prompt_front: Now, answer the following question based on the text below, only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: How does the receptive field size affect the completion of shapes?

Read the following text and answer briefly.

Context 1: Paper Info

Title: CONTOUR COMPLETION USING DEEP STRUCTURAL PRIORS
Publish Date: 9 Feb 2023
Author List: Ali Shiraee, Morteza Rezanejad, Mohammad Khodadad, Dirk Walther, Hamidreza Mahyar

Figure

Figure 1: Just by looking at subfigure (a), we, as humans, can easily perceive a shape like the one in subfigure (b) This is an extraordinary capability of our human brain and in this paper, we tried to see whether convolutional neural networks can show such capabilities 
Figure 2: The trajectory from random noise X N to the incomplete image X I in image space The network will pass a completed version of the image, X C , throughout this trajectory 
Figure 4: This figure shows our iterative process to complete the fragmented contours of an image given as input to our pipeline 
Figure 5: This example shows how different scores change throughout a single run All three scores change in the range of [0, 100] Our goal is to maximize reconstruction_score and minimize the overfit_score, but we should consider that the minimization lower bound is data dependent and is not zero 
Figure 6: Evolutionary process of the deep structure prior The right column shows the incomplete shapes given to the model and the rest of the columns show how the model is overfitting gradually to produce the incomplete shapes In each column, we are showing an intermediate iteration of this process The loss-term setup enables our pipeline to let the completed image appears during this iterative process 
Average MSE and IoU values between the incomplete (Raw) images, the output of DIP and DSP methods, and ground truth for each image are provided in this table 
For this experiment, we ran the model over a subset of complex dataset with 500 incomplete images at various levels of alpha for 250 iterations After the image completion is done, we compared the evaluation metrics between the completed image and the ground truth to examine the performance of the model for different values of alpha 
In this table, we show the effect of the receptive filter size on our algorithm's capability to fill in bigger gap sizes The numbers in this table are showing the percentage of the time that DIP was successful to complete shapes with each gap size and corresponding receptive field size As predicted, the bigger the filter size, the more successful the algorithm is in filling in the gaps 

abstract

Humans can easily perceive illusory contours and complete missing forms in fragmented shapes  This work investigates whether such capability can arise in convolutional neural networks (CNNs) using deep structural priors computed directly from images  In this work, we present a framework that completes disconnected contours and connects fragmented lines and curves 
In our framework, we propose a model that does not even need to know which regions of the contour are eliminated  We introduce an iterative process that completes an incomplete image and we propose novel measures that guide this to find regions it needs to complete  Our model trains on a single image and fills in the contours with no additional training data 
Our work builds a robust framework to achieve contour completion using deep structural priors and extensively investigate how such a model could be implemented 

Introduction

The human visual system is used to seeing incomplete outlines  Our brains can effortlessly group visual elements and fragmented contours that seem to be connected to each other  This power enables us to make shapes, organize disconnected visual features, and even properties of 3D surfaces when projected on 2D planes 
demonstrated how early vision may quickly complete partially-occluded objects using monocular signals  This capability of perceptual grouping has been studied in vision science for decades   Although there has been some work on perceptual grouping in the past couple of years, it has been less studied in the past decade due to the enormous progress of deep neural networks and their success in dealing with the pixel-by-pixel inference of images 
Different types of lines and curves have been studied to maximize the connectivity of two broken ends in the planer contour completion problem   Different types of lines and curves have been studied to maximize the connectivity of two broken ends in the planer contour completion problem  Geometry-based constraints can be utilized to address some challenges of contour completion problems, such as smoothness and curvature consistency  
However, such approaches only work for simple, smooth contours and usually fail in more complex settings  On the other hand, we currently have deep models that could easily take an incomplete image and complete the missing regions using enough training data   The amazing capability of such models especially those that are trained on different modalities with millions or billions of training data raises the question of whether we need such a large amount of training to perceive all the visual cues that are present in an image, which underlies visual perception by humans 
In human vision, Gestalt psychology suggests that our brain is designed to perceive structures and patterns that are grouped by some known rules  In this work, we show that some perceptual structures can also be learned from the image itself directly using architectures that enable such learning  Earlier work has shown  This is an extraordinary capability of our human brain and in this paper, we tried to see whether convolutional neural networks can show such capabilities 
that some forms of perceptual grouping can be achieved using computational models, such as stochastic completion fields   This type of learning resonates with some of the Gestalt perceptual grouping principles including "proximity", "good continuation" and "similarity"  In scenarios where color and/or texture are present, the cue of "similarity" helps us group regions with consistent patterns  
When color and texture are present, they provide a collection of rich information for such cues  In the present article, we probe convolutional neural networks in a scenario where both are absent, and the neural network is dealing with just forms and shapes  Specifically, we explore whether the convolutional neural network architecture itself can give rise to some of these grouping cues when they are fed just contours and shapes alone 
For years, neural networks have been treated as black boxes that can generalize images very well to multiple classes when there are enough training exemplars  One of the reasons that neural networks are trained on many exemplars is to avoid the problem of overfitting  On the other hand, we know that CNNs that generalize well to large classes of exemplars can easily overfit when those class labels are randomly permuted  
Inspired by this observation, suggest that image priors can be learned to a large extent through a generator network architecture that is solely trained on a single image  This encouraged us to take a deeper look at what structural information can be learned from a single-shape image and whether we can reconstruct some of those perceptual grouping capabilities using a generator network 
Inspired by , in this work, we adopt a novel training regime to complete shapes and contours where we use a UNet architecture with random initial weights and try to complete the contours within a single image without any training data  In our model, we imagine that the input image (i e , the only image used to update the model's weights) is an image of fragmented contours 
In this work, instead of training the model on multiple images fetched from a big image dataset, we imagine a random fixed tensor noise image as input to this model  At each iteration, the random noise tensor is inferred through our generative network and the network produces an outcome image  We introduce a novel loss function that enables this network to complete contours 
This process repeats, and the weights of our network are updated gradually based on this loss function, which is an energy term defined based on the input image and the output of the network  The model will reconstruct the missing structures i e , group fragmented contours that perceptually seem to be connected, before it fully overfits to the incomplete input image 
Contributions of our work are summarized as follows: 1  In our pipeline, we propose a novel algorithm that enables us to complete contours that appear to be connected to each other in an illusory form  2  Our model is trained on just one single query image and does not need any training data  3  Our model does not need to know which regions of the image are masked or occluded, i e , we remove the dependency of the algorithm on the guiding mask (a guiding mask is a mask that informs the model on where the missing regions are located at) 
We also introduce two metrics to produce a stopping criterion to know when to stop training before the model fully overfits to the incomplete image, i e , we guide the model to stop when the completed image is produced 

Methods

Our eyes are trained to predict a missing region of an occluded object within a scene  We can easily perceive or make guesses about parts of objects or shapes that we do not necessarily see  Even when we are looking at an image, we might guess about the shape, property, or other attributes of an unknown object within a scene 
Such capability extends beyond just known objects or shapes  We can look at a disconnected set of contours and guess what the connected form may look like  This capability is rooted in our prior knowledge about the world  (see Figure )  In this work, we aim to achieve a similar capability using deep generative networks 
Most neural networks that we work with these days are trained with a massive amount of data and one might think that this is the only way that a neural network can obtain prior information  Authors of Deep Image Prior (DIP) suggest that the convolutional architecture can capture a fair amount of information about image distribution 
They show that the hourglass architectures like UNet can show some good performances in some inverse problems such as image denoising, super-resolution, and inpainting  In this work, we focus on completing fragmented contours end-to-end just by using a single image  To be able to address this problem, we first look at a similar problem in image editing, known as image inpainting 
Image inpainting is the task of completing an image where some regions of that image are covered or filtered by a mask  In image inpainting, the generative model receives a masked image with the mask that guides the algorithm to fill in those missing regions  Although in the problem of contour completion, we have a very similar goal, the additional challenge that we suffer from is that we do not necessarily have a mask that covers the regions of interest for us 
For example, when we look at Figure (left), we are not provided that which regions of the image are incomplete by a guiding mask  Our brain figures this out just by looking at the form and predicting those missing regions  Inspired by the image inpainting work of DIP , we propose a novel algorithm for the contour completion problem (see Figure ), where, unlike DIP, we do not have a guiding mask to know where to fill in the missing regions of our disconnected contours 
Let us assume that we are given a degraded image x I containing a fragmented contour  We propose an iterative process (see Figure ) that can connect those discontinuities and glue those fragmented pieces together as follows  We propose an hour-glass model structure (f ) that is initially set up with completely random parameters (θ 0 ) at first 
Through an iterative process, we start feeding our network with a fixed random tensor noise z signal and obtain the inferred output (f (z)) from that network  We then back-propagate the difference between the inferred output and the incomplete image to the network  We then repeat this process until the difference between the generated outcome of the network (f θ (z)) and the incomplete image (x I ) gets smaller and smaller and finally overfits the incomplete image (x I ) 
In this work, we propose a novel error metric to backpropagate in the model and update its weights  we set the metric in a way that enables us to complete the incomplete image before it overfits the incomplete image  This is where the magic of our algorithm happens  We also propose a stopping criterion, so that when the image is complete, we no longer overfit the outcome of the model and instead produce a plausible connected set of fragmented contour pieces 
As illustrated in Figure , this trajectory will pass through a complete version of the image in image space, which is close to the actual connected ground truth x gt , which we do not have access to directly 

