Anxiety and blood pressure prior to dental treatment.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Benjamins, C.; Schuurs, A.H.; Asscheman, H.; Hoogstraten, J.

1990-01-01

Assessed dental anxiety and blood pressure immediately prior to a dental appointment in 24 patients attending a university dental clinic or a clinic for anxious dental patients in the Netherlands. Blood pressure was assessed by 2 independent methods, and the interchangeability of the blood-pressure

Reference Priors for the General Location-Scale Model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fernández, C.; Steel, M.F.J.

1997-01-01

The reference prior algorithm (Berger and Bernardo 1992) is applied to multivariate location-scale models with any regular sampling density, where we establish the irrelevance of the usual assumption of Normal sampling if our interest is in either the location or the scale. This result immediately

Evaluation of workers' perceived sense of slip and effect of prior knowledge of slipperiness during task performance on slippery surfaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiou, S; Bhattacharya, A; Succop, P A

2000-01-01

Forty healthy industrial workers (age: 41.0+/-14.9 years) were tested for postural stability for three simulated tasks: (1) standing upright; (2) rapid trunk movement; and (3) lateral reach during lifting. These tasks were performed on four levels of slippery surfaces under different environmental lighting with new or workers' own old shoes. Prior to postural stability tests, each subject was given the opportunity to assess the surface slipperiness that he or she would encounter in the subsequent postural stability tests. A perceived sense of slip (PSOS) scale was administrated immediately after each test to determine subjects' PSOS. Subjects' postural sway and instability during task performance was determined by using a strain gauge type force platform. Results from this study indicate that subjects who were cautious in assessing surface slipperiness had less postural instability during task performance. Subjects could perceive the likely slips due to the change in task (p=0.0001) and surface slipperiness (p=0.0001). The PSOS scale is reproducible, easy to use, and provides a simple way to evaluate potential slip hazards in the workplace. Results from this study should aid understanding of the factors critical to maintaining postural stability on slippery surfaces, and will help to develop guidelines for safety training and identify slip hazards in the workplace.

Effects of Prior Experience on Shelter-Seeking Behavior of Juvenile American Lobsters.

Science.gov (United States)

Bayer, Skylar R; Bianchi, Katherine M; Atema, Jelle; Jacobs, Molly W

2017-04-01

Shelter-seeking behaviors are vital for survival for a range of juvenile benthic organisms. These behaviors may be innate or they may be affected by prior experience. After hatching, American lobsters Homarus americanus likely first come into contact with shelter during the late postlarval (decapodid) stage, known as stage IV. After the subsequent molt to the first juvenile stage (stage V), they are entirely benthic and are thought to be highly cryptic. We hypothesized that postlarval (stage IV) experience with shelter would carry over into the first juvenile stage (stage V) and reduce the time needed for juveniles to locate and enter shelters (sheltering). We found some evidence of a carryover effect, but not the one we predicted: stage V juveniles with postlarval shelter experience took significantly longer to initiate sheltering. We also hypothesized that stage V juveniles would demonstrate learning by relocating shelters more quickly with immediate prior experience. Our findings were mixed. In a maze, juveniles with immediate prior experience were faster to regain visual contact with shelter, suggesting that they had learned the location of the shelter. In contrast, there was no significant effect of immediate prior experience on time to initiate sheltering in an open arena, or in the maze after juveniles had regained visual contact. We conclude that very young (stage V) juvenile lobsters modify their shelter-seeking behavior based on prior experiences across several timescales. Ecologically relevant variation in habitat exposure among postlarval and early juvenile lobsters may influence successful recruitment in this culturally and commercially important fishery species.

EFFECT OF IMMEDIATE AND DELAYED COLD WATER IMMERSION AFTER A HIGH INTENSITY EXERCISE SESSION ON SUBSEQUENT RUN PERFORMANCE

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Ned Brophy-Williams

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of cold water immersion (CWI performed immediately or 3 h after a high intensity interval exercise session (HIIS on next-day exercise performance. Eight male athletes performed three HIIS at 90%VO2max velocity followed by either a passive recovery (CON, CWI performed immediately post-exercise (CWI(0 or CWI performed 3 h post-exercise (CWI(3. Recovery trials were performed in a counter balanced manner. Participants then returned 24 h later and completed a muscle soreness and a totally quality recovery perception (TQRP questionnaire, which was then followed by the Yoyo Intermittent Recovery Test [level 1] (YRT. Venous blood samples were collected pre-HIIS and pre-YRT to determine C-Reactive Protein (CRP levels. Significantly more shuttles were performed during the YRT following CWI(0 compared to the CON trial (p=0.017, ES = 0. 8, while differences between the CWI(3 and the CON trials approached significance (p = 0.058, ES = 0.5. Performance on the YRT between the CWI(0 and CWI(3 trials were similar (p = 0.147, ES = 0. 3. Qualitative analyses demonstrated a 98% and 92% likely beneficial effect of CWI(0 and CWI(3 on next day performance, compared to CON, respectively, while CWI(0 resulted in a 79% likely benefit when compared to CWI(3. CRP values were significantly lower pre-YRT, compared to baseline, following CWI(0 (p = 0.0.36 and CWI(3 (p = 0.045, but were similar for CON (p = 0.157. Muscle soreness scores were similar between trials (p = 1.10, while TQRP scores were significantly lower for CON compared to CWI(0 (p = 0.002 and CWI(3 (p = 0.024. Immediate CWI resulted in superior next-day YRT performance compared to CON, while delayed (3 h CWI was also likely to be beneficial. Qualitative analyses suggested that CWI(0 resulted in better performance than CWI(3. These results are important for athletes who do not have immediate access to CWI following exercise

9 CFR 590.516 - Sanitizing and drying of shell eggs prior to breaking.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Sanitizing and drying of shell eggs... PRODUCTS INSPECTION ACT) Sanitary, Processing, and Facility Requirements § 590.516 Sanitizing and drying of shell eggs prior to breaking. (a) Immediately prior to breaking, all shell eggs shall be spray rinsed...

External Prior Guided Internal Prior Learning for Real-World Noisy Image Denoising

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Jun; Zhang, Lei; Zhang, David

2018-06-01

Most of existing image denoising methods learn image priors from either external data or the noisy image itself to remove noise. However, priors learned from external data may not be adaptive to the image to be denoised, while priors learned from the given noisy image may not be accurate due to the interference of corrupted noise. Meanwhile, the noise in real-world noisy images is very complex, which is hard to be described by simple distributions such as Gaussian distribution, making real noisy image denoising a very challenging problem. We propose to exploit the information in both external data and the given noisy image, and develop an external prior guided internal prior learning method for real noisy image denoising. We first learn external priors from an independent set of clean natural images. With the aid of learned external priors, we then learn internal priors from the given noisy image to refine the prior model. The external and internal priors are formulated as a set of orthogonal dictionaries to efficiently reconstruct the desired image. Extensive experiments are performed on several real noisy image datasets. The proposed method demonstrates highly competitive denoising performance, outperforming state-of-the-art denoising methods including those designed for real noisy images.

Fractional Gaussian noise: Prior specification and model comparison

KAUST Repository

Sørbye, Sigrunn Holbek

2017-07-07

Fractional Gaussian noise (fGn) is a stationary stochastic process used to model antipersistent or persistent dependency structures in observed time series. Properties of the autocovariance function of fGn are characterised by the Hurst exponent (H), which, in Bayesian contexts, typically has been assigned a uniform prior on the unit interval. This paper argues why a uniform prior is unreasonable and introduces the use of a penalised complexity (PC) prior for H. The PC prior is computed to penalise divergence from the special case of white noise and is invariant to reparameterisations. An immediate advantage is that the exact same prior can be used for the autocorrelation coefficient ϕ(symbol) of a first-order autoregressive process AR(1), as this model also reflects a flexible version of white noise. Within the general setting of latent Gaussian models, this allows us to compare an fGn model component with AR(1) using Bayes factors, avoiding the confounding effects of prior choices for the two hyperparameters H and ϕ(symbol). Among others, this is useful in climate regression models where inference for underlying linear or smooth trends depends heavily on the assumed noise model.

Fractional Gaussian noise: Prior specification and model comparison

KAUST Repository

Sø rbye, Sigrunn Holbek; Rue, Haavard

2017-01-01

Fractional Gaussian noise (fGn) is a stationary stochastic process used to model antipersistent or persistent dependency structures in observed time series. Properties of the autocovariance function of fGn are characterised by the Hurst exponent (H), which, in Bayesian contexts, typically has been assigned a uniform prior on the unit interval. This paper argues why a uniform prior is unreasonable and introduces the use of a penalised complexity (PC) prior for H. The PC prior is computed to penalise divergence from the special case of white noise and is invariant to reparameterisations. An immediate advantage is that the exact same prior can be used for the autocorrelation coefficient ϕ(symbol) of a first-order autoregressive process AR(1), as this model also reflects a flexible version of white noise. Within the general setting of latent Gaussian models, this allows us to compare an fGn model component with AR(1) using Bayes factors, avoiding the confounding effects of prior choices for the two hyperparameters H and ϕ(symbol). Among others, this is useful in climate regression models where inference for underlying linear or smooth trends depends heavily on the assumed noise model.

Diagnostic Ability of Percutaneous Needle Biopsy Immediately After Radiofrequency Ablation for Malignant Lung Tumors: An Initial Experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hasegawa, Takaaki, E-mail: t-hasegawa@aichi-cc.jp [Aichi Cancer Center Hospital, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology (Japan); Kondo, Chiaki [Aichi Cancer Center Hospital, Department of Pathology and Molecular Diagnosis (Japan); Sato, Yozo; Inaba, Yoshitaka; Yamaura, Hidekazu; Kato, Mina; Murata, Shinichi; Onoda, Yui [Aichi Cancer Center Hospital, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology (Japan); Kuroda, Hiroaki; Sakao, Yukinori [Aichi Cancer Center Hospital, Department of Thoracic Surgery (Japan); Yatabe, Yasushi [Aichi Cancer Center Hospital, Department of Pathology and Molecular Diagnosis (Japan)

2016-08-15

PurposeTo evaluate the safety and diagnostic ability of percutaneous needle biopsy performed immediately after lung radiofrequency ablation (RFA).Materials and MethodsFrom May 2013 to April 2014, percutaneous needle biopsy was performed immediately after RFA for 3 patients (2 men and 1 woman, aged 57–76 years) who had lung tumors measuring 1.3–2.6 cm in diameter. All patients had prior history of malignancy, and all tumors were radiologically diagnosed as malignant. Obtained specimens were pathologically classified using standard hematoxylin and eosin staining.ResultsWe completed three planned sessions of RFA followed by percutaneous needle biopsy, all of which obtained tumor tissue that could be pathologically diagnosed. Two tumors were metastatic from renal clear cell carcinoma and rectal adenocarcinoma, respectively; one tumor was primary lung adenocarcinoma. There was no death or major complication related to the procedures. Although pneumothorax occurred in two patients, these resolved without the need for aspiration or chest tube placement. Tumor seeding was not observed, but 21 months after the procedure, one case developed local tumor progression that was treated by additional RFA.ConclusionPathologic diagnosis was possible by needle biopsy immediately after RFA for lung tumors. This technique may reduce the risks and efforts of performing biopsy and RFA on separate occasions.

The Effect of Prior Task Success on Older Adults' Memory Performance: Examining the Influence of Different Types of Task Success.

Science.gov (United States)

Geraci, Lisa; Hughes, Matthew L; Miller, Tyler M; De Forrest, Ross L

2016-01-01

Negative aging stereotypes can lead older adults to perform poorly on memory tests. Yet, memory performance can be improved if older adults have a single successful experience on a cognitive test prior to participating in a memory experiment (Geraci & Miller, 2013, Psychology and Aging, 28, 340-345). The current study examined the effects of different types of prior task experience on subsequent memory performance. Before participating in a verbal free recall experiment, older adults in Experiment 1 successfully completed either a verbal or a visual cognitive task or no task. In Experiment 2, they successfully completed either a motor task or no task before participating in the free recall experiment. Results from Experiment 1 showed that relative to control (no prior task), participants who had prior success, either on a verbal or a visual task, had better subsequent recall performance. Experiment 2 showed that prior success on a motor task, however, did not lead to a later memory advantage relative to control. These findings demonstrate that older adults' memory can be improved by a successful prior task experience so long as that experience is in a cognitive domain.

Immediate placement of implants into infected sites: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Chrcanovic, Bruno Ramos; Martins, Maximiliano Delany; Wennerberg, Ann

2015-01-01

Traditionally, before placing dental implants, the compromised teeth are removed and the extraction sockets are left to heal for several months. To preserve the alveolar bone level from the collapse caused by healing and to reduce treatment time in situations in which tooth extraction precedes implant placement, some clinicians began to install the implant immediately into the postextraction socket without waiting for the site to heal. The purpose of this study was to review the literature regarding treatment outcomes of immediate implant placement into sites exhibiting pathology after clinical procedures to perform the decontamination of the implant's site. The following questions were raised: Does the presence of periodontal or endodontic infection affect immediate implant placement success? What is suggested to address the infection in the socket prior to immediate placement? An electronic search in PubMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA) was undertaken in March 2013. The titles and abstracts from these results were read to identify studies within the selection criteria. Eligibility criteria included both animal and human studies, and excluded any review and case reports articles. The publication's intervention had to have been implant placement into a site classified as having an infection (periapical, endodontic, perioendodontic, and periodontal). The search strategy initially yielded 706 references. Thirty-two studies were identified within the selection criteria, from which nine were case reports and review articles and were excluded. Additional hand-searching of the reference lists of selected studies yielded five additional papers. The high survival rate obtained in several studies supports the hypothesis that implants may be successfully osseointegrated when placed immediately after extraction of teeth presenting endodontic and periodontal lesions, provided that appropriate clinical procedures are performed before the implant

Prior Mental Fatigue Impairs Marksmanship Decision Performance

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James Head

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Mental fatigue has been shown to impair subsequent physical performance in continuous and discontinuous exercise. However, its influence on subsequent fine-motor performance in an applied setting (e.g., marksmanship for trained soldiers is relatively unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether prior mental fatigue influences subsequent marksmanship performance as measured by shooting accuracy and judgment of soldiers in a live-fire scenario.Methods: Twenty trained infantry soldiers engaged targets after completing either a mental fatigue or control intervention in a repeated measure design. Heart rate variability and the NASA-TLX were used to gauge physiological and subjective effects of the interventions. Target hit proportion, projectile group accuracy, and precision were used to measure marksmanship accuracy. Marksmanship accuracy was assessed by measuring bullet group accuracy (i.e., how close a group of shots are relative to center of mass and bullet group precision (i.e., how close are each individual shot to each other. Additionally, marksmanship decision accuracy (correctly shooting vs. correctly withholding shot when engaging targets was used to examine marksmanship performance.Results: Soldiers rated the mentally fatiguing task (59.88 ± 23.7 as having greater mental workload relative to the control intervention [31.29 ± 12.3, t(19 = 1.72, p < 0.001]. Additionally, soldiers completing the mental fatigue intervention (96.04 ± = 37.1 also had lower time-domain (standard deviation of normal to normal R-R intervals heart rate variability relative to the control [134.39 ± 47.4, t(18 = 3.59, p < 0.001]. Projectile group accuracy and group precision failed to show differences between interventions [t(19 = 0.98, p = 0.34, t(19 = 0.18, p = 0.87, respectively]. Marksmanship decision errors significantly increased after soldiers completed the mental fatigue intervention (48% ± 22.4 relative to the control

Performance analysis of preemptive priority retrial queue with immediate Bernoulli feedback under working vacations and vacation interruption

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Pakkirisami Rajadurai

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The present investigation deals with performance analysis of single server preemptive priority retrial queue with immediate Bernoulli feedback. There are two types of customers are considered, which are priority customers and ordinary customers. The priority customers do not form any queue and have an exclusive preemptive priority to receive their services over ordinary customers. After completion of regular service for ordinary customer, the customer is allowed to make an immediate feedback with probability r. When the orbit becomes empty at service completion instant for a priority customer or ordinary customer; the server goes for multiple working vacations. By using the supplementary variable technique, we obtained the steady state probability generating functions for the system/orbit. Some important system performance measures, the mean busy period and the mean busy cycle are discussed. Finally, some numerical examples are presented.

Prior video game exposure does not enhance robotic surgical performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Harper, Jonathan D; Kaiser, Stefan; Ebrahimi, Kamyar; Lamberton, Gregory R; Hadley, H Roger; Ruckle, Herbert C; Baldwin, D Duane

2007-10-01

Prior research has demonstrated that counterintuitive laparoscopic surgical skills are enhanced by experience with video games. A similar relation with robotic surgical skills has not been tested. The purpose of this study was to determine whether prior video-game experience enhances the acquisition of robotic surgical skills. A series of 242 preclinical medical students completed a self-reported video-game questionnaire detailing the frequency, duration, and peak playing time. The 10 students with the highest and lowest video-game exposure completed a follow-up questionnaire further quantifying video game, sports, musical instrument, and craft and hobby exposure. Each subject viewed a training video demonstrating the use of the da Vinci surgical robot in tying knots, followed by 3 minutes of proctored practice time. Subjects then tied knots for 5 minutes while an independent blinded observer recorded the number of knots tied, missed knots, frayed sutures, broken sutures, and mechanical errors. The mean playing time for the 10 game players was 15,136 total hours (range 5,840-30,000 hours). Video-game players tied fewer knots than nonplayers (5.8 v 9.0; P = 0.04). Subjects who had played sports for at least 4 years had fewer mechanical errors (P = 0.04), broke fewer sutures (P = 0.01), and committed fewer total errors (P = 0.01). Similarly, those playing musical instruments longer than 5 years missed fewer knots (P = 0.05). In the extremes of video-game experience tested in this study, game playing was inversely correlated with the ability to learn robotic suturing. This study suggests that advanced surgical skills such as robotic suturing may be learned more quickly by athletes and musicians. Prior extensive video-game exposure had a negative impact on robotic performance.

Attenuation of muscle damage by preconditioning with muscle hyperthermia 1-day prior to eccentric exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Nosaka, K; Muthalib, M; Lavender, A; Laursen, P B

2007-01-01

This study investigated the hypothesis that muscle damage would be attenuated in muscles subjected to passive hyperthermia 1 day prior to exercise. Fifteen male students performed 24 maximal eccentric actions of the elbow flexors with one arm; the opposite arm performed the same exercise 2-4 weeks later. The elbow flexors of one arm received a microwave diathermy treatment that increased muscle temperature to over 40 degrees C, 16-20 h prior to the exercise. The contralateral arm acted as an untreated control. Maximal voluntary isometric contraction strength (MVC), range of motion (ROM), upper arm circumference, muscle soreness, plasma creatine kinase activity and myoglobin concentration were measured 1 day prior to exercise, immediately before and after exercise, and daily for 4 days following exercise. Changes in the criterion measures were compared between conditions (treatment vs. control) using a two-way repeated measures ANOVA with a significance level of P < 0.05. All measures changed significantly following exercise, but the treatment arm showed a significantly faster recovery of MVC, a smaller change in ROM, and less muscle soreness compared with the control arm. However, the protective effect conferred by the diathermy treatment was significantly less effective compared with that seen in the second bout performed 4-6 weeks after the initial bout by a subgroup of the subjects (n = 11) using the control arm. These results suggest that passive hyperthermia treatment 1 day prior to eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage has a prophylactic effect, but the effect is not as strong as the repeated bout effect.

Blood Alcohol Concentration-Related Lower Performance in Immediate Visual Memory and Working Memory in Adolescent Binge Drinkers

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Concepción Vinader-Caerols

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The binge drinking (BD pattern of alcohol consumption is prevalent during adolescence, a period characterized by critical changes to the structural and functional development of brain areas related with memory and cognition. There is considerable evidence of the cognitive dysfunctions caused by the neurotoxic effects of BD in the not-yet-adult brain. Thus, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of different blood alcohol concentrations (BAC on memory during late adolescence (18–19 years old in males and females with a history of BD. The sample consisted of 154 adolescents (67 males and 87 females that were classified as refrainers if they had never previously drunk alcoholic drinks and as binge drinkers if they had drunk six or more standard drink units in a row for men or five or more for women at a minimum frequency of three occasions in a month, throughout the previous 12 months. After intake of a high acute dose of alcohol by binge drinkers or a control refreshment by refrainers and binge drinkers, subjects were distributed into four groups for each gender according to their BAC: BAC0-R (0 g/L, in refrainers, BAC0-BD (0 g/L, in binge drinkers, BAC1 (0.3 – 0.5 g/L, in binge drinkers or BAC2 (0.54 – 1.1 g/L, in binge drinkers. The subjects’ immediate visual memory and working memory were then measured according to the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III. The BAC1 group showed lower scores of immediate visual memory but not of working memory, while lower performance in both memories were found in the BAC2 group. Therefore, the brain of binge drinkers with moderate BAC could be employing compensatory mechanisms from additional brain areas to perform a working memory task adequately, but these resources would be undermined when BAC is higher (>0.5 g/L. No gender differences were found in BAC-related lower performance in immediate visual memory and working memory. In conclusion, immediate visual memory is more sensitive than

Blood Alcohol Concentration-Related Lower Performance in Immediate Visual Memory and Working Memory in Adolescent Binge Drinkers.

Science.gov (United States)

Vinader-Caerols, Concepción; Duque, Aránzazu; Montañés, Adriana; Monleón, Santiago

2017-01-01

The binge drinking (BD) pattern of alcohol consumption is prevalent during adolescence, a period characterized by critical changes to the structural and functional development of brain areas related with memory and cognition. There is considerable evidence of the cognitive dysfunctions caused by the neurotoxic effects of BD in the not-yet-adult brain. Thus, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of different blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) on memory during late adolescence (18-19 years old) in males and females with a history of BD. The sample consisted of 154 adolescents (67 males and 87 females) that were classified as refrainers if they had never previously drunk alcoholic drinks and as binge drinkers if they had drunk six or more standard drink units in a row for men or five or more for women at a minimum frequency of three occasions in a month, throughout the previous 12 months. After intake of a high acute dose of alcohol by binge drinkers or a control refreshment by refrainers and binge drinkers, subjects were distributed into four groups for each gender according to their BAC: BAC0-R (0 g/L, in refrainers), BAC0-BD (0 g/L, in binge drinkers), BAC1 (0.3 - 0.5 g/L, in binge drinkers) or BAC2 (0.54 - 1.1 g/L, in binge drinkers). The subjects' immediate visual memory and working memory were then measured according to the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III). The BAC1 group showed lower scores of immediate visual memory but not of working memory, while lower performance in both memories were found in the BAC2 group. Therefore, the brain of binge drinkers with moderate BAC could be employing compensatory mechanisms from additional brain areas to perform a working memory task adequately, but these resources would be undermined when BAC is higher (>0.5 g/L). No gender differences were found in BAC-related lower performance in immediate visual memory and working memory. In conclusion, immediate visual memory is more sensitive than working memory to

Factors influencing immediate post-release survival of spectacled eiders following surgical implantation of transmitters with percutaneous antennae

Science.gov (United States)

Sexson, Matthew G.; Mulcahy, Daniel M.; Spriggs, Maria; Myers, Gwen E.

2014-01-01

Surgically implanted transmitters are a common method for tracking animal movements. Immediately following surgical implantation, animals pass through a critical recovery phase when behaviors may deviate from normal and the likelihood of individual survival may be reduced. Therefore, data collected during this period may be censored to minimize bias introduced by surgery-related behaviors or mortality. However, immediate post-release mortalities negate a sampling effort and reduce the amount of data potentially collected after the censoring period. Wildlife biologists should employ methods to support an animal’s survival through this period, but factors contributing to immediate post-release survival have not been formally assessed. We evaluated factors that potentially influenced the immediate post-release survival of 56 spectacled eiders (Somateria fischeri) marked with coelomically implanted satellite transmitters with percutaneous antennae in northern Alaska in 2010 and 2011. We modeled survival through the first 14 days following release and assessed the relative importance and effect of 15 covariates hypothesized to influence survival during this immediate post-release period. Estimated daily survival rate increased over the duration of the immediate post-release period; the probability of mortality was greatest within the first 5 days following release. Our top-ranking model included the effect of 2 blood analytes, pH and hematocrit, measured prior to surgical implantation of a transmitter. We found a positive response to pH; eiders exhibiting acidemia (low pH) prior to surgery were less likely to survive the immediate post-release period. We found a curvilinear response to hematocrit; eiders exhibiting extremely low or high pre-surgery hematocrit were also less likely to survive the immediate post-release period. In the interest of maximizing the survival of marked birds following release, hematological data obtained prior to surgical implantation of

Examining the Relationship between Free Recall and Immediate Serial Recall: The Effect of Concurrent Task Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Bhatarah, Parveen; Ward, Geoff; Tan, Lydia

2006-01-01

In 3 experiments, participants saw lists of 16 words for free recall with or without a 6-digit immediate serial recall (ISR) task after each word. Free recall was performed under standard visual silent and spoken-aloud conditions (Experiment 1), overt rehearsal conditions (Experiment 2), and fixed rehearsal conditions (Experiment 3). The authors…

Virtual navigation performance: the relationship to field of view and prior video gaming experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Richardson, Anthony E; Collaer, Marcia L

2011-04-01

Two experiments examined whether learning a virtual environment was influenced by field of view and how it related to prior video gaming experience. In the first experiment, participants (42 men, 39 women; M age = 19.5 yr., SD = 1.8) performed worse on a spatial orientation task displayed with a narrow field of view in comparison to medium and wide field-of-view displays. Counter to initial hypotheses, wide field-of-view displays did not improve performance over medium displays, and this was replicated in a second experiment (30 men, 30 women; M age = 20.4 yr., SD = 1.9) presenting a more complex learning environment. Self-reported video gaming experience correlated with several spatial tasks: virtual environment pointing and tests of Judgment of Line Angle and Position, mental rotation, and Useful Field of View (with correlations between .31 and .45). When prior video gaming experience was included as a covariate, sex differences in spatial tasks disappeared.

The immediate effects of foot orthoses on functional performance in individuals with patellofemoral pain syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Barton, C J; Menz, H B; Crossley, K M

2011-03-01

Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) often results in reduced functional performance. There is growing evidence for the use of foot orthoses to treat this multifactorial condition. In this study, the immediate effects of foot orthoses on functional performance and the association of foot posture and footwear with improvements in function were evaluated. Fifty-two individuals with PFPS (18-35 years) were prescribed prefabricated foot orthoses (Vasyli Pro; Vasyli International, Labrador, Australia). Functional outcome measures evaluated included the change in (1) pain and (2) ease of a single-leg squat on a five-point Likert scale, and change in the number of (3) pain-free step downs and (4) single-leg rises from sitting. The association of foot posture using the Foot Posture Index, navicular drop and calcaneal angle relative to subtalar joint neutral; and the footwear motion control properties scale score with improved function were evaluated using Spearman's ρ statistics. Prefabricated foot orthoses produced significant improvements (psquat and improvements in the number of pain-free single-leg rises from sitting when wearing foot orthoses. In addition, a more pronated foot type was also found to be associated with improved ease of completing a single-leg squat when wearing foot orthoses. Prefabricated foot orthoses provide immediate improvements in functional performance, and these improvements are associated with a more pronated foot type and poorer footwear motion control properties.

Ketone Diester Ingestion Impairs Time-Trial Performance in Professional Cyclists

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Jill J. Leckey

2017-10-01

Full Text Available We investigated the effect of pre- “race” ingestion of a 1,3-butanediol acetoacetate diester on blood ketone concentration, substrate metabolism and performance of a cycling time trial (TT in professional cyclists. In a randomized cross-over design, 10 elite male cyclists completed a ~31 km laboratory-based TT on a cycling ergometer programmed to simulate the 2017 World Road Cycling Championships course. Cyclists consumed a standardized meal [2 g/kg body mass (BM carbohydrate (CHO] the evening prior to a trial day and a CHO breakfast (2 g/kg BM CHO with 200 mg caffeine on the morning of a trial day. Cyclists were randomized to consume either the ketone diester (2 × 250 mg/kg or a placebo drink, followed immediately by 200 mL diet cola, given ~ 30 min before and immediately prior to commencing a 20 min incremental warm-up. Blood samples were collected prior to and during the warm-up, pre- and post- TT and at regular intervals after the TT. Urine samples were collected pre- and post- warm-up, immediately post TT and 60 min post TT. Pre-exercise ingestion of the diester resulted in a 2 ± 1% impairment in TT performance that was associated with gut discomfort and higher perception of effort. Serum β-hydroxybutyrate, serum acetoacetate, and urine ketone concentrations increased from rest following ketone ingestion and were higher than placebo throughout the trial. Ketone ingestion induces hyperketonemia in elite professional cyclists when in a carbohydrate fed state, and impairs performance of a cycling TT lasting ~50 min.

Free Recall Episodic Memory Performance Predicts Dementia Ten Years prior to Clinical Diagnosis: Findings from the Betula Longitudinal Study

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Carl-Johan Boraxbekk

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Background/Aims: Early dementia diagnosis is a considerable challenge. The present study examined the predictive value of cognitive performance for a future clinical diagnosis of late-onset Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia in a random population sample. Methods: Cognitive performance was retrospectively compared between three groups of participants from the Betula longitudinal cohort. Group 1 developed dementia 11-22 years after baseline testing (n = 111 and group 2 after 1-10 years (n = 280; group 3 showed no deterioration towards dementia during the study period (n = 2,855. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the predictive value of tests reflecting episodic memory performance, semantic memory performance, visuospatial ability, and prospective memory performance. Results: Age- and education-corrected performance on two free recall episodic memory tests significantly predicted dementia 10 years prior to clinical diagnosis. Free recall performance also predicted dementia 11-22 years prior to diagnosis when controlling for education, but not when age was added to the model. Conclusion: The present results support the suggestion that two free recall-based tests of episodic memory function may be useful for detecting individuals at risk of developing dementia 10 years prior to clinical diagnosis.

Influence of Prior Knowledge Questions on Pupils’ Performance in Reading Comprehension in Primary Schools in Kaduna, Nigeria

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Hanna Onyi Yusuf

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This study was carried out to determine the influence of prior knowledge questions on pupils’ performance in reading comprehension in primary schools in Kaduna, Nigeria. Two schools were used for the study. Ungwar Dosa primary school was used as the experimental school while Ungwar Rimi primary school was used as the control school. Thirty (30 primary five pupils from each of the two schools were used for the study. A total of sixty pupils were used for the study. A pre-test was administered on both groups of pupils before the commencement of teaching. A post-test was administered after six weeks of teaching. Data was analysed using mean, standard deviation and t-test. The findings revealed significant difference in the performance of pupils taught reading comprehension using prior knowledge questions. Based on the findings, teachers are encouraged among others, to use prior knowledge questions to motivate and stimulate pupils to use their relevant background knowledge to interpret and understand new information in their reading comprehension texts. Curriculum planners and textbook writers are encouraged to include prior knowledge questions as part of the activities pupils should be exposed to during reading comprehension lessons.

Impact of a health safety warning and prior authorisation on the use of piroxicam: a time-series study.

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Carracedo-Martínez, Eduardo; Pia-Morandeira, Agustin; Figueiras, Adolfo

2012-03-01

The aim of this study was to assess the quantitative changes in systemic use of piroxicam after the issue of a health safety warning about its risks and the subsequent implementation of prior authorisation. We determined the number of monthly daily defined doses/1000 inhabitants/day (DHDs) of piroxicam in the period 2005-2008 in a health area in Spain. The data were analysed graphically, and the impact of the safety warning and introduction of prior authorisation were estimated by using segmented regression analysis. The graph showed that the number of DHDs of piroxicam was stable both before and after the health safety warning but registered a very marked decrease after implementation of prior authorisation, after which DHDs of piroxicam remained stable at a 98% inferior level compared with previous to prior authorisation. Segmented regression analysis showed no statistically significant immediate jump in piroxicam utilisation after the safety warning nor a change in the slope afterwards, but it did show a significant immediate jump after prior authorisation. Population exposure to systemic piroxicam remained unaffected by a previous health safety warning but declined sharply after the introduction of prior authorisation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Nonexpansive immediate breast reconstruction using human acellular tissue matrix graft (AlloDerm).

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Salzberg, C Andrew

2006-07-01

Immediate breast reconstruction has become a standard of care following mastectomy for cancer, largely due to improved esthetic and psychologic outcomes achieved with this technique. However, the current historical standards--transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap reconstruction and expander--implant surgery-still have limitations as regards patient morbidity, short-term body-image improvements, and even cost. To address these shortcomings, we employ a novel concept of human tissue replacement to enhance breast shape and provide total coverage, enabling immediate mound reconstruction without the need for breast expansion prior to permanent implant placement. AlloDerm (human acellular tissue matrix) is a human-derived graft tissue with extensive experience in various settings of skin and soft tissue replacement surgery. This report describes the success using acellular tissue matrix to provide total coverage over the prosthesis in immediate reconstruction, with limited muscle dissection. In this population, 49 patients (76 breasts) successfully underwent the acellular tissue matrix-based immediate reconstruction, resulting in durable breast reconstruction with good symmetry. These findings may predict that acellular tissue matrix-supplemented immediate breast reconstruction will become a new technique for the immediate reconstruction of the postmastectomy breast.

The effect of video game "warm-up" on performance of laparoscopic surgery tasks.

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Rosser, James C; Gentile, Douglas A; Hanigan, Kevin; Danner, Omar K

2012-01-01

Performing laparoscopic procedures requires special training and has been documented as a significant source of surgical errors. "Warming up" before performing a task has been shown to enhance performance. This study investigates whether surgeons benefit from "warming up" using select video games immediately before performing laparoscopic partial tasks and clinical tasks. This study included 303 surgeons (249 men and 54 women). Participants were split into a control (n=180) and an experimental group (n=123). The experimental group played 3 previously validated video games for 6 minutes before task sessions. The Cobra Rope partial task and suturing exercises were performed immediately after the warm-up sessions. Surgeons who played video games prior to the Cobra Rope drill were significantly faster on their first attempt and across all 10 trials. The experimental and control groups were significantly different in their total suturing scores (t=2.28, df=288, Pvideo games prior to performing laparoscopic partial and clinical tasks (intracorporeal suturing) were faster and had fewer errors than participants not engaging in "warm-up." More study is needed to determine whether this translates into superior procedural execution in the clinical setting.

Immediate response to cigarette smoke

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Rees, P.J.; Chowienczyk, P.J.; Clark, T.J.

1982-06-01

Using an automated method of calculating airways resistance in the body plethysmograph, we have investigated changes occurring immediately after inhalation of cigarette smoke. Decreases in specific conductance occurred by the time of the first measurement seven or eight seconds after exposure to single inhalations of cigarette smoke in 12 smokers and 12 non-smokers. Less than half of the initial change was present 40 seconds after the inhalation. Initial responses were greater in the non-smokers. Responses recurred with repeated inhalations in smokers and non-smokers. Prior administration of salbutamol and ipratropium bromide significantly inhibited the response and this inhibition appeared to be greater in non-smokers. Sodium cromoglycate inhaled as a dry powder had no effect on the response.

The Effect of Breakfast Prior to Morning Exercise on Cognitive Performance, Mood and Appetite Later in the Day in Habitually Active Women

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Veasey, Rachel C.; Haskell-Ramsay, Crystal F.; Kennedy, David O.; Tiplady, Brian; Stevenson, Emma J.

2015-01-01

Pre-exercise nutritional practices for active females exercising for mood, cognitive and appetite benefits are not well established. Results from an initial field pilot study showed that higher energy intake at breakfast was associated with lower fatigue and higher overall mood and alertness post-exercise (all p breakfast (providing 118 or 236 kcal) or no breakfast. After 45 min, they completed a 30 min run at 65% heart rate reserve (HRR). Parameters were re-assessed immediately after exercise, then hourly until lunch (~1240 h), immediately post-lunch and at 1500 and 1900 h via a mobile phone. Breakfast enhanced feelings of relaxation before lunch (p 0.40), though breakfast was detrimental for working memory mid-afternoon (p = 0.019, d = 0.37) and mental fatigue and tension later in the day (all p 0.038). Breakfast was also beneficial for appetite control before lunch irrespective of size (all p 0.43). These data provide information on pre-exercise nutritional practices for active females and suggest that a small breakfast eaten prior to exercise can benefit post-exercise mood and subjective appetite ratings. PMID:26184302

Effect of Prior Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Knowledge on Compression Performance by Hospital Providers

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Joshua N. Burkhardt

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR knowledge of hospital providers and whether knowledge affects performance of effective compressions during a simulated cardiac arrest. Methods: This cross-sectional study evaluated the CPR knowledge and performance of medical students and ED personnel with current CPR certification. We collected data regarding compression rate, hand placement, depth, and recoil via a questionnaire to determine knowledge, and then we assessed performance using 60 seconds of compressions on a simulation mannequin. Results: Data from 200 enrollments were analyzed by evaluators blinded to subject knowledge. Regarding knowledge, 94% of participants correctly identified parameters for rate, 58% for hand placement, 74% for depth, and 94% for recoil. Participants identifying an effective rate of ≥100 performed compressions at a significantly higher rate than participants identifying <100 (µ=117 vs. 94, p<0.001. Participants identifying correct hand placement performed significantly more compressions adherent to guidelines than those identifying incorrect placement (µ=86% vs. 72%, p<0.01. No significant differences were found in depth or recoil performance based on knowledge of guidelines. Conclusion: Knowledge of guidelines was variable; however, CPR knowledge significantly impacted certain aspects of performance, namely rate and hand placement, whereas depth and recoil were not affected. Depth of compressions was poor regardless of prior knowledge, and knowledge did not correlate with recoil performance. Overall performance was suboptimal and additional training may be needed to ensure consistent, effective performance and therefore better outcomes after cardiopulmonary arrest.

Anticipatory parental care: acquiring resources for offspring prior to conception.

OpenAIRE

Boutin, S; Larsen, K W; Berteaux, D

2000-01-01

Many organisms acquire and defend resources outside the breeding season and this is thought to be for immediate survival and reproductive benefits. Female red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) acquire traditional food cache sites up to four months prior to the presence of any physiological or behavioural cues associated with mating or offspring dependency. They subsequently relinquish these resources to one of their offspring at independence (ten months later). We experimentally show that a...

Prior contralateral amputation predicts worse outcomes for lower extremity bypasses performed in the intact limb.

