Virtual fieldtrips in palaeontology and geology offer an expanded environment to make field sites more accessible for a broader audience. Based on extensive experience working in upper Neogene ...deposits in the province of Huelva, on the western edge of the Guadalquivir Basin, we have selected 10 sites for their regional palaeontological-geological interest (geosites). By applying geoinformatic tools, we have produced a virtual 3D tour of the georeferenced geosites, integrating multiple thematic digital layers (including geological maps, topographical maps, a digital terrain model and orthophotos). Each stop in the tour contains descriptive and graphic elements that can be viewed in free virtual globes (e.g., Google Earth), combined with diagrams, photographs and information sheets that quantitatively assess the cultural tourism, scientific and educational value of the geosite. From this digital 3D geodatabase, we propose a virtual flight itinerary that can be displayed in compatible video formats and using new technologies, such as smartphones, tablets or iPads.
Mutations in
BRCA1
and
BRCA2
high penetrance genes account for most hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, although other new high-moderate penetrance genes included in multigene panels have increased ...the genetic diagnosis of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer families by 50%. Multigene cancer panels provide new challenges related to increased frequency of variants of uncertain significance, new gene-specific cancer risk assessments, and clinical recommendations for carriers of mutations of new genes. Although clinical criteria for genetic testing continue to be largely based on personal and family history with around a 10% detection rate, broader criteria are being applied with a lower threshold for detecting mutations when there are therapeutic implications for patients with breast or ovarian cancer. In this regard, new models of genetic counselling and testing are being implemented following the registration of PARP inhibitors for individuals who display BRCA mutations. Massive sequencing techniques in tumor tissue is also driving a paradigm shift in genetic testing and potential identification of germline mutations. In this paper, we review the current clinical criteria for genetic testing, as well as surveillance recommendations in healthy carriers, risk reduction surgical options, and new treatment strategies in breast cancer gene-mutated carriers.
► We contribute a feature selection process based on the correlation of Fractional Anisotropy (FA) and Mean Diffusivity (MD) voxels with the subject class indicative variable. ► We define and test an ...image co-registration pipeline for anatomical reference of FA and MD volumes which is critical for the feature selection process. ► Voxel sites found by feature selection on a database of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and healthy controls (HC) agree with previous findings on. ► Classification experiments discriminating AD patients from HC on the basis of FA and MD features compare or improve over results found in the literature for other image modalities (i.e. PET, SPECT). ► We conclude that the proposed features can be used to build classification-based computer aided diagnosis tools.
The aim of this paper is to obtain discriminant features from two scalar measures of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) data, Fractional Anisotropy (FA) and Mean Diffusivity (MD), and to train and test classifiers able to discriminate Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patients from controls on the basis of features extracted from the FA or MD volumes. In this study, support vector machine (SVM) classifier was trained and tested on FA and MD data. Feature selection is done computing the Pearson's correlation between FA or MD values at voxel site across subjects and the indicative variable specifying the subject class. Voxel sites with high absolute correlation are selected for feature extraction. Results are obtained over an on-going study in Hospital de Santiago Apostol collecting anatomical T1-weighted MRI volumes and DTI data from healthy control subjects and AD patients. FA features and a linear SVM classifier achieve perfect accuracy, sensitivity and specificity in several cross-validation studies, supporting the usefulness of DTI-derived features as an image-marker for AD and to the feasibility of building Computer Aided Diagnosis systems for AD based on them.
The accuracy of reaction theories used to extract properties of exotic nuclei from scattering experiments is often unknown or not quantified, but of utmost importance when, e.g., constraining the ...equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter from observables as the neutron-skin thickness. In order to test the Glauber multiple-scattering model, the total interaction cross section of ▪ on carbon targets was measured at initial beam energies of 400, 550, 650, 800, and 1000 MeV/nucleon. The measurements were performed during the first experiment of the newly constructed R3B (Reaction with Relativistic Radioactive Beams) experiment after the start of FAIR Phase-0 at the GSI/FAIR facility with beam energies of 400, 550, 650, 800, and 1000 MeV/nucleon. The combination of the large-acceptance dipole magnet GLAD and a newly designed and highly efficient Time-of-Flight detector enabled a precise transmission measurement with several target thicknesses for each initial beam energy with an experimental uncertainty of ±0.4%. A comparison with the Glauber model revealed a discrepancy of around 3.1% at higher beam energies, which will serve as a crucial baseline for the model-dependent uncertainty in future fragmentation experiments.