Energy Function

We can model this iterative process mathematically by maximizing a posterior distribution  Let us assume that the optimal image x * that we want to achieve is on a path that connects a random tensor noise z to the incomplete image x I   With this assumption, we can eventually overfit any random tensor noise to the incomplete image x I , and we can formulate the posterior distribution of our wanted optimal image x * as follows:
No Prior To better recapitulate what we want to achieve using our generative model, we solve an energy minimization problem on the parameter space of the model, rather than explicitly working with probability distributions and optimizing on x (image space)  Thus, we solve an energy minimization problem that incorporates the incomplete image (x I ) and model parameters (f θ (z)):
As shown in Figure , the pipeline starts from a random initialized set of parameters θ and updates those weights until it reaches a local minimum θ *   The only information provided for the network is the incomplete image x I   When we reach the optimal θ * , the completed image is obtained as x * = f θ * (z) where z is random tensor noise 
In this work, we use a U-Net architecture with skip connections as the generator model  " As we mentioned previously, in this work we were inspired by an earlier work known as Deep Image Prior (DIP)   In this work, the authors suggested a mean-squared-error loss term that enables the network to compare the output of the generator to the incomplete input image:
where x I is the incomplete image with missing pixels in correspondence of a binary mask m ∈ {0, 1} H×W and operator is for point-wise multiplication of two image matrices  In the inpainting tasks, the existence of a mask is essential as the algorithm needs to know where to fill in the missing area, whereas, in our work, we wanted to know whether the network can perform completion on its own without the need for the mask 
In other words, is it possible for the network to predict where to fill in at the same time that it is trying to reconstruct the incomplete image through the iterative process? To answer this question, we tried to solve a much harder problem in which the mask is not provided to the model and the model is agnostic to it 
To better understand how a solution could be hypothesized for this problem, we first imagine that we want to consider all the available regions in our image that could be potential places to fill in, i e , we set the mask in the previous formula 1 to be equal to the incomplete image x I   This is problematic as the model quickly tries to fill in all white space and quickly reconstructs the incomplete image by doing so 
On the other hand, we can take the inverse problem of the current problem, where the model tries to just fill in the regions that fragmented contour lives in  Taking these two at the same time, we came up with a novel loss term for energy minimization term that helps us remove the need for the mask in the case of the contour completion problem:
In this term, we introduce a linear combination of the two loss terms, where one focuses on reconstructing the missing regions in the foreground, and one focuses on avoiding inpainting regions in the background  The logic behind this is that, if we assume the original image to be representative of the mask, then the model tries to reconstruct in all white regions (the foreground), and in the inverse problem we just want to reconstruct the regions that are already part of the ground truth 

Stopping Criteria

As shown in Figure , knowing when to stop iterating to the over-fitted model is a key to obtaining a completed shape  Therefore, we equipped our model with a criterion that uses two individual novel terms to know when to stop and output the result of the network  These two metrics expand the capability of the generator network beyond what it does currently and achieve a full end-to-end contour completion model that trains and infers on a single image of divided contour fragments 
These new terms are: reconstruction_score (ρ) and overfit_score (ω) 

Reconstruction Score

The first score that this paper suggests is the reconstruction score, i  e , we have to make sure that the model is trained enough that it can reconstruct at least the entire set of fragmented contours within the image  This is a trivial score and to compute the reconstruction_score (ρ), we apply a k-dimensional tree (KDTree) nearest-neighbor lookup to find the ratio of points in the original incomplete image (x 0 ) 
This score ranges from [0 − 100] 

Overfit Score

It is evident that the model overfits the fragmented contours  This is due to the fact that the error in our loss term is minimized as the x overfits to x I , i  e , replacing x with x I in the loss term would give us zero  As we hypothesize iterative process also produces the complete image before it overfits to the incomplete image, we can imagine that at some point the image is complete (x C ) and does not need to be fine-tuned any more to overfit to x I  
We suggest a new score called overfit_score  overfit_score determines how much of the reconstructed outcome is over the number of pixels that are already in the incomplete image (x I )  To compute the overfit_score (ω), we apply a k-dimensional tree (KDTree) nearest-neighbor lookup of points in the outcome of the input image and see what portions of those points are novel and not already in the incomplete image (x I ) 
Similar to reconstruction_score, the overfit_score also ranges from [0 − 100]  Our goal is to maximize reconstruction_score and minimize the overfit_score, but we should consider that the minimization lower bound is data dependent and is not zero 

Combined Score

To be able to find the best possible set of completed contours, we combine the two and have a loop that tries to achieve close to full reconstruction and avoids over-fitting at the same time  This is what we call an "ideal" stopping point in the contour completion problem  In each run throughout all iterations, we pick an output of the network that minimizes a dissimilarity term:
where δ represents our dissimilarity score  The reconstruction_score and overfit_score are obtainable given network output and the incomplete image  Ideally, we want to achieve an output image that has a reconstruction_score equal to 100 and an overfit_score of γ which is a hyperparameter that is dependent on the image and complexity of the shape 
Empirically, we observed that this value is highly correlated with the distance between gaps that are observed in fragmented contours, i  e , the larger the gap results in a larger γ value  We will discuss this in more detail in the next section (see Section 3)  For one sample image, we computed the two metrics reconstruction_score and overfit_score and the combined value of dissimilarity (δ) and showed how these values change (see Figure ) 
Our initial observations show that the reconstruction_score will increase to 100 quickly for the incomplete image indicating that the already existing fragments of the contours have been reconstructed in the output  However, as mentioned previously, we cannot solely rely on this score since we also want to minimize the overfitting 
Remember that our goal is to produce an output that: a) preserves the original contours in the incomplete image and b) fills in the gaps between the fragmented contours  It is evident that overfit_score decreases throughout an iterative run of our process until it reaches zero  The dissimilarity will also decrease along with the overfit to a point, then it will increase, as the model tries to reproduce the incomplete image 
This is where an ideal γ value can be picked, i e , where to stop when the reconstruction is good but we have not done a full overfit to the incomplete image  Thus, one should pick the value of γ empirically in the scenario that the ground truth is not available, whereas, assuming that the ground truth is available, we can easily compute the best γ value 
In our experiments, we tried two datasets of images with different gap sizes  We observed that the best the γ for one set of samples is ∼ 5 (the set with shorter gaps) while it is ∼ 23 for samples from the other set, i  e, the set with longer gaps (see Figure for some completed examples) 

Experiments and Results

Performing unsupervised contour completion is a difficult task to benchmark as one can never know what fragments exactly are connected to each other in a real-world scenario  This makes the problem of contour completion a hard problem to solve  In this paper, we tried to create artificial shapes that are occluded by some masks and then tried to see if our model can regenerate the missing pieces and glue those divided contours together 
To demonstrate our model's behavior, we will conduct experiments on datasets created for this task and will report on them in this section  To compare network results in different settings, we will use pixel-wise Mean Squared Error (MSE) and Intersection over Union (IoU) between the produced result of the network and unmasked ground truth data and the reconstructed image on black pixels (where contours live) 

Data

We prepared two datasets, one labeled "Simple" and one "Complex", in accordance with the number of gaps in each shape  Both datasets contain nine different categories of shapes  In order to generate the Complex dataset, we used FlatShapeNet which is a dataset for the educational game Ariga  The dataset includes the following categories: Circle, Kite, Parallelogram, Rectangle, Rhombus, Square, Trapezoid, Triangle and Overlap 
The "overlap" category contains images that are made as a mixture of two shapes that are overlapping from the previous categories  These are some standard shapes with a few gaps in simple dataset, while the complex dataset has some hand-drawn shapes with fragmented lines and more gaps that produce more variety in general 
For each instance, a ground truth image is available for comparison  Most of our experiments have been conducted using the complex dataset in order to evaluate the generalization of our approach  For the analysis of how γ values should be set for each shape, we used the simple dataset as a reference 

Evaluation

In this section, we compare our model to the original Deep Image Prior (DIP) inpainting model  DIP's inpainting module accepts a degraded image and a binary mask corresponding to that image  In order to make a fair comparison, instead of providing a binary mask, we used the incomplete images both as input and as a mask in order to see whether it can produce a result similar to ours 
For DIP, we run the iterative process for a maximum number of 2500 iterations with the U-net backbone  We used the exact same architecture and setting in our model for a fair comparison  Using our ground truth dataset images, we calculate the MSE loss between the network output and ground truth during each iteration instead of relying on our stopping mechanism described in the previous section 
We then store the output with minimal loss throughout all the iterations  Finally, we select the best output among all iterations, report the MSE and IoU with the ground truth, and save the iteration number which resulted in the lowest MSE  Table compares the results that are obtained using the DIP method, the DSP method (ours), and the difference between raw images and the ground truth 
We have presented the average MSE-loss, average IoU, and the average number of iterations for the best output for different methods  As can be seen from the table, our model improves both MSE and IoU between the incomplete image and ground truth in fewer iterations  The DIP method can neither generate a better result than the raw image nor provide stopping criteria to prevent overfitting 
We provide a more detailed analysis of this result in Figure   As results show, our algorithm not only provides a much faster convergence but also consistently provides a better-completed image (consistently less MSE loss and better IoU), whereas it is challenging for the DIP method to accomplish better results without a guiding mask 
We compare MSE loss between the degraded raw images that these algorithms started with (shown in blue) (a) Mean Squared Error Loss: we clearly see that for almost all images, DSP (green) achieves a lower MSE than the incomplete images (blue) whereas, the DIP completed images either do not improve the MSE or even worsen that for the incomplete images 
Note that, the MSE is computed to an available ground truth image hidden from our methods (the lower is better)  (b) Intersection Over Union: here, we are looking at the IoU metric that specifies the amount of intersection over the union between the obtained images and the ground truth data  Again, we see that DSP produces images that are much closer to the ground truth (in most cases) whereas the DIP can not achieve a similar result 
While we see few DIP completed images produce a better IoU than the degraded images (in terms of IoU), most of them are worse than the starting image (the higher is better)  (c) The number of iterations that are needed for each algorithm to obtain its best results  Here, we see that DSP can quickly produce the best outcome with the least MSE loss whereas the DIP algorithm's best results are when we run the iterative process for more iterations (the lower is better) 

Correlation of γ with the Gap Size

To better understand the γ parameter of our combined score, we conducted the following experiment  A total of 12000 samples were obtained by merging all of our images from the two datasets, simple and complex  As we have access to the ground truth for each degraded image in the combined dataset, we can easily calculate reconstruction_score and overfit_score for each degraded-ground truth pair 
As expected, we obtain a reconstruction_score of 100 for all samples, but the overfit_score varies among them  Intuitively, we hypothesized that an optimal value of overfit score should be intertwined with the total area of gaps  To test this hypothesis, we did the following experiment  We first define a function φ(x) which takes a binary, black and white image x and returns the number of black pixels in it 
Then we define a gap term as follows: where x I is the incomplete image and x gt is the ground truth  In this case, gap indicates the total area of the gap with respect to the whole shape  We found out that this term and the best result have a correlation of 97 43%  This indicates that the value of γ is highly correlated with the gap size, that is something expected in a way 

