Segmentation is the process of partitioning a digital image into multiple segments (sets of pixels). Such common segmentation tasks including segmenting written text or segmenting tumors from healthy brain tissue in an MRI image, etc. Chan-Vese model for active contours is a powerful and flexible method which is able to segment many types of images, including some that would be quite difficult ...

This survey article focuses on the object and scope of Zen Studies, and on trends visible since 1989. It argues that scholarship about Chan, Zen, Chan, Seon, and Thiên should be more closely integrated with Buddhist Studies, and that the boundaries of this field need to be expanded. Critical and epistemologically aware scholarship only emerged in the 1990s. Hence, scholars need to make a concer...

This paper is based on a plenary presentation given by Tony F. Chan at the 2002 Joint Mathematical Meeting, San Diego, and has been supported in part by NSF under grant numbers DMS-9973341 (Chan), DMS-0202565 (Shen), and ITR-0113439 (Vese), by ONR under N0001402-1-0015 (Chan), and by NIH under NIH-P20MH65166 (Chan and Vese). For the preprints and reprints mentioned in this paper, please visit o...

Objectives: To compare the effects of living alone versus living in a group setting on the health, nutrition, personal cognition and general living function of a group of elderly Taiwanese. We also hypothesized that older adults living alone would have poorer indices of function and health than would elderly persons living in a group setting. Design and participants: We conducted a cross-sectio...

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) represents a model of tumor development after long-term inflammation which causes DNA damage or impairs DNA repair mechanism. AID and GANP, both appearing in antigen-driven B cells, are involved in affinity maturation of the immunoglobulin Vregion with increased somatic mutation. A normal cholangiocyte line showed the induction of AID transcripts after stimulation with ...

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common childhood infection caused by many enteroviruses, including enterovirus A71 (EV-A71). As EV-A71 is associated with severe neurological disease, early diagnosis is critical for clinical and public health management. In developing countries such as Malaysia, laboratory capacity to carry out EV-A71 IgM detection is greater than that of the gold stand...

In earlier work, we reported that genetically obese ( fa/ fa) Zucker rats exhibited significantly greater anorexia than did lean ( Fa/ Fa) Zucker rats to intracerebroventricular infusion of interleukin (IL)-1β. Here, we investigated the fever response of obese ( fa/ fa) and lean ( Fa/ Fa) Zucker rats to intracerebroventricular microinfusion of IL-1β as well as to the following other cytokines: ...