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Background: The aim of this paper is to analyze the possibilities of the agricultural sector of the Western Balkans, to assess compliance with the European Green Deal, which provides for the implementation of activities, which should enable the transition to the green sector and climate change mitigation. This paper is the first scientific paper to analyze agriculture and climate change in light of the EU Green Deal for the Western Balkan territory.Results: Agricultural production is one of the leading industries in the Western Balkans. In the Republic of Serbia, the total gross value of agricultural production in 2019 amounted to 5.5 billion dollars, in Albania, it is the basis of the life of the population and the system of protection against unemployment, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1/5 of the population is employed in this sector. Montenegro has a significant share in the gross domestic product (GDP, 8%), while in the Republic of Northern Macedonia agriculture accounts for 13% of GDP. Climate change and predictions that temperatures will increase by 4oC in the coming decades pose a risk not only to agricultural production but also to the safety of the population. If it takes into account that the agricultural production of the countries of the Western Balkans depends primarily on rain, this makes this sector particularly vulnerable. Unless appropriate measures are taken and risk management for water resources and agriculture is improved, there will be a decrease in precipitation and an increase in dry days by 20%. One of the ways to implement adequate activities is the adoption of regulations related to the creation of local energy management, which will enable the assessment of climate change and based on them to give appropriate "energy response“. Conclusions: Taking this combined and ambitious approach and using the latest developments in knowledge and innovation, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) aligns agriculture with the European Green Deal, which aims to create an inclusive, competitive, and environmentally friendly future for Europe. Finding renewable energy sources and improving risk management can mitigate the negative impact of climate change and prevent the loss of agrobiodiversity.

Water has been proven to be an effective additive to enhance the growth rate and purity of the synthesized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Due to similar CNT ...

Background: HLA-class II proteins hold important roles in key physiological processes. The purpose of this study was to compile all class II alleles reported in human population and investigate patterns in pocket variants and their combinations, focusing on the peptide-binding region (PBR). Methods: For this purpose, all protein sequences of DPA1, DQA1, DPB1, DQB1 and DRB1 were selected and filtered, in order to have full PBR sequences. Proportional representation was used for pocket variants while population data were also used. Results: All pocket variants and PBR sequences were retrieved and analyzed based on the preference of amino acids and their properties in all pocket positions. The observed number of pocket variants combinations was much lower than the possible inferred, suggesting that PBR formation is under strict funneling. Also, although class II proteins are very polymorphic, in the majority of the reported alleles in all populations, a significantly less polymorphic pocket core was found. Conclusions: Pocket variability of five HLA class II proteins was studied revealing favorable properties of each protein. The actual PBR sequences of HLA class II proteins appear to be governed by restrictions that lead to the establishment of only a fraction of the possible combinations and the polymorphism recorded is the result of intense funneling based on function.

Neutron capture cross-section measurements for 237Np have been conducted with the Accurate Neutron Nucleus Reaction Measurement Instrument (ANNRI) at the Materials and Life Science Facility (MLF) ...

The article studies the tourist sector as a factor of social and economic development of the region. The author gives a definition of the term ‘universal character of tourist sector', formulates key criteria meeting the principle of universality, on the basis of which the approach to region analysis was developed. This approach gives an opportunity to find the degree of customer satisfaction with tourist services and shows whether the region is ready for developing new tourist programs within the frames of traditional, special and rear types of tourism. As an example the article analyzes the universal character of tourist sector in the Leningrad region, which showed a number of problems. Proceeding from this the author proposes to design a mechanism of their solution at the expense of enlarging the list of tourist services offered to customer and improving their quality. By analyzing the universal character of tourist sector it will be possible to find out and eliminate drawbacks in the tourist sphere and in designing strategy of efficient development of tourism in the region aimed at building-up the tourist traffic, which could become a factor of its social and economic development.

This paper presents the varietal structure of rice crops and the results of ecological variety tests in the Krasnoarmeisky district of Krasnodar region for 2016-2019. It also identifies the promising varieties taking into account the acreage of sowing and crop productivity. A rice varietal complex has been developed for the conditions of the Krasnoarmeisky district. Despite certain external similarities and the same productive potential of the varieties offered for production, they differed in biological and technological indicators, i.e. in relation to environmental factors and responsibility to technologies. In this regard, the formation of the varietal structure of rice crops, the main thing is to identify the most productive varieties for each district and farm, taking into account the agro-ecological quality of the land, the cultivation technology and the predecessor by making environmental and production tests.

