In this work, we address the problem of road interpretation for driver assistance based on an earlycognitivevision system. The structure of a road and the relevant traf?c are interpreted in terms of ego-motion estimation of the car, independently moving objects on the road, lane markers and large scale maps of the road. We make use of temporal and spatial disambiguation mechanisms to increase the reliability of visually extracted 2D and 3D information. This information is then used to interpret the layout of the road by using lane markers that are detected via Bayesian reasoning. We also estimate the ego-motion of the car which is used to create large scale maps of the road and also to detect independently moving objects. Sample results for the presented algorithms are shown on a stereo image sequence, that has been collected from a structured road.
Cognitive rehabilitation is an effective intervention for addressing cognitive impairments in patients with schizophrenia. Previous research has shown that the early application of Cognitive...Full Text Available
Ophthalmologic abnormalities have been described in patients with dementia, but the extent to which poor vision and treatment for visual disorders affect cognitive decline is not well defined. Linked...Full Text Available
The problems in computer vision range from edge detection and segmentation at the lowest level to the problem of cognition at the highest level. This correspondence describes the organization and operation of a semantic network array processor (SNAP) as applicable to high level computer vision problems. The architecture consists of an array of identical cells each containing a content addressable memory, microprogram control, and a communication unit. The applications discussed in this paper are the two general techniques, discrete relaxation and dynamic programming. While the discrete relaxation is discussed with reference to scene labeling and edge interpretation, the dynamic programming is tuned for stereo.
Stargardt-like macular degeneration (STGD3) is an early onset, autosomal dominant macular degeneration. STGD3 is characterized by a progressive pathology, the loss of central vision, atrophy...Full Text Available
BackgroundRecessive mutations in guanylate cyclase-1 (Gucy2d) are associated with severe, early onset Leber congenital amaurosis-1(LCA1). Gucy2d...Full Text Available
Adaptive image processing is one of the most important techniques in visual information processing, especially in earlyvision such as image restoration, filtering, enhancement, and segmentation. This work focuses on applications of advanced CI techniques in image processing applications
The impact of a single seizure on cognition remains controversial. We hypothesized that a single early life seizure (sELS) on rat post-natal day (P) 7 would alter only hippocampal-dependent...Full Text Available
Low-level lead exposure during early childhood has long been associated with altered neurocognitive development and diminished cognitive functions. Over nine thousand U.S. industrial facilities...Full Text Available
Difficulty in recalling the names of people is very common in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease and in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, it is not known whether the difficulty in naming people in MCI reflects problems associated with lexical access or with semantic access. The aims of the present study were to investigate semantic and phonological access to proper names by use of a Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) task in individuals with multidomain amnestic MCI, individuals with amnestic MCI, and healthy controls, as well as to study the relationships between TOT production and performance in a free recall verbal memory test. In the individuals with multidomain amnestic MCI, the main process affected was phonological access; failures in phonological access were related to deficits i...
Background:- Children with oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder (ODD/CD) have shown deficits in -cool- abstract-cognitive, and -hot- reward-related executive function (EF) tasks. However, it is currently unclear to what extent ODD/CD is associated with neuropsychological deficits, independently of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods:- Fifty-nine adolescents with a history of early-onset oppositional problems, 28 with pure ODD/CD symptoms and 31 with ADHD with or without ODD/CD, and 34 healthy controls were administered a task battery measuring motor response inhibition, sustained attention, cognitive flexibility and reward-related decision-making. Findings were analysed using dimensional and group analyses. Results:- In group analyses both groups with and wit...
In this report, I surveyed the cognitive radio technique in wireless networks. Researched several kinds of cognitive techniques about their advantages and disadvantages.
BackgroundThere is need for a cognitive test battery that can be easily used in clinical practice to detect or monitor cognitive performance in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)....Full Text Available
Preterm children born before 32 weeks of gestation represent 1% of the annual births in Switzerland, and are the most at risk of neurodevelopmental disabilities. A neurological surveillance is thus implemented in the neonatal units, and multidisciplinary neurodevelopmental follow-up is offered to all our preterm patients. The follow-up clinics of the University hospitals in Lausanne and Geneva follow the Swiss guidelines for follow-up. An extended history and neurological examination is taken at each appointment, and a standardized test of development is performed. These examinations, which take place between the ages of 3 months and 9 years old, allow the early identification and treatment of developmental disorders frequent in this population, such as motor, cognitive or behavioral disorders, as well as the monitoring of the quality of neonatal care. PMID:21452511
While research on cognitive control has addressed the effects that different forms of cognitive interference have on behavior and the activities of certain brain regions, until recently scientific...Full Text Available
BackgroundCognitive impairment is an age-related condition as the rate of cognitive decline rapidly increases with aging. It is especially important to better understand factors...Full Text Available
A growing body of evidence in cognitive science and neuroscience points towards the existence of a deep interconnection between cognition, perception and action. According to this embodied perspective...Full Text Available
Peripheral vision has been the topic of few studies compared with central vision. Nevertheless, given that visual information covers all the visual field and that relevant information can...Full Text Available
... in this paper is aimed at developing a computer vision system that will be used to automatically grade rough hardwood lumber. The purpose of the computer vision system is to locate and identify grading def...
PURPOSE: The purpose of this investigation was to study vision in albinism from 3 perspectives: first, to determine the characteristics of grating acuity development in children with albinism; second,...Full Text Available
Jun 16, 2011 ... The research is part of a team effort to help the hardwood sawmill industry automate with computer vision systems, and computer-aided or ...
The general goals of this research effort is to explore the potential applications and performance of fine grained computer architectures for vision. The body of this report gives a brief overview of the results of the research during the first twelve mon...
... non- emissive guidance and collision alert, automated transport in dynamic environments, and assembly and inspection. Foveal Vision, Autonomous Agents, ...
Computation and information processing are among the most fundamental notions in cognitive science. They are also among the most imprecisely discussed. Many cognitive scientists take it for granted that cognition involves computation, information processing, or both ? although others disagree vehemently. Yet different cognitive scientists use ?computation? and ?information processing? to mean different things, sometimes without realizing that they do. In addition, computation and information processing are surrounded by several myths; first and foremost, that they are the same thing. In this paper, we address this unsatisfactory state of affairs by presenting a general and theory-neutral account of computation and information processing. We also apply our framework by analyzing the relatio...
To determine the diagnostic accuracy of iofetamine hydrochloride I 123 (IMP) with single photon emission computed tomography in Alzheimer's disease, we studied 58 patients with AD and 15 age-matched healthy control subjects. We used a qualitative method to assess regional IMP uptake in the entire brain and to rate image data sets as normal or abnormal without knowledge of subjects'clinical classification. The sensitivity and specificity of IMP with single photon emission computed tomography in AD were 88% and 87%, respectively. In 15 patients with mild cognitive deficits (Blessed Dementia Scale score, less than or equal to 10), sensitivity was 80%. With the use of a semiquantitative measure of regional cortical IMP uptake, the parietal lobes were the most functionally impaired in AD and the most strongly associated with the patients' Blessed Dementia Scale scores. These results indicated that IMP with single photon emission computed ...
The extended mind thesis (EM) asserts that some cognitive processes are (partially) composed of actions consisting of the manipulation and exploitation of environmental structures. Might some processes at the root of social cognition have a similarly extended structure? In this paper, I argue that social cognition is fundamentally an interactive form of space management-the negotiation and management of "we-space"-and that some of the expressive actions involved in the negotiation and management of we-space (gesture, touch, facial and whole-body expressions) drive basic processes of interpersonal understanding and thus do genuine social-cognitive work. Social interaction is a kind of extended social cognition, driven and at least partially constituted by environmental (non-neural) scaffold...
The visual outcomes of Acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare cause of corneal infection, can be devastating. This paper reports two contact lens wearers with severe pain and photophobia who presented to the emergency room. Biomicroscopy revealed radial keratoneuritis in both individuals. Tissue culture on a nonnutrient agar plate with Escherichia coli overlay resulted in a heavy growth of Acanthamoeba. The inpatient treatment included 0.02% polyhexamethylene biguanide, chlorhexidine, neomycin/polymyxin B/bacitracin (Neosporin), and oral fluconazole, which successfully controlled the corneal infection and improvement in the best corrected visual acuity in both patients. Infection did not recur during the 12-month follow-up period. Acanthamoeba keratitis can present as radial keratoneuritis, mimicking other common corneal infections resulting in diagnostic and treatment delays. Early diagnosis and prudent treatment of Acanthamoeba keratitis are the keys to restoring ...
Delusional beliefs are characteristic of psychosis and, of the delusions, the paranoid delusion is the single most common type associated with psychosis. The many years of research focused on neurocognition in schizophrenia, using standardized neurocognitive tests, have failed to find conclusive cognitive deficits in relation to positive symptoms. However, UK-based psychological research has identified sociocognitive anomalies in relation to paranoid thinking in the form of theory of mind (ToM), causal reasoning and threat-related processing anomalies. Drawing from recent neuroscientific research on the default mode network, this paper asserts that the common theme running through the psychological tests that are sensitive to the cognitive impairment of paranoia is the need to cognitively project the self through time, referred to as mental time travel. Such an understanding of the cognitive roots of ...
ObjectivesTo investigate the effect of group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for fatigue self-management, compared with groups receiving fatigue information alone, on fatigue...Full Text Available
ObjectivesMild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) case-finding criteria have low specificity in general population studies. The present study retrospectively identifies cases...Full Text Available
Background/AimsTo explore different definitions of intra-individual variability (IIV) to summarize performance on commonly utilized cognitive tests (Mini Mental State Exam; Clock...Full Text Available
Recently, G. C. Van Orden, J. G. Holden, and M. T. Turvey (2003) proposed to abandon the conventional framework of cognitive psychology in favor of the...Full Text Available
ObjectiveTo investigate the impact white matter hyperintensities (WMH) detected on MRI have on motor dysfunction and cognitive impairment in non-demented elderly...Full Text Available
The discovery that aerobic exercise increases adult hippocampal neurogenesis and can enhance cognitive performance holds promise as a model for regenerative medicine. This study adds two new...Full Text Available
Dysregulation of glutamate neurotransmission may play a role in cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Manipulation of glutamate signaling using drugs acting at metabotropic glutamate receptors...Full Text Available
While estrogen (E2) is thought to play an important role in age-related cognitive decline, neuronal plasticity, as well as the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (AD), the mechanisms by which...Full Text Available
BackgroundEvent-related potentials (ERPs) may be used as a highly sensitive way of detecting subtle degrees of cognitive dysfunction. On the other hand, impairment of cognitive skills...Full Text Available
Recent studies have reported that cognitive inflexibility associated with impairments in a frontal-striatal circuit and parietal region is a core cognitive deficit of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)....Full Text Available
Part one of this study investigated the effect of aging on social-cognitive characteristics related to physical activity (PA) among adults in the baseline phase of a health promotion...Full Text Available
Objective:This study examined the role of cognitive factors—such as expectancies regarding the consequences of not drinking and perceptions of peer drinking—in...Full Text Available
Traditional approaches to the study of hormones and cognition have been primarily observational or correlational in nature. Because this work does not permit causal relationships to be identified,...Full Text Available
This article considers the appeal of cognitive neuroscience research to the general public within the context of the deep puzzles involved in using our minds to understand how our minds work. It offers a few promising examples of findings that illuminate the ways of the mind and reveal these workings to be counter-intuitive with our subjective experience. However, this promise is tempered by the powerful role that perception, attention, and cognition play in how we reason about evidence. It argues that the interplay between what we believe about the nature of our minds and what the findings suggest constitutes a primary challenge in encouraging public understanding of cognitive neuroscience findings.
... The goal is to understand and describe the work actors do, their information behavior, the context in which they work, and the reasons for their ...
The Vision for Space Exploration will guide NASA's future human and robotic space activities. The broad range of human and robotic missions now being planned will require the development of new system-level capabilities enabled by emerging new technologie...
Many animals use the spectral distribution of light to guide behaviour, but whether they have colour vision has been debated for over a century. Our strong subjective experience of colour and the fact...Full Text Available
This work deals with a rational vision of stratospheric ozone including the threats on ozone layer, the verifications and the fears. After a recalling on the ozone layer history, the authors treats the question of the ultraviolets particularly the beneficial effects. Then an explanation of the ozone layer decrease is given. (O.L.). 29 refs., 6 figs.
Technology Strategy Board Driving Innovation ...Technology Strategy 2009-2012 ... The vision of the Technology Strategy Board is for the UK to be a global leader in innovation
Optimization is a powerful paradigm for expressing and solving problems in a wide range of areas, and has been successfully applied to many vision problems. Discrete optimization techniques are especially interesting since, by carefully exploiting problem structure, they often provide nontrivial guarantees concerning solution quality. In this paper, we review dynamic programming and graph algorithms, and discuss representative examples of how these discrete optimization techniques have been applied to some classical vision problems. We focus on the low-level vision problem of stereo, the mid-level problem of interactive object segmentation, and the high-level problem of model-based recognition. PMID:20660950
In a recent paper, Lowry (1981) described an architecture for a computer vision rectangular processor array that is suitable for VLSI implementation. In this paper the authors review that architecture, discuss extensions to it and present results of an array simulator applied to vision algorithms. They also present an algorithm for re-routing an array with bad processors into a working subset of the array, making it feasible to implement a large array on one wafer-sized chip. 7 references.
Computer vision imposes unique requirements on the representation and manipulation of image data and knowledge. At a vision system's lowest level are sensors that represent an image with purely numeric image arrays, while at the highest level are semantic world models that provide the final interpretation of the scene. In between are thousands of intermediate descriptions, many of which must be repeatedly accessed and processed during interpretation. In this article, the authors describe a representation and management system for use at the intermediate (symbolic) level of vision. Based on database management methodology, the intermediate symbolic representation (ISR) mediates access to intermediate-level vision data and forms an active interface to the higher-level inference processes that construct an image's interpretation. The system supports important types of data and operations ...
A promising drug target currently under investigation to improve cognitive deficits in neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders is the neuronal nicotinic alpha7 acetylcholine receptor (a7nAChR). Improving cognitive impairments in diseases such as Alzheimer's (AD) and schizophrenia remains a large unmet medical need, and the a7nAChR has many properties that make it an attractive therapeutic target. The a7nAChR is a ligand gated ion channel that has particularly high permeability to Ca^2^+ and is expressed in key brain regions involved in cognitive processes (e.g., hippocampus). The a7nAChRs are localized both pre-synaptically, where they can regulate neurotransmitter release, and post-synaptically where they can activate intracellular signaling cascades and influence downstream processes...
... And those who study cognition select problems (eg, tower of Hanoi, missionaries and cannibals, logic theorems) with minimal perceptual and motor ...
The identification of individuals at risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is essential for the timely administration of treatment approaches aimed at slowing the onset or progression of the disease....Full Text Available
We investigate opportunistic cooperation between unlicensed secondary users and legacy primary users in a cognitive radio network. Specifically, we consider a model of a cognitive network where a secondary user can cooperatively transmit with the primary user in order to improve the latter's effective transmission rate. In return, the secondary user gets more opportunities for transmitting its own data when the primary user is idle. This kind of interaction between the primary and secondary users is different from the traditional dynamic spectrum access model in which the secondary users try to avoid interfering with the primary users while seeking transmission opportunities on vacant primary channels. In our model, the secondary users need to balance the desire to cooperate more (to create more transmission opportunities) with the need for maintaining sufficient energy levels for their own transmissions. Such a model is applicable in the ...
The present study investigated the association of mothers’ marriage and changes in young adolescents’ cognitive and socioemotional development and changes in family processes....Full Text Available
Amotivation is a telling hallmark of negative symptomatology in schizophrenia, and it impacts nearly every facet of behavior, including inclination to attempt the difficult cognitive tasks involved...Full Text Available
Cerebral periventricular white matter injury stands as a leading cause of cognitive, behavioral and motor impairment in preterm infants. There is epidemiological and histopathological evidence...Full Text Available
SynopsisAttention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a valid and impairing psychological disorder that persists into adulthood in a majority of cases and is associated...Full Text Available
The importance of designating criteria for diagnosing dementia lies in its implications for clinical treatment, research, caregiving, and decision-making. Dementia diagnosis in Huntington's...Full Text Available
She completed Northern Arizona University's post-baccalaureate program, and received her M.E.d from Arizona State University with a focus in cognitive ...
Two experiments are reported on the influence of cognitive aging on grammatical choice in language production. In both experiments, participants from two age-groups (young and old) produced...Full Text Available
Stargardt`s disease (MIM 248200), originally described in 1909, is an autosomal recessive condition of childhood, characterized by a sudden and bilateral loss of central vision. Typically, it has an early onset (7 to 12 years), a rapidly progressive course and a poor final outcome. The central area of the retina (macula) displays pigmentary changes in a ring form with depigmentation and atrophy of the retinal pigmentary epithelium (RPE). Perimacular yellowish spots, termed fundus flavimaculatus, are observed in a high percentage of patients. We have recently reported the genetic mapping of Stargardt`s disease to chromosome 1p13. On the other hand, considering that fundus flavimaculatus (MIM 230100) is another form of fleck fundus disease, with a Stargardt-like retinal aspect but with a late-onset and a more progressive course, we decided to test the hypothesis of allelism between typical Stargardt`s disease and late-onset autosomal recessive ...
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in young children may provide information about the development of the visual cortex, and may have predictive value for later visual performance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of fMRI for examining cerebral processing of vision in very young infants and in infants with brain damage. We examined 15 preterm infants, 12 children suspected of having a cerebral visual impairment and 10 children with a normal visual system, all of whom were either spontaneously asleep or sedated with chloral hydrate. Cortical response to stroboscopic light stimulation could be demonstrated in all technically acceptable data sets from children with a post-menstrual age (PMA) of > 41 weeks, but not in younger infants. Children < 60 weeks PMA showed either a blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal increase or decrease, while all older children showed a signal decrease. The activated cortical volumes showed ...
The high incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer have stimulated research for prevention, early diagnosis and appropriate treatment. DNA ploidy status of tumour cells is an important parameter with diagnostic and prognostic significance. In the current study, DNA ploidy analysis was performed using image cytometry technique and digital image processing and analysis. Tissue samples from prostate patients were stained using the Feulgen method. Images were acquired using a digital imaging microscopy system consisting of an Olympus BX-50 microscope equipped with a color CCD camera. Segmentation of such images is not a trivial problem because of the uneven background, intensity variations within the nuclei and cell clustering. In this study specific algorithms were developed in Matlab based on the most prominent image segmentation approaches that emanate from the field of Mathematical Morphology, focusing on region-based watershed segmentation. First biomedical ...
The extent to which the effect of risk factors on cognitive ageing is dependent on APOE ε4 remains unclear. The objective of this study is to examine whether APOE ε4 allele modifies...Full Text Available
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post proceedings of the international workshop Computer Vision Approaches to Medical Image Analysis, CVAMIA 2006, held in Graz, Austria in May 2006 as a satellite event of the 9th European Conference on Computer Vision, EECV 2006. The 10 revised full papers and 11 revised poster papers presented together with 1 invited talk were carefully reviewed and selected from 38 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on clinical applications, image registration, image segmentation and analysis, and the poster session. (orig.)
Introducing intelligence by means of cognition for managing, protecting, processing, and delivering of information in mobile communication systems is the way towards ubiquitous, converged and secure communications. In this context, this paper introduces the concept of quality of information (QoI). QoI means QoS while all the requirements for dependability, security, privacy and trust are satisfied at the highest possible level. This work proposes and describes an approach to network monitoring in a heterogeneous communication environment based on use of cognitive techniques and learning predictive algorithms (e.g., fuzzy logic). These methodologies are used to create an autonomy in the decision making process that is based on the calculation of key performance indicators (KPIs), which in their turn would trigger the needed radio resource management algorithms. The expected output is an improved network performance in terms of maximized ...
... United States, there are 14 million people with diabetes and while most will not lose their vision ... good deal higher among people with Type I diabetes -- the type that usually begins in childhood and ...