Effect of α

We conducted additional experiments concerning how α affects the quality of reconstruction  In the previous section, we defined Equation 2 as the loss term that guides our iterative process  The term α specifies the amount of emphasis the model should place on reconstructing missing regions, rather than filling in fragmented contours 
A lower α indicates a better grouping quality, as shown in Equation   However, we will not achieve completion if we remove the first term completely from the loss by setting α = 0  Therefore, the first term should be kept, but its weight should be very low in order to achieve a good completion  On the other hand, if we set α = 1 and omit the second term, we lose the contour completion regularization term and obtain the same output as a vanilla deep image prior, which does not complete shapes 

Effect of Receptive Field Size

To better understand the effect of receptive field size on our algorithm, we test the following hypothesis: can models with bigger receptive field size complete shapes with bigger gaps? In Table , we report showing the results of this experiment  As we can see, the bigger the receptive field size, the more complete shapes we can reconstruct using DSP 

Implementation Details

As shown in Figure , we use a model with 5 layers and 128 channels for downsampling and upsampling convolutions, and 64 channels for skip convolutions  The upsampling and downsampling modules use 3 × 3 filters, while the skip module uses 1 × 1 filters  In the upsample part of the network, the nearest neighbor algorithm is used 
We used 256 × 256 images with three channels in all of our experiments  In training, we use the MSE loss between the degraded image and the output of the network, and we optimize the loss using the ADAM optimizer and a learning rate equal to 0 01   In our experiments, we also used α = 0 15 as an optimal proportion coefficient for reconstruction loss 