Objectives Though carotid body tumors are rare, increasing attentions have been given because of malignant transformation and high surgical risk. However, at present, the characteristics and etiology still remain unclear. Our study was designed to describe the clinical features of carotid body tumors in our institution and to compare the results with previous reports. Methods We retrospectively reviewed carotid body tumor patients diagnosed in our institution from January 2015 to May 2020. The demographics, comorbidities, lesion location, anatomic characteristics, complications, and postoperative outcomes were evaluated. Carotid body tumor measurements were determined from computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and carotid arteriography examination. We described and compared the clinical features of carotid body tumors in our institution and other reports. Results We totally identified 122 carotid body tumor cases for the present analysis. The mean age was 50.26 years, with the majority being female (82%). The commonest presentation was a painless neck mass (68%). For the distribution of nationality, most patients were the Han nationality (69.7%). The mean altitude of habitat of patients was 2689.4 km; 19.7% patients suffered bilateral lesions. The main blood supply of carotid body tumors was from external carotid artery (54.1%). For patients who received operation, 11 (11.2%) patients experienced cranial nerve injury. The maximal diameter of tumors was 3.99 ± 1.98 cm in male and 3.38 ± 1.36 cm in female. The volume of tumors was 31.49 ± 29.76 cm3 in male and 15.27 ± 13.06 cm3 in female. The distance to base of skull of tumors was 3.39 ± 1.07 cm (3.99 ± 1.98 cm in male vs 3.38 ± 1.36 cm, P < 0.05). Two patients (2.04%) were identified as having malignant carotid body tumor. Conclusions Though carotid body tumor had a low morbidity and multitudinous clinicopathologic features, it was apt to middle-aged women and the main blood supply was from external carotid artery. The painless neck mass was the commonest presentation of carotid body tumors. There were significant difference between male and female patients regarding platelet, hemoglobin, distance to base of skull, tumor volume, altitude of habitat, carotid body tumor location, and hypertension.

Objective. We studied the contamination of the soil with helminth-protozoan infestations in Astrakhan region for 20102019. Materials and methods. The research work was carried out in the Laboratory of Bacteriological and Parasitological Research of the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Astrakhan Region in 20102019. A total of 10 692 soil samples were examined, and 11 384 studies were performed. The number of samples, which did not meet the sanitary and parasitological indicators was 7.0 % (753 samples). Eggs and larvae of helminths, as well as cysts of pathogenic intestinal protozoa were found in these samples. Results. During the analyzed period, 86 491 samples of sanitary and parasitological studies were selected and examined in the Astrakhan region, of which 93.6 % (80 962 samples) were samples taken from various environmental objects (water, soil, manure, flushes from solid household surfaces). The total share of soil samples in the structure of all studies of environmental objects was 13.2 % (10 692 samples). Conclusions. Parasitic contamination of the soil remains tense, as evidenced by positive findings in the form of eggs and larvae of helminths, as well as cysts of pathogenic intestinal protozoa. The presence of toxocara eggs and strongylid larvae in the soil indicates contamination of this object with the feces of infected animals. The presence of eggs of ascarids, opisthorchis, pygmy tapeworm and cysts of dysentery amoeba in the soil may indicate that this object is contaminated with the feces of persons with parasitic infestation, or about accidents on the sewer network and underflooding of soil sampling sites.

The objective of this study was to characterize environment factors involved in loss of seed viability during storage in open granaries. The temperature and relative humidity of the granary as well as the equilibrium moisture content of seeds were determined monthly. Their effects on the loss of viability of maize (Zea mays L.) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) seeds were examined. The results showed that relative humidity levels > 65% associated with temperatures > 25°C (conditions in the open granary) do not guarantee safe storage of maize lots for a period of 9 to 12 months. Based on these data and the results of seed viability analysis, local environmental conditions in Gandajika (DR-Congo) and seed genetic background are the main factors for the rapid deterioration of seeds during storage. The germination rate correlated negatively with storage duration (-0.94) and temperature (-0.57) while it correlates positively with the relative humidity (0.58) for both lots of maize analyzed. The same trend was observed with the two-cowpea varieties studied (IT82D-889 and Diamant). Similar work using more varieties in other granaries is required to validate key factors involved in seed viability during storage in targeted regions.