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Baril, Donald T; Goodney, Philip P; Robinson, William P; Nolan, Brian W; Stone, David H; Li, YouFu; Cronenwett, Jack L; Schanzer, Andres

2012-08-01

To date, history of a contralateral amputation as a potential predictor of outcomes after lower extremity bypass (LEB) for critical limb ischemia (CLI) has not been studied. We sought to determine if a prior contralateral lower extremity amputation predicts worse outcomes in patients undergoing LEB in the remaining intact limb. A retrospective analysis of all patients undergoing infrainguinal LEB for CLI between 2003 and 2010 within hospitals comprising the Vascular Study Group of New England was performed. Patients were stratified according to whether or not they had previously undergone a contralateral major or minor amputation before LEB. Primary end points included major amputation and graft occlusion at 1 year postoperatively. Secondary end points included in-hospital major adverse events, discharge status, and mortality at 1 year. Of 2636 LEB procedures, 228 (8.6%) were performed in the setting of a prior contralateral amputation. Patients with a prior amputation compared to those without were younger (66.5 vs 68.7; P = .034), more like to have congestive heart failure (CHF; 25% vs 16%; P = .002), hypertension (94% vs 85%; P = .015), renal insufficiency (26% vs 14%; P = .0002), and hemodialysis-dependent renal failure (14% vs 6%; P = .0002). They were also more likely to be nursing home residents (8.0% vs 3.6%; P = .036), less likely to ambulate without assistance (41% vs 80%; P < .0002), and more likely to have had a prior ipsilateral bypass (20% vs 12%; P = .0005). These patients experience increased in-hospital major adverse events, including myocardial infarction (MI; 8.9% vs 4.2%; P = .002), CHF (6.1% vs 3.4%; P = .044), deterioration in renal function (9.0% vs 4.7%; P = .006), and respiratory complications (4.2% vs 2.3%; P = .034). They were less likely to be discharged home (52% vs 72%; P < .0001) and less likely to be ambulatory on discharge (25% vs 55%; P < .0001). Although patients with a prior contralateral amputation experienced increased rates of

Factors affecting learning of vector math from computer-based practice: Feedback complexity and prior knowledge

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Andrew F. Heckler

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In experiments including over 450 university-level students, we studied the effectiveness and time efficiency of several levels of feedback complexity in simple, computer-based training utilizing static question sequences. The learning domain was simple vector math, an essential skill in introductory physics. In a unique full factorial design, we studied the relative effects of “knowledge of correct response” feedback and “elaborated feedback” (i.e., a general explanation both separately and together. A number of other factors were analyzed, including training time, physics course grade, prior knowledge of vector math, and student beliefs about both their proficiency in and the importance of vector math. We hypothesize a simple model predicting how the effectiveness of feedback depends on prior knowledge, and the results confirm this knowledge-by-treatment interaction. Most notably, elaborated feedback is the most effective feedback, especially for students with low prior knowledge and low course grade. In contrast, knowledge of correct response feedback was less effective for low-performing students, and including both kinds of feedback did not significantly improve performance compared to elaborated feedback alone. Further, while elaborated feedback resulted in higher scores, the learning rate was at best only marginally higher because the training time was slightly longer. Training time data revealed that students spent significantly more time on the elaborated feedback after answering a training question incorrectly. Finally, we found that training improved student self-reported proficiency and that belief in the importance of the learned domain improved the effectiveness of training. Overall, we found that computer based training with static question sequences and immediate elaborated feedback in the form of simple and general explanations can be an effective way to improve student performance on a physics essential skill

The Effect of Prior Caffeine Consumption on Neuropsychological Test Performance: A Placebo-Controlled Study.

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Walters, Elizabeth R; Lesk, Valerie E

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the prior consumption of 200 mg of pure caffeine affected neuropsychological test scores in a group of elderly participants aged over 60 years. Using a double-blind placebo versus caffeine design, participants were randomly assigned to receive 200 mg of caffeine or placebo. A neuropsychological assessment testing the domains of general cognitive function, processing speed, semantic memory, episodic memory, executive function, working memory and short-term memory was carried out. Significant interaction effects between age, caffeine and scores of executive function and processing speed were found; participants who had received caffeine showed a decline in performance with increasing age. This effect was not seen for participants who received placebo. The results highlight the need to consider and control prior caffeine consumption when scoring neuropsychological assessments in the elderly, which is important for accuracy of diagnosis and corresponding normative data. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Iterated random walks with shape prior

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pujadas, Esmeralda Ruiz; Kjer, Hans Martin; Piella, Gemma

2016-01-01

the parametric probability density function. Then, random walks is performed iteratively aligning the prior with the current segmentation in every iteration. We tested the proposed approach with natural and medical images and compared it with the latest techniques with random walks and shape priors......We propose a new framework for image segmentation using random walks where a distance shape prior is combined with a region term. The shape prior is weighted by a confidence map to reduce the influence of the prior in high gradient areas and the region term is computed with k-means to estimate....... The experiments suggest that this method gives promising results for medical and natural images....

Frequent Immediate Knowledge of Results Enhances the Increase of Throwing Velocity in Overarm Handball Performance.

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Štirn, Igor; Carruthers, Jamie; Šibila, Marko; Pori, Primož

2017-02-01

In the present study, the effect of frequent, immediate, augmented feedback on the increase of throwing velocity was investigated. An increase of throwing velocity of a handball set shot when knowledge of results was provided or not provided during training was compared. Fifty female and seventy-three male physical education students were assigned randomly to the experimental or control group. All participants performed two series of ten set shots with maximal effort twice a week for six weeks. The experimental group received information regarding throwing velocity measured by a radar gun immediately after every shot, whereas the control group did not receive any feedback. Measurements of maximal throwing velocity of an ordinary handball and a heavy ball were performed, before and after the training period and compared. Participants who received feedback on results attained almost a four times greater relative increase of the velocity of the normal ball (size 2) as compared to the same intervention when feedback was not provided (8.1 ± 3.6 vs. 2.7 ± 2.9%). The velocity increases were smaller, but still significant between the groups for throws using the heavy ball (5.1 ± 4.2 and 2.5 ± 5.8 for the experimental and control group, respectively). Apart from the experimental group throwing the normal ball, no differences in velocity change for gender were obtained. The results confirmed that training oriented towards an increase in throwing velocity became significantly more effective when frequent knowledge of results was provided.

Emergency Medicine Myths: Computed Tomography of the Head Prior to Lumbar Puncture in Adults with Suspected Bacterial Meningitis - Due Diligence or Antiquated Practice?

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April, Michael D; Long, Brit; Koyfman, Alex

2017-09-01

Various sources purport an association between lumbar puncture and brainstem herniation in patients with intracranial mass effect lesions. Several organizations and texts recommend head computed tomography (CT) prior to lumbar puncture in selected patients. To review the evidence regarding the utility of obtaining head CT prior to lumbar puncture in adults with suspected bacterial meningitis. Observational studies report a risk of post-lumbar puncture brainstem herniation in the presence of intracranial mass effect (1.5%) that is significantly lower than that reported among all patients with bacterial meningitis (up to 13.3%). It is unclear from existing literature whether identifying patients with intracranial mass effect decreases herniation risk. Up to 80% of patients with bacterial meningitis experiencing herniation have no CT abnormalities, and approximately half of patients with intracranial mass effect not undergoing lumbar puncture herniate. Decision rules to selectively perform CT on only those individuals most likely to have intracranial mass effect lesions have not undergone validation. Despite recommendations for immediate antimicrobial therapy prior to imaging, data indicate an association between pre-lumbar puncture CT and antibiotic delays. Recent data demonstrate shortened door-to-antibiotic times and lower mortality from bacterial meningitis after implementation of new national guidelines, which restricted generally accepted CT indications by removing impaired mental status as imaging criterion. Data supporting routine head CT prior to lumbar puncture are limited. Physicians should consider selective CT for those patients at risk for intracranial mass effect lesions based on decision rules or clinical gestalt. Patients undergoing head CT must receive immediate antibiotic therapy. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Prior Sensitivity Analysis in Default Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling.

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van Erp, Sara; Mulder, Joris; Oberski, Daniel L

2017-11-27

Bayesian structural equation modeling (BSEM) has recently gained popularity because it enables researchers to fit complex models and solve some of the issues often encountered in classical maximum likelihood estimation, such as nonconvergence and inadmissible solutions. An important component of any Bayesian analysis is the prior distribution of the unknown model parameters. Often, researchers rely on default priors, which are constructed in an automatic fashion without requiring substantive prior information. However, the prior can have a serious influence on the estimation of the model parameters, which affects the mean squared error, bias, coverage rates, and quantiles of the estimates. In this article, we investigate the performance of three different default priors: noninformative improper priors, vague proper priors, and empirical Bayes priors-with the latter being novel in the BSEM literature. Based on a simulation study, we find that these three default BSEM methods may perform very differently, especially with small samples. A careful prior sensitivity analysis is therefore needed when performing a default BSEM analysis. For this purpose, we provide a practical step-by-step guide for practitioners to conducting a prior sensitivity analysis in default BSEM. Our recommendations are illustrated using a well-known case study from the structural equation modeling literature, and all code for conducting the prior sensitivity analysis is available in the online supplemental materials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Immediate Postoperative Alignment Following Bimedial Rectus Recession for Esotropia in Children Compared to Adults.

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Hassan, Mohamed B; Diehl, Nancy N; Mohney, Brian G

2018-06-18

To determine whether the immediate postoperative alignment among patients undergoing successful bilateral weakening surgery for esotropia is different in children compared to adults. The medical records of all patients undergoing surgery for esotropia by a single surgeon at a major academic referral center between January 1, 2002, and July 1, 2014 (n = 544), were retrospectively reviewed. Exclusion criteria included those with prior strabismus surgery, unilateral surgery, strengthening procedures, vertical or superior oblique surgery, and those wearing hyperopic spectacles for accommodative esotropia. Additionally, all patients had to have a 1- and 6-week postoperative examination and 8 prism diopters (PD) or less of deviation at their 6-week examination. Ninety-five (17.5%) of the 544 patients met the inclusion criteria. Surgery was performed at a median age of 3.7 years (range: 7 months to 86 years) for a median esodeviation of 35 PD (range: 12 to 70 PD). Among the 73 patients younger than 11 years, the immediate mean postoperative alignment was 9 PD of exotropia (range: 14 PD esotropia to 30 PD exotropia) compared to 2 PD of exotropia (range: 9 PD esotropia to 30 PD exotropia) in the 22 patients 11 years or older (P = .001). Seventy-one percent of successfully aligned patients younger than 11 years were exotropic in the immediate postoperative week compared to 23% of those 11 years or older (P XXXX.]. Copyright 2018, SLACK Incorporated.

Chinese characters reveal impacts of prior experience on very early stages of perception

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Stollhoff Rainer

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Visual perception is strongly determined by accumulated experience with the world, which has been shown for shape, color, and position perception, in the field of visuomotor learning, and in neural computation. In addition, visual perception is tuned to statistics of natural scenes. Such prior experience is modulated by neuronal top-down control the temporal properties of which had been subject to recent studies. Here, we deal with these temporal properties and address the question how early in time accumulated past experience can modulate visual perception. Results We performed stimulus discrimination experiments and compared a group of Chinese participants with a German control group. The perception of our briefly presented visual objects (targets was disturbed by masking stimuli which appeared in close spatiotemporal proximity. These masking stimuli were either intact or scrambled Chinese characters and did not overlap with the targets. In contrast to German controls, Chinese participants show substantial performance differences for real versus scrambled Chinese characters if these masking stimuli were presented as early as less than 100 milliseconds after the onset of the target. For Chinese observers, it even occured that meaningful masking stimuli enhanced target identification if they were shown at least 100 milliseconds after target onset while the same stimuli impaired recognition if presented in close temporal proximity to the target. The latter finding challenges interpretations of our data that solely rely on stimulus contours or geometric properties and emphasizes the impact of prior experience on the very early temporal dynamics of the visual system. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that prior experience which had been accummulated long before the experiments can modulate the time course of perception intriguingly early, namely already immediately after the perceptual onset of a visual event. This modulation

Attentional and Contextual Priors in Sound Perception.

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Wolmetz, Michael; Elhilali, Mounya

2016-01-01

Behavioral and neural studies of selective attention have consistently demonstrated that explicit attentional cues to particular perceptual features profoundly alter perception and performance. The statistics of the sensory environment can also provide cues about what perceptual features to expect, but the extent to which these more implicit contextual cues impact perception and performance, as well as their relationship to explicit attentional cues, is not well understood. In this study, the explicit cues, or attentional prior probabilities, and the implicit cues, or contextual prior probabilities, associated with different acoustic frequencies in a detection task were simultaneously manipulated. Both attentional and contextual priors had similarly large but independent impacts on sound detectability, with evidence that listeners tracked and used contextual priors for a variety of sound classes (pure tones, harmonic complexes, and vowels). Further analyses showed that listeners updated their contextual priors rapidly and optimally, given the changing acoustic frequency statistics inherent in the paradigm. A Bayesian Observer model accounted for both attentional and contextual adaptations found with listeners. These results bolster the interpretation of perception as Bayesian inference, and suggest that some effects attributed to selective attention may be a special case of contextual prior integration along a feature axis.

Influence of Isoflurane on Immediate-Early Gene Expression.

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Bunting, Kristopher M; Nalloor, Rebecca I; Vazdarjanova, Almira

2015-01-01

Anterograde amnesia is a hallmark effect of volatile anesthetics. Isoflurane is known to affect both the translation and transcription of plasticity-associated genes required for normal memory formation in many brain regions. What is not known is whether isoflurane anesthesia prevents the initiation of transcription or whether it halts transcription already in progress. We tested the hypothesis that general anesthesia with isoflurane prevents learning-induced initiation of transcription of several memory-associated immediate-early genes (IEGs) correlated with amnesia; we also assessed whether it stops transcription initiated prior to anesthetic administration. Using a Tone Fear Conditioning paradigm, rats were trained to associate a tone with foot-shock. Animals received either no anesthesia, anesthesia immediately after training, or anesthesia before, during, and after training. Animals were either sacrificed after training or tested 24 h later for long-term memory. Using Cellular Compartment Analysis of Temporal Activity by Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (catFISH), we examined the percentage of neurons expressing the IEGs Arc/Arg3.1 and Zif268/Egr1/Ngfi-A/Krox-24 in the dorsal hippocampus, primary somatosensory cortex, and primary auditory cortex. On a cellular level, isoflurane administered at high doses (general anesthesia) prevented initiation of transcription, but did not stop transcription of Arc and Zif268 mRNA initiated prior to anesthesia. On a behavioral level, the same level of isoflurane anesthesia produced anterograde amnesia for fear conditioning when administered before and during training, but did not produce retrograde amnesia when administered immediately after training. General anesthesia with isoflurane prevents initiation of learning-related transcription but does not stop ongoing transcription of two plasticity-related IEGs, Arc and Zif268, a pattern of disruption that parallels the effects of isoflurane on memory formation. Combined with

Influence of isoflurane on Immediate-Early Gene expression

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristopher M Bunting

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Anterograde amnesia is a hallmark effect of volatile anesthetics. Isoflurane is known to affect both the translation and transcription of plasticity-associated genes required for normal memory formation in many brain regions. What is not known is whether isoflurane anesthesia prevents the initiation of transcription or whether it halts transcription already in progress. We tested the hypothesis that general anesthesia with isoflurane prevents learning-induced initiation of transcription of several memory-associated immediate-early genes (IEGs correlated with amnesia; we also assessed whether it stops transcription initiated prior to anesthetic administration.Methods: Using a Tone Fear Conditioning paradigm, rats were trained to associate a tone with foot-shock. Animals received either no anesthesia, anesthesia immediately after training, or anesthesia before, during, and after training. Animals were either sacrificed after training or tested 24 hours later for memory. Using Cellular Compartment Analysis of Temporal Activity by Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (catFISH, we examined the percentage of neurons expressing the IEGs Arc/Arg3.1 and Zif268/Egr1/Ngfi-A/Krox-24 in the dorsal hippocampus, primary somatosensory cortex, and primary auditory cortex.Results: On a cellular level, isoflurane administered at high doses (general anesthesia prevented initiation of transcription, but did not stop transcription of Arc and Zif268 mRNA initiated prior to anesthesia. On a behavioral level, the same level of isoflurane anesthesia produced anterograde amnesia for fear conditioning when administered before and during training, but did not produce retrograde amnesia when administered immediately after training. Conclusions: General anesthesia with isoflurane prevents initiation of learning-related transcription but does not stop ongoing transcription of two plasticity-related IEGs, Arc and Zif268, a pattern of disruption that parallels the

Decrement in manual arm performance during whole body cooling.

Science.gov (United States)

Giesbrecht, G G; Bristow, G K

1992-12-01

Six subjects performed three manual arm tasks: 1) prior to immersion in 8 degrees C water; 2) soon after immersion to the neck, but prior to any decrease in core temperature; and 3) every 15 min until core temperatures decreased 2-4.5 degrees C. The tasks were speed of flexion and extension of the fingers, handgrip strength and manual dexterity. There was no immediate effect of cold immersion; however, all scores decreased significantly after core temperature decreased 0.5 degrees C. Further decrease in core temperature was associated with a progressive impairment of performance, although at a slower rate than during the first 0.5 degrees C decrease. Flexion and extension of the fingers was affected relatively more than handgrip strength or manual dexterity. Decrement in performance is a result of peripheral cooling on sensorimotor function with a probable additional effect of central cooling on cerebral function.

Caffeine Reduces Reaction Time and Improves Performance in Simulated-Contest of Taekwondo

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Victor G. F.; Santos, Vander R. F.; Felippe, Leandro J. C.; Almeida, Jose W.; Bertuzzi, Rômulo; Kiss, Maria A. P. D. M.; Lima-Silva, Adriano E.

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of caffeine on reaction time during a specific taekwondo task and athletic performance during a simulated taekwondo contest. Ten taekwondo athletes ingested either 5 mg·kg−1 body mass caffeine or placebo and performed two combats (spaced apart by 20 min). The reaction-time test (five kicks “Bandal Tchagui”) was performed immediately prior to the first combat and immediately after the first and second combats. Caffeine improved reaction time (from 0.42 ± 0.05 to 0.37 ± 0.07 s) only prior to the first combat (P = 0.004). During the first combat, break times during the first two rounds were shorter in caffeine ingestion, followed by higher plasma lactate concentrations compared with placebo (P = 0.029 and 0.014, respectively). During the second combat, skipping-time was reduced, and relative attack times and attack/skipping ratio was increased following ingestion of caffeine during the first two rounds (all P Caffeine resulted in no change in combat intensity parameters between the first and second combat (all P > 0.05), but combat intensity was decreased following placebo (all P caffeine reduced reaction time in non-fatigued conditions and delayed fatigue during successive taekwondo combats. PMID:24518826

Mind wandering during film comprehension: The role of prior knowledge and situational interest.

Science.gov (United States)

Kopp, Kristopher; Mills, Caitlin; D'Mello, Sidney

2016-06-01

This study assessed the occurrence and factors that influence mind wandering (MW) in the domain of film comprehension. The cascading model of inattention assumes that a stronger mental representation (i.e., a situation model) during comprehension results in less MW. Accordingly, a suppression hypothesis suggests that MW would decrease as a function of having the knowledge of the plot of a film prior to viewing, because the prior-knowledge would help to strengthen the situation model during comprehension. Furthermore, an interest-moderation hypothesis would predict that the suppression effect of prior-knowledge would only emerge when there was interest in viewing the film. In the current experiment, 108 participants either read a short story that depicted the plot (i.e., prior-knowledge condition) or read an unrelated story of equal length (control condition) prior to viewing the short film (32.5 minutes) entitled The Red Balloon. Participants self-reported their interest in viewing the film immediately before the film was presented. MW was tracked using a self-report method targeting instances of MW with metacognitive awareness. Participants in the prior-knowledge condition reported less MW compared with the control condition, thereby supporting the suppression hypothesis. MW also decreased over the duration of the film, but only for those with prior-knowledge of the film. Finally, prior-knowledge effects on MW were only observed when interest was average or high, but not when interest was low.

Sets of priors reflecting prior-data conflict and agreement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Walter, G.M.; Coolen, F.P.A.; Carvalho, J.P.; Lesot, M.-J.; Kaymak, U.; Vieira, S.; Bouchon-Meunier, B.; Yager, R.R.

2016-01-01

Bayesian inference enables combination of observations with prior knowledge in the reasoning process. The choice of a particular prior distribution to represent the available prior knowledge is, however, often debatable, especially when prior knowledge is limited or data are scarce, as then

Influence of prior intense exercise and cold water immersion in recovery for performance and physiological response during subsequent exercise

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Peter Møller; Bangsbo, Jens

2016-01-01

) and the influence from prior intense exercise on subsequent performance and physiological response to moderate and maximal exercise with and without the use of cold water immersion (CWI) in recovery (part B). In part A, performance times during eight World championships for male track cyclists were extracted from...... min preceded by an identical warm-up period in both a control setting (CON) and using cold water immersion in recovery (CWI; 15 min at 15°C). Performance was lowered (P

Comparison of Reconstructive Outcomes in Breast Cancer Patients With Preexisting Subpectoral Implants: Implant-Sparing Mastectomy With Delayed Implant Exchange Versus Immediate Tissue Expander Reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Parabkaharan, Sangeetha; Melody, Megan; Trotta, Rose; Lleshi, Amina; Sun, Weihong; Smith, Paul D; Khakpour, Nazanin; Dayicioglu, Deniz

2016-06-01

Women who have undergone prior augmentation mammoplasty represent a unique subset of breast cancer patients with several options available for breast reconstruction. We performed a single institution review of surgical outcomes of breast reconstruction performed in patients with breast cancer with prior history of subpectoral breast augmentation. Institutional review board-approved retrospective review was conducted among patients with previously mentioned criteria treated at our institution between 2000 and 2014. Reconstructions were grouped into 2 categories as follows: (1) removal of preexisting subpectoral implant during mastectomy with immediate tissue expander placement and (2) implant-sparing mastectomy followed by delayed exchange to a larger implant. We reviewed demographics, tumor features, and reconstruction outcomes of these groups. Fifty-three patients had preexisting subpectoral implants. Of the 63 breast reconstructions performed, 18 (28.6%) had immediate tissue expander placed and 45 (71.4%) had implant-sparing mastectomy followed by delayed implant exchange. The groups were comparable based on age, body mass index, cancer type, tumor grade, TNM stage at presentation, and hormonal receptor status. No significant difference was noted between tumor margins or subsequent recurrence, mastectomy specimen weight, removed implant volume, volume of implant placed during reconstruction, or time from mastectomy to final implant placement. Rates of complications were significantly higher in the tissue expander group compared to the implant-sparing mastectomy group 7 (38.9%) versus 4 (8.9%) (P = 0.005). Implant-sparing mastectomy with delayed implant exchange in patients with preexisting subpectoral implants is safe and has fewer complications compared to tissue expander placement. There was no difference noted in the final volume of implant placed, time interval for final implant placement, or tumor margins.

PET image reconstruction using multi-parametric anato-functional priors

Science.gov (United States)

Mehranian, Abolfazl; Belzunce, Martin A.; Niccolini, Flavia; Politis, Marios; Prieto, Claudia; Turkheimer, Federico; Hammers, Alexander; Reader, Andrew J.

2017-08-01

In this study, we investigate the application of multi-parametric anato-functional (MR-PET) priors for the maximum a posteriori (MAP) reconstruction of brain PET data in order to address the limitations of the conventional anatomical priors in the presence of PET-MR mismatches. In addition to partial volume correction benefits, the suitability of these priors for reconstruction of low-count PET data is also introduced and demonstrated, comparing to standard maximum-likelihood (ML) reconstruction of high-count data. The conventional local Tikhonov and total variation (TV) priors and current state-of-the-art anatomical priors including the Kaipio, non-local Tikhonov prior with Bowsher and Gaussian similarity kernels are investigated and presented in a unified framework. The Gaussian kernels are calculated using both voxel- and patch-based feature vectors. To cope with PET and MR mismatches, the Bowsher and Gaussian priors are extended to multi-parametric priors. In addition, we propose a modified joint Burg entropy prior that by definition exploits all parametric information in the MAP reconstruction of PET data. The performance of the priors was extensively evaluated using 3D simulations and two clinical brain datasets of [18F]florbetaben and [18F]FDG radiotracers. For simulations, several anato-functional mismatches were intentionally introduced between the PET and MR images, and furthermore, for the FDG clinical dataset, two PET-unique active tumours were embedded in the PET data. Our simulation results showed that the joint Burg entropy prior far outperformed the conventional anatomical priors in terms of preserving PET unique lesions, while still reconstructing functional boundaries with corresponding MR boundaries. In addition, the multi-parametric extension of the Gaussian and Bowsher priors led to enhanced preservation of edge and PET unique features and also an improved bias-variance performance. In agreement with the simulation results, the clinical results

The Effect of Breakfast Prior to Morning Exercise on Cognitive Performance, Mood and Appetite Later in the Day in Habitually Active Women

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachel C. Veasey

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Pre-exercise nutritional practices for active females exercising for mood, cognitive and appetite benefits are not well established. Results from an initial field pilot study showed that higher energy intake at breakfast was associated with lower fatigue and higher overall mood and alertness post-exercise (all p < 0.05. In a follow-up, randomised, controlled trial, 24 active women completed three trials in a balanced, cross-over design. At 0815 h participants completed baseline cognitive tasks, mood and appetite visual analogue scales (VAS and were administered a cereal breakfast (providing 118 or 236 kcal or no breakfast. After 45 min, they completed a 30 min run at 65% heart rate reserve (HRR. Parameters were re-assessed immediately after exercise, then hourly until lunch (~1240 h, immediately post-lunch and at 1500 and 1900 h via a mobile phone. Breakfast enhanced feelings of relaxation before lunch (p < 0.05, d > 0.40, though breakfast was detrimental for working memory mid-afternoon (p = 0.019, d = 0.37 and mental fatigue and tension later in the day (all p < 0.05, d > 0.038. Breakfast was also beneficial for appetite control before lunch irrespective of size (all p < 0.05, d > 0.43. These data provide information on pre-exercise nutritional practices for active females and suggest that a small breakfast eaten prior to exercise can benefit post-exercise mood and subjective appetite ratings.

Clinical performance of provisional screw-retained metal-free acrylic restorations in an immediate loading implant protocol: a 242 consecutive patients' report.

Science.gov (United States)

Suarez-Feito, Jose-María; Sicilia, Alberto; Angulo, Jorge; Banerji, Subir; Cuesta, Isabel; Millar, Brian

2010-12-01

To evaluate the clinical performance of provisional screw-retained metal-free acrylic restorations in an immediate loading implant protocol. Two hundred and forty-two consecutive patients were selected retrospectively, who received 1011 implants and 311 immediate provisional screw-retained implant restorations (2-4 h after implant surgery). The patients were monitored for a period of 2-3 months, until they were referred for a final restoration. The primary variables recorded include the survival time and the appearance of fractures in the provisional restoration, and the independent variables included age, sex, dental arch, type of restoration, type of attachment and components used, as well as cantilevers and opposing dentition. A survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier) and a Cox regression analysis were performed. Twenty-three restorations in 20 patients (8.26%, 95% CI 4.8-11.7) showed at least one fracture (7.39%). More than half of the new fractures (52%, 12 cases) occurred in the first 4 weeks. The cumulative survival probability observed was greater in mandible (P=0.05) and non-cantilever restorations (P=0.001), and in those opposed by full restorations or natural teeth (P=0.001). With an opposing implant-supported prosthesis, the risk of fracture was multiplied by 4.7, and the use of cantilevers as well as the location of the restoration in the maxilla multiply the risk by 3.4-3.5. Immediate provisional screw-retained metal-free implant-supported restorations can be considered a reliable restoration (92.6% remain intact) for the healing period of 3 months. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Example-driven manifold priors for image deconvolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Ni, Jie; Turaga, Pavan; Patel, Vishal M; Chellappa, Rama

2011-11-01

Image restoration methods that exploit prior information about images to be estimated have been extensively studied, typically using the Bayesian framework. In this paper, we consider the role of prior knowledge of the object class in the form of a patch manifold to address the deconvolution problem. Specifically, we incorporate unlabeled image data of the object class, say natural images, in the form of a patch-manifold prior for the object class. The manifold prior is implicitly estimated from the given unlabeled data. We show how the patch-manifold prior effectively exploits the available sample class data for regularizing the deblurring problem. Furthermore, we derive a generalized cross-validation (GCV) function to automatically determine the regularization parameter at each iteration without explicitly knowing the noise variance. Extensive experiments show that this method performs better than many competitive image deconvolution methods.

Stunning poultry prior to slaughter and the welfare advantages/challenges of electrical and controlled atmosphere stunning pp. 90-98.

Science.gov (United States)

Poultry are stunned immediately prior to slaughter to render them unconscious and incapable of perceiving pain, to facilitate automated processing (up to 180 birds/min), and to minimize the occurrence of the death struggle and thereby minimize carcass damage and down grades. A stunning method for s...

Prior Elicitation, Assessment and Inference with a Dirichlet Prior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Evans

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Methods are developed for eliciting a Dirichlet prior based upon stating bounds on the individual probabilities that hold with high prior probability. This approach to selecting a prior is applied to a contingency table problem where it is demonstrated how to assess the prior with respect to the bias it induces as well as how to check for prior-data conflict. It is shown that the assessment of a hypothesis via relative belief can easily take into account what it means for the falsity of the hypothesis to correspond to a difference of practical importance and provide evidence in favor of a hypothesis.

Bayesian Image Restoration Using a Large-Scale Total Patch Variation Prior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Chen

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Edge-preserving Bayesian restorations using nonquadratic priors are often inefficient in restoring continuous variations and tend to produce block artifacts around edges in ill-posed inverse image restorations. To overcome this, we have proposed a spatial adaptive (SA prior with improved performance. However, this SA prior restoration suffers from high computational cost and the unguaranteed convergence problem. Concerning these issues, this paper proposes a Large-scale Total Patch Variation (LS-TPV Prior model for Bayesian image restoration. In this model, the prior for each pixel is defined as a singleton conditional probability, which is in a mixture prior form of one patch similarity prior and one weight entropy prior. A joint MAP estimation is thus built to ensure the iteration monotonicity. The intensive calculation of patch distances is greatly alleviated by the parallelization of Compute Unified Device Architecture(CUDA. Experiments with both simulated and real data validate the good performance of the proposed restoration.

Prior academic background and student performance in assessment in a graduate entry programme.

Science.gov (United States)

Craig, P L; Gordon, J J; Clark, R M; Langendyk, V

2004-11-01

This study aims to identify whether non-science graduates perform as well as science graduates in Basic and Clinical Sciences (B & CS) assessments during Years 1-3 of a four-year graduate-entry programme at the University of Sydney (the 'USydMP'). Students were grouped into five categories: Health Professions (HP), Biomedical Sciences (BMS), Other Biology (BIOL), Physical Sciences (PHYS) or Non-Science (NONS). We examined the performance rank of students in each of the five groups for single best answer (SBA) and modified essay (MEQ) assessments separately, and also calculated the relative risk of failure in the summative assessments in Years 2 and 3. Students with science-based prior degrees performed better in the SBA assessments. The same occurred initially in the MEQs, but the effect diminished with time. The HP students performed consistently better but converged with other groups over time, particularly in the MEQs. Relative performance by the NONS students improved with time in both assessment formats. Overall, differences between the highest and lowest groups were small and very few students failed to meet the overall standard for the summative assessments. HP and BMS students had the lowest failure rate. NONS students were more likely to fail the assessments in Year 2 and 3, but their pass rates were still high. Female students performed significantly better overall at the end of Year 2 and in Year 3. There were only minor differences between Australian resident and International students. While there are small differences in performance in B & CS early in the programme, these lessen with time. The study results will inform decisions regarding timing of summative assessments, selection policy and for providing additional support to students who need it to minimize their risk of failure. Readers should note that this paper refers to student performance in only one of the four curriculum themes, where health professional and science graduates would be

Designing for Immediate Play

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pichlmair, Martin; Mech, Lena; Sicart, Miguel Angel

2017-01-01

This paper is concerned with designing for immediate play, the experience that a player has when joining a game designed for being played without particular preparation. Museum games, urban games, casual sports, and ad-hoc multiplayer video games are kinds of games that facilitate immediate play...... offer using examples and expert opinions. While most practices and game examples mentioned in this paper are from non-digital games, a special focus is put on the role of technology in immediately playable experiences. Still, the examined design dimensions are independent of the technological foundation...... of the game. This paper provides a starting point for designing better immediate play situations....

Long-term outcome after mastectomy with immediate breast reconstruction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stralman, K.; Mollerup, C.L.; Kristoffersen, U.S.

2008-01-01

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to investigate long term outcome for women who had undergone mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patient files of 167 immediately reconstructed breast cancer patients were reviewed for late surgical complications....... Furthermore, information of local recurrence rate, radiotherapy and death was obtained from the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group register. Histopatological high and low risk patients were compared with respect to locoregional recurrence rate, recurrence free survival and death. Unpaired t...... found no increase in the occurrence of capsular contracture in our study group in patients who received radiotherapy. CONCLUSION: Immediate breast reconstruction seems to be oncologically safe. Breast reconstruction performed with implants was associated with a higher risk of late complications...

What do PSA changes after radiotherapy with or without prior androgen deprivation mean?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Denham, J.W.; Woodhead, D.; Lamb, D.S.; Duchesne, G.

2003-01-01

The TROG 96.01 randomised patients with Stage B2 and C prostate cancer to radiotherapy alone to 66 Gy (RT), 3 months maximal androgen deprivation (MAD) with goserelin and flutamide prior to and during RT, and 6 months MAD prior to and during RT. Minimum follow up time is now 3 years. Prior to preliminary analysis of one of the trial's main endpoints biochemical relapse free survival (bRFS), the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) time course for every patient was evaluated to assess the performance of the ASTRO definition of biochemical failure (BF). Following MAD and RT PSA levels immediately rise in the majority of cases (PSA 'rebound'). In over 50% of cases, PSA levels then plateau at <1 ng/ml for 2 - 3 years prior to clear evidence of failure. Premature diagnosis of BF is possible in some of these cases. Fluctuations in PSA level ('bouncing') are more frequent after MAD and RT. As a result there can be difficulty in interpreting the ASTRO definition of BF in cases where overall PSA trend is upwards shortly after completion of therapy. In patients experiencing BF, the rate of PSA rise often corresponds to the site of failure. PSA doubling times (DT) under 7 months are usually associated with development of bony metastases, while DTs greater than that are usually associated with local failure. Decline in PSA levels following RT alone is frequently not mono-exponential and patients with those patterns experience lower PSA nadir levels and are subject to lower risks of all forms of relapse. These patients also survive longer. In cases where PSA descent patterns are discernable after MAD and RT, opposite trends are seen. Caution is necessary in diagnosing BF after MAD plus RT. Variations in the natural history of prostate cancer are reflected by variations in the rate of PSA changes following therapy. The importance of monitoring this marker and evaluating its time course is emphasised. Prospective studies are needed

Feasibility of Performing Total Skin-Sparing Mastectomy in Patients With Prior Circumareolar Mastopexy or Reduction Mammoplasty Incisions.

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Vaughn, Carolyn J; Peled, Anne Warren; Esserman, Laura J; Foster, Robert D

2013-06-19

Total skin-sparing mastectomy (TSSM) techniques with preservation of the nipple-areolar complex (NAC) skin are becoming increasingly popular due to improved cosmesis without compromise in oncologic safety. However, these techniques are not routinely offered to patients who have undergone previous breast surgery involving circumareolar incisions due to concern for NAC viability. We reviewed the outcomes of TSSM in 11 patients who underwent 21 TSSM procedures at our institution between 2008 and 2011. All patients had undergone previous breast surgery including reduction mammaplasty (7 breasts), mastopexy (4 breasts), augmentation (3 breasts), and combined mastopexy-augmentation (7 breasts). Incisions from previous breast surgery included circumareolar (11 cases) and Wise pattern (10 cases) incisions. All patients underwent TSSM through an inframammary incision followed by immediate tissue expander reconstruction and subsequent implant exchange. Patient demographics, previous breast surgery details, tumor and treatment characteristics, and postoperative complications were reviewed. Mean patient age was 43 years (range, 35-53 years) and mean body mass index was 24 kg/m (range, 19-32 kg/m). Mean follow-up was 10.2 months (range, 3-20 months).Indications for TSSM included prophylactic risk reduction in 10 cases, in situ cancer in 2 cases, and invasive cancer in 9 cases. Mean time from previous breast surgery to mastectomy was 6.9 years (range, 6 months-26 years). Major complications requiring operative reintervention included 1 (4.8%) case of cellulitis requiring expander removal and 2 (9.5%) cases of wound breakdown requiring operative closure. There were no complications involving the NAC. Total skin-sparing mastectomy with immediate reconstruction can safely be performed in patients who have undergone previous breast surgery involving circumareolar incisions. Our preferred technique in this group of patients is to perform TSSM through an inframammary incision with 2

Immediate and delayed recall of a small-scale spatial array.

Science.gov (United States)

Tlauka, Michael; Donaldson, Phillip; Bonnar, Daniel

2015-01-01

The study examined people's spatial memory of a small-scale array of objects. Earlier work has primarily relied on short-retention intervals, and to date it is not known whether performance is affected by longer intervals between learning and recall. In the present investigation, university students studied seven target objects. Recall was tested immediately after learning and after an interval of seven days. Performance was found to be similar in the immediate and delayed conditions, and the results suggested that recall was facilitated by egocentric and intrinsic cues. The findings are discussed with reference to recent investigations that have shown task parameters can influence spatial recall.

Prospective regularization design in prior-image-based reconstruction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dang, Hao; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H; Stayman, J Webster

2015-01-01

Prior-image-based reconstruction (PIBR) methods leveraging patient-specific anatomical information from previous imaging studies and/or sequences have demonstrated dramatic improvements in dose utilization and image quality for low-fidelity data. However, a proper balance of information from the prior images and information from the measurements is required (e.g. through careful tuning of regularization parameters). Inappropriate selection of reconstruction parameters can lead to detrimental effects including false structures and failure to improve image quality. Traditional methods based on heuristics are subject to error and sub-optimal solutions, while exhaustive searches require a large number of computationally intensive image reconstructions. In this work, we propose a novel method that prospectively estimates the optimal amount of prior image information for accurate admission of specific anatomical changes in PIBR without performing full image reconstructions. This method leverages an analytical approximation to the implicitly defined PIBR estimator, and introduces a predictive performance metric leveraging this analytical form and knowledge of a particular presumed anatomical change whose accurate reconstruction is sought. Additionally, since model-based PIBR approaches tend to be space-variant, a spatially varying prior image strength map is proposed to optimally admit changes everywhere in the image (eliminating the need to know change locations a priori). Studies were conducted in both an ellipse phantom and a realistic thorax phantom emulating a lung nodule surveillance scenario. The proposed method demonstrated accurate estimation of the optimal prior image strength while achieving a substantial computational speedup (about a factor of 20) compared to traditional exhaustive search. Moreover, the use of the proposed prior strength map in PIBR demonstrated accurate reconstruction of anatomical changes without foreknowledge of change locations in

Assessment of prior learning in vocational education and training

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wahlgren, Bjarne; Aarkrog, Vibe

’ knowledge, skills and competences during the students’ performances and the methods that the teachers apply in order to assess the students’ prior learning in relation to the regulations of the current VET-program. In particular the study focuses on how to assess not only the students’ explicated knowledge......The article deals about the results of a study of the assessment of prior learning among adult workers who want to obtain formal qualifications as skilled workers. The study contributes to developing methods for assessing prior learning including both the teachers’ ways of eliciting the students...... and skills but also their competences, i.e. the way the students use their skills and knowledge to perform in practice. Based on a description of the assessment procedures the article discusses central issues in relation to the assessment of prior learning. The empirical data have been obtained in the VET...

