Automated System for Early Breast Cancer Detection in Mammograms

The increasing demand on mammographic screening for early breast cancer detection, and the subtlety of early breast cancer signs on mammograms, suggest an automated image processing system that can serve as a diagnostic aid in radiology clinics. We present a fully automated algorithm for detecting clusters of microcalcifications that are the most common signs of early, potentially curable breast cancer. By using the contour map of the mammogram, the algorithm circumvents some of the difficulties encountered with standard image processing methods. The clinical implementation of an automated instrument based on this algorithm is also discussed

Learning From Coalitions' Efforts to Promote Equity and Justice.

Coalitions and collaboratives are working to address many of the most pressing contemporary health and social issues. The articles in this special issue provide numerous insights into these complex collaborative processes across different contexts and focal issues. All emphasize and scrutinize the strategies that groups are using in their work. These strategies seek to navigate not only conventional notions of effectiveness but also the challenges of pursuing greater equity and justice. In this concluding article, we distill some of the key insights from these articles as a collective. This special issue on collaborating for equity and justice can serve as a launching point for new efforts by coalitions and researchers pursuing policy, systems, and structural changes, particularly those intent on addressing root causes of health and social disparities

Readability Enhancement and Palimpsest Decipherment of Historical Manuscripts

This paper presents image acquisition and readability enhancement techniques for historical manuscripts developed in the interdisciplinary project “The Enigma of the Sinaitic Glagolitic Tradition” (Sinai II Project).1 We are mainly dealing with parchment documents originating from the 10th to the 12th centuries from St. Cather- ine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai. Their contents are being analyzed, fully or partly transcribed and edited in the course of the project. For comparison also other mss. are taken into consideration. The main challenge derives from the fact that some of the manuscripts are in a bad condition due to various damages, e.g. mold, washed out or faded text, etc. or contain palimpsest (=overwritten) parts. Therefore, the manuscripts investigated are imaged with a portable multispectral imaging system. This non-invasive conservation technique has proven extremely useful for the exami- nation and reconstruction of vanished text areas and erased or washed o palimpsest texts. Compared to regular white light, the illumination with speci c wavelengths highlights particular details of the documents, i.e. the writing and writing material, ruling, and underwritten text. In order to further enhance the contrast of the de- graded writings, several Blind Source Separation techniques are applied onto the multispectral images, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and others. Furthermore, this paper reports on other latest developments in the Sinai II Project, i.e. Document Image Dewarping, Automatic Layout Analysis, the recent result of another project related to our work: the image processing tool Paleo Toolbar, and the launch of the series Glagolitica Sinaitica

Identification of individuals and groups in a public goods experiment

Revealing the identities of contributors has been shown to increase cooperation in public goods games. In this paper we experimentally investigate whether this finding holds true when decisions are made by groups rather than individuals. We distinguish between groups in which members can discuss face-to-face to reach a decision and groups in which members communicate via computer chat. The results confirm the positive effect of identification on cooperation among individuals. For groups, however, we only find a small and temporary effect of identification, irrespective of the type of communication. The reason for this is that the sensitivity to others’ opinions plays an important role for individual decisions but not for group decisions

Abstract Floral Series with Color, Value, and Texture in Painting and Ceramics

https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/artportfolios/1096/thumbnail.jp

Pragmatism, Praxis, and Predictive Theory

Jason, Stevens, Ram, Miller, Beasley, and Gleason (2016) invoke particular views of “true science” (p. 4) and “hard science” (p. 7) in their call for “more rigorous and predictive theory” (p. 21) in community psychology. They explain that a theory (as opposed to a framework or a model) makes predictions about causal relationships that are specific enough that they can be empirically tested and either verified or falsified under various conditions. They claim that by moving from frameworks guiding inquiry and action toward unambiguous predictive theories, the field will be “of greater value to the larger scientific community” (p. 3) and could “go a long way toward making significant progress in understanding how complex systems and the contexts in which people live can influence their lives” (p. 7). Their article is valuable for the debate it will produce by staking out such a clear position on a topic on which, as the authors note, viewpoints vary. In my view, the central thrust of their article – away from a pragmatic action orientation to inquiry and toward testing of predictive theories – could actually hamper the field’s progress toward its goals, if adopted more broadly in the field of community psychology

On the Cooperation of Groups in Social Dilemmas

The work was financially supported by the European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 Program, Action ERC-2014-STG, Project HUCO, Grant number 63674

Pragmatism, Praxis, and Predictive Theory

Jason, Stevens, Ram, Miller, Beasley, and Gleason (2016) invoke particular views of “true science” (p. 4) and “hard science” (p. 7) in their call for “more rigorous and predictive theory” (p. 21) in community psychology. They explain that a theory (as opposed to a framework or a model) makes predictions about causal relationships that are specific enough that they can be empirically tested and either verified or falsified under various conditions. They claim that by moving from frameworks guiding inquiry and action toward unambiguous predictive theories, the field will be “of greater value to the larger scientific community” (p. 3) and could “go a long way toward making significant progress in understanding how complex systems and the contexts in which people live can influence their lives” (p. 7). Their article is valuable for the debate it will produce by staking out such a clear position on a topic on which, as the authors note, viewpoints vary. In my view, the central thrust of their article – away from a pragmatic action orientation to inquiry and toward testing of predictive theories – could actually hamper the field’s progress toward its goals, if adopted more broadly in the field of community psychology