Lung cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide; it refers to the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the lung. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the thorax is the most sensitive method for ...detecting cancerous lung nodules. A lung nodule is a round lesion which can be either non-cancerous or cancerous. In the CT, the lung cancer is observed as round white shadow nodules. The possibility to obtain a manually accurate interpretation from CT scans demands a big effort by the radiologist and might be a fatiguing process. Therefore, the design of a computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) system would be helpful as a second opinion tool.
The stages of the proposed CADx are: a supervised extraction of the region of interest to eliminate the shape differences among CT images. The Daubechies db1, db2, and db4 wavelet transforms are computed with one and two levels of decomposition. After that, 19 features are computed from each wavelet sub-band. Then, the sub-band and attribute selection is performed. As a result, 11 features are selected and combined in pairs as inputs to the support vector machine (SVM), which is used to distinguish CT images containing cancerous nodules from those not containing nodules.
The clinical data set used for experiments consists of 45 CT scans from ELCAP and LIDC. For the training stage 61 CT images were used (36 with cancerous lung nodules and 25 without lung nodules). The system performance was tested with 45 CT scans (23 CT scans with lung nodules and 22 without nodules), different from that used for training. The results obtained show that the methodology successfully classifies cancerous nodules with a diameter from 2 mm to 30 mm. The total preciseness obtained was 82%; the sensitivity was 90.90%, whereas the specificity was 73.91%.
The CADx system presented is competitive with other literature systems in terms of sensitivity. The system reduces the complexity of classification by not performing the typical segmentation stage of most CADx systems. Additionally, the novelty of the algorithm is the use of a wavelet feature descriptor.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•A novel Particle swarm optimization based algorithm (PSO-GES), is introduced.•A guided exploration strategy in order to generate high-quality rules, is proposed.•A new fitness funtion for obtain the ...fitness value in a shorter runtime, is introduced.•PSO-GES uses a summary matrix with a smaller number of rows than the original database.•PSO-GES mines a set of better quality rules than the association rules mining algorithms compared.
Association rule mining is one of the most important and active research areas in data mining. In the literature, several association rule miners have been proposed; among them, those based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) have reported the best results. However, these algorithms tend to prematurely fall into local solutions, avoiding a wide exploration that could produce even better results. In this paper, an algorithm based on PSO, called PSO-GES, for mining association rules using a Guided Exploration Strategy is introduced. Our experiments, over real-world transactional databases, show that our proposed algorithm mines better quality association rules than the most recent PSO-based algorithms for mining association rules of the state of the art.
Red LED light (R LED) is an efficient tool to improve seed germination and plant growth under controlled environments since it is more readily absorbed by photoreceptors' phytochromes compared to ...other wavelengths of the spectrum. In this work, the effect of R LED on the radicle emergence and growth (Phase III of germination) of pepper seeds was evaluated. Thus, the impact of R LED on water transport through different intrinsic membrane proteins, via aquaporin (AQP) isoforms, was determined. In addition, the remobilization of distinct metabolites such as amino acids, sugars, organic acids, and hormones was analysed. R LED induced a higher germination speed index, regulated by an increased water uptake.
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aquaporin isoforms were highly expressed and could contribute to a faster and more effective hydration of embryo tissues, leading to a reduction of the germination time. By contrast,
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gene expressions were reduced in R LED-treated seeds, pointing to a lower need for protein remobilization.
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were also involved in radicle growth but their role needs to be elucidated. In addition, R LED induced changes in amino acids and organic acids as well as sugars. Therefore, an advanced metabolome oriented to a higher energetic metabolism was observed, conditioning better seed germination performance together with a rapid water flux.
To describe the serostatus of measles IgG antibodies in pregnant women and newborns, placental transfer, and factors that determine being below the threshold of 150 mIU/mL, a cross-sectional study ...was conducted. Blood samples of 790 pregnant women at the time of delivery and 734 umbilical cord samples were analyzed from eight hospitals in the Aburrá Valley of Antioquia, Colombia. Measles IgG antibody measurement was performed with ELISA. The proportion of individuals with antibodies < 150 mIU/mL was 13.9% (95% CI: 12.2-15.8) in pregnant women and 11.1% (95% CI: 9.2-13.4) in newborns. The geometric mean of the antibody level of the pregnant women was 552 mIU/mL (95% CI: 504-605) and in the umbilical cord 662 mIU/mL (95% CI: 604-727). A positive correlation between pregnant woman and umbilical cord antibodies was found. The median ratio of measles IgG antibodies in umbilical cord/pregnant woman was 1.22 for all participants. A seroprevalence below the threshold of 150 mIU/mL was found in newborns whose mothers were born between 1983 and 1994, compared with those born before that period, when exposure to the wildtype virus was common (adjusted prevalence ratio: 3.6, 95% CI: 1.3-9.6). These findings suggest that there are gaps in measles immunity among women of childbearing age, before pregnancy. To close this immune gap and support efforts to maintain measles control, serological screening for measles antibodies should be routinely included in reproductive health and antenatal care programs to identify women without immunity who should be vaccinated before pregnancy or after delivery.