Prior and present evidence: how prior experience interacts with present information in a perceptual decision making task.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhsin Karim

Full Text Available Vibrotactile discrimination tasks have been used to examine decision making processes in the presence of perceptual uncertainty, induced by barely discernible frequency differences between paired stimuli or by the presence of embedded noise. One lesser known property of such tasks is that decisions made on a single trial may be biased by information from prior trials. An example is the time-order effect whereby the presentation order of paired stimuli may introduce differences in accuracy. Subjects perform better when the first stimulus lies between the second stimulus and the global mean of all stimuli on the judged dimension ("preferred" time-orders compared to the alternative presentation order ("nonpreferred" time-orders. This has been conceptualised as a "drift" of the first stimulus representation towards the global mean of the stimulus-set (an internal standard. We describe the influence of prior information in relation to the more traditionally studied factors of interest in a classic discrimination task.Sixty subjects performed a vibrotactile discrimination task with different levels of uncertainty parametrically induced by increasing task difficulty, aperiodic stimulus noise, and changing the task instructions whilst maintaining identical stimulus properties (the "context".The time-order effect had a greater influence on task performance than two of the explicit factors-task difficulty and noise-but not context. The influence of prior information increased with the distance of the first stimulus from the global mean, suggesting that the "drift" velocity of the first stimulus towards the global mean representation was greater for these trials.Awareness of the time-order effect and prior information in general is essential when studying perceptual decision making tasks. Implicit mechanisms may have a greater influence than the explicit factors under study. It also affords valuable insights into basic mechanisms of information

Task Difficulty and Prior Videogame Experience: Their Role in Performance and Motivation in Instructional Videogames

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Orvis, Karin A; Horn, Daniel B; Belanich, James

2007-01-01

.... Further, the influence of prior video game experience on these learning outcomes was examined, as well as the role prior experience played in determining the optimal approach for adjusting task difficulty...

Immediate newborn care practices delay thermoregulation and breastfeeding initiation

Science.gov (United States)

Sobel, Howard L; Silvestre, Maria Asuncion A; Mantaring, Jacinto Blas V; Oliveros, Yolanda E; Nyunt-U, Soe

2011-01-01

Aim A deadly nosocomial outbreak in a Philippine hospital drew nationwide attention to neonatal sepsis. Together with specific infection control measures, interventions that protect newborns against infection-related mortality include drying, skin-to-skin contact, delayed cord clamping, breastfeeding initiation and delayed bathing. This evaluation characterized hospital care in the first hours of life with the intent to drive policy change, strategic planning and hospital reform. Methods Trained physicians observed 481 consecutive deliveries in 51 hospitals using a standardized tool to record practices and timing of immediate newborn care procedures. Results Drying, weighing, eye care and vitamin K injections were performed in more than 90% of newborns. Only 9.6% were allowed skin-to-skin contact. Interventions were inappropriately sequenced, e.g. immediate cord clamping (median 12 sec), delayed drying (96.5%) and early bathing (90.0%). While 68.2% were put to the breast, they were separated two minutes later. Unnecessary suctioning was performed in 94.9%. Doctors trained in neonatal resuscitation were 2.5 (1.1–5.7) times more likely to unnecessarily suction vigorous newborns. Two per cent died and 5.7% developed sepsis/pneumonia. Conclusions This minute-by-minute observational assessment revealed that performance and timing of immediate newborn care interventions are below WHO standards and deprive newborns of basic protections against infection and death. PMID:21375583

Immediate implants in extraction sockets with periapical lesions: an illustrated review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arthur B. Novaes Jr.

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Aim Immediate implantation has gained great attention since first proposed. Immediate implants in replacement of teeth with periapical lesion is, to date, an issue of discussion. The aim of this study is to perform an illustrated literature review of immediate implants in sockets exhibiting previous periapical lesions.Materials and methods A search on medline/EMBASE database was done for the literature review which is presented together with two case reports illustrating the state of the art of immediate implants on sockets with periapical lesions. Both cases are presented in areas with great aesthetic demands and a periapical lesion of considerable size. The two cases were conducted following strict granulation tissue removal and careful rinsing and pre-operative antibiotics, followed by good primary stability of the dental implant.Results and conclusion Both cases represented successes in aesthetics and function, describing a successful protocol for immediate implant installation in areas exhibiting periapical lesions.

Common Modality Effects in Immediate Free Recall and Immediate Serial Recall

Science.gov (United States)

Grenfell-Essam, Rachel; Ward, Geoff; Tan, Lydia

2017-01-01

In 2 experiments, participants were presented with lists of between 2 and 12 words for either immediate free recall (IFR) or immediate serial recall (ISR). Auditory recall advantages at the end of the list (modality effects) and visual recall advantages early in the list (inverse modality effects) were observed in both tasks and the extent and…

Physicians' attentional performance following a 24-hour observation period: do we need to regulate sleep prior to work?

Science.gov (United States)

Smyth, P; Maximova, K; Jirsch, J D

2017-08-01

The tradition of physicians working while sleep deprived is increasingly criticised. Medical regulatory bodies have restricted resident physician duty-hours, not addressing the greater population of physicians. We aimed to assess factors such as sleep duration prior to a 24-hour observation period on physicians' attention. We studied 70 physicians (mean age 38 years old (SD 10.8 years)): 36 residents and 34 faculty from call rosters at the University of Alberta. Among 70 physicians, 52 (74%) performed overnight call; 18 did not perform overnight call and were recruited to control for the learning effect of repetitive neuropsychological testing. Attentional Network Test (ANT) measured physicians' attention at the beginning and end of the 24-hour observation period. Participants self-reported ideal sleep needs, sleep duration in the 24 hours prior to (ie, baseline) and during the 24-hour observation period (ie, follow-up). Median regression models examined effects on ANT parameters. Sleep deprivation at follow-up was associated with reduced attentional accuracy following the 24-hour observation period, but only for physicians more sleep deprived at baseline. Other components of attention were not associated with sleep deprivation after adjusting for repetitive testing. Age, years since medical school and caffeine use did not impact changes in ANT parameters. Our study suggests that baseline sleep before 24 hours of observation impacts the accuracy of physicians' attentional testing at 24 hours. Further study is required to determine if optimising physician sleep prior to overnight call shifts is a sustainable strategy to mitigate the effects of sleep deprivation. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Role of strategies and prior exposure in mental rotation.

Science.gov (United States)

Cherney, Isabelle D; Neff, Nicole L

2004-06-01

The purpose of these two studies was to examine sex differences in strategy use and the effect of prior exposure on the performance on Vandenberg and Kuse's 1978 Mental Rotation Test. A total of 152 participants completed the spatial task and self-reported their strategy use. Consistent with previous studies, men outperformed women. Strategy usage did not account for these differences, although guessing did. Previous exposure to the Mental Rotation Test, American College Test scores and frequent computer or video game play predicted performance on the test. These results suggest that prior exposure to spatial tasks may provide cues to improve participants' performance.

Heuristics as Bayesian inference under extreme priors.

Science.gov (United States)

Parpart, Paula; Jones, Matt; Love, Bradley C

2018-05-01

Simple heuristics are often regarded as tractable decision strategies because they ignore a great deal of information in the input data. One puzzle is why heuristics can outperform full-information models, such as linear regression, which make full use of the available information. These "less-is-more" effects, in which a relatively simpler model outperforms a more complex model, are prevalent throughout cognitive science, and are frequently argued to demonstrate an inherent advantage of simplifying computation or ignoring information. In contrast, we show at the computational level (where algorithmic restrictions are set aside) that it is never optimal to discard information. Through a formal Bayesian analysis, we prove that popular heuristics, such as tallying and take-the-best, are formally equivalent to Bayesian inference under the limit of infinitely strong priors. Varying the strength of the prior yields a continuum of Bayesian models with the heuristics at one end and ordinary regression at the other. Critically, intermediate models perform better across all our simulations, suggesting that down-weighting information with the appropriate prior is preferable to entirely ignoring it. Rather than because of their simplicity, our analyses suggest heuristics perform well because they implement strong priors that approximate the actual structure of the environment. We end by considering how new heuristics could be derived by infinitely strengthening the priors of other Bayesian models. These formal results have implications for work in psychology, machine learning and economics. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Moderation Effects of Personality and Organizational Support on the Relationship between Prior Job Experience and Academic Performance of Management Students

Science.gov (United States)

Uppal, Nishant; Mishra, Sushanta Kumar

2014-01-01

The study investigates the relationship between prior job experience and current academic performance among management students in India. It further explores the impact of individual and situational factors on the above relationship. Based on a longitudinal study spanning over nine months in the academic year 2010-11 among a sample of 324…

Prediction of immediate postoperative pain using the analgesia/nociception index: a prospective observational study.

Science.gov (United States)

Boselli, E; Bouvet, L; Bégou, G; Dabouz, R; Davidson, J; Deloste, J-Y; Rahali, N; Zadam, A; Allaouchiche, B

2014-04-01

The analgesia/nociception index (ANI) is derived from heart rate variability, ranging from 0 (maximal nociception) to 100 (maximal analgesia), to reflect the analgesia/nociception balance during general anaesthesia. This should be correlated with immediate postoperative pain in the post-anaesthesia care unit (PACU). The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of ANI measured at arousal from general anaesthesia to predict immediate postoperative pain on arrival in PACU. Two hundred patients undergoing ear, nose, and throat or lower limb orthopaedic surgery with general anaesthesia using an inhalational agent and remifentanil were included in this prospective observational study. The ANI was measured immediately before tracheal extubation and pain intensity was assessed within 10 min of arrival in PACU using a 0-10 numerical rating scale (NRS). The relationship between ANI and NRS was assessed using linear regression. A receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the performance of ANI to predict NRS>3. A negative linear relationship was observed between ANI immediately before extubation and NRS on arrival in PACU. Using a threshold of 3 were both 86% with 92% negative predictive value, corresponding to an area under the ROC curve of 0.89. The measurement of ANI immediately before extubation after inhalation-remifentanil anaesthesia was significantly associated with pain intensity on arrival in PACU. The performance of ANI for the prediction of immediate postoperative pain is good and may assist physicians in optimizing acute pain management. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01796249.

19 CFR 10.101 - Immediate delivery.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Immediate delivery. 10.101 Section 10.101 Customs... Importations § 10.101 Immediate delivery. (a) Shipments entitled to immediate delivery. Shipments consigned to... as shipments the immediate delivery of which is necessary within the purview of section 448(b...

Factors affecting feeling-of-knowing in a medical intelligent tutoring system: the role of immediate feedback as a metacognitive scaffold.

Science.gov (United States)

El Saadawi, Gilan M; Azevedo, Roger; Castine, Melissa; Payne, Velma; Medvedeva, Olga; Tseytlin, Eugene; Legowski, Elizabeth; Jukic, Drazen; Crowley, Rebecca S

2010-03-01

Previous studies in our laboratory have shown the benefits of immediate feedback on cognitive performance for pathology residents using an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) in pathology. In this study, we examined the effect of immediate feedback on metacognitive performance, and investigated whether other metacognitive scaffolds will support metacognitive gains when immediate feedback is faded. Twenty-three participants were randomized into intervention and control groups. For both groups, periods working with the ITS under varying conditions were alternated with independent computer-based assessments. On day 1, a within-subjects design was used to evaluate the effect of immediate feedback on cognitive and metacognitive performance. On day 2, a between-subjects design was used to compare the use of other metacognitive scaffolds (intervention group) against no metacognitive scaffolds (control group) on cognitive and metacognitive performance, as immediate feedback was faded. Measurements included learning gains (a measure of cognitive performance), as well as several measures of metacognitive performance, including Goodman-Kruskal gamma correlation (G), bias, and discrimination. For the intervention group, we also computed metacognitive measures during tutoring sessions. Results showed that immediate feedback in an intelligent tutoring system had a statistically significant positive effect on learning gains, G and discrimination. Removal of immediate feedback was associated with decreasing metacognitive performance, and this decline was not prevented when students used a version of the tutoring system that provided other metacognitive scaffolds. Results obtained directly from the ITS suggest that other metacognitive scaffolds do have a positive effect on G and discrimination, as immediate feedback is faded. We conclude that immediate feedback had a positive effect on both metacognitive and cognitive gains in a medical tutoring system. Other metacognitive scaffolds

Immediate Oral Rehabilitation of Atrophic Mandible

OpenAIRE

Batista Mendes GC; Padovan LEM; da Silva WS; Ribeiro-Junior PD

2016-01-01

The oral rehabilitation using osseointegrated implants in atrophic mandibles (AM) with severe bone resorption remains a surgical and prosthetic challenge, due to the risk of mandible fracture during implant surgery or under functional loading, paresthesia and pain. A patient with severe atrophic mandible was treated using a 2.0 locking system reconstruction plate combined with dental implants, in immediate loading system. Surgery was performed through intraoral approach and preserving mental ...

LASIK flap buttonhole treated immediately by PRK with mitomycin C.

Science.gov (United States)

Kymionis, George D; Portaliou, Dimitra M; Karavitaki, Alexandra E; Krasia, Maria S; Kontadakis, Georgios A; Stratos, Aimilianos; Yoo, Sonia H

2010-03-01

To describe the visual outcomes of three patients who had LASIK flap buttonhole and were treated immediately with photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and topical mitomycin C (MMC) 0.02%. Three patients underwent bilateral LASIK with the SCHWIND Carriazo-Pendula 90 microm head microkeratome. In all three cases, a buttonhole flap occurred in the left eye. The flap was repositioned and phototherapeutic keratectomy for 50 microm was used for epithelial removal while immediate PRK with MMC was performed to treat the buttonhole flap. Three months after the procedure, uncorrected distance visual acuity and corrected distance visual acuity were 20/20 with regular topographic findings. Using PRK with MCC immediately after the occurrence of the LASIK flap buttonhole may be an effective treatment.

Prior-based artifact correction (PBAC) in computed tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heußer, Thorsten; Brehm, Marcus; Ritschl, Ludwig; Sawall, Stefan; Kachelrieß, Marc

2014-01-01

Purpose: Image quality in computed tomography (CT) often suffers from artifacts which may reduce the diagnostic value of the image. In many cases, these artifacts result from missing or corrupt regions in the projection data, e.g., in the case of metal, truncation, and limited angle artifacts. The authors propose a generalized correction method for different kinds of artifacts resulting from missing or corrupt data by making use of available prior knowledge to perform data completion. Methods: The proposed prior-based artifact correction (PBAC) method requires prior knowledge in form of a planning CT of the same patient or in form of a CT scan of a different patient showing the same body region. In both cases, the prior image is registered to the patient image using a deformable transformation. The registered prior is forward projected and data completion of the patient projections is performed using smooth sinogram inpainting. The obtained projection data are used to reconstruct the corrected image. Results: The authors investigate metal and truncation artifacts in patient data sets acquired with a clinical CT and limited angle artifacts in an anthropomorphic head phantom data set acquired with a gantry-based flat detector CT device. In all cases, the corrected images obtained by PBAC are nearly artifact-free. Compared to conventional correction methods, PBAC achieves better artifact suppression while preserving the patient-specific anatomy at the same time. Further, the authors show that prominent anatomical details in the prior image seem to have only minor impact on the correction result. Conclusions: The results show that PBAC has the potential to effectively correct for metal, truncation, and limited angle artifacts if adequate prior data are available. Since the proposed method makes use of a generalized algorithm, PBAC may also be applicable to other artifacts resulting from missing or corrupt data

[Esthetic analysis on immediate single-tooth implant restoration in anterior maxilla].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Shao-wei; Wang, Guo-shi; Sha, Yan-zhi

2015-10-01

To evaluate the esthetic outcomes of immediate single-tooth implant restoration in anterior maxilla with the pink esthetic score (PES). Nine patients were treated with 9 Straumann implants by immediate single-tooth implant restoration in anterior maxilla. Assessment of PES after crown placement at 1 week (baseline) and 6 months after implantation was conducted. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 16.0 software package. Nine implants achieved a retention rate of 100%. PES for single-tooth implant was 10.33 ± 1.50 at 1 week and 11.44 ± 0.88 at 6 months after crown placement. The difference was significant(P=0.021). This study indicates that immediate single-tooth implant restoration in anterior maxilla is predictable. Immediate single-tooth implantation can result in good clinical esthetic results in most patients with single-tooth missing in anterior maxilla.

Use of the oral sugar test in ponies when performed with or without prior fasting.

Science.gov (United States)

Knowles, E J; Harris, P A; Elliott, J; Menzies-Gow, N J

2017-07-01

It is recommended that the oral sugar test (OST) for insulin dysregulation (ID) be performed after an overnight fast, but fasting is impractical in ponies kept solely at pasture. There are few data on OST repeatability and reliability in ponies. To report 1) whether OST results obtained in the morning after an overnight fast or without fasting in the afternoon (FASTING/FED) can be used interchangeably, 2) time of highest insulin concentration T max [insulin], repeatability and reliability of insulin response to the OST when FASTING or FED and 3) dichotomous agreement (ID/normal) within a small sample when FASTING or FED. Method comparison study. Oral sugar tests were performed on four occasions in 10 adult native British ponies, twice FASTING and twice FED. Insulin concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay at 0-120 min (T 0,30,60,75,90,120 ). Differences between FASTING and FED results were assessed using mixed effects models. Indices of repeatability and reliability were calculated; dichotomous agreement was reported using kappa statistics. Serum [insulin] was significantly (P≤0.05) higher at T 60 -T 90 with prior fasting (estimated differences [95% confidence intervals]): T 60 : 23.5 μiu/ml (8.7-38.4 μiu/ml), T 75 : 27.1 μiu/ml (12.3-41.8 μiu/ml), T 90 : 15.1 (0.36-29.9 μiu/ml). Most frequently, T max [ins] occurred at T 30 . At any single time point, within-subject coefficients of variation were: FASTING: 40% and FED: 31%. The 95% limits for repeatability were FASTING: 29-340%, FED: 41-240%. Test reliabilities were FASTING: 0.70 and FED: 0.67. For dichotomous interpretation similar results (kappa = 0.7) were obtained using cut-offs of [Insulin] >60 μiu/ml at T 60 or T 90 for FASTING and [Insulin] >51 μiu/ml at T 30 or T 60 for FED samples. Oral sugar tests were performed on a small number of animals on one pasture during one season (spring). Clinicians should beware of interpreting changes in absolute OST results owing to poor repeatability. When

Short Report Biochemical derangements prior to emergency ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

MMJ VOL 29 (1): March 2017. Biochemical derangements prior to emergency laparotomy at QECH 55. Malawi Medical Journal 29 (1): March 2017 ... Venepuncture was performed preoperatively for urgent cases, defined as those requiring.

Factors Affecting Feeling-of-knowing in a Medical Intelligent Tutoring System – the role of Immediate Feedback as a Metacognitive Scaffold

Science.gov (United States)

El Saadawi, Gilan M.; Azevedo, Roger; Castine, Melissa; Payne, Velma; Medvedeva, Olga; Tseytlin, Eugene; Legowski, Elizabeth; Jukic, Drazen; Crowley, Rebecca S.

2009-01-01

Objective Previous studies in our laboratory have shown the benefits of immediate feedback on cognitive performance for pathology residents using an Intelligent Tutoring System in Pathology. In this study, we examined the effect of immediate feedback on metacognitive performance, and investigated whether other metacognitive scaffolds will support metacognitive gains when immediate feedback is faded. Methods Twenty-three (23) participants were randomized into intervention and control groups. For both groups, periods working with the ITS under varying conditions were alternated with independent computer-based assessments. On day 1, a within-subjects design was used to evaluate the effect of immediate feedback on cognitive and metacognitive performance. On day 2, a between-subjects design was used to compare the use of other metacognitive scaffolds (intervention group) against no metacognitive scaffolds (control group) on cognitive and metacognitive performance, as immediate feedback was faded. Measurements included learning gains (a measure of cognitive performance), as well as several measures of metacognitive performance, including Goodman-Kruskal Gamma correlation (G), Bias, and Discrimination. For the intervention group, we also computed metacognitive measures during tutoring sessions. Results Results showed that immediate feedback in an intelligent tutoring system had a statistically significant positive effect on learning gains, G and discrimination. Removal of immediate feedback was associated with decreasing metacognitive performance, and this decline was not prevented when students used a version of the tutoring system that provided other metacognitive scaffolds. Results obtained directly from the ITS suggest that other metacognitive scaffolds do have a positive effect on G and Discrimination, as immediate feedback is faded. Conclusions Immediate feedback had a positive effect on both metacognitive and cognitive gains in a medical tutoring system. Other

Visual memory in unilateral spatial neglect: immediate recall versus delayed recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Moreh, Elior; Malkinson, Tal Seidel; Zohary, Ehud; Soroker, Nachum

2014-09-01

Patients with unilateral spatial neglect (USN) often show impaired performance in spatial working memory tasks, apart from the difficulty retrieving "left-sided" spatial data from long-term memory, shown in the "piazza effect" by Bisiach and colleagues. This study's aim was to compare the effect of the spatial position of a visual object on immediate and delayed memory performance in USN patients. Specifically, immediate verbal recall performance, tested using a simultaneous presentation of four visual objects in four quadrants, was compared with memory in a later-provided recognition task, in which objects were individually shown at the screen center. Unlike healthy controls, USN patients showed a left-side disadvantage and a vertical bias in the immediate free recall task (69% vs. 42% recall for right- and left-sided objects, respectively). In the recognition task, the patients correctly recognized half of "old" items, and their correct rejection rate was 95.5%. Importantly, when the analysis focused on previously recalled items (in the immediate task), no statistically significant difference was found in the delayed recognition of objects according to their original quadrant of presentation. Furthermore, USN patients were able to recollect the correct original location of the recognized objects in 60% of the cases, well beyond chance level. This suggests that the memory trace formed in these cases was not only semantic but also contained a visuospatial tag. Finally, successful recognition of objects missed in recall trials points to formation of memory traces for neglected contralesional objects, which may become accessible to retrieval processes in explicit memory.

Prior video game utilization is associated with improved performance on a robotic skills simulator.

Science.gov (United States)

Harbin, Andrew C; Nadhan, Kumar S; Mooney, James H; Yu, Daohai; Kaplan, Joshua; McGinley-Hence, Nora; Kim, Andrew; Gu, Yiming; Eun, Daniel D

2017-09-01

Laparoscopic surgery and robotic surgery, two forms of minimally invasive surgery (MIS), have recently experienced a large increase in utilization. Prior studies have shown that video game experience (VGE) may be associated with improved laparoscopic surgery skills; however, similar data supporting a link between VGE and proficiency on a robotic skills simulator (RSS) are lacking. The objective of our study is to determine whether volume or timing of VGE had any impact on RSS performance. Pre-clinical medical students completed a comprehensive questionnaire detailing previous VGE across several time periods. Seventy-five subjects were ultimately evaluated in 11 training exercises on the daVinci Si Skills Simulator. RSS skill was measured by overall score, time to completion, economy of motion, average instrument collision, and improvement in Ring Walk 3 score. Using the nonparametric tests and linear regression, these metrics were analyzed for systematic differences between non-users, light, and heavy video game users based on their volume of use in each of the following four time periods: past 3 months, past year, past 3 years, and high school. Univariate analyses revealed significant differences between heavy and non-users in all five performance metrics. These trends disappeared as the period of VGE went further back. Our study showed a positive association between video game experience and robotic skills simulator performance that is stronger for more recent periods of video game use. The findings may have important implications for the evolution of robotic surgery training.

GENERAL ASPECTS REGARDING THE PRIOR DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ANDRA PURAN (DASCĂLU

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Disciplinary research is the first phase of the disciplinary action. According to art. 251 paragraph 1 of the Labour Code no disciplinary sanction may be ordered before performing the prior disciplinary research.These regulations provide an exception: the sanction of written warning. The current regulations in question, kept from the old regulation, provides a protection for employees against abuses made by employers, since sanctions are affecting the salary or the position held, or even the development of individual employment contract. Thus, prior research of the fact that is a misconduct, before a disciplinary sanction is applied, is an essential condition for the validity of the measure ordered. Through this study we try to highlight some general issues concerning the characteristics, processes and effects of prior disciplinary research.

Practice Makes Perfect: Correlations Between Prior Experience in High-level Athletics and Robotic Surgical Performance Do Not Persist After Task Repetition.

Science.gov (United States)

Shee, Kevin; Ghali, Fady M; Hyams, Elias S

Robotic surgical skill development is central to training in urology as well as in other surgical disciplines. Here, we describe a pilot study assessing the relationships between robotic surgery simulator performance and 3 categories of activities, namely, videogames, musical instruments, and athletics. A questionnaire was administered to preclinical medical students for general demographic information and prior experiences in surgery, videogames, musical instruments, and athletics. For follow-up performance studies, we used the Matchboard Level 1 and 2 modules on the da Vinci Skills Simulator, and recorded overall score, time to complete, economy of motion, workspace range, instrument collisions, instruments out of view, and drops. Task 1 was run once, whereas task 2 was run 3 times. All performance studies on the da Vinci Surgical Skills Simulator took place in the Simulation Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. All participants were medical students at the Geisel School of Medicine. After excluding students with prior hands-on experience in surgery, a total of 30 students completed the study. We found a significant correlation between athletic skill level and performance for both task 1 (p = 0.0002) and task 2 (p = 0.0009). No significant correlations were found for videogame or musical instrument skill level. Students with experience in certain athletics (e.g., volleyball, tennis, and baseball) tended to perform better than students with experience in other athletics (e.g., track and field). For task 2, which was run 3 times, this association did not persist after the third repetition due to significant improvements in students with low-level athletic skill (levels 0-2). Our study suggests that prior experience in high-level athletics, but not videogames or musical instruments, significantly influences surgical proficiency in robot-naive students. Furthermore, our study suggests that practice through task repetition can overcome initial differences

Immediate effects of the Finnish resonance tube method on behavioral dysphonia.

Science.gov (United States)

Paes, Sabrina Mazzer; Zambon, Fabiana; Yamasaki, Rosiane; Simberg, Susanna; Behlau, Mara

2013-11-01

To investigate the immediate effects of the Finnish resonance tube method for teachers with behavioral dysphonia. Twenty-five female teachers (m=39.9 years of age) with at least a 5-year history of dysphonia were included. Additional inclusion criteria were the diagnosis of chronic behavioral dysphonia with an indication for speech therapy and the absence of any prior speech therapy. Subjects produced three sets of 10 tokens of sustained phonation with a 1-minute rest interval between tokens into a 27-cm glass tube immersed in at least 2 cm of water. Voice samples were recorded before and after these sets. The effects of these exercises were evaluated by self-assessment, auditory perceptual analysis, and acoustic evaluation involving extraction of fundamental frequency and visual spectrographic analysis. Sixty-eight percent of the teachers reported increased phonatory comfort and 52% reported improved voice quality after performing the exercises. Perceptual analysis indicated improved voice quality in the samples of counting numbers, confirmed by decreased instability, subharmonics, noise in high frequencies, and the tendency for reduced low frequency noise on spectrographic evaluation. Additionally, mean fundamental frequency decreased. The Finnish resonance tube method increased phonatory comfort and vocal changes suggestive diminished hyperfunction. Copyright © 2013 The Voice Foundation. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Modeling and validating Bayesian accrual models on clinical data and simulations using adaptive priors.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Yu; Simon, Steve; Mayo, Matthew S; Gajewski, Byron J

2015-02-20

Slow recruitment in clinical trials leads to increased costs and resource utilization, which includes both the clinic staff and patient volunteers. Careful planning and monitoring of the accrual process can prevent the unnecessary loss of these resources. We propose two hierarchical extensions to the existing Bayesian constant accrual model: the accelerated prior and the hedging prior. The new proposed priors are able to adaptively utilize the researcher's previous experience and current accrual data to produce the estimation of trial completion time. The performance of these models, including prediction precision, coverage probability, and correct decision-making ability, is evaluated using actual studies from our cancer center and simulation. The results showed that a constant accrual model with strongly informative priors is very accurate when accrual is on target or slightly off, producing smaller mean squared error, high percentage of coverage, and a high number of correct decisions as to whether or not continue the trial, but it is strongly biased when off target. Flat or weakly informative priors provide protection against an off target prior but are less efficient when the accrual is on target. The accelerated prior performs similar to a strong prior. The hedging prior performs much like the weak priors when the accrual is extremely off target but closer to the strong priors when the accrual is on target or only slightly off target. We suggest improvements in these models and propose new models for future research. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Synchrotron micro-diffraction analysis of the microstructure of cryogenically treated high performance tool steels prior to and after tempering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xu, N.; Cavallaro, G.P. [Applied Centre for Structural and Synchrotron Studies, Mawson Lakes Blvd, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, South Australia 5095 (Australia); Gerson, A.R., E-mail: Andrea.Gerson@unisa.edu.au [Applied Centre for Structural and Synchrotron Studies, Mawson Lakes Blvd, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, South Australia 5095 (Australia)

2010-10-15

The phase transformation and strain changes within cryogenically (-196 deg. C) treated high performance tool steels (AISI H13) before and after tempering have been examined using both laboratory XRD and synchrotron micro-diffraction. The martensitic unit cell was found to have very low tetragonality as expected for low carbon steel. Tempering resulted in the diffusion of excess carbon out of the martensite phase and consequent unit cell shrinkage. In addition on tempering the martensite became more homogeneous as compared to the same samples prior to tempering. For cryogenically treated samples, the effect was most pronounced for the rapidly cooled sample which was the least homogenous sample prior to tempering but was the most homogenous sample after tempering. This suggests that the considerable degree of disorder resulting from rapid cryogenic cooling results in the beneficial release of micro-stresses on tempering thus possibly resulting in the improved wear resistance and durability observed for cryogenically treated tool steels.

Synchrotron micro-diffraction analysis of the microstructure of cryogenically treated high performance tool steels prior to and after tempering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, N.; Cavallaro, G.P.; Gerson, A.R.

2010-01-01

The phase transformation and strain changes within cryogenically (-196 deg. C) treated high performance tool steels (AISI H13) before and after tempering have been examined using both laboratory XRD and synchrotron micro-diffraction. The martensitic unit cell was found to have very low tetragonality as expected for low carbon steel. Tempering resulted in the diffusion of excess carbon out of the martensite phase and consequent unit cell shrinkage. In addition on tempering the martensite became more homogeneous as compared to the same samples prior to tempering. For cryogenically treated samples, the effect was most pronounced for the rapidly cooled sample which was the least homogenous sample prior to tempering but was the most homogenous sample after tempering. This suggests that the considerable degree of disorder resulting from rapid cryogenic cooling results in the beneficial release of micro-stresses on tempering thus possibly resulting in the improved wear resistance and durability observed for cryogenically treated tool steels.

12 CFR 561.24 - Immediate family.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 12 Banks and Banking 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Immediate family. 561.24 Section 561.24 Banks and Banking OFFICE OF THRIFT SUPERVISION, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY DEFINITIONS FOR REGULATIONS AFFECTING ALL SAVINGS ASSOCIATIONS § 561.24 Immediate family. The term immediate family of any natural...

Generalized multiple kernel learning with data-dependent priors.

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, Qi; Tsang, Ivor W; Gao, Shenghua; Wang, Li

2015-06-01

Multiple kernel learning (MKL) and classifier ensemble are two mainstream methods for solving learning problems in which some sets of features/views are more informative than others, or the features/views within a given set are inconsistent. In this paper, we first present a novel probabilistic interpretation of MKL such that maximum entropy discrimination with a noninformative prior over multiple views is equivalent to the formulation of MKL. Instead of using the noninformative prior, we introduce a novel data-dependent prior based on an ensemble of kernel predictors, which enhances the prediction performance of MKL by leveraging the merits of the classifier ensemble. With the proposed probabilistic framework of MKL, we propose a hierarchical Bayesian model to learn the proposed data-dependent prior and classification model simultaneously. The resultant problem is convex and other information (e.g., instances with either missing views or missing labels) can be seamlessly incorporated into the data-dependent priors. Furthermore, a variety of existing MKL models can be recovered under the proposed MKL framework and can be readily extended to incorporate these priors. Extensive experiments demonstrate the benefits of our proposed framework in supervised and semisupervised settings, as well as in tasks with partial correspondence among multiple views.

Laughter as a social rejection cue: Influence of prior explicit experience of social rejection on cardiac signs of "freezing".

Science.gov (United States)

Lackner, Helmut K; Reiter-Scheidl, Katharina; Aydin, Nilüfer; Perchtold, Corinna M; Weiss, Elisabeth M; Papousek, Ilona

2018-06-01

The study aimed at investigating the immediate cardiac effect of the sudden perception of other people's laughter after experimentally manipulating healthy participants' proneness to experience laughter as a cue of social threat. We expected that participants would show cardiac signs of freezing (i.e., sustained heart rate deceleration immediately after perception of the laughter) after prior social rejection but not or less so after prior acceptance, due to an increased bias to perceive the ambiguous social signal as a cue of social threat and rejection after rejection had been primed. Contrary to expectations, the perception of other people's laughter elicited a decelerative (freezing) response regardless of whether it was preceded by the experience of social rejection or acceptance. The response was prolonged in participants who had been accepted beforehand compared to those who had been rejected. The findings indicate that, given a relevant social context, other people's laughter can be a powerful cue of social threat and rejection also in healthy individuals. Prolonged heart rate deceleration after an ambiguous social signal may facilitate the processing of significant social information in the socially threatening situation. The study adds to the literature rendering the course of the immediate transient heart rate response a useful tool in social rejection research. Additionally, the findings suggested that in some cases the further progress of transient heart rate changes in more extended time-windows (about 30 s) may provide additional relevant information about the processing of social cues. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Can natural selection encode Bayesian priors?

Science.gov (United States)

Ramírez, Juan Camilo; Marshall, James A R

2017-08-07

The evolutionary success of many organisms depends on their ability to make decisions based on estimates of the state of their environment (e.g., predation risk) from uncertain information. These decision problems have optimal solutions and individuals in nature are expected to evolve the behavioural mechanisms to make decisions as if using the optimal solutions. Bayesian inference is the optimal method to produce estimates from uncertain data, thus natural selection is expected to favour individuals with the behavioural mechanisms to make decisions as if they were computing Bayesian estimates in typically-experienced environments, although this does not necessarily imply that favoured decision-makers do perform Bayesian computations exactly. Each individual should evolve to behave as if updating a prior estimate of the unknown environment variable to a posterior estimate as it collects evidence. The prior estimate represents the decision-maker's default belief regarding the environment variable, i.e., the individual's default 'worldview' of the environment. This default belief has been hypothesised to be shaped by natural selection and represent the environment experienced by the individual's ancestors. We present an evolutionary model to explore how accurately Bayesian prior estimates can be encoded genetically and shaped by natural selection when decision-makers learn from uncertain information. The model simulates the evolution of a population of individuals that are required to estimate the probability of an event. Every individual has a prior estimate of this probability and collects noisy cues from the environment in order to update its prior belief to a Bayesian posterior estimate with the evidence gained. The prior is inherited and passed on to offspring. Fitness increases with the accuracy of the posterior estimates produced. Simulations show that prior estimates become accurate over evolutionary time. In addition to these 'Bayesian' individuals, we also

Gender differences in care-seeking behavior and healthcare consumption immediately after whiplash trauma.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Artur Tenenbaum

Full Text Available The aim was to study gender differences in care-seeking behavior and treatment provided immediately after whiplash trauma.Participants were residents from a defined geographical area, Skaraborg County in the southwestern part of Sweden. A cohort of 3,368 persons exposed to whiplash trauma and attending a healthcare facility immediately after the trauma between 1999 and 2008 were identified in a database. Information about gender, age, time elapsed prior to seeking care, type of healthcare contact, initial treatment provided and eventual hospitalization time was retrieved.Women sought care later than men (p = 0.00074. Women consulted primary healthcare first more often than men, who more often first sought hospital care (p = 0.0060. There were no gender differences regarding the type of treatment after trauma. Women had longer hospital admission than men (p = 0.022, indicating their injuries were at least similar to or worse than men's.Women sought healthcare later than men after whiplash trauma. Although not directly investigated in this study, it raises the question if this may reduce their probability of getting financial compensation compared to men.

Constrained noninformative priors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atwood, C.L.

1994-10-01

The Jeffreys noninformative prior distribution for a single unknown parameter is the distribution corresponding to a uniform distribution in the transformed model where the unknown parameter is approximately a location parameter. To obtain a prior distribution with a specified mean but with diffusion reflecting great uncertainty, a natural generalization of the noninformative prior is the distribution corresponding to the constrained maximum entropy distribution in the transformed model. Examples are given

Tourniquet Deflation Prior to 20 Minutes in Upper Extremity Intravenous Regional Anesthesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurich, Richard W; Langan, Justin W; Teasdall, Robert J; Tanner, Stephanie L; Sanders, John L

2018-03-01

Bier blocks, or intravenous regional anesthesia (IVRA), are a method of anesthesia for upper extremity surgeries. This study reports our experience with tourniquet deflation prior to 20 minutes with upper extremity IVRA. This study was designed as a retrospective cohort analysis. Records, including intraoperative and immediate postoperative anesthesia notes, of 430 patients who underwent IVRA with an upper extremity Bier block and a corresponding tourniquet time of less than 20 minutes were reviewed. Patient demographics, procedure(s) performed, American Society of Anesthesiologists scores, volume of lidocaine used in Bier block, tourniquet time, and any complications were recorded. This cohort consisted of 127 males and 303 females. The 3 most common procedures performed were carpal tunnel release (315), trigger finger release (47), and excision of masses (34). The average tourniquet time for this cohort was 16 minutes (range, 9-19 minutes), and the average volume of lidocaine (0.5% plain) injected was 44 mL (range, 30-70 mL). A tourniquet time of 17 minutes or less was observed in 339 patients, and 170 patients had tourniquet times of 15 minutes or less. Five complications were recorded: intraoperative vomiting, mild postoperative nausea/vomiting, severe postoperative nausea and vomiting, and transient postoperative hypotension that responded to a fluid bolus. No major complications were observed in our cohort of upper extremity IVRA and tourniquet times of less than 20 minutes. Several variables play a role in the safety of upper extremity IVRA.

