A new probabilistic network construction system, DYNASTY, is proposed for diagnos­ tic reasoning given variables whose probabil­ ities change over time. Diagnostic reason­ ing is formulated as a sequential stochastic process, and is modeled using influence dia­ grams. Given a set 0 of observations, DY­ NASTY creates an influence diagram in or­ der to devise the best action given 0. Sensi­ tivit...

Two human hypatitis viruses have been identified and characterized, but one or more additional agents exist. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a complex 42-nm predominantly double-stranded DNA virus with distinct surface and core antigens and an endogenous DNA polymerase. Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a 27-nm RNA virus with enterovirus-like properties. Progressively more sensitive and specific immunologi...

In order to evaluate the degree of arterial insufficiency, measurement of blood pressure, blood flow, flow velocity and waveform has been the focus of noninvasive diagnostic techniques. Noninvasive estimation of the degree of venous reflux has been an important problem, in place of invasive measurement of venous pressure. Although vascular imaging provides excellent informations about occlusive...

Advances in experimental, high-speed techniques can be used to explore the processes occurring within energetic materials. This review describes techniques used to study a wide range of processes: hot-spot formation, ignition thresholds, deflagration, sensitivity and finally the detonation process. As this is a wide field the focus will be on small-scale experiments and quantitative studies. It...

Diarrhoea caused by Cryptosporidium is usually mild in immune competent individuals but severe in the young and those with underlying disease leading to compromised immunity. The conventional diagnosis of Cryptosporidium requires observation of the infective oocysts however, their tiny size yields indistinct results, thus limiting the effectiveness of the conventional diagnostic technique, modi...

Autoimmune blistering diseases are diverse group of conditions characterized by blisters in the skin with or without mucosal lesions. There may be great degree of clinical and histopathological overlap; hence, advanced immunological tests may be necessary for more precise diagnosis of these conditions. Direct immunofluorescence microscopy is the gold standard tests to demonstrate the tissue-bou...

PURPOSE To optimize and streamline molecular genetics techniques in diagnosing choroideremia (CHM). METHODS PCR primers were designed for exons 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 15 of the CHM gene. Each PCR protocol was optimized so that all exons could be amplified with the same component ratio and PCR conditions. Sense and antisense primers were tested for their ability to be used as seq...

Bovine tuberculosis is a chronic bacterial disease of cattle caused by Mycobacterium bovis. In many countries, bovine tuberculosis is a major infectious disease of cattle, other domesticated animals and certain wildlife populations. It has a public health significance. Bovine tuberculosis is usually diagnosed in the live animals based on the basis of delayed hypersensitivity reactions using var...

Keyword discovery is an unsupervised technology that can help to process collections of speech and capture repeated patterns. This technology becomes useful and provides solution for unsupervised content analysis tasks, especially when the acoustic and lexical characteristics are not known in advance or there is little or no data to model these characteristics via statistical models. In these s...