Segmentation of Pectoral Muscle in Mammogram Images Using Gaussian Mixture Model-Expectation Maximization

Breast cancer is one of the significant issues in medical sciences today. Specifically, women are suffering most worldwide. Early diagnosis can result to control the growth of the tumor. However, there is a need of high precision of diagnosis for right treatment. This chapter contributes toward an achievement of a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system. It deals with mammographic images and enhances their quality. Then, the enhanced images are segmented for pectoral muscle (PM) in the Medio-Lateral-Oblique (MLO) view of the mammographic images. The segmentation approach uses the tool of Gaussian Mixture Model-Expectation Maximization (GMM-EM). A standard database of Mini-MIAS with 322 images has been utilized for the implementation and experimentation of the proposed technique. The metrics of structural similarity measure and DICE coefficient have been utilized to verify the quality of segmentation based on the ground truth. The proposed technique is quite robust and accurate, it supersedes various existing techniques when compared in the same context.

Density-dependent distribution of parasitism risk among underground hosts

Variation in parasitism risk among hosts can arise from between-patch and within-patch factors, but considerably less information is known about the latter. This study investigated how distributions of the oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis influenced its parasitism by the pupal parasitoid Dirhinus giffardii in the laboratory. Because B. dorsalis larvae pupate underground, pupation depth was considered as an important factor that affects the risk of parasitism. When the density of B. dorsalis larvae was varied (1, 10, and 100 larvae per arena), average pupation depth increased with the density. When the depth of pupae was manipulated, the rate of parasitism differed by depths. Parasitism at 0 cm differed from the random parasitoid model expectation, but parasitism at 1 cm was not different from the model expectation. Few pupae at 2 cm were parasitized. In another experiment, when pupae were simultaneously presented at 0 cm and 1 cm depths, parasitism at 1 cm was weakened by the presence of puape at 0 cm. These results imply that the density of the host influences pupation depth as well as the distribution of parasitism and plays an important role in host-parasitoid dynamics.

One-parameter model for the superworld

We review the No-Scale ℱ-SU(5) model with extra TeV-scale vector-like flippon multiplets and its associated collider phenomenology in the search for supersymmetry at the LHC. The model framework possesses the rather unique capacity to provide a light CP-even Higgs boson mass in the favored 124–126 GeV window while simultaneously retaining a testably light SUSY spectrum that is consistent with emerging low-statistics excesses beyond the Standard Model expectation in the ATLAS and CMS multijet data.

Emergence of Institutions: Methodological Individualism Perspective

The problem of institutions emergence is studied in the paper from the methodological individualism perspective. Special attention is paid to spontaneous emergence of institutions, the model "expectation (forecast) - break of expectation - frustration - aggression (punishment)" is suggested. The situations of institutions emergence via voluntary agreement and via compulsory adoption are also analyzed. It is shown that in all the cases institutions emergence can be explained basing on the methodological individualism perspective.

LOCATION, CORRELATION, RADIATION: WHERE IS THE σ, WHAT IS ITS STRUCTURE, AND WHAT IS ITS COUPLING TO PHOTONS?

Scalar mesons are a key expression of the infrared regime of QCD. The lightest of these is the σ. Now that its pole in the complex energy plane has been precisely located, we can ask whether this state is transiently [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] or a multi-meson molecule or largely glue? The two-photon decay of the σ can, in principle, discriminate between these possibilities. We review here how the γγ → π+π-, π0π0 cross-sections can be accurately computed. The result not only agrees with experiment, but definitively fixes the radiative coupling of the σ. This equates to a two-photon width of (4.1 ± 0.3) keV, which accords with the simple nonrelativistic quark model expectation for a [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] scalar. Nevertheless, robust predictions from relativistic strong coupling QCD are required for each of the possible compositions before we can be sure which one really delivers the determined γγ coupling.