Conclusion

In this work, we introduced a novel framework for contour completion using deep structure priors (DSP)  This work offers a novel notion of a maskless grouping of fragmented contours  In our proposed framework, we introduced a novel loss metric that does not require a strict definition of the mask  Instead, it lets the model learn the perceivable illusory contours and connects those fragmented pieces using a generator network that is solely trained on just the single incomplete input image 
Our model does not require any pre-training which demonstrates that the convolutional architecture of the hour-glass model is able to connect disconnected contours  We present an extended set of experiments that show the capability of our algorithm  We investigate the effect of each parameter introduced in our algorithm separately and show how one could possibly achieve the best result for their problem using this model 
In future work, we plan to extend this model and try to see how it performs with real images  In particular, we want to determine whether we can inpaint real-world photographs while retaining perceptually aware scene structures  The importance of shape in perception by deep neural networks has been highlighted in many adversarial examples to appearance-based networks  
The outcome of this work has strong potential to impact the designing and implementation of models that are robust to such perturbations 
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In the first few levels your impact might feel minimal, but every deployment helps you gain experience  It won’t take long to level up if you keep at it  If you are unlucky enough to be in a zone where someone has already built up huge defenses, you may be in for a long fight  But remember, your scope moves with you  Go explore the world and find softer targets  Once you level up, it won’t seem like a toy gun against a battleship  You’ll get your big weapons once you prove yourself  We have already seen operatives brag about taking down 1,000,000 nanobots in just a couple days  Nothing is impossible  How do I attack a different zone? As you level up you will unlock more and stronger formations  Those new formations will have range  While at the early levels you can only attack nearby zones, as you level up your attacks will go 10-20 miles (roughly 15-30 Km) and you will eventually gain access to nanomissiles that can go hundreds of miles  What should I buy in the depot first? The smallest thing to buy is a refresh  We give you some of these as you level up so you can try them out  Refreshes will refill (or partially fill depending on the size of your tank) your bot bar or your energy bar  But after that, it depends on your goals  There is much to choose from  Do you want to be able to deploy more nanobots on every launch? Do you want to boost your offensive or defensive bots? Do you want to be able to launch missiles into towns far away? All of these things are possible  Look through the depot and see what you like  Most of the time you will need to buy an upgrade before you can buy the ordinance  For example, missiles are fairly inexpensive, but you need to buy the MX Rack Missile Launcher before you can launch them  Buy the upgrade first  What is the difference between qredits and cubes in the depot? A qredit (aka: credit, which looks like the child of a Q and € ) is the type of currency you earn in the game by harvesting your bases  Cubes (aka: power cubes) are purchased with real money in the Bank section of the Depot  We want everyone to be able to do everything in the game for free, by earning qredits, but for those who want to move a bit faster, you can purchase cubes to speed things along  Purchasing cubes is how QONQR makes money  We very much appreciate your support  Every purchase you make helps us to keep making improvements in the game  Future enhancements will enable you to earn cubes in game  Why can’t I create another base? Additional bases become available as you level up  At the start, you will get a new base every 5 levels  If you don’t have any more bases available to build, you will need to level up  If you have a base available, but aren’t allowed to use it, it is because you already have a base in that zone  You can only have one base in a zone  Get yourself to another zone, then create your base there  My bases are collecting credits at different rates  Your bases collect resources faster if your faction controls the zone  Do your best to either put your bases in zones you can control by yourself, or find zones with strong players in the same faction and put your bases there to maximize your credit collection  The game says I’m in a town that doesn’t exist  QONQR tracks almost 3 million battle zones of varying strategic value in 250 countries  Sometimes those zones include locations that haven’t existed for over 100 years  That’s pretty cool if you ask us  If you find a zone that looks like a duplicate or is just plain wrong, however, let us know on the forums under “Zone Corrections”  How do I move my current position on the map? You might need to take a car, bus, plane or train depending on which zone you are trying to get to, but if you want to move on the map, you need to move in the real world  QONQR is a location-based game, which means you play where you are  However we don't want to make you move to play, we want you to plan when you move  QONQR goes with you as you move through the daily activities in your life  Where do I find the Strategy Guide? Here: http://community qonqr com/index php?/topic/1191-the-official-qonqr-strategy-guide/ How do I win? That is for you to decide  There is still much to discover  We don’t even know if QONQR is good or evil  Why is it here? What is its purpose? Help your faction further its goals and unlock all the secrets of QONQR!
Congratulations to the Swarm on their overwhelming victory in Atlantis in May 2015 -- taking and retaining all Atlantis zones from beginning to end is hard to argue with -- most convincing -- well done Swarm!
Rumor has it that the Duggers have 20 scopes  Some families really do have a wife and ten kids    Ha Anyways     Multi scoping is generally not encouraged, usually if you mention that you do it on the forums or in groupme your not going to be a very liked person, even within your own faction  What tends to happen is if you start multiscoping then your enemies start doing it, then you get into a war where ever person has 6 phones and nobody is happy  I've seen or heard about situations like this in a lot of different locations 
Great job, faceless! It was actually an exciting Atlantis and I prefer it that way  Way to bring your A game 
You know what we need in this game? Nano-Nukes!!
Attention (insert faction here), We, the (insert faction here) are tired of the way you constantly (circle one)   A  Cube rage us B  Bully us with numbers C  Talk mean to us It hurts our feelings because (circle one)   A  We don't cube B  We don't have as many allies C  We have no sense of humor and/or no backbone Please refrain from participating in the above selected actions for above selected reasons so as the game is enjoyable for (insert faction here)  Regards, (insert name and faction here) There we go   this should streamline the entire complaint process of the forums  Copy and reuse as needed  You're welcome 
Silver, you mentioned in a blog that there are levels beyond 150, is it safe to say there is no level limit anymore or is that for us to discover? Another question, I'm not sure if I'm the only one noticing this but it seems like bot decay doesn't work against Zone Assault bots  I've hit two players I know have been inactive for well over 6 months but my attack had the same effect it did yesterday before the update  However I did notice against Deflection bots I am getting 2x the kill power  Also in response to decontaminatoR  Paid gaming isn't just something for adults  When I was 13 the best options for handheld gaming was GameBoy or GameGear and the games at the time cost anywhere between $29-$39 dollars  I had a paper route to pay for my games  So, no offense, but you can afford $0 99 for a game  You don't even need a paper route, just check under your couch cushions and I'm sure you'll find a few quarters 
I want to start by thanking Faceless  This round of Atlantis, Legion and Faceless were doubled in sized and probably spending by Swarm  I contacted some great players from the other side and put together a nonaggression pact, this pact was one of the most impressive agreements I've seen in the more than two years of playing  Hundreds of people worldwide stuck to this agreement and put past feelings behind us  It was awesome to see both sides stick so closely to each other in fighting against Swarm  I want to really thank everyone who showed honor by standing behind me and the faceless command when we suggested that, the people who really gave it a chance and then most importantly, to all the players who honored it  Faceless, thank you very much! We stood no chance of winning without you! The battle came down to literally one launch in one of three zones  I'd say that with that being said everyone fought incredibly hard, so I want to give Swarm the respect they deserve  You guys really show out and play to win  Good game, 2 against 1 is not easy, no matter how large your crew is  And Legion, we had many late, late nights, many very long days  You guys killed it this month! We didn't take home a trophy, but I would say we all have something to be proud of! The other leaders who helped me coordinate everything were awesome! So many great people kept everything moving forward 24 hours a day for the whole week  Thank you to everyone who gave it your all for the whole week even when we saw that Swarm had 4x our bots at the end of just one day  Many people would have given up, but we held in and **** near won! I've won Atlantis battles with Faceless and with Legion but I will say, nothing was as fun or incredible as this round! You guys are fantastic and I can't wait to do it all again next month! Hopefully we have more Legion and Faceless show up for the next round, but I know that even if we don't, we will figure out a way, just as warriors do  PEW! PEW! PEW!
I must start with an announcement: Camels are not the only animal in the middle east  You have overused it already  It's saddens me that anyone would still find it funny  Get a bit of originality  For anyone not wanting to read all this drivel, skip to the end (hint: Bold stuff)  At what point have I bullied anyone? When was the last aggressive or threatening message you or any of your members received from me? Never  Legion and Swarm (in the UK) have teamed up because Faceless are dominating in London  That makes sense  It's a three sided fight and if one force becomes too powerful, the other two can join forces to try and take them down  But: We are dominating in the London area while your alliance is attacking players outside of that area  Then you expect me to sit back and do nothing  You are specifically using me as an excuse for why you have teamed up but then you're attacking players outside of my reach, sometimes with Europe involved  If that is not reason enough to attack you then I'm not sure what is  You lot cube, multiscope and have multi faction accounts and still complain  I don't complain about anything you do  Play the way you want to, ill do the same  I am never rude to anyone, always polite no matter what the message is, never brag about what I do, can do or have done, never threaten anyone, try and keep in touch with the few swarm or legion who are civilised to me, listen to any message form any side and if I can help in any way, I try my best to  Formed agreements with enemy (that I didn't need to) that ended up slapping me in the face  I have even in the past taken the time to find out who some of the younger players are so I know to avoid them  When I'm in a different country I try and find who the bullies are  Those players who threaten and brag and laugh at others  Those are my targets (if they exist in those areas)  I don't see how anyone can think I'm a bully  Is it your money? Its none of your business how I spend it  Either way your numbers are way off  700 dollars a day? Did you just decide to blindly strike the number pad to come up with that figure? Best part of one of your posts is saying that the devs should worry about my welfare  What concerns you about me spending my money? Maybe I'll self harm due to overspending? I wont have enough to buy food because I bought too many cubes? I don't understand what they are supposed to worry about  I have issues? At what point did you deduce this oh mighty psychologist? Wait a minute are you my bank account manager? What do you know about how much I can or cant afford? Random guy spends money on something he enjoys  The end  Told you last time to give up on all the drama but I guess thank you for the concern  You play to make me spend more? And? What do you think that accomplishes? In fact how do you even make me spend? You don't even attack me  You sulk when I'm in the UK and when I fly out and you find out, you call in Europe to help you take an zone or two  As they say, whatever floats your boat  As for Atlantis: Please try again  I quit Atlantis when we were winning  I have on occasion involved myself after I was asked to help out but on the whole I give it a miss  The last time (months ago) was the last 10 minutes of Atlantis and Legion fought hard  We lost  I was not the only Faceless player to quit Atlantis  Quite a few of us thought it lasted too long and had too many zones to fight over
