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Digital mosaics have usually used regular tiles, simulating historical tessellated mosaics. In this paper, we present a method for synthesizing pebble mosaics, a historical mosaic style in which the tiles are rounded pebbles. We address both the tiling problem, of distributing pebbles over the image plane so as to approximate the input image content, and the problem of geometry, creating a smooth rounded shape for each pebble. We adopt simple linear iterative clustering (SLIC) to obtain elongated tiles conforming to image content, and smooth the resulting irregular shapes into shapes resembling pebble cross-sections. Then, we create an interior and exterior contour for each pebble and solve a Laplace equation over the region between them to obtain height-field geometry. The resulting pebble set approximates the input image while representing full geometry that can be rendered and textured for a highly detailed representation of a pebble mosaic.

INTRODUCTION: Infants born extremely preterm (EP, <28 weeks' gestation) or with extremely low birth weight (ELBW,<1000 g) in the era when surfactant has been available clinically are at high risk of health and developmental problems in childhood and adolescence. However, how their health and well-being may be affected in adulthood is not well known. This study aims to compare between EP/ELBW and normal birthweight (NBW) controls: (1) physical health, mental health and socioemotional functioning at 25 years of age and (2) trajectories of these outcomes from childhood to adulthood. In addition, this study aims to identify risk factors in pregnancy, infancy, childhood and adolescence for poor physical health and well-being in EP/ELBW young adults. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The Victorian Infant Collaborative Study (VICS) is a prospective geographical cohort of all EP/ELBW survivors to 18 years of age born in the State of Victoria, Australia, from 1 January 1991 to 31 December 1992 (n=297) and contemporaneous term-born/NBW controls (n=262). Participants were recruited at birth and followed up at 2, 5, 8 and 18 years. This 25-year follow-up includes assessments of physical health (cardiovascular, respiratory and musculoskeletal), mental health and socioemotional functioning. Outcomes will be compared between the birth groups using linear and logistic regression, fitted using generalised estimating equations (GEEs). Trajectories of health outcomes from early childhood will be compared between the birth groups using linear mixed-effects models. Risk factors for adult outcomes will be assessed using linear and logistic regression (fitted using GEEs). ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committees of the Royal Women's Hospital, Mercy Hospital for Women, Monash Medical Centre and the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. Study outcomes will be disseminated through conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications, the internet and soci

This dissertation argues that the Mexicanization of the Compañía Minera de Cananea in 1971 represented the strongest assertion of national sovereignty over Mexican mineral resources after more than 400 years of foreign control. In contrast to the nationalization of oil in 1938, however, this emerged as a conservative and moderate effort. The U.S.-based Anaconda Copper Company retained 49% of the company's ownership after selling 51% of the company to a combination of public and private interests in Mexico. This strategy represented the triumph of conservative forces, whose legitimacy rested on popular appeals to the Mexican Revolution, except transforming it into an instrument to achieve the goals of the new post-revolutionary elite. The study uses the approach of cultural history to examine the contours of economic life. As such, the concept of national sovereignty illuminates changing discourses regarding the character of work, nature, and the organization of Mexican society and politics. In its original version, national sovereignty was integral to an economic paradigm whereby the possession, control, and exploitation of natural resources by the Mexican nation were to benefit the Mexican people. The revolutionary Constitution of 1917 divided labor and natural resources and made it so that the working class could be controlled and deployed according to national interests defined by elites. Originating in a major strike in 1906, the myth of Cananea created an association between the working class, the Mexican nation, and the Mexican Revolution, which later provided legitimacy to the elite project of economic nationalism. After 1938, nationalist policy no longer advanced the social and economic well-being of the Mexican people overall but rather the private interests of elites. Mexicanization reduced the foreign control of mineral resources and introduced the private sector into the industry, but its failure to improve outcomes for Cananea's mineworkers frayed the b

Background: Infants born preterm compared with infants born at term are at an increased risk of dying and of serious morbidities in early life, and those who survive have higher rates of neurological impairments. It remains unclear whether exposure to repeat courses of prenatal corticosteroids can reduce these risks. This individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis (MA) assessed whether repeat prenatal corticosteroid treatment given to women at ongoing risk of preterm birth in order to benefit their infants is modified by participant or treatment factors. Methods and findings: Trials were eligible for inclusion if they randomised women considered at risk of preterm birth who had already received an initial, single course of prenatal corticosteroid seven or more days previously and in which corticosteroids were compared with either placebo or no placebo. The primary outcomes for the infants were serious outcome, use of respiratory support, and birth weight z-scores; for the children, they were death or any neurosensory disability; and for the women, maternal sepsis. Studies were identified using the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth search strategy. Date of last search was 20 January 2015. IPD were sought from investigators with eligible trials. Risk of bias was assessed using criteria from the Cochrane Collaboration. IPD were analysed using a one-stage approach. Eleven trials, conducted between 2002 and 2010, were identified as eligible, with five trials being from the United States, two from Canada, and one each from Australia and New Zealand, Finland, India, and the United Kingdom. All 11 trials were included, with 4,857 women and 5,915 infants contributing data. The mean gestational age at trial entry for the trials was between 27.4 weeks and 30.2 weeks. There was no significant difference in the proportion of infants with a serious outcome (relative risk [RR] 0.92, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.82 to 1.04, 5,893 infants, 11 trials, p = 0.33 for het