The unfavorable demographic trends of an aging population are leading to a reduction in the size of the labor force and its structural changes. Young people and older people are the most vulnerable applicants for employment in the labor market. The economic behavior of young people and older people is still insufficiently studied at the regional level. This study analyzes the situation within the region. For instance, the Tyumen region without autonomous okrugs was selected, as a region characterized by a stable situation on the labor market with a fairly diversified structure of the economy (therefore, the study did not include the northern autonomous okrugs). Microdata of a sample survey of the labor force of the Federal State Statistics Service were used as a basis for the analysis. Using binary logit models, the probabilities of being employed in the Tyumen region at the age of 20 29 and 55-64 are estimated, taking into account the type of settlement and the individual characteristics of the employee. Estimates are given for the Tyumen region and Russia for 2010, 2015 and 2019.The results showed that the greatest contribution to the probability of employment is made by education (higher, secondary and primary vocational) and young age, which is especially typical for the Tyumen region. Men are more likely to be employed both in the region and in the rest of the country than women. Living in a city in 2010 and 2015 reduced the likelihood of employment in the Tyumen region, in 2019 it increased. For the rest of Russia, the marginal effects (slope coefficients) for the variable of urban residence in all years were small but positive.

Purpose Evaluating the extent of cerebral ischemic infarction is essential for treatment decisions and assessment of possible complications in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Patients are often triaged according to image-based early signs of infarction, defined by Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS). Our aim was to evaluate interrater reliability in a large group of readers. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 100 investigators who independently evaluated 20 non-contrast computed tomography (NCCT) scans as part of their qualification program for the TENSION study. Test cases were chosen by four neuroradiologists who had previously scored NCCT scans with ASPECTS between 0 and 8 and high interrater agreement. Percent and interrater agreements were calculated for total ASPECTS, as well as for each ASPECTS region. Results Percent agreements for ASPECTS ratings was 28%, with interrater agreement of 0.13 (95% confidence interval, CI 0.09–0.16), at zero tolerance allowance and 66%, with interrater agreement of 0.32 (95% CI: 0.21–0.44), at tolerance allowance set by TENSION inclusion criteria. ASPECTS region with highest level of agreement was the insular cortex (percent agreement = 96%, interrater agreement = 0.96 (95% CI: 0.94–0.97)) and with lowest level of agreement the M3 region (percent agreement = 68%, interrater agreement = 0.39 [95% CI: 0.17–0.61]). Conclusion Interrater agreement reliability for total ASPECTS and study enrollment was relatively low but seems sufficient for practical application. Individual region analysis suggests that some are particularly difficult to evaluate, with varying levels of reliability. Potential impairment of the supraganglionic region must be examined carefully, particularly with respect to the decision whether or not to perform mechanical thrombectomy.

Main problem: Small and medium-sized businesses, as an important component of modern production, largely contributes to maintaining a competitive tone in the economy, creates a natural social support for a social structure organized on the principles of the market, and also forms a new social stratum of entrepreneurs. Since the establishment of independent Kazakhstan, the sphere of entrepreneurship has always been in the center of attention of the state, and the Strategy "Kazakhstan - 2050": the new political course of the established state, comprehensive support of entrepreneurship as the leading force of the national economy has been identified among its priority tasks. At the present stage of development, the system of state support for small and medium-sized businesses in the Republic of Kazakhstan includes a number of institutions and state programs designed to provide comprehensive support to this sector of the economy. Despite the measures taken by the state to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the development of this area in the regions and the Republic of Kazakhstan, in general, faces a number of serious problems, including those of a systemic nature, which involves researching the state, identifying problems and determining prospects for the development of small and medium-sized businesses. Purpose: to study the state, trends and prospects of development of SMEs in Pavlodar region, to identify and describe the problems of organizing the activities of entrepreneurs in the region. Methods: the state of entrepreneurial activity in the region is analyzed in the context of the main socially significant indicators of its development, the main trends and patterns of development of the SME sphere are identified and the reasons that form them are substantiated. As one of the tools for identifying and substantiating the reasons hindering the development of entrepreneurial activity, the study conducted a survey of entrepreneurs to identify the problems of SMEs in the region. Results and their significance: Based on the results of the study, a range of priority problems of SMEs in the region was determined, an assessment of their correlation with similar problems of the SME sector of the Republic of Kazakhstan was given, and a range of basic expectations of entrepreneurs in the context of government measures to support their development was outlined.