Comparison of Immediate With Delayed Stenting Using the Minimalist Immediate Mechanical Intervention Approach in Acute ST-Segment-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: The MIMI Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Belle, Loic; Motreff, Pascal; Mangin, Lionel; Rangé, Grégoire; Marcaggi, Xavier; Marie, Antoine; Ferrier, Nadine; Dubreuil, Olivier; Zemour, Gilles; Souteyrand, Géraud; Caussin, Christophe; Amabile, Nicolas; Isaaz, Karl; Dauphin, Raphael; Koning, René; Robin, Christophe; Faurie, Benjamin; Bonello, Laurent; Champin, Stanislas; Delhaye, Cédric; Cuilleret, François; Mewton, Nathan; Genty, Céline; Viallon, Magalie; Bosson, Jean Luc; Croisille, Pierre

2016-03-01

Delayed stent implantation after restoration of normal epicardial flow by a minimalist immediate mechanical intervention aims to decrease the rate of distal embolization and impaired myocardial reperfusion after percutaneous coronary intervention. We sought to confirm whether a delayed stenting (DS) approach (24-48 hours) improves myocardial reperfusion, versus immediate stenting, in patients with acute ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention. In the prospective, randomized, open-label minimalist immediate mechanical intervention (MIMI) trial, patients (n=140) with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction ≤12 hours were randomized to immediate stenting (n=73) or DS (n=67) after Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction 3 flow restoration by thrombus aspiration. Patients in the DS group underwent a second coronary arteriography for stent implantation a median of 36 hours (interquartile range 29-46) after randomization. The primary end point was microvascular obstruction (% left ventricular mass) on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging performed 5 days (interquartile range 4-6) after the first procedure. There was a nonsignificant trend toward lower microvascular obstruction in the immediate stenting group compared with DS group (1.88% versus 3.96%; P=0.051), which became significant after adjustment for the area at risk (P=0.049). Median infarct weight, left ventricular ejection fraction, and infarct size did not differ between groups. No difference in 6-month outcomes was apparent for the rate of major cardiovascular and cerebral events. The present findings do not support a strategy of DS versus immediate stenting in patients with ST-segment-elevation infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention and even suggested a deleterious effect of DS on microvascular obstruction size. URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01360242. © 2016 American Heart Association, Inc.

Statistical Learning Is Not Affected by a Prior Bout of Physical Exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, David J; Arciuli, Joanne; Anderson, David I

2016-05-01

This study examined the effect of a prior bout of exercise on implicit cognition. Specifically, we examined whether a prior bout of moderate intensity exercise affected performance on a statistical learning task in healthy adults. A total of 42 participants were allocated to one of three conditions-a control group, a group that exercised for 15 min prior to the statistical learning task, and a group that exercised for 30 min prior to the statistical learning task. The participants in the exercise groups cycled at 60% of their respective V˙O2 max. Each group demonstrated significant statistical learning, with similar levels of learning among the three groups. Contrary to previous research that has shown that a prior bout of exercise can affect performance on explicit cognitive tasks, the results of the current study suggest that the physiological stress induced by moderate-intensity exercise does not affect implicit cognition as measured by statistical learning. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

The effectiveness of immediate feedback during the objective structured clinical examination.

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Hodder, R V; Rivington, R N; Calcutt, L E; Hart, I R

1989-03-01

Using eight different physical examination or technical stations, 400 examinations were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of immediate feedback during the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). The test group comprised 50 medical students who underwent a standard 4-minute examination followed by 2 minutes of feedback. Immediately following feedback the students repeated an identical 4-minute examination scored by the same examiners. The control group consisted of 50 students from the same class who underwent an identical testing sequence, but instead of receiving feedback, they were instructed to continue their examinations for an additional 2 minutes before repeating the stations. Simple repetition of the task did not significantly improve score (mean increase 2.0%, NS). Extending the testing period from 4 to 6 minutes resulted in a small but significant increase in score (mean 6.7%, P less than 0.001). However, there was a much larger increase in the scores obtained following 2 minutes of immediate feedback compared to pre-feedback performance (mean 26.3%, P less than 0.0001). The majority of students and examiners felt that feedback, as administered in this study, was valuable both as a learning and teaching experience. Short periods of immediate feedback during an OSCE are practical and can improve competency in the performance of criterion-based tasks, at least over the short term. In addition, such feedback provides students with valuable self-assessment that may stimulate further learning.

Impact of immediate access to the electronic medical record on anatomic pathology performance.

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Renshaw, Andrew A; Gould, Edwin W

2013-07-01

To assess the overall impact of access to the electronic medical record (EMR) on anatomic pathology performance. We reviewed the results of all use of the EMR by 1 pathologist over an 18-month period. Of the 10,107 cases (913 cytology and 9,194 surgical pathology) reviewed, the EMR (excluding anatomic pathology records) was accessed in 222 (2.2% of all cases, 6.5% of all cytology cases, and 1.8% of all surgical pathology cases). The EMR was used to evaluate a critical value in 20 (9.0%) cases and make a more specific diagnosis in 77 (34.7%) cases, a less specific diagnosis in 4 (1.8%) cases, and a systemic rather than localized diagnosis in 4 (1.8%) cases. The percentage of cases in which the physician was contacted decreased from 7.3% for the prior 18 months to 6.7%, but this change was not significant (P = .13). Twelve cases were subsequently sent for interinstitutional consultation, and no disagreements were identified. The EMR was accessed in 2.2% of all surgical pathology and cytology cases and affected the diagnosis in 48% of these cases.

Form of prior for constrained thermodynamic processes with uncertainty

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Aneja, Preety; Johal, Ramandeep S.

2015-05-01

We consider the quasi-static thermodynamic processes with constraints, but with additional uncertainty about the control parameters. Motivated by inductive reasoning, we assign prior distribution that provides a rational guess about likely values of the uncertain parameters. The priors are derived explicitly for both the entropy-conserving and the energy-conserving processes. The proposed form is useful when the constraint equation cannot be treated analytically. The inference is performed using spin-1/2 systems as models for heat reservoirs. Analytical results are derived in the high-temperatures limit. An agreement beyond linear response is found between the estimates of thermal quantities and their optimal values obtained from extremum principles. We also seek an intuitive interpretation for the prior and the estimated value of temperature obtained therefrom. We find that the prior over temperature becomes uniform over the quantity kept conserved in the process.

Immediate side effects of stereotactic radiotherapy and radiosurgery

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Werner-Wasik, Maria; Rudoler, Shari; Preston, Peter E.; Hauck, Walter W.; Downes, Beverly M.; Leeper, Dennis; Andrews, David; Corn, Benjamin W.; Curran, Walter J.

1999-01-01

Purpose: Despite increased utilization of fractionated stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT) or stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), the incidence and nature of immediate side effects (ISE) associated with these treatment techniques are not well defined. We report immediate side effects from a series of 78 patients. Materials and Methods: Intracranial lesions in 78 adult patients were treated with SRT or SRS, using a dedicated linear accelerator. Those lesions included 13 gliomas, 2 ependymomas, 19 metastatic tumors, 15 meningiomas, 12 acoustic neuromas, 4 pituitary adenomas, 1 optic neuroma, 1 chondrosarcoma, and 11 arteriovenous malformations (AVM). SRT was used in 51 and SRS in 27 patients. Mean target volume was 9.0 cc. Eleven patients received prior external-beam radiation therapy within 2 months before SRT/SRS. Any side effects occurring during and up to 2 weeks after the course of radiation were defined as ISE and were graded as mild, moderate, or severe. The incidence of ISE and the significance of their association with several treatment and pretreatment variables were analyzed. Results: Overall, 28 (35%) of 78 patients experienced one or more ISE. Most of the ISE (87%) were mild, and consisted of nausea (in 5), dizziness/vertigo (in 5), seizures (in 6), and new persistent headaches (in 17). Two episodes of worsening neurological deficit and 2 of orbital pain were graded as moderate. Two patients experienced severe ISE, requiring hospitalization (1 seizure and 1 worsening neurological deficit). ISE in 6 cases prompted computerized tomography of the brain, which revealed increased perilesional edema in 3 cases. The incidence of ISE by diagnosis was as follows: 46% (6 of 13) for gliomas, 50% (6 of 12) for acoustic neuromas, 36% (4 of 11) for AVM, 33% (5 of 15) for meningiomas, and 21% (4 of 19) for metastases. A higher incidence of dizziness/vertigo (4 of 12 = 33%) was seen among acoustic neuroma patients than among other patients (p < 0.01). There was no

Experience of two trauma-centers with pancreatic injuries requiring immediate surgery.

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Ouaïssi, Mehdi; Sielezneff, Igor; Chaix, Jean Baptiste; Mardion, Remi Bon; Pirrò, Nicolas; Berdah, Stéphane; Emungania, Olivier; Consentino, Bernard; Cresti, Silvia; Dahan, Laetitia; Orsoni, Pierre; Moutardier, Vincent; Brunet, C; Sastre, Bernard

2008-01-01

Pancreatic injury from blunt trauma is infrequent. The aim of the present study was to evaluate a simplified approach of management of pancreatic trauma injuries requiring immediate surgery consisting of either drainage in complex situation or pancreatectomy in the other cases. From January 1986 to December 2006, 40 pancreatic traumas requiring immediate surgery were performed. Mechanism of trauma, clinical and laboratories findings were noted upon admission, classification of pancreatic injury according to Lucas' classification were considered. Fifteen (100%) drainages were performed for stage I (n=15), 60% splenopancreatectomies and 40% drainage was achieved for stage II (n=18), 3 Pancreaticoduonectomies and 2 exclusion of duodenum with drainage and 2 packing were performed for stage IV (n=7). There were 30 men and 10 women with mean age of 29+/-13 years (15-65). Thirty-eight patients had multiple trauma. Overall, mortality and global morbidity rate were 17% and 65% respectively, and the rates increased with Lucas' pancreatic trauma stage. Distal pancreatectomy is indicated for distal injuries with duct involvement, and complex procedures such as pancreaticoduodenectomy should be performed in hemodynamically stable patients.

Contribution of Prior Semantic Knowledge to New Episodic Learning in Amnesia

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Kan, Irene P.; Alexander, Michael P.; Verfaellie, Mieke

2009-01-01

We evaluated whether prior semantic knowledge would enhance episodic learning in amnesia. Subjects studied prices that are either congruent or incongruent with prior price knowledge for grocery and household items and then performed a forced-choice recognition test for the studied prices. Consistent with a previous report, healthy controls'…

PET reconstruction via nonlocal means induced prior.

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Hou, Qingfeng; Huang, Jing; Bian, Zhaoying; Chen, Wufan; Ma, Jianhua

2015-01-01

The traditional Bayesian priors for maximum a posteriori (MAP) reconstruction methods usually incorporate local neighborhood interactions that penalize large deviations in parameter estimates for adjacent pixels; therefore, only local pixel differences are utilized. This limits their abilities of penalizing the image roughness. To achieve high-quality PET image reconstruction, this study investigates a MAP reconstruction strategy by incorporating a nonlocal means induced (NLMi) prior (NLMi-MAP) which enables utilizing global similarity information of image. The present NLMi prior approximates the derivative of Gibbs energy function by an NLM filtering process. Specially, the NLMi prior is obtained by subtracting the current image estimation from its NLM filtered version and feeding the residual error back to the reconstruction filter to yield the new image estimation. We tested the present NLMi-MAP method with simulated and real PET datasets. Comparison studies with conventional filtered backprojection (FBP) and a few iterative reconstruction methods clearly demonstrate that the present NLMi-MAP method performs better in lowering noise, preserving image edge and in higher signal to noise ratio (SNR). Extensive experimental results show that the NLMi-MAP method outperforms the existing methods in terms of cross profile, noise reduction, SNR, root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (CORR).

Effects of obligatory training and prior training experience on attitudes towards performing basic life support: a questionnaire survey.

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Matsubara, Hiroki; Enami, Miki; Hirose, Keiko; Kamikura, Takahisa; Nishi, Taiki; Takei, Yutaka; Inaba, Hideo

2015-04-01

To determine the effect of Japanese obligatory basic life support training for new driver's license applicants on their willingness to carry out basic life support. We distributed a questionnaire to 9,807 participants of basic life support courses in authorized driving schools from May 2007 to April 2008 after the release of the 2006 Japanese guidelines. The questionnaire explored the participants' willingness to perform basic life support in four hypothetical scenarios: cardiopulmonary resuscitation on one's own initiative; compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation following telephone cardiopulmonary resuscitation; early emergency call; and use of an automated external defibrillator. The questionnaire was given at the beginning of the basic life support course in the first 6-month term and at the end in the second 6-month term. The 9,011 fully completed answer sheets were analyzed. The training significantly increased the proportion of respondents willing to use an automated external defibrillator and to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on their own initiative in those with and without prior basic life support training experience. It significantly increased the proportion of respondents willing to carry out favorable actions in all four scenarios. In multiple logistic regression analysis, basic life support training and prior training experiences within 3 years were associated with the attitude. The analysis of reasons for unwillingness suggested that the training reduced the lack of confidence in their skill but did not attenuate the lack of confidence in detection of arrest or clinical judgment to initiate a basic life support action. Obligatory basic life support training should be carried out periodically and modified to ensure that participants gain confidence in judging and detecting cardiac arrest.

Gender differences in care-seeking behavior and healthcare consumption immediately after whiplash trauma

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Tenenbaum, Artur; Nordeman, Lena; Sunnerhagen, Katharina S.; Gunnarsson, Ronny

2017-01-01

Objective The aim was to study gender differences in care-seeking behavior and treatment provided immediately after whiplash trauma. Methods Participants were residents from a defined geographical area, Skaraborg County in the southwestern part of Sweden. A cohort of 3,368 persons exposed to whiplash trauma and attending a healthcare facility immediately after the trauma between 1999 and 2008 were identified in a database. Information about gender, age, time elapsed prior to seeking care, type of healthcare contact, initial treatment provided and eventual hospitalization time was retrieved. Results Women sought care later than men (p = 0.00074). Women consulted primary healthcare first more often than men, who more often first sought hospital care (p = 0.0060). There were no gender differences regarding the type of treatment after trauma. Women had longer hospital admission than men (p = 0.022), indicating their injuries were at least similar to or worse than men’s. Conclusion Women sought healthcare later than men after whiplash trauma. Although not directly investigated in this study, it raises the question if this may reduce their probability of getting financial compensation compared to men. PMID:28441465

Logarithmic Laplacian Prior Based Bayesian Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging.

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Zhang, Shuanghui; Liu, Yongxiang; Li, Xiang; Bi, Guoan

2016-04-28

This paper presents a novel Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging (ISAR) algorithm based on a new sparse prior, known as the logarithmic Laplacian prior. The newly proposed logarithmic Laplacian prior has a narrower main lobe with higher tail values than the Laplacian prior, which helps to achieve performance improvement on sparse representation. The logarithmic Laplacian prior is used for ISAR imaging within the Bayesian framework to achieve better focused radar image. In the proposed method of ISAR imaging, the phase errors are jointly estimated based on the minimum entropy criterion to accomplish autofocusing. The maximum a posterior (MAP) estimation and the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) are utilized to estimate the model parameters to avoid manually tuning process. Additionally, the fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Hadamard product are used to minimize the required computational efficiency. Experimental results based on both simulated and measured data validate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the traditional sparse ISAR imaging algorithms in terms of resolution improvement and noise suppression.

Logarithmic Laplacian Prior Based Bayesian Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging

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Shuanghui Zhang

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a novel Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging (ISAR algorithm based on a new sparse prior, known as the logarithmic Laplacian prior. The newly proposed logarithmic Laplacian prior has a narrower main lobe with higher tail values than the Laplacian prior, which helps to achieve performance improvement on sparse representation. The logarithmic Laplacian prior is used for ISAR imaging within the Bayesian framework to achieve better focused radar image. In the proposed method of ISAR imaging, the phase errors are jointly estimated based on the minimum entropy criterion to accomplish autofocusing. The maximum a posterior (MAP estimation and the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE are utilized to estimate the model parameters to avoid manually tuning process. Additionally, the fast Fourier Transform (FFT and Hadamard product are used to minimize the required computational efficiency. Experimental results based on both simulated and measured data validate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the traditional sparse ISAR imaging algorithms in terms of resolution improvement and noise suppression.

Effects of Immediate Repetition in L2 Speaking Tasks: A Focused Study

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Bei, Gavin Xiaoyue

2013-01-01

This paper reports on a focused investigation into the immediate effects of oral narrative task repetition by two adult EFL learners of intermediate and high proficiency. Two participants performed a narrative speaking task after watching a cartoon video clip and repeated their performance three times, followed by a retrospective report in an…

Blocking mineralocorticoid receptors prior to retrieval reduces contextual fear memory in mice.

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Ming Zhou

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Corticosteroid hormones regulate appraisal and consolidation of information via mineralocorticoid receptors (MRs and glucocorticoid receptors (GRs respectively. How activation of these receptors modulates retrieval of fearful information and the subsequent expression of fear is largely unknown. We tested here whether blockade of MRs or GRs during retrieval also affects subsequent expression of fear memory. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Mice were trained in contextual or tone cue fear conditioning paradigms, by pairing mild foot shocks with a particular context or tone respectively. Twenty-four hours after training, context-conditioned animals were re-exposed to the context for 3 or 30 minutes (day 2; tone-conditioned animals were placed in a different context and re-exposed to one or six tones. Twenty-four hours (day 3 and one month later, freezing behavior to the aversive context/tone was scored again. MR or GR blockade was achieved by giving spironolactone or RU486 subcutaneously one hour before retrieval on day 2. Spironolactone administered prior to brief context re-exposure reduced freezing behavior during retrieval and 24 hours later, but not one month later. Administration of spironolactone without retrieval of the context or immediately after retrieval on day 2 did not reduce freezing on day 3. Re-exposure to the context for 30 minutes on day 2 significantly reduced freezing on day 3 and one month later, but freezing was not further reduced by spironolactone. Administration of spironolactone prior to tone-cue re-exposure on day 2 did not affect freezing behavior. Treatment with RU486 prior to re-exposure did not affect context or tone-cue fear memories at any time point. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We conclude that MR blockade prior to retrieval strongly reduces the expression of contextual fear, implying that MRs, rather than GRs, play an important role in retrieval of emotional information and subsequent fear expression.

Self-prior strategy for organ reconstruction in fluorescence molecular tomography.

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Zhou, Yuan; Chen, Maomao; Su, Han; Luo, Jianwen

2017-10-01

The purpose of this study is to propose a strategy for organ reconstruction in fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) without prior information from other imaging modalities, and to overcome the high cost and ionizing radiation caused by the traditional structural prior strategy. The proposed strategy is designed as an iterative architecture to solve the inverse problem of FMT. In each iteration, a short time Fourier transform (STFT) based algorithm is used to extract the self-prior information in the space-frequency energy spectrum with the assumption that the regions with higher fluorescence concentration have larger energy intensity, then the cost function of the inverse problem is modified by the self-prior information, and lastly an iterative Laplacian regularization algorithm is conducted to solve the updated inverse problem and obtains the reconstruction results. Simulations and in vivo experiments on liver reconstruction are carried out to test the performance of the self-prior strategy on organ reconstruction. The organ reconstruction results obtained by the proposed self-prior strategy are closer to the ground truth than those obtained by the iterative Tikhonov regularization (ITKR) method (traditional non-prior strategy). Significant improvements are shown in the evaluation indexes of relative locational error (RLE), relative error (RE) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). The self-prior strategy improves the organ reconstruction results compared with the non-prior strategy and also overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional structural prior strategy. Various applications such as metabolic imaging and pharmacokinetic study can be aided by this strategy.

Effect of short-term exercise program on trunk muscles performance in women basketball players

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Tina Grapar Žargi

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Several studies showed that the addition of trunk muscle or core stability exercises in the sport training programs is an effective prevention of spinal and other musculoskeletal injuries. Methods: Twelve female basketball players performed supervised five-week exercise program focused on strengthening the trunk muscles. The program was performed three times per week during pre-season. Sorensen test, Fitnessgram Dynamic Curl-Up test, Prone Plank test and Side Bridge test were used to evaluate trunk muscles performance prior to and immediately after the exercise program completion and again after a three-month follow up period. Results: The results of Sorensen test and Prone Plank test significantly improved immediately after the program, but values returned to baseline at follow-up. In contrast, the results of Fitnessgram Dynamic Curl-Up test and Side Bridge test improved significantly with exercise program and remained significantly higher also at follow-up. Conclusions: Exercise program with emphasis on strengthening the trunk and core muscles can improve muscle performance, however, the results deteriorate shortly after program termination. In order to achieve long-term results, trunk and core muscle exercises have to be performed on regular basis, hence they must be incorporated into general strengthening programs of basketball players.

Timing matters: The impact of immediate and delayed feedback on artificial language learning

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Bertram Opitz

2011-02-01

Full Text Available In the present experiment, we used event-related potentials (ERP to investigate the role of immediate and delayed feedback in an artificial grammar learning task. Two groups of participants were engaged in classifying non-word strings according to an underlying rule system, not known to the participants. Visual feedback was provided after each classification either immediately or with a short delay of one second. Both groups were able to learn the artificial grammar system as indicated by an increase in classification performance. However, the gain in performance was significantly larger for the group receiving immediate feedback as compared to the group receiving delayed feedback. Learning was accompanied by an increase in P300 activity in the ERP for delayed as compared to immediate feedback. Irrespective of feedback delay, both groups exhibited learning related decreases in the feedback-related positivity (FRP elicited by positive feedback only. The feedback-related negativity (FRN, however, remained constant over the course of learning. These results suggest, first, that delayed feedback is less effective for artificial grammar learning as task requirements are very demanding, and second, that the FRP elicited by positive prediction errors decreases with learning while the FRN to negative prediction errors is elicited in an all-or-none fashion by negative feedback throughout the entire experiment.

Socioeconomic Factors Associated with Post-Mastectomy Immediate Reconstruction in a Contemporary Cohort of Breast Cancer Survivors.

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Schumacher, Jessica R; Taylor, Lauren J; Tucholka, Jennifer L; Poore, Samuel; Eggen, Amanda; Steiman, Jennifer; Wilke, Lee G; Greenberg, Caprice C; Neuman, Heather B

2017-10-01

Post-mastectomy reconstruction is a critical component of high-quality breast cancer care. Prior studies demonstrate socioeconomic disparity in receipt of reconstruction. Our objective was to evaluate trends in receipt of immediate reconstruction and examine socioeconomic factors associated with reconstruction in a contemporary cohort. Using the National Cancer Database, we identified women rates (2004-2013) for the overall cohort and stratified by socioeconomic factors were examined using Join-point regression analysis, and annual percentage change (APC) was calculated. We then restricted our sample to a contemporary cohort (2010-2013, n = 145,577). Multivariable logistic regression identified socioeconomic factors associated with immediate reconstruction. Average adjusted predicted probabilities of receiving reconstruction were calculated. Immediate reconstruction rates increased from 27 to 48%. Although absolute rates of reconstruction for each stratification group increased, similar APCs across strata led to persistent gaps in receipt of reconstruction. On multivariable logistic regression using our contemporary cohort, race, income, education, and insurance type were all strongly associated with immediate reconstruction. Patients with the lowest predicted probability of receiving reconstruction were patients with Medicaid who lived in areas with the lowest rates of high-school graduation (Black 42.4% [95% CI 40.5-44.3], White 45.7% [95% CI 43.9-47.4]). Although reconstruction rates have increased dramatically over the past decade, lower rates persist for disadvantaged patients. Understanding how socioeconomic factors influence receipt of reconstruction, and identifying modifiable factors, are critical next steps towards identifying interventions to reduce disparities in breast cancer surgical care.

Autologous breast reconstruction using the immediately lipofilled extended latissimus dorsi flap.

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Johns, N; Fairbairn, N; Trail, M; Ewing, A; Yong, L; Raine, C; Dixon, J M

2018-02-01

The latissimus dorsi flap is a popular choice for autologous breast reconstruction. To dramatically improve volume, we report our experience of using the immediately lipofilled extended latissimus dorsi (ELD) flap and show it as a valid option for autologous breast reconstruction. Patients undergoing the procedure between December 2013 and June 2016 were included. Demographic, clinical and operative factors were analysed, together with in-hospital morbidity and duration of postoperative hospital stay. A total of 71 ELD flaps with immediate lipofilling were performed. Forty-five reconstructions were immediate and the remaining 26 delayed. Median (range) volume of autologous fat injected immediately was 171 ml (40-630 ml). Contralateral reductions were performed in 25 patients with the median reduction volume 185 g (89-683 g). Median duration of admission was 6.5 (3-18) days and patients were followed up for 12 months (1-37). Three total flap failures occurred and had to be excised (4%). One haematoma occurred requiring drainage (1%). Signs of infection requiring intravenous antibiotics occurred in five patients (7%). In 5 patients wound dehiscence occurred, and only two of these required resuturing (3%). In total, 7 patients developed a seroma requiring repeated drainage (10%). Three reconstructions experienced mild mastectomy flap necrosis with no needing reoperation (4%). Our experience represents the largest series to date and shows that in carefully selected patients the technique is safe, can avoid the requirement for implants, and has the potential to streamline the reconstructive journey. Copyright © 2017 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A pilot study to investigate the effect of a hydration regime upon immediate and 24 h delayed MRI contrast agent reactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bailey, William; Marshall, Gill; Coals, Jacqui

2007-01-01

Purpose: Adverse reaction rates to gadolinium based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents which occur immediately post-injection are well documented. However little research has investigated delayed reaction rates (i.e. 30 min-24 h). This study evaluated the rate of immediate and delayed adverse reaction rates to a gadolinium based MRI contrast agent (Dotarem) and investigated the effect of a hydration regime on the rate of adverse events. Method: Fifty-eight patients received no preparation, prior to administration of the contrast agent, whilst another 58 underwent a hydration protocol. The patients had their answers to a questionnaire recorded immediately after the scanning procedure and also via a follow-up telephone call 24 h later. Results: In the unprepared group 9 patients (15.5%) experienced immediate adverse events, i.e. within 0-30 min, whereas 24 (41.4%) experienced delayed reactions (30 min-24 h) after administration of the contrast agent. In the hydrated patient group 6 (10.3%) experienced an immediate adverse event, whilst 8 (13.7%) experienced delayed events post-injection. The difference in the total reaction rates for the unprepared and hydrated groups was statistically significant for immediate and delayed reactions. The difference in the rates of delayed headache, nausea, dizziness and problems with the injection site, for the unprepared and hydrated groups was statistically significant. Conclusion: An oral hydration regime administered to patients, both before and after MRI contrast agent administration significantly reduced the total number of immediate and delayed reactions. It also significantly reduced delayed headache, nausea, dizziness and problems at the injection site. Whilst this pilot study had methodological shortcomings, the strength of the relationship demonstrated are worthy of further investigation

SUSPENSION OF THE PRIOR DISCIPLINARY INVESTIGATION ACCORDING TO LABOR LAW

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Nicolae, GRADINARU

2014-11-01

Full Text Available In order to conduct the prior disciplinary investigation, the employee shall be convoked in writing by the person authorized by the employer to carry out the research, specifying the subject, date, time and place of the meeting. For this purpose the employer shall appoint a committee charged with conducting the prior disciplinary investigation. Prior disciplinary research cannot be done without the possibility of the accused person to defend himself. It would be an abuse of the employer to violate these provisions. Since the employee is entitled to formulate and sustain defence in proving innocence or lesser degree of guilt than imputed, it needs between the moment were disclosed to the employee and the one of performing the prior disciplinary investigation to be a reasonable term for the employee to be able to prepare a defence in this regard. The employee's failure to present at the convocation, without an objective reason entitles the employer to dispose the sanctioning without making the prior disciplinary investigation. The objective reason which makes the employee, that is subject to prior disciplinary investigation, unable to present to the preliminary disciplinary investigation, should be at the time of the investigation in question.

Performance Outcomes After Metacarpal Fractures in National Basketball Association Players.

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Guss, Michael S; Begly, John P; Ramme, Austin J; Hinds, Richard M; Karia, Raj J; Capo, John T

2016-12-01

Background: The aim was to determine whether players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) who sustain metacarpal fractures demonstrate decreased performance upon return to competition when compared with their performance before injury and that of their control-matched peers. Methods: Data for 32 NBA players with metacarpal fractures incurred over 11 seasons (2002-2003 to 2012-2013) were obtained from injury reports, press releases, and player profiles (www.nba.com and www.basketballreference.com). Player age, body mass index (BMI), position, shooting hand, number of years in the league, and treatment (surgical vs nonsurgical) were recorded. Individual season statistics for the 2 seasons immediately prior to injury and the 2 seasons after injury, including player efficiency rating (PER), were obtained. Thirty-two controls matched by player position, age, and performance statistics were identified. A performance comparison of the cohorts was performed. Results: Mean age at the time of injury was 27 years with an average player BMI of 24. Players had a mean 5.6 seasons of NBA experience prior to injury. There was no significant change in PER when preinjury and postinjury performances were compared. Neither injury to their shooting hand nor operative management of the fracture led to a decrease in performance during the 2 seasons after injury. When compared with matched controls, no significant decline in performance in PER the first season and second season after injury was found. Conclusion: NBA players sustaining metacarpal fractures can reasonably expect to return to their preinjury performance levels following appropriate treatment.

Immediate Implant Placement in Sockets with Asymptomatic Apical Periodontitis.

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Crespi, Roberto; Capparé, Paolo; Crespi, Giovanni; Lo Giudice, Giuseppe; Gastaldi, Giorgio; Gherlone, Enrico

2017-02-01

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate if the presence of granulation tissue in asymptomatic apical periodontitis compromised immediate implant placement. Patients requiring extraction of one tooth (maxillary and mandibular incisive, canine or premolar) with asymptomatic apical periodontitis, were recruited for this prospective study. They were randomly scheduled into two groups: in first group (A) including 30 teeth, reactive soft tissue was debrided before implant placement, and in second group (B) including 30 teeth, reactive soft tissue was left in the apical lesion. Implants were positioned immediately after tooth extraction, and were loaded after 3 months in both groups. Cone beam computed tomography was performed before tooth extraction and at 1-year follow-up to evaluate the radiolucency around the root apex and the implant, bucco-lingual bone levels were also checked. Sixty patients were included in this study. Sixty implants were placed immediately after tooth extraction and, at 1-year follow-up, a survival rate of 100% was reported. After one year both groups showed absence of radiolucent zone at the apical region of implants. All fresh sockets presented a buccal-palatal bone reduction in both groups after one year, even if not statistically significant differences were found between baseline bone levels and within groups. Within the limitations of the present study, the immediate placement of implants into the extraction sockets with asymptomatic apical periodontitis, in presence of primary stability, did not lead to an increased rate of complications and rendered an equally favorable type of tissue integration. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Effects of Supplementation with a Vitamin and Mineral Complex with Guaraná Prior to Fasted Exercise on Affect, Exertion, Cognitive Performance, and Substrate Metabolism: A Randomized Controlled Trial

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Rachel C. Veasey

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Exercise undertaken in a fasted state can lead to higher post-exercise mental fatigue. The administration of a vitamin and mineral complex with guaraná (MVM + G has been shown to attenuate mental fatigue and improve performance during cognitively demanding tasks. This placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized, balanced cross-over study examined the effect of MVM + G consumed prior to morning exercise on cognitive performance, affect, exertion, and substrate metabolism. Forty active males (age 21.4 ± 3.0 year; body mass index (BMI 24.0 ± 2.4 kg/m2; maximal oxygen consumption (V̇O2max 57.6 ± 7.3 mL/min/kg completed two main trials, consuming either MVM + G or placebo prior to a 30-min run at 60% V̇O2max. Supplementation prior to exercise led to a small but significant reduction in Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE during exercise compared to the placebo. The MVM + G combination also led to significantly increased accuracy of numeric working memory and increased speed of picture recognition, compared to the placebo. There were no significant effects of supplementation on any other cognitive or mood measures or on substrate metabolism during exercise. These findings demonstrate that consuming a vitamin and mineral complex containing guaraná, prior to exercise, can positively impact subsequent memory performance and reduce perceived exertion during a moderate-intensity run in active males.

Natural History of Food-Triggered Atopic Dermatitis and Development of Immediate Reactions in Children.

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Chang, Angela; Robison, Rachel; Cai, Miao; Singh, Anne Marie

2016-01-01

Case reports suggest that children with food-triggered atopic dermatitis (AD) on elimination diets may develop immediate reactions on accidental ingestion or reintroduction of an avoided food. The objective of this study was to systematically study the incidence and risk factors associated with these immediate reactions. A retrospective chart review of 298 patients presenting to a tertiary-care allergy-immunology clinic based on concern for food-triggered AD was performed. Data regarding triggering foods, laboratory testing, and clinical reactions were collected prospectively from the initial visit. Food-triggered AD was diagnosed by an allergist-immunologist with clinical evaluation and laboratory testing. We identified immediate reactions as any reaction to a food for which there was evidence of sIgE and for which patients developed timely allergic signs and symptoms. Differences between children with and without new immediate reactions were determined by a Mann-Whitney, χ(2), or Fisher's exact test as appropriate. A total of 19% of patients with food-triggered AD and no previous history of immediate reactions developed new immediate food reactions after initiation of an elimination diet. Seventy percent of reactions were cutaneous but 30% were anaphylaxis. Cow's milk and egg were the most common foods causing immediate-type reactions. Avoidance of a food was associated with increased risk of developing immediate reactions to that food (P food. A significant number of patients with food-triggered AD may develop immediate-type reactions. Strict elimination diets need to be thoughtfully prescribed as they may lead to decreased oral tolerance. Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Soft and Hard Tissue Changes Following Immediate Placement or Immediate Restoration of Single-Tooth Implants in the Esthetic Zone: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

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Yan, Qi; Xiao, Li-Qun; Su, Mei-Ying; Mei, Yan; Shi, Bin

This systematic review aimed to compare immediate protocols with conventional protocols of single-tooth implants in terms of changes in the surrounding hard and soft tissue in the esthetic area. Electronic and manual searches were performed in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, and other data systems for research articles published between January 2001 and December 2014. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reporting on hard and or soft tissue characteristics following a single-tooth implant were included. Based on the protocol used in each study, the included studies were categorized into three groups to assess the relationships between the factors and related esthetic indexes. Variables such as marginal bone level changes (mesial, distal, and mean bone level), peri-implant soft tissue changes (papilla level, midbuccal mucosa, and probing depth), and other esthetic indices were taken into consideration. The data were analyzed using RevMan version 5.3, Stata 12, and GRADEpro 3.6.1 software. A total of 13 RCTs met the inclusion criteria. Four studies examined immediate implant placement, five studies examined immediate implant restoration, and four studies examined immediate loading. Comparing the bone level changes following immediate and conventional restoration, no significant differences were found in the bone level of the mesial site (standard mean difference [SMD] = -0.04 mm; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.25 to 0.17 mm), the distal site (SMD = -0.15 mm; 95% CI: -0.38 to 0.09 mm), and the mean bone level changes (SMD = 0.05 mm; 95% CI: -0.18 to 0.27 mm). The difference in the marginal bone level changes between immediate and conventional loading was also not statistically significant (SMD = -0.05 mm; 95% CI: -0.15 to 0.06 mm for the mesial site and SMD = -0.02 mm; 95% CI: -0.09 to 0.05 mm for the distal site). Soft tissue changes following immediate and conventional restoration reported no significant differences in the papillae level of the mesial site (SMD = 0

Performing Inferential Statistics Prior to Data Collection

Science.gov (United States)

Trafimow, David; MacDonald, Justin A.

2017-01-01

Typically, in education and psychology research, the investigator collects data and subsequently performs descriptive and inferential statistics. For example, a researcher might compute group means and use the null hypothesis significance testing procedure to draw conclusions about the populations from which the groups were drawn. We propose an…

Statistical Learning Is Not Affected by a Prior Bout of Physical Exercise

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, David J.; Arciuli, Joanne; Anderson, David I.

2016-01-01

This study examined the effect of a prior bout of exercise on implicit cognition. Specifically, we examined whether a prior bout of moderate intensity exercise affected performance on a statistical learning task in healthy adults. A total of 42 participants were allocated to one of three conditions--a control group, a group that exercised for…

Mastectomy by inverted drip incision and immediate reconstruction: data from 510 cases

NARCIS (Netherlands)

A.N. van Geel (Albert); C.M.E. Contant; R.T.J. Wai (Rudi Tjong Joe); P.I.M. Schmitz (Paul); A.M.M. Eggermont (Alexander); M.B.E. Menke-Pluymers (Marian)

2003-01-01

textabstractBACKGROUND: Immediate reconstruction of the breast can be performed in selected cases after mastectomy for breast cancer or after prophylactic mastectomy in patients with a high risk of developing breast cancer. Despite the frequency with which these procedures are

A Simulation of Pell Grant Awards and Costs Using Prior-Prior Year Financial Data

Science.gov (United States)

Kelchen, Robert; Jones, Gigi

2015-01-01

We examine the likely implications of switching from a prior year (PY) financial aid system, the current practice in which students file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) using income data from the previous tax year, to prior-prior year (PPY), in which data from two years before enrollment is used. While PPY allows students to…

Immediate recall influences the effects of pre-encoding stress on emotional episodic long-term memory consolidation in healthy young men.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolf, Oliver T

2012-05-01

The stress-associated activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis influences memory. Several studies have supported the notion that post-learning stress enhances memory consolidation, while pre-retrieval stress impairs retrieval. Findings regarding the effects of pre-encoding stress, in contrast, have been rather inconsistent. In the current two studies, the impact of an immediate retrieval task on these effects was explored. In the first study, 24 healthy young male participants were exposed to a psychosocial laboratory stressor (Trier Social Stress Test) or a control condition before viewing positive, negative, and neutral photographs, which were accompanied by a brief narrative. Immediate as well as delayed (24 h later) free recall was assessed. Stress was expected to enhance emotional long-term memory without affecting immediate recall performance. Stress caused a significant increase in salivary cortisol concentrations but had no significant effects on immediate or delayed retrieval performance, even though a trend toward poorer memory of the stress group was apparent. Based on these findings, the second experiment tested the hypothesis that the beneficial effects of stress on emotional long-term memory performance might be abolished by an immediate recall test. In the second study (n = 32), the same design was used, except for the omission of the immediate retrieval test. This time stressed participants recalled significantly more negative photographs compared to the control group. The present study indicates that an immediate retrieval attempt of material studied after stress exposure can prevent or even reverse the beneficial effects of pre-encoding stress on emotional long-term memory consolidation.

Active Prior Tactile Knowledge Transfer for Learning Tactual Properties of New Objects

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Di Feng

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Reusing the tactile knowledge of some previously-explored objects (prior objects helps us to easily recognize the tactual properties of new objects. In this paper, we enable a robotic arm equipped with multi-modal artificial skin, like humans, to actively transfer the prior tactile exploratory action experiences when it learns the detailed physical properties of new objects. These experiences, or prior tactile knowledge, are built by the feature observations that the robot perceives from multiple sensory modalities, when it applies the pressing, sliding, and static contact movements on objects with different action parameters. We call our method Active Prior Tactile Knowledge Transfer (APTKT, and systematically evaluated its performance by several experiments. Results show that the robot improved the discrimination accuracy by around 10 % when it used only one training sample with the feature observations of prior objects. By further incorporating the predictions from the observation models of prior objects as auxiliary features, our method improved the discrimination accuracy by over 20 % . The results also show that the proposed method is robust against transferring irrelevant prior tactile knowledge (negative knowledge transfer.

Order-Constrained Reference Priors with Implications for Bayesian Isotonic Regression, Analysis of Covariance and Spatial Models

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Maozhen

Selecting an appropriate prior distribution is a fundamental issue in Bayesian Statistics. In this dissertation, under the framework provided by Berger and Bernardo, I derive the reference priors for several models which include: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)/Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) models with a categorical variable under common ordering constraints, the conditionally autoregressive (CAR) models and the simultaneous autoregressive (SAR) models with a spatial autoregression parameter rho considered. The performances of reference priors for ANOVA/ANCOVA models are evaluated by simulation studies with comparisons to Jeffreys' prior and Least Squares Estimation (LSE). The priors are then illustrated in a Bayesian model of the "Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in New Mexico" data, where the relationship between the type 2 diabetes risk (through Hemoglobin A1c) and different smoking levels is investigated. In both simulation studies and real data set modeling, the reference priors that incorporate internal order information show good performances and can be used as default priors. The reference priors for the CAR and SAR models are also illustrated in the "1999 SAT State Average Verbal Scores" data with a comparison to a Uniform prior distribution. Due to the complexity of the reference priors for both CAR and SAR models, only a portion (12 states in the Midwest) of the original data set is considered. The reference priors can give a different marginal posterior distribution compared to a Uniform prior, which provides an alternative for prior specifications for areal data in Spatial statistics.

