We determined the levels of a,-protease inhibitor, the plasma trypsin-inhibiting capacity (TIC), and elastase-inhibiting capacity (EIC) in 29 nonsmokers and 30 smokers, who were healthy volunteers matched for age (mean age, 39 ± 12 years [± SD]). The functional activity of plasma a1protease inhibitor (in micrograms of enzyme inhibited per microgram of a,-protease inhibitor) was slightly but sig...

We present a kinetic theory analysis of the electrostatic ion cyclotron (EIC) instability in a plasma containing positive ions, electrons, and negative ions that are much more massive than the positive ions. Conditions are investigated for exciting the fundamental and the higher harmonic EIC waves associated with each ion species. We find that as the concentration of heavy negative ions increas...

Human Activity Recognition (HAR) from time-sequential video images is an active research area in various applications such as video surveillance and smart homes nowadays. This paper presents a novel approach of automatic HAR based on Generalized Discriminant Analysis (GDA) on Enhanced Independent Component (EIC) features from binary silhouette information to be used with Hidden Markov Model (HM...

We present a methodology for extracting the vascular network in the human retina using Dijkstra's shortest-path algorithm. Our method preserves vessel thickness, requires no manual intervention, and follows vessel branching naturally and efficiently. To test our method, we constructed a retinal video indirect ophthalmoscopy (VIO) image database from pediatric patients and compared the segmentat...

AS an undergraduate engineering student at the University of Waterloo with a budding interest in computer vision, I discovered that by joining the IEEE as a student member, I could receive my own personal copy of TPAMI each month for barely the cost of a cup of coffee. TPAMI offered me an exciting window to the world of computer vision research, exposing me to its diversity of research topics, ...

The initial conditions in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions are determined by the small momentum fraction part of the nuclear wavefunction. This is the regime of gluon saturation and the most direct way to experimentally study it would be deep inelastic scattering at a high energy electron ion collider (EIC). This talk discusses some of the connections between physics at the EIC and the in...

Epidermal inclusion cyst (EIC) arising from the breast is an uncommon benign condition. We report two cases of enlarging EIC of the breast in two women in their forties. The diagnosis of this condition may not be straightforward with imaging alone if an EIC presents as an enlarging lump in the breast and mimics a benign breast lesion, most commonly a fibroadenoma or malignant lesion with benign...

I can hardly believe that my four-year tenure as Computer’s editor in chief is approaching its end. As the IEEE Computer Society’s flagship magazine, Computer strives to introduce the latest computing technologies and practices to its audience. It also serves as the vehicle for the Society to connect to its members. In retrospect, I appreciate all the precious opportunities provided to me to ge...

The fi rst issue of the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies (TLT) was published fi ve years ago in the winter of 2008. Now, the journal is beginning its sixth year. TLT started as an innovative IEEE Transactions series jointly cosponsored by the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Education Society. We were privileged to serve as a founding editorial team. Together with our Editorial Boar...