The population of the Nordic region has grown substantially during recent decades, though most of this growth has been in urban regions. While the Nordic countries are projected to see continued population growth in the future, almost all of the increase will be concentrated in urban centres, with population decline or stagnation in many rural municipalities. This will make it difficult for these regions to remain economically competitive and for national governments to provide a uniform level of services across entire countries. This article provides policymakers at the national, regional, and municipal levels with projections of the size, composition, and geographic distribution of rural populations in the Nordic countries in 2040. In total, remote rural regions will not become depopulated and are projected to grow moderately from 5.3 to 5.5 million persons to 2040, though many will experience significant declines in their total and working-age populations and will have much older age structures. For many rural municipalities in the Nordic region, their population peak was at some point in the distant past, and they should therefore develop policies based on smaller populations.

The Research 2013 of the multi-layered archaeological settlement “Irkineyevo. Site Yelchimo-3” allowed to discover a stratified complex of the Upper Paleolithic site, aged 12–11 thousand years ago, in the Northern Angara region. The geological position of the cultural horizon connected with a complex of alluvial soils in a middle part of deposits of the first terrace rising above the floodplain of the Angara River, the preservation of archaeological materials in situ context, the zoo-archaeological collection in combination with the stone inventory provided highly informative data. The goals of research included the reconstruction of paleoenvironment and life support ways of the ancients in conditions of a point archaeological object. Spatial analysis showed the localization of cultural remains reflecting a cycle of multi-event activity in a hunting camp. The level of food life support is characterized by the species composition of the fauna. With the dominance of the reindeer remains the bones of birds, wolfs, roe deer and primeval bison were met here. The activity carried out on the site included the organization of the temporary camp, arrangement of a fire and resting place, food preparation and consumption, butchering of animals and preparation them to transportation. The main task of the inhabitants of the site was meat preparation for the future. Raw stone processing was situational in nature. Among the knapping products: wedge-shaped cores, flakes; blade-like flakes and micro blade-like flakes. The collection of tools consists of scraping-cutting tools (including retouched flakes), pebbly hammer-stones, and a piece of the red deer point. The analysis fulfilled by the authors indicated that the episode of the hunting camp functioning had a single-shot character during the autumnwinter period. The duration has been determined by the ratio of the number of harvested animals and the acts of hunting activity.

The article examined socio-economic issues of little towns in the Irkutsk region in retrospect and in perspective of their development. The author explored the place and role of little towns in the history of Russia and its regions, identified a group of little towns, conditions for their formation, based on the population settlement and industrial development of the region. In the article the author defined the concepts of a city-forming enterprise and a monotown that are widely practiced in urban settlements of the region, and devoted special attention to the analysis of the demographic status of little towns, population dynamics, and natural and migration movements. The research revealed the processes of natural population decline caused by a decrease in the birth rate and rise in mortality, as well as the migration outflow of residents of little towns. The author examined the social situation of urban settlements that suffered extensive losses in the new economic conditions. The research concluded that bed/population ratio in regional little towns, including the number of doctors and nursing staff, is significantly behind the regional indicators. The author put forwards ideas how to preserve the historical and socio-economic identity of little towns.