Impact of Cognitive Abilities and Prior Knowledge on Complex Problem Solving Performance – Empirical Results and a Plea for Ecologically Valid Microworlds

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Heinz-Martin Süß

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The original aim of complex problem solving (CPS research was to bring the cognitive demands of complex real-life problems into the lab in order to investigate problem solving behavior and performance under controlled conditions. Up until now, the validity of psychometric intelligence constructs has been scrutinized with regard to its importance for CPS performance. At the same time, different CPS measurement approaches competing for the title of the best way to assess CPS have been developed. In the first part of the paper, we investigate the predictability of CPS performance on the basis of the Berlin Intelligence Structure Model and Cattell’s investment theory as well as an elaborated knowledge taxonomy. In the first study, 137 students managed a simulated shirt factory (Tailorshop; i.e., a complex real life-oriented system twice, while in the second study, 152 students completed a forestry scenario (FSYS; i.e., a complex artificial world system. The results indicate that reasoning – specifically numerical reasoning (Studies 1 and 2 and figural reasoning (Study 2 – are the only relevant predictors among the intelligence constructs. We discuss the results with reference to the Brunswik symmetry principle. Path models suggest that reasoning and prior knowledge influence problem solving performance in the Tailorshop scenario mainly indirectly. In addition, different types of system-specific knowledge independently contribute to predicting CPS performance. The results of Study 2 indicate that working memory capacity, assessed as an additional predictor, has no incremental validity beyond reasoning. We conclude that (1 cognitive abilities and prior knowledge are substantial predictors of CPS performance, and (2 in contrast to former and recent interpretations, there is insufficient evidence to consider CPS a unique ability construct. In the second part of the paper, we discuss our results in light of recent CPS research, which predominantly

Impact of Cognitive Abilities and Prior Knowledge on Complex Problem Solving Performance – Empirical Results and a Plea for Ecologically Valid Microworlds

Science.gov (United States)

Süß, Heinz-Martin; Kretzschmar, André

2018-01-01

The original aim of complex problem solving (CPS) research was to bring the cognitive demands of complex real-life problems into the lab in order to investigate problem solving behavior and performance under controlled conditions. Up until now, the validity of psychometric intelligence constructs has been scrutinized with regard to its importance for CPS performance. At the same time, different CPS measurement approaches competing for the title of the best way to assess CPS have been developed. In the first part of the paper, we investigate the predictability of CPS performance on the basis of the Berlin Intelligence Structure Model and Cattell’s investment theory as well as an elaborated knowledge taxonomy. In the first study, 137 students managed a simulated shirt factory (Tailorshop; i.e., a complex real life-oriented system) twice, while in the second study, 152 students completed a forestry scenario (FSYS; i.e., a complex artificial world system). The results indicate that reasoning – specifically numerical reasoning (Studies 1 and 2) and figural reasoning (Study 2) – are the only relevant predictors among the intelligence constructs. We discuss the results with reference to the Brunswik symmetry principle. Path models suggest that reasoning and prior knowledge influence problem solving performance in the Tailorshop scenario mainly indirectly. In addition, different types of system-specific knowledge independently contribute to predicting CPS performance. The results of Study 2 indicate that working memory capacity, assessed as an additional predictor, has no incremental validity beyond reasoning. We conclude that (1) cognitive abilities and prior knowledge are substantial predictors of CPS performance, and (2) in contrast to former and recent interpretations, there is insufficient evidence to consider CPS a unique ability construct. In the second part of the paper, we discuss our results in light of recent CPS research, which predominantly utilizes the

No neurocognitive advantage for immediate antiretroviral treatment in adults with greater than 500 CD4+ T-cell counts.

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Edwina J; Grund, Birgit; Robertson, Kevin R; Cysique, Lucette; Brew, Bruce J; Collins, Gary L; Poehlman-Roediger, Mollie; Vjecha, Michael J; Penalva de Oliveira, Augusto César; Standridge, Barbara; Carey, Cate; Avihingsanon, Anchalee; Florence, Eric; Lundgren, Jens D; Arenas-Pinto, Alejandro; Mueller, Nicolas J; Winston, Alan; Nsubuga, Moses S; Lal, Luxshimi; Price, Richard W

2018-05-15

To compare the effect of immediate versus deferred antiretroviral treatment (ART) on neuropsychological test performance in treatment-naive HIV-positive adults with more than 500 CD4 cells/μl. Randomized trial. The START parent study randomized participants to commence immediate versus deferred ART until CD4 less than 350 cells/μl. The START Neurology substudy used eight neuropsychological tests, at baseline, months 4, 8, 12 and annually, to compare groups for changes in test performance. Test results were internally standardized to z-scores. The primary outcome was the average of the eight test z-scores (QNPZ-8). Mean changes in QNPZ-8 from baseline were compared by intent-to-treat using longitudinal mixed models. Changes from baseline to specific time points were compared using ANCOVA models. The 592 participants had a median age of 34 years; median baseline CD4 count was 629 cells/μl; the mean follow-up was 3.4 years. ART was used for 94 and 32% of accrued person-years in the immediate and deferred groups, respectively. There was no difference between the immediate and deferred ART groups in QNPZ-8 change through follow-up [-0.018 (95% CI -0.062 to 0.027, P = 0.44)], or at any visit. However, QNPZ-8 scores increased in both arms during the first year, by 0.22 and 0.24, respectively (P < 0.001 for increase from baseline). We observed substantial improvement in neurocognitive test performance during the first year in both study arms, underlining the importance of using a control group in studies assessing neurocognitive performance over time. Immediate ART neither benefitted nor harmed neurocognitive performance in individuals with CD4 cell counts above 500 cells/μl.

Treatment patterns and clinical characteristics prior to initiating depot typical antipsychotics for nonadherent schizophrenia patients

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Montgomery William

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Nonadherence with antipsychotic medication is an important clinical and economic problem in the treatment of schizophrenia. This study identified treatment patterns and clinical characteristics that immediately precede the initiation of depot typical antipsychotics in the usual treatment of schizophrenia patients with a recent history of nonadherence with oral antipsychotic regimens. Methods Data were drawn from a large, multisite, 3-year prospective noninterventional observational study of persons treated for schizophrenia in the United States, which was conducted between 7/1997 and 9/2003. The analytical sample included patients who, in the 6 months prior to enrollment, were considered nonadherent with oral antipsychotics and were not treated with depot antipsychotics (N = 314. Patients who were subsequently initiated on typical depots during the 3-year follow-up were compared with patients who continued therapy with only oral antipsychotic agents. Group comparisons were made on patient baseline characteristics and precedent variables that were assessed 1 to 6 months prior to depot initiation. Patient assessments were made at predetermined intervals throughout the 3-year study using standard psychiatric measures, a patient-reported questionnaire, and medical record information. Results A small proportion of patients (12.4% who were recently nonadherent with oral antipsychotics were subsequently initiated on depot therapy during the 3-year study. Compared to patients treated with only oral antipsychotics, those subsequently initiated on a depot were significantly more likely to be hospitalized at depot initiation or the previous 30 days, to have recent involvement with the criminal justice system (arrests, recent illicit drug use, recent switching or augmentation of oral antipsychotics, and recent treatment with oral typical antipsychotics. Conclusion Despite prior nonadherence with oral antipsychotic medication, only a

Value of routine immediate postoperative brain computerized tomography in pediatric neurosurgical patients.

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Jung, Jong-myung; Lee, Ji Yeoun; Phi, Ji Hoon; Kim, Seung-Ki; Cheon, Jung-Eun; Kim, In-One; Wang, Kyu-Chang

2012-05-01

Routine immediate postoperative brain CT (RIPO CT) has advantages and disadvantages. The present study was performed to know the extent of gain by RIPO CT in the aspect of immediate postoperative patient care in pediatric patient population and according to the disease entity and surgical procedure. We reviewed 910 cases of pediatric brain surgery performed from January 2008 to March 2010 who had RIPO CT. The value of each examination was graded according to the impact of the CT findings on the decision making processes on postoperative patient care or on the understanding of postoperative patient's status: level I (urgent surgical procedures are necessary), level II (high level of attention should be paid because of possible urgent surgical procedure in near future), level III (RIPO CT is useful for understanding of postoperative change of patient's status), and level IV (no significant gain). The number of patients in each level was evaluated, and proportions of levels according to disease entity and surgical procedure were compared. In total, the proportion of each level of I to IV was 0.4%, 4.9%, 3.5%, and 91.2%, respectively. The group of brain tumors, especially those who have malignant or highly vascular tumors, showed significantly higher value of RIPO CT. Cases of traumatic epidural hematoma and intracerebral hemorrhage revealed significantly high proportion of level II although no case underwent reoperation. The results of present study may be useful for making policy of "selective" application of immediate postoperative brain CT according to the patient conditions. Also the use of immediate postoperative brain CT can be decided in individual cases by considering disease entity and surgical procedure.

Compressive Online Robust Principal Component Analysis with Multiple Prior Information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Van Luong, Huynh; Deligiannis, Nikos; Seiler, Jürgen

-rank components. Unlike conventional batch RPCA, which processes all the data directly, our method considers a small set of measurements taken per data vector (frame). Moreover, our method incorporates multiple prior information signals, namely previous reconstructed frames, to improve these paration...... and thereafter, update the prior information for the next frame. Using experiments on synthetic data, we evaluate the separation performance of the proposed algorithm. In addition, we apply the proposed algorithm to online video foreground and background separation from compressive measurements. The results show...

Immediate Sequential Bilateral Cataract Surgery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kessel, Line; Andresen, Jens; Erngaard, Ditte

2015-01-01

The aim of the present systematic review was to examine the benefits and harms associated with immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery (ISBCS) with specific emphasis on the rate of complications, postoperative anisometropia, and subjective visual function in order to formulate evidence......-based national Danish guidelines for cataract surgery. A systematic literature review in PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane central databases identified three randomized controlled trials that compared outcome in patients randomized to ISBCS or bilateral cataract surgery on two different dates. Meta-analyses were...... performed using the Cochrane Review Manager software. The quality of the evidence was assessed using the GRADE method (Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation). We did not find any difference in the risk of complications or visual outcome in patients randomized to ISBCS or surgery...

Comparison of Outcomes in Immediate Implant-Based Breast Reconstruction Versus Mastectomy Alone.

Science.gov (United States)

Sousa, Janelle; Sood, Ravi; Liu, Daniel; Calhoun, Kristine; Louie, Otway; Neligan, Peter; Said, Hakim; Mathes, David

2018-02-01

Immediate implant-based techniques are common practice in post-mastectomy breast reconstruction. Previous studies have shown an increased complication rate in the setting of immediate versus delayed, MD reconstruction. We aimed to quantify any additional risk in complications when implant-based immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) is performed versus mastectomy alone. We retrospectively reviewed all IBR cases and all mastectomies without reconstruction from 2007 to 2011. Patient characteristics, operative details, and complication rates were reviewed and analyzed. IBR was performed in 315 consecutive women; mastectomy alone was performed in 401 women. Patients undergoing mastectomy alone were more often older, diabetic, and more frequently underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy or radiation. Overall complications were higher in the IBR group, most commonly reoperation and delayed wound healing. In a multivariate analysis, IBR, increasing age, body mass index, history of radiation therapy, smoking, and nipple-sparing mastectomy were independently associated with increased risk of complications. However, IBR was only independently associated with increased risk of major complications such as reoperation or readmission for intravenous antibiotics, not minor complications. Patients selected for IBR are inherently different than those undergoing mastectomy alone. After adjusting for these differences, the increased risk of complications seen in IBR is moderately increased over the risk of complications in mastectomy alone. The observed increased risk of major complications after IBR is largely due to the aggressive management of complications in the setting of a prosthetic implant. IBR is a safe reconstructive strategy with only a slightly increased risk over mastectomy alone.

29 CFR 780.308 - Definition of immediate family.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Definition of immediate family. 780.308 Section 780.308... 13(a)(6) Statutory Provisions § 780.308 Definition of immediate family. The Act does not define the scope of “immediate family.” Whether an individual other than a parent, spouse or child will be...

Generalized species sampling priors with latent Beta reinforcements

Science.gov (United States)

Airoldi, Edoardo M.; Costa, Thiago; Bassetti, Federico; Leisen, Fabrizio; Guindani, Michele

2014-01-01

Many popular Bayesian nonparametric priors can be characterized in terms of exchangeable species sampling sequences. However, in some applications, exchangeability may not be appropriate. We introduce a novel and probabilistically coherent family of non-exchangeable species sampling sequences characterized by a tractable predictive probability function with weights driven by a sequence of independent Beta random variables. We compare their theoretical clustering properties with those of the Dirichlet Process and the two parameters Poisson-Dirichlet process. The proposed construction provides a complete characterization of the joint process, differently from existing work. We then propose the use of such process as prior distribution in a hierarchical Bayes modeling framework, and we describe a Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampler for posterior inference. We evaluate the performance of the prior and the robustness of the resulting inference in a simulation study, providing a comparison with popular Dirichlet Processes mixtures and Hidden Markov Models. Finally, we develop an application to the detection of chromosomal aberrations in breast cancer by leveraging array CGH data. PMID:25870462

Immediate and 1-year chest compression quality: effect of instantaneous feedback in simulated cardiac arrest.

Science.gov (United States)

Griffin, Peter; Cooper, Clayton; Glick, Joshua; Terndrup, Thomas E

2014-08-01

Several studies have demonstrated subpar chest compression (CC) performance by trained health care professionals. The objective of this study was to determine the immediate and sustained effect of instantaneous audiovisual feedback on CC quality. A prospective, randomized, crossover study measuring the effect of audiovisual feedback training on the performance of CCs by health care providers and medical students in a simulated cardiopulmonary arrest scenario was performed. Compression rate, hand placement, depth, and recoil were collected using 60-second epochs of CC on a simulation mannequin. Data from 200 initial enrollments and 100 tested 1 year later were analyzed by evaluators using standard criterion. At initial testing, feedback trainees demonstrated significantly improved depth compliance, recoil compliance, and accuracy of hand placement. One year later, the previous year's control group now receiving feedback demonstrated immediate improvement in depth, hand placement, and rate. In the feedback group, the only statistically significant improvement from initial baseline to the baseline 1 year later was an 18% improvement in depth compliance. However, the same improvement rate was seen in the control group. Improved depth compliance performance was correlated to the number of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training sessions received external to the study. Instantaneous audiovisual feedback training on CC quality produces immediate improvements in compression rate, hand placement, as well as depth and recoil compliance. These improvements, however, are not retained 1 year later. Improved depth performance may be correlated to an increased training frequency.

Immediate loading versus immediate provisionalization of maxillary single-tooth replacements: a prospective randomized study with BioComp implants

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lindeboom, Jerome A.; Frenken, Joost W.; Dubois, Leander; Frank, Michael; Abbink, Ingmar; Kroon, Frans H.

2006-01-01

PURPOSE: The aim of this prospective randomized study was to evaluate the clinical outcome of immediately loaded solid plasma sprayed (TPS) BioComp (BioComp Industries BV, Vught, The Netherlands) implants versus immediate provisionalized but non-loaded BioComp implants in the anterior and premolar

Glucose administration prior to a divided attention task improves tracking performance but not word recognition: evidence against differential memory enhancement?

Science.gov (United States)

Scholey, Andrew B; Sünram-Lea, Sandra I; Greer, Joanna; Elliott, Jade; Kennedy, David O

2009-01-01

The cognition-enhancing effects of glucose administration to humans have been well-documented; however, it remains unclear whether this effect preferentially targets episodic memory or other cognitive domains. The effect of glucose on the allocation of attentional resources during memory encoding was assessed using a sensitive dual-attention paradigm. One hundred and twenty volunteers (mean age 21.60, SD 4.89, 77 females) took part in this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel groups study where each consumed a 25-g glucose drink or a placebo. Half of the participants in each drink condition attempted to track a moving on-screen target during auditory word presentation. The distance between the cursor and the tracking target was used as an index of attentional cost during encoding. Effects of drink and tracking on recognition memory and drink on tracking performance were assessed. Self-rated appetite and mood were co-monitored. Co-performing the tracking task significantly impaired memory performance irrespective of drink condition. In the placebo-tracking condition, there was a cost to tracking manifest as greater deviation from target during and immediately following word presentation. Compared with placebo, the glucose drink significantly improved tracking performance during encoding. There were significant time-related changes in thirst and alertness ratings but these were not differentially affected by drink or tracking conditions. Tracking but not memory was enhanced by glucose. This finding suggests that, under certain task conditions, glucose administrations does not preferentially enhance memory performance. One mechanism through which glucose acts as a cognition enhancer is through allowing greater allocation of attentional resources.

Recognition of Prior Learning as an integral component of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This is irrespective of whether that learning has been acquired through unstructured learning, performance development, off-the-job assessment, or skills and knowledge that meet workplace needs but have been gained through various previous learning experiences. The concept Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is ...

Protection against radiation-induced performance decrement in mice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mukherjee, S.K.; Pant, Kanchan; Goel, H.C.; Jain, Viney

1997-01-01

Recognizing that there is lack of information on the effects of low-level ionizing radiations and the modifying role of radioprotectors, an attempt has been made in this study to explore the relationship between impairment of spatial learning and low level of radiation exposure. A radial arm maze was utilised to evaluate radiation-induced behavioural alterations and performance decrement in mice. Immediately after whole body exposure to gamma radiation (absorbed dose, 1 Gy) significant perturbations in the learned behaviour of the animals were observed. The regular control movement became irregular and the food consumption time was reduced appreciably (40%). Recovery took place in four days. If diltiazem (7 mg/kg b.w.), a Ca 2+ channel blocker and a radioprotector, was administered i.p. 20-30 min prior to irradiation, radiation-induced behavioural abnormalities were reduced. Mechanisms underlying protection by diltiazem against radiation-induced performance decrement observed in the present study need to be investigated. (author). 23 refs., 2 figs

Mastectomy by inverted drip incision and immediate reconstruction: data from 510 cases

OpenAIRE

Geel, Albert; Contant, C.M.E.; Wai, Rudi Tjong Joe; Schmitz, Paul; Eggermont, Alexander; Menke-Pluymers, Marian

2003-01-01

textabstractBACKGROUND: Immediate reconstruction of the breast can be performed in selected cases after mastectomy for breast cancer or after prophylactic mastectomy in patients with a high risk of developing breast cancer. Despite the frequency with which these procedures are performed, data from large series of subpectoral implantation of silicone prostheses in combination with a skin-saving approach are lacking. METHODS: In this retrospective study, data on complications and late surgical ...

Use of prior mammograms in the classification of benign and malignant masses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Varela, Celia; Karssemeijer, Nico; Hendriks, Jan H.C.L.; Holland, Roland

2005-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of using prior mammograms for classification of benign and malignant masses. Five radiologists and one resident classified mass lesions in 198 mammograms obtained from a population-based screening program. Cases were interpreted twice, once without and once with comparison of previous mammograms, in a sequential reading order using soft copy image display. The radiologists' performances in classifying benign and malignant masses without and with previous mammograms were evaluated with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The statistical significance of the difference in performances was calculated using analysis of variance. The use of prior mammograms improved the classification performance of all participants in the study. The mean area under the ROC curve of the readers increased from 0.763 to 0.796. This difference in performance was statistically significant (P = 0.008)

Immediate Catheter Directed Thrombolysis for Thromboembolic Stroke During Carotid Endarterectomy

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E. Fletcher

Full Text Available : Background: Carotid artery endarterectomy (CEA is a common procedure undertaken by vascular surgeons with over 5,000 procedures performed annually worldwide. Published rates of perioperative stroke range from 1.3% to 6.3%. Case report: A case is presented in which on-table intra-cranial angiography and catheter directed thrombolysis were used for a thromboembolic occlusion of the distal internal carotid artery (ICA and proximal middle cerebral artery (MCA. An 83-year-old lady developed a dense right hemiparesis while undergoing a CEA under local anaesthetic (LA. Immediate re-exploration of the endarterectomy did not reveal technical error. Intraoperative duplex scanning of the internal carotid artery revealed no detectable diastolic flow. On-table angiogram showed complete occlusion of the distal ICA and proximal MCA. Catheter directed administration of TPA was undertaken. The entire ICA and MCA were completely clear on a completion angiogram. The patient made a full neurological recovery. Discussion and conclusion: Prompt diagnosis and treatment with intraoperative catheter directed thrombolysis can resolve thromboembolic occlusion of the ICA/MCA. It is argued that performing CEA under LA is useful for immediate recognition of perioperative stroke. Furthermore, the advantage is highlighted of vascular surgeons having both the resources and skillset to perform on-table angiography and thrombolysis. Keywords: Carotid endarterectomy, Stroke, Thrombolysis, Thromboembolus, Local anaesthetic

Immediate Postoperative Pain and Recovery Time after Pulpotomy Performed under General Anaesthesia in Young Children

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Sultan Keles

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background. The aim of this retrospective study was to compare immediate postoperative pain scores and need for rescue analgesia in children who underwent pulpotomies and restorative treatment and those who underwent restorative treatment only, all under general anaesthesia. Methods. Ninety patients aged between 3 and 7 years who underwent full mouth dental rehabilitation under general anaesthesia were enrolled in the study and reviewed. The experimental group included patients who were treated with at least one pulpotomy, and the control group was treated with dental fillings only. The Wong-Baker FACES scale was used to evaluate self-reported pain and need for rescue analgesia. The data were analysed using the Kruskal-Wallis test, two sample t-tests, chi-square tests, and Pearson’s correlation analysis. Results. Ninety percent of the children experienced postoperative pain in varying degrees of severity. Immediate postoperative pain scores in experimental group were found to be significantly higher than in control group (x2=24.82, p<0.01. In the experimental group, 48% of the children needed rescue analgesia, compared with only 13% of the children in the control group (x2=13.27, p<0.05. Conclusion. Children who underwent pulpotomy treatment had higher postoperative pain scores and greater need for rescue analgesia than control group who underwent only dental fillings.

Chromosomal differences between acute nonlymphocytic leukemia in patients with prior solid tumors and prior hematologic malignancies. A study of 14 cases with prior breast cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mamuris, Z.; Dumont, J.; Dutrillaux, B.; Aurias, A.

1989-01-01

A cytogenetic study of 14 patients with secondary acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (S-ANLL) with prior treatment for breast cancer is reported. The chromosomes recurrently involved in numerical or structural anomalies are chromosomes 7, 5, 17, and 11, in decreasing order of frequency. The distribution of the anomalies detected in this sample of patients is similar to that observed in published cases with prior breast or other solid tumors, though anomalies of chromosome 11 were not pointed out, but it significantly differs from that of the S-ANLL with prior hematologic malignancies. This difference is principally due to a higher involvement of chromosome 7 in patients with prior hematologic malignancies and of chromosomes 11 and 17 in patients with prior solid tumors. A genetic determinism involving abnormal recessive alleles located on chromosomes 5, 7, 11, and 17 uncovered by deletions of the normal homologs may be a cause of S-ANLL. The difference between patients with prior hematologic malignancies or solid tumors may be explained by different constitutional mutations of recessive genes in the two groups of patients

Influence of custom-made implant designs on the biomechanical performance for the case of immediate post-extraction placement in the maxillary esthetic zone: a finite element analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Jianyu; Zhang, Zhiguang; Chen, Xianshuai; Zhang, Xiao

2017-05-01

Due to the increasing adoption of immediate implantation strategies and the rapid development of the computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing technology, a therapeutic concept based on patient-specific implant dentistry has recently been reintroduced by many researchers. However, little information is available on the designs of custom-made dental implant systems, especially their biomechanical behavior. The influence of the custom-made implant designs on the biomechanical performance for both an immediate and a delayed loading protocol in the maxillary esthetic zone was evaluated by means of the finite element (FE) method. FE models of three dental implants were considered: a state of the art cylindrical implant and two custom-made implants designed by reverse engineering technology, namely a root-analogue implant and a root-analogue threaded implant. The von Mises stress distributions and micro-motions around the bone-implant interfaces were calculated using ANSYS software. In a comparison of the three implant designs for both loading protocols, a favorable biomechanical performance was observed for the use of root-analogue threaded implant which approximated the geometry of natural anterior tooth and maintained the original long-axis. The results indicated that bone-implant interfacial micro-motion was reduced and a favorable stress distribution after osseointegration was achieved.

Accommodating Uncertainty in Prior Distributions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Picard, Richard Roy [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Vander Wiel, Scott Alan [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2017-01-19

A fundamental premise of Bayesian methodology is that a priori information is accurately summarized by a single, precisely de ned prior distribution. In many cases, especially involving informative priors, this premise is false, and the (mis)application of Bayes methods produces posterior quantities whose apparent precisions are highly misleading. We examine the implications of uncertainty in prior distributions, and present graphical methods for dealing with them.

Understanding sleep disturbance in athletes prior to important competitions.

Science.gov (United States)

Juliff, Laura E; Halson, Shona L; Peiffer, Jeremiah J

2015-01-01

Anecdotally many athletes report worse sleep in the nights prior to important competitions. Despite sleep being acknowledged as an important factor for optimal athletic performance and overall health, little is understood about athlete sleep around competition. The aims of this study were to identify sleep complaints of athletes prior to competitions and determine whether complaints were confined to competition periods. Cross-sectional study. A sample of 283 elite Australian athletes (129 male, 157 female, age 24±5 y) completed two questionnaires; Competitive Sport and Sleep questionnaire and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. 64.0% of athletes indicated worse sleep on at least one occasion in the nights prior to an important competition over the past 12 months. The main sleep problem specified by athletes was problems falling asleep (82.1%) with the main reasons responsible for poor sleep indicated as thoughts about the competition (83.5%) and nervousness (43.8%). Overall 59.1% of team sport athletes reported having no strategy to overcome poor sleep compared with individual athletes (32.7%, p=0.002) who utilised relaxation and reading as strategies. Individual sport athletes had increased likelihood of poor sleep as they aged. The poor sleep reported by athletes prior to competition was situational rather than a global sleep problem. Poor sleep is common prior to major competitions in Australian athletes, yet most athletes are unaware of strategies to overcome the poor sleep experienced. It is essential coaches and scientists monitor and educate both individual and team sport athletes to facilitate sleep prior to important competitions. Copyright © 2014 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

5 CFR 6701.106 - Prior approval for outside employment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... STANDARDS OF ETHICAL CONDUCT FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION § 6701.106 Prior approval... to be performed; (4) The name and address of the prospective outside employer for which work will be... affects the outside employer and will disqualify himself from future participation in matters that could...

Influence of Preparatory Workshops on Dental Students' Academic Performance and Stress on Their First Operative Dentistry Psychomotor Exam.

Science.gov (United States)

Dilbone, Deborah A; Feng, Xiaoying; Su, Yu; Xirau-Probert, Patricia; Behar-Horenstein, Linda S; Nascimento, Marcelle M

2018-06-01

Predoctoral dental psychomotor examinations are known to generate high levels of stress among dental students, which may compromise their academic performance. At one U.S. dental school, all 93 first-year dental students were invited to attend a series of three workshop sessions prior to enrollment in their initial operative dentistry course. The workshops were developed to facilitate academic transition from the dental anatomy course to the operative dentistry course; provide early exposure to materials, instruments, and laboratory techniques; support the early development of psychomotor and self-assessment skills; and lessen students' stress and anxiety levels regarding psychomotor examinations. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the workshops on the students' academic performance and self-reported stress and preparedness. All students who attended the workshop sessions and all who did not were asked to complete a pre-exam survey (immediately preceding the exam) and a post-exam survey (immediately after the exam) on the day of their first operative dentistry psychomotor exam. Of the 93 students, 21 attended one, 34 attended two, and 25 attended three workshop sessions, while 13 students did not attend any. Response rates for the pre- and post-exam surveys were 100% and 98.9%, respectively. Students who attended all three workshop sessions reported being significantly less stressed about taking the exam than the other groups. The mean exam grade of students who attended the workshop sessions was significantly higher than that of students who did not attend the sessions. These findings support the development and implementation of preparatory workshops to improve academic performance and decrease the stress levels of dental students prior to the first operative dentistry psychomotor exam.

l0 Sparsity for Image Denoising with Local and Global Priors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoni Gao

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a l0 sparsity based approach to remove additive white Gaussian noise from a given image. To achieve this goal, we combine the local prior and global prior together to recover the noise-free values of pixels. The local prior depends on the neighborhood relationships of a search window to help maintain edges and smoothness. The global prior is generated from a hierarchical l0 sparse representation to help eliminate the redundant information and preserve the global consistency. In addition, to make the correlations between pixels more meaningful, we adopt Principle Component Analysis to measure the similarities, which can be both propitious to reduce the computational complexity and improve the accuracies. Experiments on the benchmark image set show that the proposed approach can achieve superior performance to the state-of-the-art approaches both in accuracy and perception in removing the zero-mean additive white Gaussian noise.

The Effects of Test Trial and Processing Level on Immediate and Delayed Retention

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Sau Hou

2017-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of test trial and processing level on immediate and delayed retention. A 2 × 2 × 2 mixed ANOVAs was used with two between-subject factors of test trial (single test, repeated test) and processing level (shallow, deep), and one within-subject factor of final recall (immediate, delayed). Seventy-six college students were randomly assigned first to the single test (studied the stimulus words three times and took one free-recall test) and the repeated test trials (studied the stimulus words once and took three consecutive free-recall tests), and then to the shallow processing level (asked whether each stimulus word was presented in capital letter or in small letter) and the deep processing level (whether each stimulus word belonged to a particular category) to study forty stimulus words. The immediate test was administered five minutes after the trials, whereas the delayed test was administered one week later. Results showed that single test trial recalled more words than repeated test trial in immediate final free-recall test, participants in deep processing performed better than those in shallow processing in both immediate and delayed retention. However, the dominance of single test trial and deep processing did not happen in delayed retention. Additional study trials did not further enhance the delayed retention of words encoded in deep processing, but did enhance the delayed retention of words encoded in shallow processing. PMID:28344679

The Effects of Test Trial and Processing Level on Immediate and Delayed Retention.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Sau Hou

2017-03-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of test trial and processing level on immediate and delayed retention. A 2 × 2 × 2 mixed ANOVAs was used with two between-subject factors of test trial (single test, repeated test) and processing level (shallow, deep), and one within-subject factor of final recall (immediate, delayed). Seventy-six college students were randomly assigned first to the single test (studied the stimulus words three times and took one free-recall test) and the repeated test trials (studied the stimulus words once and took three consecutive free-recall tests), and then to the shallow processing level (asked whether each stimulus word was presented in capital letter or in small letter) and the deep processing level (whether each stimulus word belonged to a particular category) to study forty stimulus words. The immediate test was administered five minutes after the trials, whereas the delayed test was administered one week later. Results showed that single test trial recalled more words than repeated test trial in immediate final free-recall test, participants in deep processing performed better than those in shallow processing in both immediate and delayed retention. However, the dominance of single test trial and deep processing did not happen in delayed retention. Additional study trials did not further enhance the delayed retention of words encoded in deep processing, but did enhance the delayed retention of words encoded in shallow processing.

The Effects of Test Trial and Processing Level on Immediate and Delayed Retention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sau Hou Chang

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of test trial and processing level on immediate and delayed retention. A 2 × 2 × 2 mixed ANOVAs was used with two between-subject factors of test trial (single test, repeated test and processing level (shallow, deep, and one within-subject factor of final recall (immediate, delayed. Seventy-six college students were randomly assigned first to the single test (studied the stimulus words three times and took one free-recall test and the repeated test trials (studied the stimulus words once and took three consecutive free-recall tests, and then to the shallow processing level (asked whether each stimulus word was presented in capital letter or in small letter and the deep processing level (whether each stimulus word belonged to a particular category to study forty stimulus words. The immediate test was administered five minutes after the trials, whereas the delayed test was administered one week later. Results showed that single test trial recalled more words than repeated test trial in immediate final free-recall test, participants in deep processing performed better than those in shallow processing in both immediate and delayed retention. However, the dominance of single test trial and deep processing did not happen in delayed retention. Additional study trials did not further enhance the delayed retention of words encoded in deep processing, but did enhance the delayed retention of words encoded in shallow processing.

Achievement motivation and memory: achievement goals differentially influence immediate and delayed remember-know recognition memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Murayama, Kou; Elliot, Andrew J

2011-10-01

Little research has been conducted on achievement motivation and memory and, more specifically, on achievement goals and memory. In the present research, the authors conducted two experiments designed to examine the influence of mastery-approach and performance-approach goals on immediate and delayed remember-know recognition memory. The experiments revealed differential effects for achievement goals over time: Performance-approach goals showed higher correct remember responding on an immediate recognition test, whereas mastery-approach goals showed higher correct remember responding on a delayed recognition test. Achievement goals had no influence on overall recognition memory and no consistent influence on know responding across experiments. These findings indicate that it is important to consider quality, not just quantity, in both motivation and memory, when studying relations between these constructs.

Elapsed decision time affects the weighting of prior probability in a perceptual decision task

Science.gov (United States)

Hanks, Timothy D.; Mazurek, Mark E.; Kiani, Roozbeh; Hopp, Elizabeth; Shadlen, Michael N.

2012-01-01

Decisions are often based on a combination of new evidence with prior knowledge of the probable best choice. Optimal combination requires knowledge about the reliability of evidence, but in many realistic situations, this is unknown. Here we propose and test a novel theory: the brain exploits elapsed time during decision formation to combine sensory evidence with prior probability. Elapsed time is useful because (i) decisions that linger tend to arise from less reliable evidence, and (ii) the expected accuracy at a given decision time depends on the reliability of the evidence gathered up to that point. These regularities allow the brain to combine prior information with sensory evidence by weighting the latter in accordance with reliability. To test this theory, we manipulated the prior probability of the rewarded choice while subjects performed a reaction-time discrimination of motion direction using a range of stimulus reliabilities that varied from trial to trial. The theory explains the effect of prior probability on choice and reaction time over a wide range of stimulus strengths. We found that prior probability was incorporated into the decision process as a dynamic bias signal that increases as a function of decision time. This bias signal depends on the speed-accuracy setting of human subjects, and it is reflected in the firing rates of neurons in the lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP) of rhesus monkeys performing this task. PMID:21525274

The influence of walking performed immediately before meals with moderate fat content on postprandial lipemia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Colombani Paolo C

2005-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Postprandial lipemia is an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease. Single bouts of moderate exercise may lower this risk, but the minimum duration of moderate intensity exercise that still lowers postprandial lipemia is not known. We, therefore, performed a dose-response study with a normal, daily life setting, to identify the minimum duration of moderate intensity walking that lowers postprandial lipemia in sedentary, healthy young men. Methods Sixteen men performed three activity trials (30, 60, or 90 min of treadmill walking at 50% of their individual VO2max and a control trial with no physical activity in a repeated measures crossover design. The subjects walked immediately before ingestion of the first of two mixed meals, which were served 3 h apart. The meals had a moderate fat content (0.5 g per kg body mass and 33% of total energy per meal and a macronutrient composition corresponding to current recommendations. Each meal provided one third of the subject's estimated daily energy requirement. Venous blood samples were taken in the fasted state, and then hourly for 6 h after the first meal to assess the postprandial phase. Postprandial lipemia (the incremental area under the curve (dAUC of triacylglycerol was compared with a mixed model analysis and Tukey's adjustment. Results Postprandial lipemia (dAUC of triacylglycerol was, compared to the control trial, +2% (P = 1.00, -14% (P = 0.24, and -15% (P = 0.23 in the 30, 60, and 90 min walking trials, respectively. Conclusion Moderate intensity walking of 60 and 90 min duration slightly, but insignificantly, reduced postprandial lipemia after two mixed meals with moderate fat content in sedentary, healthy young men, compared to inactivity. Therefore, it should be reconsidered if the acute exercise-induced reduction in postprandial lipemia usually observed in studies using high fat meals is of importance in a real, daily life setting.

The Prior-project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Engerer, Volkmar Paul; Roued-Cunliffe, Henriette; Albretsen, Jørgen

digitisation of Arthur Prior’s Nachlass kept in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The DH infrastructure in question is the Prior Virtual Lab (PVL). PVL was established in 2011 in order to provide researchers in the field of temporal logic easy access to the papers of Arthur Norman Prior (1914-1969), and officially......In this paper, we present a DH research infrastructure which relies heavily on a combination of domain knowledge with information technology. The general goal is to develop tools to aid scholars in their interpretations and understanding of temporal logic. This in turn is based on an extensive...

What can we learn about immediate memory from the development of children's free recall?

Science.gov (United States)

Jarrold, Christopher; Hall, Debbora; Harvey, Caroline E; Tam, Helen; Towse, John N; Zarandi, Amy L

2015-01-01

We ask the question: Which aspects of immediate memory performance improve with age? In two studies, we reexamine the widely held view that primary memory capacity estimates derived from children's immediate free recall are age invariant. This was done by assessing children's immediate free-recall accuracy while also measuring the order in which they elected to recall items (Experiment 1) and by encouraging children to begin free recall with items from towards the end of the presented list (Experiment 2). Across samples aged between 5 and 8 years we replicated the previously reported age-related changes in free-recall serial position functions when aggregated across all trials of the standard task, including an absence of age differences in the recency portion of this curve. However, we also show that this does not reflect the fact that primary memory capacity is constant across age. Instead, when we incorporate order of report information, clear age differences are evident in the recall of list-final items that are output at the start of a participant's response. In addition, the total amount that individuals recalled varied little across different types of free-recall tasks. These findings have clear implications for the use of immediate free recall as a means of providing potential indices of primary memory capacity and in the study of the development of immediate memory.

Performance on a simple response time task: Is sleep or work more important for miners?

