Tf-idf weighting scheme is adopted by state-ofthe-art object retrieval systems to reflect the difference in discriminability between visual words. However, we argue it is only suboptimal by noting that tf-idf weighting scheme does not take quantization error into account and exploit word correlation. We view tf-idf weights as an example of diagonal Mahalanobis-type similarity matrix and general...

BACKGROUND Approximately 250,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed yearly in the U.S. resulting in more postmastectomy breast reconstructions (PMBRs). The acellular dermal matrix (ADM) expander-implant method became popular in the mid-2000s, but newer techniques such as the inferior deepithelialized flap (IDF) has more recently been described. We hypothesize that ADMs and IDFs provide co...

OBJECTIVE To compare the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) and the agreement of different diagnostic criteria for MS proposed by CDS (2004), IDF (2005) and NCEP-ATP III (2005). METHODS A crosssectional study of MS included 16,953 participants aged 35-74 was conducted in rural Henan Province in 2007 and 2008. The prevalence of MS was calculated by the three criteria and Kappa statistics wa...

Extensive regions of interior Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca, IDF) forests in North America are being damaged by drought and western spruce budworm (Choristoneura occidentalis). This damage is resulting from warmer and drier summers associated with climate change. To test whether defoliated IDF can directly transfer resources to ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosae) regenerating nea...

OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency of metabolic syndrome in type 2 diabetes according to three commonly used operational definitions {World Health Organization (WHO), National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel (NCEP ATP III) and International Diabetes Federation( IDF)}. To evaluate the agreement between these classifications in the Pakistani cohort. METHODS Data was colle...