Introduction:The commercial 252Cf sources are too large in size and clinical applications of neutronbrachytherapy (NBT) are limited to a small number of intracavitary treatments of cervical cancers. Recently, under the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Isotron Inc., the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) encapsulated a new medical 252Cf sources, cal...

Corrosion in general is a complex interaction between water and metal surfaces and materials in which the water is stored or transported. Water quality monitoring in terms of corrosion and scaling is crucial, and a key element of preventive maintenance, given the economic and health hurts caused by corrosion and scaling in water utilities. The aim of this study is to determine the best model fo...

A serious drawback of kernel methods, and Support Vector Machines (SVM) in particular, is the difficulty in choosing a suitable kernel function for a given dataset. One of the approaches proposed to address this problem is Multiple Kernel Learning (MKL) in which several kernels are combined adaptively for a given dataset. Many of the existing MKL methods use the SVM objective function and try t...

We present an algorithm computing, for any first order differential equation L over the affine line and any (Berkovich) point t of this affine line, the p-adic radius of convergence RL(t) of the solutions of L near t. We do explicit computations for the equation (0.1) L(f) def = xf ′ − π(px + ax)f = 0 (πp−1 = −p). where a lies in some valued extension of Qp. For a = −1 and t = 0, a solution of ...

So far applanation tonometry has not worked out any theoretical basis for correcting the result of intraocular pressure measurement carried out on a cornea with noncalibration dimensions by means of the Goldmann tonometer. All the tables of instrument reading corrections for cornea thickness or cornea curvature radius are based exclusively on measurements. This paper represents an attempt at cr...

Regression models to predict diameter at breast height (DBH) as a function of tree height and maximum crown radius were developed for Caribbean forests based on data collected by the U.S. Forest Service in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and Territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The model predicting DBH from tree height fit reasonably well (R2 = 0.7110), with strongest in subtropical moist and ...

We present results from a deep photometric study of the rich galaxy cluster Abell 2218 (z = 0.18) based on archival HST WFPC2 F606W images. These have been used to derive the luminosity function to extremely faint limits (MF606W ≈ −13.2 mag, μ0 ≈ 24.7mag arcsec ) over a wide field of view (1.3 h Mpc). We find the faint-end slope of the luminosity function to vary with environment within the clu...

Introduction Bone mineral density (BMD) measured using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is typically used to assess fracture risk. However, other factors such as bone size and the forward momentum of a fall (a function of body size) can also potentially influence fracture risk, but are understudied. This report describes the characteristics of a cohort of Caucasian pre- and postmenopausal...

Background: There are a number of different implant choices for surgical treatment of distal radius fractures, oftendetermined by surgeon preference or availability. Although no one volar plate demonstrates superior outcomes, thereare significant cost differences absorbed by hospitals and surgical centers. This purpose of this study is to characterizethe economic implications of implant selecti...