Clinical, imaginological and pathological aspects of umbilical panvasculitis in calves: case report

The diagnosis of umbilical infections in neonates can be obtained from clinical signs, but the intracavitary involvement of structures and associated complications can be underestimated, compromising the establishment of adequate therapeutic approaches or prognosis. This case report presents the clinical, imaging, pathological and microbiological aspects of an umbilical infection in calves. Physical examination of the animal identified apathy, low body score, increased volume in the umbilical region and joints. The abdominal palpation identified firm structures in topography of the arteries and umbilical vein. Imaging examinations of the abdomen and joints were performed. Multiple, hyperechogenic focal structures have been identified in the liver, as well as cylindrical and firm structures in topography of the arteries and umbilical vein. In the joints, osteolytic changes, periosteal reactions, subchondral sclerosis and formation of osteophytes were seen. Umbilical panvasculitis triggered arthritis and an infectious process in the liver, the case being assessed as having an unfavorable prognosis and the animal being referred for euthanasia. At necropsy, multifocal abscesses were observed in the pleura, ribs, omentum, spleen and liver. There was granulomatous exudate in the urinary vesicle. The affected joints presented thickening of the joint capsule with the presence of exudate. In the microbiological analysis of liver fragments, urinary vesicle content and joint exudate, Proteus mirabilis with resistance to antimicrobials was identified. Imaging studies collaborated with the establishment of the prognosis and conduct adopted, and must, whenever possible, be included in the clinical examination. In case of death, necropsy allows a correct association of clinical signs and imaging findings.

The systematic approach to designing energy efficient cities

The novelty of the proposed paper lies in the use of elements of the theory of solving inventive problems TRIZ and the systems theory to achieve the maximum positive synergistic effect of the correct Association of city residents and urban systems.

Multiellipsoidal extended target tracking with known extent using sequential Monte Carlo framework

In this paper, we consider a variant of the extended target tracking (ETT) problem, namely the multiel- lipsoidal ETT problem. In multiellipsoidal ETT, target extent is represented by multiple ellipses, which correspond to the origin of the measurements on the target surface. The problem involves estimating the target’s kinematic state and solving the association problem between the measurements and the ellipses. We cast the problem in a sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) framework and investigate different marginalization strategies to find an efficient particle filter. Under the known extent assumption, we define association variables to find the correct association between the measurements and the ellipses; hence, the posterior involves both discrete and continuous random variables. By expressing the measurement likelihood as a mixture of Gaussians we derive and employ a marginalized particle filter for the independent association variables without sampling the discrete states. We compare the performance of the method with its alternatives and illustrate the gain in nonstandard marginalization.

A flexible and generalizable model of online latent-state learning

Many models of classical conditioning fail to describe important phenomena, notably the rapid return of fear after extinction. To address this shortfall, evidence converged on the idea that learning agents rely on latent-state inferences, i.e. an ability to index disparate associations from cues to rewards (or penalties) and infer which index (i.e. latent state) is presently active. Our goal was to develop a model of latent-state inferences that uses latent states to predict rewards from cues efficiently and that can describe behavior in a diverse set of experiments. The resulting model combines a Rescorla-Wagner rule, for which updates to associations are proportional to prediction error, with an approximate Bayesian rule, for which beliefs in latent states are proportional to prior beliefs and an approximate likelihood based on current associations. In simulation, we demonstrate the model’s ability to reproduce learning effects both famously explained and not explained by the Rescorla-Wagner model, including rapid return of fear after extinction, the Hall-Pearce effect, partial reinforcement extinction effect, backwards blocking, and memory modification. Lastly, we derive our model as an online algorithm to maximum likelihood estimation, demonstrating it is an efficient approach to outcome prediction. Establishing such a framework is a key step towards quantifying normative and pathological ranges of latent-state inferences in various contexts.Author summaryComputational researchers are increasingly interested in a structured form of learning known as latent-state inferences. Latent-state inferences is a type of learning that involves categorizing, generalizing, and recalling disparate associations between observations in one’s environment and is used in situations when the correct association is latent or unknown. This type of learning has been used to explain overgeneralization of a fear memory and the cognitive role of certain brain regions important to cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry. Accordingly, latent-state inferences are an important area of inquiry. Through simulation and theory, we establish a new model of latent-state inferences. Moving forward, we aim to use this framework to measure latent-state inferences in healthy and psychiatric populations.

