Automatic population HARDI white matter tract clustering by label fusion of multiple tract atlases

Automatic labeling of white matter fibres in diffusion-weighted brain MRI is vital for comparing brain integrity and connectivity across populations, but is challenging. Whole brain tractography generates a vast set of fibres throughout the brain, but it is hard to cluster them into anatomically meaningful tracts, due to wide individual variations in the trajectory and shape of white matter pathways. We propose a novel automatic tract labeling algorithm that fuses information from tractography and multiple hand-labeled fibre tract atlases. As streamline tractography can generate a large number of false positive fibres, we developed a top-down approach to extract tracts consistent with known anatomy, based on a distance metric to multiple hand-labeled atlases. Clustering results from different atlases were fused, using a multi-stage fusion scheme. Our "label fusion" method reliably extracted the major tracts from 105-gradient HARDI scans of 100 young normal adults. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

Automatic clustering and population analysis of white matter tracts using maximum density paths

We introduce a framework for population analysis of white matter tracts based on diffusion-weighted images of the brain. The framework enables extraction of fibers from high angular resolution diffusion images (HARDI); clustering of the fibers based partly on prior knowledge from an atlas; representation of the fiber bundles compactly using a path following points of highest density (maximum density path; MDP); and registration of these paths together using geodesic curve matching to find local correspondences across a population. We demonstrate our method on 4-Tesla HARDI scans from 565 young adults to compute localized statistics across 50 white matter tracts based on fractional anisotropy (FA). Experimental results show increased sensitivity in the determination of genetic influences on principal fiber tracts compared to the tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) method. Our results show that the MDP representation reveals important parts of the white matter structure and considerably reduces the dimensionality over comparable fiber matching approaches.

Are green project management practices applicable to traditional projects?

As the social environment begins to create more awareness in the area of conserving the natural environment, a new generation of building has emerged. A trend of constructing buildings that minimise impacts on the environment has been established in the construction industry. Therefore, suitable project management practices have been adopted to efficiently manage the construction of these green buildings. This study aims at investigating practices of project management in traditional and accredited green construction projects, with the purpose of discovering if Green Project Management (GPM) practices can be applied to traditional projects to achieve more successful outcomes. The process of GPM contains what applied to traditional projects, could possibly result in benefits in terms of budget control and constructability. Currently the construction industry has been known to suffer difficulties within these areas; therefore GPM practices could possibly hold a solution to these common problems.

Clustering acoustic events in environmental recordings for species richness surveys

Environmental acoustic recordings can be used to perform avian species richness surveys, whereby a trained ornithologist can observe the species present by listening to the recording. This could be made more efficient by using computational methods for iteratively selecting the richest parts of a long recording for the human observer to listen to, a process known as “smart sampling”. This allows scaling up to much larger ecological datasets. In this paper we explore computational approaches based on information and diversity of selected samples. We propose to use an event detection algorithm to estimate the amount of information present in each sample. We further propose to cluster the detected events for a better estimate of this amount of information. Additionally, we present a time dispersal approach to estimating diversity between iteratively selected samples. Combinations of approaches were evaluated on seven 24-hour recordings that have been manually labeled by bird watchers. The results show that on average all the methods we have explored would allow annotators to observe more new species in fewer minutes compared to a baseline of random sampling at dawn.

Albert Namatjira: copyright estates and traditional knowledge

Albert Namatjira was Australia's first Indigenous professional artist. He adapted Western-style painting to express his cultural knowledge of the Arrernte country, for which he was a traditional custodian. In his lifetime, Albert Namatjira achieved great acclaim for his exceptional ability as an artist. However, after his untimely death, he was ignored by the mainstream Australian art world, because of the aesthetic prejudices and social policies of the time. A recent exhibition entitled Seeing the Centre: The art of Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) curated by Alison French has sought to redress this neglect, and provide a retrospective of his work. The exhibition has brought to light that the copyright in the artistic works of Albert Namatjira has not been passed onto his family descendants. In June 1957, Namatjira entered into a copyright agreement with John Brackenreg, the owner of a publishing company by the name of Legend Press, and the associated Artarmon Galleries in Sydney. It was agreed that Legend Press would pay royalties to Namatjira for the sole right to reproduce all of his paintings. Following Namatjira's death in 1959, the administration of his estate passed to the Public Trustee for the Northern Territory Government. The Public Trustee of the Northern Territory Government authorised the sale of Namatjira's copyright to Legend Press in 1983, thereby ending the ability of the descendents of Namatjira to benefit from on-going income from the reproduction of his works. Senator Aden Ridgeway of the Democrats has called on the Federal Government to enter into discussions with the Northern Territory Government to buy back the copyright in Albert Namatjira's works. He argued that exclusive control of the use and reproduction of his works should be restored to his descendants, as well as the receipt of all financial benefits that result from the use and reproduction of his works under copyright protection. The Senator said: 'By doing this, we will all be rewarded, because finally, belatedly, we will be showing Albert Namatjira the reverence that he has always deserved. We will be protecting his legacy for future generations'.