... Secondly, the electrode- tissue interface may have ... stimulation of the optic nerve in a ... Ocular Electronic Vision Prosthesis, Australasian Ophthalmic ...
Jul 15, 2004 ... Responding to the recommendations of the President's Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy, NASA is teaming ...
A case of intraocular coenurosis was clinically diagnosed and treated with praziquantel. The drug destroyed the coenurus, but vision was lost through toxic endophthalmitis and retinal detachment. There...Full Text Available
... Science, Computer Vision, Digital Government, Digital Libraries, Digital Society and Technologies ... for Robust Intelligence, Digital Government, and Digital Libraries and Archives. In subsequent years ...
Primates are remarkably good at recognizing objects. The level of performance of their visual system and its robustness to image degradations still surpasses the best computer vision systems despite...Full Text Available
The use of computer vision to detect, measure, and perhaps guide the assembly of man-made components is potentially a very significant research and development area. The efficacy of these techniques for any given application depends on both technical and economic considerations. This paper will explore both these considerations using appropriate generic examples. It is our goal to first present a concise discussion of the present state of many technical and economic factors and then extrapolate these factors into the future for the purpose of guiding further investigations.
The computer vision approach to image analysis is discussed from two aspects. First, this approach is constrasted to the pattern recognition approach. Second, how external knowledge and information and models from other fields of science and engineering can be used for image and scene analysis is discussed. In particular, the connections between computer vision and computer graphics are pointed out.
This paper demonstrates how maglev technology solves the classic problem of integrating two airports in a metropolitan area. So far, this has never been attempted because the mode of transportation that could handle this challenge effectively had not been invented yet. This also means that maglev technology is no longer 'the solution in search of a problem'. (orig.)
Objective A number of effective treatments for bulimia nervosa have been developed, but they are infrequently used, in part due to problems with dissemination. The goal of this study was to examine the cost effectiveness of telemedicine delivery of cognitive behavioral therapy for bulimia nervosa. Method A randomized controlled trial of face-to-face versus telemedicine cognitive behavioral therapy for bulimia nervosa. One hundred twenty eight women with DSM-IV bulimia nervosa or eating disorder, not otherwise specified subsyndromal variants of bulimia nervosa were randomized to 20 sessions of treatment over 16 weeks. A cost effectiveness analysis from a societal perspective was conducted. Results The total cost per recovered (abstinent) subject was $9324.68 for face-to-face CBT, and $7300....
Orientation in the environment can draw on a variety of cognitive strategies. We asked 634 healthy volunteers to perform a comprehensive battery administered through an internet website (www.gettinglost.ca), testing different orientation strategies in virtual environments to determine the effect of age and gender upon these skills. Older participants (46-67years of age) performed worse than younger participants (18-30 or 31-45years of age) in all orientation skills assessed, including landmark recognition, integration of body-centered information, forming association between landmarks and body turns, and the formation and use of a cognitive map. Among all tests, however, the ability to form cognitive maps resulted to be the significant factor best at predicting the individuals' age group. ...
Abstract In this paper, a Cognitive Radio Based Medium Access Control (CR-MAC) protocol for Wireless Sensor Body Area Networks (WSBAN) that utilizes cognitive radio transmission is proposed. In this proposal, the sensor nodes are classified into nodes of life-critical health information and nodes of non-critical health information. The CR-MAC protocol prioritizes the critical packets access to the transmission medium by transmitting them with higher power while transmitting lower priority packets using lower transmission power. At the receiver, a higher priority packet experiences collision only when there are more than one critical packet transmission at the same transmission slot while non critical packets experience collision when there are more than one transmission at the same transmi...
A critical research priority for our field is to develop treatments that enhance cognitive functioning in schizophrenia and thereby attenuate the functional losses associated with the illness. In this...Full Text Available
Estrogens have direct effects on the brain areas controlling cognition. One of the most studied of these regions is the dorsal hippocampal formation, which governs the formation of spatial and...Full Text Available
Background: Patients with a typical depression are more likely to respond to monoamine oxidase inhibitors than to tricyclic antidepressants. They are frequently offered psychotherapy...Full Text Available
BackgroundOne of the more common behavioral manifestations of dementia-related disorders is severe problems with out-of-home mobility. Various efforts have been attempted to attain...Full Text Available
Understanding the mechanisms whereby information encoded within patterns of action potentials is deciphered by neurons is central to cognitive psychology. The multiprotein complexes formed by...Full Text Available
The cognitive deficits associated with HIV-1 infection are thought to primarily reflect neuropathophysiology within the fronto-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits. Prospective memory (ProM) is...Full Text Available
RationalePrevious research has shown that rats exposed perinatally to phencyclidine (PCP) exhibited neuroanatomical abnormalities and altered cognition. In addition...Full Text Available
The empirical evidence that human color categorization exhibits some universal patterns beyond superficial discrepancies across different cultures is a major breakthrough in cognitive science. As observed...Full Text Available
BackgroundThere are no drugs presently available to treat traumatic brain injury (TBI). A variety of single drugs have failed clinical trials suggesting a role for drug combinations....Full Text Available
Many mathematically gifted adolescents are characterized as being indolent, underachieving and unsuccessful despite their high cognitive ability. This is often due to difficulties with social and emotional...Full Text Available
Less than half of older adults with depression achieve remission with antidepressant medications, and rates of remission are even poorer for those with comorbid conditions. Psychosocial interventions...Full Text Available
Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common cause of degenerative dementia after Alzheimer's disease (AD), and is clinically characterized by the progressive cognitive decline with fluctuations...Full Text Available
Objective:The aim of this study was to determine if there were focal cortical abnormalities in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) using neuropsychological investigations and MRI.Methods:Twenty-eight...Full Text Available
Cognitive decline has been described in elderly patients with schizophrenia, but the underlying pathology remains unknown. Some studies report increases in plaques and neurofibrillary tangles,...Full Text Available
The common factor that underlies several types of functional brain imaging is the electric current of masses of dendrites. The prodigious demands for the energy that is required to drive the...Full Text Available
ObjectiveIn the context of the importance of valid self-report measures to research and evidence-based practice in social work, an argument-based approach to validity...Full Text Available
The overarching goal of medical training is to nurture the growth of knowledgeable, caring and insightful clinicians guided by the ideals of medical professionalism. Recent definitions of professional...Full Text Available
This paper aims to highlight ways in which basic research findings in the field of childhood and adolescent depression can help to inform and refine preventive intervention efforts. We selectively review...Full Text Available
Brain, Mind and Consciousness are the research concerns of psychiatrists, psychologists, neurologists, cognitive neuroscientists and philosophers. All of them are working in different and important...Full Text Available
BackgroundMutations of the amyloid precursor protein gene (APP) are found in familial forms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and some lead to the elevated production...Full Text Available
179 cognitively healthy adults enrolled in the Sun Health Brain Donation program between 7/91 and 12/07 were at least 60 years old and nondemented at the time of death (21 had developed mild...Full Text Available
Hunger, thirst and satiety have an enormous influence on cognition, behavior and development, yet we often take for granted that they are simply inborn or innate. Converging data and theory...Full Text Available
Decreased cognitive performance reduces independence and quality of life for aging individuals. Healthy brain aging does not involve significant neuronal loss, but little is known about the...Full Text Available
AbstractObjective To review studies investigating the brain correlates of unawareness of cognitive and behavioural symptoms in people with dementia. Design A detailed search of the literature was conducted to include all the peer-reviewed studies published in English aimed at identifying the structural or functional brain correspondents of unawareness in dementia patients. Their results were interpreted in relation to the methodological differences in terms of type of dementia studied, the protocol adopted to measure lack of awareness, the imaging techniques employed, the experimental designs and statistical analyses performed. Results Eighteen studies undertaken to explore the functional and structural correlates of unawareness of cognitive symptoms in dementia were identified. Although t...
Laser safety standards and eye protection (filters) are designed to limit ocular exposures to prevent retinal lesions, yet eyesafe laser exposures can disrupt vision by causing glare and flashblindness. Protective filters can have opposing effects on vision function. They reduce laser exposures but also reduce task luminance and contrast. Filters alone may interfere with vision and consequently reduce work safety and performance. It is therefore important to be able to predict the effects of both laser exposures and protective filters to assess trade-offs between protection and visual function. This paper briefly reviews the methods, concepts, and experimental database used in our laboratory to predict laser, filter, and laser-plus-filter effects on tasks involving visual detection. The modeling approach uses estimates of the spatial distribution of light in the retinal image of the laser source to predict glare, ...
As a condition of accession into the European Union (EU), Lithuania is committed to the closure and decommissioning of Ignalina NPP comprising two RBMK-1500 reactor units (Fig. 1). It was agreed in a special protocol to the Accession Treaty that, in return for adequate EU financial assistance, Unit 1 would be closed before 2005 and Unit 2 by the end of 2009. The first unit was duly shut down on December 31, 2004. Lithuania, which has borders with Russia (Kaliningrad territory), Poland, Latvia and Belarus, spent fifty years as part of the Soviet Union and was deeply integrated into its economy and electrical infrastructure. At the break-up of the USSR, Lithuania inherited electricity generating capacity designed to supply the north-west region including ownership of Ignalina NPP located in the north-east of the country. Ignalina NPP Unit 1 was commissioned in 1983, Unit 2 in 1987; the planned lifespan of each unit was 30 years. Construction of a third unit was started but never ...
The capacity to estimate the head pose of another person is a common human ability that presents a unique challenge for computer vision systems. Compared to face detection and recognition, which have been the primary foci of face-related vision research, identity-invariant head pose estimation has fewer rigorously evaluated systems or generic solutions. In this paper, we discuss the inherent difficulties in head pose estimation and present an organized survey describing the evolution of the field. Our discussion focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of each approach and spans 90 of the most innovative and characteristic papers that have been published on this topic. We compare these systems by focusing on their ability to estimate coarse and fine head pose, highlighting approaches that are well suited for unconstrained environments. PMID:19229078
ObjectivesThe vision The Centre's vision is a rural transformation in the developing world where smallholder households massively increase their use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve their food security, nutrition, income, health, shelter, energy resources and environmental sustainability. This vision is founded upon three basic tenets: 1. The growing importance of trees and treebased systems in sustaining livelihoods and agroecosystems; 2. The Centre's experience and comparative adv [continued...]DescriptionBackground: The International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) was created in response to a visionary study in the mid-1970s led by forester John Bene of Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The study coined the term 'agroforestry' and called for global recognition of the key role trees play on farms. This led to the establishment of ICRAF in 1978 to promote agroforestry ...
Proper balance control is a key aspect of acitivities of daily living. The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of body weight to predict balance stability. The balance stability of 59 male subjects with BMI ranging from 17.4 to 63.8kg/m2 was assessed using a force platform. The subjects were tested with and without vision. A stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to determine the independent effect of body weight, age, body height and foot length on balance stability (i.e., mean speed of the center of foot pressure). With vision, the stepwise multiple regression revealed that body weight accounted for 52% of the variance of balance stability. The addition of age contributed a further 3% to explain balance control. Without vision, body weight accounted for 54% of the...
Transcription for a hybrid SV40 promoter-beta globin coding sequence recombinant initiates from both early-early (EE) and late-early (LE) SV40 start sites (EES and LES) in the absence of DNA replication....Full Text Available
Sensory rhodopsins (SRs) belong to a subfamily of heptahelical transmembrane proteins containing a retinal chromophore. These photoreceptors mediate the cascade of vision in animal eyes and phototaxis...Full Text Available
BackgroundDiabetic macular edema (DME) is one of the manifestations of diabetic retinopathy leading to loss of central vision and visual acuity. It manifests itself with swelling...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe variety of ways in which faces are categorized makes face recognition challenging for both synthetic and biological vision systems. Here we focus on two face processing...Full Text Available
... CT angiograph for the peripheral rteries. a beautiful 3D-vision on the structures inside e chest. Okay. ... have an angled camera here. This is a 3D camera, and the surgeon has got th What ...
This paper describes the deliverables framework developed by Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in its IAIMS planning process. The key deliverables include: visions for the future; mission,...Full Text Available
Uncertainty in computer vision can arise at various levels. It can occur in the low level in the raw sensor input, and extends all the way through intermediate and higher levels. Ideally, at any level where decisions are being made on the basis of previous processing steps, a computer vision system must have sufficient flexibility for representation of uncertainty in any of these levels. The input cue representation portion of a computer vision system should maintain the information content of the original input images, while at the same time allowing for uncertainty in the identification of attributes required by other parts of the system for decision making. Processes such as edge detection, segmentation, and shape matching yield results which could bias higher level decision making, unless some framework is defined for the representation of uncertainty in the context of fuzzy set theory where membership values associated ...
BackgroundRetinitis pigmentosa (RP) is characterized by progressive night blindness, visual field loss, altered vascular permeability and loss of central vision. Currently there...Full Text Available
PurposeRetinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder characterized by progressive loss of vision. The aim of this study was to identify the causative mutations...Full Text Available
It is still a vision at the time being, but wind power and electric cars may complement each other efficiently: Batteries are charged when the power demand of the grid has been saturated. In case of sudden demand peaks, the stored power is transmitted back into the grid. (orig.)
Using the photopigment melanopsin, intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) respond directly to light to drive circadian clock resetting and pupillary constriction. We now...Full Text Available
To keep up with the speeds of modern production lines, most machine vision applications require very powerful computers (often parallel-processing machines), which process millions of points of data in real time. The human brain performs approximately 100 billion logical floating-point operations each second. That is 400 times the speed of a Cray-1 supercomputer. The right software must be developed for parallel-processing computers. The NSF has awarded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, N.Y.) a $2 million grant for parallel- and image-processing software research. Over the last 15 years, Rensselaer has been conducting image-processing research, including work with high-definition TV (HDTV) and image coding and understanding. A similar NSF grant has been awarded to Michigan State University (East Lansing, Mich.) Neural networks are supposed to emulate human learning patterns. These networks and their hardware implementations (neurocomputers) show a great deal ...
Background & objectives:Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) is a painful and vision-threatening ocular infection. The differentiation of Acanthamoeba...Full Text Available
Double cones (DCs) are the most common cone types in fish, reptiles and birds. It has been suggested that DCs are used for achromatic tasks such as luminance, motion and polarization vision. Here we...Full Text Available
A century ago, Cajal noted striking similarities between the neural circuits that underlie vision in vertebrates and flies. Over the past few decades, structural and functional studies have...Full Text Available
Conceptual documents like Joint Vision 2010 (JV 2010), the Concept for Future Joint Operations (CFJO), and the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) postulate that advances in technology and information superiority will revolutionize the way military force...
Even in healthy individuals, aging leads to deterioration in visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual field, and dark adaptation. Little is known about the neural mechanisms that drive the...Full Text Available
Developing cortex generates endogenous activity that modulates the formation of functional units, but how this activity is altered to support mature function is poorly understood. Using recordings...Full Text Available
Aim:To compare the effect of intravitreal bevacizumab and triamcinolone in patients with macular edema after central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), presenting with poor...Full Text Available
This report describes an improved method of remotely identifying irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies. The method uses existing in-cell TV cameras to input an image of the notch-coded top of the fuel assemblies into a computer vision system, which then produces the identifying number for that assembly. This system replaces systems that use either a mechanical mechanism to feel the notches or use human operators to locate notches visually. The system was developed for identifying fuel assemblies from the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) and the Clinch River Breeder Reactor, but could be used for other reactor assembly identification, as appropriate.
A primary goal of noninvasive studies of human vision is to identify and characterize multiple visual areas in the human brain analogous to those identified in studies of nonhuman primates. By combining functional MEG measurements with images of individual anatomy derived from MRI, the authors hope to determine the location and arrangement of multiple visual areas in human cortex and to probe their functional significance. The authors have identified several different visual areas thus far which appear to be topographically organized. This paper focuses on the retinotopic characterization of the primary visual area (V1) in humans.
Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share genetic risk, brain vulnerability, and clinical symptoms. The ZNF804A risk variant, rs1344706, confers susceptibility for both disorders. This study aimed to identify neural mechanisms common to both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder through this variant's potential effects on cortical thickness, white matter tract integrity, and cognitive function. Imaging, genetics, and cognitive measures were ascertained in 62 healthy adults aged between 18 and 59 years. High-resolution multimodal MRI/DTI imaging was used to measure cortical thickness and major frontotemporal and interhemispheric white matter tracts. The general linear model was used to examine the influence of the ZNF804A rs1344706 risk variant on cortical thickness, white matter tract integrity, and cognitive measures. Individuals homozygous for the risk variant ('A' allele) demonstrated reduced cortical gray matter thickness ...
Controls of welds by radiographies are an efficient non destructive technique but it can be dangerous if not managed following a strict set of rules. EDF acts to avoid risks via several ways (adapted tools, best practices) and seeks for an integration of the radiographies with respect to the other maintenance operations, in order to raise the ratio of availability of the electricity production unit. This study explores an original analysis of industrial radiography: the influence of the representations of the workplace and its utilizations. This document supports the utilization of some space constraints as explanations of difficulties in the industrial radiography activity. The document proposes innovative points of view coming for on-site observations and from a theoretical background 'cognitive sciences' completed by technical propositions. (author)
Previous work shows the presence of scale invariance and long-range correlations in ongoing and spontaneous activity of large scale brain responses (i.e. EEG), and such scaling behavior can also be modulated by simple sensory stimulus. However, little is known whether such alteration but not destruction in scaling properties also occurs during complex cognitive processing and if neuroplasticity plays any role in mediating such changes. In this study, we addressed these issues by investigating scaling properties of multivariate EEG signals obtained from two broad groups - artists and non-artists - while they performed complex tasks of perception and mental imagery of visual art objects. We found that brain regions showing increased correlation properties from rest were similar for both tasks, suggesting that brain networks responsible for visual perception are reactivated for mental imagery. Further, we observed that the two groups could be differentiated by scaling ...
Cerebral blood flow (CBF) was measured by the "1"3"3Xe inhalation method in patients with multi-infarct dementia (MID, N = 26), Alzheimer's dementia (AD, N = 19), and among age-matched, neurologically normal, healthy volunteers (N = 26). Cognitive performance was assessed in all subjects using the Cognitive Capacity Screening Examination (CCSE). Cerebral vasomotor responses were calculated from differences in values of mean hemispheric gray matter blood flow (Delta CBF) measured during inhalation of 100% oxygen (hyperoxia) compared with CBF measured while breathing room air. Significant correlations were found between CCSE performance and vasomotor responsiveness in patients with MID (P less than .01), but not in patients with AD or in neurologically normal volunteers. Loss of vasomotor responsiveness is an indicator of cerebrovascular disease with rigidity and/or loss of reactivity of cerebral vessels, which impairs cerebrovascular responses ...
Abstract Normal human aging is accompanied by progressive brain tissue loss and cognitive decline; however, several factors are thought to influence brain aging. We applied tensor-based morphometry to high-resolution brain MRI scans to determine whether educational level or physical activity was associated with brain tissue volumes in the elderly, particularly in regions susceptible to age-related atrophy. We mapped the 3D profile of brain volume differences in 226 healthy elderly subjects (130F/96M; 77.9 3.6 SD years) from the Cardiovascular Health Study-Cognition Study. Statistical maps revealed the 3D profile of brain regions whose volumes were associated with educational level and physical activity (based on leisure-time energy expenditure). After controlling for age, sex, and physical...
Rationale Smokers report enhanced concentration after cigarette smoking and difficulty concentrating when abstinent from smoking. These perceived effects may contribute to smoking cessation failures, and if so, clarification of their cognitive bases could inform treatment strategies. Selective attention may be important in this regard, but earlier literature presents inconsistent findings on how smoking abstinence and resumption of smoking influence this cognitive function. Objectives We aimed to compare smokers and nonsmokers on selective attention, and in smokers, to test the effects of overnight abstinence from smoking and of acute smoking on selective attention. Materials and methods Smokers and nonsmokers (n?=?43) performed a Stroop test (two test days, two test blocks per day). Smoke...
