Wavelet based Independent Component Analysis for Multispectral Brain Tissue Classification

Multispectral analysis is a promising approach in tissue classification and abnormality detection from Magnetic Resonance (MR) images. But instability in accuracy and reproducibility of the classification results from conventional techniques keeps it far from clinical applications. Recent studies proposed Independent Component Analysis (ICA) as an effective method for source signals separation from multispectral MR data. However, it often fails to extract the local features like small abnormalities, especially from dependent real data. A multisignal wavelet analysis prior to ICA is proposed in this work to resolve these issues. Best de-correlated detail coefficients are combined with input images to give better classification results. Performance improvement of the proposed method over conventional ICA is effectively demonstrated by segmentation and classification using k-means clustering. Experimental results from synthetic and real data strongly confirm the positive effect of the new method with an improved Tanimoto index/Sensitivity values, 0.884/93.605, for reproduced small white matter lesions

Identifying the component structure of job satisfaction by principal components analysis among extension officers in North West Province, South Africa

The component structure of a 34-item scale measuring different aspects of job satisfaction was investigated among extension officers in North West Province, South Africa. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 40 extension officers from which data were collected. A structured questionnaire consisting of 34 job satisfaction and 10 personal characteristic items was administered to the extension officers. Items on job satisfaction were measured at interval level and analyzedwith Principal ComponentAnalysis. Most of the respondents (82.5%) weremales, between 40 to 45 years, 85% were married and 87.5% had a diploma as their educational qualification. Furthermore, 54% of the households size between 4 to 6 persons, whereas 75% were Christians. The majority of the extension officers lived in their job area (82.5), while 80% covered at least 3 communities and 3 farmer groups. In terms of number of farmers covered, only 40% of the extension officers covered more than 500 farmers and 45% travelled more than 40 km to reach their farmers. From the job satisfaction items 9 components were extracted to show areas for job satisfaction among extension officers. These were in-service training, research policies, communicating recommended practices, financial support for self and family, quality of technical help, opportunity to advance education, management and control of operations, rewarding system and sanctions. The results have several implications for motivating extension officers for high job performance especially with large number of clients and small number of extension agents.

Component based recognition of objects in an office environment

We present a component-based approach for recognizing objects under large pose changes. From a set of training images of a given object we extract a large number of components which are clustered based on the similarity of their image features and their locations within the object image. The cluster centers build an initial set of component templates from which we select a subset for the final recognizer. In experiments we evaluate different sizes and types of components and three standard techniques for component selection. The component classifiers are finally compared to global classifiers on a database of four objects.

New insights on river water chemistry by using non-centred simplicial principal component analysis: a case study

The use of perturbation and power transformation operations permits the investigation of linear processes in the simplex as in a vectorial space. When the investigated geochemical processes can be constrained by the use of well-known starting point, the eigenvectors of the covariance matrix of a non-centred principal component analysis allow to model compositional changes compared with a reference point. The results obtained for the chemistry of water collected in River Arno (central-northern Italy) have open new perspectives for considering relative changes of the analysed variables and to hypothesise the relative effect of different acting physical-chemical processes, thus posing the basis for a quantitative modelling

Critical thinking as a self-regulatory process component in teaching and learning

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Association of genetic variants in complement factor H and factor H-related genes with systemic lupus erythematosus susceptibility

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a complex polygenic autoimmune disease, is associated with increased complement activation. Variants of genes encoding complement regulator factor H (CFH) and five CFH-related proteins (CFHR1-CFHR5) within the chromosome 1q32 locus linked to SLE, have been associated with multiple human diseases and may contribute to dysregulated complement activation predisposing to SLE. We assessed 60 SNPs covering the CFH-CFHRs region for association with SLE in 15,864 case-control subjects derived from four ethnic groups. Significant allelic associations with SLE were detected in European Americans (EA) and African Americans (AA), which could be attributed to an intronic CFH SNP (rs6677604, in intron 11, Pmeta = 6.6×10-8, OR = 1.18) and an intergenic SNP between CFHR1 and CFHR4 (rs16840639, Pmeta = 2.9×10-7, OR = 1.17) rather than to previously identified disease-associated CFH exonic SNPs, including I62V, Y402H, A474A, and D936E. In addition, allelic association of rs6677604 with SLE was subsequently confirmed in Asians (AS). Haplotype analysis revealed that the underlying causal variant, tagged by rs6677604 and rs16840639, was localized to a ~146 kb block extending from intron 9 of CFH to downstream of CFHR1. Within this block, the deletion of CFHR3 and CFHR1 (CFHR3-1Δ), a likely causal variant measured using multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification, was tagged by rs6677604 in EA and AS and rs16840639 in AA, respectively. Deduced from genotypic associations of tag SNPs in EA, AA, and AS, homozygous deletion of CFHR3-1Δ (Pmeta = 3.2×10-7, OR = 1.47) conferred a higher risk of SLE than heterozygous deletion (Pmeta = 3.5×10-4, OR = 1.14). These results suggested that the CFHR3-1Δ deletion within the SLE-associated block, but not the previously described exonic SNPs of CFH, might contribute to the development of SLE in EA, AA, and AS, providing new insights into the role of complement regulators in the pathogenesis of SLE.

L'aula d'informàtica com a taller complement del procés d'ensenyament-aprenentatge. 'El aula de informática como taller complementario del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje'.

Documento incluído dentro del volumen 'Experiències d'innovació educativa. Noves tecnologies'. Dentro del area de lengua catalana correspondiente a 6õ de EGB, se organizan pequeños grupos flexibles, en base a la competencia oral y escrita, con el fin de posibilitar el uso del aula de informática como taller complementario para la enseñanza de la lengua. Tras una lectura, en gran grupo, en la que se describe un personaje, se elaboran mapas conceptuales, usando programas de dibujo, y textos, usando procesadores de texto y correctores ortográficos, a propósito del personaje descrito.

Gram??tica i escriptura a sis?? de prim??ria : el complement del nom

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

The eudaimonic component of satisfaction with life and psychological well-being in Spanish cultures

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Contribution of the research component in internship reports to the development of didactic knowledge of mathematics

Monogr??fico con el t??tulo: " Formaci??n de profesores. Perspectivas de Brasil, Colombia, Espa??a y Portugal"

The structural component of linguistic meaning and the reading of normally hearing and deaf children

This paper discusses an experiment in psycholinguistic method and its application to the field of education.