Blame it on Rio: Biodiscovery, native title, and traditional knowledge

This article examines the legal responses to protect traditional knowledge of biodiversity in the wake of the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity. It considers the relative merits of the inter-locking regimes of contract law, environmental law, intellectual property law, and native title law. Part 1 considers the natural drug discovery industry in Australia. In particular, it looks at the operations of Amrad, Astra Zeneca R & D, and the Australian Institute of Marine Science. This section examines the key features of the draft regulations proposed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) - model contracts, informed consent, benefit-sharing, and ministerial discretion. The use of Indigenous Land Use Agreements in the context of access to genetic resources is also explored. Part 2 considers the role played by native title law in dealing with tangible and intangible property interests. The High Court decision in Western Australia v Ward considers the relationship between native title rights and cultural knowledge. The Federal Court case of Neowarra v Western Australia provides an intriguing gloss on this High Court decision. Part 3 looks at whether traditional knowledge of biodiversity can be protected under intellectual property law. It focuses upon reforms such as Senator Aden Ridgeway's proposed amendments to the Plant Breeder's Rights Act 1994 (Cth), and the push to make disclosure of origin a requirement of patent law.

Correlates of traditional bullying and cyberbullying perpetration among Australian students

This study investigated the associations of gender, age, trait anger, moral disengagement, witnessing of interparental conflict, school connectedness and the religious makeup of the school setting in the involvement in traditional bullying and cyberbullying perpetration. Five hundred Australian students completed an anonymous self-report, paper-based questionnaire. According to the results, 25.2% of the participants reported having engaged in traditional or cyberbullying perpetration. While trait anger and moral disengagement were associated with being a traditional bully, trait anger, interparental conflicts, moral disengagement and school connectedness were associated with being a traditional bully-victim. Additionally, trait anger and moral disengagement were associated with being a traditional-and-a-cyberbully. Our findings indicated that besides individual variables, the family and school environment have an impact on traditional and cyberbullying perpetration behavior. Results imply that any prevention attempts to reduce traditional and cyberbullying should consider students’ experiences both at home and at school.

Traditional and geometric morphometrics detect morphological variation of lower pharyngeal jaw inCoris julis(Teleostei, Labridae)

In the present study, variation in the morphology of the lower pharyngeal element between two Sicilian populations of the rainbow wrasse Coris julis has been explored by the means of traditional morphometrics for size and geometric morphometrics for shape. Despite close geographical distance and probable high genetic flow between the populations, statistically significant differences have been found both for size and shape. In fact, one population shows a larger lower pharyngeal element that has a larger central tooth. Compared to the other population, this population also has medially enlarged lower pharyngeal jaws with a more pronounced convexity of the medial-posterior margin. The results are discussed in the light of a possible more pronounced durophagy of this population.

Bat species comparisons based on external morphology: A test of traditional versus geometric morphometric approaches

External morphology is commonly used to identify bats as well as to investigate flight and foraging behavior, typically relying on simple length and area measures or ratios. However, geometric morphometrics is increasingly used in the biological sciences to analyse variation in shape and discriminate among species and populations. Here we compare the ability of traditional versus geometric morphometric methods in discriminating between closely related bat species – in this case European horseshoe bats (Rhinolophidae, Chiroptera) – based on morphology of the wing, body and tail. In addition to comparing morphometric methods, we used geometric morphometrics to detect interspecies differences as shape changes. Geometric morphometrics yielded improved species discrimination relative to traditional methods. The predicted shape for the variation along the between group principal components revealed that the largest differences between species lay in the extent to which the wing reaches in the direction of the head. This strong trend in interspecific shape variation is associated with size, which we interpret as an evolutionary allometry pattern.

Multicentric carpotarsal osteolysis is caused by mutations clustering in the amino-terminal transcriptional activation domain of MAFB

Multicentric carpotarsal osteolysis (MCTO) is a rare skeletal dysplasia characterized by aggressive osteolysis, particularly affecting the carpal and tarsal bones, and is frequently associated with progressive renal failure. Using exome capture and next-generation sequencing in five unrelated simplex cases of MCTO, we identified previously unreported missense mutations clustering within a 51 base pair region of the single exon of MAFB, validated by Sanger sequencing. A further six unrelated simplex cases with MCTO were also heterozygous for previously unreported mutations within this same region, as were affected members of two families with autosomal-dominant MCTO. MAFB encodes a transcription factor that negatively regulates RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis and is essential for normal renal development. Identification of this gene paves the way for development of novel therapeutic approaches for this crippling disease and provides insight into normal bone and kidney development.