В реалиях современной Российской экономики, находящейся под воздействием последствийпандемии, вызванной распространившейся в мире инфекции COVID-19, считаем целесообразным обратитьвнимание на повышение инвестиционной привлекательности регионов, как одного из важнейших факторов,определяющего конкурентоспособность, состояние и привлекательность национальной экономики.На сегодняшний день, вследствие пандемии, мер ее предотвращения и последовавшейпосле волны миграционного оттока, работоспособного населения из ряда СубъектовРоссийской Федерации, уровень инвестиционной привлекательности ряда регионовзначительно упал, а вместе с ним и экономическая стабильность страны.В ходе исследования на примере Карельской республики, была выявлена необходимость в проведениемер адаптации региональной экономики и повышения ее инвестиционной и инновационнойпривлекательности путем внедрения цифровых технологий, а так же создания региональных проектов,направленных на создание особых экономических зон (ОЭЗ) с пониженной ставкой налогообложениядля иностранных граждан, прибывших работать на территории Российской Федерации., In the realities of the modern Russian economy, which is under the influence of the consequences of thepandemic caused by the spread of COVID-19 infection in the world, we consider it appropriate to pay attentionto increasing the investment attractiveness of regions as one of the most important factors determining thecompetitiveness, condition and attractiveness of the national economy.To date, as a result of the pandemic, measures to prevent it and the subsequent wave of migration outflow of ablebodiedpopulation from a number of Subjects of the Russian Federation, the level of investment attractiveness of anumber of regions has fallen significantly, and with it the economic stability of the country.In the course of the study, using the example of the Karelian Republic, the need for measures to adapt theregional economy and increase its investment and innovation attractiveness through the introduction of digitaltechnologies, as well as the creation of regional projects aimed at creating special economic zones (SEZ) with areduced tax rate for foreign citizens who arrived to work in the territory of the Russian Federation was identified., Вестник МИРБИС, Выпуск 1 (29) 2022, Pages 86-91

Financial inclusion of the region is a means of making full use of the financial services industry's tools, which ultimately contributes to the long-term economic growth of the region, as it stimulates innovation, mobilizes savings and supports investment. The paper analyzes the current level of financial inclusion of the Poltava region. The study showed that the current level of financial inclusion of the Poltava region is low. Surveys of the respondents showed that there is a large disproportionate level of financial inclusion among urban and rural population. The rural population is limited in financial services. There is still a significant lack of confidence in financial institutions. All this slows down the processes of full involvement of the population in financial inclusion and creates a shadow sector. However, remediation is observed in urgent action by both the state and local authorities and financial institutions. Continuous information in the media and social networks in the future will be able to restore confidence in financial institutions and thus increase not only the level of financial inclusion, but also every inhabitant of the Poltava region.

Through increasing the use of contraceptives to limit births, the Family Planning (KB) Program is one of the government's efforts to control the rate of population growth. Klaten Districts is one of the regencies in Central Java Province with a relatively high number of births and relatively low coverage of active family planning. This study aimed to determine the grouping of sub-districts and these characteristics in the Klaten Districts in 2020. The method used in this study was a hierarchical cluster analysis method, with the best method being the centroid method. In this study obtained 3 clusters with cluster 1 consisting of 23 sub-districts, cluster 2 consists of 2 sub-districts and cluster 3 with 1 sub-district. The cluster characteristics based on the highest number of users of contraceptive methods are cluster 1-contraceptives injection, cluster 2- contraception implant, and IUDs in cluster 3

Основной целью статьи является выявление современных перспективных направлений приграничного торгово-экономического сотрудничества Самарской области. Для этого определен комплекс показателей и проведен анализ влияния приграничного сотрудничества на экономику региона. Выявлены основные направления, стимулирующие совокупность локализованных активов, составляющих территориальный капитал. The main purpose of the article is to identify modern promising areas of cross-border trade and economic cooperation of the Samara region. For this purpose, a set of indicators was determined and an analysis of the impact of cross-border cooperation on the region's economy was carried out. The main directions that stimulate the set of localized assets that make up the territorial capital are identified.

Aggregate energy and emission intensities have respectively been widely used to measure the overall performance of energy consumption and environmental pollution from the production perspective. Recently, Su and Ang (2017) propose the aggregate embodied intensity (AEI) indicator, defined as the ratio of embodied energy (or emissions) to embodied value added, to analyze the relationship between energy (or emissions) and value added or GDP from the demand perspective using the input-output (I-O) framework. Besides I-O analysis, structural path analysis (SPA) can be used to split the I-O analysis results into different layers to extract the important paths in terms of energy consumption and the resulting emissions. This paper incorporates the SPA technique with the AEI indicators and structural decomposition analysis (SDA) technique in the context of energy and emission studies. An empirical study using China's 2007 and 2012 datasets is presented to illustrate the AEI at the detailed transmission layers, show their relationships with the AEI indicators at different levels, and further investigate the driving forces to the changes of these AEI indicators. The proposed multi-level AEI framework can also be applied to other indicators and extended to multi-country/region analysis.

