Quantitative imaging of ultrasound backscattered signals with information entropy for bone microstructure characterization

Osteoporosis is a critical problem during aging. Ultrasound signals backscattered from bone contain information associated with microstructures. This study proposed using entropy imaging to collect the information in bone microstructures as a possible solution for ultrasound bone tissue characterization. Bone phantoms with different pounds per cubic foot (PCF) were used for ultrasound scanning by using single-element transducers of 1 (nonfocused) and 3.5 MHz (nonfocused and focused). Clinical measurements were also performed on lumbar vertebrae (L3 spinal segment) in participants with different ages (n = 34) and postmenopausal women with low or moderate-to-high risk of osteoporosis (n = 50; identified using the Osteoporosis Self-Assessment Tool for Taiwan). The signals backscattered from the bone phantoms and subjects were acquired for ultrasound entropy imaging by using sliding window processing. The independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Spearman correlation coefficient rs, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used for statistical analysis. The results indicated that ultrasound entropy imaging revealed changes in bone microstructures. Using the 3.5-MHz focused ultrasound, small-window entropy imaging (side length: one pulse length of the transducer) was found to have high performance and sensitivity in detecting variation among the PCFs (rs = − 0.83; p < 0.05). Small-window entropy imaging also performed well in discriminating young and old participants (p < 0.05) and postmenopausal women with low versus moderate-to-high osteoporosis risk (the area under the ROC curve = 0.80; cut-off value = 2.65; accuracy = 86.00%; sensitivity = 71.43%; specificity = 88.37%). Ultrasound small-window entropy imaging has great potential in bone tissue characterization and osteoporosis assessment.

LFO2: An Enhanced Version of Learning-From-OPT Caching Algorithm

Recent machine learning-based caching algorithm have shown promise. Among them, Learning-FromOPT (LFO) is the state-of-the-art supervised learning caching algorithm. LFO has a parameter named Window Size, which defines how often the algorithm generates a new machine-learning model. While using a small window size allows the algorithm to be more adaptive to changes in request behaviors, experimenting with LFO revealed that the performance of LFO suffers dramatically with small window sizes. This paper proposes LFO2, an improved LFO algorithm, which achieves high object hit ratios (OHR) with small window sizes. This results show a 9% OHR increase with LFO2. As the next step, the machine-learning parameters will be investigated for tuning opportunities to further enhance performance.

Analisis Persepsional Siswa Sekolah Dasar pada Konten Video Animasi Dakwah Nabi Ibrahim

This study aims to explore the perceptions of students of SD Karawaci Baru VIII Tangerang on the animated video The story of the Prophet Ibrahim (as) starting from the growing concern about animated video content and games that contain dangerous content or can damage the future of the nation's generation. This animated video produced by Al-Imran contains da'wah bil wisdom, da'wah bil mau'izah, and da'wah jidal bil ahsan in it. Therefore, the researchers tried to raise it through the theory of perception and the da'wah bil wasilah approach through the case study method with field observations and semi-structured interviews. The results of this study explain that the students of SD Karawaci Baru VIII Tangerang are supported by their parents and teachers in watching the animated video The Story of the Prophet Ibrahim as finding the meaning of wisdom, mau'izah hasanah, and jidal ahsan to be used as a means to build an umbrella or reaction filter against various information from outside that is not good or negative. Functionally (personal) and structurally (external environment) these students tend to like the story of the prophet Ibrahim, apart from their inner motives, as well as various needs that they don't get anywhere else or in their family. In addition, there is a desire to convey a call about the goodness, wisdom, and piety of Prophet Ibrahim which is suitable for learning these elementary school children. With order, creed, shari'ah, morals, and culture; animated videos become a small window to watch the various histories and stories of the noble prophets.

“Hearing Nat Turner”: Within the 1831 Slave Rebellion

In this chef d’oeuvre, Tomlins offers a heuristic for how to extract the words, ideas, and actions of Nat Turner, the Black, enslaved man who led the most important slave rebellion in American history. Tomlins makes such an effort from within a cluster of different kinds of sources, each one a small window on the past, none of which Turner personally wrote. How to see beyond these particularly distorted glass windows on the past is not obvious. Tomlins’s In the Matter of Nat Turner provides a key not only to Turner, and to his powerful sense of how to fracture the fragile legitimacy of the southern slaveholding elite, but also a metaphysics of interpretive strategy that can serve as a theoretical model.