BackgroundDue to the high morbidity and mortality of fulminant hepatitis, early diagnosis followed by early effective treatment is the key for prognosis improvement. So far, little...Full Text Available
Citation information: Rosenfield M. Computer vision syndrome: a review of ocular causes and potential treatments. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt 2011, 31, 502-515. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-1313.2011.00834.x ABSTRACT: Computer vision syndrome (CVS) is the combination of eye and vision problems associated with the use of computers. In modern western society the use of computers for both vocational and avocational activities is almost universal. However, CVS may have a significant impact not only on visual comfort but also occupational productivity since between 64% and 90% of computer users experience visual symptoms which may include eyestrain, headaches, ocular discomfort, dry eye, diplopia and blurred vision either at near or when looking into the distance after prolonged computer use. This paper reviews the principal ocular causes for this condition, namely oculomotor anomalies and dry eye. Accommodation and ...
Recessive mutations of the early phase change (epc) gene in maize affect several aspects of plant development. These mutations were identified initially because of...Full Text Available
Laser applications have proliferated in recent years and, as to be expected, their presence is no longer confined to the laboratory or places where access to their radiation can be easily controlled. One obvious application where this is so is in military operations where various devices such as laser range finders, target designators, and secure communications equipment elevate the risk of exposure, specifically eye exposure, to unacceptable levels. Although the need for eye protection in the laboratory and other controlled areas has been appreciated since the invention of the laser, the use of lasers in circumstances where safety or the risk of temporary loss of vision, which can not always be ensured by administrative procedures, has made adequate eye protection essential. It is the critical nature of many military operations that has driven the search for eye protection against both nuclear and laser radiation. At the same time, the requirement to maintain ...
We describe a closed-loop brain-computer interface that re-ranks an image database by iterating between user generated 'interest' scores and computer vision generated visual similarity measures. The interest scores are based on decoding the electroencephalographic (EEG) correlates of target detection, attentional shifts and self-monitoring processes, which result from the user paying attention to target images interspersed in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) sequences. The highest scored images are passed to a semi-supervised computer vision system that reorganizes the image database accordingly, using a graph-based representation that captures visual similarity between images. The system can either query the user for more information, by adaptively resampling the database to create additional RSVP sequences, or it can converge to a 'done' state. The done state includes a final ranking of the image database and also a 'guess' of the ...
Abstract Clonidine Extended Release Augmentation of Psychostimulants in ADHD ADHD a Risk Factor for Substance Abuse; Cognitive Deficits Not a Predictor Commentary on Kollins et al.; Clonidine XR Augmentation for ADHD Pharmacologic Treatment of Childhood Insomnias Effects of Guanfacine Extended Release on Alertness in ADHD Long Term ADHD Drug Treatment Bipolar Disorder Rates Similar Across Selected Countries Group CBT Alone or Group CBT Plus SSRIs in Childhood Anxiety Resolution of Quetiapine-Induced Oral Dyskinesia From the FDA
α7 neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (α7-nAChR) form Ca2+-permeable homopentameric channels modulating cortical network activity and cognitive processing....Full Text Available
... Based in the Philippines, it has a broad remit, covering all philosophical topics, but with a particular focus on analytic ...net/ Cultura is a Romanian-based international journal devoted to philosophy of culture and axiology (the study of value). It aims ...edu/ Aporia is an online undergraduate philosophy journal based at Brigham Young University in Utah, USA. All articles are written by undergraduates,...edu/pcs/basic.html Theoretical and Conceptual Advances in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Self Representation: Representations of the Minimal Self in Self-Narrative is ...
Computing Networks (CNs) are defined. These are used to generalize neural and swarm architectures, namely artificial neural networks, ant colony optimization, and particle swarm optimization. The description of these architectures as CNs allows their comparison, distinguishing which properties enable them to perform complex computations and exhibit complex cognitive abilities. In this context, the most relevant characteristics of CNs are the existence multiple dynamical and functional scales.
Metadata can be used to support accessibility in connection with improved discovery. ...certain metadata elements provide information about what capabilities are needed--either perceptual-motor, cognitive, socio-economic or geographic--to make use of a resource. This cam improve the ability of users who are disadvantaged in these ways to find resources that meet their needs--and avoid ones [resources] that do not.
The key to the future for electric utilities will not be found in legislation or regulation. Title VII of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 will prove to be just as ineffectual in improving the industry's position as was the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978. These legislative palliatives, which produced so much commotion and so many reams of heated commentary, are largely irrelevant to a successful future for electric utilities. The key will be found in economics, not in law, and the future will lie in completing Thomas A. Edison's century-old vision for the industry, half of which the industry has heretofore ignored. The industry must embrace the complete vision and evolve from electric utilities into [open quotes]end-use energy utilities.[close quotes
Corneal laser refractive surgery is increasingly being performed on patients with the aim of improving unaided vision. Most candidates for surgery have excellent spectacle- or contact lens-corrected vision. Although microbial keratitis following refractive surgery is a rare complication, and usually has a good visual outcome, it can be sight-threatening. The spectrum of pathogens differs to other causes of microbial keratitis, such as contact lens-associated keratitis, and a different management approach is required. Postoperatively, patients are prescribed topical steroids and broad-spectrum topical antibiotics, typically fluoroquinolones. These do not cover unusual organisms, such as fungi, Nocardia, Acanthamoeba and some atypical mycobacteria. In post-laser-assisted in situ keratomileus...
Many organizations are challenged with the tasks of identifying customer needs and expectations for their products, anticipating future product needs, communicating a future product vision to clients, and designing with today's technology to bring a future vision to successful realization. The design evolution of plant control centres is one aspect of CANDU development that faces such challenges. The Disney Corporation is an example of an organization that has been successful in consistently meeting these challenges for over fifty years; and some of the design practices proven in moviemaking, theme park and resort layout, and vacation experience organization may be helpful and effective when applied in other domains. This paper summarizes the findings from an examination of Disney Corporation design practices, and suggests how some practices could be used to simplify and enhance the design of future CANDU control centres. (author)
To test the hypothesis that transduction of the channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) gene, a microbial-type rhodopsin gene, into retinal ganglion cells of genetically blind rats will restore functional vision, we recorded visually evoked potentials and tested the experimental rats for the presence of optomotor responses. The N-terminal fragment of the ChR2 gene was fused to the fluorescent protein Venus and inserted into an adeno-associated virus to make AAV2-ChR2V. AAV2-ChR2V was injected intravitreally into the eyes of 6-month-old dystrophic RCS (rdy/rdy) rats. Visual function was evaluated six weeks after the injection by recording visually evoked potentials (VEPs) and testing optomotor responses. The expression of ChR2V in the retina was investigated histologically. We found that VEPs could not b...
In order to meet the needs of remote servicing performed in nuclear power plants, in fuel reprocessing plants and in atomic research centers three companies: - STMI, subsidiary of CEA, EDF and SGN, specialized in decontamination and dismantling, - La Calhene, subsidiary of CEA and SGN, specialized in robotics, - Inspectronic, manufacturer of closed circuit television cameras, have combined to create the Visionic Society, the main objectives of which are observation by television and inspections in radioactive environment.
Sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency the Image Understanding Workshop is a forum for the presentation of new research in vision, image analysis, and geometric modeling. Leading scientists present overviews of projects underway at major universities and corporate research sites, as well as results of individual work. The 1987 volume contains 94 articles and technical reports in two volumes.
This article investigates the societal conditions that might help the establishment of peer-to-peer modes of production. First, the context within which such a new model is emerging - the neoliberal knowledge-based-societies - is described, and its shortcomings unveiled; and second, a robust argument is provided for the moral legitimation of an alternative societal vision, including two structural policies that are likely to facilitate the establishment and further development of peer-to-peer practices.
The main objectives were to evaluate efficacy and acceptability of a developmentally sensitive cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety-based school refusal in adolescence. Twenty school-refusing adolescents meeting DSM-IV anxiety disorder criteria participated in a non-randomized trial, together with parents and school staff. Outcome was assessed at post-treatment and 2-month follow-up. Treated adolescents showed significant and maintained improvements across primary outcome variables (school attendance; school-related fear; anxiety), with medium to large effect sizes. Half of the adolescents were free of any anxiety disorder at follow-up. Additional improvements were observed across secondary outcome variables (depression; overall functioning; adolescent and parent self-efficacy). The treatment was rated as acceptable by adolescents, parents, and school staff, which may help explain the very low attrition rate. Social anxiety disorder was the most common disorder ...
In this paper, we propose an antenna selection method in a wireless cognitive radio (CR) system, namely difference selection, whereby a single transmit antenna is selected at the secondary transmitter out of $M$ possible antennas such that the weighted difference between the channel gains of the data link and the interference link is maximized. We analyze mutual information and outage probability of the secondary transmission in a CR system with difference antenna selection, and propose a method of optimizing these performance metrics of the secondary data link subject to practical constraints on the peak secondary transmit power and the average interference power as seen by the primary receiver. The optimization is performed over two parameters: the peak secondary transmit power and the difference selection weight $\\delta\\in [0, 1]$. We show that, difference selection using the optimized parameters determined by the proposed method can be, in many cases of ...
Studies of the effectiveness of operant, relaxation, cognitive, and multimodal behavioural approaches to the treatment of chronic benign pain other than headache were evaluated. In general, the quality of the studies was poor, and most investigations lacked appropriate and adequate control conditions, outcome measures, and/or follow-ups. While outcome reports for all four behavioural treatments have been mainly positive, few data were found which conclusively demonstrate that any of the approaches are effective or that they are the treatment of choice. The data do, however, imply that behavioural approaches may help patients lead more normal and productive lives. Specifically, the literature suggests that: (1) the operant method leads to increased activity levels and decreased pain and drug intake, (2) the relaxation approach results in decreased EMG levels and some pain reductions, (3) the cognitive techniques are speculative at this time, and ...
Previous research has characterized insight as the product of internal processes, and has thus investigated the cognitive and motivational processes that immediately precede it. In this research, however, we investigate whether insight can be catalyzed by a cultural artifact, an external object imbued with learned meaning. Specifically, we exposed participants to an illuminating lightbulb - an iconic image of insight - prior to or during insight problem-solving. Across four studies, exposing participants to an illuminating lightbulb primed concepts associated with achieving an insight, and enhanced insight problem-solving in three different domains (spatial, verbal, and mathematical), but did not enhance general (non-insight) problem-solving.
Objective was to follow the cognitive and creative processes demonstrated by student research participants as they integrated a developing knowledge of ``big`` science, as practiced at LLNL, into a personal and idiosyncratic visual, graphical, or multimedia product. The participants, all non-scientists, involved in this process, attended a series of design classes, sponsored by LLNL at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena CA. As a result of this study, we have become interested in the possibility of similar characteristics between scientists and artists. We have also become interested in the different processes that can be used to teach science to non-scientists, so that they are able to understand and portray scientific information.
The debate about whether or not animals have foresight has focused on whether animals can be shown to have episodic future thinking, that is the ability to travel mentally in time and see themselves in the future. This focus has distracted from consideration of other forms of foresight that animals demonstrate. We propose a framework for examining future-oriented behaviours and then discuss the evidence for future thinking in animals. In the final section we examine some perspectives of future thinking and suggest that there are future-oriented capabilities of animals that do not involve mental time travel but may yet involve future thinking which deserve further investigation. PMID:20522320
Different approaches to expertise and argumentation are discussed. After introducing the problem of expertise and its present day significance in a historical context, various connections with the study of arguments are highlighted. The need for and potential of argumentation analysis to contribute to existing research in social epistemology, science studies, and cognitive science, is discussed, touching on the problems of reasoning and argumentation, embodiment, tacit knowledge, expert context versus public context, expert disagreement, persuasion versus justification, and argument analysis as meta-expertise. As the arguments used by experts constitute a boundary object, we presume that a dialogue format is suitable to address central problems of the special issue ?Rethinking Arguments fr...
This study investigated how men and women perceive online and offline sexual and emotional infidelity. Undergraduates from a large university in Northern Ireland participated in the study. It was found that men, when forced to decide, were more upset by sexual infidelity and women by emotional infidelity. It was also found that men were more likely to believe that women have sex when in love and that women believe that men have sex even when they are not in love. It was not, however, found that either men or women believed that having cybersex implied the other was also in love or that being in love online implied they were having cybersex. These results are explained through a social-cognitive lens.
Public speaking is the most commonly reported fearful social situation. Although a number of contemporary theories emphasize the importance of cognitive processes in social anxiety, there is no instrument available to assess fearful thoughts experienced during public speaking. The Self-Statements During Public Speaking (SSPS) scale is a 10-item questionnaire consisting of two 5-item subscales, the "Positive Self-Statements" (SSPS-P) and the "Negative Self-Statements" subscale (SSPS-N). Four studies report on the development and the preliminary psychometric properties of this instrument. PMID:16763666
This study examined whether cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) could prevent the development or worsening of panic-spectrum psychopathology and anxiety symptoms in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). 41 patients with COPD, who had undergone pulmonary rehabilitation, were randomised to either a four-session CBT intervention condition (n = 21) or a routine care condition (n = 20). Assessments were at baseline, post-intervention, and at 6-, 12- and 18-month follow-ups. Primary outcomes were the rates of panic attacks, panic disorder and anxiety symptoms. Secondary outcomes were depressive symptoms, catastrophic cognitions about breathing difficulties, disease-specific quality of life and hospital admission rates. There were no significant differences between the groups on outcome measures at baseline. By the 18-month follow-up assessment, 12 (60%) routine care group participants had experienced at least one panic attack in the previous ...
A series of deletion mutants extending from -250 toward the capsite has been constructed in the early promoter region of the adenovirus 2 EIIa gene and tested both in vitro, and in vivo after transfection...Full Text Available
Sunbed use is associated with increased risk of melanoma. Younger people might be more susceptible to the carcinogenic effects of ultraviolet radiation. We investigated the association between...Full Text Available
The changes in protein species synthesized during early Drosophila embryogenesis were characterized by two-dimensional electrophoresis. Of the 261 proteins scored, 68 (26%) show dramatic changes in...Full Text Available
AbstractStudies performed to identify early events of ovarian cancer and to establish molecular markers to support early detection and development of chemopreventive regimens have been...Full Text Available
Purpose.To estimate the prevalence of early and late age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in India.Methods.Of 7518 people aged 60 years and older...Full Text Available
The origin of myofibroblasts or myofibroblastic cells in the desmoplastic stroma associated with carcinoma invasion has been controversial. In the early invasive area of a rectal adenocarcinoma reported...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe precise mechanisms involved in the initiation and progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are not known. Early stages of RA often have non-specific symptoms, delaying...Full Text Available
Early detection of precancerous tissue has significantly improved survival of most cancers including colorectal cancer (CRC). Animal models designed to study the early stages of cancer are valuable...Full Text Available
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an established endoscopic technique for ablating Barrett’s esophagus with high-grade dysplasia or early-stage intraepithelial neoplasia. The most common clinically...Full Text Available
The long-term impact of early stress on behavior and emotions is well documented in humans, and can be modeled in experimental animals. In mice, maternal separation during early postnatal development...Full Text Available
BackgroundPeak bone mass, attained by early adulthood, is influenced by genetic and life-style factors. Early infant feeding and duration of breastfeeding in particular, associate...Full Text Available
SUMMARYDendritic cells (DCs) in mucosal surfaces are early targets for human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1). DCs mount rapid and robust immune responses upon pathogen encounter....Full Text Available
In both humans and songbirds, infants learn vocalizations by imitating the sounds of adult tutors with whom they interact during an early sensitive period. Vocal learning occurs in few animal taxa;...Full Text Available
BackgroundOne-stage implant placement has clinically acceptable treatment outcomes. Among other advantages, it may allow investigation of early wound healing. The...Full Text Available
Higher plants use photoperiodic cues to regulate many aspects of development, including the transition from vegetative to floral development. The EARLY FLOWERING3 (ELF3)...Full Text Available
Instantaneous cross sectional flow velocity profiles from early mitral flow in 10 healthy men were constructed by time interpolation of the velocity data from each point in sequentially delayed two...Full Text Available
Early simian virus 40-specific mRNA was isolated from lytically infected and stably transformed cells and analyzed with respect to the 5'-terminal cap content. An analogous diversity of capped structures...Full Text Available
Mission losses were incurred by an early warning satellite and a Milstar-2 communications satellite when their launch vehicles malfunctioned, the first, ...
Purpose of reviewTo summarize recent advances in the classification of preradiographic axial spondyloarthritis (SpA).Recent findingsFull Text Available
Abstract This paper tries to investigate the problem of memory through one of its most intriguing patterns - chiasmus - reflected in old poetry, sacred texts, philosophy and theology, visual arts, as well as biology. It aims to search for some provisory explanation of why man was able once to acquire such excellence in memorizing internally thousands of lines of poetry, whereas now memory is expelled outside the human body and mind in a mere digital file. Contrasting the so-called "wish-dream for immortality" of the contemporary post-human body, this paper takes another path and looks into some old cosmologies and visions in which chiasmus constantly emerged as an enduring cultural paradigm with ontological relevance. Spanning from Plato to Christian theology, up to the contemporary Neo-Platonism of archetypal psychology, this paper hopes to put forth, if not a theory, at least a vision about man and cosmos, cosmos and man, a chiastic epiphany ...
A model that fully describes the response properties of visual neurons must be able to predict their activity during natural vision. While many models have been proposed for the visual system, few have ever been tested against this criterion. To address this issue, we have developed a general framework for fitting and validating nonlinear models of visual neurons using natural visual stimuli. Our approach derives from linear spatiotemporal receptive field (STRF) analysis, which has frequently been used to study the visual system. However, prior to the linear filtering stage typical of STRFs, a linearizing transformation is applied to the stimulus to account for nonlinear response properties. We used this approach to compare two models for neurons in primary visual cortex: a nonlinear Fourier power model, which accounts for spatial phase invariant tuning, and a traditional linear model. We characterized prediction accuracy in terms of the total explainable variance, ...
Most of the information in this chapter is obtained from 1, 2, 3, 6, 8 and 9 annexes. It is worthwhile to clarify that in most of the cases they are estimations of the available resources, such as: trash, geothermal, solar energy, wind energy, biomass and mini and micro-hydro-energy. In several cases punctual measurements have been made, which do not represent a generic value of a national reserve. [Spanish] La mayor parte de la informacion en este capitulo es obtenida de los anexos 1, 2, 3, 6, 8 y 9. Cabe aclarar que en la mayoria de los casos son estimaciones de los recursos disponibles, tales como: la basura, la geotermia, la energia solar, la energia eolica, la biomasa y, la mini y la micro-hidroenergia. En varios casos se han realizado mediciones puntuales, las cuales no representan un valor generico de una reserva nacional.
The last decade has produced an explosion in neuroscience research examining young children's early processing of language that has implications for education. Noninvasive, safe functional brain measurements have now been proven feasible for use with children starting at birth. In the arena of language, the neural signatures of learning can be documented at a remarkably early point in development, and these early measures predict performance in children's language and pre-reading abilities in the second, third, and fifth year of life, a finding with theoretical and educational import. There is evidence that children's early mastery of language requires learning in a social context, and this finding also has important implications for education. Evidence relating socioeconomic status (SES) ...
The discussion focuses on the ways in which the 3 panelists in their lives and work embody fourth wave feminism, which combines politics, psychology, and spirituality in an overarching vision of change. Jane Fonda's emphasis on the importance of making narratives of gender a central organizer for personal and societal transformation, Hedda Bolgar's insistence that psychoanalysts recognize the complex dialectic between unconscious dynamics and sociocultural realities in order not to conflate conflicts rooted in social inequalities with individual issues, and Sue Shapiro's understanding of the ambiguous role of individual therapy in situations of historical and social trauma such as the tsunami in Indonesia are all examples of fourth wave feminism in practice. The unfinished business of the ...
