The contamination of soils by heavy metals is a current problem for agricultural production. Rapid access and reliability to heavy metal concentration such as cadmium is crucial for international trade. In the present study, visible and near infrared (VIS-NIR) spectroscopy, combined with linear and statistical methods, were used to predict the cadmium concentration of organic cocoa bean samples. Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) and Support Vector Regression (SVR) were implemented to estimate the content of this heavy metal from hyperspectral imaging and chemical analysis. Competitive Adaptive Reweighted Sampling Method (CARS) and Jackknife method were used for selecting optimal wavelength. The SVR model performed satisfactorily with the use of 45 resulting wavelengths from optimization using CARS and the Jackknife method, with an adjusted coefficient for the test R2 of 0.9401 and a...

Objective: To determine the predictive value of integrated US study (2D, Doppler color, 3D) in the differentiation of benign and malignant ovarian tumours. Design: Longitudinal comparative study. Setting: Instituto Latinoamericano de Salud Reproductiva (ILSAR). Participants: Women with ovarían tumours referred from Hospital Nacional Dos de Mayo. Interventions: One hundred and one women with ovarian tumour diagnosis were referred to ILSAR between June 2004 and June 2008 for integrated ultrasonographic evaluation in a Voluson Expert 730 using multifrequency abdominal transductor (1,6-5,3MHz) and multifrequency endocavitary transductor (3,7-9,3 MHz); volumetric study included multiplanar assessment. Malignancy high risk was defined as the presence of 2 or more of the following criteria: more than 10 cm size, presence of vegetations or wall thickness more than 3 mm, solid areas, irregular s...

Objective: To determine the predictive value of integrated US study (2D, Doppler color, 3D) in the differentiation of benign and malignant ovarian tumours. Design: Longitudinal comparative study. Setting: Instituto Latinoamericano de Salud Reproductiva (ILSAR). Participants: Women with ovarían tumours referred from Hospital Nacional Dos de Mayo. Interventions: One hundred and one women with ovarian tumour diagnosis were referred to ILSAR between June 2004 and June 2008 for integrated ultrasonographic evaluation in a Voluson Expert 730 using multifrequency abdominal transductor (1,6-5,3MHz) and multifrequency endocavitary transductor (3,7-9,3 MHz); volumetric study included multiplanar assessment. Malignancy high risk was defined as the presence of 2 or more of the following criteria: more than 10 cm size, presence of vegetations or wall thickness more than 3 mm, solid areas, irregular s...