An Approach to 1/f Noise Detection Based on Adaptive T-ATFPF Algorithm

The generation of 1/f noise is closely related to the quality defects of IGBT devices. In the process of detecting IGBT single tube noise, thermal noise and shot noise show obvious white noise characteristics in the low frequency band, which are detected under the background of strong white noise 1/f noise can characterize the performance of IGBT devices. Therefore, on the basis of the Time-Frequency Peak Filtering (TFPF) algorithm, a two-dimensional time-domain adaptive T-ATFPF algorithm is proposed, and the adaptive segmentation is realized by means of the confidence interval crossing criterion based on Chebyshev’s inequality. Variable window length,use a small window length to process the signal section, which retains more detailed information of the effective signal.Use a larger window length to process the buffer section to ensure a smooth transition.Use the large window length to process the noise section, which more effectively suppresses randomness for noise, apply T-ATFPF to artificial synthesis model and actual model. Experimental results indicate that compared with the conventional algorithm, the improved method can better recover 1/f noise, and the ratio of signal to noise is greatly improved by about 1.3dB.

Phyllozoon and Aulozoon: key components of a novel Ediacaran death assemblage in Bathtub Gorge, Heysen Range, South Australia

The recognition of fossiliferous horizons both below and above the classical Ediacara levels of the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, significantly expands the potential of this candidate World Heritage succession. Here we document a small window into the biology and taphonomy of the late Ediacaran seafloor within the new Nilpena Sandstone Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite in Bathtub Gorge, northern Heysen Range. A 1 m2 slab extracted from the gorge, now on permanent display at the South Australian Museum, has a death assemblage dominated by the erniettomorph Phyllozoon hanseni Jenkins and Gehling 1978 and a newly named macroscopic tubular body fossil – Aulozoon soliorum gen. et sp. nov. – on its fine sandstone bed sole. The orientations and juxtaposition of these taxa suggest overprinting of an in situ benthic Phyllozoon community by sand-filled tubes of Aulozoon carried in by a storm wave-base surge. Phyllozoon hanseni is a widespread species that is restricted to the Nilpena Sandstone Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite, whereas Dickinsonia costata ranges from the underlying Ediacara Sandstone Member into the Nilpena Sandstone Member. Fundamental differences in the ways these two vendobiont taxa are constructed and preserved may provide insights into their biology and phylogenetic affinities. In the Nilpena Sandstone Member, D. costata is joined by Dickinsonia rex Jenkins 1992, which appears to be confined to the member, and is here re-described to clarify its taxonomic status and stratigraphic distribution.

Evaluation of Application Timing of Miravis Ace for Control of Fusarium Head Blight in Wheat

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a serious disease of wheat and barley that not only lowers yield but also contaminates the grain with associated mycotoxins such as deoxynivalenol (DON). Chemical control options for FHB and DON include application of triazole fungicides at the anthesis or flowering stage. This presents practical challenges for growers in managing FHB, as the appropriate timing window typically lasts only 3 to 4 days. If this small window is missed, due to weather conditions or technical problems, fungicide application is less effective in controlling FHB and DON. The present work was conducted over 2 years (2019 and 2020) to test the efficacy of a new fungicide (pydiflumetofen + propiconazole) from Syngenta labeled as Miravis Ace in controlling FHB and DON content at 50% head emergence (Feekes 10.3), anthesis (Feekes 10.5.1), and end of flowering (Feekes 10.5.3) stages. Prosaro 421 SC, a standard FHB control triazole fungicide, was used at all three stages for comparison with the test fungicide. Miravis Ace application at 50% head emergence provided significant control over the nontreated check for FHB incidence (2020), FHB severity (2019), and DON content (2019) with control efficacies as high as 51, 69, and 52%, respectively. However, mean control percentages relative to the check were highest with Miravis Ace at anthesis in both 2019 and 2020 for all the FHB parameters. In conclusion, 50% head emergence provides statistically significant control on FHB and DON, but anthesis was the most effective application stage for Miravis Ace.

Application of Taylor Rule Fundamentals in Forecasting Exchange Rates

This paper examines the effectiveness of the Taylor rule in contemporary times by investigating the exchange rate forecastability of selected four Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries vis-à-vis the U.S. It employs various Taylor rule models with a non-drift random walk using monthly data from 1995 to 2019. The efficacy of the model is demonstrated by analyzing the pre- and post-financial crisis periods for forecasting exchange rates. The out-of-sample forecast results reveal that the best performing model is the symmetric model with no interest rate smoothing, heterogeneous coefficients and a constant. In particular, the results show that for the pre-financial crisis period, the Taylor rule was effective. However, the post-financial crisis period shows that the Taylor rule is ineffective in forecasting exchange rates. In addition, the sensitivity analysis suggests that a small window size outperforms a larger window size.

Sudan opens small window in Egypt-Ethiopia dam talks

Headline EGYPT/ETHIOPIA/SUDAN: Khartoum opens window in talks