This document outlines the major steps that must be taken by the Savannah River Site (SRS) to migrate the SRS information technology (IT) environment to the new architecture described in the Savannah River Site Computing Architecture. This document proposes an IT environment that is {open_quotes}...standards-based, data-driven, and workstation-oriented, with larger systems being utilized for the delivery of needed information to users in a client-server relationship.{close_quotes} Achieving this vision will require many substantial changes in the computing applications, systems, and supporting infrastructure at the site. This document consists of a set of roadmaps which provide explanations of the necessary changes for IT at the site and describes the milestones that must be completed to finish the migration.
It is discussed here how trustworthy predictions of etched track parameters in nuclear track detection technique can be made? Problems involved in doing so are described along with discussion about their possible solutions. Arguments are presented using 5.2 MeV alpha particle track etching experiments with CR-39 detector and corresponding calculations using computer programs TRACK{sub V}ISION and TRACK{sub T}EST. Experimental and computational results in the present paper are useful for further basic research and technology applications of solid state nuclear track detection technique.
Having always been at the forefront of information management and open access, High-Energy Physics (HEP) proves to be an ideal test-bed for innovations in scholarly communication including new information and communication technologies. Three selected topics of scholarly communication in High-Energy Physics are presented here: A new open access business model, SCOAP3, a world-wide sponsoring consortium for peer-reviewed HEP literature; the design, development and deployment of an e-infrastructure for information management; and the emerging debate on long-term preservation, re-use and (open) access to HEP data.
The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Ten-Year Site Plan (TYSP) describes the strategy for accomplishing the long-term objective of transforming the laboratory to meet Department of Energy (DOE) national nuclear research and development (R&D) goals, as outlined in DOE strategic plans. The plan links R&D mission goals and INL core capabilities with infrastructure requirements (single- and multi-program), establishs the 10-year end-state vision for INL complexes, and identifies and prioritizes infrastructure needs and capability gaps. The TYSP serves as the basis for documenting and justifying infrastructure investments proposed as part of the FY 2013 budget formulation process.
During a number of years research and development projects have been made to present methods of monitoring the grate in a grate fired boiler. The monitoring is interesting in order to be able to increase efficiency, increase burn-out of ash, improve the status of emissions, improve transportation of ash and fuel through the furnace, reduce costs for operation and maintenance, handle greater loads etc. Improvement of the combustion has been concentrated to the development of the gas phase combustion. In the past few years the computer development has progressed rapidly and the use of optical monitoring methods have been made possible for monitoring grates. To analyse state of the art of optical grate monitoring systems three different methods have been used, literature search, inquiry where plant owners were asked if they have used grate monitoring systems and if so what experiences they have, and interviews with scientists and users. The inquiry investigation was made during spring ...
The role of robotics and remote handling equipment in future nuclear power plant maintenance activities is discussed in the context of artificial intelligence applications. Special requirements manipulators, control systems, and man-machine interfaces for nuclear applications are noted. Tasks might include inspection with cameras, eddy current probes, and leak detectors; the collection of material samples; radiation monitoring; and the disassembly, repair and reassembly of a variety of system components. A robot with vision and force sensing and an intelligent control system that can access a knowledge base is schematically described. Recent advances in image interpretation systems are also discussed.
The role of robotics and remote handling equipment in future nuclear power plant maintenance activities is discussed in the context of artificial intelligence applications. Special requirements manipulators, control systems, and man-machine interfaces for nuclear applications are noted. Tasks might include inspection with cameras, eddy current probes, and leak detectors; the collection of material samples; radiation monitoring; and the disassembly, repair and reassembly of a variety of system components. A robot with vision and force sensing and an intelligent control system that can access a knowledge base is schematically described. Recent advances in image interpretation systems are also discussed.
An algorithm for pose and motion estimation using corresponding features in images and a digital terrain map is proposed. Using a Digital Terrain (or Digital Elevation) Map (DTM/DEM) as a global reference enables recovering the absolute position and orientation of the camera. In order to do this, the DTM is used to formulate a constraint between corresponding features in two consecutive frames. The utilization of data is shown to improve the robustness and accuracy of the inertial navigation algorithm. Extended Kalman filter was used to combine results of inertial navigation algorithm and proposed vision-based navigation algorithm. The feasibility of this algorithms is established through numerical simulations.
The mass deployment of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (EVs and PHEVs) that rely on low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission electricity generation has great potential to significantly reduce the consumption of petroleum and other high CO2-emitting transportation fuels. The vision of the Electric and Plug-in Hybrid (EV/PHEV) Vehicles Roadmap is to achieve by 2050 the widespread adoption and use of EVs and PHEVs, which together represent more than 50% of annual LDV (light duty vehicle) sales worldwide. In addition to establishing a vision, this roadmap sets strategic goals to achieve it, and identifies the steps that need to be taken to accomplish these goals. This roadmap also outlines the roles and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders and shows how government policy can support the overall achievement of the vision. The strategic goals for attaining the widespread adoption and use of EVs and PHEVs ...
Fusion energy is one of only a few truly long-term energy options. Since its inception in the 1950s, the vision of the fusion energy research program has been to develop a viable means of harnessing the virtually unlimited energy stored in the nuclei of light atoms--the primary fuel deuterium is present as one part in 6,500 of all hydrogen. This vision grew out of the recognition that the immense power radiated by the sun is fueled by nuclear fusion in its hot core. Such high temperatures are a prerequisite for driving significant fusion reactions. The fascinating fourth state of matter at high temperatures is known as plasma. It is only in this fourth state of matter that the nuclei of two light atoms can fuse, releasing the excess energy that was needed to separately bind each of the original two nuclei. Because the nuclei of atoms carry a net positive electric charge, they repel each other. Hydrogenic nuclei, such as deuterium and tritium, ...
Studies have indicated that many people misunderstand climate change. Equipped with a limited mental model they inappropriately use a pattern matching heuristics to analyze climate change and mistakenly believe that we can stabilize atmospheric CO2 by keeping anthropogenic emissions at current rates. Drawing on the findings from cognitive and developmental psychology, I argue that the widespread misunderstanding of climate change may arise from an error in people?s ontological assumptions. The pattern matching heuristics highlights correlations in shape and associates with a static mental model, both of which are effective for understanding objects. When people adopt the pattern matching heuristics, they may have implicitly treated climate change as an object. However, climate change belon...
Primary objective: Acquired brain injury (ABI) is associated with significant cognitive, behavioural, psychological and physical impairment. Hence, it has been important to leverage assessment approaches in rehabilitation by using current and emerging technologies, including virtual reality (VR). A number of VR rehabilitation programmes have been designed in recent years, mainly to improve upper limb function. However, before this technology gains widespread use, evaluation of the scientific evidence supporting VR-assisted rehabilitation is needed. The present review aimed to assess the rationale, design and methodology of research investigating the clinical impact of VR on ABI upper-limb rehabilitation. Research design: A total of 22 studies were surveyed using a Cochrane-style review. Re...
Objective: There are few safe and effective biological treatments for major depression in adolescents. We aimed to report the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as a treatment for adolescents with this condition. Methods: The first two subjects in a double-blind, sham-controlled trial of rTMS that is evaluating the efficacy and safety of rTMS in depressed adolescents are described. Clinical response was assessed at baseline and at the end of each week. The following scales were used: Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, Clinical Global Impression-Severity Scale, Beck Depression Inventory and Centre for Epidemiological Studies - Depression - Child Scale. A battery of cognitive tests was also used at several intervals to measure potential change in neuropsycholo...
Mood in humans is a complex phenomenon that integrates emotion (e.g. happiness and sadness), cognition, perception, ideation, and action in a coherent manner. In bipolar disorder extremes of mood (up or down) occur outside the normal range, in which all the above functions are coherently affected. Mood is controlled by a series of separate but interactive brain circuits that involve much of the brain, but particularly the limbic system. The question addressed in this paper is whether the coordination of all these separate systems into one coherent functional mood is mediated by non-linear dynamics acting between these systems as equal participants; or whether it is affected by a single master regulator controlling the others. The possible roles, as master regulators, of non-linear dynamica...
Aberrant amyloid-b peptide (Ab) accumulation along with altered expression and function of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) stand prominently in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Since the discovery that Ab is bound to a7 nAChRs under many experimental settings, including post-mortem AD brain, much effort has been expended to understand the implications of this interaction in the disease milieu. This research update will review the current literature on the a7 nAChR-Ab interaction in vitro and in vivo, the functional consequences of this interaction from sub-cellular to cognitive levels, and discuss the implications these relationships might have for AD therapies.
The decline of classical epistemology on unity-identity-totality shows it becomes more urgent to leave formal conventionalism behind, and to use a new diverging language. Every scientist must feel the emotion of the beginner. Nevertheless, we must not have illusions. Pure observation does not exist. Moreover, there are no laws that can remove the asymmetries of a system. The knowledge and scientific practice free themselves from the obsession of clarity, of linearity and from the idea of evolution that follows and precedes through pre-determined ways and versions. What we need is a multiple, connected intellection that allows us to look at science and at the world without the distorting effect of ingenuous methodologies and classifications that, if on the one hand put us at our ease, on th...
Objectives: Many youth with tics experience distress about having tics and how others may perceive them. Such symptoms are often more impairing and distressing than are the tics and negatively impact self-concept, functioning, and quality of life. Although treatments exist that target the frequency and severity of tics, no intervention has been developed that helps youth with tics cope with their condition and limit associated functional impairment and distress. Given this, we developed a cognitive-behaviorally oriented psychotherapy protocol that promotes adaptive coping and resiliency among youth with tics in addressing varied issues commonly experienced by this population. This poster reports data from the Phase I component of this study. Method: Phase I concentrated on developing the t...
Although cognitive performance in humans and experimental animals can be improved by administering omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), the neurochemical mechanisms underlying this effect remain uncertain. In general, nutrients or drugs that modify brain function or behavior do so by affecting synaptic transmission, usually by changing the quantities of particular neurotransmitters present within synaptic clefts or by acting directly on neurotransmitter receptors or signal-transduction molecules. We find that DHA also affects synaptic transmission in mammalian brain. Brain cells of gerbils or rats receiving this fatty acid manifest increased levels of phosphatides and of specific presynaptic or postsynaptic proteins. They also exhibit increased numbers of dendritic spines on post...
In the post Genome era, the aim of behavior genetics has shifted from estimating the relative contributions of genes and environmental factors to (co-)variation in human complex traits, to localization of genes and identification of functional genetic variants. This special issue reflects this transition and presents fifteen papers that report on genome-wide linkage scans for complex traits in humans and on methodological tools and innovations. Six papers focus on cognition and report overlapping linkage peaks on chromosomes 6p and 14p. Papers on addictive behavior, i.e. smoking and alcohol dependence and its endophenotypes, find moderate LOD scores on chromosomes 6p, 5q, 4p and 7q, respectively. Three papers concentrate on emotionality, depression and loneliness and examine chromosomes 2q...
Abstract -Lactoglobulin (-LG) is a lipocalin, which is the major whey protein of cow's milk and the milk of other mammals. However, it is absent from human milk. The biological function of -LG is not clear, but its potential role in carrying fatty acids through the digestive tract has been suggested. -LG has been found in complexes with lipids such as butyric and oleic acids and has a high affinity for a wide variety of compounds. Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT), an important compound found in animals and plants, has various functions, including the regulation of mood, appetite, sleep, muscle contraction, and some cognitive functions such as memory and learning. In this study, the interaction of serotonin and one of its derivatives, arachidonyl serotonin (AA-5HT), with -LG was invest...
Perceptions of sensation and pain in healthy people are believed to be the net result of sensory input and descending modulation from brainstem and cortical regions depending on emotional and cognitive factors. Here, the influence of attention on neural activity in the spinal cord during thermal sensory stimulation of the hand was investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging by systematically varying the participants' attention focus across and within repeated studies. Attention states included (1) attention to the stimulus by rating the sensation and (2) attention away from the stimulus by performing various mental tasks of watching a movie and identifying characters, detecting the direction of coherently moving dots within a randomly moving visual field and answering mentally-...
Quinone reductase 2 (QR2), a detoxifying cytosolic flavoenzyme, is thought to play an important role in the acquisition and loss of memory [3]. We determined the amount of QR2 in the hippocampus, amygdala, and superior frontal gyrus of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with dementia by using western blot analysis. The level of QR2 was significantly higher in the hippocampus of AD patients than in that of the control subjects. The relation between QR2 and AD has not yet been determined; however, our results suggest that the increase in hippocampal QR2 might be a cause of AD or might promote the progression of AD by causing an increase in the toxic quinone levels and consequent loss of cognitive function.
Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is a measure of sensorimotor gating, a pre-attentional inhibitory brain mechanism that filters extraneous stimuli. Prepulse inhibition is correlated with measures of cognition and executive functioning, and is considered an endophenotype of schizophrenia and other psychiatric illnesses in which patients show PPI impairments. As a first step toward identifying genes that regulate PPI, we performed a quantitative trait locus (QTL) screen of PPI phenotypes in a panel of mouse chromosome substitution strains (CSSs). We identified five CSSs with altered PPI compared with the host C57BL/6J strain: CSS-4 exhibited decreased PPI, whereas CSS-10, -11, -16 and -Y exhibited higher PPI compared with C57BL/6J. These data indicate that A/J chromosomes 4, 10, 11, 16 and Y harbor...
This curriculum guide provides a basic core of instruction for the first year of a three-year adult program in farm business management. It contains 12 units of instruction. Each unit consists of seven basic components: performance objectives, teacher activities, information sheets (content essential for meeting the cognitive objectives), assignment sheets (application of knowledges that are prerequisites to skill development), supplements and transparency masters, tests, and test and assignment sheet answers. Depending on the specific objectives, supplements, transparency masters, assignment sheets, and job sheets may or may not be included. The 12 units cover orientation, recordkeeping, inventory and net worth statement, depreciation, enterprise accounting and supplemental records, enterprise budgets, cash-flow planning, farm credit, partial budgeting, marketing, income tax management, and year-end closing of records. (YLB)
Abstract Background: Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a common dementia of the elderly. A significant cholinergic deficit has been demonstrated that may be responsive to treatment by cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs). Methods: A 24-week, open-label study was designed to assess the efficacy and safety of a ChEI, galantamine, in 50 patients with DLB. Results: This study showed beneficial effects with galantamine in 2 of the 3 primary efficacy parameters. The scores on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI-12) improved by 8.24 points from baseline (p = 0.01) especially in visual hallucinations and nighttime behaviors (p = 0.004). The scores on the Clinician's Global Impression of Change improved by 0.5 points from baseline (p = 0.01). The third primary efficacy parameter, the Cognitive Drug R...
ABSTRACT This research examined whether the Internet improves life satisfaction. The study surveyed 195 college students, and a structural model was built to explain effects of the Internet on school life satisfaction using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In line with social cognitive theory and literature on social effects of the Internet, current data supported the hypotheses that Internet use, perceived online social support, and online social self-efficacy had direct positive impacts on school life satisfaction. Offline extroversion, online extroversion, online social self-efficacy, and online social outcome expectations influenced school life satisfaction indirectly: offline extroversion acted through social online self-efficacy and online extroversion; online social self-effica...
Cognitive decline has been described in elderly patients with schizophrenia, but the underlying pathology remains unknown. Some studies report increases in plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, but there is no evidence for an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) in elderly schizophrenics. Models of a decreased cerebral reserve suggest that increases in AD-related neuropathology below the threshold for a neuropathological diagnosis could be related to dementia severity in elderly schizophrenia patients. We tested this hypothesis in 110 autopsy specimens of schizophrenia patients, without a neuropathological diagnosis of AD or other neurodegenerative disorders. Furthermore, we assessed the effects of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) status, a known genetic risk factor for AD. Measures of densit...
In this study, we examined the relationship between trait-like communication apprehension (CA) and resting alpha range asymmetry in the anterior cortex (AC). Although theory and research in cognitive neuroscience suggest that asymmetry in the AC constitutes a relatively stable, inborn, substrate of emotion, some studies indicate that asymmetry can be increased by experimentally induced transitory anxiety. Transitory anxiety produced by interaction with strangers covaries with trait-like CA, raising questions regarding whether asymmetrical electrical activity in the AC during data collection represents resting levels as assumed in the literature or transitory reactions to dyadic interaction with the experimenter. Because the question if unanswered poses issues for theory and approaches to r...
Abstract Aims To determine, in the context of a trial in which counseling did not improve smoking cessation outcomes, whether this was due to a failure of the conceptual theory identifying treatment targets or the action theory specifying interventions. Design Data from a randomized clinical trial of smoking cessation counseling and bupropion SR were submitted to multi level modeling to test whether counseling influenced real time reports of cognitions, emotions and behaviors, and whether these targets predicted abstinence. Setting Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, Madison, WI. Participants A total of 403 adult, daily smokers without contraindications to bupropion SR use. Participants were assigned randomly to receive individual counseling or no counseling and a 9 week course o...
integrates multiple fisheries information systems to obtain a view of U.S. freshwater fish distribution. Information about NFDI National Framework for Early Detection, Rapid...
Mission losses were incurred by an early warning satellite and a Milstar-2 communications satellite when their launch vehicles malfunctioned, the first, ...
The immediate early gene Arc is emerging as a versatile, finely tuned system capable of coupling changes in neuronal activity patterns to synaptic plasticity, thereby optimizing information...Full Text Available
4) Expand to include client-server interaction (small-scale archive interactions with the goal of evaluating information management capabilities) -- Early ...
instrument is shown in Figure 4-9 The incoming radiation is focused onto ...... An early rocket-borne ultraviolet spectrometer of the Ebert type by ...
Four low activation alloy classes, two austenitic and two ferritic, have been incorporated into the MOTA-1B experiment in the FFTF reactor to provide an early assessment of the suitability of such alloys for reactor service.
The early and precise diagnosis, the prognosis, and the clinical management of multiple sclerosis, remain a considerable challenge. In recent years, the development of novel and powerful proteomic...Full Text Available
This paper reviews the historical aspects of nuclear physics. The scientific aspects of the early transuranium elements are discussed and arms control measures are reviewed. 11 refs., 14 figs. (LSP)
in early 1992 from Lord Corporation, were also found. For both the reflective and absorptive polyurethanes, the fresh paint fluoresces significantly ...
Weaning of beef calves is usually done abruptly and early compared to the natural weaning of the species, and is associated with simultaneous exposure of calves to a range of social and environmental...Full Text Available
Models can be useful at many different levels when considering complex issues such as biological control of mosquitoes. At an early stage, exploratory models are valuable in exploring the characteristics...Full Text Available
Background and AimsIt is well known that genome size differs among species. However, information on the variation and dynamics of genome size in wild populations and on the early...Full Text Available
Two-way communication between the conceptus and the mother during early pregnancy is essential if the pregnancy is to survive. In this review, our primary focus is on biochemical communication...Full Text Available
We propose an approach to achieving early recognition of gesture patterns. Early recognition is a method for recognizing sequential patterns at their earliest stage. Therefore, in the case of gesture recognition, we can get a recognition result for human gestures before the gestures are finished. The most difficult problem in early recognition is knowing when the system has determined the result. Most traditional approaches suffer from this problem, since gestures are often ambiguous. At the start of a gesture, in particular, it is very difficult to determinate the recognition result since insufficient input data have been observed. Therefore, we have improved on the traditional approach by using a self-organizing map.
The purpose of this report is to provide management with performance data on key performance indicators selected from the FFTF Early Warning System performance indicators.
rotor flow field in which the main rotor operates. The majority of ..... early separation predicted by their CFD code was ...... Airfoil, AGARD Fluid Dynamics Panel ...
A growing number of environmental toxicants found in pesticides, herbicides, and industrial solvents are believed to have deleterious effects on development by disrupting hormone-sensitive processes....Full Text Available
Specialized olfactory lobe glomeruli relating to sexual or caste differences have been observed in at least five orders of insects, suggesting an early appearance of this trait in insect evolution....Full Text Available
PurposeEarly detection of appendicitis has increased due to development of computed tomography and ultrasonography, yet we are frequently meeting complicated appendicitis, including...Full Text Available
BackgroundAutofluorescence bronchoscopy is more sensitive than conventional bronchoscopy for detecting early airway mucosal lesions. Decreased specificity can lead...Full Text Available
Documents an early American industrial process of making blast furnace coke using techniques and equipment from the 19th century. Photographed at Bretz, WV.