Science.gov (United States)

Ferguson, Sally A; Paech, Gemma M; Dorrian, Jillian; Roach, Gregory D; Jay, Sarah M

2011-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of work- and sleep-related factors on an objective measure of response time in a field setting. Thirty-five mining operators working 12-h shift patterns completed daily sleep and work diaries, wore activity monitors continuously and completed palm-based psychomotor vigilance tests (palmPVT) at the start and end of each shift. Linear mixed models were used to test the main effects on response time of roster, timing of test, sleep history and prior wake. The time at which the test occurred was a significant predictor of response time (F₃(,)₄₀₃(.)₄ = 6.72, p times than the start of night shifts, and the start or end of day shifts. Further, the amount of sleep obtained in the 24h prior to the test was also a significant predictor of response time (F₃(,)₄₀₇(.)₀ = 3.05, p time indicative of performance impairments. Of more interest however is that immediate sleep history was also predictive of changes in response time with lower amounts of prior sleep related to slower response times. The current data provides further evidence that sleep is a primary mediator of performance, independent of roster pattern. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Immediate catalytic upgrading of soybean shell bio-oil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bertero, Melisa; Sedran, Ulises

2016-01-01

The pyrolysis of soybean shell and the immediate catalytic upgrading of the bio-oil over an equilibrium FCC catalyst was studied in order to define its potential as a source for fuels and chemicals. The experiments of pyrolysis and immediate catalytic upgrading were performed at 550 °C during 7 min with different catalysts to oil relationships in an integrated fixed bed pyrolysis-conversion reactor. The results were compared under the same conditions against those from pine sawdust, which is a biomass source commonly used for the production of bio-oil. In the pyrolysis the pine sawdust produced more liquids (61.4%wt.) than the soybean shell (54.7%wt.). When the catalyst was presented, the yield of hydrocarbons increased, particularly in the case of soybean shell, which was four time higher than in the pyrolysis. The bio-oil from soybean shell produced less coke (between 3.1 and 4.3%wt.) in its immediate catalytic upgrading than that from pine sawdust (between 5 and 5.8%wt.), due to its lower content of phenolic and other high molecular weight compounds (three and five times less, respectively). Moreover, soybean shell showed a higher selectivity to hydrocarbons in the gasoline range, with more olefins and less aromatic than pine sawdust. - Highlights: • Soybean shell is a possible source of fuels with benefits as compared to pine sawdust. • Bio-oils upgraded over FCC catalyst in an integrated pyrolysis-conversion reactor. • Pine sawdust bio-oil had more phenols than soybean shell bio-oil. • Soybean shell bio-oil produced more hydrocarbons in gasoline range and less coke.

β-Adrenoceptor Blockade in the Basolateral Amygdala, But Not the Medial Prefrontal Cortex, Rescues the Immediate Extinction Deficit.

Science.gov (United States)

Giustino, Thomas F; Seemann, Jocelyn R; Acca, Gillian M; Goode, Travis D; Fitzgerald, Paul J; Maren, Stephen

2017-12-01

Early psychological interventions, such as exposure therapy, rely on extinction learning to reduce the development of stress- and trauma-related disorders. However, recent research suggests that extinction often fails to reduce fear when administered soon after trauma. This immediate extinction deficit (IED) may be due to stress-induced dysregulation of neural circuits involved in extinction learning. We have shown that systemic β-adrenoceptor blockade with propranolol rescues the IED, but impairs delayed extinction. Here we sought to determine the neural locus of these effects. Rats underwent auditory fear conditioning and then received either immediate (30 min) or delayed (24 h) extinction training. We used bilateral intracranial infusions of propranolol into either the infralimbic division of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) or the basolateral amygdala (BLA) to examine the effects of β-adrenoceptor blockade on immediate and delayed extinction learning. Interestingly, intra-BLA, but not intra-mPFC, propranolol rescued the IED; animals receiving intra-BLA propranolol prior to immediate extinction showed less spontaneous recovery of fear during extinction retrieval. Importantly, this was not due to impaired consolidation of the conditioning memory. In contrast, neither intra-BLA nor intra-mPFC propranolol affected delayed extinction learning. Overall, these data contribute to a growing literature suggesting dissociable roles for key nodes in the fear extinction circuit depending on the timing of extinction relative to conditioning. These data also suggest that heightened noradrenergic activity in the BLA underlies stress-induced extinction deficits. Propranolol may be a useful adjunct to behavioral therapeutic interventions in recently traumatized individuals who are at risk for developing trauma-related disorders.

Priming in implicit memory tasks: prior study causes enhanced discriminability, not only bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeelenberg, René; Wagenmakers, Eric-Jan M; Raaijmakers, Jeroen G W

2002-03-01

R. Ratcliff and G. McKoon (1995, 1996, 1997; R. Ratcliff, D. Allbritton, & G. McKoon, 1997) have argued that repetition priming effects are solely due to bias. They showed that prior study of the target resulted in a benefit in a later implicit memory task. However, prior study of a stimulus similar to the target resulted in a cost. The present study, using a 2-alternative forced-choice procedure, investigated the effect of prior study in an unbiased condition: Both alternatives were studied prior to their presentation in an implicit memory task. Contrary to a pure bias interpretation of priming, consistent evidence was obtained in 3 implicit memory tasks (word fragment completion, auditory word identification, and picture identification) that performance was better when both alternatives were studied than when neither alternative was studied. These results show that prior study results in enhanced discriminability, not only bias.

Bayesian image reconstruction in SPECT using higher order mechanical models as priors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, S.J.; Gindi, G.; Rangarajan, A.

1995-01-01

While the ML-EM (maximum-likelihood-expectation maximization) algorithm for reconstruction for emission tomography is unstable due to the ill-posed nature of the problem, Bayesian reconstruction methods overcome this instability by introducing prior information, often in the form of a spatial smoothness regularizer. More elaborate forms of smoothness constraints may be used to extend the role of the prior beyond that of a stabilizer in order to capture actual spatial information about the object. Previously proposed forms of such prior distributions were based on the assumption of a piecewise constant source distribution. Here, the authors propose an extension to a piecewise linear model--the weak plate--which is more expressive than the piecewise constant model. The weak plate prior not only preserves edges but also allows for piecewise ramplike regions in the reconstruction. Indeed, for the application in SPECT, such ramplike regions are observed in ground-truth source distributions in the form of primate autoradiographs of rCBF radionuclides. To incorporate the weak plate prior in a MAP approach, the authors model the prior as a Gibbs distribution and use a GEM formulation for the optimization. They compare quantitative performance of the ML-EM algorithm, a GEM algorithm with a prior favoring piecewise constant regions, and a GEM algorithm with the weak plate prior. Pointwise and regional bias and variance of ensemble image reconstructions are used as indications of image quality. The results show that the weak plate and membrane priors exhibit improved bias and variance relative to ML-EM techniques

Immediate acoustic effects of straw phonation exercises in subjects with dysphonic voices.

Science.gov (United States)

Guzman, Marco; Higueras, Diego; Fincheira, Catherine; Muñoz, Daniel; Guajardo, Carlos; Dowdall, Jayme

2013-04-01

Abstract This study sought to measure any acoustic changes in the speaking voice immediately after phonation exercises involving plastic straws versus phonation exercises with the open vowel /a/. Forty-one primary school teachers with slightly dysphonic voices were asked to participate in four phonatory tasks. Phonetically balanced text at habitual intensity level and speaking fundamental frequency was recorded. Acoustical analysis with long-term average spectrum was performed. Significant changes after therapy for the experimental group include the alpha ratio, L1-L0 ratio and ratio between 1-5 kHz and 5-8 kHz. The results indicate that the use of phonatory tasks with straw exercises can have immediate therapeutic acoustic effects in dysphonic voices. Long-term effects were not assessed in this study.

Negativization rates of IgE radioimmunoassay and basophil activation test in immediate reactions to penicillins.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández, T D; Torres, M J; Blanca-López, N; Rodríguez-Bada, J L; Gomez, E; Canto, G; Mayorga, C; Blanca, M

2009-02-01

Skin test sensitivity in patients with immediate allergy to penicillins tends to decrease over time, but no information is available concerning in vitro tests. We analysed the negativization rates of two in vitro methods that determine specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies, the basophil activation test using flow cytometry (BAT) and the radioallergosorbent test (RAST), in immediate allergic reactions to penicillins. Forty-one patients with immediate allergic reactions to amoxicillin were followed up over a 4-year period. BAT and RAST were performed at 6-month intervals. Patients were randomized into groups: Group I, skin tests carried out at regular intervals; Group II, skin tests made only at the beginning of the study. Differences were observed between RAST and BAT (P testing influenced the rate of negativization of the RAST assay, contributing to maintenance of in vitro sensitivity. Because of the loss of sensitivity over time, the determination of specific IgE antibodies to penicillins in patients with immediate allergic reactions must be done as soon as possible after the reaction.

Impact of Bayesian Priors on the Characterization of Binary Black Hole Coalescences.

Science.gov (United States)

Vitale, Salvatore; Gerosa, Davide; Haster, Carl-Johan; Chatziioannou, Katerina; Zimmerman, Aaron

2017-12-22

In a regime where data are only mildly informative, prior choices can play a significant role in Bayesian statistical inference, potentially affecting the inferred physics. We show this is indeed the case for some of the parameters inferred from current gravitational-wave measurements of binary black hole coalescences. We reanalyze the first detections performed by the twin LIGO interferometers using alternative (and astrophysically motivated) prior assumptions. We find different prior distributions can introduce deviations in the resulting posteriors that impact the physical interpretation of these systems. For instance, (i) limits on the 90% credible interval on the effective black hole spin χ_{eff} are subject to variations of ∼10% if a prior with black hole spins mostly aligned to the binary's angular momentum is considered instead of the standard choice of isotropic spin directions, and (ii) under priors motivated by the initial stellar mass function, we infer tighter constraints on the black hole masses, and in particular, we find no support for any of the inferred masses within the putative mass gap M≲5  M_{⊙}.

Immediate Extinction Causes a Less Durable Loss of Performance than Delayed Extinction following Either Fear or Appetitive Conditioning

Science.gov (United States)

Woods, Amanda M.; Bouton, Mark E.

2008-01-01

Five experiments with rat subjects compared the effects of immediate and delayed extinction on the durability of extinction learning. Three experiments examined extinction of fear conditioning (using the conditioned emotional response method), and two experiments examined extinction of appetitive conditioning (using the food-cup entry method). In…

Written object naming, spelling to dictation, and immediate copying: Different tasks, different pathways?

Science.gov (United States)

Bonin, Patrick; Méot, Alain; Lagarrigue, Aurélie; Roux, Sébastien

2015-01-01

We report an investigation of cross-task comparisons of handwritten latencies in written object naming, spelling to dictation, and immediate copying. In three separate sessions, adults had to write down a list of concrete nouns from their corresponding pictures (written naming), from their spoken (spelling to dictation) and from their visual presentation (immediate copying). Linear mixed models without random slopes were performed on the latencies in order to study and compare within-task fixed effects. By-participants random slopes were then included to investigate individual differences within and across tasks. Overall, the findings suggest that written naming, spelling to dictation, and copying all involve a lexical pathway, but that written naming relies on this pathway more than the other two tasks do. Only spelling to dictation strongly involves a nonlexical pathway. Finally, the analyses performed at the level of participants indicate that, depending on the type of task, the slower participants are more or less influenced by certain psycholinguistic variables.

Student performance in a flipped classroom dental anatomy course.

Science.gov (United States)

Chutinan, S; Riedy, C A; Park, S E

2017-11-09

The purpose of this study was to assess dental student learning in a dental anatomy module between traditional lecture and flipped classroom cohorts. Two cohorts of predoctoral dental students (N = 70 within each cohort) participated in a dental anatomy module within an Introduction to the Dental Patient (IDP) course ([traditional/lecture cohort: academic year (AY) 2012, 2013] and [flipped classroom cohort: AY 2014, 2015]). For the dental anatomy module, both cohorts were evaluated on pre-clinical tooth waxing exercises immediately after each of five lectures and tooth identification after all lectures were given. Additionally, the cohorts' performance on the overall IDP course examination was compared. The flipped classroom cohort had statistically significant higher waxing scores (dental anatomy module) than students in the traditional classroom. There was no statistically significant difference for tooth identification scores and the overall IDP course examination between the traditional vs flipped approach cohorts. This is due to the latter two assessments conducted at the end of the course gave all students enough time to review the lecture content prior to the assessment resulting in similar scores for both cohorts. The flipped classroom cohort promoted students' individual learning and resulted in improved students' performance on immediate evaluation but not on the end of the course evaluation. Redesign of courses to include a new pedagogical approach should be carefully implemented and evaluated for student's educational success. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Influence of Prior Knowledge on the Retrieval-Directed Function of Note Taking in Prior Knowledge Activation

Science.gov (United States)

Wetzels, Sandra A. J.; Kester, Liesbeth; van Merrienboer, Jeroen J. G.; Broers, Nick J.

2011-01-01

Background: Prior knowledge activation facilitates learning. Note taking during prior knowledge activation (i.e., note taking directed at retrieving information from memory) might facilitate the activation process by enabling learners to build an external representation of their prior knowledge. However, taking notes might be less effective in…

Transcriptome sequencing of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) notochord prior to development of the vertebrae provides clues to regulation of positional fate, chordoblast lineage and mineralisation

OpenAIRE

Wang, Shou; Furmanek, Tomasz; Kryvi, Harald; Krossøy, Christel; Totland, Geir Kåre; Grotmol, Sindre; Wargelius, Anna

2014-01-01

Background In teleosts such as Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.), segmentation and subsequent mineralisation of the notochord during embryonic stages are essential for normal vertebrae formation. However, the molecular mechanisms leading to segmentation and mineralisation of the notochord are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to identify genes/pathways acting in gradients over time and along the anterior-posterior axis during notochord segmentation and immediately prior to mineralis...

Varying prior information in Bayesian inversion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Walker, Matthew; Curtis, Andrew

2014-01-01

Bayes' rule is used to combine likelihood and prior probability distributions. The former represents knowledge derived from new data, the latter represents pre-existing knowledge; the Bayesian combination is the so-called posterior distribution, representing the resultant new state of knowledge. While varying the likelihood due to differing data observations is common, there are also situations where the prior distribution must be changed or replaced repeatedly. For example, in mixture density neural network (MDN) inversion, using current methods the neural network employed for inversion needs to be retrained every time prior information changes. We develop a method of prior replacement to vary the prior without re-training the network. Thus the efficiency of MDN inversions can be increased, typically by orders of magnitude when applied to geophysical problems. We demonstrate this for the inversion of seismic attributes in a synthetic subsurface geological reservoir model. We also present results which suggest that prior replacement can be used to control the statistical properties (such as variance) of the final estimate of the posterior in more general (e.g., Monte Carlo based) inverse problem solutions. (paper)

Immediate rather than delayed memory impairment in older adults with latent toxoplasmosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Mendy, Angelico; Vieira, Edgar R; Albatineh, Ahmed N; Gasana, Janvier

2015-03-01

The neurotropic parasite Toxoplasma gondii infects one third of the world population, but its effect on memory remains ambiguous. To examine a potential relationship of the infection with immediate and delayed memory, a population-based study was conducted in 4485 participants of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey aged 60years and older. Serum anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies were measured by enzyme immune assay and verbal memory was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination and the East Boston Memory Test. The prevalence of latent toxoplasmosis was 41%; in one way analysis of variance, anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibody levels significantly differed across tertiles for immediate (P=0.006) but not delayed memory scores (P=0.22). In multinomial logistic regression adjusting for covariates, Toxoplasma seropositivity was associated with lower immediate memory performance (OR: 0.65, 95% CI: 0.44, 0.97 for medium tertile and OR: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.37, 0.98 for highest tertile in reference to the lowest tertile), especially in non-Hispanic Whites (OR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.36, 0.88 for medium tertile and OR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.30, 0.87 for highest tertile in reference to the lowest tertile). However, no relationship with delayed memory was observed. In conclusion, latent toxoplasmosis is widespread in older adults and may primarily affect immediate rather than delayed memory, particularly in White Americans. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of different re-warm up activities in football players' performance.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eduardo Abade

Full Text Available Warm up routines are commonly used to optimize football performance and prevent injuries. Yet, official pre-match protocols may require players to passively rest for approximately 10 to 15 minutes between the warm up and the beginning of the match. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the effect of different re-warm up activities on the physical performance of football players. Twenty-Two Portuguese elite under-19 football players participated in the study conducted during the competitive season. Different re-warm up protocols were performed 6 minutes after the same standardized warm up in 4 consecutive days in a crossover controlled approach: without, eccentric, plyometric and repeated changes of direction. Vertical jump and Sprint performances were tested immediately after warm up and 12 minutes after warm up. Results showed that repeated changes of direction and plyometrics presented beneficial effects to jump and sprint. Different practical implications may be taken from the eccentric protocol since a vertical jump impairment was observed, suggesting a possibly harmful effect. The absence of re-warm up activities may be detrimental to players' physical performance. However, the inclusion of re-warm up prior to match is a complex issue, since the manipulation of volume, intensity and recovery may positively or negatively affect the subsequent performance. In fact, this exploratory study shows that eccentric exercise may be harmful for physical performance when performed prior a football match. However, plyometric and repeated changes of direction exercises seem to be simple, quick and efficient activities to attenuate losses in vertical jump and sprint capacity after warm up. Coaches should aim to develop individual optimal exercise modes in order to optimize physical performance after re warm activities.

Randomised controlled single-blind study of conventional versus depot mydriatic drug delivery prior to cataract surgery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Madge Simon

2006-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A prerequisite for safe cataract surgery is an adequately dilated pupil. The authors conducted a trial to assess the efficacy (in terms of pupil diameter of a depot method of pre-operative pupil dilatation, as compared with repeated instillations of drops (which is time-consuming for the nursing staff and uncomfortable for the patient. Methods A prospective randomised masked trial was conducted comprising 130 patients with no significant ocular history undergoing elective clear corneal phacoemulsification. 65 patients had mydriatic drops (Tropicamide 1%, Phenylephrine 2.5%, Diclofenac sodium 0.1% instilled prior to surgery, 65 had a wick soaked in the same drop mixture placed in the inferior fornix. Horizontal pupil diameters were recorded on a millimetre scale immediately prior to surgery. Results There was no significant difference in pupil size between the two groups (p = 0.255, Student's t-test. Conclusion There was no significant difference between the mydriasis obtained with the depot system compared with conventional drop application. Use of a depot mydriatic delivery system appears to be a safe and efficient method of drug delivery. Trial Registration International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Register ISRCTN78047760

Prevalence of Immediate-Type Food Allergy in Korean Schoolchildren in 2015: A Nationwide, Population-based Study

OpenAIRE

Kim, Minji; Lee, Ji Young; Jeon, Hyun-young; Yang, Hea-kyoung; Lee, Kee-Jae; Han, Youngshin; Kim, Yang Hee; Kim, Jihyun; Ahn, Kangmo

2017-01-01

Purpose This study aimed to determine the prevalence of immediate-type food allergy (FA) among schoolchildren in Korea. Methods A nationwide, cross-sectional study was performed in September 2015. A stratified random sample of 50,000 participants was selected from children and adolescents aged 6-7 years (n=17,500), 9-10 years (n=17,500), 12-13 years (n=7,500), and 15-16 years (n=7,500). Parents were asked to complete a questionnaire on the detailed history of immediate-type FA. Results A tota...

The Prior Internet Resources 2017

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Engerer, Volkmar Paul; Albretsen, Jørgen

2017-01-01

The Prior Internet Resources (PIR) are presented. Prior’s unpublished scientific manuscripts and his wast letter correspondence with fellow researchers at the time, his Nachlass, is now subject to transcription by Prior-researchers worldwide, and form an integral part of PIR. It is demonstrated...

Immediate Placement of Ultrawide-Diameter Implants in Molar Sockets: Description of a Recommended Technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Hattingh, André C; De Bruyn, Hugo; Ackermann, Andrew; Vandeweghe, Stefan

Immediate implant placement is performed less frequently in molar extraction sockets than in single root sockets. This is mainly due to the tripodal anatomical configuration of molar roots, which is perceived as complex and therefore unsuitable. The mechanical burden of molar sites, combined with much larger socket dimensions, make it amenable to the use of ultrawide-diameter dental implants. This article describes a practical, sequenced technique that can be used predictably for immediate implant placement in maxillary and mandibular first molar sockets, using a dry skull model for clarification. This detailed description is based on the experience of more than 580 clinical cases over a 10-year period.

Addressing Omitted Prior Achievement Bias in International Assessments: An Applied Example Using PIRLS-NPD Matched Data

Science.gov (United States)

Caro, Daniel H.; Kyriakides, Leonidas; Televantou, Ioulia

2018-01-01

Omitted prior achievement bias is pervasive in international assessment studies and precludes causal inference. For example, reported negative associations between student-oriented teaching strategies and student performance are against expectations and might actually reflect omitted prior achievement bias. Namely, that these teaching strategies…

Penalised Complexity Priors for Stationary Autoregressive Processes

KAUST Repository

Sø rbye, Sigrunn Holbek; Rue, Haavard

2017-01-01

The autoregressive (AR) process of order p(AR(p)) is a central model in time series analysis. A Bayesian approach requires the user to define a prior distribution for the coefficients of the AR(p) model. Although it is easy to write down some prior, it is not at all obvious how to understand and interpret the prior distribution, to ensure that it behaves according to the users' prior knowledge. In this article, we approach this problem using the recently developed ideas of penalised complexity (PC) priors. These prior have important properties like robustness and invariance to reparameterisations, as well as a clear interpretation. A PC prior is computed based on specific principles, where model component complexity is penalised in terms of deviation from simple base model formulations. In the AR(1) case, we discuss two natural base model choices, corresponding to either independence in time or no change in time. The latter case is illustrated in a survival model with possible time-dependent frailty. For higher-order processes, we propose a sequential approach, where the base model for AR(p) is the corresponding AR(p-1) model expressed using the partial autocorrelations. The properties of the new prior distribution are compared with the reference prior in a simulation study.

Penalised Complexity Priors for Stationary Autoregressive Processes

KAUST Repository

Sørbye, Sigrunn Holbek

2017-05-25

The autoregressive (AR) process of order p(AR(p)) is a central model in time series analysis. A Bayesian approach requires the user to define a prior distribution for the coefficients of the AR(p) model. Although it is easy to write down some prior, it is not at all obvious how to understand and interpret the prior distribution, to ensure that it behaves according to the users\\' prior knowledge. In this article, we approach this problem using the recently developed ideas of penalised complexity (PC) priors. These prior have important properties like robustness and invariance to reparameterisations, as well as a clear interpretation. A PC prior is computed based on specific principles, where model component complexity is penalised in terms of deviation from simple base model formulations. In the AR(1) case, we discuss two natural base model choices, corresponding to either independence in time or no change in time. The latter case is illustrated in a survival model with possible time-dependent frailty. For higher-order processes, we propose a sequential approach, where the base model for AR(p) is the corresponding AR(p-1) model expressed using the partial autocorrelations. The properties of the new prior distribution are compared with the reference prior in a simulation study.

Can immediate second resection be an alternative to standardized second transurethral resection of bladder tumors?

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Engin Doğantekin

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This study analyzed the impact of an immediate second transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT protocol on residual tumor status at the initial TURBT session and the recurrence rate in the primary resection area. We prospectively evaluated and randomized 47 consecutive patients who underwent TURBT sessions for bladder cancer. In accordance with the inclusion criteria, of the 47 consecutive patients, 19 (Group I underwent immediate second resection of the tumor bed after complete TUR and 28 (Group II did not. After standard TURBT, Group I underwent a second cystoscopy and resection of the bed of the tumor or an ignored tumor, which was performed by a different urologist. After 4–6 weeks, delayed second TURB was performed, and all pathological results were evaluated. Tumors were detected in two patients during the immediate second resection. Of these, one was a misdiagnosed tumor, whereas the other was diagnosed at the bed of the tumor by pathological examination. Tumors were detected in nine patients at the delayed second TURB, of which only one was part of Group I, while the others were part of Group II (p = 0.04. The results of this study demonstrated that residual tumors may remain after initial TURB, either in the tumor bed or in a different location within the bladder. Although this was a pilot study enrolling only a small number of patients, our initial results supported the assertion that immediate second resection can be an alternative to standard second TURBT.

The effects of short-term alpha-ketoisocaproic acid supplementation on exercise performance: a randomized controlled trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yarrow Joshua F

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This study examined the efficacy of short-term alpha-ketoisocaproic acid (KIC monotherapy supplementation immediately prior to moderate- and high-intensity single bout exercise performance. Methods Thirteen resistance trained men (22.8 ± 2.5 years; 81.6 ± 12.6 kg participated in a prospective, randomized, double blind, placebo controlled crossover experiment. Each subject completed one familiarization and four experimental trials with either 1.5 g or 9.0 g of either KIC or isocaloric placebo control (CONT, following an overnight fast. During the experimental trials, subjects consumed the supplement regimen and then completed leg and chest press repetitions to failure and 30 s of repeated maximal vertical jumping (VJ on a force plate. Results In this treatment regimen, no significant differences (p > 0.05 were observed between dosages or conditions for leg press (low CONT = 19.8 ± 0.4 SEM, low KIC = 21.0 ± 0.5, high CONT = 20.1 ± 0.3, high KIC = 22.4 ± 0.6 or chest press (low CONT = 18.1 ± 0.2, low KIC = 18.5 ± 0.3, high CONT = 17.8 ± 0.3, high KIC = 18.0 ± 0.3 repetitions to failure. Additionally, no significant differences were observed for peak or mean VJ performance (low CONT = 34.6 ± 2.2 cm and 28.6 ± 1.8 cm; low KIC = 35.6 ± 2.0 cm and 29.4 ± 1.6 cm; high CONT = 35.7 ± 2.1 cm and 29.4 ± 1.7 cm; high KIC = 34.8 ± 2.3 cm and 28.3 ± 1.7 cm, respectively. Conclusion Based on our results, we conclude that acute KIC ingestion by itself with no other ergogenic supplement, immediately prior to exercise, did not alter moderate- nor high-intensity single-bout exercise performance in young resistance-trained males. This study addressed single-dose single-bout performance events; the efficacy of KIC monotherapy supplementation on repeated high-intensity exercise bouts and long-term exercise training remains unknown.

Immediate Placement of Ultrawide-Diameter Implants in Molar Sockets: Description of a Recommended Technique

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hattingh, A.C.; Bruyn, H. de; Ackermann, A.; Vandeweghe, S.

2018-01-01

Immediate implant placement is performed less frequently in molar extraction sockets than in single root sockets. This is mainly due to the tripodal anatomical configuration of molar roots, which is perceived as complex and therefore unsuitable. The mechanical burden of molar sites, combined with

Immediation (Cultures of Immediacy)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kacunko, Slavko

2018-01-01

with a complex interplay of social-, security-, science- and economy-related issues. The growing interest in immediation confirms its status as a new but as yet underestimated paradigm for the arts, sciences and humanities which calls for a future-focused inquiry into the cultures of immediacy. However...

Prior exercise and antioxidant supplementation: effect on oxidative stress and muscle injury

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Schilling Brian K

2007-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Both acute bouts of prior exercise (preconditioning and antioxidant nutrients have been used in an attempt to attenuate muscle injury or oxidative stress in response to resistance exercise. However, most studies have focused on untrained participants rather than on athletes. The purpose of this work was to determine the independent and combined effects of antioxidant supplementation (vitamin C + mixed tocopherols/tocotrienols and prior eccentric exercise in attenuating markers of skeletal muscle injury and oxidative stress in resistance trained men. Methods Thirty-six men were randomly assigned to: no prior exercise + placebo; no prior exercise + antioxidant; prior exercise + placebo; prior exercise + antioxidant. Markers of muscle/cell injury (muscle performance, muscle soreness, C-reactive protein, and creatine kinase activity, as well as oxidative stress (blood protein carbonyls and peroxides, were measured before and through 48 hours of exercise recovery. Results No group by time interactions were noted for any variable (P > 0.05. Time main effects were noted for creatine kinase activity, muscle soreness, maximal isometric force and peak velocity (P Conclusion There appears to be no independent or combined effect of a prior bout of eccentric exercise or antioxidant supplementation as used here on markers of muscle injury in resistance trained men. Moreover, eccentric exercise as used in the present study results in minimal blood oxidative stress in resistance trained men. Hence, antioxidant supplementation for the purpose of minimizing blood oxidative stress in relation to eccentric exercise appears unnecessary in this population.

Immediate effect of irradiation on microvasculature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krishnan, L.; Krishnan, E.C.; Jewell, W.R.

1988-01-01

The immediate effects of irradiation on microvasculature in muscle in an animal model are described in this paper. By using triple isotopes of 125 I, 131 I, and 22 Na, the transcapillary transfer of albumin from the vascular bed to the extravascular space is determined in terms of mg/g of tissue, after single doses of 2 to 14 Gy. These results reveal an increase in the extravascular albumin immediately after irradiation and suggest an instantaneous compromise in vascular permeability even after 2 Gy. This effect was apparently dose related

Influence of a hydrophobic resin coating on the immediate and 6-month dentin bonding of three universal adhesives.

Science.gov (United States)

Sezinando, Ana; Luque-Martinez, Issis; Muñoz, Miguel Angel; Reis, Alessandra; Loguercio, Alessandro D; Perdigão, Jorge

2015-10-01

To test the influence of a hydrophobic resin coating (HC) on the immediate (24h) and 6-month (6m) microtensile dentin bond strengths (μTBS) and nanoleakage (NL) of three universal adhesives applied in self-etch (SE) or in etch-and-rinse (ER) mode. Sixty caries-free extracted third molars were assigned to 12 experimental groups resulting from the combination of the factors "adhesive system" (Scotchbond Universal Adhesive [SBU], 3M ESPE; All-Bond Universal [ABU], Bisco Inc.; and G-Bond Plus [GBP], GC Corporation); "adhesive strategy" (SE or ER); "hydrophobic resin coating" [HC] (with or without Heliobond, Ivoclar Vivadent); and "storage time" (24h or 6m). Specimens were prepared for μTBS testing - (24h) half of the beams were immediately tested under tension; and (6m) the other half was stored in distilled water (37°C) for 6m prior to testing. For each tooth, two beams were randomly selected for NL evaluation for both evaluation times. Data were analyzed for each adhesive system using three-way ANOVA and Tukey's post-hoc test (α=0.05). μTBS: (24h): In SE mode, HC resulted in statistically greater mean μTBS for all adhesives. (6m): When HC was not used the mean μTBS for SBU/ER, ABU/ER, GBP/ER and SBU/SE decreased significantly. NL: (24h): SBU/ER, ABU/ER and GBP/SE resulted in a significant reduction in NL when HC was applied. (6m): No significant reduction was observed for SBU/ER or for SBU/SE regardless of the use of HC. The application of a hydrophobic resin coating improved the 24h and the 6m performances of all three adhesives systems in SE mode. Copyright © 2015 Academy of Dental Materials. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Immediate effects of the semi-occluded vocal tract exercise with LaxVox® tube in singers.

Science.gov (United States)

Fadel, Congeta Bruniere Xavier; Dassie-Leite, Ana Paula; Santos, Rosane Sampaio; Santos, Celso Gonçalves Dos; Dias, Cláudio Antônio Sorondo; Sartori, Denise Jussara

The purpose of this study was to analyze the immediate effects of the semi-occluded vocal tract exercise (SOVTE) using the LaxVox® tube in singers. Participants were 23 singers, classical singing students, aged 18 to 47 years (mean age = 27.2 years). First, data was collected through the application of a demographic questionnaire and the recording of sustained emission - vowel /ε/, counting 1-10, and a music section from the participants' current repertoire. After that, the participants were instructed and performed the SOVTE using the LaxVox® tube for three minutes. Finally, the same vocal samples were collected immediately after SOVTE performance and the singers responded to a questionnaire on their perception regarding vocal changes after the exercise. The vocal samples were analyzed by referees (speech-language pathologists and singing teachers) and by means of acoustic analysis. Most of the singers reported improved voice post-exercise in both tasks - speech and singing. Regarding the perceptual assessment (sustained vowel, speech, and singing), the referees found no difference between pre- and post-exercise emissions. The acoustic analysis of the sustained vowel showed increased Fundamental Frequency (F0) and reduction of the Glottal to Noise Excitation (GNE) ratio post-exercise. The semi-occluded vocal tract exercise with LaxVox® tube promotes immediate positive effects on the self-assessment and acoustic analysis of voice in professional singers without vocal complains. No immediate significant changes were observed with respect to auditory-perceptual evaluation of speech and singing.

Superflux chlorophyll-a analysis: An assessment of variability in results introduced prior to fluorometric analysis. [chesapeake bay and shelf regions

Science.gov (United States)

Cibik, S. J.; Rutledge, C. K.; Robertson, C. N.

1981-01-01

Several experiments were undertaken to identify variability in results that came from procedural differences in the processing of chlorophyll samples prior to fluorometric analysis. T-tests on group means indicated that significant differences (alpha = 0.05) in phaeopigment a concentrations did result in samples not initially screened, but not in the chlorophyll a concentrations. Highly significant differences (alpha = 0.001) in group means were found in samples which were held in acetone after filtering as compared to unfiltered seawater samples held for the same period. No difference in results was found between the 24-hour extraction and samples which were processed immediately.

Generalized Bayesian inference with sets of conjugate priors for dealing with prior-data conflict : course at Lund University

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Walter, G.

2015-01-01

In the Bayesian approach to statistical inference, possibly subjective knowledge on model parameters can be expressed by so-called prior distributions. A prior distribution is updated, via Bayes’ Rule, to the so-called posterior distribution, which combines prior information and information from

The Importance of Prior Knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Cleary, Linda Miller

1989-01-01

Recounts a college English teacher's experience of reading and rereading Noam Chomsky, building up a greater store of prior knowledge. Argues that Frank Smith provides a theory for the importance of prior knowledge and Chomsky's work provided a personal example with which to interpret and integrate that theory. (RS)

Immediate placement of dental implants in the mandible

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gurkar Haraswarupa Puttaraju

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This case describes extraction of teeth in the mandibular arch, i.e., 41 42 43 44 45 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 (grade two mobility, followed by immediate placement of four dental implants (3i biomet, two in the 45 55 region and two dental implants in 12 21 region. A prefabricated provisional mandibular denture was immediately placed. The purpose of immediate placement was to aid the patient resume his professional duties the next day itself along with esthetic and functional comfort, psychological well-being and most importantly preserving the remaining tissue in a healthy condition.

Predicting Attrition, Performance, Reenlistment, and Hospitalizations from the Smoking History of Women Prior to Entering the Navy

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Conway, Terry L

2006-01-01

This study of women sailors examined whether tobacco use prior to entering the Navy predicted subsequent career outcomes related to length of service, early attrition, misconduct, and hospitalizations...

Immediate side effects of stereotactic radiotherapy and radiosurgery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Werner-Wasik, Maria; Rudoler, Shari; Preston, Peter E.; Downes, Beverly M.; Andrews, David; Corn, Benjamin W.; Rosenstock, Jeffrey; Curran, Walter J.

1996-01-01

Purpose/Objective: Despite increased utilization of fractionated stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT) or stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), the incidence and nature of immediate side effects (ISE) associated with these treatment techniques is not well defined. Materials and Methods: Intracranial lesions in 78 adult patients were treated with SRT or SRS, using a dedicated linear accelerator. They comprised 13 gliomas, 2 ependymomas, 19 metastatic tumors, 15 meningiomas, 12 acoustic neuromas, 4 pituitary adenomas, 1 optic neuroma, 1 chondrosarcoma and 11 arteriovenous malformations (AVM). SRT was used in 51 and SRS in 27 patients. Mean target volume was 9.0 cc. Eleven patients received prior external beam radiation therapy within 2 months before SRT/SRS. Any side effects occurring during and up to two weeks after radiation course were defined as ISE and were graded as mild, moderate or severe. The incidence of ISE and the significance of their association with several pretreatment variables were analyzed. Results: Overall, (28(78)) (35%) patients experienced one or more ISE. Most of ISE (87%) were mild and consisted of nausea (5), dizziness/vertigo (5), seizures (7) and new persistent headaches (17). Two episodes of worsening neurological deficit and 2 of orbital pain were graded as moderate. Two patients experienced severe ISE, requiring hospitalization (1 seizure and 1 worsening neurological deficit). ISE in 5 cases prompted computerized tomography of the brain which revealed increased perilesional edema in 3 cases. The incidence of ISE by diagnosis was as follows: 46% ((6(13))) for gliomas, 50% ((6(12))) for acoustic neuromas, 36% ((4(11))) for AVM, 33% ((5(15))) for meningiomas and 21% ((4(19))) for metastases. Increasing dose to the margin and increasing maximum dose were associated with a higher incidence of ISE (p=0.02 and 0.005, respectively). Prior recent conventional external beam radiation therapy, target volume, number of isocenters, collimator size, dose

New Riemannian Priors on the Univariate Normal Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Salem Said

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The current paper introduces new prior distributions on the univariate normal model, with the aim of applying them to the classification of univariate normal populations. These new prior distributions are entirely based on the Riemannian geometry of the univariate normal model, so that they can be thought of as “Riemannian priors”. Precisely, if {pθ ; θ ∈ Θ} is any parametrization of the univariate normal model, the paper considers prior distributions G( θ - , γ with hyperparameters θ - ∈ Θ and γ > 0, whose density with respect to Riemannian volume is proportional to exp(−d2(θ, θ - /2γ2, where d2(θ, θ - is the square of Rao’s Riemannian distance. The distributions G( θ - , γ are termed Gaussian distributions on the univariate normal model. The motivation for considering a distribution G( θ - , γ is that this distribution gives a geometric representation of a class or cluster of univariate normal populations. Indeed, G( θ - , γ has a unique mode θ - (precisely, θ - is the unique Riemannian center of mass of G( θ - , γ, as shown in the paper, and its dispersion away from θ - is given by γ.  Therefore, one thinks of members of the class represented by G( θ - , γ as being centered around θ - and  lying within a typical  distance determined by γ. The paper defines rigorously the Gaussian distributions G( θ - , γ and describes an algorithm for computing maximum likelihood estimates of their hyperparameters. Based on this algorithm and on the Laplace approximation, it describes how the distributions G( θ - , γ can be used as prior distributions for Bayesian classification of large univariate normal populations. In a concrete application to texture image classification, it is shown that  this  leads  to  an  improvement  in  performance  over  the  use  of  conjugate  priors.

Buccal bone loss after immediate implantation can be reduced by the flapless approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ARTHUR BELÉM NOVAES JR

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the buccal bone remodeling after immediate implantation with flap or flapless approach. Material and Methods: The mandibular bilateral premolars of 3 dogs were extracted and immediately three implants were placed in both hemi-arches of each dog. Randomly, one hemi-arch was treated with the flapless approach, while in the contra lateral hemi-arch tooth extractions and implant placement were done after mucoperiosteal flap elevation. Non-submerged healing of 12 weeks was provided for both groups. Histomorphometric analysis was done to compare buccal and lingual bone height loss, bone density and bone-to-implant contact in the groups. Fluorescence analysis was performed to investigate the dynamic of bone remodeling in the different groups. Results: There was a significant association between the surgical flap and the extent of bone resorption around immediate implants. The loss of buccal bone height was significantly lower in the flapless group when compared to the flap group (0.98 mm x 2.14 mm, respectively, p<0.05. The coronal and apical buccal bone densities of the flap group were significantly higher when compared to the lingual components, showing anatomical differences between the bone plates. Fluorescence analysis showed no major differences in bone healing between the flap and flapless groups, supporting that the higher loss of buccal bone height is linked to the anatomic characteristics of this plate and to the negative influence of the detachment of the periosteum in immediate implant therapy. Conclusion: The flapless approach for immediate post-extraction implants reduces the buccal bone height loss.

Is "Learning" episodic memory? Distinct cognitive and neuroanatomic correlates of immediate recall during learning trials in neurologically normal aging and neurodegenerative cohorts.

