PET imaging is increasingly recognized as an important diagnostic tool to investigate patients with cognitive disturbances of possible neurodegenerative origin. PET with 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ([18F]FDG), assessing glucose metabolism, provides a measure of neurodegeneration and allows a precise differential diagnosis among the most common neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies. PET tracers specific for the pathological deposits characteristic of different neurodegenerative processes, namely amyloid and tau deposits typical of Alzheimer’s Disease, allow the visualization of these aggregates in vivo. [18F]FDG and amyloid PET imaging have reached a high level of clinical validity and are since 2022 investigations that can be offered to patients in standard clinical care in most of Canada.

This article will briefly review and summarize the current knowledge on these diagnostic tools, their integration into diagnostic algorithms as well as perspectives for future developments.

We show that Kozen and Tiuryn’s substructural logic of partial correctness $\mathsf{S}$ embeds into the equational theory of Kleene algebra with domain, $\mathsf{KAD}$. We provide an implicational formulation of $\mathsf{KAD}$ which sets $\mathsf{S}$ in the context of implicational extensions of Kleene algebra.

This article studies the duplication diacritic of Epigraphic Mayan (ISO 639-3 emy) during the Classic period (a.d. 200–900). Cataloged as grapheme 22A, it consists of two dots optionally and rarely affixed to another grapheme to command the reader, in the majority of cases, to read a syllabogram twice in sequence. This article reviews prior literature on the diacritic, elaborates a typology of four distinct but ultimately related functions, and employs a data set compiled by means of the Maya Hieroglyphic Database to determine via statistical tests whether scriptal, linguistic, media, geographic, and temporal factors were influential in its distribution, and more narrowly, its various functions. The results indicate that two lexemes, käkäw ‘cacao’ and k'ahk’ ‘fire,’ account for several of the scriptal and linguistic traits that show significant relationships with 22A, with the former, käkäw, likely serving as a major prototype in the evolution of 22A. It is also pointed out that 22A is absent from the Postclassic (a.d. 900–1521) codices, suggesting that one of the Classic regional subtraditions with lowest frequency of use of 22A may have been a direct ancestor of the subtraditions responsible for the codices.

The aim of the present study was to report canid attacks on sea turtles in northeastern Brazil. The study was conducted on the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin coastline between March 2010 and October 2019. Injured-stranded sea turtles or carcasses were recorded through systematic beach monitoring. The specimens were submitted for clinical or postmortem assessments, providing evidence for the identification of injuries caused by canids. In the study period, 9841 stranded sea turtles were recorded, with the diagnosis of canid attacks in 55 (0.55%) events. Lepidochelys olivacea was the species with the largest number of events (90.90%), followed by Chelonia mydas (7.27%), and Caretta caretta (1.81%). The attacked sea turtles were clinically healthy, with a good body score and no apparent diseases; most were in the reproductive stage. The injuries were mainly found on the front flippers, with considerable loss of musculature affecting the brachial plexus, with the rupture of large blood vessels, and in some cases, exposure of the humerus or oesophagus. Thus, these events hampered the reproductive cycle, limiting the egg-laying process and preventing the hatching of hundreds of new turtles. Therefore, mitigating measures should be implemented, addressing the consequences of abandoning pets and their unsupervised presence on beaches.

Accurate prediction for mechanisms’ dynamic responses has always been a challenging task for designers. For modeling easiness purposes, mechanisms’ synthesis and optimization have been mostly limited to rigid systems, making consequently the designer unable to vow that the manufactured mechanism satisfies the target responses. To address this limitation, flexible mechanism synthesis is aimed in this work. Two benchmark mechanisms being the core of myriad mechanical devices are of scope, mainly, the flexible slider-crank and the four-bar. In addition to the mechanism dimensions, materials properties have been embedded in the synthesis problem. Two responses are of interest for the slider-crank mechanism, the slider velocity, and the midpoint axial displacement for the flexible connecting rod. Whereas five responses have been compiled for the four-bar mechanism synthesis. A comparative analysis of seven optimization techniques to solve the synthesis problem for both mechanisms has been performed. Subsequently, an executable computer-aided design tool for mechanisms synthesis has been developed under MATLAB®. Numerical outcomes emphasize the limits of a single-response-based synthesis for a flexible mechanism. It has been proven that combining different responses alleviates possible error and fulfill high-accuracy requirement.

In the pipeline industry, it is often necessary to monitor cracks and damage in pipelines, or need to clean the inside of the pipeline regularly, or collect adhesive on the inner wall of the pipe, but the pipe is too narrow and difficult for humans to enter, it is necessary to use a pipe machine to complete the work. In this paper, a newly designed screw-driven in-pipe inspection robot (IPIR) is proposed. Compared with common robots, this robot innovatively designs adapting mechanism. The robot can not only adapt to the change of the inner diameter size of the pipeline by using the bionic principle and the deformation characteristics of flexible components but also can pass smoothly in the horizontal/oblique/vertical pipelines and has a certain ability to cross obstacles. In addition, it can transmit images of the inner wall of the pipeline wirelessly for data analysis. Finally, through theoretical analysis and prototype construction, the performance of the robot is verified. The results show that the prototype robot can not only smoothly pass through the acrylic pipe with inner diameter of 120–138 mm but also pass through boss with a height of 3 mm.

