Changing illumination constitutes a serious challenge for video segmentation algorithms, especially in outdoor scenes under cloudy conditions. Rapid illumination changes, e.g. caused by varying cloud cover, often cause existing segmentation algorithms to erroneously classify large parts of the image as foreground. Here a method that extends existing segmentation algorithms by detecting illuminatio

Aims To evaluate premature mortality and causes of death from young adulthood to middle age in a cohort of drug users followed during almost four decades Design Follow-up study of a consecutive cohort of patients with drug abuse/dependence. Methods A cohort of 561 drug abusers, admitted to a detoxification and short-term rehabilitation unit 1970–1978 was followed to December 31st, 2006. Standard

Background: Resource allocation in public health care principally involves politicians, administrators, and physicians. They all have their different roles, agendas and ambitions when it comes to how public health care resources should be spent. Previous studies on attitudes among health-care stakeholders have mainly focused on views and preferences among clinical decision-makers, while less atten

Review of G. Kurt Piehler (ed.), The United States in World War II. A Documentary Reader.

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is one of the most active and mobile carbon pools, and thus an important component of the global carbon cycle. Previous research on DOC transport in the soil and on factors controlling DOC export towards the river system focused mainly on forest and wetland areas, with only limited information available from agricultural soils. We carried out rainfall simulations on

Globular proteins are folded polypeptide structures comprising stretches of secondary structures (helical (alpha- or 3(10) helix type), polyproline helix or beta-strands) interspersed by regions of less well-ordered structure ("random coil"). Protein fold prediction is a very active field impacting inte alia on protein engineering and misfolding studies. Apart from the many studies of protein refo

Smoking is usually initiated early in life and most adult regular smokers have started smoking before 18 years of age. A younger age at smoking initiation is associated with risk taking behaviours and worse health outcomes regarding psychological and somatic conditions, suggested to be caused by exposure during critical developmental periods. The present study aims to investigate self-rated health

Whole-cell recordings were obtained from mossy fibre terminals in adult turtles in order to characterize the basic membrane properties. Calcium imaging of presynaptic calcium signals was carried out in order to analyse calcium dynamics and presynaptic GABA B inhibition. A tetrodotoxin (TTX)-sensitive fast Na+ spike faithfully followed repetitive depolarizing pulses with little change in spike dura

The complexity of the subgraph isomorphism problem where the pattern graph is of fixed size is well known to depend on the topology of the pattern graph. Here, we present two results which, in contrast, provide evidence that no topology of an induced subgraph of fixed size can be substantially easier to detect or count than an independent set of related size. We show that any fixed pattern graph h

Popular Abstract in Swedish Hudcancerformen malignt melanom är en utav de cancerformer som är på starkast frammarsch idag, där runt 200,000 människor drabbas varje år runt om i världen. Sjukdomen uppkommer p.g.a. förändringar i arvsmassan (DNA) hos en speciell typ av celler som finns i huden, de så kallade melanocyterna. Under normala förhållanden har dessa celler till uppgift att producera det brThe life-threatening disease of malignant melanoma is one of the fastest growing forms of cancer, affecting an estimated number of 200,000 patients worldwide every year. Although highly curable if detected early, once the melanoma has metastasized there are few treatment options and a median survival rate of only 6-9 months. Consequently, there is an imperative need to identify the factors that dr

Background: Previous studies have shown that the ADIPOR1, ADORA1, BTG2 and CD46 genes differ significantly between long-term survivors of breast cancer and deceased patients, both in levels of gene expression and DNA copy numbers. The aim of this study was to characterize the expression of the corresponding proteins in breast carcinoma and to determine their correlation with clinical outcome. Meth

The object of this study is to investigate how and why the collects in Swedish lectionaries between 1562 and 2003 (lectionaries used in the Church of Sweden include both lessons and collects) have been changed. It focuses on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as the transformation of the collects really starts with the lectionary issued in 1921. Collects from a number of editions of the lec

Conclusion Neck dissection after radiotherapy increased the risk of aspiration as a late effect in a sub-sample of patients treated for head and neck cancer in the ARTSCAN study. Patients treated with accelerated fractionation (AF) developed aspiration, with or without coughing, more frequently than patients treated with conventional fractionation (CF). Objectives A long-term follow-up study was c

Alternative and effective methods for controlling powered wheelchairs are important to individuals with tetraplegia and similar impairments whom are unable to use the standard joystick. This paper describes a system where tongue movements are used to control a powered wheelchair thus providing users, with high level spinal cord injuries, full control of their wheelchair. The system is based on an

The aim of the study has been to theorize and investigate the phenomenon of individual plans in eldercare. The article uses a literature-based historical outlook and empirical data in order to study the underlying intentions and practice in the type of individual care plans that are used in contemporary eldercare. The main empirical material consisting of 869 individual care plans was collected an

Previous studies have shown a selective reduction of von Economo neurons (VENs) in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). However, the alleged selectivity rests on the comparison between VENs and other neurons in cortical layer V, while it has been established that neurons in the superficial cortical layers (I-III) are particularly affected in bvFTD. The purpose of this study was to e

Background: Most epidemiologic studies use traffic at residential address as a surrogate for total traffic exposure when investigating effects of traffic on respiratory health. This study used GIS (Geographical Information Systems) to estimate traffic exposure, not only on residential, but also on workplace address, in addition to survey questions on time spent in traffic during commuting or other

Inter-vehicle communication (IVC) systems (i.e., systems not relying on road-side infrastructure) have the potential to radically improve the safety, efficiency and comfort of every day road-travel. Their main advantage is that they bypass the need for expensive infrastructure; their major drawback is the comparatively complex network- ing protocols and the need for a significant penetration befor

Background: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has modest specificity for prostate cancer. A panel of four kallikrein markers (total PSA, free PSA, intact PSA, and kallikrein-related peptidase 2) is a highly accurate predictor of biopsy outcome. The clinical significance of biopsy-detectable cancers in men classified as low-risk by this panel remains unclear. Methods: The Malmo Diet and Cancer study

This study attempts to develop a method for the simulation of surface flow paths on a digital elevation model (DEM). The objective is to use a facet-based algorithm to estimate the surface flow paths on a raster DEM. A grid DEM was used to create a triangular facet network (TFN) over which the surface flow paths were determined. Since each facet in the network has a constant slope and aspect, the