DaTscan SPECT imaging enables the assessment of dopamine transporters in the striatum and is widely used in the clinical diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). In this study, we design and implement a 3D Convolutional Neural Network for the diagnosis of PD using DaTscan SPECT images. Our system achieves high performance while avoiding the influence of observer variability seen with the clinical standard of visual interpretation and other computer aided diagnosis methods. We also show improvement over current results in the classification of a subtype of PD known as scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficit (SWEDD). The performance of our system indicates the possibility of clinical use for the identification of dopaminergic loss in DaTscan SPECT imaging and the diagnosis of PD, as well as validation of SWEDD classification.

This paper analyses three methods—chemical precipitation, coagulation and flocculation, and biosorption—for removing heavy metals from water. This paper concludes that out of the three methods, biosorption seems to be the most effective. Nevertheless, biosorption has its own problems such as the saturation of active sites of metal binding ligands and the reversible sorption of metals on biomass. Biosorption can act as an eco-friendly alternative and also cost efficient method for treating heavy metal contaminated water bodies, but it needs to be massively industrialized by executing more field experiments with heavy investment like the other two methods.

Particularly in the Anglophone world, there is a persistent belief that sports play a key role in the social and emotional learning traditionally done in high school. There is also a persistent belief in many education policy circles that female students are less likely to participate in sports and that measures are sometimes necessary to encourage female participation in athletics. Using large publicly available datasets on high school sports participation and predictive analytics, we put this assumption to the test.

Our study tests the relationship between unemployment in the counties of Florida and mortality outcomes. Since previous papers have alluded to the worse health outcomes suffered by the unemployed, we wanted to see if we can derive a strong relationship that shows how a prevalent indicator in a recession affects extreme outcomes regarding mental health, drug use, alcohol use, respiratory health, and cardiovascular health. This study shows a significant change in slope between unemployment rate and crude rate for mental health and drug death over different economic periods.

Rhetoric has the power to convince people, to inspire change, or even to galvanize revolutions. Many modern writers and thinkers unknowingly use rhetorical techniques originally developed by ancient Greek philosophers. This paper explores three key rhetorical devices used in Plato’s Republic that have gone on to color discourse for more than two millennia. Both Socrates and Plato appeal to their audience’s desires, adopted guided dialogues to illustrate and to persuade step by step, and used deliberately crafted thought experiments to form ideal situations in support of their claims. By carefully analyzing these rhetorical devices, we not only gain insight into the thought processes of Plato and Socrates, but we also gain a deeper appreciation of the origin of rhetorical techniques that are ubiquitous in the modern world.