Science.gov (United States)

Casaletto, K B; Marx, G; Dutt, S; Neuhaus, J; Saloner, R; Kritikos, L; Miller, B; Kramer, J H

2017-07-28

Although commonly interpreted as a marker of episodic memory during neuropsychological exams, relatively little is known regarding the neurobehavior of "total learning" immediate recall scores. Medial temporal lobes are clearly associated with delayed recall performances, yet immediate recall may necessitate networks beyond traditional episodic memory. We aimed to operationalize cognitive and neuroanatomic correlates of total immediate recall in several aging syndromes. Demographically-matched neurologically normal adults (n=91), individuals with Alzheimer's disease (n=566), logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (PPA) (n=34), behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (n=97), semantic variant PPA (n=71), or nonfluent/agrammatic variant PPA (n=39) completed a neurocognitive battery, including the CVLT-Short Form trials 1-4 Total Immediate Recall; a majority subset also completed a brain MRI. Regressions covaried for age and sex, and MMSE in cognitive and total intracranial volume in neuroanatomic models. Neurologically normal adults demonstrated a heterogeneous pattern of cognitive associations with total immediate recall (executive, speed, delayed recall), such that no singular cognitive or neuroanatomic correlate uniquely predicted performance. Within the clinical cohorts, there were syndrome-specific cognitive and neural associations with total immediate recall; e.g., semantic processing was the strongest cognitive correlate in svPPA (partial r=0.41), while frontal volumes was the only meaningful neural correlate in bvFTD (partial r=0.20). Medial temporal lobes were not independently associated with total immediate recall in any group (ps>0.05). Multiple neurobehavioral systems are associated with "total learning" immediate recall scores that importantly differ across distinct clinical syndromes. Conventional memory networks may not be sufficient or even importantly contribute to total immediate recall in many syndromes. Interpreting learning scores as

Immediate outcome indicators in perioperative care: a controlled intervention study on quality improvement in hospitals in Tanzania.

Science.gov (United States)

Bosse, Goetz; Mtatifikolo, Ferdinand; Abels, Wiltrud; Strosing, Christian; Breuer, Jan-Philipp; Spies, Claudia

2013-01-01

Outcome assessment is the standard for evaluating the quality of health services worldwide. In this study, outcome has been divided into immediate and final outcome. Aim was to compare an intervention hospital with a Continuous Quality Improvement approach to a control group using benchmark assessments of immediate outcome indicators in surgical care. Results were compared to final outcome indicators. Surgical care quality in six hospitals in Tanzania was assessed from 2006-2011, using the Hospital Performance Assessment Tool. Independent observers assessed structural, process and outcome quality using checklists based on evidence-based guidelines. The number of surgical key procedures over the benchmark of 80% was compared between the intervention hospital and the control group. Results were compared to Case Fatality Rates. In the intervention hospital, in 2006, two of nine key procedures reached the benchmark, one in 2009, and four in 2011. In the control group, one of nine key procedures reached the benchmark in 2006, one in 2009, and none in 2011. Case Fatality Rate for all in-patients in the intervention hospital was 5.5% (n = 12,530) in 2006, 3.5% (n = 21,114) in 2009 and 4.6% (n = 18,840) in 2011. In the control group it was 3.1% (n = 17,827) in 2006, 4.2% (n = 13,632) in 2009 and 3.8% (n = 17,059) in 2011. Results demonstrated that quality assurance improved performance levels in both groups. After the introduction of Continuous Quality Improvement, performance levels improved further in the intervention hospital while quality in the district hospital did not. Immediate outcome indicators appeared to be a better steering tool for quality improvement compared to final outcome indicators. Immediate outcome indicators revealed a need for improvement in pre- and postoperative care. Quality assurance programs based on immediate outcome indicators can be effective if embedded in Continuous Quality Improvement. Nevertheless, final outcome

Savings for visuomotor adaptation require prior history of error, not prior repetition of successful actions.

Science.gov (United States)

Leow, Li-Ann; de Rugy, Aymar; Marinovic, Welber; Riek, Stephan; Carroll, Timothy J

2016-10-01

When we move, perturbations to our body or the environment can elicit discrepancies between predicted and actual outcomes. We readily adapt movements to compensate for such discrepancies, and the retention of this learning is evident as savings, or faster readaptation to a previously encountered perturbation. The mechanistic processes contributing to savings, or even the necessary conditions for savings, are not fully understood. One theory suggests that savings requires increased sensitivity to previously experienced errors: when perturbations evoke a sequence of correlated errors, we increase our sensitivity to the errors experienced, which subsequently improves error correction (Herzfeld et al. 2014). An alternative theory suggests that a memory of actions is necessary for savings: when an action becomes associated with successful target acquisition through repetition, that action is more rapidly retrieved at subsequent learning (Huang et al. 2011). In the present study, to better understand the necessary conditions for savings, we tested how savings is affected by prior experience of similar errors and prior repetition of the action required to eliminate errors using a factorial design. Prior experience of errors induced by a visuomotor rotation in the savings block was either prevented at initial learning by gradually removing an oppositely signed perturbation or enforced by abruptly removing the perturbation. Prior repetition of the action required to eliminate errors in the savings block was either deprived or enforced by manipulating target location in preceding trials. The data suggest that prior experience of errors is both necessary and sufficient for savings, whereas prior repetition of a successful action is neither necessary nor sufficient for savings. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Neutrino masses and their ordering: global data, priors and models

Science.gov (United States)

Gariazzo, S.; Archidiacono, M.; de Salas, P. F.; Mena, O.; Ternes, C. A.; Tórtola, M.

2018-03-01

We present a full Bayesian analysis of the combination of current neutrino oscillation, neutrinoless double beta decay and Cosmic Microwave Background observations. Our major goal is to carefully investigate the possibility to single out one neutrino mass ordering, namely Normal Ordering or Inverted Ordering, with current data. Two possible parametrizations (three neutrino masses versus the lightest neutrino mass plus the two oscillation mass splittings) and priors (linear versus logarithmic) are exhaustively examined. We find that the preference for NO is only driven by neutrino oscillation data. Moreover, the values of the Bayes factor indicate that the evidence for NO is strong only when the scan is performed over the three neutrino masses with logarithmic priors; for every other combination of parameterization and prior, the preference for NO is only weak. As a by-product of our Bayesian analyses, we are able to (a) compare the Bayesian bounds on the neutrino mixing parameters to those obtained by means of frequentist approaches, finding a very good agreement; (b) determine that the lightest neutrino mass plus the two mass splittings parametrization, motivated by the physical observables, is strongly preferred over the three neutrino mass eigenstates scan and (c) find that logarithmic priors guarantee a weakly-to-moderately more efficient sampling of the parameter space. These results establish the optimal strategy to successfully explore the neutrino parameter space, based on the use of the oscillation mass splittings and a logarithmic prior on the lightest neutrino mass, when combining neutrino oscillation data with cosmology and neutrinoless double beta decay. We also show that the limits on the total neutrino mass ∑ mν can change dramatically when moving from one prior to the other. These results have profound implications for future studies on the neutrino mass ordering, as they crucially state the need for self-consistent analyses which explore the

Systemic Immediate Hypersensitive Reactions after Treatment with Sweet Bee Venom: A Case Report

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NaYoung Jo

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Objectives: A previous study showed that bee venom (BV could cause anaphylaxis or other hypersensitivity reactions. Although hypersensitivity reactions due to sweet bee venom (SBV have been reported, SBV has been reported to be associated with significantly reduced sensitization compared to BV. Although no systemic immediate hypersensitive response accompanied by abnormal vital signs has been reported with respect to SBV, we report a systemic immediate hypersensitive response that we experienced while trying to use SBV clinically. Methods: The patient had undergone BV treatment several times at other Oriental medicine clinics and had experienced no adverse reactions. She came to acupuncture & moxibustion department at Semyung university hospital of Oriental medicine (Je-cheon, Korea complaining of facial hypoesthesia and was treated using SBV injections, her first SBV treatment. SBV, 0.05 cc, was injected at each of 8 acupoints, for a total of 0.40 cc: Jichang (ST4, Daeyeong (ST5, Hyeopgeo (ST6, Hagwan (ST7, Yepung (TE17, Imun (TE21, Cheonghoe (GB2, and Gwallyeo (SI18. Results: The patient showed systemic immediate hypersensitive reactions. The main symptoms were abdominal pain, nausea and perspiration, but common symptoms associated with hypersensitivity, such as edema, were mild. Abdominal pain was the most long-lasting symptom and was accompanied by nausea. Her body temperature decreased due to sweating. Her diastolic blood pressure could not be measured on three occasions. She remained alert, though the symptoms persisted. The following treatments were conducted in sequence; intramuscular epinephrine, 1 mg/mL, injection, intramuscular dexamethasone, 5 mg/mL, injection, intramuscular buscopan, 20 mg/mL, injection, oxygen (O2 inhalation therapy, 1 L/minutes, via a nasal prong, and intravascular injection of normal saline, 1 L. After 12 hours of treatment, the symptoms had completely disappeared. Conclusion: This case shows that the use of SBV

Quantitative utilization of prior biological knowledge in the Bayesian network modeling of gene expression data

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Gao Shouguo

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Bayesian Network (BN is a powerful approach to reconstructing genetic regulatory networks from gene expression data. However, expression data by itself suffers from high noise and lack of power. Incorporating prior biological knowledge can improve the performance. As each type of prior knowledge on its own may be incomplete or limited by quality issues, integrating multiple sources of prior knowledge to utilize their consensus is desirable. Results We introduce a new method to incorporate the quantitative information from multiple sources of prior knowledge. It first uses the Naïve Bayesian classifier to assess the likelihood of functional linkage between gene pairs based on prior knowledge. In this study we included cocitation in PubMed and schematic similarity in Gene Ontology annotation. A candidate network edge reservoir is then created in which the copy number of each edge is proportional to the estimated likelihood of linkage between the two corresponding genes. In network simulation the Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling algorithm is adopted, and samples from this reservoir at each iteration to generate new candidate networks. We evaluated the new algorithm using both simulated and real gene expression data including that from a yeast cell cycle and a mouse pancreas development/growth study. Incorporating prior knowledge led to a ~2 fold increase in the number of known transcription regulations recovered, without significant change in false positive rate. In contrast, without the prior knowledge BN modeling is not always better than a random selection, demonstrating the necessity in network modeling to supplement the gene expression data with additional information. Conclusion our new development provides a statistical means to utilize the quantitative information in prior biological knowledge in the BN modeling of gene expression data, which significantly improves the performance.

Immediate placement of endosseous implants into the extraction sockets.

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Ebenezer, Vijay; Balakrishnan, K; Asir, R Vigil Dev; Sragunar, Banu

2015-04-01

Implant by definition "means any object or material, such as an alloplastic substance or other tissue, which is partial or completely inserted into the body for therapeutic, diagnostic, prosthetic, or experimental purpose." The placement of a dental implant in an extraction socket at the time of extraction or explantation is known as immediate implant placement whereas delayed placement of implant signifies the implant placement in edentulous areas where healing has completed with new bone formation after the loss of tooth/teeth. Recent idea goes by "why late when it can be done immediately." There are several advantages of immediate placement of implants, and lots of studies have been done. In this article, the advantages and disadvantages of immediate versus delayed placement of implants have been reviewed.

9 CFR 93.316 - Horses from Canada for immediate slaughter.

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2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Horses from Canada for immediate...; REQUIREMENTS FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Horses Canada 16 § 93.316 Horses from Canada for immediate slaughter. Horses imported from Canada for immediate slaughter shall be consigned from the port of...

Long-term outcomes after immediate aortic repair for acute type A aortic dissection complicated by coma.

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Tsukube, Takuro; Haraguchi, Tomonori; Okada, Yasushi; Matsukawa, Ritsu; Kozawa, Shuichi; Ogawa, Kyoichi; Okita, Yutaka

2014-09-01

The management of acute type A aortic dissection complicated by coma remains controversial. We previously reported an excellent rate of recovery of consciousness provided aortic repair was performed within 5 hours of the onset of symptoms. This study evaluates the early and long-term outcomes using this approach. Between August 2003 and July 2013, of the 241 patients with acute type A aortic dissection brought to the Japanese Red Cross Kobe Hospital and Hyogo Emergency Medical Center, 30 (12.4%) presented with coma; Glasgow Coma Scale was less than 11 on arrival. Surgery was performed in 186 patients, including 27 (14.5%) who were comatose. Twenty-four comatose patients underwent successful aortic repair immediately (immediate group). Their mean age was 71.0 ± 11.1 years, Glasgow Coma Scale was 6.5 ± 2.4, and prevalence of carotid dissection was 79%. For brain protection, deep hypothermia with antegrade cerebral perfusion was used, and postoperative induced hypothermia was performed. Neurologic evaluations were performed using the Glasgow Coma Scale, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, and modified Rankin Scale. In the immediate group, the time from the onset of symptoms to arrival in the operating theater was 222 ± 86 minutes. Hospital mortality was 12.5%. Full recovery of consciousness was achieved in 79% of patients in up to 30 days. Postoperative Glasgow Coma Scale and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale improved significantly when compared with the preoperative score (P coma were satisfactory. Copyright © 2014 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Immediate extinction promotes the return of fear.

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Merz, Christian J; Hamacher-Dang, Tanja C; Wolf, Oliver T

2016-05-01

Accumulating evidence indicates that immediate extinction is less effective than delayed extinction in attenuating the return of fear. This line of fear conditioning research impacts the proposed onset of psychological interventions after threatening situations. In the present study, forty healthy men were investigated in a differential fear conditioning paradigm with fear acquisition in context A, extinction in context B, followed by retrieval testing in both contexts 24h later to test fear renewal. Differently coloured lights served as conditioned stimuli (CS): two CS (CS+) were paired with an electrical stimulation that served as unconditioned stimulus, the third CS was never paired (CS-). Extinction took place immediately after fear acquisition or 24h later. One CS+ was extinguished whereas the second CS+ remained unextinguished to control for different time intervals between fear acquisition and retrieval testing. Immediate extinction led to larger skin conductance responses during fear retrieval to both the extinguished and unextinguished CS relative to the CS-, indicating a stronger return of fear compared to delayed extinction. Taken together, immediate extinction is less potent than delayed extinction and is associated with a stronger renewal effect. Thus, the time-point of psychological interventions relative to the offset of threatening situations needs to be carefully considered to prevent relapses. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effects of for-profit multihospital system ownership on hospital financial and operating performance.

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Lynch, J R; McCue, M J

1990-11-01

The financial and operating performance of independent not-for-profit hospitals acquired by US for-profit multi-hospital systems in 10 Southern states between the years 1978 and 1982 was explored. The impact of system ownership on acquired hospitals was investigated by comparing the average financial performance of hospitals in the two years immediately prior to acquisition to the average for 1984 and 1985 and by comparing changes in the performance of acquired hospitals with changes in matched independent facilities. Findings suggest that for-profit multi-hospital systems were able to improve many of the financial and operating problems of acquired facilities. In comparison to independent not-for-profit hospitals, acquired hospitals were found to increase access to long-term debt, make improvements to plant and equipment, improve profitability, and increase efficiency to a greater extent. Prices in acquired hospitals rose more than those in independents and liquidity decreased to a greater extent.

Divergent Priors and well Behaved Bayes Factors

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R.W. Strachan (Rodney); H.K. van Dijk (Herman)

2011-01-01

textabstractDivergent priors are improper when defined on unbounded supports. Bartlett's paradox has been taken to imply that using improper priors results in ill-defined Bayes factors, preventing model comparison by posterior probabilities. However many improper priors have attractive properties

Evaluating the use of prior information under different pacing conditions on aircraft inspection performance: The use of virtual reality technology

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Bowling, Shannon Raye

The aircraft maintenance industry is a complex system consisting of human and machine components, because of this; much emphasis has been placed on improving aircraft-inspection performance. One proven technique for improving inspection performance is the use of training. There are several strategies that have been implemented for training, one of which is feedforward information. The use of prior information (feedforward) is known to positively affect inspection performance. This information can consist of knowledge about defect characteristics (types, severity/criticality, and location) and the probability of occurrence. Although several studies have been conducted that demonstrate the usefulness of feedforward as a training strategy, there are certain research issues that need to be addressed. This study evaluates the effect of feedforward information in a simulated 3-dimensional environment by the use of virtual reality. A controlled study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of feedforward information in a simulated aircraft inspection environment. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase evaluated the difference between general and detailed inspection at different pacing levels. The second phase evaluated the effect of feedforward information pertaining to severity, probability and location. Analyses of the results showed that subjects performing detailed inspection performed significantly better than while performing general inspection. Pacing also had the effect of reducing performance for both general and detailed inspection. The study also found that as the level of feedforward information increases, performance also increases. In addition to evaluating performance measures, the study also evaluated process and subjective measures. It was found that process measures such as number of fixation points, fixation groups, mean fixation duration, and percent area covered were all affected by the treatment levels. Analyses of the subjective

Relationship between concussion history and neurocognitive test performance in National Football League draft picks.

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Solomon, Gary S; Kuhn, Andrew

2014-04-01

There are limited empirical data available regarding the relationship between concussion history and neurocognitive functioning in active National Football League (NFL) players in general and NFL draft picks in particular. Potential NFL draft picks undergo 2 neurocognitive tests at the National Invitational Camp (Scouting Combine) every year: the Wonderlic and, since 2011, the Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT). After conclusion of the combine and before the draft, NFL teams invite potential draft picks to their headquarters for individual visits where further assessment may occur. To examine the relationship between concussion history and neurocognitive performance (ImPACT and Wonderlic) in a sample of elite NFL draft picks. Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Over 7 years, 226 potential draft picks were invited to visit a specific NFL team's headquarters after the combine. The athletes were divided into 3 groups based on self-reported concussion history: no prior concussions, 1 prior concussion, and 2 or more prior concussions. Neurocognitive measures of interest included Wonderlic scores (provided by the NFL team) and ImPACT composite scores (administered either at the combine or during a visit to the team headquarters). The relationship between concussion history and neurocognitive scores was assessed, as were the relationships among the 2 neurocognitive tests. Concussion history had no relationship to neurocognitive performance on either the Wonderlic or ImPACT. Concussion history did not affect performance on either neurocognitive test, suggesting that for this cohort, a history of concussion may not have adverse effects on neurocognitive functioning as measured by these 2 tests. This study reveals no correlation between concussion history and neurocognitive test scores (ImPACT, Wonderlic) in soon-to-be active NFL athletes.

Immediate improvement of motor function after epilepsy surgery in congenital hemiparesis.

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Pascoal, Tharick; Paglioli, Eliseu; Palmini, André; Menezes, Rafael; Staudt, Martin

2013-08-01

Hemispherectomy often leads to a loss of contralateral hand function. In some children with congenital hemiparesis, however, paretic hand function remains unchanged. An immediate improvement of hand function has never been reported. A 17-year-old boy with congenital hemiparesis and therapy-refractory seizures due to a large infarction in the territory of the middle cerebral artery underwent epilepsy surgery. Intraoperatively, electrical cortical stimulation of the affected hemisphere demonstrated preserved motor projections from the sensorimotor cortex to the (contralateral) paretic hand. A frontoparietal resection was performed, which included a complete disconnection of all motor projections originating in the sensorimotor cortex of the affected hemisphere. Surprisingly, the paretic hand showed a significant functional improvement immediately after the operation. This observation demonstrates that, in congenital hemiparesis, crossed motor projections from the affected hemisphere are not always beneficial, but can be dysfunctional, interfering with ipsilateral motor control over the paretic hand by the contralesional hemisphere. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2013 International League Against Epilepsy.

Teaching leadership in trauma resuscitation: Immediate feedback from a real-time, competency-based evaluation tool shows long-term improvement in resident performance.

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Gregg, Shea C; Heffernan, Daithi S; Connolly, Michael D; Stephen, Andrew H; Leuckel, Stephanie N; Harrington, David T; Machan, Jason T; Adams, Charles A; Cioffi, William G

2016-10-01

Limited data exist on how to develop resident leadership and communication skills during actual trauma resuscitations. An evaluation tool was developed to grade senior resident performance as the team leader during full-trauma-team activations. Thirty actions that demonstrated the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies were graded on a Likert scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (exceptional). These actions were grouped by their respective core competencies on 5 × 7-inch index cards. In Phase 1, baseline performance scores were obtained. In Phase 2, trauma-focused communication in-services were conducted early in the academic year, and immediate, personalized feedback sessions were performed after resuscitations based on the evaluation tool. In Phase 3, residents received only evaluation-based feedback following resuscitations. In Phase 1 (October 2009 to April 2010), 27 evaluations were performed on 10 residents. In Phase 2 (April 2010 to October 2010), 28 evaluations were performed on nine residents. In Phase 3 (October 2010 to January 2012), 44 evaluations were performed on 13 residents. Total scores improved significantly between Phases 1 and 2 (p = 0.003) and remained elevated throughout Phase 3. When analyzing performance by competency, significant improvement between Phases 1 and 2 (p competencies (patient care, knowledge, system-based practice, practice-based learning) with the exception of "communication and professionalism" (p = 0.56). Statistically similar scores were observed between Phases 2 and 3 in all competencies with the exception of "medical knowledge," which showed ongoing significant improvement (p = 0.003). Directed resident feedback sessions utilizing data from a real-time, competency-based evaluation tool have allowed us to improve our residents' abilities to lead trauma resuscitations over a 30-month period. Given pressures to maximize clinical educational opportunities among work-hour constraints, such a model may help

Apples and oranges: avoiding different priors in Bayesian DNA sequence analysis

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Posch Stefan

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background One of the challenges of bioinformatics remains the recognition of short signal sequences in genomic DNA such as donor or acceptor splice sites, splicing enhancers or silencers, translation initiation sites, transcription start sites, transcription factor binding sites, nucleosome binding sites, miRNA binding sites, or insulator binding sites. During the last decade, a wealth of algorithms for the recognition of such DNA sequences has been developed and compared with the goal of improving their performance and to deepen our understanding of the underlying cellular processes. Most of these algorithms are based on statistical models belonging to the family of Markov random fields such as position weight matrix models, weight array matrix models, Markov models of higher order, or moral Bayesian networks. While in many comparative studies different learning principles or different statistical models have been compared, the influence of choosing different prior distributions for the model parameters when using different learning principles has been overlooked, and possibly lead to questionable conclusions. Results With the goal of allowing direct comparisons of different learning principles for models from the family of Markov random fields based on the same a-priori information, we derive a generalization of the commonly-used product-Dirichlet prior. We find that the derived prior behaves like a Gaussian prior close to the maximum and like a Laplace prior in the far tails. In two case studies, we illustrate the utility of the derived prior for a direct comparison of different learning principles with different models for the recognition of binding sites of the transcription factor Sp1 and human donor splice sites. Conclusions We find that comparisons of different learning principles using the same a-priori information can lead to conclusions different from those of previous studies in which the effect resulting from different

Immediate placement of endosseous implants into the extraction sockets

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Vijay Ebenezer

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Implant by definition "means any object or material, such as an alloplastic substance or other tissue, which is partial or completely inserted into the body for therapeutic, diagnostic, prosthetic, or experimental purpose." The placement of a dental implant in an extraction socket at the time of extraction or explantation is known as immediate implant placement whereas delayed placement of implant signifies the implant placement in edentulous areas where healing has completed with new bone formation after the loss of tooth/teeth. Recent idea goes by "why late when it can be done immediately." There are several advantages of immediate placement of implants, and lots of studies have been done. In this article, the advantages and disadvantages of immediate versus delayed placement of implants have been reviewed.

Teaching genetics prior to teaching evolution improves evolution understanding but not acceptance

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Mead, Rebecca; Hejmadi, Momna

2017-01-01

What is the best way to teach evolution? As microevolution may be configured as a branch of genetics, it being a short conceptual leap from understanding the concepts of mutation and alleles (i.e., genetics) to allele frequency change (i.e., evolution), we hypothesised that learning genetics prior to evolution might improve student understanding of evolution. In the UK, genetics and evolution are typically taught to 14- to 16-y-old secondary school students as separate topics with few links, in no particular order and sometimes with a large time span between. Here, then, we report the results of a large trial into teaching order of evolution and genetics. We modified extant questionnaires to ascertain students’ understanding of evolution and genetics along with acceptance of evolution. Students were assessed prior to teaching, immediately post teaching and again after several months. Teachers were not instructed what to teach, just to teach in a given order. Regardless of order, teaching increased understanding and acceptance, with robust signs of longer-term retention. Importantly, teaching genetics before teaching evolution has a significant (p Teaching genetics first additionally had positive effects on genetics understanding, by increasing knowledge. These results suggest a simple, minimally disruptive, zero-cost intervention to improve evolution understanding: teach genetics first. This same alteration does not, however, result in a significantly increased acceptance of evolution, which reflects a weak correlation between knowledge and acceptance of evolution. Qualitative focus group data highlights the role of authority figures in determination of acceptance. PMID:28542179

Teaching genetics prior to teaching evolution improves evolution understanding but not acceptance.

Science.gov (United States)

Mead, Rebecca; Hejmadi, Momna; Hurst, Laurence D

2017-05-01

What is the best way to teach evolution? As microevolution may be configured as a branch of genetics, it being a short conceptual leap from understanding the concepts of mutation and alleles (i.e., genetics) to allele frequency change (i.e., evolution), we hypothesised that learning genetics prior to evolution might improve student understanding of evolution. In the UK, genetics and evolution are typically taught to 14- to 16-y-old secondary school students as separate topics with few links, in no particular order and sometimes with a large time span between. Here, then, we report the results of a large trial into teaching order of evolution and genetics. We modified extant questionnaires to ascertain students' understanding of evolution and genetics along with acceptance of evolution. Students were assessed prior to teaching, immediately post teaching and again after several months. Teachers were not instructed what to teach, just to teach in a given order. Regardless of order, teaching increased understanding and acceptance, with robust signs of longer-term retention. Importantly, teaching genetics before teaching evolution has a significant (p genetics was taught first. Teaching genetics first additionally had positive effects on genetics understanding, by increasing knowledge. These results suggest a simple, minimally disruptive, zero-cost intervention to improve evolution understanding: teach genetics first. This same alteration does not, however, result in a significantly increased acceptance of evolution, which reflects a weak correlation between knowledge and acceptance of evolution. Qualitative focus group data highlights the role of authority figures in determination of acceptance.

Herpes simplex virus-2 transmission following solid organ transplantation: Donor-derived infection and transplantation from prior organ recipients.

Science.gov (United States)

Macesic, Nenad; Abbott, Iain J; Kaye, Matthew; Druce, Julian; Glanville, Allan R; Gow, Paul J; Hughes, Peter D; Korman, Tony M; Mulley, William R; O'Connell, Phillip J; Opdam, Helen; Paraskeva, Miranda; Pitman, Matthew C; Setyapranata, Stella; Rawlinson, William D; Johnson, Paul D R

2017-10-01

Owing to limited availability of donor organs, previous solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients are increasingly considered as potential organ donors. We report donor-derived transmission of herpes simplex virus type-2 (HSV-2) to two clusters of SOT recipients with transmission from the original donor and an HSV-2-infected recipient who subsequently became a donor. We reviewed medical records of the donors and recipients in both clusters. Pre-transplant serology and virological features of HSV-2 were characterized. Genotyping of HSV-2 isolates to determine potential for donor transmission of HSV-2 through transplantation of organs from prior organ recipients was performed. A kidney-pancreas recipient died day 9 post transplant. Following confirmation of brain death, the lungs and recently transplanted kidney were donated to two further recipients. The liver was not retrieved, but biopsy confirmed HSV-2 infection. Testing on the original donor showed negative HSV-2 polymerase chain reaction and HSV immunoglobulin (Ig)M, but positive HSV-2 IgG. The liver recipient from the original donor developed HSV-2 hepatitis and cutaneous infection that responded to treatment with intravenous acyclovir. In the second cluster, lung and kidney recipients both developed HSV-2 viremia that was successfully treated with antiviral therapy. Genotyping of all HSV-2-positive samples showed 100% sequence homology for three recipients. Donor-derived HSV infection affected two clusters of recipients because of transplantation of organs from a prior organ recipient. HSV should be considered as a possible cause of illness in febrile SOT recipients in the immediate post-transplant period and may cause disseminated disease and re-infection in HSV-2-seropositive recipients. Testing of HSV serology and prophylaxis may be considered in SOT recipients not receiving cytomegalovirus prophylaxis. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Own and Others' Prior Experiences Influence Children's Imitation of Causal Acts.

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Williamson, Rebecca A; Meltzoff, Andrew N

2011-07-01

Young children learn from others' examples, and they do so selectively. We examine whether the efficacy of prior experiences influences children's imitation. Thirty-six-month-olds had initial experience on a causal learning task either by performing the task themselves or by watching an adult perform it. The nature of the experience was manipulated such that the actor had either an easy or a difficult experience completing the task. Next, a second adult demonstrated an innovative technique for completing it. Children who had a difficult first-person experience, and those who had witnessed another person having difficulty, were significantly more likely to adopt and imitate the adult's innovation than those who had or witnessed an easy experience. Children who observed another were also more likely to imitate than were those who had the initial experience themselves. Imitation is influenced by prior experience, both when it is obtained through one's own hands-on motor manipulation and when it derives from observing the acts of others.

Is free, prior and informed consent a form of corporate social responsibility?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rodhouse, Toyah; Vanclay, Frank

2016-01-01

International organizations are increasingly including Indigenous peoples' rights and the concept of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in their guidance documents, codes of conduct, and performance standards. Leading companies are adjusting their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and

Comparison of immediate implant placement in infected and non-infected extraction sockets: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jungwon; Park, Dueun; Koo, Ki-Tae; Seol, Yang-Jo; Lee, Yong-Moo

2018-04-03

This review aimed to investigate the feasibility of immediate implant placement in infected extraction sockets. We performed electronic and manual searches up to March 2017 to obtain data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and nonrandomized controlled clinical trials (CCTs). Using a fixed-effects model to assess the difference in survival rate (primary outcome), we evaluated the risk difference for immediate implant placement in infected and non-infected sites. We estimated the weighted mean differences (WMDs) of the change in marginal bone loss (MBL), probing depth (PD), modified bleeding index (mBI), marginal gingival level (MGL) and width of keratinized gingiva (WKG) at baseline and latest follow-up. In total, five studies (0 RCT, five CCTs) were included in the systematic review and three studies were included in the meta-analysis. The risk difference for immediate implant placement in an infected extraction socket compared with that in a non-infected socket was -0.02. WMDs for MBL, PD, mBI, MGL and WKG between the two groups were 0.32, 0.12, 0.07, -0.06, 0.20 and 0.51, respectively. No statistical differences were observed between the two groups, except for the change in WKG. Implants can be placed in infected extraction sockets after thorough socket debridement. For aesthetics, WKG should be considered when performing immediate implant placement in infected sites.

Rapid sampling of molecular motions with prior information constraints.

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Raveh, Barak; Enosh, Angela; Schueler-Furman, Ora; Halperin, Dan

2009-02-01

Proteins are active, flexible machines that perform a range of different functions. Innovative experimental approaches may now provide limited partial information about conformational changes along motion pathways of proteins. There is therefore a need for computational approaches that can efficiently incorporate prior information into motion prediction schemes. In this paper, we present PathRover, a general setup designed for the integration of prior information into the motion planning algorithm of rapidly exploring random trees (RRT). Each suggested motion pathway comprises a sequence of low-energy clash-free conformations that satisfy an arbitrary number of prior information constraints. These constraints can be derived from experimental data or from expert intuition about the motion. The incorporation of prior information is very straightforward and significantly narrows down the vast search in the typically high-dimensional conformational space, leading to dramatic reduction in running time. To allow the use of state-of-the-art energy functions and conformational sampling, we have integrated this framework into Rosetta, an accurate protocol for diverse types of structural modeling. The suggested framework can serve as an effective complementary tool for molecular dynamics, Normal Mode Analysis, and other prevalent techniques for predicting motion in proteins. We applied our framework to three different model systems. We show that a limited set of experimentally motivated constraints may effectively bias the simulations toward diverse predicates in an outright fashion, from distance constraints to enforcement of loop closure. In particular, our analysis sheds light on mechanisms of protein domain swapping and on the role of different residues in the motion.

Rapid sampling of molecular motions with prior information constraints.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barak Raveh

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Proteins are active, flexible machines that perform a range of different functions. Innovative experimental approaches may now provide limited partial information about conformational changes along motion pathways of proteins. There is therefore a need for computational approaches that can efficiently incorporate prior information into motion prediction schemes. In this paper, we present PathRover, a general setup designed for the integration of prior information into the motion planning algorithm of rapidly exploring random trees (RRT. Each suggested motion pathway comprises a sequence of low-energy clash-free conformations that satisfy an arbitrary number of prior information constraints. These constraints can be derived from experimental data or from expert intuition about the motion. The incorporation of prior information is very straightforward and significantly narrows down the vast search in the typically high-dimensional conformational space, leading to dramatic reduction in running time. To allow the use of state-of-the-art energy functions and conformational sampling, we have integrated this framework into Rosetta, an accurate protocol for diverse types of structural modeling. The suggested framework can serve as an effective complementary tool for molecular dynamics, Normal Mode Analysis, and other prevalent techniques for predicting motion in proteins. We applied our framework to three different model systems. We show that a limited set of experimentally motivated constraints may effectively bias the simulations toward diverse predicates in an outright fashion, from distance constraints to enforcement of loop closure. In particular, our analysis sheds light on mechanisms of protein domain swapping and on the role of different residues in the motion.

HIV Incidence Prior to, during, and after Violent Conflict in 36 Sub-Saharan African Nations, 1990-2012: An Ecological Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Bennett, Brady W; Marshall, Brandon D L; Gjelsvik, Annie; McGarvey, Stephen T; Lurie, Mark N

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine the association between violent conflict and HIV incidence within and across 36 sub-Saharan Africa countries between 1990 and 2012. We used generalized linear mixed effect modeling to estimate the effect of conflict periods on country-level HIV incidence. We specified random intercepts and slopes to account for across and within country variation over time. We also conducted a sub-analysis of countries who experienced conflict to assess the effect of conflict intensity on country-level HIV incidence. All models controlled for level of economic development, number of refugees present in the country, and year. We found that, compared to times of peace, the HIV incidence rate increased by 2.1 per 1000 infections per year (95%CI: 0.39, 3.87) in the 5 years prior to conflict. Additionally, we found a decrease of 0.7 new infections per 1000 people per year (95%CI: -1.44, -0.01) in conflicts with 25 to 1000 battle-related deaths and a decrease of 1.5 new infections per 1000 people per year (95%CI:-2.50, -0.52) for conflict with more than 1000 battle-related deaths, compared to conflicts with less than 25 battle-related deaths. Our results demonstrate that HIV infection rates increase in the years immediately prior to times of conflict; however, we did not identify a significant increase during and immediately following periods of violent conflict. Further investigation, including more rigorous data collection, is needed, as is increased aid to nations at risk of violent conflict to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

HIV Incidence Prior to, during, and after Violent Conflict in 36 Sub-Saharan African Nations, 1990-2012: An Ecological Study

Science.gov (United States)

Bennett, Brady W.; Marshall, Brandon D. L.; Gjelsvik, Annie; McGarvey, Stephen T.; Lurie, Mark N.

2015-01-01

Objectives The aim of this study was to determine the association between violent conflict and HIV incidence within and across 36 sub-Saharan Africa countries between 1990 and 2012. Methods We used generalized linear mixed effect modeling to estimate the effect of conflict periods on country-level HIV incidence. We specified random intercepts and slopes to account for across and within country variation over time. We also conducted a sub-analysis of countries who experienced conflict to assess the effect of conflict intensity on country-level HIV incidence. All models controlled for level of economic development, number of refugees present in the country, and year. Results We found that, compared to times of peace, the HIV incidence rate increased by 2.1 per 1000 infections per year (95%CI: 0.39, 3.87) in the 5 years prior to conflict. Additionally, we found a decrease of 0.7 new infections per 1000 people per year (95%CI: -1.44, -0.01) in conflicts with 25 to 1000 battle-related deaths and a decrease of 1.5 new infections per 1000 people per year (95%CI:-2.50, -0.52) for conflict with more than 1000 battle-related deaths, compared to conflicts with less than 25 battle-related deaths Conclusions Our results demonstrate that HIV infection rates increase in the years immediately prior to times of conflict; however, we did not identify a significant increase during and immediately following periods of violent conflict. Further investigation, including more rigorous data collection, is needed, as is increased aid to nations at risk of violent conflict to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. PMID:26562434

HIV Incidence Prior to, during, and after Violent Conflict in 36 Sub-Saharan African Nations, 1990-2012: An Ecological Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brady W Bennett

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to determine the association between violent conflict and HIV incidence within and across 36 sub-Saharan Africa countries between 1990 and 2012.We used generalized linear mixed effect modeling to estimate the effect of conflict periods on country-level HIV incidence. We specified random intercepts and slopes to account for across and within country variation over time. We also conducted a sub-analysis of countries who experienced conflict to assess the effect of conflict intensity on country-level HIV incidence. All models controlled for level of economic development, number of refugees present in the country, and year.We found that, compared to times of peace, the HIV incidence rate increased by 2.1 per 1000 infections per year (95%CI: 0.39, 3.87 in the 5 years prior to conflict. Additionally, we found a decrease of 0.7 new infections per 1000 people per year (95%CI: -1.44, -0.01 in conflicts with 25 to 1000 battle-related deaths and a decrease of 1.5 new infections per 1000 people per year (95%CI:-2.50, -0.52 for conflict with more than 1000 battle-related deaths, compared to conflicts with less than 25 battle-related deaths.Our results demonstrate that HIV infection rates increase in the years immediately prior to times of conflict; however, we did not identify a significant increase during and immediately following periods of violent conflict. Further investigation, including more rigorous data collection, is needed, as is increased aid to nations at risk of violent conflict to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

Anodal tDCS applied during multitasking training leads to transferable performance gains.

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Filmer, Hannah L; Lyons, Maxwell; Mattingley, Jason B; Dux, Paul E

2017-10-11

Cognitive training can lead to performance improvements that are specific to the tasks trained. Recent research has suggested that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied during training of a simple response-selection paradigm can broaden performance benefits to an untrained task. Here we assessed the impact of combined tDCS and training on multitasking, stimulus-response mapping specificity, response-inhibition, and spatial attention performance in a cohort of healthy adults. Participants trained over four days with concurrent tDCS - anodal, cathodal, or sham - applied to the left prefrontal cortex. Immediately prior to, 1 day after, and 2 weeks after training, performance was assessed on the trained multitasking paradigm, an untrained multitasking paradigm, a go/no-go inhibition task, and a visual search task. Training combined with anodal tDCS, compared with training plus cathodal or sham stimulation, enhanced performance for the untrained multitasking paradigm and visual search tasks. By contrast, there were no training benefits for the go/no-go task. Our findings demonstrate that anodal tDCS combined with multitasking training can extend to untrained multitasking paradigms as well as spatial attention, but with no extension to the domain of response inhibition.