Context 3: Thalassaemia minor | definition of Thalassaemia minor by Medical dictionary
Thalassaemia minor | definition of Thalassaemia minor by Medical dictionary
https://medical-dictionary thefreedictionary com/Thalassaemia+minor
(redirected from Thalassaemia minor)
Related to Thalassaemia minor: thalassaemia major
Thalassemia describes a group of inherited disorders characterized by reduced or absent amounts of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein inside the red blood cells  There are two basic groups of thalassemia disorders: alpha thalassemia and beta thalassemia  These conditions cause varying degrees of anemia, which can range from insignificant to life threatening 
All types of thalassemias are considered quantitative diseases of hemoglobin, because the quantity of hemoglobin produced is reduced or absent  Usual adult hemoglobin is made up of three components: alpha globin, beta globin, and heme  Thalassemias are classified according to the globin that is affected, hence the names alpha and beta thalassemia  Although both classes of thalassemia affect the same protein, the alpha and beta thalassemias are distinct diseases that affect the body in different ways 
Beta thalassemia may be the most best-known type of thalassemia and is also called Cooley's anemia  It is caused by a change in the gene for the beta globin component of hemoglobin  Beta thalassemia causes variable anemia that can range from moderate to severe, depending in part on the exact genetic change underlying the disease  Beta thalassemia can be classified based on clinical symptoms  Beta thalassemia major usually causes severe anemia that can occur within months after birth  If left untreated, severe anemia can result in insufficient growth and development, as well as other common physical complications that can lead to a dramatically decreased life-expectancy  Fortunately, in developed countries beta thalassemia is usually identified by screening in the newborn period, before symptoms have developed  Children who are identified early can be started on ongoing blood transfusion therapy as needed  Although transfusion therapy prevents many of the complications of severe anemia, the body is unable to eliminate the excess iron contained in the transfused blood  Over time, the excess iron deposits in tissues and organs, resulting in damage and organ failure  Another medication must be administered to help the body eliminate the excess iron and prevent iron-over-load complications  Beta thalassemia intermedia describes the disease in individuals who have moderate anemia that only requires blood transfusions intermittently, if at all 
Alpha thalassemia is the result of changes in the genes for the alpha globin component of hemoglobin  There are two main types of alpha thalassemia disease: hemoglobin H disease and alpha thalassemia major  The two diseases are quite different from beta thalassemia as well as from one another  Individuals with hemoglobin H disease can experience events of hemolytic anemia—anemia caused by the rapid breakdown of the red blood cells  These events are thought to be triggered by various environmental causes, such as infection and/or exposure to certain chemicals  Hemoglobin H disease is in most cases milder than beta thalassemia  It does not generally require transfusion therapy  Alpha thalassemia major is a very serious disease that results in severe anemia that begins even before birth  Most affected babies do not survive to be born or die shortly after birth 
The thalassemias are among the most common genetic diseases worldwide  Both alpha and beta thalassemia have been described in individuals of almost every ancestry, but the conditions are more common among certain ethnic groups  Unaffected carriers of all types of thalassemia traits do not experience health problems  In fact, the thalassemia trait is protective against malaria, a disease caused by blood-borne parasites transmitted through mosquito bites  According to a widely accepted theory, most genetic changes—mutations—that cause thalassemia occurred multiple generations ago  Coincidentally, these mutations increased the likelihood that carriers would survive malaria infection  Survivors passed the mutation onto their offspring, and the trait became established throughout areas where malaria is common  As populations migrated, so did the thalassemia traits 
Beta thalassemia trait is seen most commonly in people with the following ancestry: Mediterranean (including North African, and particularly Italian and Greek), Middle Eastern, Indian, African, Chinese, and Southeast Asian (including Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai, Singaporean, Filipino, Cambodian, Malaysian, Burmese, and Indonesian)  Alpha-thalassemia trait is seen with increased frequency in the same ethnic groups  However, there are different types of alpha thalassemia traits within these populations  The frequency of hemoglobin H disease and alpha thalassemia major depends on the type of alpha thalassemia trait  The populations in which alpha thalassemia diseases are most common include Southeast Asians and Chinese (particularly Southern Chinese) 
It is difficult to obtain accurate prevalence figures for various types of thalassemia within different populations  This difficulty arises due to testing limitations in determining exact genetic diagnoses, as well as the fact that many studies have focused on small, biased hospital populations 
Two studies reflect prevalence figures that can be helpful counseling families and determining who to screen for beta thalassemia  Between the years of 1990 and 1996, the State of California screened more than 3 1 million infants born in the state for beta thalassemia  Approximately 1 in 114,000 infants had beta thalassemia major, with prevalence rates being highest among Asian Indians (about one in 4,000), Southeast Asians (about one in 10,000), and Middle Easterners (about one in 7,000)  Another type of beta thalassemia disease, E/beta thalassemia, was represented in approximately one in 110,000 births, all of which occurred in families of Southeast Asian ancestry  Among Southeast Asians, the prevalence of E/beta thalassemia was approximately one in 2,600 births  This is in keeping with the observation that hemoglobin E trait carrier rates are relatively high within the Southeast Asian population: 16% in a study of 768 immigrants to California, and up to 25% in some specific Southeast Asian populations such as Cambodians  While these California studies address some of the limitations of earlier population studies, the pattern observed in California is expected to be different in other areas of the United States and the world  For example, Italians are underrepresented in this population when compared to the population of the East Coast of the United States 
Determining prevalence figures for alpha thalassemia is even more difficult due to increased limitations in diagnostic testing  All types of alpha thalassemia disease are most common among people of Southeast Asian and Chinese descent, for reasons that become clearer with an understanding of the underlying genetics of alpha thalassemia  One study of 500 pregnant women in Northern Thailand estimated a frequency of one in 500 pregnancies affected by alpha thalassemia major, for example  Prevalence of alpha thalassemia disease is significantly lower in the United States primarily because of immigration patterns; although at least one state, California, has observed growing hemoglobin H disease incidence rates that are high enough to justify universal newborn screening for the condition 
Humans normally make several types of the oxygen-carrying protein hemoglobin  An individual's stage in development determines whether he or she makes primarily embryonic, fetal, or adult hemoglobins  All types of hemoglobin are made of three components: heme, alpha (or alpha-like) globin, and beta (or beta-like) globin  All types of thalassemia are caused by changes in either the alpha- or beta-globin gene  These changes cause little or no globin to be produced  The thalassemias are, therefore, considered quantitative hemoglobin diseases  All types of thalassemias are recessively inherited, meaning that a genetic change must be inherited from both the mother and the father  The severity of the disease is influenced by the exact thalassemia mutations inherited, as well as other genetic and environmental factors  There are rare exceptions, notably with beta thalassemia, where globin gene mutations exhibit a dominant pattern of inheritance in which only one gene needs to be altered in order to see disease expression  Scientists continue to study the causes  For instance, a new mutation for alpha-thalassemia was discovered for the first time among Iranian patients in 2004 
BETA-THALASSEMIA  Most individuals have two normal copies of the beta globin gene, which is located on chromosome 11 and makes the beta globin component of normal adult hemoglobin, hemoglobin A  There are approximately 100 genetic mutations that have been described that cause beta thalassemia, designated as either beta0 or beta + mutations  No beta globin is produced with a beta0 mutation, and only a small fraction of the normal amount of beta globin is produced with a beta + mutation 
When an individual has one normal beta globin gene and one with a beta thalassemia mutation, he or she is said to carry the beta thalassemia trait  Beta thalassemia trait, like other hemoglobin traits, is protective against malaria infection  Trait status is generally thought not to cause health problems, although some women with beta thalassemia trait may have an increased tendency toward anemia during pregnancy 
When two members of a couple carry the beta thalassemia trait, there is a 25% chance that each of their children will inherit beta thalassemia disease by inheriting two beta thalassemia mutations, one from each parent  The clinical severity of the beta thalassemia disease—whether an individual has beta thalassemia intermedia or beta thalassemia major—will depend largely on whether the mutations inherited are beta0 thalassemia or beta + thalassemia mutations  Two beta0 mutations generally lead to beta thalassemia major, and two beta+ thalassemia mutations generally lead to beta thalassemia intermedia  Inheritance of one beta0 and one beta + thalassemia mutation tends to be less predictable 
