A problem in forensic facial comparison of images of perpetrators and suspects is that distances between fixed anatomical points in the face, which form a good starting point for objective, ...anthropometric comparison, vary strongly according to the position and orientation of the camera. In case of a cooperating suspect, a 3D image may be taken using e.g. a laser scanning device. By projecting the 3D image onto a 2D image with the suspect's head in the same pose as that of the perpetrator, using the same focal length and pixel aspect ratio, numerical comparison of (ratios of) distances between fixed points becomes feasible. An experiment was performed in which, starting from two 3D scans and one 2D image of two colleagues, male and female, and using seven fixed anatomical locations in the face, comparisons were made for the matching and non-matching case. Using this method, the non-matching pair cannot be distinguished from the matching pair of faces. Facial expression and resolution of images were all more or less optimal, and the results of the study are not encouraging for the use of anthropometric arguments in the identification process. More research needs to be done though on larger sets of facial comparisons.
'This is an engaging and informative book on the modern practice of experimental design. The authors' writing style is entertaining, the consulting dialogs are extremely enjoyable, and the technical ...material is presented brilliantly but not overwhelmingly. The book is a joy to read. Everyone who practices or teaches DOE should read this book.' -Douglas C. Montgomery, Regents Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering, Arizona State University'It's been said: 'Design for the experiment, don't experiment for the design.' This book ably demonstrates this notion by showing how tailor-made, optimal designs can be effectively employed to meet a client's actual needs. It should be required reading for anyone interested in using the design of experiments in industrial settings.' —Christopher J. Nachtsheim, Frank A Donaldson Chair in Operations Management, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota This book demonstrates the utility of the computer-aided optimal design approach using real industrial examples. These examples address questions such as the following:How can I do screening inexpensively if I have dozens of factors to investigate?What can I do if I have day-to-day variability and I can only perform 3 runs a day?How can I do RSM cost effectively if I have categorical factors?How can I design and analyze experiments when there is a factor that can only be changed a few times over the study?How can I include both ingredients in a mixture and processing factors in the same study?How can I design an experiment if there are many factor combinations that are impossible to run?How can I make sure that a time trend due to warming up of equipment does not affect the conclusions from a study?How can I take into account batch information in when designing experiments involving multiple batches?How can I add runs to a botched experiment to resolve ambiguities?While answering these questions the book also shows how to evaluate and compare designs. This allows researchers to make sensible trade-offs between the cost of experimentation and the amount of information they obtain.
Biogenic calcium carbonate forms the inorganic component of seashells, otoliths, and many marine skeletons, and its formation is directed by an ordered template of macromolecules. Classical ...nucleation theory considers crystal formation to occur from a critical nucleus formed by the assembly of ions from solution. Using cryotransmission electron microscopy, we found that template-directed calcium carbonate formation starts with the formation of prenucleation clusters. Their aggregation leads to the nucleation of amorphous nanoparticles in solution. These nanoparticles assemble at the template and, after reaching a critical size, develop dynamic crystalline domains, one of which is selectively stabilized by the template. Our findings have implications for template-directed mineral formation in biological as well as in synthetic systems.
This paper gives an overview of current thinking by economists about the consequences of ongoing technological progress for labour markets, and discusses policy implications. In economics, the impact ...of technological progress on labour markets is understood by the following two channels: (i) the nature of interactions between differently skilled workers and new technologies affecting labour demand and (ii) the equilibrium effects of technological progress through consequent changes in labour supply and product markets. The paper explains how the ongoing Digital Revolution is characterized by a complex interplay between worker skills and digital capital in the workplace, and consequent changes in job mobility for workers and in output prices affecting consumer demand for goods and services. In particular, it explains how current worker–technology interactions and the equilibrium effects they entail combine to create economy-wide job polarization with winners and losers from ongoing technological progress. The paper therefore concludes by discussing a set of policy interventions to ensure that the benefits of the Digital Revolution are broadly shared.
Hyperthermia, the mild elevation of temperature to 40-43°C, can induce cancer cell death and enhance the effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, achievement of its full potential as a ...clinically relevant treatment modality has been restricted by its inability to effectively and preferentially heat malignant cells. The limited spatial resolution may be circumvented by the intravenous administration of cancer-targeting magnetic nanoparticles that accumulate in the tumor, followed by the application of an alternating magnetic field to raise the temperature of the nanoparticles located in the tumor tissue. This targeted approach enables preferential heating of malignant cancer cells whilst sparing the surrounding normal tissue, potentially improving the effectiveness and safety of hyperthermia. Despite promising results in preclinical studies, there are numerous challenges that must be addressed before this technique can progress to the clinic. This review discusses these challenges and highlights the current understanding of targeted magnetic hyperthermia.