Rural geotourism looks at the natural resources of the territory as a means of promoting a specialized, educational, sustainable tourism. This is an increasingly sought-after activity. This paper ...presents a rural georoute across a high mountain village, highlighting the remarkable value of the geological heritage of biological trace fossils and physical sedimentary structures exposed on street pavements and façades of houses. A series of tourist georesources were created and implemented: educational and interpretive panels, videos, QR codes, geoapps and games, all of which promote and disseminate the exceptional geological content and the history of the earth through the use of new technologies (smartphones, ipod, etc.). All this is intended as a means to make geotourism a natural tourism, favoring experiences, whilst explaining the natural environment and its temporal and spatial dimensions, offering opportunities for socio-economic development and job creation in rural areas with problems of depopulation.
This work presents a systematic study of the properties (Light Output Non-Uniformity (LONU) and energy resolution) of two CsI(Tl) scintillation units over a span of almost three years, under adverse ...conditions of humidity and temperature. These two crystals are part of the CALIFA detector, a highly segmented calorimeter and spectrometer for γ rays and light-charged particles, that is placed surrounding the reaction target at Cave C, the experimental cave of the R3B (Reactions with Radioactive Relativistic Beams) collaboration at the GSI-FAIR facilities in Darmstadt, Germany. The findings obtained after the experiment indicate that there was no significant impact on the performance in terms of resolution and LONU. This suggests that the employed wrapping for light collection effectively serves as an excellent barrier against humidity. As a result, the crystal is preserved in a far better condition than initially anticipated.
The Lower–Middle Miocene Lagos-Portimão Formation at Portimão, southern Portugal, consists of three main heterozoan carbonate facies: mollusc-rich rudstone in a matrix of skeletal ...packstone/grainstone (MR), fine-to-medium skeletal packstone/grainstone (SPG), and quartz-rich skeletal packstone (QSP). These facies occur in different arrangements and indicate deposition on a wave-dominated open shelf with a well-established heterozoan fauna, most likely related to increased trophic resources where continent supply and upwelling contributed nutrients. These facies form belts inferred to have lain roughly parallel to the strike lines of the shelf, with the MR occupying the more landward, shallower areas and the SPG and QSP extending progressively offshore on the open shelf. Bryozoan abundance in the QSP facies indicates a deep setting on the middle/outer shelf, whereas the absence of rhodalgal components is attributed to a combination of temperature decrease and seafloor eutrophication during the late Langhian and Serravallian, coeval with the “Middle Miocene climatic cooling”. The large photosymbiont-bearing foraminifers and the absence of calcareous algae and zooxanthellate corals point to deposition under warm-temperate conditions. Two main orders of cyclicity are present. Small-scale sequences, 40–60 cm thick, may represent minor sea-level changes related to fifth-order sequences modulated by (~ 100-kyr) eccentricity forcing. Six large-scale sequences, 3–9 m in thickness, are recognized. Based on LAD and FAD of planktic foraminifers and the occurrence of two erosive surfaces related to major sea-level falls (Lang2/Ser1 and Ser4/Tor1), five Miocene sequences (Bu, L1, S1, S2, and S3) are correlated with third-order eustatic cycles.
The WASA-FRS project at GSI and its perspective Saito, T.R.; Achenbach, P.; Alfaki, H. Alibrahim ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section B, Beam interactions with materials and atoms,
09/2023, Volume:
542
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
A novel technique to study bound states of exotic hadrons in subatomic nuclei, such as hypernuclei and mesic nuclei, has been developed by employing the Fragment Separator FRS and the WASA central ...detector at GSI. Two experiments, S447 for studying light hypernuclei, especially hypertriton and a Λnn bound state, and S490 for searching for η’ mesic-nuclei, were recently performed. Data analyses are currently in progress, and light charged particles such as protons and π± are clearly observed and identified in the both experiments. For S447, light nuclear fragments that can also be residual nuclei from decays of hypernuclei of interests have been analysed by the FRS, and a momentum resolution, Δp/p, of 5×10−4 has been achieved. Further data analyses are to be completed. The WASA-FRS project will be continued and extended with the FRS at FAIR Phase 0, and upgrading of the WASA magnet and detectors is currently in progress. Furthermore, construction of a larger detector system with the Super-FRS at FAIR Phase 1 is also under consideration.
Eleven georeferenced sites of paleontological interest, representative of the Upper Miocene of Seville (Central Guadalquivir Basin, Spain), have been selected and their scientific, educational, and ...touristic cultural values assessed, ranging between 410 and 770. Most of them are very rich in benthic macroforaminifers, molluscs, large echinoids, ichnofossils, cetaceans, and sharks. Sites 5 and 7 also contain the stratotype of the Andalusian stage proposed in the ‘70s. Using geomatic tools, they can be viewed in free virtual globes, including virtual flight, containing diagrams, photographs, and informative sheets.