Mutations in the Drosophila gene drop-dead (drd) result in early adult lethality and neurodegeneration, but the molecular identity of the drd...Full Text Available
Experience gained with a wide variety of missile injuries of the brain is presented. Clinical signs and intracranial pressure (ICP) studied in the early post-injury period have been correlated with...Full Text Available
Following a brief overview of the terrestrial distribution of boron in rocks, soil, and water, the history of the discovery, early utilization, and geologic origin of borate minerals is summarized....Full Text Available
Regional cortical thickness was evaluated using CIVET processing of 3D T1-weighted images (i) to compare the variation in cortical thickness between 33 participants with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) aged 6-30 years (mean age 12.3 years) versus 33 age/sex/hand-matched controls, and (ii) to examine developmental changes in cortical thickness with age from children to young adults in both groups. Significant cortical thinning was found in the participants with FASD in large areas of the bilateral middle frontal lobe, pre- and post- central areas, lateral and inferior temporal and occipital lobes compared to controls. No significant cortical thickness increases were observed for the FASD group. Cortical thinning with age in a linear model was observed in both groups, but the locations were different for each group. FASD participants showed thinning with age in the left middle frontal, bilateral precentral, bilateral precuneus and paracingulate, left inferior occipital and ...
The subjective experience of one's environment is constructed by interactions among sensory, cognitive, and affective processes. For centuries, meditation has been thought to influence such processes by enabling a nonevaluative representation of sensory events. To better understand how meditation influences the sensory experience, we used arterial spin labeling functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural mechanisms by which mindfulness meditation influences pain in healthy human participants. After 4 d of mindfulness meditation training, meditating in the presence of noxious stimulation significantly reduced pain unpleasantness by 57% and pain intensity ratings by 40% when compared to rest. A two-factor repeated-measures ANOVA was used to identify interactions between meditation and pain-related brain activation. Meditation reduced pain-related activation of the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex. Multiple regression analysis was used to ...
A large proportion of patients may develop chronic pain following cancer treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy. These patients can experience significant levels of physical and psychological morbidity. Our aim was to investigate a cognitive-behavioral pain management program (PMP) for cancer patients with chronic treatment-related pain. Thirteen patients (1 man, 12 women; mean age 52 yrs) completed the study, 9 of whom had a history of breast cancer and had received extensive medical treatment, including surgery. A combination of physical and psychological techniques were adapted from previous work in chronic benign pain and implemented by two therapists. Interventions included education, relaxation, exercise training, and goal setting. A variety of outcomes were examined to assess general fitness, psychological distress, coping success, activities of daily living, and pain report. The median number of interventions by each therapist was 10 (4 ...
The University of Michigan (UM) is a member of a team of researchers, including the universities of Florida, Texas, and Tennessee, along with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, developing robotic for hazardous environments. The goal of this research is to develop the intelligent and capable robots which can perform useful functions in the new generation of nuclear reactors currently under development. By augmenting human capabilities through remote robotics, increased safety, functionality, and reliability can be achieved. In accordance with the established lines of research responsibilities, our primary efforts during 1991 will continue to focus on the following areas: radiation imaging; mobile robot navigation; three-dimensional vision capabilities for navigation; and machine-intelligence. This report discuss work that has been and will be done in these areas.
The focus of the May-June issue is on training and information technology. Major articles/reports in this issue include: Communicating effectively, by Alain Bucaille, AREVA; Reputation management, by Susan Brisset, Bruce Power; Contol room and HSI modernization guidance, by Joseph Naser, EPRI; How far are we from public acceptance, by Jennifer A. Biedscheid and Murthy Devarakonda, Washington TRU Solutions LLC; Spent fuel management options, by Brent W. Dixon and Steven J. Piet, Idaho National Laboratory; Industry Awards; A secure energy future for America, by George W. Bush, President, United States of America; Vision of the future of nuclear energy, by Anne Lauvergeon, AREVA; and, Plant profile: strategy for transition to digital, TXU Power.
As competition in the service industry grows, delivering high-quality service to meet customers' needs and expectations becomes paramount. In order to achieve a thorough understanding of customers, companies are increasingly adopting Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives. However, CRM does not have the process vision necessary to cope with complex and cross-functional processes. This problem is better handled by Business Process Management (BPM) initiatives, which, by their turn, struggle to built-in customer intelligence in their systems. Based upon systems theory, we discuss the roles of CRM and BPM in an integrated approach to deliver customer fulfillment. As the evolution of service-oriented approaches requires us to consider both customer interactions and experiences as k...
The 10th International Neurotrauma Symposium was held in Shanghai, China, on 27-???30 April 2011. This meeting marked the 20th anniversary of International Neurotrauma Symposia. The vision of the International Neurotrauma Society is to unite clinicians and scientists to discuss and present the latest in translational clinical and basic science research related to neurotrauma. The Shanghai meeting brought together 1000 delegates from over 70 countries. Key areas discussed included current guidelines of neurotrauma management, the latest advances in neuroimaging, the latest concepts in cell death mechanisms after neurotrauma, the role of decompressive techniques for cranial and spinal neurotrauma, advances in biomarkers for CNS injury, and the future of clinical management and research in ne...
This report summarizes the work done at the University of Massachusetts in the area of Image Understanding of static scene domains. The goal of this research project was to demonstrate a practical knowledge-based approach to computer vision that utilized multiple levels of parallel processing. Some problems dealt with included extracting lines, grouping together regions and lines from the same surface, computing pose from geometry, and matching corresponding features in different views. Special attention was also given to the extraction of curved lines and curved surfaces. The static scene domains consisted of both ROAD and HOUSE scenes, each containing approximately fourteen (14) different objects per scene.
Modern HENP experiments such as CMS and Atlas involve as many as 2000 collaborators around the world. Collaborations this large will be unable to meet often enough to support working closely together. Many of the tools currently available for collaboration focus on heavy-weight applications such as videoconferencing tools. While these are important, there is a more basic need for tools that support connecting physicists to work together on an ad hoc or continuous basis. Tools that support the day-to-day connectivity and underlying needs of a group of collaborators are important for providing light-weight, non-intrusive, and flexible ways to work collaboratively. Some example tools include messaging, file-sharing, and shared plot viewers. An important component of the environment is a scalable underlying communication framework. In this paper we will describe our current progress on building a dynamic and ad hoc collaboration environment and our vision for its ...
Manual drilling in titanium structures is a tedious and labor-intensive work. To reduce man-hour requirements while concurrently improving hole quality, we developed a robotic drilling system for this application. The lean system contains the product holding fixture, the industrial robot, the end effector, the control and sensor system, and the offline programming. The system functions include locating workpiece with a calibration stick or the vision system, weld mark inspection, one-sided clamping, drilling and reaming hole in material stack combinations of titanium and aluminum, and real-time thrust force feedback. The positional accuracy and the repeatability of the system have successfully been placed within the specification?s 0.3?mm tolerance and 0.2?mm tolerance, respectively. The d...
This contribution is an informal essay based on a talk delivered at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) in Minneapolis, under the summer program in molecular biology, July 18-22, 1994. I exclude many technical details, which can be found elsewhere, and instead focus on the basic ideas of molecular dynamics simulations, with the goal of conveying to students and non-specialists the key concepts of the theory and practice of large-scale simulations. Following a description of the basic idea in molecular dynamics, I discuss some of the practical details involved in simulations of large biological molecules, the numerical timestep problem, and approaches to this problem based on implicit-integration techniques. I end with a perspective of open challenges in the field and directions for future research. 79 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.
The world of antibiotic drug discovery and development is driven by the necessity to overcome antibiotic resistance in common Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens. However, the lack of Gram-negative activity among both recently approved antibiotics and compounds in the developmental pipeline is a general trend despite the fact that the plethora of covered drug targets are well-conserved across the bacterial kingdom. Such intrinsic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria is largely attributed to the activity of multidrug resistance (MDR) efflux pumps. Moreover, these pumps also play a significant role in acquired clinical resistance. Together, these considerations make efflux pumps attractive targets for inhibition in that the resultant efflux pump inhibitor (EPI)/antibiotic combination d...
The author introduces a multiprocessor system which has been specially developed to enable mechanical devices to interpret pictures presented in real time. The separate processors within this system operate simultaneously and independently. By means of freely moveable windows the processors can concentrate on those parts of the picture that are relevant to the control problem. If a machine is to make a correct response to its observation of a picture of moving objects, it must be able to follow the picture sequence, step by step, in real time. As the usual serially operating processors are too slow for such a task, the author describes three models of a special picture processing computer which it has been necessary to develop. 3 references.
This article examines the successive reinterpretations of one of Cuba?s foundational texts, namely the Espejo de paciencia (?Model of Patience??, 1608) by Silvestre de Balboa, as a baroque poem. The revalorization of the baroque by twentieth-century Cuban authors and critics has been explained as a consequence of the erasure of indigenous cultures and the subsequent imposition of a metropolitan culture. In this sense, the baroque is supposed to be paradigmatic for ?roots thinking?? about nation-building and culture. The readings of Balboa?s poem by neo-baroque writers such as Jos? Lezama Lima, Cintio Vitier and Severo Sarduy, however, put forward a transhistorical vision of the baroque and Cubanhood as an eternal and immutable phenomenon or, alternatively, a reading that privileges the tec...
North Carolina A and T State University has completed the development of an infrastructure for the interdisciplinary Waste Management Institute (WMI). The Interdisciplinary Waste Management Institute (WMI) was approved in June, 1994 by the General Administration of the University of North Carolina as an academic support unit with research and public service functions. The mission of the WMI is to enhance awareness and understanding of waste management issues and to provide instructional support including research and outreach. The goals of WMI are as follows: increase the number of minority professionals who will work in waste management fields; develop cooperative and exchange programs involving faculty, students, government, and industry; serve as institutional sponsor of public awareness workshops and lecture series; and support interdisciplinary research programs. The vision of the WMI is to provide continued state-of-the art environmental educational programs, ...
Consultant and advanced practice are relatively new concepts in radiography. There is evidence to show that as the career progression framework is being adopted the numbers of consultant and advanced practitioners in radiography are growing with the latter growing at a faster rate. The article considers the concept of advanced and consultant practice and the education requirements to support development. Preparation for an advanced practice role begins at the practitioner stage. Masters' level programmes are available to support the development of advanced practice. Education needs to be flexible as new advanced practice roles emerge. It is necessary to take practitioners beyond a defined modality to include leadership and people skills. These are essential for those aspiring to become consultants. Consultants require a high level of clinical knowledge for expert practice but also strategic vision and interpersonal intelligence to facilitate leadership and ...
Shallow-water zooplanktivorous fish rely on their vision for foraging. In shallow water, feeding efficiency decreases in dim light and thus the fish cease foraging at crepuscular hours. Creatures living in the lower parts of their depth ranges are expected to be exposed to limited light levels for longer hours. However, observations of the zooplanktivore Dascyllus marginatus showed little change in foraging duration down to 40m deep. We asked whether the visual system's functionality changes with depth along the depth range of this damselfish; we examined eye and retina anatomy for changes in visual acuity and light sensitivity and used the optomotor response to test for spatial and temporal light summation. We found only minor changes in the anatomy of the eye that are not expected to aff...
The integral membrane protein synaptophysin is one of the most abundant polypeptide components of synaptic vesicles. It is not essential for neurotransmission despite its abundance but is believed to modulate the efficiency of the synaptic vesicle cycle. Detailed behavioral analyses were therefore performed on synaptophysin knockout mice to test whether synaptophysin affects higher brain functions. We find that these animals are more exploratory than their wild type counterparts examining novel objects more closely and intensely in an enriched open field arena. We also detect impairments in learning and memory, most notably reduced object novelty recognition and reduced spatial learning. These deficits are unlikely caused by impaired vision, since all electroretinographic parameters measur...
The discovery of extra-solar planets is one of the greatest achievements of modern astronomy. There are now more than 200 such objects known, and the recent detection of planets with masses approximately 5 times that of Earth demonstrates that extra-solar planets of low mass exist. In addition to providing a wealth of scientific information on the formation and structure of planetary systems, these discoveries capture the interest of both scientists and the wider public with the profound prospect of the search for life in the Universe. We propose an L-type mission, called Darwin, whose primary goal is the study of terrestrial extrasolar planets and the search for life on them. By its very nature, Darwin advances the first Grand Theme of ESA Cosmic Vision. Accomplishing the mission objectives will require collaborative science across disciplines ranging from planet formation and atmospheres to chemistry and biology, and these disciplines will reap profound rewards ...
Purpose To investigate the influence of timolol maleate 0.5% gel-forming solution and brinzolamide 1% ophthalmic suspension on contrast sensitivity, ocular higher-order aberration (HOA), and corneal surface light scattering. Design Prospective, comparative study. Participants Forty normal volunteers were enrolled in this study. Methods We evaluated contrast sensitivity, ocular HOA, and corneal light scattering before and 2, 5, 10, and 15 minutes after instillation of antiglaucoma eyedrops. Contrast sensitivity function was assessed with the CSV-1000RN chart (Vector Vision Co., Greenville, OH). Higher-order aberration was measured for a 4-mm pupil using the Hartmann-Shack aberrometer (KR-9000PW; Topcon, Tokyo, Japan). Corneal surface light scattering was quantitatively evaluated by using th...
In 1993, the US Department of Energy (DOE) decided to shut down the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) due to lack of national missions that justified the annual operating budget of approximately $88M/year. The initial vision was to ''deactive'' the facility to an industrially and radiologically safe condition to allow long-term, minimal surveillance storage until approximately 2045. This approach would minimize near term cash flow and allow the radioactive decay of activated components. The final decontamination and decommissioning (D and D) would then be performed using then-current methodology in a safe and efficient manner. the philosophy has now changed to close coupling the initial deactivation with final D and D. This paper presents the status of the facility and focuses on the future challenge of sodium removal.
This article provides a reconsideration of the intellectual altercation between John Dewey and Lewis Mumford in the 1920s, and a sketch of some educational implications that follow this reconsideration. Although past scholarship has tended to focus on ways in which the altercation obscured similarities in their thought, we consider whether important differences were also obscured, particularly regarding their outlook on science and technology, their potential place in society, and their ideas about the best means to positive social change. We also consider how these differences might play out in philosophy of education/educational practice, concluding that Mumford's commitment to regionalism can augment Dewey's philosophical vision while also helping deal with pressing contemporary social ...
Real-time object detection is one of the core problems in computer vision. The cascade boosting framework proposed by Viola and Jones has become the standard for this problem. In this framework, the learning goal for each node is asymmetric, which is required to achieve a high detection rate and a moderate false positive rate. We develop new boosting algorithms to address this asymmetric learning problem. We show that our methods explicitly optimize asymmetric loss objectives in a totally corrective fashion. The methods are totally corrective in the sense that the coefficients of all selected weak classifiers are updated at each iteration. In contract, conventional boosting like AdaBoost is stage-wise in that only the current weak classifier's coefficient is updated. At the heart of the totally corrective boosting is the column generation technique. Experiments on face detection show that our methods outperform the state-of-the-art asymmetric boosting methods.
The 5'-terminal structures of human adenovirus type 2 (Ad2) early region 2 (E2) mRNA were investigated. The E2 transcription unit has several interesting properties, including the presence of a TATA-like...Full Text Available
Epulopiscium sp. type B is an enormous intestinal symbiont of the surgeonfish Naso tonganus. Intracellular offspring production in Epulopiscium shares features with endospore formation. Here, we characterize the spoIIE homolog in Epulopiscium. The timing of spoIIE gene expression and presence of interacting partners suggest that the activation of ?(F) occurs early in Epulopiscium offspring development. PMID:21398534
Several early genes of murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) encode proteins that mediate immune evasion by interference with the major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) pathway of antigen presentation...Full Text Available
Three transcription units are present in the adenovirus type 2 region EII. Transcription units EIIaE and EIIaL encode the mRNA for the 72,000-dalton DNA binding protein, early and late in the lytic...Full Text Available
...notice de en es fr it nl European Commission Research Index aeronews All keywords Index feedback The number of documents that contain the keyword aeronews is: 1 EU Transport lsquo;AERONEWSrsquo; -good news for early detection of microdamage European Commission - lsquo;AERONEWSrsquo; -good news for early detection of microdamage ...
Recent nucleosynthesis calculations of Type II supernovae using advanced neutrino transport determine that the early neutrino winds are proton-rich. However, a fraction of the ejecta emitted at the same time is composed of neutron-rich pockets. In this paper we calculate the nucleosynthesis contribution from the neutron-rich pockets in the hot convective bubbles of a core-collapse supernova and show that they do not contribute significantly to the total nucleosynthesis.
A large inguino-scrotal hernia was detected in the early phase of a radionuclide bone scan performed for evaluation of a femoral neck fracture not visualized on plain x-rays. The patient was administered 1 GBq of Scrotal scintigraphy using "9"9"mTc-MDP and a regional three-phase bone scan of the pelvis, hips and proximal femora was obtained on the gamma camera. Copyright (1999) Blackwell Science Pty Ltd
BackgroundApoptosis is a major mode of hematological tumor death after radiation. Early detection of apoptosis may be beneficial for cancer adaptive treatment. 99mTc-HYNIC-annexinV...Full Text Available
The non-invasiveness of autofluorescence technology may reduce sampling error and time delay for histopathology diagnosis. We establish biophotonic methods and guidelines to visualize and interpret early epithelial tissue changes that signify disease. Flexible and rigid fiber endomicroscopy instrumentation design parameters feasible for translation towards clinical use are in development.
DescriptionThe overall aim of this application is to examine experimentally environmental influences on the pattern of senescence in birds. We plan to experimentally uncouple chronological age and reproductive effort and examine their effects on reproductive performance and lifespan. We also plan to examine experimentally how these relationships are influenced by nutritional conditions during early development. We will combine the organismal fitness measures of lifespan and reproductive performance with me [continued...
Elution profiles of total lipoproteins, apolipoprotein B (apoB) concentrations in lipoproteins, and plasma triglyceride (TG) levels were examined in early-, late-, and non-lactating cows. Additionally, arteriovenous (A-V) differences were also measured to elucidate the uptake of TG and apoB-containing lipoproteins in mammary gland. Non-lactating cows showed three major peaks corresponding to triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TRL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and high density lipoprotein (HDL) fraction, whereas both early- and late-lactating cows revealed two peaks corresponding to TRL and HDL. The peak area of TRL in early- and late-lactating cows were significantly (p < 0.05) smaller than that in non-lactating cows. The plasma TG levels and apoB-48 concentrations of TRL in early- and late-lactating cows were also significantly (p < 0.01) lower. Furthermore, early lactating ...
Childhood anxiety is impairing and associated with later emotional disorders. Studying risk factors for child anxiety may allow earlier identification of at-risk children for prevention efforts. This study applied an ecological risk model to address how early childhood anxiety symptoms, child temperament, maternal anxiety and depression symptoms, violence exposure, and sociodemographic risk factors predict school-aged anxiety symptoms. This longitudinal, prospective study was conducted in a representative birth cohort (n = 1109). Structural equation modeling was used to examine hypothesized associations between risk factors measured in toddlerhood/preschool (age = 3.0 years) and anxiety symptoms measured in kindergarten (age = 6.0 years) and second grade (age = 8.0 years). Early child risk factors (anxiety symptoms and temperament) emerged as the most robust predictor for both parent-and child-reported anxiety outcomes and mediated the effects ...
