BACKGROUND Laboratory testing is the single highest-volume medical activity and drives clinical decision-making across medicine. However, the overall landscape of inappropriate testing, which is thought to be dominated by repeat testing, is unclear. Systematic differences in initial vs. repeat testing, measurement criteria, and other factors would suggest new priorities for improving laboratory...

Our laboratory reported that facial skin blood flow may serve as a sensitive tool to assess an emotional status. Cerebral neural correlates during emotional interventions should be sought in relation to the changes in facial skin blood flow. To test the hypothesis that prefrontal activity has positive relation to the changes in facial skin blood flow during emotionally charged stimulation, we e...

development of remote sensing (rs) and gis techniques and that of landscape metrics in the late 1980s have caused to introduce a new dimension in the landscape ecology arena (the relationship between spatial patterns and ecological processes). however, scale dependence of some of landscape metrics and rs systems of different spatial resolution has resulted in particular attention into selection...

the notion of sustainable development has rapidly gained considerable attention since the lastdecades of the twentieth century. it has become a locus for global paradigm shift on environment and development issues particularly after rio conference in 1992. the comparative analysis of agenda 21 and major un documents, mdg, and rio+20 as well as some major sources are made to provide a context fo...

Sewall Wright’s adaptive landscape is the most influential heuristic in evolutionary biology. Wright’s biographer, Provine, criticized Wright’s adaptive landscape, claiming that its heuristic value is dubious because of deep flaws. Ruse has defended Wright against Provine. Ruse claims Provine has not shown Wright’s use of the landscape is flawed, and that, even if it were, it is heuristically v...

Fractal terrains provide an easy way to generate realistic landscapes. There are several methods to generate fractal terrains, but none of those algorithms allow the user much flexibility in controlling the shape or properties of the final outcome. A few methods to modify fractal terrains have been previously proposed, both algorithm-based as well as by hand editing, but none of these provide a...

This paper presents the creation of a a visual environment for exploring landscape patterns and changes to such patterns over time. Dynamic landscape patterns can involve both spatial and temporal complexity. Exploration of spatio-temporal landscape patterns should provide the ability to view information at di erent scales to permit navigation of a vast amount of information in a manner that fa...

Ecological destruction in human-dominated landscapes has significant impacts on environment sustainability internationally. Landscape planning can play a role in mitigating the effects of human-related activities. One element of landscape planning involves the analysis of the biological, spatial and social arrangement of areas in an urban environment and identifying characteristics that are und...