Water quality assessment is an important activity for controlling harmful crisis in aquaculture systems. The objective of our study was to develop a new Water Quality Index focused on monitoring of ...shrimp farms; detecting poor water quality and preventing negative effects in the ecosystem. Usually, several water quality parameters are monitored and measured in a shrimp farm during a farming period. Those parameters are classified according to their negative effects in the ecosystem and their respective allowed limits are also defined. The proposed Water Quality Index assigns a priority level to each water parameter through a new analytical hierarchical process (AHP), which allows an accurate assessment of the water quality. Our proposed index was applied to assess the water quality condition in extensive shrimp farms in Mexico. A comparison between our approach and those proposed in the literature shows its good performance when real environments are assessed.
Recensión de la obra AZAÑA, MANUEL. (2022). Paseos por mi jaula. Páginas escogidas del diario, 1931-1939. J. L. GALLERO Y C. GUTIÉRREZ (eds). Madrid: Árdora Ediciones.
•An overview of trends in seedling and transplant production has been carried out.•Statistical, mathematical, and clustering tools were used to analyse bibliometrics.•Sustainable growing media ...optimize resources and reduce input use.•Grafting and LED lighting are now common techniques in seedlings production.•Nutripriming and biostimulants promote sustainable vegetable nutritional quality.
Nowadays, sustainable and resilient cultivation techniques have significantly increased in vegetable cultivation. Thus, there is a growing demand for high-quality certified planting materials suitable for these new cultivation methods. This review aims to provide a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of recent sustainable practices in vegetable seedling nurseries. Here, we thoroughly analysed 604 articles and 3553 keywords from the Scopus database, utilizing qualitative and quantitative methods, covering the past 20 yr. We conducted a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer software.
to identify the most relevant study topics. The design of seed trays, seed enhancement treatments, and controlled environmental conditions are crucial for generating optimal seedlings and transplants. Additionally, sustainable growing media are necessary to optimize resources and reduce input use. We identified grafting and LED lighting technology as rapidly advancing technologies in seedling production. Furthermore, applying biostimulants and beneficial microorganisms as booster agents can enhance efficiency and promote sustainable production. The findings of this study offer valuable insights into the research trends for vegetable seedlings and transplants, underscoring the imperative for adopting sustainable practices within the nursery industry.
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The representation of hieroglyphs in retrieval systems represents a great challenge since these systems’ results highly depend on the used representation. In the literature, the most successful works ...in this area compute local descriptors from a set of points of interest taken from the entire hieroglyph and use them under the BoVW model to represent hieroglyphs. Unlike these works, this paper presents a way to extract segments from hieroglyphs and, by encoding the extracted segments through local descriptors, proposes to use them under the Bag of Visual Words (BoVW) model to represent hieroglyphs. Our experiments show that the proposed representation allows us to obtain retrieval results that overcome those reported by using state of the art representations.
•Hieroglyph representation for retrieval based on encoding hieroglyph segments.•Good quality hieroglyph retrieval following the Bag of Visual Words Model.•Automatic decomposition of hieroglyphs in segments.
Notwithstanding that indoor farming is claimed to reduce the environmental pressures of food systems, electricity needs are elevated and mainly associated with lighting. To date, however, no studies ...have quantified the environmental and economic profile of Light Emitting Diodes (LED) lighting in indoor farming systems. The goal of this study is to quantify the effect of varying the red (R) and blue (B) LED spectral components (RB ratios of 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4) on the eco-efficiency of indoor production of lettuce, chicory, rocket and sweet basil from a life cycle perspective. The functional unit of the assessment was 1 kg of harvested fresh plant edible product, and the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) method was employed for impact assessment. Even though most of the materials of the LED lamp and electronic elements were imported from long distances (14,400 km), electricity consumption was the largest contributor to the environmental impacts (with the LED lamps being the main electricity consumers, approximately 70%), apart from the resources use indicator, where the materials of the lamps and the mineral nutrients were also relevant. RB0.5 was the most energy-efficient light treatment but had the lowest eco-efficiency scores due to the lower crop yields.
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