Background: Accountability demands are increasingly pushing school leaders to explore more data and do more sophisticated analyses. Data-driven decision making (DDDM) has become an emerging field of practice for school leadership and a central focus of education policy and practice. Purpose: This study examined principals' DDDM practices and identified the factors influencing DDDM using the theoretical frame of information use environments. Participants: Participants were 183 public high school principals in a Midwestern state. Research Design: The research design was cross-sectional survey research. Data Collection and Analysis: Survey instruments were developed and administered to principals. Structural equation modeling was conducted to determine what factors significantly affect principals' DDDM practices in different leadership dimensions. Findings: Principals used data more frequently in instructional and organization operational leadership than in the leadership dimensions of ...
The goal of this DOE Vision-21 project work scope is to develop an integrated suite of software tools that can be used to simulate and visualize advanced plant concepts. Existing process simulation software does not meet the DOE's objective of ''virtual simulation'' which is needed to evaluate complex cycles. The overall intent of the DOE is to improve predictive tools for cycle analysis, and to improve the component models that are used in turn to simulate the cycle. Advanced component models are available; however, a generic coupling capability that will link the advanced component models to the cycle simulation software remains to be developed. In the current project, the coupling of the cycle analysis and cycle component simulation software will be based on an existing suite of programs. The challenge is to develop a general-purpose software and communications link between the cycle analysis software Aspen ...
Research into methods for reasoning under uncertainty is currently one of the most exciting areas of artificial intelligence, largely because it has recently become possible to record, store, and process large amounts of data. While impressive achievements have been made in pattern classification problems such as handwritten character recognition, face detection, speaker identification, and prediction of gene function, it is even more exciting that researchers are on the verge of introducing systems that can perform large-scale combinatorial analyses of data, decomposing the data into interacting components. For example, computational methods for automatic scene analysis are now emerging in the computer vision community. These methods decompose an input image into its constituent objects, lighting conditions, motion patterns, etc. Two of the main challenges are finding effective representations and models in specific applications and finding efficient algorithms ...
The paper investigates early Soviet policies regarding the institution of waqf (charitable endowment) in Turkestan, questioning the issue of the post-colonial character of the early Soviet administration. After taking into consideration practices related to waqf management in modern Muslim states and European colonial empires, the paper briefly describes the tsarist administrative approach to the issue. We then address the ambiguity inherent in Soviet policies on waqf requisition and restitution during Civil War years. In the section that follows we deal with different groups of Muslim intellectuals that attempted to use the Soviet state in their mutual struggle over authority in Central Asian society and describe the creation and functioning of the bureaucracies responsible for managing w...
This longitudinal study examined a model of early school achievement in reading and math, as it varies by socioeconomic context, using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. A conceptual model was tested that included features of family stress, early parenting, and school readiness, through both a single-group analysis and also a multiple-group analysis. Latent profile analysis was used to identify subgroups of more advantaged and less advantaged families. Family stress and parenting were shown to operate differently depending on the socioeconomic context, whereas child-based school readiness characteristics were shown to operate similarly across socieodemographic contexts. Implications for intervention are discussed.
Six patients with diskitis following lumbar disk surgery were investigated by Computed Tomography (CT). Four patients underwent CT in a rather early phase of the disease (5-37 days after the onset of the symptoms): a posterior paravertebral fluid collection was always recognized, while the plain film was normal. Later on (2-4 months), the classical signs of diskitis were evident, with both CT and the plain film. The collection was always present at CT. A reintervention, performed on 3 patients, revealed the purulent content of the collections. It seems reasonable to suggest a relationship between the collection and the subsequent diskitis; the collection is probably an early sign of the disease. Its detection is of grat value, because it could allow an immediate and adequate therapy. The authors stress the usefulness of performing CT in an early phase on this kind of symptomatic patients.
There are no specific diagnostic tests or a gold standard method for measuring disease activity and outcome in spondyloarthropathies (SpA). Many different methods have been developed to assess the signs and symptoms in SpA. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of scintigraphy, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), and Bath Ankilosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) in the evaluation of disease activity in early axial SpA diagnosed with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Thirty early MRI-positive axial SpA patients (23 males, 7 females) with a median age of 35 (18?55) years and a median duration of inflammatory low back pain of 24 (8?60) months were included in the study. In the patients with sacroiliitis, the sensitivity, specificity, and pos...
The early diagnosis of such disorders is of major importance because, in most cases, severe consequences can only be averted by early treatment. The value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in many orthopaedic and traumatological conditions is generally accepted. The value of MRI in this particular field is illustrated by typical case reports on common clinical problems [Deutsch] Der Fruehdiagnose von Erkrankungen des Kindes- und Jugendalters kommt grosse Bedeutung zu, da oftmals nur durch eine daraus resultierende Fruehbehandlung schwerwiegende Folgen vermieden werden koennen. Die Kernspintomographie (Magnetresonanztomographie=MRT) ist in zahlreichen orthopaedischen-traumatologischen Fragestellungen bereits etabliert. An ausgewaehlten Fallbeispielen haeufiger klinischer Problemstellungen soll in der vorliegenden Arbeit der Stellenwert der MRT dargestellt werden. (orig.)
Climate variability greatly affects animals through direct and indirect effects. Animals with slow reproductive adaptation to ecological changes such as large mammals are likely to have evolved mechanisms to anticipate early such impacts of climate variability on the environment. One of the adaptive mechanisms between reproductive costs and benefits in mammals affects parental investment through biases in sex ratio. Deer might be likely to show an early detection of climate variability because conception takes place in early autumn, but the main raising cost in deer concerns lactation, which takes place at the end of the following spring. The aim of this paper is to assess whether there is a relationship between global indices of climate variability such as El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (EN...
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is the most common severe gastrointestinal emergency that affects premature newborns. This disease often has a rapid onset with few, if any, antecedent signs that can be used to reliably predict its occurrence. Its rapid onset and progression to death, as well as its severe morbidity when the infant survives, begs for early diagnostic tools that may be used in determining those infants who would be at greatest risk for development of the disease and for whom early preventative measures could be targeted. Although studies have suggested efficacy of several techniques such as breath hydrogen, inflammatory mediators in blood, urine or stool, and genetic markers, these all have drawbacks limiting their use. The application of newly developed "omic" approaches may provide biomarkers for early diagnosis and targeted prevention of this disease. PMID:19190533
Iron is an essential micronutrient. As an integral part of hemoglobin, it is essential for the transport of oxygen in blood to the tissues. It is an important component of cytochromes and other tissue enzymes that are critical for cellular respiration and of myoglobin that helps maintain oxygen reserve in the muscle. It is also involved in the normal functioning of the immune function, and in the synthesis of steroid hormones and bile acids. There are serious functional consequences to iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in the human body. The deleterious effects include increased morbidity, preterm delivery, low birth weight, delayed cognitive development, lowered cellular immunity and reduced physical work capacity. However, iron deficiency and IDA remain the world's most common deficiency disease in the 21st century. Recent estimates of people affected with iron deficiency and IDA are 3.5 billion. Iron deficiency anemia is most prevalent and severe ...
One of the most challenging problems in Opportunistic Spectrum Access (OSA) is to design channel sensing-based protocol in multi secondary users (SUs) network. Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for SUs have significant implications on this protocol design. In this paper, we propose a new method to find joint policies for SUs which not only guarantees QoS requirements but also maximizes network throughput. We use Decentralized Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (Dec-POMDP) to formulate interactions between SUs. Meanwhile, a tractable approach for Dec-POMDP is utilized to extract sub-optimum joint policies for large horizons. Among these policies, the joint policy which guarantees QoS requirements is selected as the joint sensing strategy for SUs. To show the efficiency of the proposed method, we consider two SUs trying to access two-channel primary users (PUs) network modeled by discrete Markov chains. Simulations demonstrate three interesting findings: 1- Optimum joint ...
The purpose of this research is to clarify how psychological factors' impact on public acceptance of nuclear energy varies with where they live and their degree of knowledge. For this purpose, we carried out questionnaire survey about nuclear energy at three urban areas and two nuclear power plant siting areas. After collecting data, we applied factor analysis to the data, and found four factors which construct cognitive structure of nuclear energy. Using multiple regression analysis, we evaluated the impact of the four factors on two issues: the decision for or against nuclear policy and the reaction to nuclear power plant siting, and compared changes of the impact by where respondents live and their degree of knowledge. Consequently, we found that the impact of all four factors on the two issues varies with where respondents live. We also found that the impact of respondents' degree of knowledge to four factors varies with where they live. (author)
The usefulness of psychoanalysis to psychosomatic medicine has been limited by the longstanding assumption that the psychological disorder in psychosomatic patients resembles the conflict-based psychopathology that Freud identified in psychoneurotic patients. Recent investigations of the alexithymia construct, and the discovery that social relationships can influence health over the entire life span, have challenged this assumption and created an opportunity for a new and active involvement of psychoanalysis with psychosomatic medicine. In this contribution, I offer a synthesis of contemporary psychoanalytic observations and theories with concepts and research findings from developmental psychology, developmental biology, and the biomedical sciences. The proposed synthesis is consistent with the view that living organisms are self-regulating cybernetic systems; it also extends an evolving new psychosomatic model that conceptualizes illnesses and diseases as disorders of ...
This article contains the argument that the human ability to travel mentally in time constitutes a discontinuity between ourselves and other animals. Mental time travel comprises the mental reconstruction of personal events from the past (episodic memory) and the mental construction of possible events in the future. It is not an isolated module, but depends on the sophistication of other cognitive capacities, including self-awareness, meta-representation, mental attribution, understanding the perception-knowledge relationship, and the ability to dissociate imagined mental states from one's present mental state. These capacities are also important aspects of so-called theory of mind, and they appear to mature in children at around age 4. Furthermore, mental time travel is generative, involving the combination and recombination of familiar elements, and in this respect may have been a precursor to language. Current evidence, although indirect or based on anecdote ...
Background: In order to reconceptualize somatoform disorders (SFDs), the psychological characteristics of SFD patients are increasingly investigated. The cognitive style of magical thinking (MT) has not been studied so far in patients with SFDs. Sampling and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 201 allergy workup patients were interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV; they answered a set of self-report questionnaires including the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire subscale for MT and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ). The expression of MT was explored in 61 patients with SFDs compared to 140 patients without SFDs. Results: Patients with SFDs reached higher scores of MT, also when controlled for gender, depression, and anxiety. In particular, they stated more frequently that they were believers in telepathy (64 vs. 44%) and clairvoyance (43 vs. 16%). MT correlated only weakly with somatization/somatic symptom severity, depression, and ...
Recent cognitive psychological research has argued that involuntary mental time travel is an important individual difference variable that has the potential to affect an individual's motivation. However, this issue has not been empirically investigated in educational settings such as teacher education. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the possible effect of involuntary mental time travel on prospective teachers' situational intrinsic motivations in the classrooms during the period of a class hour. A total of 274 prospective teachers voluntarily participated in the study. Results showed that involuntary mental time travel into the past and into the future occurred in the classrooms even during the period of a class hour. The characteristics of the prospective teachers' involuntary memories/future images were evident. Most importantly, results revealed that the teaching-related positive future images significantly and positively affected the prospective ...
INTRODUCTION: Fatigue is a prominent symptom in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and it has distinctive features; however, there is a need for a robust scale to measure fatigue in COPD. METHODS: At baseline, 122 patients with COPD (forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)) 52%, women 38%, mean age 66 years) completed a pilot fatigue scale covering a pool of 57 items and underwent a range of tests, including indicators of mood and a short general fatigue questionnaire. All patients responded to the 57-item scale and it was readministered to a subset of 30 patients. The pilot scale was first subjected to constructive validated shortening steps and then to a principal components analysis. RESULTS: The Manchester COPD fatigue scale (MCFS) consists of 27 items, loading into three dimensions: physical, cognitive and psychosocial fatigue. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.97) and test-retest repeatability (r = 0.97, por=16 scores in the Center for ...
Clinical-HINTS (Health Intelligence System) is a horizontally integrated decision support system (DSS) designed to meet the requirements for intelligent real-time clinical information management in critical care medical environments and to lay the foundation for the development of the next generation of intelligent medical instrumentation. The system presented was developed to refine and complement the information yielded by clinical laboratory investigations, thereby benefiting the management of the intensive care unit (ICU) patient. More specifically, Clinical-HINTS was developed to provide computer-based assistance with the acquisition, organisation and display, storage and retrieval, communication and generation of real-time patient-specific clinical information in an ICU. Clinical-HINTS is an object-oriented system developed in C+2 to run under Microsoft Windows as an embryo intelligent agent. Current generic reasoning skills include perception and reactive ...
Autism is a pervasive developmental condition, characterized by impairments in non-verbal communication, social relationships and stereotypical patterns of behavior. A large body of evidence suggests that several aspects of face processing are impaired in autism, including anomalies in gaze processing, memory for facial identity and recognition of facial expressions of emotion. In search of neural markers of anomalous face processing in autism, much interest has focused on a network of brain regions that are implicated in social cognition and face processing. In this review, we will focus on three such regions, namely the STS for its role in processing gaze and facial movements, the FFA in face detection and identification and the amygdala in processing facial expressions of emotion. Much evidence suggests that a better understanding of the normal development of these specialized regions is essential for discovering the neural bases of face processing anomalies in ...
Objectives1. To identify with older people the problems which they encounter in finding their way about public building/spaces.~%~2. To produce ideas, in consultation with older people, for an information/navigation aid that might facilitate their use and enjoyment of public buildings/spaces, notably hospitals, large shops, railway stations, airports.~%~3. To develop an emulation model of the information/navigation aid~%~4. To monitor use of the model by older people~%~5. To identify further research~%~6. [continued...]DescriptionThe growth in the number of older people offers scope for the development of customised information/navigation aids to help them to find their way around complex public spaces. New technology however is unlikely to be taken up by older people unless it is acceptable to them. The research will involve engineers in designing, testing and modifying a model of such an aid in conjunction with a sample of older people.~%~Older people, in particular those with ...
Materials and MethodsThe genomic effects of tumor-endothelial interactions in cancer are not yet well characterized. To study this interaction in breast...Full Text Available
The sequential events and the inflammatory mediators that characterize disease onset and progression of ulcerative colitis (UC) are not well known. In this study, we evaluated the early pathologic events...Full Text Available
Over 30 months 9292 consecutive patients admitted to nine coronary care units with suspected myocardial infarction were considered for admission to a randomised double blind study comparing the effect...Full Text Available
Uterine sarcomas are a rare group of neoplasms with aggressive clinical course and poor prognosis. They are classified into four main histological subtypes in order of decreasing incidence: carcinosarcomas,...Full Text Available
During germination and early growth of castor bean (Ricinus communis), all cellular constituents of the endosperm are eventually transferred to the growing embryo. The present results...Full Text Available
HIV-1 nonsubtype B variants account for the majority of HIV infections worldwide. Drug resistance in individuals who have never undergone antiretroviral therapy can lead to early failure and...Full Text Available
Memory consolidation requires transcription and translation of new protein. Arc, an effector immediate early gene, and zif268, a regulatory transcription factor, have been implicated in synaptic plasticity...Full Text Available
BACKGROUND: A number of studies have shown that the early mortality following TURP is higher for patients with prostate cancer than those with benign disease. This study examines the effect of the histological...Full Text Available
BackgroundIn France, it is estimated that 24% of HIV-infected patients are also infected with HCV. Longitudinal studies addressing clinical and public health questions related to...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe natural history of bronchial preinvasive lesions and the risk of developing lung cancer in patients with these lesions are not clear. Previous studies have treated...Full Text Available
A review is presented of the quest for superheavy elements under the following headings - early history; physical and nuclear properties unique to superheavy elements; searches in nature; terrestrial samples; extra-terrestrial samples; and searches at accelerators. 72 references. (U.K.).
Total thyroidectomy involving the adjacent structures of the trachea can cause tracheal damage such as early tracheal necrosis. The authors describe the first case of anterior tracheal necrosis following...Full Text Available
Allergic rhinitis is common among children and quite often represents a stage of the atopic march. Although sensitization to food and airborne allergens may appear in infancy and early childhood, symptoms...Full Text Available
Randomized clinical trials are designed with stopping boundaries to guide data monitoring committees with their decision making concerning ongoing trials. In particular, when extremely positive results...Full Text Available
Early on, intriguing biological activities were found associated with the EETs using in vitro systems. Although the EETs other than the 5,6-isomer, are quite stable chemically,...Full Text Available
BackgroundThere is a lack of studies considering social disparity in oral health emanating from adolescents in low-income countries. This study aimed to assess socio-demographic...Full Text Available
Mouse lines with behavioral phenotypes relevant to symptoms in neurodevelopmental disorders may provide models to test hypotheses about disease etiology and to evaluate potential treatments....Full Text Available
Objective:This article examines relationships between reproductive onset and lifetime history of smoking, regular smoking, and nicotine dependence, and cannabis and other illicit...Full Text Available
In rats, expression of the immediate early gene, c-fos observed in the brain following male copulatory behavior relates mostly to the detection of olfactory information originating...Full Text Available
The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon system represents an important alternative to viral integrating vector systems but may, as its viral counterparts, be subject to transcriptional silencing. To investigate...Full Text Available
Dental caries continues to be a common chronic disease among various population groups. Patient care can be improved with detection at the earliest stage. However, current techniques do not...Full Text Available
of early humanitarians, and the vivisectors turned to Rene Descartes (1596 1650 ) to justify ...A celebrated mathematician, physiologist, and psychologist, Descartes provided a general philosophy of the irrelevance of ethics to the ...Animals, according to Descartes, were insensible and irrational machines; moved, like clocks, but
IntroductionIrradiation of normal, non-malignant bone during cancer therapy can lead to atrophy and increased risk of fracture at several skeletal sites, particularly...Full Text Available
BackgroundTransarterial chemoembolization (TACE) therapy is an effective locoregional treatment in hepatocellular cancer (HCC) patients. For early modification of therapy, markers...Full Text Available
The oxytocin and prolactin responses to suckling were measured in 10 women in early (n = 5) and established lactation (n = 5). Oxytocin was released in a pulsatile manner during suckling in all women,...Full Text Available
Direct identification of group B streptococci from a selective broth medium was performed with the Phadebact streptococcus test to determine the feasibility of this technique for early detection of...Full Text Available
Totipotent stem cells have the potential to differentiate into every cell type. Renewal of totipotent stem cells in the germline and cellular differentiation during early embryogenesis rely upon posttranscriptional...Full Text Available
Breast cancer is a progressive and potentially fatal disease that affects women of all ages. Like all progressive diseases, early and reliable diagnosis is the key for successful treatment and annihilation....Full Text Available
BackgroundLung cancer diagnosis in tissue material with commonly used histological techniques is sometimes inconvenient and in a number of cases leads to ambiguous conclusions. Frequently...Full Text Available
A total of 626 patients undergoing a prostaglandin-induced abortion, the majority in the second trimester, have been analysed for complications occurring during inpatient treatment. Of the last 155...Full Text Available
We investigated the role of early portal hypotensive pharmacotherapy in preventing the development of portal-systemic shunting in a portal hypertensive model of chronic murine schistosomiasis induced...Full Text Available
A 33-year-old man sustained an acute Achilles tendon rupture which was surgically repaired. Early nonweight-bearing range of motion and strengthening of the ankle and the repaired muscle unit was allowed...Full Text Available
ObjectiveTo evaluate the prognostic significance of adjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy-induced neutropenia with survival in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine...Full Text Available
Cervical cancer is known to metastasize primarily by the lymphatic system. Dissemination through lymphatic vessels represents an early step in regional tumor progression, and the presence of lymphatic...Full Text Available
Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity and long-term disability of non-anomalous infants. Previous studies have identified a prior early spontaneous preterm birth as...Full Text Available
Background. Detection of subjects with early chronic kidney disease (CKD) is important because some will progress up to stage 5 CKD, and most are at high risk of cardiovascular morbidity...Full Text Available
PURPOSE: Visual loss following panretinal photocoagulation was found in the Diabetic Retinopathy and the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Studies. This study was designed to test the hypothesis...Full Text Available
In terms of managing thrombotic disorders, genotype-based individualized patient care emerged as early as 1994 when the association of factor V Leiden (G1691A), and later, prothrombin (G20210A),...Full Text Available
The new percutaneous mitral valve repair techniques are at an early stage. Preliminary series show that they are feasible; however, they need to be further evaluated in comparison with contemporary...Full Text Available
Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a common genetic disorder in humans that arises from deficient activity of phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH), which catalyzes the conversion of phenylalanine to tyrosine....Full Text Available
Nineteen of 69 patients undergoing coronary angioplasty required immediate coronary surgery after the procedure. Six of these operations were planned as a result of angioplasty that failed without producing...Full Text Available
Mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIB (MPS IIIB; Sanfilippo syndrome type B) is a metabolic disorder with devastating clinical characteristics starting in early childhood and leading to premature death. A...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe aim of the present article was to evaluate whether angiogenic parameters as assessed by transvaginal color Doppler ultrasound (TVCD) may predict those prognostic factors...Full Text Available
Microglia provide immune surveillance for the brain through both the removal of cellular debris and protection against infection by microorganisms and “foreign” molecules. Upon...Full Text Available
BackgroundMitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative damage and the accumulation of somatic mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have been associated with certain neurodegenerative disorders....Full Text Available
NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) comprises about 80% of all lung cancer cases worldwide. Surgery is most effective treatment for patients with early-stage disease. However, 30%–55% of these...Full Text Available
BACKGROUND: Each component of metabolic syndrome (MS) conveys increased cardiovascular disease risk, but as a combination they become much more powerful. Vigorous early management of the syndrome may...Full Text Available
Hypothalamic systems which regulate appetite may be permanently modified during early development. We have previously reported hyperphagia and increased adiposity in the adult offspring of rodents fed...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe proteomics approach termed proteome pattern analysis has been shown previously to have potential in the detection and classification of breast cancer. Here we aimed...Full Text Available
OBJECTIVE: To examine primary care physicians' management of rheumatoid arthritis, ascertain the determinants of management and compare management with that recommended by a current practice panel....Full Text Available
and antibody responses of rhesus macaques exposed to the human gammaretrovirus XMRV. J Virol. 2011 May ;85(9):4547-57. Epub 2011 Feb 16 . PubMed Surgical staging of early...