This paper proposes a global backlight dimming algorithm based on structural similarity that controls the local distortion level of the output image for preserving overall image quality. Unlike existing methods, the proposed method non-iteratively determines a global clipping point that maintains structural similarity for each pixel above the desired level. The proposed method consists of three steps: region analysis, candidate clipping point calculation, and backlight luminance determination. In the first step, the structural similarity is analyzed based on various clipping points. In the second step, the proposed method estimates a candidate clipping point, which preserves the structural similarity index of each pixel above the desired level, based on the estimation of local statistics. Then, the proposed method determines a global clipping point based on a group of candidate clipping points. Finally, the output luminance is determined based on the selected global clipping point. Experimental results showed that the proposed method successfully maintained the structural similarity of each pixel above the desired level. In addition, the proposed method reduced the variation of minimum structural similarity by up to 94.7% compared to the benchmark methods.

This study develops several single- and multi-region input-output models in IMPLAN using the annual expenditure data from a 2012 survey of charter fishing operations in the state of Hawaii. The survey reached out to 207 charter vessel operators, with a response rate of 36%, and collected demographic, trip, catch, and economic information across islands and vessel sizes. Four separate county models are built to observe regional effects, and one state model to observe total state effects. The state model is linked to secondary regions (the mainland west coast made up of Oregon, California, and Washington, as well as the rest of the mainland U.S.) to observe the economic effects occurring outside the state of Hawaii. This is especially relevant to Hawaii because of its dependence on the mainland to supply many of its raw materials and finished products. The multi-region approach allows us to observe spillover effects (effects occurring in the secondary regions in response to a demand in the study region) and feedback effects (further effects that occur in the study region as a result of purchasing goods and services by the secondary regions). The results from this multi-region model method are more informative and broad reaching as they capture the spillover and feedback effects that would otherwise be lost as leakages.

This study attempts to forecast the results of school students in Vietnam by geographical region analysis. Results show variations between regions. In the Red River Delta region, it is forecast that in the decade 2015 to 2025, the number of children attending to school will increase slightly. In the Midlands and Northern Mountains region, the average number of children attending school should increase gradually by 2.4 percent over five years. In the North Central and Central Coast regions, student numbers have increased and decreased erratically. In the Central Highlands, there has been an average rate increase of 3.45 percent over five years. In the Southeast region, student numbers at all levels are expected to increase by an average of 3.9 per cent over five years. In the Mekong Delta region, student numbers are expected to increase by one percent over five years but experience a 1.8 percent reduction by 2035. These data will be critical to planning for the education sector in the coming decades.

Basal cell carcinoma is most common type of non-melanotic skin cancer. Causative agents are UV and ionizing radiation and chemicals. Nodular, pigmented, superficial, cystic and infiltrative are major subtypes. It is mainly treated by excision surgery in the form of wide local excision and reconstruction is done by various flaps. In our study 10 patients were included and found that carcinoma is commoner in old age female patients and mainly near right canthus of eyeball; treated with surgery which is well tolerated by all the patients.

This study aimed to examine regional differences for asthma and other chronic obstructive lung diseases. The study was based on data collected from annual reports produced by the Ministry of Health over a ten-year period beginning from 2010 to 2019. Incidence rates for eleven regions in the Sultanate of Oman were analyzed using statistical tools including; analysis of variance and binary logistic regression model to determine the effect of region on asthma and other chronic obstructive lung diseases. The incident rates were found to be significantly different by region (F-value = 27.07, p = 0.00). There was no significant variation by year (F-value = 1.05, p > 0.407). Overall over the ten-year period the incidence rates stagnated between 250 and 300 per 10000 of the population, but showed a reducing trend between 2016 and 2019. The logistic regression model shows that compared to the Muscat region, all the other regions had significant increased odd ratios. There is a significant evidence of regional variation in the incidence of asthma and other chronic obstructive lung diseases. This implies probable characteristics in geographical regions that are associated with asthma and other chronic obstructive lung diseases’ exacerbation. Five asthma-region classifications were identified from our analysis. Findings of this study may be used to guide decision making towards the management and control of asthma and chronic obstructive lung diseases.

