Cardiovascular imaging analysis is a useful tool for the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of cardiovascular diseases. Imaging techniques allow non-invasive quantitative assessment of cardiac function, providing morphological, functional and dynamic information. Recent technological advances in ultrasound have made it possible to improve the quality of patient treatment, thanks to the use of modern image processing and analysis techniques. However, the acquisition of these dynamic three-dimensional (3D) images leads to the production of large volumes of data to process, from which cardiac structures must be extracted and analyzed during the cardiac cycle. Extraction, three-dimensional visualization, and qualification tools are currently used within the clinical routine, but unfortunately require significant interaction with the physician. These elements justify the development of new efficient and robust algorithms for structure extraction and cardiac motion estimation from three-dimensional images. As a result, making available to clinicians new means to accurately assess cardiac anatomy and function from three-dimensional images represents a definite advance in the investigation of a complete description of the heart from a single examination. The aim of this article is to show what advances have been made in 3D cardiac imaging by ultrasound and additionally to observe which areas have been studied under this imaging modality.

The human brain has been described as a complex system. Its study by means of neurophysiological signals has revealed the presence of linear and nonlinear interactions. In this context, entropy metrics have been used to uncover brain behavior in the presence and absence of neurological disturbances. Entropy mapping is of great interest for the study of progressive neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. The aim of this study was to characterize the dynamics of brain oscillations in such disease by means of entropy and amplitude of low frequency oscillations from Bold signals of the default network and the executive control network in Alzheimer’s patients and healthy individuals, using a database extracted from the Open Access Imaging Studies series. The results revealed higher discriminative power of entropy by permutations compared to low-frequency fluctuation amplitude and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations. Increased entropy by permutations was obtained in regions of the default network and the executive control network in patients. The posterior cingulate cortex and the precuneus showed differential characteristics when assessing entropy by permutations in both groups. There were no findings when correlating metrics with clinical scales. The results demonstrated that entropy by permutations allows characterizing brain function in Alzheimer’s patients, and also reveals information about nonlinear interactions complementary to the characteristics obtained by calculating the amplitude of low frequency oscillations.

The whole world is in a fuel crisis nearly approaching exhaustion, with climate change knocking at our doorsteps. In the fight against global warming, one of the principle components that demands technocratic attention is Transportation, not just as a significant contributor to atmospheric emissions but from a much broader perspective of environmental sustainability. 

From the traditional technocratic aspect of transport planning, our epiphany comes in the form of Land Use integrated sustainable transport policy in which Singapore has been a pioneer, and has led the way for both developed and developing nations in terms of mobility management. We intend to investigate Singapore’s Transport policy timeline delving into the past, present and future, with a case by case analysis for varying dimensions in the present scenario through selective benchmarking against contemporary cities like Hong Kong, London and New York. The discussions will include themes of modal split, land use policy, vehicular ownership, emission policy, parking policy, safety and road traffic management to name a few. A visualization of Singapore’s future in transportation particularly from the perspective of automated vehicles in conjunction with last mile solutions is also detailed. 

This study uses the opening of the new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) in stages between 2010 and 2012 in Singapore as the exogenous event to empirically test the impact of the new Circle Line (CL) on housing wealth. Applying a "differences-in-differences" approach to the non-landed private housing transaction data covering the period from 2009 to 2013, we find that the average housing prices increase by 1.6% in the post-opening of the CL. We find significant capitalization of the new CL into housing prices, especially households living within a 400-meter radius (the treatment zone) from the closest MRT stations on the CL. The treatment effects that are measured by the "marginal willingness to pay" for houses located within the treatment zone is 13.2% relative to houses located outside the treatment zone. The new CL opening creates an estimated S$1.23 billion housing wealth effects for households living in close proximity to the CL MRT stations. However, we do not find significant "anticipative" effects on house prices in the six-month window prior to the opening of CL. The strongest treatment effect is found after the opening of the phase 1 of CL, and the treatment intensity declines in phases 2 and 3 of the CL opening.

Benzoxazine resin, a new type of phenolic resin, has many advantages, such as a strong molecular design, no small molecular release in the curing process, excellent thermal stability and mechanical properties, and a high residual carbon ratio. Thus, it is important for electronic communication industry matrix material. To meet the needs of high-frequency and high-speed communication technology for low-dielectric polymer resin, the low-dielectric modification of benzoxazine resin is of great significance to the high frequency and high-speed propagation of the signal, which attracts a wide range of materials researchers’ attention. In this paper, we review a series of studies on the low dielectric modification of benzoxazine resin in recent years, including the synthesis of new monomers, inorganic - organic hybridization, copolymerization with other resins, and low molecular weight benzoxazine resin research trends.

This paper uses a new cross-country cross-industry dataset on investment in tangible and intangible assets for 18 European countries and the US.  We set out a framework for measuring intangible investment and capital stocks and their effect on output, inputs and total factor productivity. The analysis provides evidence on the diffusion of intangible investment across Europe and the US over the years 2000-2013 and offers growth accounting evidence before and after the Great Recession in 2008-2009. Our major findings are the following. First, tangible investment fell massively during the Great Recession and has hardly recovered, whereas intangible investment has been relatively resilient and recovered fast in the US but lagged behind in the EU. Second, the sources of growth analysis including only national account intangibles (software, R&D, mineral exploration and artistic originals), suggest that capital deepening is the main driver of growth, with tangibles and intangibles accounting for 80% and 20% in the EU while both account for 50% in the US, over 2000-2013. Extending the asset boundary to the intangible assets not included in the national accounts (Corrado, Hulten and Sichel (2005)) makes capital deepening increase. The contribution of tangibles is reduced both in the EU and the US (60% and 40% respectively) while intangibles account for a larger share (40% in EU and 60% in the US). Then, our analysis shows that since the Great Recession, the slowdown in labour productivity growth has been driven by a decline in TFP growth with relatively a minor role for tangible and intangible capital. Finally, we document a significant correlation between stricter employment protection rules and less government investment in R&D, and a lower ratio of intangible to tangible investment.