The composition of the extracellular matrix (ECM) was examined in the developing lens and optic cup (stages 11-16) of the long-tailed monkey (Macaca fascicularis) using peroxidase immunocytochemistry....Full Text Available
Background:In recent years, breast cancer (BC) mortality rates have declined, reflecting advances in early detection. Prevention and management of treatment sequelae that could impair...Full Text Available
We investigated the pathophysiological mechanism by proteomic approach as a possible tool to detect the marker proteins to develop lower urinary tract symptoms following bladder outlet obstruction (BOO)....Full Text Available
Pancreatic islet transplantation into the liver provides a possibility to treat selected patients with brittle type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, massive early β-cell death increases the number...Full Text Available
BackgroundAlthough the World Health Organization had recommended that every child be vaccinated for Hepatitis B by the early 1980s, large multinational pharmaceutical companies held...Full Text Available
Aquaculture is increasing worldwide, however we have little understanding of its impacts on marine communities. A critical element of many marine communities are seagrasses, a group of globally distributed marine angiosperms that are drivers of many abiotic and biotic processes in estuarine and mari...
Life history theory proposes that early-life cues induce highly integrated responses in traits associated with energy partitioning, maturation, reproduction, and aging such that the individual phenotype...Full Text Available
Suppressed IL-12 production and maladaptive immune activation, both of which are ameliorated by successful highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), are thought to play important roles in the immunopathogenesis...Full Text Available
Hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia accelerate both aging and cancer. Antidiabetic biguanides such as metformin decrease glucose, insulin and IGF-1 level. Metformin increases lifespan and prevents cancer...Full Text Available
SynopsisEarly detection of late onset neonatal sepsis, prior to obvious and potentially catastrophic clinical signs, is an important goal in neonatal medicine. Sepsis causes a...Full Text Available
Assessment of subtle changes in the primary macromolecular components of cartilage, proteoglycan (PG) and collagen, is critical for the diagnosis of early stages of osteoarthritis (OA), but...Full Text Available
A disk formation model during collapse of the protosolar nebula, yielding a low-mass protoplanetary disk is presented. The following subject areas are covered: (1) circumstellar disks; (2) conditions for the formation of stars with disks; (3) early evolution of the protoplanetary disk; and (4) temperature conditions and the convection in the protoplanetary disk.
ContextFatigue is the most common sequela among non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) survivors 1–6 years post-treatment and is associated with functional limitations.Full Text Available
On agar plates, daughter cells of Escherichia coli mutually slide and align side-by-side in parallel during the first round of binary fission. This phenomenon has been previously attributed...Full Text Available
BackgroundEarly exposure to ovarian hormones is considered to increase breast cancer incidence. The age at which the ovaries become functional is thus important.Full Text Available
Ammonoids and conodonts, being characterized by exceptionally high background rates of origination and extinction, were vulnerable to global environmental crises, which characteristically intensified...Full Text Available
Zygotes of fucoid algae have long been studied as a paradigm for cell polarity. Polarity is established early in the first cell cycle and is then expressed as localized growth and invariant cell division....Full Text Available
The ternary complex factor (TCF) Elk-1 is a transcription factor that regulates immediate early gene (IEG) expression via the serum response element (SRE) DNA consensus site. Elk-1 is associated with...Full Text Available
A clinical trial was conducted to determine whether prepartum intramammary pirlimycin reduces the proportion of nulliparous heifers with intramammary infection (IMI) during early lactation and improves...Full Text Available
A rise in blood pressure associated with oral contraceptives is well established but the frequency with which it develops is not known. Early results from a controlled long-term prospective study have...Full Text Available
Chickens were bursectomized in ovo on days 18, 19 or 20 of incubation or within 6 h of hatch and immunized at day 28 after hatch by an intravenous injection of sheep red blood cells (SRBC). The immune...Full Text Available
Increasing attention is being paid to the scientific evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). As many TCMs are capable of biotransformation in the gastrointestinal tract, attention to biotransformation...Full Text Available
BackgroundAllergic Contact Dermatitis (ACD) is regarded as a T-cell-mediated delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction. We studied the kinetics of the expression of CS-1 fibronectin,...Full Text Available
Early effects of boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) on malignant glioma are characterized by reduction of the enhancement area and regression of the peritumoral edema radiologically. The aim of this study was to investigate the early histological changes of tumors and inflammatory cells after BNCT in the rat brain. Rats were treated with BNCT using boronophenylalanine (BPA) 7 days after implantation of C6 glioma cells. The tumors were assessed with magnetic resonance imaging and histopathological examination at 4 days after BNCT. The mean tumor volumes were 39#+-#2 mm"3 in the BNCT group and 134#+-#18 mm"3 in the control group. In the BNCT group, tumor cells showed a less pleomorphic appearance with atypical nuclei and mitotic figures. The Ki-67 labeling index was 6.5%#+-#4.7% in the BNCT and 35%#+-#3.8% in the control group. The reactions of the inflammatory cells were examined with ED-1 as macrophage marker and OX42 as microglia marker. ...
Bone metastases of an Ewing's sarcoma were detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), when bone scan, CT and plain films were still normal. This is due to the ability of MRI to detect intramedullary metastases before involvement of the cortex. (Auth.).
IntroductionRadiotherapy outcomes might be further improved by a greater understanding of the individual variations in normal tissue reactions that determine tolerance. Most published...Full Text Available
Non-cemented femoral fixation in hip arthroplasty has become the standard of practice in the USA. However, recent literature has brought attention to an increasing incidence of periprosthetic femur...Full Text Available
IntroductionFlow diversion is a new approach to the endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms which uses a high density mesh stent to induce sac thrombosis. These devices...Full Text Available
The performance of the Lung Imaging Fluorescence Endoscope (LIFE) system was compared with conventional bronchoscopy in 158 patients: 68 patients with invasive cancer, 42 patients with abnormal sputum...Full Text Available
Background:The present study measured longitudinal changes in bone turnover markers in elderly patients with vertebral fracture and investigated the relationship among bone turnover...Full Text Available
Several theories have proposed a functional role for synchronous neuronal firing in generating the neural code of a sensory perception. Synchronous neural activity develops during a critical...Full Text Available
A paradoxical metabolic imbalance in inorganic phosphate occurs from the early onset of diabetes and may lead to a reduction of high energy phosphates and tissue hypoxia. These changes take place in...Full Text Available
Spinal Ewing's sarcomas are rare and cause problems in differential diagnosis. The radiologic, nuclear medicine and CT findings in two children with histologically proven Ewing's sarcoma are presented and problems in differential diagnosis discussed. Biopsy should be done early. (orig.).
Contact scanner system in Wolsung NPP(model ESE-1565) is an early '70 equipment, so most of components are obsolete. To make it 100% compatible, PCBs for this system is the main object of the study. Most of components used in the system are not available ...
OBJECTIVEPrevious studies showed that genetic deletion or pharmacological blockade of the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) prevents the early structural changes...Full Text Available
BackgroundAlthough the health benefits of breastfeeding are well established, early introduction of formula remains a common practice. Cultural beliefs and practices can have an...Full Text Available
In summer 2000, the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale University began a demonstration project to digitize classic articles in neurosurgery from the late 1800s and early 1900s. The objective of...Full Text Available
The Cordoba and Wolsung projects mark the entry into the international sales arena of the standardized Canadian 600 MWe CANDU-PHW reactor design. The Cordoba station experienced a setback in the early stages when severe inflation in Argentina led to a ren...
Ripening of `Tydeman's Early' apples (Malus sylvestris L.) assessed by the occurrence of the respiratory climacteric was delayed by succinic acid 2,2-dimethyl hydrazide (B-9) but not...Full Text Available
The purpose of the meeting reported here was to develop a set of national evidence-based standards for assessing and managing patients with potentially resectable rectal cancer. This report represents...Full Text Available
Premature circuit clotting is a major problem in daily practice of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), increasing blood loss, workload, and costs. Early clotting is related to bioincompatibility,...Full Text Available
1. Paired or single recordings of paraventricular and/or supraoptic oxytocin cells at the beginning of suckling in urethane-anaesthetized rats enabled us to study cell recruitment and compare the characteristics...Full Text Available
This paper reviews the development of cerebral scintigraphy from its early days of planar imaging with simple technetium-99m labelled compounds to the recent revival of the technique in the form of...Full Text Available
Fish living in contaminated environments accumulate toxic chemicals in their tissues. Biomarkers are needed to identify the resulting health effects, particularly focusing on early changes at a subcellular...Full Text Available
Research on Be stars from the early work of Merrill and Struve to the present is reviewed, including recent observations from space. A number of models which have been proposed to explain the Be phenomenon are discussed, and the evolutionary status of Be stars is considered. 126 references.
He said due to DoD's early involvement in the creation of the Internet (a product of DARPA), it has more address space at its disposal than most other organizations worldwide....
BackgroundIn vitro data suggest that changes in myocardial substrate metabolism may contribute to impaired myocardial function in diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM)....Full Text Available
Life-history theory predicts that traits involved in maturity, reproduction and survival correlate along a fast–slow continuum of life histories. Evolutionary theories and empirical results...Full Text Available
We report an unusual case of strangulated diaphragmatic (Morgagni) hernia resulting in ischaemia of the small and large bowel, which was initially diagnosed as a pneumonia. This case highlights the...Full Text Available
In multiple sclerosis (MS), oligodendrocyte and myelin destruction lead to demyelination with subsequent axonal loss. Experimental demyelination in rodents has highlighted the activation of the subventricular...Full Text Available
A method is presented to derive the absolute dimensions of early-type detached binaries by combining the observed parameters with results of evolutionary computations. The method is used to obtain the absolute dimensions of nine close binaries. We find that most systems have an initial masss ratio near 1.
The single-stranded viral DNA of an M13 phage recombinant containing the early promoter region of SV40 was hybridized with linear, double-stranded replicative form DNA of a related M13 phage containing...Full Text Available
Frontotemporal lobar degeneration is a progressive neurodegenerative syndrome that is the second most common cause of early-onset dementia. Mutations in the progranulin gene are a major cause of familial...Full Text Available
IntroductionVarious multigene predictors of breast cancer clinical outcome have been commercialized, but proved to be prognostic only for hormone receptor (HR) subsets overexpressing...Full Text Available
PurposeHyperglycemia and hypertension contribute to the development of diabetic retinopathy, and this may involve alterations in the normal retinal cell cycle. In this work, we examined...Full Text Available
Thiamin(e), also known as vitamin B1, is now known to play a fundamental role in energy metabolism. Its discovery followed from the original early research on the ‘anti-beriberi factor’...Full Text Available
Antimalarial drugs will be essential tools at all stages of malaria elimination along the path towards eradication, including the early control or “attack” phase to drive down transmission...Full Text Available
Methylphenidate (MPH) is commonly prescribed in childhood and adolescence for the treatment of attention–deficit/hyperactivity disorders. In rodents, MPH exposure during preadolescence...Full Text Available
... 2010-10-01 false Child mental health. 1304.24 Section 1304.24 Public...HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES THE ADMINISTRATION...AGENCIES Early Childhood Development and Health Services § 1304.24 Child...
BackgroundPathophysiological mechanisms involved in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are complex and none has identified reliable markers useful in routine patient evaluation....Full Text Available
The nature of the first generation of stars in the Universe remains largely unknown. Observations imply the existence of massive primordial stars early in the history of the universe, and the standard theory for the growth of cosmic structure predicts that structures grow hierarchically through gravitational instability. We have developed an ab initio computer simulation of the formation of primordial stars that follows the relevant atomic and molecular processes in a primordial gas in an expanding universe. The results show that primeval density fluctuations left over from the Big Bang can drive the formation of a tiny protostar with a mass of just one percent that of the sun. The protostar is a seed for the subsequent formation of a massive primordial star.
Transplantation has emerged as the therapy of choice for many patients with end organ failure. One of the major goals is to tailor immunosuppressive therapy to the individual needs of every patient to balance the risk for rejection and over-immunosuppression. This will require diagnostic tools that can detect harmful processes in the allograft early, and that can be measured repeatedly. This review will consider recent advances in our understanding of the molecular nature of these processes and how this information is being utilized to design novel diagnostic assays to non-invasively monitor allografts. Highlighted is the need for large-scale prospective multi-centre studies to validate assays that show early promise in single centre studies.
This article reviews antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy, and violence and develops a three factor model of personality traits. Then a discussion of related personality disorders precedes the development of a categorical two factor model of impulsive versus remorseless violence. A paradigm of proactive, medical, and school based early intervention and prevention is advocated as a useful addition to the reactive detention of criminal justice. Integration of psychological tests, neuroimaging, and genomic data in early childhood and school based intervention strategies to prevent the development of conduct disorder and attenuate criminal propensity inform this approach. PMID:20422651
The fact that South Africa had no commercially significant deposits of crude oil necessitated the early development of production of gasoline from coal which was present in abundance in low to medium grade in thick seams, the development of the process since the early 1950s is discussed. Both the Fischer Tropsch and Lurgi processes are used, and three large plants named Sasol One, Two, and Three have been completed. A flow diagram for the Lurgi process as used in these plants is included. Typical products and their properties resulting from the Sasol-type Synthol operation are presented in tabular form. Marketing considerations and economics of production of the Sasol products are discussed briefly. (BLM)
The fact that South Africa had no commercially significant deposits of crude oil necessitated the early development of production of gasoline from coal which was present in abundance in low to medium grade in thick seams, the development of the process since the early 1950s is discussed. Both the Fischer Tropsch and Lurgi processes are used, and three large plants named Sasol One, Two, and Three have been completed. A flow diagram for the Lurgi process as used in these plants is included. Typical products and their properties resulting from the Sasol-type Synthol operation are presented in tabular form. Marketing considerations and economics of production of the Sasol products are discussed briefly. (BLM)
Gallium imaging is increasingly being used for the early detection of complications in patients with AIDS. A 26-year-old homosexual man who was HIV antibody positive underwent gallium imaging for investigation of possible Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Widespread cutaneous focal uptake was seen, which was subsequently shown to be due to mycobacterium avium-intracellulare (MAI) septicemia. This case demonstrates the importance of whole body imaging rather than imaging target areas only, the utility of gallium imaging in aiding the early detection of clinically unsuspected disease, and shows a new pattern of gallium uptake in disseminated MAI infection.
A high voltage self-blowing circuit breaker with closing resistors is equipped with an auxiliary contact inserted in the trip control circuit of an electrical circuit breaker. The auxiliary contact is actuated by the mechanical control rod of the circuit breaker in such a way as to prevent any operator closing error. A high-speed mechanism is inserted in the link system connecting the control rod and the auxiliary contact, with dead travel to delay closing of the auxiliary contact when a closing operation takes place and to prevent a tripping order from being transmitted too early. Such an early transmission would be liable to cause a flashover on the inserter contacts and damage to the circuit breaker.
The present conference on U.S. space transportation systems development discusses opportunities for aerospace students in prospective military, civil, industrial, and scientific programs, current strategic conceptualization and program planning for future U.S. space transportation, the DOD space transportation plan, NASA space transportation plans, medium launch vehicle and commercial space launch services, the capabilities and availability of foreign launch vehicles, and the role of commercial space launch systems. Also discussed are available upper stage systems, future space transportation needs for space science and applications, the trajectory analysis of a low lift/drag-aeroassisted orbit transfer vehicle, possible replacements for the Space Shuttle, LEO to GEO with combined electric/beamed-microwave power from earth, the National Aerospace Plane, laser propulsion to earth orbit, and a performance analysis for a laser-powered SSTO vehicle.
Data that arises from computer vision and image processing is often characterized by a mixture of multiple linear (or affine) subspaces, leading to the challenging problem of subspace segmentation. We observe that the heart of segmentation is to deal with the data that may not strictly follow subspace structures, i.e., to handle the data corrupted by noise. In this work we therefore address the subspace recovery problem. Given a set of data samples approximately drawn from a union of multiple subspaces, our goal is to segment the samples into their respective subspaces and correct the possible noise as well, i.e., our goal is to recover the subspace structures from corrupted data. To this end, we propose low-rank representation (LRR) for recovering a low-rank data matrix from corrupted observations. The recovery is performed by seeking the lowest-rank representation among all the candidates that can represent the data vectors as linear combinations of the basis in ...
Visual excitation is initiated by the absorption of a photon by the 11-cis retinal chromophore bound within the pigment called rhodopsin. We have used a variety of vibrational spectroscopies to obtain information about the vibrational nuclear dynamics that lead to this efficient photochemical isomerization. The cis-trans isomerization in rhodopsin is complete in only 200 fs. The extreme speed of this process, which is consistent with the {approximately}50 fs lifetime indicated by the spontaneous emission yield, suggests that the photochemistry involves non-stationary states or vibrational coherence. Recent studies have in fact observed vibrationally coherent oscillations of the ground state photoproduct called bathorhodopsin following impulsive excitation of the rhodopsin reactant. This conclusively demonstrates that the isomerization process in rhodopsin is vibrationally coherent. These observations further suggest that the isomerization quantum yield is directly dependent on the ...
Seventeen eyes of patients who were being followed by their ophthalmologists for aphakic (8 eyes) or pseudophakic (9 eyes) cystoid macular edema (CME) were examined on referral. All eyes showed retinal detachment (RD), and eight eyes had CME with RD. Most RDs were inferior and shallow. Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) was noted in 15 eyes (88.2%). There was history of vitreous loss during the last intraocular surgery in 88.2% eyes. Visual acuity ranged from 20/40 to hand movements. Fundus view was hazy in most eyes, and indirect ophthalmoscopy was most useful in detecting RD. Retinal reattachment with scleral buckling and/or vitrectomy was achieved in 16 eyes (94.1%). Postoperative visual recovery was jeopardized due to longstanding macular detachment of greater than 1 month in 11 eyes (64.7%). Eight eyes (47%) achieved 20/50 vision whereas 25% did not improve to better than 20/400. Factors leading to failure in making the correct diagnosis and their ...