We describe an analysis of the flaked stone tools recovered from households in the Postclassic central Mexican city of Calixtlahuaca (a.d. 1130–1530). Most artifacts are obsidian and represent the blade-core technology, but biface and bipolar artifacts are also represented. Even though household residents were involved in limited biface and bipolar reduction, it appears that the city did not have any resident blade producers. This finding is at odds with the views of many archaeologists, who tend to associate craft production with the emergence of complex Mesoamerican urban centers. We examine the technologies from temporally distinct Calixtlahuacan household assemblages. We discuss why the quantity and quality artifacts associated with blade production are not consistent with resident blade making in the city. Finally, we examine four models for blade provisioning: (1) whole-blade trade, (2) processed-blade trade, (3) long-distance itinerant craftsmen, and (4) local, hinterland-based craftsmen. Evaluating how the Calixtlahuacans got their flaked stone tools has important implications for the comparative understanding of the organization and scale of economic provisioning systems in Postclassic central Mexico. This analysis supports new inferences about the nature of commercial networks that supplied the Toluca Valley prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century.

In this article, I argue that Hegel's treatment of Amerindian peoples is rooted in an exclusionary perspective of Reason, which establishes a particular form of life as its defining standard-bearer. This stance results in a distinct form of epistemic misrecognition and injustice that disregards the potential contributions of Amerindian resources and worldviews to the lexicon stablished throughout the modernity. To present an alternative viewpoint, I examine the insights of Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa, whose pluriversal conception of reason and history challenges one-sided portrayals of rationality. My aim is not to ‘fit’ Amerindian concepts into our familiar modern philosophical vocabulary. Instead, I wish to consider Hegel's philosophy through the lens of encounters and epistemic recognition with those who have been denied it. In particular, the application of an ‘ethnographic pact’ as a mode of translation constitutes a valuable contribution to ongoing decolonial discussions. I assert that this approach calls into question Hegel's notions of progress and universal reason, suggesting that his philosophy of history might have taken a divergent path if it had not been entangled in a self-centric epistemic framework. While these considerations remain subject to further development, they offer a fresh perspective for comprehending Hegel's argument beyond his own epistemic limitations.

This study investigates the inheritance pattern of petalous and apetalous traits in yellow sarson (Brassica rapa var yellow sarson) and its significance for breeding efforts. Utilizing three crucial crosses between petalous (Pant Sweta, Pant Girija, YSH0401) and ‘apetalous’ parents, we observed the absence of apetalous plants in the F1 generation, indicating dominant inheritance of petalous plants. The F2 generation consistently displayed a 3:1 ratio of petalous to apetalous plants, confirming the dominance of the petalous trait. Chi-squared tests on each generation supported this conclusion. Backcrosses with petalous parents yielded no fruit, reinforcing the dominance of the petalous trait. Chi-squared tests on these backcrosses further confirmed the dominance inheritance pattern. Conversely, backcrosses with apetalous parents consistently exhibited a 1:1 ratio, highlighting the recessive nature of the apetalous trait. The study underscores the importance of understanding the inheritance pattern of petalous and apetalous traits in B. rapa var yellow sarson crop, as it has implications for breeding goals. Knowledge on trait inheritance can guide future breeding strategies, facilitating the transfer of the apetalous trait as needed. This study provides valuable insights for genetic investigations and breeding initiatives in B. rapa var yellow sarson.

Many adult CHD patients encounter difficulties in obtaining affordable travel insurance. We aimed to assess their travel habits and perspectives through a questionnaire. Our results indicate that many adult CHD patients use travel insurance but incur a premium due to their condition. There is an urgent need to provide better guidance to these patients on travel insurance options available to them.

In this paper, we introduce a slight variation of the dominated-coupling-from-the-past (DCFTP) algorithm of Kendall, for bounded Markov chains. It is based on the control of a (typically non-monotonic) stochastic recursion by another (typically monotonic) one. We show that this algorithm is particularly suitable for stochastic matching models with bounded patience, a class of models for which the steady-state distribution of the system is in general unknown in closed form. We first show that the Markov chain of this model can easily be controlled by an infinite-server queue. We then investigate the particular case where patience times are deterministic, and this control argument may fail. In that case we resort to an ad-hoc technique that can also be seen as a control (this time, by the arrival sequence). We then compare this algorithm to the primitive coupling-from-the-past (CFTP) algorithm and to control by an infinite-server queue, and show how our perfect simulation results can be used to estimate and compare, for instance, the loss probabilities of various systems in equilibrium.