This paper documents the pervasiveness of job polarization in 16 Western European countries over the period 1993-2010. It then develops and estimates a framework to explain job polarization using ...routine-biased technological change and offshoring. This model can explain much of both total job polarization and the split into within-industry and between-industry components.
Time-lapse microscopy is routinely used to follow cells within organoids, allowing direct study of division and differentiation patterns. There is an increasing interest in cell tracking in ...organoids, which makes it possible to study their growth and homeostasis at the single-cell level. As tracking these cells by hand is prohibitively time consuming, automation using a computer program is required. Unfortunately, organoids have a high cell density and fast cell movement, which makes automated cell tracking difficult. In this work, a semi-automated cell tracker has been developed. To detect the nuclei, we use a machine learning approach based on a convolutional neural network. To form cell trajectories, we link detections at different time points together using a min-cost flow solver. The tracker raises warnings for situations with likely errors. Rapid changes in nucleus volume and position are reported for manual review, as well as cases where nuclei divide, appear and disappear. When the warning system is adjusted such that virtually error-free lineage trees can be obtained, still less than 2% of all detected nuclei positions are marked for manual analysis. This provides an enormous speed boost over manual cell tracking, while still providing tracking data of the same quality as manual tracking.
In this article, I provide a detailed discussion of the well-known fish patty experiment introduced in the literature by the late John A. Cornell in the first edition of his famous textbook on the ...design and analysis of mixture experiments. Cornell used the fish patty experiment as the motivating example for an article discussing that, for logistical reasons, many mixture-process variable experiments are run using a split-plot experimental design. More specifically, he described two possible ways in which the fish patty experiment might have been performed, both of which require a split-plot analysis of the data. These descriptions were not followed by the corresponding analyses of the fish patty data. Moreover, Cornell did not discuss the most convenient way in which the fish patty experiment could have been run, namely using a strip-plot design. In this article, I discuss the logistics leading to a strip-plot design, conduct the corresponding strip-plot analysis and contrast it with the two split-plot analyses.
It remains unclear if and how associations between cerebral small-vessel disease and Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology lead to cognitive decline and dementia.
To determine associations between ...small-vessel disease and AD pathology.
Cross-sectional study from January 2002 to December 2012 using the memory clinic-based Amsterdam Dementia Cohort. The study included 914 consecutive patients with available cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and magnetic resonance imaging; 547 were patients diagnosed as having AD (54% female, mean SD, 67 8; Mini-Mental State Examination score, mean SD, 21 5), 30 were patients diagnosed as having vascular dementia (37% female, mean SD, 76 9; Mini-Mental State Examination score, mean SD, 24 4), and 337 were control participants with subjective memory complaints (42% female, mean SD, 59 59; Mini-Mental State Examination score, mean SD, 28 2). Linear regressions were performed with CSF biomarkers (log transformed) as dependent variables and magnetic resonance imaging measures (dichotomized) as independent, adjusted for sex, age, mediotemporal lobe atrophy, and diagnosis. An interaction term for diagnosis by magnetic resonance imaging measures was used for estimates per diagnostic group.
We examined the associations of magnetic resonance imaging white matter hyperintensities (WMH), lacunes, microbleeds with CSF β-amyloid 42 (Aβ42), total tau, and tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 (P-tau181) as well as for a subset of apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 carriers and noncarriers.
Microbleed presence was associated with lower CSF Aβ42 in AD and vascular dementia (standardized beta = -0.09, P = .003; standardized beta = -0.30, P = .01), and higher CSF tau in controls (standardized beta = 0.10, P = .03). There were no effects for P-tau181. The presence of WMH was associated with lower Aβ42 in control participants and patients with vascular dementia (standardized beta = -0.18, P = .002; standardized beta = -0.32, P = .02) but not in patients with AD. There were no effects for tau or P-tau181. The presence of lacunes was associated with higher Aβ42 in vascular dementia (standardized beta = 0.17, P = .07) and lower tau in AD (standardized beta = -0.07, P = .05) but there were no effects for Aβ42 or P-tau181. Stratification for apolipoprotein E genotype revealed that these effects were mostly attributable to ε4 carriers.
Deposition of amyloid appears aggravated in patients with cerebral small-vessel disease, especially in apolipoprotein E ε4 carriers, providing evidence for pathophysiological synergy between these 3 biological factors.
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