Erratum: Multicentric carpotarsal osteolysis is caused by mutations clustering in the amino-terminal transcriptional activation domain of MAFB

(The American Journal of Human Genetics, 90, 494–501; March 9, 2012) In the published version of this article, the amino acid alteration caused by c.161C>T should have been notated as p.Ser54Leu and not p.Pro54Leu. The wild-type amino acid is incorrectly notated in the main text, in Table 2, and in Figure 4. The authors regret this error. Additionally, The Journal regrets that this erratum, originally requested in 2012, was not published in a timely fashion.

Overview of design concepts of traditional Iranian architecture and its reflections in Iranian contemporary architecture

This article has attempted to investigate the patterns of traditional architecture in Iran's warm and dry climate and whether these patterns have been attended to in Iran's contemporary architecture or not. Since the two elements of culture and climate are much significant in Iran's traditional constructions, this article aimed at dealing with subjects such as the causes of the shapes of traditional buildings in Iran's warm and dry climate in constructions like houses, schools, mosques and bazaars, and why they were constructed in those shapes, and also considering their patterns in these places in the light of cultural and climatic aspects, and their cultural and climatic relationships and investigating cultural-climatic causes of the directions and situations designed for the spaces present in these buildings and finally it is intended to classify the conceptual patterns of the traditional architecture of Iran's warm and dry climate. The article is going to consider the amount of using these patterns in Iran's contemporary architecture. The study has been conducted using library and field method.

On the interaction between radon progeny and particles generated by electronic and traditional cigarettes

During their entire lives, people are exposed to the pollutants present in indoor air. Recently, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, mainly known as electronic cigarettes, have been widely commercialized: they deliver particles into the lungs of the users but a “second-hand smoke” has yet to be associated to this indoor source. On the other hand, the naturally-occurring radioactive gas, i.e. radon, represents a significant risk for lung cancer, and the cumulative action of these two agents could be worse than the agents separately would. In order to deepen the interaction between radon progeny and second-hand aerosol from different types of cigarettes, a designed experimental study was carried out by generating aerosol from e-cigarette vaping as well as from second-hand traditional smoke inside a walk-in radon chamber at the National Institute of Ionizing Radiation Metrology (INMRI) of Italy. In this chamber, the radon present in air comes naturally from the floor and ambient conditions are controlled. To characterize the sidestream smoke emitted by cigarettes, condensation particle counters and scanning mobility particle sizer were used. Radon concentration in the air was measured through an Alphaguard ionization chamber, whereas the measurement of radon decay product in the air was performed with the Tracelab BWLM Plus-2S Radon daughter Monitor. It was found an increase of the Potential Alpha-Energy Concentration (PAEC) due to the radon decay products attached to aerosol for higher particle number concentrations. This varied from 7.47 ± 0.34 MeV L−1 to 12.6 ± 0.26 MeV L−1 (69%) for the e-cigarette. In the case of traditional cigarette and at the same radon concentration, the increase was from 14.1 ± 0.43 MeV L−1 to 18.6 ± 0.19 MeV L−1 (31%). The equilibrium factor increases, varying from 23.4% ± 1.11% to 29.5% ± 0.26% and from 30.9% ± 1.0% to 38.1 ± 0.88 for the e-cigarette and traditional cigarette, respectively. These growths still continue for long time after the combustion, by increasing the exposure risk.

Robust face clustering for real-world data

This thesis has investigated how to cluster a large number of faces within a multi-media corpus in the presence of large session variation. Quality metrics are used to select the best faces to represent a sequence of faces; and session variation modelling improves clustering performance in the presence of wide variations across videos. Findings from this thesis contribute to improving the performance of both face verification systems and the fully automated clustering of faces from a large video corpus.

Evidence of clustering in an aqueous electrolyte solution: a small-angle X-ray scattering study

The work reported hen was motivated by a desire to verify the existence of structure - specifically MP-rich clusters induced by sodium bromide (NaBr) in the ternary liquid mixture 3-methylpyridine (Mf) + water(W) + NaBr. We present small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements in this mixture. These measurements were obtained at room temperature (similar to 298 K) in the one-phase region (below the relevant lower consolute points, T(L)s) at different values of X (i.e., X = 0.02 - 0.17), where X is the weight fraction of NaBr in the mixture. Cluster-size distribution, estimated on the assumption that the clusters are spherical, shows systematic behaviour in that the peak of the distribution shifts rewards larger values of cluster radius as X increases. The largest spatial extent of the clusters (similar to 4.5 nm) is seen at X = 0.17. Data analysis assuming arbitrary shapes and sizes of clusters gives a limiting value of cluster size (- 4.5 nm) that is not very sensitive to X. It is suggested that the cluster size determined may not be the same as the usual critical-point fluctuations far removed from the critical point (T-L). The influence of the additional length scale due to clustering is discussed from the standpoint of crossover from Ising to mean-field critical behaviour, when moving away from the T-L.