Although relatively uncommon, there are other thalassemia-like mutations that can affect the beta globin gene  Hemoglobin E is the result of a substitution of a single nucleotide  This change results in a structurally altered hemoglobin that is produced in decreased amounts  Therefore, hemoglobin E is unique in that it is both a quantitative (i e  thalassemia-like) and qualitative trait  When co-inherited with a beta thalassemia trait, it causes a disease that is almost indistinguishable from beta thalassemia disease  Large deletions around and including the beta globin gene can lead to delta/beta thalassemia or hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH)  Interestingly, delta/beta thalassemia trait behaves very similarly to beta thalassemia trait in its clinical manifestations  However, HPFH trait does not tend to cause hemoglobin disease when co-inherited with a second thalassemia or other beta globin mutation 
ALPHA-THALASSEMIA  Most individuals have four normal copies of the alpha globin gene, two copies on each chromosome 16  These genes make the alpha globin component of normal adult hemoglobin, which is called hemoglobin A  Alpha globin is also a component of fetal hemoglobin and the other major adult hemoglobin called hemoglobin A2  Mutations of the alpha globin genes are usually deletions of the gene, resulting in absent production of alpha globin  Since there are four genes (instead of the usual two) to consider when looking at alpha globin gene inheritance, there are several alpha globin types that are possible 
Absence of one alpha globin gene leads to a condition known as silent alpha thalassemia trait  This condition causes no health problems and can be detected only by special genetic testing  Alpha thalassemia trait occurs when two alpha globin genes are missing  This can occur in two ways  The genes may be deleted from the same chromosome, causing the 'cis' type of alpha thalassemia trait  Alternately, they may be deleted from different chromosomes, causing the 'trans' type of alpha thalassemia trait  In both instances, there are no associated health problems, although the trait status may be detected by more routine blood screening 
Hemoglobin H disease results from the deletion of three alpha globin genes, such that there is only one functioning gene  Typically, this can occur when one parent carries the silent alpha thalassemia trait, and the other parent carries the 'cis' type of the alpha thalassemia trait  In this situation, there is a 25% chance for hemoglobin H disease in each of such a couple's children 
Hemoglobin H disease-like symptoms can also be a part of a unique condition called alpha thalassemia mental retardation syndrome  Alpha thalassemia mental retardation syndrome can be caused by a deletion of a significant amount of chromosome 16, affecting the alpha globin genes  This is usually not inherited, but rather occurs sporadically in the affected individual  Affected individuals have mild hemoglobin H disease, mild-to-moderate mental retardation, and characteristic facial features  This syndrome can also occur as a sex-linked form in which a mutation is inherited in a particular gene on the X-chromosome  This gene influences alpha globin production, as well as various other developmental processes  Individuals affected with this form of the syndrome tend to have more severe mental retardation, delayed development, nearly absent speech, characteristic facial features, and genital-urinary abnormalities  The remaining discussion will focus only on aspects of hemoglobin H disease 
Alpha thalassemia major results from the deletion of all four alpha globin genes, such that there are no functioning alpha globin genes  This can occur when both parents carry the 'cis' type of the alpha thalassemia trait  In this situation, there is a 25% chance for alpha thalassemia major in each of such a couple's children 
Beta thalassemia major is characterized by severe anemia that can begin months after birth  In the United States and other developed countries beta thalassemia is identified and treated early and effectively  Therefore, the following discussion of symptoms applies primarily to affected individuals in the past and unfortunately in some underdeveloped countries now  If untreated, beta thalassemia major can lead to severe lethargy, paleness, and delays in growth and development  The body attempts to compensate by producing more blood, which is made inside the bones in the marrow  However, this is ineffective without the needed genetic instructions to make enough functioning hemoglobin  Instead, obvious bone expansion and changes occur that cause characteristic facial and other changes in appearance, as well as increased risk of fractures  Severe anemia taxes other organs in the body—such as the heart, spleen, and liver—which must work harder than usual  This can lead to heart failure, as well as enlargement and other problems of the liver and spleen  When untreated, beta thalassemia major generally results in childhood death, usually due to heart failure  In 2004, the first known heart attack associated with beta thalassemia major was reported  Fortunately, in developed countries diagnosis is usually made early, often before symptoms have begun  This allows for treatment with blood transfusion therapy, which can prevent most of the complications of the severe anemia caused by beta thalassemia major  Individuals with beta thalassemia intermedia have a more moderate anemia that may only require treatment with transfusion intermittently, such as when infections occur and stress the body  As a person with beta thalassemia intermedia gets older, however, the need for blood transfusions may increase to the point that they are required on a regular basis  When this occurs their disease becomes more similar to beta thalassemia major  Other genetic and environmental factors can influence the course of the disease as well  For example, co-inheritance of one or two alpha thalassemia mutations can tend to ameliorate some of the symptoms of beta thalassemia disease, which result in part from an imbalance in the amount of alpha- and beta-globin present in the red blood cells 
Hemoglobin h disease
Absence of three alpha globin genes causes an imbalance of alpha and beta globin proteins in the red blood cells  The excess beta globin proteins tend to come together to form hemoglobin H, which is unable to release oxygen to the tissues  In addition, hemoglobin H tends to precipitate out in the cells, causing damage to the red blood cell membrane  When affected individuals are exposed to certain drugs and chemicals known to make the membrane more fragile, the cells are thought to become vulnerable to breakdown in large numbers, a complication called hemolytic anemia  Fever and infection are also considered to be triggers of hemolytic anemia in hemoglobin H disease  This can result in fatigue, paleness, and a yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of eyes called jaundice  Usually, the anemia is mild enough not to require treatment  Severe anemia events may require blood transfusion, however, and are usually accompanied by such other symptoms as dark feces or urine and abdominal or back pain  These events are uncommon in hemoglobin H disease, although they occur more frequently in a more serious type of hemoglobin H disease called hemoglobin H/Constant Spring disease  Individuals effected with this type of hemoglobin H disease are also more likely to have enlargement of and other problems with the spleen 
Alpha thalassemia major
Because alpha globin is a necessary component of all major hemoglobins and some minor hemoglobins, absence of all functioning alpha globin genes leads to serious medical consequences that begin even before birth  Affected fetuses develop severe anemia as early as the first trimester of pregnancy  The placenta, heart, liver, spleen, and adrenal glands may all become enlarged  Fluid can begin collecting throughout the body as early as the start of the second trimester, causing damage to developing tissues and organs  Growth retardation is also common  Affected fetuses usually miscarry or die shortly after birth  In addition, women carrying affected fetuses are at increased risk of developing complications of pregnancy and delivery  Up to 80% of such women develop toxemia, a disturbance of metabolism that can potentially lead to convulsions and coma  Other maternal complications include premature delivery and increased rates of delivery by cesarean section, as well as hemorrhage after delivery 
Thalassemia may be suspected if an individual shows signs that are suggestive of the disease  In all cases, however, laboratory diagnosis is essential to confirm the exact diagnosis and to allow for the provision of accurate genetic counseling about recurrence risks and testing options for parents and affected individuals  Screening is likewise recommended to determine trait status for individuals of high-risk ethnic groups 
The following tests are used to screen for thalassemia disease and/or trait:
hemoglobin electrophoresis with quantitative hemoglobin A2 and hemoglobin F
free erythrocyte-protoporphyrin (or ferritin or other studies of serum iron levels)
A complete blood count will identify low levels of hemoglobin, small red blood cells, and other red blood cell abnormalities that are characteristic of a thalassemia diagnosis  Since thalassemia trait can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from iron deficiency, tests to evaluate iron levels are important  A hemoglobin electrophoresis is a test that can help identify the types and quantities of hemoglobin made by an individual  This test uses an electric field applied across a slab of gel-like material  Hemoglobins migrate through this gel at various rates and to specific locations, depending on their size, shape, and electrical charge  Isoelectric focusing and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) use similar principles to separate hemoglobins and can be used instead of or in various combinations with hemoglobin electrophoresis to determine the types and quantities of hemoglobin present  Hemoglobin electrophoresis results are usually within the normal range for all types of alpha thalassemia  However, hemoglobin A2 levels and sometimes hemoglobin F levels are elevated when beta thalassemia disease or trait is present  Hemoglobin electrophoresis can also detect structurally abnormal hemoglobins that may be co-inherited with a thalassemia trait to cause thalassemia disease (i e , hemoglobin E) or other types of hemoglobin disease (i e , sickle hemoglobin)  Sometimes DNA testing is needed in addition to the above screening tests  This can be performed to help confirm the diagnosis and establish the exact genetic type of thalassemia 
Diagnosis of thalassemia can occur under various circumstances and at various ages  Several states offer thalassemia screening as part of the usual battery of blood tests done for newborns  This allows for early identification and treatment  Thalassemia can be identified before birth through the use of prenatal diagnosis  Chorionic villus sampling (CVS) can be offered as early as 10 weeks of pregnancy and involves removing a sample of the placenta made by the baby and testing the cells  CVS carries a risk of causing a miscarriage that is between 0 5%-1%  Amniocentesis is generally offered between 15 and 22 weeks of pregnancy, but can sometimes be offered earlier  Two to three tablespoons of the fluid surrounding the baby is removed  This fluid contains fetal cells that can be tested  The risk of miscarriage associated with amniocentesis ranges from 0 33-0 5%  Pregnant woman and couples may choose prenatal testing in order to prepare for the birth of a baby that may have thalassemia  Alternately, knowing the diagnosis during pregnancy allows for the option of pregnancy termination  Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a relatively new technique that involves in-vitro fertilization followed by genetic testing of one cell from each developing embryo  Only the embryos unaffected by sickle cell disease are transferred back into the uterus  PGD is currently available on a research basis only and is relatively expensive 
Individuals with beta thalassemia major receive regular blood transfusions, usually on a monthly basis  This helps prevent severe anemia and allows for more normal growth and development  Transfusion therapy does have limitations, however  Individuals can develop reactions to certain proteins in the blood—called a transfusion reaction



