Search results for "BIAS"
showing 10 items of 654 documents
Presence of potentially pathogenic free-living amoebae strains from well water samples in Guinea-Bissau
2014
Free-living amoebae (FLA) include opportunistic pathogens such as Naegleria fowleri, Balamuthia mandrillaris, and the genera Sappinia and Acanthamoeba. In this study, a survey was conducted in order to evaluate the presence of potentially pathogenic amoebic strains in water samples collected from wells located in the western part of Guinea-Bissau. The samples were left to precipitate for 48 hours and then the sediments were seeded on non-nutrient agar plates containing Escherichia coli spread and cultures were checked daily for the presence of FLA. Identification of FLA strains was based on the morphological and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the 18S rDNA or 16S mitochondrial rDNA ge…
Fuzzy C-Means Segmentation on Brain MR Slices Corrupted by RF-Inhomogeneity
2007
Brain MR Images corrupted by RF-Inhomogeneity exhibit brightness variations in such a way that a standard Fuzzy C-Means (fcm) segmentation algorithm fails. As a consequence, modified versions of the algorithm can be found in literature, which take into account the artifact. In this work we show that the application of a suitable pre-processing algorithm, already presented by the authors, followed by a standard fcm segmentation achieves good results also. The experimental results ones are compared with those obtained using SPM5, which can be considered the state of the art algorithm oriented to brain segmentation and bias removal.
Illumination Correction on MR Images
2006
Objective. An important artifact corrupting Magnetic Resonance Images is the rf inhomogeneity, also called bias artifact. This anomaly produces an abnormal illumination fluctuation on the image, due to variations of the device magnetic field. This artifact is particularly strong on images acquired with a device specialized on upper and lower limbs due to their coil configuration. A method based on homomorphic filtering aimed to suppress this artifact was proposed by Guillemaud. This filter has two faults: it doesnt provide an indication about the cutoff frequency (cf) and introduces another illumination artifact on the edges of the foreground. This work is an improvement to this method because i…
Refitting Solutions Promoted by $$\ell _{12}$$ Sparse Analysis Regularizations with Block Penalties
2019
International audience; In inverse problems, the use of an l(12) analysis regularizer induces a bias in the estimated solution. We propose a general refitting framework for removing this artifact while keeping information of interest contained in the biased solution. This is done through the use of refitting block penalties that only act on the co-support of the estimation. Based on an analysis of related works in the literature, we propose a new penalty that is well suited for refitting purposes. We also present an efficient algorithmic method to obtain the refitted solution along with the original (biased) solution for any convex refitting block penalty. Experiments illustrate the good be…
Volumetric Bias Correction
2007
This paper presents a method to suppress the bias artifact, also known as RF-inhomogeneity, in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). This artifact produces illumination variations due to magnetic field fluctuations of the device. In the latest years many works have been devoted to face this problem. In this work we present the 3D version of a new approach to bias correction, which is called Exponential Entropy Driven Homomorphic Unsharp Masking (E2D-HUM). This technique has been already presented by some of the authors for the 2D case only. The description of the whole method is detailed, and some experimental results are reported.
Operational forecasting of daily summer maximum and minimum temperatures in the Valencia Region
2013
Extreme-temperature events have a great impact on human society. Thus, knowledge of summer temperatures can be very useful both for the general public and for organizations whose workers operate in the open. An accurate forecasting of summer maximum and minimum temperatures could help to predict heatwave conditions and permit the implementation of strategies aimed at minimizing the negative effects that high temperatures have on human health. The objective of this work is to evaluate the skill of the regional atmospheric and modelling system (RAMS) model in determining daily summer maximum and minimum temperatures in the Valencia Region. For this, we have used the real-time configuration of…
A Comprehensive Spatiotemporal Framework for Hedonic Pricing: Integrating the Comparable Sales Approach and Minimizing Spatial Omitted Variable Bias
2019
This paper develops a theoretical and methodological framework that integrates Hedonic Pricing (HP), grid comparable sales approach (CSA), and nearest neighbors into a general spatiotemporal specification. By explicitly providing a theoretical justification for introducing spatial (or spatiotemporal) econometrics to HP, this approach is not only relevant to house price forecasting and automated valuation models (AVM) but also to valuing environmental goods capitalized in housing and to all other fields employing house pricing models. The resulting econometric CSA and spatiotemporal Durbin models provide higher prediction accuracy and reliability to alternatives by reducing the spatially-del…
Can We Do Better Next Time? Italians' Response to the COVID-19 Emergency through a Heuristics and Biases Lens.
2022
During the outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy, people often failed to adopt behaviors that could have stopped, or at least slowed down, the spread of this deadly disease. We offer cognitive explanations for these decisions, based on some of the most common heuristics and biases that are known to influence human judgment and decision-making, especially under conditions of high uncertainty. Our analysis concludes with the following recommendations: policymakers can and should take advantage of this established science, in order to communicate more effectively and increase the likelihood that people choose responsible actions in a public health crisis.
Surface plasmon propagation in metal nanowires
2012
Plasmonic circuitry is considered as a promising solution-effectivetechnology for miniaturizing and integrating the next generation ofoptical nano-devices. The realization of a practical plasmonic circuitry strongly depends on the complete understanding of the propagation properties of two key elements: surface plasmons and electrons. The critical part constituting the plasmonic circuitry is a waveguide which can sustain the two information-carriers simultaneously. Therefore, we present in this thesis the investigations on the propagation of surface plasmons and the co-propagation of surface plasmons and electrons in single crystalline metal nanowires. This thesis is therefore divided into …
Directionnalité graphique et dominance manuelle : une perspective développementale et interculturelle
2012
In the present work, we try to provide some understanding about the factors underlying the directional tendencies, by examining the impact of biomechanical constraints and cultural habits on directionality in graphic movements. French and Syrian subjects, children and adults, were compared in six experiments in order, to put in evidence the cognitive and psychomotor differences caused by the fact that the Eastern and Western cultures oppose on the directionality of writing and reading habits, and that the two hands are opposite in the directionality by adopting movements determined by biomechanical constraints. Likewise, this comparison allowed us to determine the relative strength of these…