Yellowballs (YBs) were first discovered during the Milky Way Project citizen-science initiative (MWP; Simpson et al. 2012). MWP users noticed compact, yellow regions in Spitzer Space Telescope mid-infrared (MIR) images of the Milky Way plane and asked professional astronomers to explain these "yellow balls." Follow-up work by Kerton et al. (2015) determined that YBs likely trace compact photo-dissociation regions associated with massive and intermediate-mass star formation. YBs were included as target objects in a version of the Milky Way Project launched in 2016 (Jayasinghe et al. 2016), which produced a listing of over 6000 YB locations. We have measured distances, cross-match associations, physical properties, and MIR colors of ~500 YBs within a pilot region covering the l= 30 - 40 degrees, b= +/- 1 degree region of the Galactic plane. We find 20-30% of YBs in our pilot region contain high-mass star formation capable of becoming expanding H II regions that produce MIR bubbles. A majority of YBs represent intermediate-mass star-forming regions whose placement in evolutionary diagrams suggest they are still actively accreting, and may be precursors to optically-revealed Herbig Ae/Be nebulae. Many of these intermediate-mass YBs were missed by surveys of massive star-formation tracers and thus this catalog provides information for many new sites of star formation. Future work will expand this pilot region analysis to the entire YB catalog., 24 pages, 10 figures (including two-panel Figure 8), to be published in ApJ

This study explored the gene pools of Russian and Karelian populations of Tver region. Forty-one samples representing Tver Karels (n = 11) and Russians residing in the Western, Central and Eastern districts of Tver region (n = 30) were genotyped using a genome-wide panel of 4,559,465 SNPs. In order to investigate the phenomenon of genetic admixture between Slavic and Finnish-speaking populations, the obtained results were compared to the data on the Russian populations inhabiting the neighboring territories, Karels from Karelia and other North Eastern Europeans. Studying the gene pools of Russian populations with a genome-wide SNP panel is essential for cataloging their genetic diversity and identifying the distinct features of regional gene pools; in addition, it provides valuable data for practical pharmacogenomics and forensics. Using the principal component analysis, the ADMIXTURE method and D- and f3-statistics, we demonstrated that the gene pool of Tver Karels is closest to the gene pool of Karelian Karels, despite a long (300 to 500 years) history of living among the larger Russian population and the twentyfold population decline during the 20th century. At the same time, the gene pool of Tver Karels exhibits more pronounced similarity to the gene pool of the studied Russian populations than does any other Karelian population. The genetic admixture between Tver Russians and Tver Karels occurred due to a more intense gene flow from Russians to Karels whereas the gene flow from Karels to Russians was much weaker: Tver Russians turned out to be as genetically different from Karels as Pskov Russians. The genetic similarity of Tver Karels to Karelian Karels assessed with the autosomal SNP panel exhibits a slight shift towards the Russian gene pool and is consistent with the previously published analysis of Y-chromosome lineages in these populations that detected no admixture between Tver Karels and Russians.

A maximal stable extremely region (MSER) analysis based convolutional neural networks (CNN) for unified detects detection framework is proposed in this paper. Our proposed framework utilizes the generality and stability of MSER to generate the desired defects candidates. Then a specific trained binary CNN classifier is adopted over the defects candidates and produces the final determined defects. Experiments on various defects dataset over different categories have demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed framework. Beside, we can adjust the parameter settings in MSER to satisfy different requests over various industries (high precision, high recall, etc).

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative dementia that affects older people. Changes in behavior and cognition are the most common characteristics of this disease and are associated with changes in brain structure. Techniques focusing on brain shape have been recently proposed to quantify and understand these changes. One challenge when examining AD is that each anatomical region may have a unique role in and time course for brain deterioration, requiring a whole-brain method that is capable of individual (or regional) analyses at different disease stages. We propose to apply the scale-invariant heat kernel signature descriptor to magnetic resonance brain images in order to evaluate regional shape features across different brain regions. We measured the shape feature similarity in 500 subjects, equally divided across five progressive, disease-based stages. The shape analysis provided a complementary perspective to whole-brain analysis, due to the capability of identifying how different structures degenerate at different rates in the brain. In total, a group of 99 distinct brain regions belonging to cortical and deep gray matter were analyzed across the five disease stages. Preliminary assessment of shape-based analysis of key brain regions demonstrated that SIHKS was predictive of disease stage and disease progression.