ground_truth: Bigger receptive field size leads to more successful shape completion.

prompt_front: Now, answer the following question based on the text below, only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: How can you level up in the early levels?

Read the following text and answer briefly.

Context 2:  I hear the duration has been reduced  You can't honestly believe I changed my sleeping pattern for the game  I was in California for a month  I was jet lagged  My sleeping pattern was a bit off when I got back  You're not even accurate about when I deploy  Pay attention  You should know this by now: I play as and when I want, sometimes every 20 minutes and sometimes I do long stretches and sometimes I'm busy and don't deploy for hours  You wont always win, and nor will I  Try and get satisfaction form at least trying to win or putting up a good fight  About the limit on cubing  Please  I suggested that last year  Twice  Unfortunately multiscoping is allowed and so prevalent that it kind of ruins the idea  These are the facts: YOU and YOUR side threatened Faceless members who support London  One of the members threatened is actually London based  What do you expect him to do while his city is under attacked? A few of your members don't know when to keep quiet  They sent messages to us threatening specific players and telling them their zones will be dropped just because they have helped London  Basically if they help London then they get their zones wiped  And you have the cheek to call me a bully? We stood up to your members specifically because they were trying to bully  That is the reason we went strong months ago and took those big zones  How is this me bullying you? This is me answering your threats  I didn't attack those zones "just because i can", it's just because I should  Because of your threats  You can blame your members for the loss of those 2 or 3 big zones  These are the basics: You attack one of our zones  We look at the list of attackers and pick one of the players who deployed the most, find a zone of his or hers and attack it  We don't need to justify our attacks with "because there are Faceless players within 30 miles"  What, every time we attack a zone we need to send some letter explaining why? You attack us or we attack you, for any reason  That's the game  When some of you were cheating and you could not win you complained, when you cube and lose you complain, when you invite all of Europe to attack and win you still complain  I just think you like to make a fuss  Last words (for now): You think I attack zones as a means of getting attention? I get enough of it form your threads  The only attention seeker here is you with your victim attitude and pity us posts 
I've had some very angry emails today from a couple users who are upset their rival achieved the ability to switch factions freely having played for one of the factions for only 1 hour  I've been accused of doing favors, changing the rules, and various other backhanded deals  It appears it comes down reading the rules  You do not have to play for every faction for 60 days in order to earn free switching status  Here is a common scenario many players have used to achieve free switching status and avoiding playing for one faction they despise  1  Start with Swarm 2  Switch to Legion (earn Spy) play for 60 days 3  Switch back to Swarm (earn Double Agent) play for 60 days 4  Switch to Faceless (earn Mercenary) immediately switch back to Swarm or Legion Below is the complete text on the switch nanobots screen  It is the same text that has been there from Day 1 with the exception of the level 100 rules that went into place earlier this year, where you could switch as much as you want before level 100 , but those switches don't count towards the medals  This text has been part of this description since Jan 15, 2013  "Players that earn all three spy awards, may once again switch factions at any time as they could during the training levels 1 through 99 " Prior to Jan 15, the text said this  "Players that earn all three awards may be given the opportunity to switch factions more quickly in future updates (contact support for more information)" I pulled that right out of source control, which includes the entire change history  Here is the complete text from this page  http://portal qonqr    r/SwitchFaction WARNING: Defection has consequences! Self-destruct will be initiated on all your nanobots  Without the self-destruct, you would be required to battle against your former self to regain control of your zones  You will lose the capture and leadership of any zones you currently hold  Lifetime captures will be unaffected  If you are still completing the training levels and have not reached Level 100, you may switch as often as you like to find the faction that suits you best  Once you have reached Level 100 switching factions has rewards, but also has additional consequences beyond the self-destruct of all your nanobots  Defection will usually result in a demotion in rank  This is accomplished through awards with negative rank points  Those awards are: Spy - First switch to an opposing faction (-20 points) Double Agent - Return to a faction from which you had previously defected (-20 points) Mercenary - Become a member of all three factions (-20 points) Other Faction Change Details: You may not switch factions again until at least 60 days have passed since your last faction switch  Defection point penalties are applied only once per award Players that earn all three spy awards, may once again switch factions at any time as they could during the training levels 1 through 99  The decision to switch factions is one that must be made with strong determination  Nanobots cannot be reanimated once destroyed  You will retain your earned experience, level, formations, qredits, cubes, and upgrades  However, as far as your zones go, you will be starting over 
   has got to be one of the funniest moments I've seen in qonqr yet lol 
The **** change operation was a success!
As a relatively new player for faceless in a region dominated by swarm i can understand the OP  However, judging from the numbers i see here on a regular basis i think you are asking a bit much  My idea would be the opposite approach  Why not add a weapon with extremely short range, let's say like 5km that acts like a bomb and make it much stronk? That would add some serious home advantage  Or alternativley make attack formations lose power over range (exclude nanos and plasma)  Maybe something like that would allow newcomers to at least get a foothold in their homezones  It's just an idea, maybe i overlooked something?
This is by design  Some day it is possible (I said someday) we could offer skins for your scope  So we will need a uniform color scheme  You can tell the formation families based on the shape of the box  Trapezoid is attack, diamond is defense, and octagon is support  It will take some time to get comfortable with the change 
Geophysical based game  Anyways, probably not a bad idea but, considering the issues with the three platforms and the development of blue for those platforms, I doubt the resources are available for development on a new platform  Seen the blog? Its Qonqr meets wheel of fortune!
I am happy to announce that today I both completed the training and captured my first zone 
^THIS so now that qonqr has been thoroughly funded, can we have blue now? Or is that not happening still lol 
Atleast I am not legion and there for we can have this intelligent discussion rather than just compete over who has the best words XD ohhhhh someone bring the bill to legion cuz someone just served them extra double order of stir fried SNAPPPPPP If the devs wont make zone dueling for us I hope out there somewhere are those who would empty a zone and challenge one on one to a local battle  I'd like to see the transcript of deployments made / moves made as well that would be neat I think such events would be cool  I suppose if people give up on atlantis as it works now they can schedule their own tournements in empty atlantis zones   have a team clear the zone   put 1 vs 1 or teams vs teams   like fisticuffs challenges   find out what these warriors are really made of!
@Qonqrd everyone you know must face palm every time you make a post  Its embarrassing  Mega cubers or whatever you want to call them are not great for the opposing team surrounding them but are great for the game itself (money) and for the team they are part of  Multiscopers are not not great for the opposing team surrounding them and bring nothing to the game but are great for the team they are part of  Both have a negative impact on enemy teams/players but only one benefits the game itself  Both can make people want to quit out of frustration  And that's not great for the game  @OP unlimited refresh is over powered  Its frustrating to fight against a ridiculous amount of refreshes  Unfortunately i dont see anything changing unless this game gets a lot more people playing  More people might mean more money for the company from various sources  More money from various players might mean they can limit the players who spend a ton and still generate a healthy income  The main issue i see with limiting refreshes is someone multiscoping and spending money  He now has two, three, four accounts to refresh with and gets the advantage  Its tricky 
ey dun new ho to yet it uff 
Yet you complain almost everyday here, on your website, Twitter, and YouTube channel that the game needs to change because cubing has such an impact 
It was fun  Swarm had me scared at first, but it turned into kind of a bullying match between us and legion  Last hour became p obvious which way it was gonna go  Legion rly stepped up their game in the end there, respect 
We are investigating this  Here is what we know: Several of the accounts used the same password  Most of the accounts belonged to people who knew each other personally  The accounts were all switched from the same IP Addresses  The person who logged in, got into each account on the first attempt, so they knew the password for each account  What you should know: QONQR never stores passwords, not even in the logs  Passwords are hashed (one way encrypted) and can never be decrypted When you authenticate to our servers, we hash the password you gave us and compare it to the encrypted password in the database to see if they match  Access to our database in the could is restricted tightly and we are confident no one breached the system  What you should do: Don't use the same password as other people you play with  Don't share your password with anyone 
I heard all the French players fled to the UK after one German player accidentally shot a single missile into France 
Most factions now use GroupMe or Line as their means of communication, the forums are too slow as a means of communication and insecure for specific faction conversations  Think of the forums are more of a gaming information resource rather than a means of communication  Contact the top players of your faction in the leader boards of your state and they will likely point you in the right direction to chatting with your local faction  The developers are also building some sort of new chat system into the game, we don't know much about it but apparently beta testing for the chat will be happening very soon (next couple of weeks) according to their timelines 
A way to honor the dead? Nah, how bout a way to dishonor the dead 
Could just build it up and retain their capture  Remember Bizzy, staq to the heavens 
I just read this entire thread  I am now tuckered 
Does anyone know if Bot Booster has an effect on Seekers and how much dmg they do to attacking players? Also on the topic of seekers, does the amount of skeers in a battlefield have any effect on how much damage they do?
Interactive map of real-time zone captures 
You know that is something I didn't factor in there  Time  The player who can consistently and constantly launch wins against the guy who casually picks up the phone on occasion or has to work away from a cell phone for 8 hours  Good point  And yes I can't argue skill doesn't factor in, it just seems like less of a factor than other games is all 
I cant see why a closed forum, open only to registered Qonqr accounts, cant be used  **** spammers!
Gotta love synclock! I suspect linjin has a problem  Maybe the dvs should look into it 
No, Naamah   I clearly understood what you were trying to convey  I'll even go as far as to agree that what your facing now is, while fully allowed and deemed completely acceptable by the developers, unbalanced and wrong  However  the imbalance isn't in the game and isn't something that, from a business standpoint, is likely to be regulated  The game is fair  the advantages are provided to all players  It's the players themselves that throw the balance into chaos because, as you've said, not everyone can afford spending several thousand bucks a year in only one game  Truthfully, in my opinion, the moment you admitted to buying cubes yourself your complaint became silly  because I'm sure there's a player out there, who has bought NO cubes, who can make this same complaint about you that you are making about others here  I know these things because I've read them so   many   times in this forum  There was likely a time, ages ago when I was a young Massune, that I even posted a few myself  That was the purpose of my post  I was poking fun at addition of yet another cuber/bully/trash talk complaint on the forum  It wasn't directed at your personal plight so much as the idea that someone, yet again, finds it necessary to lobby for a spending cap on the only real way for this game to make money  As to your specific problem  you, like all those that have raised this topic before you, have few options to rectify the issue  Here are a few that seem to have worked for others  fight harder, recruit better, spend less time complaining and more time organizing, budget for more cubes or quit  I'd rather not see you opt for the latter  but to each their own 
I agree, we should find a way to honor the dead, but I don't think keeping their towers infinitely is necessarily the solution  The game must go on  I'm pretty sure the point of bot decay was to clear the game of inactive player bots so that new players can have a chance to rise up, not to dishonor the bots of dead players 
The following are frequently asked questions about the new server update (so far) It still says Training Complete on my iPhone  -	Download the update from iTunes It still says Training Complete on my Android  -	Sorry, Android will not be updated again until the QONQR Blue beta is released My XP per launch keeps going down -	This is XP throttling and is intended to limit the ability for people to leve1 from 1 to 100 in a single day through heavy cubing  The XP throttle was introduced with the original version of QONQR in 2012,and the throttle formula is the same for levels above 100  The throttle resets at midnight UTC every day  How do I buy the Bot Regeneration Accelerator? -	Currently the Bot Regen Accelerator can only be purchased through http://portal qonqr com  Go to the Depot and review your scope upgrades  The new QONQR Blue clients will allow for this purchase to be made in the app using your mobile billing  I don’t have a PayPal account -	For users interested in purchasing the Regen upgrade, but who do not have a PayPal account, PayPal does give you the option to checkout using your billing information without creating an account  PayPal is not allowed in my country, or I don’t have a credit or debit card -	Please contact support@QONQR com for alternate options Is Bot Regen Accelerator counted as part of the 100% scope upgrades? -	Yes, but there is a bug that does not increase scope upgrade percent when you purchase this upgrade, that will be fixed in the coming days  For all other questions, please read the 7 blog posts prior to 7/29/2015 for information on what was included in the update today 
Bye Fack, its been a pleasure being allied and against you 
The two big issues that are both killing the game slowly and keeping it from growing exponentially are cube injustice and new player ramp  The game obviously also needs to provide a consistent and growing revenue stream as well  I think Silver needs to rethink how revenue is generated if he is going to address cube injustice and new player ramp  For revenue generation I would suggest a model that doesn't give a significant combat advantages  Download and play for free from level 0-99 Pay small monthly fee to get full functionality or play for free at 50% of offensive/defensive funtionality Still buy cubes, but cubes are used for following: - Credit Boost: harvest more credits for a period of time - Range Extension: ability to use standard attack/defense formations at extended ranges - Base Share: get 100% credit attainment even in bases owned by another faction - Purchase additional ordinance - Zone Name Change - ability to customize zone names  "Breggland" - Faction Change with Bots - pay for the ability to keep up to 50% of your bots with faction change - Experience Boost: %increase in experienced gained while leveling - Other: anything that helps grow a player or provides enjoyment, but doesn't tip the battle capability of a scope  New Player Ramp/Integration into Game - Offer paid immediate ramp package: one price to become 100 with full upgrades - Like the changes in Blue - Create new zones in Metro areas that only 0-99 level can launch into, with statewide ranges Understand that catering to those who have money and like to use it for an advantage is a good business model and for those people it might be ok to offer very expensive options: - Shield generators: temporary energy shield that adds X% increase to defense or stops X% of damage - EMP's: turns Absorbs off for X minutes  Does not destroy, just turns off - Chain Lighting: Does damage across multiple players in a zone From a development standpoint I have no idea what is possible, easy or hard, but the general idea is to make the playing field more fair for the standard player while maintaining and growing a business revenue stream 
You need to come to the Northeast US  We handle our business like no other 