Seasonality in Multiple Maternities

In the 19th century, a series of international statistical congresses introduced common rules for the national demographic registers. This activity contributed to the genesis of statistical research. During the history of twin research, Hellin's law has played a central role because it is an approximately correct association between the rates of multiple maternities. However, it has been mathematically proven that Hellin's law cannot hold exactly. The majority of all studies of Hellin's law are based on empirical rates of multiple maternities. Such studies can never confirm the law, but only identify errors too large to be characterized as random. It is of particular interest to examine why the rates of higher multiple maternities are sometimes too high or too low when Hellin's law is used as a benchmark. However, divergences from the law are often difficult to explain and/or eliminate. Different improvements to the law have been proposed. In this article, we study the seasonality of multiple maternities. We apply Hellin's law to compare the seasonality of twin and triplet rates.

Critical roles for murine Reck in the regulation of vascular patterning and stabilization

Extracellular matrix (ECM) is known to play several important roles in vascular development, although the molecular mechanisms behind these remain largely unknown. RECK, a tumor suppressor downregulated in a wide variety of cancers, encodes a membrane-anchored matrix-metalloproteinase-regulator. Mice lacking functional Reck die in utero, demonstrating its importance for mammalian embryogenesis; however, the underlying causes of mid-gestation lethality remain unclear. Using Reck conditional knockout mice, we have now demonstrated that the lack of Reck in vascular mural cells is largely responsible for mid-gestation lethality. Experiments using cultured aortic explants further revealed that Reck is essential for at least two events in sprouting angiogenesis; (1) correct association of mural and endothelial tip cells to the microvessels and (2) maintenance of fibronectin matrix surrounding the vessels. These findings demonstrate the importance of appropriate cell-cell interactions and ECM maintenance for angiogenesis and the involvement of Reck as a critical regulator of these events.

DATA ASSOCIATION OF RF-VSLAM FOR OCEAN OBSERVATION USING BLIMP

This paper describes a selection of features for potential landmarks for ocean observation system using radio frequency visual simultaneous localization and mapping (RF-VSLAM) framework. Due to dynamic changes of the ocean surface caused by the ocean gyres, the features selection is difficult. Therefore, the tendency for vehicles to drift is high. As a solution, we introduced the beacons as an anchor node as an aid to correct the navigation and improve data association. We investigated the data association stage of the RF-VSLAM system which improved the state estimator for the aerial vehicle. The goal is to produce a correct association to the landmarks, since wrong data association will produce inaccurate maps. The points features were extracted from a monocular camera using SIFT as detector and descriptor. The experimental data of the dynamic changes of water surface has been evaluated. The result showed that the data association method was able to produce correct and accurate landmarks selection.

Chiton phylogeny (Mollusca : Polyplacophora) and the placement of the enigmatic species Choriplax grayi (H. Adams & Angas)

Shallow marine chitons (Mollusca : Polyplacophora : Chitonida) are widespread and well described from established morphoanatomical characters, yet key aspects of polyplacophoran phylogeny have remained unresolved. Several species, including Hemiarthrum setulosum Carpenter in Dall, 1876, and especially the rare and enigmatic Choriplax grayi (Adams & Angas, 1864), defy systematic placement. Choriplax is known from only a handful of specimens and its morphology is a mosaic of key taxonomic features from two different clades. Here, new molecular evidence provides robust support for its correct association with a third different clade: Choriplax is placed in the superfamily Mopalioidea. Hemiarthrum is included in Cryptoplacoidea, as predicted from morphological evidence. Our multigene analysis of standard nuclear and mitochondrial markers demonstrates that the topology of the order Chitonida is divided into four clades, which have also been recovered in previous studies: Mopalioidea is sister to Cryptoplacoidea, forming a clade Acanthochitonina. The family Callochitonidae is sister to Acanthochitonina. Chitonoidea is resolved as the earliest diverging group within Chitonida. Consideration of this unexpected result for Choriplax and our well-supported phylogeny has revealed differing patterns of shell reduction separating the two superfamilies within Acanthochitonina. As in many molluscs, shell reduction as well as the de novo development of key shell features has occurred using different mechanisms, in multiple lineages of chitons.

User Perception of Media Content Association in Olfaction-Enhanced Multimedia

Olfaction (smell) is one of our commonly used senses in everyday life. However, this is not the case in digital media, where it is an exception to the rule that usually only our auditory and visual senses are employed. In mulsemedia, however, together with these traditional senses, we envisage that the olfactory will increasingly be employed, especially so with the increase in computing processing abilities and in the sophistication of olfactory devices employed. It is not surprising, however, that there are still many unanswered questions in the use of olfaction in mulsemedia. Accordingly in this chapter we present the results of an empirical study which explored one such question, namely does the correct association of scent and content enhance the user experience of multimedia applications?’