BACKGROUND The B-type natriuretic peptides (BNP and N-terminal pro-BNP) are secreted by the heart and, in the case of BNP, serve to maintain circulatory homeostasis through renal and vascular actions and oppose many effects of the renin-angiotensin system. Recent evidence suggests that in patients with severe heart failure, circulating immunoreactive BNP is made up mainly of metabolites that ma...

Degraded lands have often been suggested as a solution to issues of land scarcity and as an ideal way to meet mounting global demands for agricultural goods, but their locations and conditions are not well known. Four approaches have been used to assess degraded lands at the global scale: expert opinion, satellite observation, biophysical models, and taking inventory of abandoned agricultural l...

Environmental stress cracking (ESC) is a phenomenon in which a plastic resin is degraded by a chemical agent while under stress, and it is the leading cause of plastic component failure. It is a solvent-induced failure mode, in which the synergistic effects of the chemical agent and mechanical stresses result in cracking. A recent study showed that 25% of plastic part failures are related to ES...

Title of Document: DETECTION OF INTERCONNECT FAILURE PRECURSORS USING RF IMPEDANCE ANALYSIS Daeil Kwon, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), 2010 Directed By: Chair Professor and Director, Michael Pecht, Department of Mechanical Engineering Many failures in electronics result from the loss of electrical continuity of common board-level interconnects such as solder joints. Measurement methods based on ...

The aim of image restoration is to obtain a higher quality desired image from a degraded image. In this strategy, an image inpainting method fills the degraded or lost area of the image by appropriate information. This is performed in such a way so that the obtained image is undistinguishable for a casual person who is unfamiliar with the original image. In this paper, different images are degr...