The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is one of the most famous problems in combinatorial optimization. In this paper, we are going to examine how the techniques of Guided Local Search (GLS) and Fast Local Search (FLS) can be applied to the problem. GLS sits on top of local search heuristics and has as a main aim to guide these procedures in exploring eciently and e€ectively the vast search spa...

Background Significant coronary artery stenosis might cause persistently impaired longitudinal left ventricle (LV) function at rest. LV global longitudinal strain (LVGLS) can be accurately assessed by 2D speckle-tracking strain echocardiography(2D-STE). Objective We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of LV global longitudinal strain obtained by 2D-STE in prediction of severity of CAD. ...

AIMS To evaluate the diagnostic power of abnormal global longitudinal strain (GLS) to detect non-obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) in the resting echocardiogram. GLS using two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (2D STE) is a powerful tool for detecting advanced CAD. However, the diagnostic power of 2D STE for detecting moderate, clinically unapparent CAD from images obtained ...

Growth-promoting signaling molecules, including the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), drive the metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells required to support their biosynthetic needs for rapid growth and proliferation. Glutamine is catabolyzed to α-ketoglutarate (αKG), a tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediate, through two deamination reactions, the first requiring glutaminase...

Traditional block-based video coders such as H.261, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 suffer from annoying blocking artifacts when they are applied in low bit-rate coding because inter block correlation is lost by block-based prediction, transformation and quantization. In order to overcome the blocking artifact problem, various non block-based coding schemes are used. In Existing Artifact Reduction method, th...

Most herbivorous insect species are restricted to a narrow taxonomic range of host plant species. Herbivore species that feed on mustard plants and their relatives in the Brassicales have evolved highly efficient detoxification mechanisms that actually prevent toxic mustard oils from forming in the bodies of the animals. However, these mechanisms likely were not present during the initial stage...

BACKGROUND Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and global longitudinal strain (GLS) play important roles in diagnosis and management of cardiac diseases. However, the issue of the accuracy and reliability of LVEF and GLS remains to be solved. Image quality is one of the most important factors affecting measurement variability. The aim of this study was to investigate whether improved imag...

BACKGROUND In patients with aortic stenosis (AS), increased afterload induces changes in left ventricular (LV) geometry to preserve a normal ejection fraction (EF). Nevertheless, myocardial dysfunction may occur in spite of a normal EF. Global longitudinal strain (GLS) analysis can detect subtle contractile dysfunction at a pre-clinical stage. The aim of our study was to assess LV function dete...

Constraint satisfaction and optimisation is NP-complete by nature. The combinatorial explosion problem prevents complete constraint programming methods from solving many real-life constraint problems. In many situations, stochastic search methods, many of which sacrifice completeness for efficiency, are needed. This paper reports a family of stochastic algorithms for constraint satisfaction and...

AIMS Quantification of systolic function in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) is challenging. A novel approach, based on RR interval correction, to counteract the varying heart cycle lengths in AF has recently been proposed. Whether this method is superior in patients with systolic heart failure (HFrEF) with AF remains unknown. This study investigates the prognostic value of RR interval-co...