced fourth-order centered moment) of P(MJ ), is more suited in these situations. A new analytical formula for the evaluation of the number of E1 lines with a larger range of applicability is then proposed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A methodical system for looking at every chest radiograph is suggested. Readers are encouraged to decide whether an opacity on a chest radiograph is due to pleural, alveolar or interstitial pathology and then to consider the cause. Lung and pleural masses are considered and contrasted and the features of asbestos exposure listed. Special consideration is given to the problems of interpretation of the chest radiograph in the intensive care unit, and the various appearances of lines and tubes are outlined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Shape analysis is a fundamental problem in image processing field. In shape analysis, lines, circles, and ellipses are three important features since they often occur in the image. Based on the determined windows on the edge map, this paper first presents a novel pruning-and-voting strategy to speed up the detection for lines, circles, and ellipses. Especially, our proposed strategy can be plugged into several existing randomized algorithms to reduce the required computation time while preserving the same robustness. In addition, some related time complexity analyses are provided to show the computational advantage of our proposed strategy. Under some real images, experimental results confirm our theoretic analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In modern opacity calculations that employ intermediate coupling based atomic physics, it can be necessary to include the contribution of millions of spectral lines to evaluate the bound–bound part of the opacity. Unfortunately, the processing of millions of line shapes is impractical because of prohibitive computational times, therefore fast computational methods are needed. In the present work, a simple procedure is described to process line strengths and widths in finely spaced photon energy histogram bins. Line shapes are then calculated for each bin, rather than for individual spectral lines, resulting in a significant speed up of a factor of 100 or more in some cases. The method is shown to agree very well with the usual detailed line-by-line treatment for opacity calculations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper describes a new, general analytical method of determining the closeness to linear dependence of any system of lines and screws, giving n invariant scalars for an n -system of screws. The method proposed evaluates the maximum available scalar or Klein product between the unit screw under test and any unit combination of screws reciprocal to all of the set except the test screw. Examples are given of the application of this theory to the behaviour of a partially complete system of kinematic restraint such as those used in manufacturing fixtures of a simple structure and of a serial robotic manipulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paracatadioptric camera is one of the most popular panoramic systems currently available in the market. It provides a wide field of view by combining a parabolic shaped mirror with a camera inducing an orthographic projection. Previous work proved that the paracatadioptric projection of a line is a conic curve, and that the sensor can be fully calibrated from the image of three or more lines. However, the estimation of the conic curves where the lines are projected is hard to accomplish because of the partial occlusion. In general only a small arc of the conic is visible in the image, and conventional conic fitting techniques are unable to accurately estimate the curve. The present work provides methods to overcome this problem. We show that in uncalibrated paracatadioptric views a set of conic curves is a set of line projections if and only if certain properties are verified. These properties are used to constrain the search space and correctly estimate the curves. The conic fitting is solved naturally by an eigensystem whenever the camera is skewless and the aspect ratio is known. For the general situation the line projections are estimated using non-linear optimization. The set of paracatadioptric lines is used in a geometric construction to determine the camera parameters and calibrate the system. We also propose an algorithm to estimate the conic locus corresponding to a line projection in a calibrated paracatadioptric image. It is proved that the set of all line projections is a hyperplane in the space of conic curves. Since the position of the hyperplane depends only on the sensor parameters, the accuracy of the estimation can be improved by constraining the search to conics lying in this subspace. We show that the fitting problem can be solved by an eigensystem, which leads to a robust and computationally efficient method for paracatadioptric line estimation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We address the problem of camera motion and 3D structure reconstruction from line correspondences across multiple views, from initialization to final bundle adjustment. One of the main difficulties when dealing with line features is their algebraic representation. First, we consider the triangulation problem. Based on Plücker coordinates to represent the 3D lines, we propose a maximum likelihood algorithm, relying on linearizing the Plücker constraint and on a Plücker correction procedure, computing the closest Plücker coordinates to a given 6-vector. Second, we consider the bundle adjustment problem, which is essentially a nonlinear optimization process on camera motion and 3D line parameters. Previous overparameterizations of 3D lines induce gauge freedoms and/or internal consistency constraints. We propose the orthonormal representation, which allows handy nonlinear optimization of 3D lines using the minimum four parameters with an unconstrained optimization engine. We compare our algorithms to existing ones on simulated and real data. Results show that our triangulation algorithm outperforms standard linear and bias-corrected quasi-linear algorithms, and that bundle adjustment using our orthonormal representation yields results similar to the standard maximum likelihood trifocal tensor algorithm, while being usable for any number of views. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Line and screw systems, used in robotics and machinery analysis, become singular at particular geometric configurations. When not singular, measures are required that describe how far they are from being so. A new system of measures is proposed whose outcome is strictly invariant with respect to coordinate frame, origin and unit of length. Examples of the application of the new measures to sixfold systems of lines and screws in the context of work-holding systems and robotic manipulators are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the cytogenetic features of the Antarctic silverfish Pleuragramma antarctica (Boulenger 1902), a keystone species of the Antarctic coastal marine ecosystem. Conventional cytogenetic analyses and physical mapping of repetitive DNA sequences were performed on metaphase plates obtained through direct chromosome preparation from P. antarctica early larvae. The Antarctic silverfish have a diploid number (2n) = 48, and a karyotype made up of a majority of two-armed chromosomes (karyotype formula36m/sm + 10st + 2a, fundamental number = 94). Major ribosomal gene repeats were detected on three chromosome pairs (20, 21, and 23), in correspondence of dim DAPI stained regions. Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements (LINEs) were abundant and wide spread over all chromosomes. Overall, the cytogenetic data presented herein are consistent with a long independent cytogenetic and evolutionary history for the species. The large number of two-armed chromosomes, indicative of highly-rearranged karyotype, coupled with a diploid number of 48, a presumed primitive character for this fish group, and the spread of the major ribosomal genes on three chromosome pairs, make the Antarctic silverfish distinct from all other notothenioid species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researches were made during the period 2004-2010 at ICDLF Vidra as part of the research topic and aimed at obtaining new pepper cultivars (hybrid types), with superior productions as compared to the genotypes existing in the national assortment, resistant to the biotic and abiotic factors. The lines of pepper were studied in the comparative plots for their behaviour (2008-2010). The variants were set up in randomized blocks placed in four replication and during the growing season several observations and determination were performed according to U.P.O.V. file. As control the green pepper variety Export was used. The results' analysis showed that all lines of green pepper studied in the comparative plots for their behaviour, using as control variety the cultivar Export, achieved superior productions as compared to control variety (29.2 t/ha.Among the green pepper lines, line L 12 especially remarked itself by the conic fruit, being slightly mucronate and coloured as white-yellow at technological maturity and intense red at physiological maturity. L12 was remarked from all lines, being tested in ISTIS network and registered under the name "Vidra 9". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]