Search results for "artifact"
showing 10 items of 193 documents
Preliminary organizational culture scale focused on artifacts
2006
In this preliminary study, an organizational culture scale was developed to assess cultural artifacts according to Schein´s typology (1985). It includes a set of cultural artifacts to measure the extent to which an organization is more or less traditional. A total of 249 managers from a range of different companies responded to the items. Preliminary analysis yielded a one-dimensional scale with 14 items with high internal consistency and homogeneity.
Influence of heart rate in the selection of the optimal reconstruction window in routine clinical multislice coronary angiography
2008
Purpose. The aim of our study was to assess the influence of heart rate on the selection of the optimal reconstruction window with 40-slice multidetector-row computed tomography (40-MDCT) coronary angiography. Materials and methods. We studied 170 patients (114 men, age 60 +/- 11.3 years) with suspected or known coronary artery disease with 40-MDCT coronary angiography. Patients [mean heart rate (HR) 62.9 +/- 9.3 bpm, range 42-94 bpm] were clustered in two groups (group A: HR <= 65 bpm; group B: HR >65 bpm). Multiphase reconstruction data sets were obtained with a retrospective electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated 40-MDCT coronary angiography scan from 0% to 95% every 5% of the R-R interval.…
Experimental and methodological factors affecting test-retest reliability of amygdala BOLD responses.
2018
Previous studies reported poor to fair test-retest reliability of amygdala BOLD responses to emotional stimuli. However, these findings are very heterogeneous across and within studies. The present study sought to systematically examine experimental and methodological factors that contribute to this heterogeneity. Forty-six young subjects were scanned twice with a mean test-retest interval of 7 weeks. We compared amygdala reliability across three tasks: A face-matching task, passive viewing of emotional faces, and passive viewing of emotional scenes. We also explored whether extraction of physiological noise can affect the stability of amygdala responses. We assessed test-retest reliability…
Standardized T2* map of normal human heart in vivo to correct T2* segmental artefacts.
2007
A segmental, multislice, multi-echo T2* MRI approach could be useful in heart iron-overloaded patients to account for heterogeneous iron distribution, demonstrated by histological studies. However, segmental T2* assessment in heart can be affected by the presence of geometrical and susceptibility artefacts, which can act on different segments in different ways. The aim of this study was to assess T2* value distribution in the left ventricle and to develop a correction procedure to compensate for artefactual variations in segmental analysis. MRI was performed in four groups of 22 subjects each: healthy subjects (I), controls (II) (thalassemia intermedia patients without iron overload), thala…
An investigation of the stability of free and glucuronidated 11-nor-delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid in authentic urine samples.
2004
Preanalytical stability of a drug and its major metabolites is an important consideration in pharmacokinetic studies or whenever the analyte pattern is used to estimate drug habits. Firstly, the stability of free and glucuronidated 11-nor-delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THCCOOH, THCCOOglu) in authentic urine samples was investigated. Random urine samples of cannabis users (n = 38) were stored at -20, 4, and 20 degrees C up to 15 days and up to 5 days at 40 degrees C, and alterations of the analyte pattern during storage were followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Secondly, the influence of pH (range 5.0-8.0) on the stability of the analytes was studied us…
Using mechanical experiments to study ground stone tool use: Exploring the formation of percussive and grinding wear traces on limestone tools
2021
Ground Stone Tools (GST) have been identified in several Levantine archaeological sites dating to the Middle Paleolithic. These tools, frequently made of limestone, are often interpreted based on their morphology and damage as having been used for knapping flint, and sometimes for breaking animal bones or processing vegetal materials as well. However, the lack of experimental referential collections on limestone is a major obstacle for the identification of diagnostic traces on these types of tools and raw material. In this sense, the understanding of the specific function of these GST and the association between tool types and activity often remains unknown or merely speculative. Recent di…
Horse exploitation at the Late Upper Palaeolithic site of Oelknitz (Thuringia, Germany) with special reference to canine modifications
2012
Abstract The faunal assemblage from Structure 5 of the Magdalenian settlement Oelknitz (Thuringia, Germany) was analyzed. The fauna is dominated by horse. All stages of butchery from skinning to marrow extraction were performed within the horse assemblage. In addition to this, various stages of organic artifact production could be documented. Two fragmentary equid canine teeth were of particular interest. They are the only documented canines from Structure 5, which otherwise contained a large amount of teeth. Both canines show traces of human modification. They were cut out of the jaw while still in the alveole. On both canines, lateral incisions were performed at the cervix dentis and the …
Inside the Thompson laboratory during the “cerebellar years” and the continuing cerebellar story
2011
This paper is based on the talk by one of the authors (DL) given at the symposium for the retirement of RF Thompson (RF Thompson: A bridge between 20th and 21st century neuroscience). We first make some informal observations of the historical times and research conditions in the Thompson laboratory when the cerebellum was found to play a critical role in eye lid classical conditioning, the "cerebellar years". These conditions influenced our collaborative international program on the phenomenon known as "transfer of training" or "savings". Our research shows that the appearance of "savings" is an artifact of the order of testing, and depends upon the functioning of the contralateral interpos…
Comparison of Micro X-ray Computer Tomography Image Segmentation Methods: Artificial Neural Networks Versus Least Square Support Vector Machine
2013
Micro X-ray computer tomography (XCT) is a powerful non-destructive method for obtaining information about rock structures and mineralogy. A new methodology to obtain porosity from 2D XCT digital images using artificial neural network and least square support vector machine is demonstrated following these steps: the XCT image was first preprocessed, thereafter clustering algorithms such as K-means, Fuzzy c-means and self-organized maps was used for image segmentation. Then artificial neural network was applied for image classification. For comparison, least square support vector machine approach was used for classification labeling of the scan images. The methodology shows how artificial ne…
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.