ground_truth: Keep deploying and harvesting your bases to earn experience points and level up quickly.

prompt_front: Now, answer the following question based on the text below, only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What are the symptoms of alpha thalassemia major?

Read the following text and answer briefly.

Context 3:  This can make locating appropriately matched donor blood more difficult  Although blood supplies in the United States are very safe, particularly relative to the past and to other areas of the world, there remains an increased risk of exposure to such blood-borne infections as hepatitis  Additionally, the body is not able to get rid of the excess iron that accompanies each transfusion  An additional medication called desferoxamine is administered, usually five nights per week over a period of several hours, using an automatic pump that can be used during sleep or taken anywhere the person goes  This medication is able to bind to the excess iron, which can then be eliminated through urine  If desferoxamine is not used regularly or is unavailable, iron overload can develop and cause tissue damage and organ damage and failure  The heart, liver, and endocrine organs are particularly vulnerable  Desferoxamine itself may rarely produce allergic or toxic side effects, including hearing damage  Signs of desferoxamine toxicity are screened for and generally develop in individuals who overuse the medication when body iron levels are sufficiently low  Overall, however, transfusion and desferoxamine therapy have increased the life expectancy of individuals with the most severe types of beta thalassemia major to the 4th or 5th decade  This can be expected to improve with time and increased developments in treatment, as well as for those with more mild forms of the disease 
New treatments offer additional options for some individuals with beta thalassemia major  There are various medications that target the production of red blood cells (i e  erythropoeitin) or fetal hemoglobin (i e  hydroxyurea and butyrate)  Their effectiveness in ameliorating the severity of beta thalassemia is currently being investigated  Another promising new treatment is bone marrow transplantation, in which the bone marrow of an affected individual is replaced with the bone marrow of an unaffected donor  If successful, this treatment can provide a cure  However, there is an approximately 10-15% chance the procedure could be unsuccessful (i e  the thalassemia returns); result in complications (i e  graft-versus-host disease); or result in death  The risk for specific individuals depends on current health status, age, and other factors  Because of the risks involved and the fact that beta thalassemia is a treatable condition, transplant physicians require a brother or sister donor who has an identically matched tissue type, called HLA type  HLA type refers to the unique set of proteins present on each individual's cells, which allows the immune system to recognize "self" from "foreign " HLA type is genetically determined, so there is a 25% chance for two siblings to be a match  Transplant physicians and researchers are also investigating ways to improve the safety and effectiveness of bone marrow transplantation  Using newborn sibling umbilical cord blood—the blood from the placenta that is otherwise discarded after birth but contains cells that can go on to make bone marrow—seems to provide a safer and perhaps more effective source of donor cells  Donors and recipients may not have to be perfect HLA matches for a successful transplant using cord blood cells  Trials are also underway to determine the effectiveness of "partial transplants," in which a safer transplant procedure is used to replace only a percentage of the affected individual's bone marrow  Other possible treatments on the horizon may include gene therapy techniques aimed at increasing the amount of normal hemoglobin the body is able to make 
Hemoglobin H disease is a relatively mild form of thalassemia that may go unrecognized  It is not generally considered a condition that will reduce one's life expectancy  Education is an important part of managing the health of an individual with hemoglobin H disease  It is important to be able to recognize the signs of severe anemia that require medical attention  It is also important to be aware of the medications, chemicals, and other exposures to avoid due to the theoretical risk they pose of causing a severe anemia event  When severe anemia occurs, it is treated with blood transfusion therapy  For individuals with hemoglobin H disease, this is rarely required  For those with the hemoglobin H/Constant Spring form of the disease, the need for transfusions may be intermittent or ongoing, perhaps on a monthly basis and requiring desferoxamine treatment  Individuals with this more severe form of the disease may also have an increased chance of requiring removal of an enlarged and/or overactive spleen 
Anemia — A blood condition in which the level of hemoglobin or the number of red blood cells falls below normal values  Common symptoms include paleness, fatigue, and shortness of breath 
Bilirubin — A yellow pigment that is the end result of hemoglobin breakdown  This pigment is metabolized in the liver and excreted from the body through the bile  Bloodstream levels are normally low; however, extensive red cell destruction leads to excessive bilirubin formation and jaundice 
Bone marrow — A spongy tissue located in the hollow centers of certain bones, such as the skull and hip bones  Bone marrow is the site of blood cell generation 
Bone marrow transplantation — A medical procedure used to treat some diseases that arise from defective blood cell formation in the bone marrow  Healthy bone marrow is extracted from a donor to replace the marrow in an ailing individual  Proteins on the surface of bone marrow cells must be identical or very closely matched between a donor and the recipient 
Desferoxamine — The primary drug used in iron chelation therapy  It aids in counteracting the life-threatening buildup of iron in the body associated with long-term blood transfusions 
Globin — One of the component protein molecules found in hemoglobin  Normal adult hemoglobin has a pair each of alpha-globin and beta-globin molecules 
Heme — The iron-containing molecule in hemoglobin that serves as the site for oxygen binding 
Hemoglobin — Protein-iron compound in the blood that carries oxygen to the cells and carries carbon dioxide away from the cells 
Hemoglobin A — Normal adult hemoglobin that contains a heme molecule, two alpha-globin molecules, and two beta-globin molecules 
Hemoglobin electrophoresis — A laboratory test that separates molecules based on their size, shape, or electrical charge 
Hepatomegaly — An abnormally large liver 
HLA type — Refers to the unique set of proteins called human leukocyte antigens  These proteins are present on each individual's cell and allow the immune system to recognize 'self' from 'foreign'  HLA type is particularly important in organ and tissue transplantation 
Hydroxyurea — A drug that has been shown to induce production of fetal hemoglobin  Fetal hemoglobin has a pair of gamma-globin molecules in place of the typical beta-globins of adult hemoglobin  Higher-than-normal levels of fetal hemoglobin can ameliorate some of the symptoms of thalassemia 
Iron overload — A side effect of frequent blood transfusions in which the body accumulates abnormally high levels of iron  Iron deposits can form in organs, particularly the heart, and cause life-threatening damage 
Jaundice — Yellowing of the skin or eyes due to excess of bilirubin in the blood 
Mutation — A permanent change in the genetic material that may alter a trait or characteristic of an individual, or manifest as disease, and can be transmitted to offspring 
Placenta — The organ responsible for oxygen and nutrition exchange between a pregnant mother and her developing baby 
Red blood cell — Hemoglobin-containing blood cells that transport oxygen from the lungs to tissues  In the tissues, the red blood cells exchange their oxygen for carbon dioxide, which is brought back to the lungs to be exhaled 
Screening — Process through which carriers of a trait may be identified within a population 
Splenomegaly — Enlargement of the spleen 
Because alpha thalassemia major is most often a condition that is fatal in the prenatal or newborn period, treatment has previously been focused on identifying affected pregnancies in order to provide appropriate management to reduce potential maternal complications  Pregnancy termination provides one form of management  Increased prenatal surveillance and early treatment of maternal complications is an approach that is appropriate for mothers who wish to continue their pregnancy with the knowledge that the baby will most likely not survive  In recent years, there have been a handful of infants with this condition who have survived long-term  Most of these infants received experimental treatment including transfusions before birth, early delivery, and even bone marrow transplantation before birth, although the latter procedure has not yet been successful  For those infants that survive to delivery, there seems to be an increased risk of developmental problems and physical effects, particularly heart and genital malformations  Otherwise, their medical outlook is similar to a child with beta thalassemia major, with the important exception that ongoing, life-long blood transfusions begin right at birth 
As discussed above, the prognosis for individuals with the most serious types of thalassemia has improved drastically in the last several years following recent medical advances in transfusion, chemo-, and transplantation therapy  Advances continue and promise to improve the life expectancy and quality of life further for affected individuals 
"First Known Heart Attack Associated With Beta-thalassemia Major Reported " Heart Disease Weekly February 22, 2004: 10 
"Novel Alpha-thalassemia Mutations Identified " Hematology Week January 26, 2004: 19 
Children's Blood Foundation  333 East 38th St , Room 830, New York, NY 10016-2745  (212) 297-4336  cfg@nyh med cornell edu 
Cooley's Anemia Foundation, Inc  129-09 26th Ave  #203, Flushing, NY 11354  (800) 522-7222 or (718) 321-2873  http://www thalassemia org 
March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation  1275 Mamaroneck Ave , White Plains, NY 10605  (888) 663-4637  resourcecenter@modimes org  http://www modimes org 
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute  PO Box 30105, Bethseda, MD 20824-0105  (301) 592-8573  nhlbiinfo@rover nhlbi nih gov  http://www nhlbi nih gov 
National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)  PO Box 8923, New Fairfield, CT 06812-8923  (203) 746-6518 or (800) 999-6673  Fax: (203) 746-6481  http://www rarediseases org 
Bojanowski J  "Alpha Thalassemia Major: The Possibility of Long-Term Survival " Pamphlet from the Northern California Comprehensive Thalassemia Center  (1999) 
Children's Hospital Oakland, Northern California Comprehensive Thalassemia Center website  http://www thalassemia com 
Cooley's Anemia Foundation, Inc  website  http://www thalassemia org/gohome html 
Joint Center for Sickle Cell and Thalassemic Disorders website  http://cancer mgh harvard edu/medOnc/sickle htm 
[thal″ah-se´me-ah]
a heterogeneous group of hereditary hemolytic anemias marked by a decreased rate of synthesis of one or more hemoglobin polypeptide chains, classified according to the chain involved (α, β, δ); the two major categories are α- and β-thalassemia 
α-thalassemia (alpha-thalassemia) that caused by diminished synthesis of alpha chains of hemoglobin  The homozygous form is incompatible with life, the stillborn infant displaying severe hydrops fetalis  The heterozygous form may be asymptomatic or marked by mild anemia 
β-thalassemia (beta-thalassemia) that caused by diminished synthesis of beta chains of hemoglobin  The homozygous form is called t  major and the heterozygous form is called t  minor 
thalassemia ma´jor the homozygous form of β-thalassemia, in which hemoglobin A is completely absent; it appears in the newborn period and is marked by hemolytic, hypochromic, microcytic anemia; hepatosplenomegaly; skeletal deformation; mongoloid facies; and cardiac enlargement 
thalassemia mi´nor the heterozygous form of β-thalassemia; it is usually asymptomatic, but there may be mild anemia 
sickle cell–thalassemia a hereditary anemia involving simultaneous heterozygosity for hemoglobin S and thalassemia 
thal·as·se·mi·a
, thalassanemia (thal'ă-sē'mē-ă, thă-las-ă-nē'mē-ă),
Any of a group of inherited disorders of hemoglobin metabolism in which there is impaired synthesis of one or more of the polypeptide chains of globin; several genetic types exist, and the corresponding clinical picture may vary from barely detectable hematologic abnormality to severe and fatal anemia 
[G  thalassa, the sea, + haima, blood]
/thal·as·se·mia/ (thal″ah-se´me-ah) a heterogeneous group of hereditary hemolytic anemias marked by a decreased rate of synthesis of one or more hemoglobin polypeptide chains, classified according to the chain involved (α, β, δ); the two major categories are α- and β-thalassemia 
α-thalassemia that caused by diminished synthesis of alpha chains of hemoglobin  The homozygous form is incompatible with life, the stillborn infant displaying severe hydrops fetalis  The heterozygous form may be asymptomatic or marked by mild anemia 
β-thalassemia that caused by diminished synthesis of beta chains of hemoglobin  The homozygous form is called t  major and the heterozygous form is called t  minor 
thalassemia ma´jor the homozygous form of &#x03B2;, in which hemoglobin A is completely absent; it appears in the newborn period and is marked by hemolytic, hypochromic, microcytic anemia, hepatosplenomegaly, skeletal deformation, mongoloid facies, and cardiac enlargement 
thalassemia mi´nor the heterozygous form of &#x03B2;, usually asymptomatic, although there is sometimes mild anemia 
(thăl′ə-sē′mē-ə)
An inherited form of anemia occurring chiefly among people of Mediterranean descent, caused by faulty synthesis of part of the hemoglobin molecule  Also called Mediterranean anemia 
thal′as·se′mic adj 
[thal′əsē′mē·ə]
Etymology: Gk, thalassa, sea, a + haima, without blood
production and hemolytic anemia characterized by microcytic, hypochromic red blood cells  Thalassemia is caused by inherited deficiency of alpha- or beta-globin synthesis  See also hemochromatosis, hemosiderosis 
Beta thalassemia, clinical thalassemia, Cooley's anemia, Mediterranean anemia, thalassemia major Hematology A group of genetic diseases by underproduction of hemoglobin due to mutations in the beta globin gene, which is more common in Mediterraneans Heredity Parents are carriers–heterozygotes; one in 4 children is homozygous for the mutation and thus has full-blown disease Clinical See Anemia  Cf Sickle cell anemia 
α-thalassemia
Hemoglobin Barts Hematology An inherited condition caused by a defect in the synthesis of the Hb α chain; Hb Barts hemoglobinopathy is characterized by the presence of 4 gamma chains; it is more common in southeast Asians; the most severe form of alpha thalassemia causes stillbirth due to hydrops fetalis Heredity Parents are carriers–heterozygotes; one in 4 children is homozygous for the mutation and thus has full-blown disease Clinical Pallor, fatiguability, FTT, fever, infections, diarrhea Management Transfusions
Thalassemia major Hematology A hemoglobinopathy caused by a defect in the synthesis of Hb β chain Clinical Pallor, fatigability, FTT, fever due to infections, diarrhea, bone deformities, hepatosplenomegaly Management Transfusions, but iron overload can damage the heart, liver, and endocrine systems, ergo iron chelation–early use of deferiprone, deferoxamine ↓ transfusion-related iron overload and may protect against DM, cardiac disease, early death
δ-thalassemia
Hematology A condition characterized by a defect of Hb A2–α2δ2; because Hb A2 comprises only 3% of the circulating Hb, even its complete absence; δ-thalassemia has little clinical or hematologic impact
γ-thalassemia
Hematology A condition characterized by a defect of gamma–γ Hb chains found in Hb F–α2γ2; because Hb F is present primarily in the fetus and newborns, it is rarely seen outside of the neonatal period, but may cause transient neonatal hemolytic anemia 
, thalassanemia (thal'ă-sē'mē-ă, -ă-să-nē'mē-ă)
Any of a group of inherited disorders of hemoglobin metabolism in which there is impaired synthesis of one or more of the polypeptide chains of globin; several genetic types exist, and the corresponding clinical picture may vary from barely detectable hematologic abnormality to severe and fatal anemia  People of Mediterranean, extraction are more often affected than others by this type of anemia 
Synonym(s): thalassaemia, thalassanaemia 
Any of a group of inherited disorders of hemoglobin metabolism with impaired synthesis of one or more polypeptide chains of globin; several genetic types exist 
<a href="https://medical-dictionary thefreedictionary com/Thalassaemia+minor">thalassemia</a>
Barts hemoglobin
beta hemoglobinopathy
beta-delta thalassemia
beta-thalassaemia
Bite Cell
black gallstone
I know of a couple, totally unrelated and unbeknownst to them, who are silent carriers of Thalassaemia minor 
Pakistan: Genetic factor: All in the genes
But, unfortunately, when one person with thalassaemia minor carrier happens to marry another with the same diagnosis, there is a strong possibility that their child would be thalassaemia major, as happened in the case of Taneja 
' My life depends upon a monthly blood transfusion '
0] thalassaemia demonstrates variable severity, ranging from a condition similar to [beta] thalassaemia minor to something approaching thalassaemia major 
A retrospective review of homozygous haemoglobin E patients
Thal, Alan P 
thalame
thalamencephalic
thalamencephalon
thalamic
thalamic fasciculus
thalamic nucleus
thalamic pain syndrome
thalamic peduncle
thalamic radiation
thalamo-
thalamocoele
thalamocortical
thalamocortical fibers
thalamogeniculate artery
thalamolenticular
thalamoperforating artery
thalamostriate radiation
thalamotuberal artery
Thalassaemia minor
thalassaemiaor Cooley's disease
thalassemic facies
thalasso-
Thalassobacter
Thalassobacter utilis
thalassoplankton
thalassoposia
thalidomide neuropathy
Thalidomider
thallium poisoning
Thalarctos
THALAS
Thalasaemia
Thalassaemia Association of Malaysia
thalassaemia major
Thalassaemias
thalassaemic
thalassanaemia
Thalassemia Action Group
Thalassemia Clinical Research Network
thalassemia syndrome



ground_truth: Severe anemia that begins even before birth.