In Belgium, traffic safety is currently one of the government’s highest priorities. Identifying and profiling black spots and black zones in terms of accident related data and location characteristics must provide new insights into the complexity and causes of road accidents which, in turn, provide valuable input for government actions. In this paper, association rules are used to identify acci...

BACKGROUND The distinctive coat pattern of a Dalmatian is the result of the interaction of several loci. While the encoded function of these genes is not fully understood, it is known the Piebald, Ticking, and Flecking loci interact to produce the Dalmatian's classic pigmented spots on a white background. The color of the pigmented spots in purebred Dalmatians can either be black or liver, but ...

The presence of black spots on dry-cured Iberian ham surface is an alteration related to microbial population. Although it provokes important economic losses for the meat industry, the microorganisms responsible for this spoilage still remain unclear. The aim of this study was to identify the microorganisms involved in dry-cured Iberian ham black spot spoilage and to study the conditions affect...

Sexually selected signals are common in many animals, though little reported in social insects. We investigated the occurrence of male visual signals mediating the dominance relationships among males and female choice of sexual partner in the paper wasp Polistes simillimus. Males have three conspicuous, variable and sexually dimorphic traits: black pigmentation on the head, a pair of yellow abd...

OBJECTIVE To identify the relative importance of factors that impact parents' attitudes toward use of their child's dried newborn blood spots for research purposes. METHODS Respondents were parents aged 18 and older with at least one child aged 17 or younger born in Indiana visiting an urban pediatrics clinic. They were asked to rate the acceptability of hypothetical scenarios involving the r...

One part of serum is mixed with six parts of / distilled water when a turbidity forms. The precipitated globulin, after being uniformly mixed with the diluted serum, is poured into a graduated cylinder, the diameter of which is 1 inch. On looking through the height of the fluid containing the precipitated globulin over some black spots fixed to the bottom of the cylinder and adding more and mor...

■ Through-plane distortion: The local field offset leads to curved and frayed slices instead of the expected flat image plane (Fig. 1). Since both in-plane and through-plane distortions shift image pixels away from their real positions, image geometry appears to be distorted. In both cases, regions with severe field changes will lead to signal voids visible as black spots and signal pileups vis...

INTRODUCTION Black-spot poison ivy is an uncommon clinical manifestation of contact with Toxicodendron plants. Unlike allergic contact dermatitis, which typically manifests in sensitized individuals within 2448 hours, the black lacquer that results from oxidation of the oleoresin after contact with the plant develops within hours of exposure and precedes allergic contact dermatitis, in some cas...

The West African Gaboon viper (Bitis rhinoceros) is a master of camouflage due to its colouration pattern. Its skin is geometrically patterned and features black spots that purport an exceptional spatial depth due to their velvety surface texture. Our study shades light on micromorphology, optical characteristics and principles behind such a velvet black appearance. We revealed a unique hierarc...