An almost primordial trend in the conversion and use of energy is an increased complexity and cost of conversion systems designed to utilize cheaper and more-abundant fuels; this trend is exemplified by the progression fossil fission {yields} fusion. The present projections of the latter indicate that capital costs of the fusion ``burner`` far exceed any commensurate savings associated with the cheapest and most-abundant of fuels. These projections suggest competitive fusion power only if internal costs associate with the use of fossil or fission fuels emerge to make them either uneconomic, unacceptable, or both with respect to expensive fusion systems. This ``implementation-by-default`` plan for fusion is re-examined by identifying in general terms fusion power-plant embodiments that might compete favorably under conditions where internal costs (both economic and environmental) of fossil and/or fission are not as great as is needed to justify the contemporary ...
Wireless sensor networks can revolutionize soil ecology by providing measurements at temporal and spatial granularities previously impossible. This paper presents a soil monitoring system we developed and deployed at an urban forest in Baltimore as a first step towards realizing this vision. Motes in this network measure and save soil moisture and temperature in situ every minute. Raw measurements are periodically retrieved by a sensor gateway and stored in a central database where calibrated versions are derived and stored. The measurement database is published through Web Services interfaces. In addition, analysis tools let scientists analyze current and historical data and help manage the sensor network. The article describes the system design, what we learned from the deployment, and initial results obtained from the sensors. The system measures soil factors with unprecedented temporal precision. However, the deployment required device-level programming, sensor ...
We report a patient who developed occlusion of the intracranial major arteries induced by radiation therapy for craniopharyngioma. The patient, a 9-year-old boy, presented with deterioration of vision, nausea and vomiting. He underwent a right ventriculo-peritoneal shunt operation, and the tumor was partially removed. Postoperatively, he received focal radiation therapy with total of 60 Gy. Preoperative cerebral angiography, cerebral vessels had no sigh of occlusive lesion or stenosis. One year after irradiation, he started to have repeated cerebral ischemic attacks. But no regrowth of the tumor was detected on CT scans. Two years and 8 months after irradiation, he suddenly had right hemiparesis. Cerebral angiography revealed severe stenosis of the right anterior cerebral artery (precommunicating segment), middle cerebral artery (horizontal portion) and terminal portion of the right carotid artery. Left carotid angiography showed complete occlusion of the terminal ...
We report a patient who developed occlusion of the intracranial major arteries induced by radiation therapy for craniopharyngioma. The patient, a 9-year-old boy, presented with deterioration of vision, nausea and vomiting. He underwent a right ventriculo-peritoneal shunt operation, and the tumor was partially removed. Postoperatively, he received focal radiation therapy with total of 60 Gy. Preoperative cerebral angiography, cerebral vessels had no sigh of occlusive lesion or stenosis. One year after irradiation, he started to have repeated cerebral ischemic attacks. But no regrowth of the tumor was detected on CT scans. Two years and 8 months after irradiation, he suddenly had right hemiparesis. Cerebral angiography revealed severe stenosis of the right anterior cerebral artery (precommunicating segment), middle cerebral artery (horizontal portion) and terminal portion of the right carotid artery. Left carotid angiography showed complete occlusion of the terminal ...
After a four-year operation, positive results have been achieved. A community of action has been built that enhances RD and D of fuel cells in the French context. PACo is a light and flexible form of organization that supports the strategy of its members through a shared coherent vision. A right balance between cooperation and competition has been found and cross-sector and public-private synergies have been effectively exploited in its midst. This type of partnership demonstrates that it is on the way of creating value in a cost effective manner combining private and public funds. It should be underlined however that the remaining road to go is long before fuel cells become popular and commercially widespread. The time management will be critical in order to keep the momentum and find a pathway to this goal sustainable in the long run. In this process of radical innovation, PACo as any learning organization is committed to continuously look for further ...
Photorefractives, in general, are among the most promising materials solutions to real time optical correlation. Applications include military target recognition and civilian robotic vision. Crystals of sillenite structure photorefractives, Bi12XO20, where X equals Si, Ge, or Ti, have been grown by melt techniques and in the case of bismuth silicon oxide (BSO) and bismuth titanium oxide (BTO) by the hydrothermal method of high-temperature/high-pressure solution growth. The two growth methods are discussed and crystals grown by the two methods are compared in this paper. Optical absorption and TSC studies show that hydrothermal BSO is essentially free of the native antisite Bi defect which usually acts as a donor. These studies also show that the trap density is greatly reduced in hydrothermal material. Preliminary experiments show that hydrothermal BTO crystals have improved properties over melt grown samples. Al and P act as donors and acceptors respectively and ...
First, attention is paid to the development and use of new construction techniques, including the use of new building materials, e.g. synthetic materials and the so-called steel frame method. Next, the reduction of the energy consumption during the service life of a house is discussed. The reduction can be realized by means of passive methods, e.g. improved windows, thermal insulation and design, or by means of active methods, e.g. electric load monitoring. The information in this article mainly concerns the housing construction in the USA and Canada. The purpose of this article to contribute to the discussion in the Netherlands on innovation in the building technology, e.g. formulated in the report `Bouwvisie 2010` (Vision on Buildings for the year 2010) of the Dutch Advisory Board Technology Policy for the Building Industry (ARTB, abbreviated in Dutch) and the building technology policy of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ). 4 figs., 2 tabs., 23 refs.
Model-based approaches to pattern recognition and machine vision have been proposed to overcome the exorbitant training requirements of earlier computational paradigms. However, uncertainties in data were found to lead to a combinatorial explosion of the computational complexity. This issue is related here to the roles of a priori knowledge vs. adaptive learning. What is the a-priori knowledge representation that supports learning? I introduce Modeling Field Theory (MFT), a model-based neural network whose adaptive learning is based on a priori models. These models combine deterministic, fuzzy, and statistical aspects to account for a priori knowledge, its fuzzy nature, and data uncertainties. In the process of learning, a priori fuzzy concepts converge to crisp or probabilistic concepts. The MFT is a convergent dynamical system of only linear computational complexity. Fuzzy logic turns out to be essential for reducing the combinatorial complexity to linear one. I ...
Functional imaging of the pharynx used to be the domain of cineradiography, CT and ultrafast CT. The development of modern MRI techniques led to new access to functional disorders of the pharynx. The aim of this study was to implement a new MRI technique to examine oropharyngeal obstructive mechanisms in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Sixteen patients suffering from OSA and 6 healthy volunteers were examined on a 1.5 T whole-body imager ('Vision', Siemens, Erlangen Medical Engineering, Germany) using a circular polarized head coil. Imaging was performed with 2D flash sequences in midsagittal and axial planes. Patients and volunteers were asked to breathe normally through the nose and to simulate snoring and the Mueller maneuver during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Prior to MRI, all patients underwent an ear, nose and throat (ENT) examination, functional fiberoptic nasopharyngoscopy and polysomnography. A temporal resolution of 6 images/s and an ...
Changes facing the electricity supply industry are significant, and the challenges these changes pose are enormous. There are major changes to the business environment of transitional electric utilities. There are also changes in the management of the companies in that nontechnical people are taking over the leadership of traditionally technical companies to deal with the new business scenario. This raises the concern that there may be a lack of familiarity by management of the technical issues involved with the result that the quality of the product may be at risk over the long term. This article deals with the future. It describes a vision for the control center energy management systems (EMS) network security applications as a function of the current and expected changes in the electric supply industry. The objective is to present a conceptual specification. It suggests possible approaches to the problems control centers are likely to encounter in the future. ...
Lanthanum halide (LaBr_3:Ce) scintillators offer significantly better resolution (< 3% at 662 keV) relative to NaI(Tl) and have recently become commercially available in sizes large enough for the handheld, Radio-Isotope Identification Device (RIID) market. Drawbacks to lanthanum halide detectors, however, include internal radioactivity contributing to spectral counts, and a low-energy response which can cause detector resolution to be worse than that of NaI(Tl) below 100 keV. To study the potential of this new material for RIIDs we performed a series of measurements comparing a 1.5 x 1.5-inch LaBr_3:Ce detector with an Exploranium GR-135 RIID, which contains a 1.5 x 2.2-inch NaI(Tl) detector. Measurements were taken for short timeframes, as typifies RIID usage. Measurements included examples of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), typically found in cargo, and special nuclear materials. Some measurements were non-contact, involving short distances or cargo shielding ...
Due to the recent catastrophic energy system failures in California along with those in the North-Eastern US and Southern Canada, London, and Italy, the time has come to proclaim the failure of deregulation, privatization or liberalization and propose a new energy system. This book shows in the first section, how five precipitating forces led to the deregulation debacle in California: (1) major technological changes and commercialization, (2) regulatory needs mismatched to societal adjustments, (3) inadequate and flawed economic models, (4) lack of vision, goals, and planning leading to energy failures, and (5) failure and lack of economic regional development. The second half of the book, examines how 'civic market', new economic models, and planning for complexity as sustainable economic development transformed in California, the same five forces to create an 'agile energy system' based on renewable energy generation, hybrid or ...
In this paper we present a novel approach to personal photo album management allowing the end user to efficiently access the collection without any need for tedious manual annotation or indexing of the photos. The proposed work exploits methods and technology from the field of computer vision and pattern recognition for face detection, face representation and image annotation to automatically create description of images useful for content-based searching and retrieval. In fact, even if most of the used techniques are not reliable enough to address the general problem of content-based image retrieval, we show that, in a limited domain such as the one of personal photo album, it is possible to obtain results that improve the browsing capabilities of current photo album management systems. In particular, starting from the observation that most personal photos depict a usually small number of people in a relatively small number of different context (indoor, outdoor, ...
Seven years ago 164 governments, together with partner organizations from around the world, made a collective commitment to dramatically expand educational opportunities for children, youth, and adults by 2015. Participants at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, endorsed a comprehensive vision of education, anchored in human rights, affirming the importance of learning at all ages and emphasizing the need for special measures to reach the poorest, most vulnerable and most disadvantaged groups in society. This sixth edition of the "Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report" assesses the extent to which these commitments are being met. There is clearly a "Dakar effect," evidence that rallying around common goals can mobilize countries to empower individual lives. Partly because of the abolition of tuition fees, more children are enrolled in school than in 2000, with the sharpest increases in the regions farthest from the goals set in Dakar. Many ...
The Median Tectonic Zone (MTZ) of New Zealand is a generally north trending belt of Mesozoic subduction related I-type plutonic, volcanic, and sedimentary rocks in South Island and Stewart Island that separates Permian strata of the Eastern Province Brook Street Terrane from lower to mid Gondwana margin assemblages of the Western Province. High precision isotope dilution U/Pb ages of zircons from 30 rocks are reported. Pre-digestion leaching of zircon in hydrofluoric acid yielded significantly more concordant residues by removing common Pb and dissolving more soluble high-U domains that have been more affected by relatively recent Pb loss. The results show that MTZ magmatism ranges in age from at least Early Triassic to Early Cretaceous (247-131 Ma), with a pronounced gap in the Middle Jurassic. Triassic plutons tend to occur on the eastern side of the MTZ, and they intrude volcanic/sedimentary sequences of the MTZ in Nelson and eastern ...
The usefulness of helical CT early phase images optimized by the SmartPrep method for evaluation of wall invasion by colorectal cancer was investigated. Between August 1997 and September 1998, CT was performed to evaluate the primary tumor and local extension in 10 consecutive patients with colorectal cancer confirmed by barium enema- and/or colonoscopy. Early-phase images were acquired by using SmartPrep application software. This method allows the optimal scan delay time to be obtained by continuous monitoring of increases in CT values after injection of contrast medium. Sections of the surgical specimens, close to the same plane as the CT images, and of the same slice thickness, were analyzed histopathologically. All 10 cancers, regardless of size, showed strong enhancement on the early-phase images (81.4-112 HU, mean: 95.1 HU). The strongly enhanced image areas on CT corresponded to the primary cancer areas on ...
The research work carried out on mutation breeding in Egypt during the 1980s is summarized. Several mutations have been developed in bread wheat, maize, rice and barley. A higher yield, tolerance to salinity, shorter types and earliness were obtained after use of different mutagens and growth regulators. Great attention has been paid to the fababean and chickpea, particularly in improving their quality and quantity of protein, and their resistance to insect weevils such as Callosobruchus sp. Tolerance or resistance to broom rape has also been reported. Various grain legumes such as lentil, pea, cowpea, bean, fenugreek and lupin received some attention. Mutation work on fibre crops such as cotton, kenaf and flax has led to some promising results. Zero type, glandless and early maturing mutants were obtained in cotton, and early flowering, high yielding (fibre or oil) mutants in flax. Some attention has been given to oil ...
We derive stellar masses, ages, and star formation histories (SFHs) of massive early-type galaxies in the z = 1.237 RDCS1252.9-2927 cluster and compare them with those measured in a similarly mass-selected sample of field contemporaries drawn from the Great Observatories Origin Deep Survey South Field. Robust estimates of these parameters are obtained by comparing a large grid of composite stellar population models with 8-9 band photometry in the rest-frame near-ultraviolet, optical, and IR, thus sampling the entire relevant domain of emission of the different stellar populations. Additionally, we present new, deep U-band photometry of both fields, giving access to the critical far-ultraviolet rest frame, in order to empirically constrain the dependence of the most recent star formation processes on the environment. We also analyze the morphological properties of both samples to examine the dependence of their scaling relations on their mass and environment. We ...
Objective. To compare turbo inversion recovery magnitude (TIRM) with standard T1-weighted (T1-W) and T2-weighted (T2-W) MR sequences in the very early detection of acute osteomyelitis in children. Materials and methods. In 15 children with osteomyelitis, 15 sets of T1-W spin-echo (SE) (TR/TE, 400-640/12-17), T2-W turbo spin-echo (TSE) (TR/TE/ETL, 3290-4465/112-120/11), and TIRM (TR/TE/TI, 4000-6120/60/160) images were acquired with a 1.0-T magnet. Contrast-to-noise (C/N) ratios and percentage of signal between lesion and normal bone marrow were analysed with a computer-assisted image analysing system in a region of interest (ROI). Results. In 13 of 15 patients, the absolute signal enhancement in a ROI on the TIRM images was better than on the T1-W SE and T2-W TSE images and in 14 of 15 cases, C/N ratios were also better on the TIRM images than on the other sequences. In the other cases, the TIRM signal was diagnostically equivalent. On the TIRM images, the signal ...
Based on the view that major changes in the social and economic context in the United States require major policy changes related to early childhood education, this paper examines the factors supporting public policy changes and how advocates for change in early childhood education might incorporate effective strategies. The paper is presented in two parts. Part 1 reviews the research on state policy settings and the factors that tend to support policy change. This part focuses attention on the ways that state policymakers appear to learn from what is going on elsewhere and incorporate new ideas into their policy agendas. Several strategic implications for advocates of policy change are presented, such as brainstorming a list of potential obstacles to the introduction of a policy innovation or shaping the debate so the public will support change. Part 2 of the paper takes these general strategic implications and considers their relevance to ...
We present a set of structural parameters for the central parts of 57 early-type galaxies observed with the Planetary Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope. These parameters are based on a new empirical law that successfully characterizes the centers of early type galaxies. This empirical law assumes that the surface brightness profile is a combination of two power laws with different slopes gamma and beta for the inner and outer regions. Conventional structural parameters such as core radius and central surface brightness are replaced by break radius r_b, where the transition between power-law slopes takes place, and surface brightness mu_b at that radius. An additional parameter alpha describes the sharpness of the break. The structural parameters are derived using a chi-squared minimization process applied to the mean surface brightness profiles. The resulting model profiles generally give very good agreement to the observed profiles out to ...
The increase in world oil prices since 2003 has prompted renewed interest in producing and using liquid fuels from unconventional resources, such as biomass, oil shale, and coal. This book focuses on issues and options associated with establishing a commercial coal-to-liquids (CTL) industry within the United States. It describes the technical status, costs, and performance of methods that are available for producing liquids from coal; the key energy and environmental policy issues associated with CTL development; the impediments to early commercial experience; and the efficacy of alternative federal incentives in promoting early commercial experience. Because coal is not the only near-term option for meeting liquid-fuel needs, this book also briefly reviews the benefits and limitations of other approaches, including the development of oil shale resources, the further development of biomass resources, and increasing dependence on imported ...
We present the results of an isophotal shape analysis of three samples of galaxies in the Coma cluster. Quantitative morphology, together with structural and photometric parameters, is given for each galaxy. Special emphasis has been placed on the detailed classification of early-type galaxies. The three samples are: i) a sample of 97 early-type galaxies brighter than m_B = 17.00 falling within one degree from the center of the Coma cluster; these galaxies were observed with CCD cameras, mostly in good to excellent resolution conditions; ii) a magnitude complete sample of 107 galaxies of all morphological types down to m_B = 17.00 falling in a circular region of 50 arcmin diameter, slightly offcentered to the North-West of the cluster center; the images for this and the next sample come from digitized photographic plates; iii) a complete comparison sample of 26 galaxies of all morphological types down to m_R = 16.05 (or m_B \\simeq 17.5), also ...
Central Nervous System (CNS) involvement, whether primary by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus - HIV - itself, or secondary (toxoplasmosis or lymphoma) is remarkably frequent in AIDS, in 40 to 70% of cases, depending upon the author. In order to study the natural history of this illness, a cohort of 25 asymptomatic seropositive patients have been established. Every 6 months these patients undergo biological and clinical examinations, as well as Magnetic Resonance brain scans. After two examinations at a 6 month's interval, the first results are reported. Out of these 25 cases, 9 present anomalies: One patient with diffuse cerebral atrophy and 8 others with high signal intensity areas on T2 weighted sequences, like those of the Multiple Sclerosis. No relationship could be demonstrated between the existence of these lesions and various criteria such as age, sex, risk factors and T4 cells count. The nature of these lesions is not lear. They certainly indicate early ...
ObjectivesThe main objective of this study is to address the following specific questions: 1. Are the delayed effects of poor early diet on whole organism performance and senescence contingent on, or exacerbated by, the subsequent occurrence of compensatory growth? 2. Does the rate of growth influence levels of resting metabolism and/or oxidative stress, and if so, for how long does this persist? 3. How are the levels of early nutrition, growth, resting metabolism and oxidative stress linked to the lev [continued...]DescriptionIt is now widely appreciated that, while animals may appear to recover from periods of poor food quality or quantity experienced in early development, adverse effects may occur later in adult life. Such effects can influence the performance of complete cohorts of animals, and have important consequences for population dynamics. The reasons why such delayed effects occur across the animals' lifetimes ...
From 1964 to 1973 at the Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology, Havana City, 18 clinical histories were studied, all of them from patients with Erwing's sarcoma, histologically diagnosticated by biopsy. Age, sex, race, traumatism background, hemogram disturbances, radiographic signs, primary tumor localization, and early treatment, were exposed. Early treatment in 14(83%) patients as radiotherapy. Local recurrence or metastasis was presented in 10(55,5%) patients during the two first years following attack treatment. Five (35,7%) patients was the survival rate within five years starting early treatemt. After five years, three (21,4%) patients were alive: for 18 and 14 year, and 64 month period; two patients died at 62 and 64 months. It is concluded that this survival may be increased by initial behaviour enclosed at the technologic therapeutic patterns of the the Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology, of Havana City. ...
In the present political climate, politicians are singling out children's programs and services for budget cuts. The need for teacher education programs to prepare early childhood teachers as children's advocates is becoming ever more evident. For years, the National Association for the Education of Young Children has called for greater involvement of early childhood educators as advocates for programs and services that promote children's health and education. In teacher education programs, however, this call has largely gone unheeded. The purpose of this article is to discuss the importance of involving teacher candidates in advocacy activities and policy research, the obstacles that teacher educators can face when incorporating advocacy components into their teacher education courses and programs, and resources and strategies they can use. This discussion builds upon a motivation-obstacles-resources framework developed for adoption of ...