Efficacy of an Ice Popsicle on Thirst Management in the Immediate Postoperative Period: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

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Conchon, Marilia Ferrari; Fonseca, Ligia Fahl

2018-04-01

Perioperative thirst is an intense discomfort with high incidence in the immediate postoperative period, but nonetheless, it is highly neglected in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an ice popsicle compared with water at room temperature for thirst relief in the immediate postoperative period in terms of variation in the intensity of the initial compared with the final thirst and the satiety reached after an hour of evaluation and intervention. A parallel randomized clinical trial was used. A total of 208 patients in the immediate postoperative period were assessed for 1 hour, every 15 minutes. Thirst intensity was assessed initially and subsequently; interventions were performed according to the group: (1) control group, 10 mL of water at room temperature; and (2) experimental group, 10-mL ice popsicle. The ice popsicle was 37.8% (P popsicle has greater efficacy than water at room temperature for thirst management in the immediate postoperative period. Copyright © 2016 American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prior knowledge in recalling arguments in bioethical dilemmas

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Hiemke Katharina Schmidt

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Prior knowledge is known to facilitate learning new information. Normally in studies confirming this outcome the relationship between prior knowledge and the topic to be learned is obvious: the information to be acquired is part of the domain or topic to which the prior knowledge belongs. This raises the question as to whether prior knowledge of various domains facilitates recalling information. In this study 79 eleventh-grade students completed a questionnaire on their prior knowledge of seven different domains related to the bioethical dilemma of prenatal diagnostics. The students read a text containing arguments for and arguments against prenatal diagnostics. After one week and again 12 weeks later they were asked to write down all the arguments they remembered. Prior knowledge helped them recall the arguments one week (r = .350 and 12 weeks (r = .316 later. Prior knowledge of three of the seven domains significantly helped them recall the arguments one week later (correlations between r = .194 to r = .394. Partial correlations with interest as a control item revealed that interest did not explain the relationship between prior knowledge and recall. Prior knowledge of different domains jointly supports the recall of arguments related to bioethical topics.

Comparing standardized measures of diligence and achievement with dental student academic performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Jedrychowski, Joseph; Lindemann, Robert

2005-04-01

Utilizing a reliable and valid instrument to measure a student's application of energy and effort towards a goal (diligence) or the ability to reach goals (achievement) would enable dental educators to anticipate academic performance. This knowledge could be used to better distribute faculty and educational resources, as additional tutors could be provided for students who score low on diligence and achievement instruments. In this study, fourth-year dental students completed the Diligence Inventory and the NachNaff Scale (which measures desire to achieve) immediately prior to graduation. The scores from both inventories were correlated with nine measures of academic performance. For males, the NachNaff Scale positively correlated (pDiligence mean positively correlated with EPR and National Board Parts I and II scores. For females, the Total Diligence mean positively correlated with EPR and a predental biology-chemistry-physics grade composite. Given the simplicity of the Diligence Inventory and its significant correlations with academic performance demonstrated in this study, it appears to be a useful tool to gain insight into students' diligence in striving to obtain goals.

Testability evaluation using prior information of multiple sources

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Wang Chao; Qiu Jing; Liu Guanjun; Zhang Yong

2014-01-01

Testability plays an important role in improving the readiness and decreasing the life-cycle cost of equipment. Testability demonstration and evaluation is of significance in measuring such testability indexes as fault detection rate (FDR) and fault isolation rate (FIR), which is useful to the producer in mastering the testability level and improving the testability design, and helpful to the consumer in making purchase decisions. Aiming at the problems with a small sample of testabil-ity demonstration test data (TDTD) such as low evaluation confidence and inaccurate result, a test-ability evaluation method is proposed based on the prior information of multiple sources and Bayes theory. Firstly, the types of prior information are analyzed. The maximum entropy method is applied to the prior information with the mean and interval estimate forms on the testability index to obtain the parameters of prior probability density function (PDF), and the empirical Bayesian method is used to get the parameters for the prior information with a success-fail form. Then, a parametrical data consistency check method is used to check the compatibility between all the sources of prior information and TDTD. For the prior information to pass the check, the prior credibility is calculated. A mixed prior distribution is formed based on the prior PDFs and the corresponding credibility. The Bayesian posterior distribution model is acquired with the mixed prior distribution and TDTD, based on which the point and interval estimates are calculated. Finally, examples of a flying control system are used to verify the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method is feasible and effective.

Clinical utility of carotid duplex ultrasound prior to cardiac surgery.

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Lin, Judith C; Kabbani, Loay S; Peterson, Edward L; Masabni, Khalil; Morgan, Jeffrey A; Brooks, Sara; Wertella, Kathleen P; Paone, Gaetano

2016-03-01

Clinical utility and cost-effectiveness of carotid duplex examination prior to cardiac surgery have been questioned by the multidisciplinary committee creating the 2012 Appropriate Use Criteria for Peripheral Vascular Laboratory Testing. We report the clinical outcomes and postoperative neurologic symptoms in patients who underwent carotid duplex ultrasound prior to open heart surgery at a tertiary institution. Using the combined databases from our clinical vascular laboratory and the Society of Thoracic Surgery, a retrospective analysis of all patients who underwent carotid duplex ultrasound within 13 months prior to open heart surgery from March 2005 to March 2013 was performed. The outcomes between those who underwent carotid duplex scanning (group A) and those who did not (group B) were compared. Among 3233 patients in the cohort who underwent cardiac surgery, 515 (15.9%) patients underwent a carotid duplex ultrasound preoperatively, and 2718 patients did not (84.1%). Among the patients who underwent carotid screening vs no screening, there was no statistically significant difference in the risk factors of cerebrovascular disease (10.9% vs 12.7%; P = .26), prior stroke (8.2% vs 7.2%; P = .41), and prior transient ischemic attack (2.9% vs 3.3%; P = .24). For those undergoing isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), 306 (17.8%) of 1723 patients underwent preoperative carotid duplex ultrasound. Among patients who had carotid screening prior to CABG, the incidence of carotid disease was low: 249 (81.4%) had minimal or mild stenosis (duplex scanning and those who did not. Primary outcomes of patients who underwent open heart surgery also showed no difference in the perioperative mortality (5.1% vs 6.9%; P = .14) and stroke (2.6% vs 2.4%; P = .85) between patients undergoing preoperative duplex scanning and those who did not. Operative intervention of severe carotid stenosis prior to isolated CABG occurred in 2 of the 17 patients (11.8%) identified who

Prior failed ipsilateral percutaneous endovascular intervention in patients with critical limb ischemia predicts poor outcome after lower extremity bypass

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Nolan, Brian W.; De Martino, Randall R.; Stone, David H.; Schanzer, Andres; Goodney, Philip P.; Walsh, Daniel W.; Cronenwett, Jack L.

2017-01-01

Background Although open surgical bypass remains the standard revascularization strategy for patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI), many centers now perform peripheral endovascular intervention (PVI) as the first-line treatment for these patients. We sought to determine the effect of a prior ipsilateral PVI (iPVI) on the outcome of subsequent lower extremity bypass (LEB) in patients with CLI. Methods A retrospective cohort analysis of all patients undergoing infrainguinal LEB between 2003 and 2009 within hospitals comprising the Vascular Study Group of New England (VSGNE) was performed. Primary study endpoints were major amputation and graft occlusion at 1 year postoperatively. Secondary outcomes included in-hospital major adverse events (MAE), 1-year mortality, and composite 1-year major adverse limb events (MALE). Event rates were determined using life table analyses and comparisons were performed using the log-rank test. Multivariate predictors were determined using a Cox proportional hazards model with multilevel hierarchical adjustment. Results Of 1880 LEBs performed, 32% (n = 603) had a prior infrainguinal revascularization procedure (iPVI, 7%; ipsilateral bypass, 15%; contralateral PVI, 3%; contralateral bypass, 17%). Patients with prior iPVI, compared with those without a prior iPVI, were more likely to be women (32 vs 41%; P = .04), less likely to have tissue loss (52% vs 63%; P = .02), more likely to require arm vein conduit (16% vs 5%; P = .001), and more likely to be on statin (71% vs 54%; P = .01) and beta blocker therapy (92% vs 81%; P = .01) at the time of their bypass procedure. Other demographic factors were similar between these groups. Prior PVI or bypass did not alter 30-day MAE and 1-year mortality after the index bypass. In contrast, 1-year major amputation and 1-year graft occlusion rates were significantly higher in patients who had prior iPVI than those without (31% vs 20%; P = .046 and 28% vs 18%; P = .009), similar to patients who

Immediate extinction causes a less durable loss of performance than delayed extinction following either fear or appetitive conditioning

OpenAIRE

Woods, Amanda M.; Bouton, Mark E.

2008-01-01

Five experiments with rat subjects compared the effects of immediate and delayed extinction on the durability of extinction learning. Three experiments examined extinction of fear conditioning (using the conditioned emotional response method), and two experiments examined extinction of appetitive conditioning (using the food-cup entry method). In all experiments, conditioning and extinction were accomplished in single sessions, and retention testing took place 24 h after extinction. In both f...

Latissimus Dorsi and Immediate Fat Transfer (LIFT for Complete Autologous Breast Reconstruction

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James M. Economides, MD

2018-01-01

Conclusion:. Autologous augmentation of the LD flap with lipotransfer has been used to avoid placement of an implant. We improve the technique by performing lipotransfer during index reconstruction. Furthermore, we perform lipotransfer prior to disorigination of the LD muscle to minimize trauma to the flap and increase the efficiency of fat grafting. Our experience demonstrates that this technique is a viable autologous alternative to microsurgical breast reconstruction.

Prior image constrained image reconstruction in emerging computed tomography applications

Science.gov (United States)

Brunner, Stephen T.

Advances have been made in computed tomography (CT), especially in the past five years, by incorporating prior images into the image reconstruction process. In this dissertation, we investigate prior image constrained image reconstruction in three emerging CT applications: dual-energy CT, multi-energy photon-counting CT, and cone-beam CT in image-guided radiation therapy. First, we investigate the application of Prior Image Constrained Compressed Sensing (PICCS) in dual-energy CT, which has been called "one of the hottest research areas in CT." Phantom and animal studies are conducted using a state-of-the-art 64-slice GE Discovery 750 HD CT scanner to investigate the extent to which PICCS can enable radiation dose reduction in material density and virtual monochromatic imaging. Second, we extend the application of PICCS from dual-energy CT to multi-energy photon-counting CT, which has been called "one of the 12 topics in CT to be critical in the next decade." Numerical simulations are conducted to generate multiple energy bin images for a photon-counting CT acquisition and to investigate the extent to which PICCS can enable radiation dose efficiency improvement. Third, we investigate the performance of a newly proposed prior image constrained scatter correction technique to correct scatter-induced shading artifacts in cone-beam CT, which, when used in image-guided radiation therapy procedures, can assist in patient localization, and potentially, dose verification and adaptive radiation therapy. Phantom studies are conducted using a Varian 2100 EX system with an on-board imager to investigate the extent to which the prior image constrained scatter correction technique can mitigate scatter-induced shading artifacts in cone-beam CT. Results show that these prior image constrained image reconstruction techniques can reduce radiation dose in dual-energy CT by 50% in phantom and animal studies in material density and virtual monochromatic imaging, can lead to radiation

Disrupted topological organization of brain structural network associated with prior overt hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhotic patients

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, Hua-Jun [Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, Department of Radiology, Fuzhou (China); The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Department of Radiology, Nanjing (China); Shi, Hai-Bin [The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Department of Radiology, Nanjing (China); Jiang, Long-Feng [The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanjing (China); Li, Lan [Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, Department of Radiology, Fuzhou (China); Chen, Rong [University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Baltimore, MD (United States); Beijing Institute of Technology, Advanced Innovation Center for Intelligent Robots and Systems, Beijing (China)

2018-01-15

To investigate structural brain connectome alterations in cirrhotic patients with prior overt hepatic encephalopathy (OHE). Seventeen cirrhotic patients with prior OHE (prior-OHE), 18 cirrhotic patients without prior OHE (non-prior-OHE) and 18 healthy controls (HC) underwent diffusion tensor imaging. Neurocognitive functioning was assessed with Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score (PHES). Using a probabilistic fibre tracking approach, we depicted the whole-brain structural network as a connectivity matrix of 90 regions (derived from the Automated Anatomic Labeling atlas). Graph theory-based analyses were performed to analyse topological properties of the brain network. The analysis of variance showed significant group effects on several topological properties, including network strength, global efficiency and local efficiency. A progressive decrease trend for these metrics was found from non-prior-OHE to prior-OHE, compared with HC. Among the three groups, the regions with altered nodal efficiency were mainly distributed in the frontal and occipital cortices, paralimbic system and subcortical regions. The topological metrics, such as network strength and global efficiency, were correlated with PHES among cirrhotic patients. The cirrhotic patients developed structural brain connectome alterations; this is aggravated by prior OHE episode. Disrupted topological organization of the brain structural network may account for cognitive impairments related to prior OHE. (orig.)

Disrupted topological organization of brain structural network associated with prior overt hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhotic patients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Hua-Jun; Shi, Hai-Bin; Jiang, Long-Feng; Li, Lan; Chen, Rong

2018-01-01

To investigate structural brain connectome alterations in cirrhotic patients with prior overt hepatic encephalopathy (OHE). Seventeen cirrhotic patients with prior OHE (prior-OHE), 18 cirrhotic patients without prior OHE (non-prior-OHE) and 18 healthy controls (HC) underwent diffusion tensor imaging. Neurocognitive functioning was assessed with Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score (PHES). Using a probabilistic fibre tracking approach, we depicted the whole-brain structural network as a connectivity matrix of 90 regions (derived from the Automated Anatomic Labeling atlas). Graph theory-based analyses were performed to analyse topological properties of the brain network. The analysis of variance showed significant group effects on several topological properties, including network strength, global efficiency and local efficiency. A progressive decrease trend for these metrics was found from non-prior-OHE to prior-OHE, compared with HC. Among the three groups, the regions with altered nodal efficiency were mainly distributed in the frontal and occipital cortices, paralimbic system and subcortical regions. The topological metrics, such as network strength and global efficiency, were correlated with PHES among cirrhotic patients. The cirrhotic patients developed structural brain connectome alterations; this is aggravated by prior OHE episode. Disrupted topological organization of the brain structural network may account for cognitive impairments related to prior OHE. (orig.)

Wound healing in immediately loaded implants.

Science.gov (United States)

Romanos, Georgios E

2015-06-01

The orthopedic field has accumulated ample evidence that bone formation is related to functional loading and in general to physical activity. However, despite evidence that immediately loaded implants can be predictably successful, many clinicians still use the classical (delayed loading) treatment protocol. This paper examines the effects of loading on dental implants and discusses the advantages of immediate loading. The role of loading on augmented alveolar ridges is also addressed and provides evidence that early bone resorption may be controlled when bone is functionally loaded. Similar data are emerging for advanced augmentation techniques in order to control crestal bone loss. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Testability evaluation using prior information of multiple sources

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Chao

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Testability plays an important role in improving the readiness and decreasing the life-cycle cost of equipment. Testability demonstration and evaluation is of significance in measuring such testability indexes as fault detection rate (FDR and fault isolation rate (FIR, which is useful to the producer in mastering the testability level and improving the testability design, and helpful to the consumer in making purchase decisions. Aiming at the problems with a small sample of testability demonstration test data (TDTD such as low evaluation confidence and inaccurate result, a testability evaluation method is proposed based on the prior information of multiple sources and Bayes theory. Firstly, the types of prior information are analyzed. The maximum entropy method is applied to the prior information with the mean and interval estimate forms on the testability index to obtain the parameters of prior probability density function (PDF, and the empirical Bayesian method is used to get the parameters for the prior information with a success-fail form. Then, a parametrical data consistency check method is used to check the compatibility between all the sources of prior information and TDTD. For the prior information to pass the check, the prior credibility is calculated. A mixed prior distribution is formed based on the prior PDFs and the corresponding credibility. The Bayesian posterior distribution model is acquired with the mixed prior distribution and TDTD, based on which the point and interval estimates are calculated. Finally, examples of a flying control system are used to verify the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method is feasible and effective.

A Bayesian approach to PET reconstruction using image-modeling Gibbs priors: Implementation and comparison

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan, M.T.; Herman, G.T.; Levitan, E.

1996-01-01

We demonstrate that (i) classical methods of image reconstruction from projections can be improved upon by considering the output of such a method as a distorted version of the original image and applying a Bayesian approach to estimate from it the original image (based on a model of distortion and on a Gibbs distribution as the prior) and (ii) by selecting an open-quotes image-modelingclose quotes prior distribution (i.e., one which is such that it is likely that a random sample from it shares important characteristics of the images of the application area) one can improve over another Gibbs prior formulated using only pairwise interactions. We illustrate our approach using simulated Positron Emission Tomography (PET) data from realistic brain phantoms. Since algorithm performance ultimately depends on the diagnostic task being performed. we examine a number of different medically relevant figures of merit to give a fair comparison. Based on a training-and-testing evaluation strategy, we demonstrate that statistically significant improvements can be obtained using the proposed approach

Prior Knowledge Improves Decoding of Finger Flexion from Electrocorticographic (ECoG Signals

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Zuoguan eWang

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs use brain signals to convey a user's intent. Some BCI approaches begin by decoding kinematic parameters of movements from brain signals, and then proceed to using these signals, in absence of movements, to allow a user to control an output. Recent results have shown that electrocorticographic (ECoG recordings from the surface of the brain in humans can give information about kinematic parameters (eg{} hand velocity or finger flexion. The decoding approaches in these studies usually employed classical classification/regression algorithms that derive a linear mapping between brain signals and outputs. However, they typically only incorporate little prior information about the target movement parameter. In this paper, we incorporate prior knowledge using a Bayesian decoding method, and use it to decode finger flexion from ECoG signals. Specifically, we exploit the anatomic constraints and dynamic constraints that govern finger flexion and incorporate these constraints in the construction, structure, and the probabilistic functions of the prior model of a switched non-parametric dynamic system (SNDS. Given a measurement model resulting from a traditional linear regression method, we decoded finger flexion using posterior estimation that combined the prior and measurement models. Our results show that the application of the Bayesian decoding model, which incorporates prior knowledge, improves decoding performance compared to the application of a linear regression model, which does not incorporate prior knowledge. Thus, the results presented in this paper may ultimately lead to neurally controlled hand prostheses with full fine-grained finger articulation.

Prior elicitation and Bayesian analysis of the Steroids for Corneal Ulcers Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

See, Craig W; Srinivasan, Muthiah; Saravanan, Somu; Oldenburg, Catherine E; Esterberg, Elizabeth J; Ray, Kathryn J; Glaser, Tanya S; Tu, Elmer Y; Zegans, Michael E; McLeod, Stephen D; Acharya, Nisha R; Lietman, Thomas M

2012-12-01

To elicit expert opinion on the use of adjunctive corticosteroid therapy in bacterial corneal ulcers. To perform a Bayesian analysis of the Steroids for Corneal Ulcers Trial (SCUT), using expert opinion as a prior probability. The SCUT was a placebo-controlled trial assessing visual outcomes in patients receiving topical corticosteroids or placebo as adjunctive therapy for bacterial keratitis. Questionnaires were conducted at scientific meetings in India and North America to gauge expert consensus on the perceived benefit of corticosteroids as adjunct treatment. Bayesian analysis, using the questionnaire data as a prior probability and the primary outcome of SCUT as a likelihood, was performed. For comparison, an additional Bayesian analysis was performed using the results of the SCUT pilot study as a prior distribution. Indian respondents believed there to be a 1.21 Snellen line improvement, and North American respondents believed there to be a 1.24 line improvement with corticosteroid therapy. The SCUT primary outcome found a non-significant 0.09 Snellen line benefit with corticosteroid treatment. The results of the Bayesian analysis estimated a slightly greater benefit than did the SCUT primary analysis (0.19 lines verses 0.09 lines). Indian and North American experts had similar expectations on the effectiveness of corticosteroids in bacterial corneal ulcers; that corticosteroids would markedly improve visual outcomes. Bayesian analysis produced results very similar to those produced by the SCUT primary analysis. The similarity in result is likely due to the large sample size of SCUT and helps validate the results of SCUT.

Abnormal animal behavior prior to the Vrancea (Romania) major subcrustal earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Constantin, Angela; Pantea, Aurelian

2013-04-01

The goal of this paper is to present some observations about abnormal animal behavior prior and during of some Romanian subcrustal earthquakes. The major Vrancea earthquakes of 4 March 1977 (Mw = 7.4, Imax = IX-X MSK), 30 August 1986 (Mw = 7.1, Io = VIII-IX MSK) and 30 May 1990 (Mw = 6.9, Io = VIII MSK), were preceded by extensive occurrences of anomalous animal behavior. These data were collected immediately after the earthquakes from the areas affected by these. Some species of animals became excited, nervous and panicked before and during the earthquakes, such as: dogs (barking and running in panic), cats, snakes, mice and rats (came into the houses and have lost their fear), birds (hens, geese, parrots), horses, fishes etc. These strange manifestations of the animals were observed on the entire territory of country, especially in the extra-Carpathian area. This unusual behavior was noticed within a few hours to days before the seismic events, but for the most of cases the time of occurrence was within two hours of the quakes. We can hope that maybe one day the abnormal animal behavior will be used as a reliable seismic precursor for the intermediate depth earthquakes.

Pre-simulation orientation for medical trainees: An approach to decrease anxiety and improve confidence and performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Bommer, Cassidy; Sullivan, Sarah; Campbell, Krystle; Ahola, Zachary; Agarwal, Suresh; O'Rourke, Ann; Jung, Hee Soo; Gibson, Angela; Leverson, Glen; Liepert, Amy E

2018-02-01

We assessed the effect of basic orientation to the simulation environment on anxiety, confidence, and clinical decision making. Twenty-four graduating medical students participated in a two-week surgery preparatory curriculum, including three simulations. Baseline anxiety was assessed pre-course. Scenarios were completed on day 2 and day 9. Prior to the first simulation, participants were randomly divided into two groups. Only one group received a pre-simulation orientation. Before the second simulation, all students received the same orientation. Learner anxiety was reported immediately preceding and following each simulation. Confidence was assessed post-simulation. Performance was evaluated by surgical faculty. The oriented group experienced decreased anxiety following the first simulation (p = 0.003); the control group did not. Compared to the control group, the oriented group reported less anxiety and greater confidence and received higher performance scores following all three simulations (all p simulation orientation reduces anxiety while increasing confidence and improving performance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Writing Tasks and Immediate Auditory Memory in Peruvian Schoolchildren

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José Luis Ventura-León

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the study is determine the relationship between a group of writing tasks and the immediate auditory memory, as well as to establish differences according to sex and level of study. Two hundred and three schoolchildren of fifth and sixth of elementary education from Lima (Peru participated, they were selected by a non-probabilistic sample. The Immediate Auditory Memory Test and the Battery for Evaluation of Writing Processes (known in Spanish as PROESC were used. Central tendency measures were used for descriptive analysis. We employed the Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman Rho test and probability of superiority as effect size measurement for the inferential analysis. The results indicated a moderate direct and significant correlation between writing tasks and immediate auditory memory in general way and low correlations between dimensions. Finally, it showed that the differences in immediate auditory memory and writing tasks according to sex and level of study does not have practical significance.

Immediate endoscopic management of complete iatrogenic anterior urethral injuries: A case series with long-term results

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Maheshwari Pankaj N

2005-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Urethral injury produces partial or complete disruption of the urethral integrity. Advances in endourology have made endoscopic management of most of these injuries feasible without greatly compromising the final result. We report our institutional experience of immediate endoscopic realignment of complete iatrogenic anterior urethral injury. Methods From May 1997 to May 2003, seven patients with complete anterior urethral disruption were managed by immediate endoscopy guided splinting of urethra. Retrograde urethroscopy, combined with fluoroscopic guidance and in some cases antegrade cystoscopy through a suprapubic stab cystostomy was performed. A guide wire was negotiated across the disruption. Later, a 16 F Foley catheter was placed for 1–3 weeks. Patients were followed up at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months and then yearly to assess the long-term outcome of endoscopic management. Results Immediate endoscopic realignment was achieved in all patients. Three patients developed recurrence at six months; that was treated by optical urethrotomy. Only one patient developed multiple recurrences over an average follow-up of 49.2 months (range 7 to 74 months. He was offered open end-to-end urethroplasty at twenty months after third recurrence. Thus immediate endoscopic realignment avoided any further intervention in four patients (57.14%; while after an additional optical urethrotomy, urethroplasty could be avoided in six patients (87.2%. Conclusion Immediate endoscopic realignment of traumatic urethral disruption is a feasible, safe and effective treatment modality for management of patients with iatrogenic complete anterior urethral injuries.

Lymphography prior to laparoscopic Palomo varicocelectomy to prevent postoperative hydrocele.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiarenza, Salvatore F; D'Agostino, Sergio; Scarpa, Mariagrazia; Fabbro, Mariangelica; Costa, Lorenzo; Musi, Luciano

2006-08-01

We report our experience with preoperative lymphography to identify and perioperatively preserve the ligature of the lymphatic vessels to reduce the incidence of postoperative testicular hydrocele in patients undergoing laparoscopic Palomo varicocelectomy for adolescent varicocele. Twenty-seven consecutive patients with varicocele had preoperative lymphography. The mean age was 13.5 years (range, 8-18 years) and the mean grade of varicocele was III. We performed lymphography with intrascrotal isosulfan blue. The laparoscopic Palomo procedure was successfully carried out in all patients. In 17 patients (63%) we were able to identify and conserve the lymphatic vessels by lymphography. Mean follow-up was 9.5 months (range, 6-24 months). None of the 27 patients had a recurrence. None of the 17 patients with positive lymphography had a testicular hydrocele. One of the 10 remaining patients developed a sizable hydrocele. Preoperative lymphography prior to laparoscopic Palomo varicocelectomy is a simple and feasible method for preventing testicular hydrocele. However, the method should be standardized to identify the exact site, the correct level of injection of blue dye, and to determine the optimal time to perform lymphography prior to the procedure.

Total Variability Modeling using Source-specific Priors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shepstone, Sven Ewan; Lee, Kong Aik; Li, Haizhou

2016-01-01

sequence of an utterance. In both cases the prior for the latent variable is assumed to be non-informative, since for homogeneous datasets there is no gain in generality in using an informative prior. This work shows in the heterogeneous case, that using informative priors for com- puting the posterior......, can lead to favorable results. We focus on modeling the priors using minimum divergence criterion or fac- tor analysis techniques. Tests on the NIST 2008 and 2010 Speaker Recognition Evaluation (SRE) dataset show that our proposed method beats four baselines: For i-vector extraction using an already...... trained matrix, for the short2-short3 task in SRE’08, five out of eight female and four out of eight male common conditions, were improved. For the core-extended task in SRE’10, four out of nine female and six out of nine male common conditions were improved. When incorporating prior information...

Quantitative Evidence Synthesis with Power Priors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rietbergen, C.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/322847796

2016-01-01

The aim of this thesis is to provide the applied researcher with a practical approach for quantitative evidence synthesis using the conditional power prior that allows for subjective input and thereby provides an alternative tgbgo deal with the difficulties as- sociated with the joint power prior

Recurrence of Hallux Valgus Can Be Predicted from Immediate Postoperative Non-Weight-Bearing Radiographs.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Chul Hyun; Lee, Woo-Chun

2017-07-19

The aims of this study were to identify risk factors for the recurrence of hallux valgus deformity and to clarify whether recurrence after surgery to treat hallux valgus can be predicted using radiographic parameters assessed on immediate postoperative non-weight-bearing radiographs. A proximal chevron osteotomy combined with a distal soft-tissue procedure was performed by a single surgeon to treat moderate to severe hallux valgus deformity in 93 patients (117 feet). The feet were grouped according to nonrecurrence or recurrence. Changes in the hallux valgus angle, the intermetatarsal angle, and sesamoid position over time were analyzed by comparing values measured during each postoperative period. The relative risks of recurrence as indicated by preoperative and postoperative radiographic parameters were determined. Twenty (17.1%) of the 117 feet showed hallux valgus recurrence at the time of the last follow-up. The hallux valgus angle and the intermetatarsal angle stabilized at 6 months after surgery in the nonrecurrence group. An immediate postoperative hallux valgus angle of ≥8°, an immediate postoperative sesamoid position of grade 4 or greater, a preoperative metatarsus adductus angle of ≥23°, and a preoperative hallux valgus angle of ≥40° were significantly associated with recurrence. Recurrence of hallux valgus after a proximal chevron osteotomy can be reliably predicted from immediate postoperative non-weight-bearing radiographs. Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

The Effect of Sterile Acellular Dermal Matrix Use on Complication Rates in Implant-Based Immediate Breast Reconstructions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun Ho Lee

2016-11-01

Full Text Available BackgroundThe use of acellular dermal matrix (ADM in implant-based immediate breast reconstruction has been increasing. The current ADMs available for breast reconstruction are offered as aseptic or sterile. No published studies have compared aseptic and sterile ADM in implant-based immediate breast reconstruction. The authors performed a retrospective study to evaluate the outcomes of aseptic versus sterile ADM in implant-based immediate breast reconstruction.MethodsImplant-based immediate breast reconstructions with ADM conducted between April 2013 and January 2016 were included. The patients were divided into 2 groups: the aseptic ADM (AlloDerm group and the sterile ADM (MegaDerm group. Archived records were reviewed for demographic data and postoperative complication types and frequencies. The complications included were infection, flap necrosis, capsular contracture, seroma, hematoma, and explantation for any cause.ResultsTwenty patients were reconstructed with aseptic ADM, and 68 patients with sterile ADM. Rates of infection (15.0% vs. 10.3%, flap necrosis (5.0% vs. 7.4%, capsular contracture (20.0% vs. 14.7%, seroma (10.0% vs. 14.7%, hematoma (0% vs. 1.5%, and explantation (10.0% vs. 8.8% were not significantly different in the 2 groups.ConclusionsSterile ADM did not provide better results regarding infectious complications than aseptic ADM in implant-based immediate breast reconstruction.

Premature rupture of membranes at term: immediate induction of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective: To compare the maternal outcomes of immediate induction of labor with expectant management in women presenting with premature rupture of membranes (PROM) at term. Methods: One hundred and fifty two women with PROM at term were randomized into either immediate induction of labor with oxytocin or ...

Radiation Alert Immediate Disclosure, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Invocon's Radiation Alert Immediate Disclosure (RAID) system is a miniature, low-power, real-time, active radiation badge. It is designed for monitoring personnel,...

Analysis of Driver Evasive Maneuvering Prior to Intersection Crashes Using Event Data Recorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Scanlon, John M; Kusano, Kristofer D; Gabler, Hampton C

2015-01-01

Intersection crashes account for over 4,500 fatalities in the United States each year. Intersection Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (I-ADAS) are emerging vehicle-based active safety systems that have the potential to help drivers safely navigate across intersections and prevent intersection crashes and injuries. The performance of an I-ADAS is expected to be highly dependent upon driver evasive maneuvering prior to an intersection crash. Little has been published, however, on the detailed evasive kinematics followed by drivers prior to real-world intersection crashes. The objective of this study was to characterize the frequency, timing, and kinematics of driver evasive maneuvers prior to intersection crashes. Event data recorders (EDRs) downloaded from vehicles involved in intersection crashes were investigated as part of NASS-CDS years 2001 to 2013. A total of 135 EDRs with precrash vehicle speed and braking application were downloaded to investigate evasive braking. A smaller subset of 59 EDRs that collected vehicle yaw rate was additionally analyzed to investigate evasive steering. Each vehicle was assigned to one of 3 precrash movement classifiers (traveling through the intersection, completely stopped, or rolling stop) based on the vehicle's calculated acceleration and observed velocity profile. To ensure that any significant steering input observed was an attempted evasive maneuver, the analysis excluded vehicles at intersections that were turning, driving on a curved road, or performing a lane change. Braking application at the last EDR-recorded time point was assumed to indicate evasive braking. A vehicle yaw rate greater than 4° per second was assumed to indicate an evasive steering maneuver. Drivers executed crash avoidance maneuvers in four-fifths of intersection crashes. A more detailed analysis of evasive braking frequency by precrash maneuver revealed that drivers performing complete or rolling stops (61.3%) braked less often than drivers

Recruiting for Prior Service Market

Science.gov (United States)

2008-06-01

perceptions, expectations and issues for re-enlistment • Develop potential marketing and advertising tactics and strategies targeted to the defined...01 JUN 2008 2. REPORT TYPE N/A 3. DATES COVERED - 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Recruiting for Prior Service Market 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT...Command First Handshake to First Unit of Assignment An Army of One Proud to Be e e to Serve Recruiting for Prior Service Market MAJ Eric Givens / MAJ Brian

Role of clamping tube thoracostomy prior to removal in non-cardiac thoracic trauma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rasheed, M.A.; Majeed, F.A.; Naz, A.

2016-01-01

The frequently encountered thoracic trauma in surgical emergencies is a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Eighty percent of thoracic trauma can be managed by simple insertion of tube thoracostomy. Though guidelines for insertion are comprehensively explained in literature, an ideal algorithm for discontinuation is not available. A standard and safe defined protocol would eliminate hesitancy in confident removal among general surgeons. The objective of this study was to determine role of clamping trial prior to removal in terms of frequency of recurrent pneumothorax. Methods: This study was conducted in department of Surgery Combined military hospital/Military Hospital Rawalpindi from April 2013 to March 2014. Total 180 patients with blunt or penetrating thoracic trauma were included in the study. Chest tube (28-36 Fr) was inserted in Trauma centre under strict asepsis. Tubes were then connected to under water seal for minimum six hours. Patients were randomly divided in two equal groups (90 in each). In Group A, Clamping trial was given before attempting removal while in Group B, tube was removed immediately without clamping trial. Patients of both groups were observed two hourly for development of recurrent pneumothorax. Data was analysed using SPSS-18. Results: The comparison of frequency of recurrent pneumothorax in Group A (9 patients, 10%) and in Group B (4 patients, 4.5%) was not found to be statistically significant. (p-value 2.073). Conclusion: Clamping trial is unnecessary prior to removal of tube thoracostomy in blunt and penetrating non-cardiac thoracic trauma in terms of recurrent pneumothorax. (author)

Immediate hypersensitivity to iodinated contrast media: diagnostic accuracy of skin tests and intravenous provocation test with low dose.

Science.gov (United States)

Sesé, L; Gaouar, H; Autegarden, J-E; Alari, A; Amsler, E; Vial-Dupuy, A; Pecquet, C; Francès, C; Soria, A

2016-03-01

The diagnosis of HSR to iodinated contrast media (ICM) is challenging based on clinical history and skin tests. This study evaluates the negative predictive value (NPV) of skin tests and intravenous provocation test (IPT) with low-dose ICM in patients with suspected immediate hypersensitivity reaction (HSR) to ICM. Thirty-seven patients with suspected immediate hypersensitivity reaction to ICM were included retrospectively. Skin tests and a single-blind placebo-controlled intravenous provocation test (IPT) with low-dose iodinated contrast media (ICM) were performed. Skin tests with ICM were positive in five cases (one skin prick test and five intradermal test). Thirty-six patients were challenged successfully by IPT, and only one patient had a positive challenge result, with a grade I reaction by the Ring and Messmer classification. Ten of 23 patients followed up by telephone were re-exposed to a negative tested ICM during radiologic examination; two experienced a grade I immediate reaction. For immediate hypersensitivity reaction to ICM, the NPV for skin tests and IPT with low dose was 80% (95% CI 44-97%). © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Improved automated perimetry performance in elderly subjects after listening to Mozart.

Science.gov (United States)

Marques, Junia Cabral; Vanessa, Adriana Chaves Oliveira; Fiorelli, Macedo Batista; Kasahara, Niro

2009-01-01

To evaluate the performance of automated perimetry of elderly subjects naïve to AP after listening to a Mozart sonata. Automated perimetry (AP) is a psychophysical test used to assess visual fields in patients with neurological disorders and glaucoma. In a previous study, Fiorelli et al. showed that young subjects who listened to a Mozart sonata prior to undergoing AP performed better in terms of reliability than those who did not listen to the sonata. Fifty-two AP-naïve, normal subjects underwent Automated perimetry (SITA 24-2). The study group (25 subjects) underwent AP after listening to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, and the control group (27 subjects) underwent Automated perimetry without prior exposure to the music. The study group had significantly lower false negative rates and a lower visual field reliability score than the controls (P=0.04 and P=0.04, respectively). The test time was shorter for the study group (P=0.03). This study shows that elderly subjects, when exposed to the Mozart sonata immediately before AP testing, have lower false negative rates and lower visual field reliability scores when compared with an age- and gender-matched control group. Our results differ from those of Fiorelli et al. who found lower false positive rates and less fixation loss in addition to lower false negative rates. Listening to a Mozart sonata seems to improve automated perimetry reliability in elderly subjects.

Recolonization of group B Streptococcus (GBS) in women with prior GBS genital colonization in pregnancy.

Science.gov (United States)

Tam, Teresa; Bilinski, Ewa; Lombard, Emily

2012-10-01

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the incidence of women with prior GBS genital colonization who have recolonization in subsequent pregnancies. This is a retrospective, cohort study of patients with a prior GBS genital colonization in pregnancy and a subsequent pregnancy with a recorded GBS culture result, from January 2000 through June 2007. Documentation of GBS status was through GBS culture performed between 35 to 37 weeks gestation. Exclusion criteria included pregnancies with unknown GBS status, patients with GBS bacteriuria, women with a previous neonate with GBS disease and GBS finding prior to 35 weeks. Data was analyzed using SPSS 15.0. The sample proportion of subjects with GBS genital colonization and its confidence interval were computed to estimate the incidence rate. Logistic regression was performed to assess potential determinants of GBS colonization. Regression coefficients, odds ratios and associated confidence intervals, and p-values were reported, with significant results reported. There were 371 pregnancies that met the test criteria. There were 151 subsequent pregnancies with GBS genital colonization and 220 without GBS recolonization. The incidence of GBS recolonization on patients with prior GBS genital colonization was 40.7% (95% confidence interval 35.7-45.69%). The incidence rate for the sample was significantly larger than 30% (p recolonization in subsequent pregnancies.

No influence of simultaneous bone-substitute application on the success of immediately loaded dental implants: a retrospective cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kopp, Sigmar; Behrend, Detlef; Kundt, Günther; Ottl, Peter; Frerich, Bernhard; Warkentin, Mareike

2013-06-01

To examine the influence of bone-substitute application during implantation on the success of immediately placed and loaded dental implants. A total of 147 consecutive patients (age, 16.5-80.4 years) were provided with 696 immediately loaded implants. The mean follow-up time was 34.1 months. Of these implants, 50.4% (n=351) were immediately placed into extraction sockets. A total of 119 implants were added by simultaneous bone-substitute application (NanoBone, Artoss GmbH, Rostock Germany), whereas the other implants were placed in healed bone. Univariate and multivariate analysis was performed using IBM SPSS V.20. The overall implant success rate was 96.1%. Implants with simultaneous bone replacement had a hazard ratio of 0.877 (p=0.837); 95% CI, 0.253-3.04). Factors found to be statistically significant modifiers of success on multivariate analysis (p<0.05) included type of superstructure (p<0.001), implant-abutment connection (p<0.001), membrane use (p=0.010), and jaw (p=0.026). None of the other factors investigated were significant modifiers. The present study demonstrates high success rates for immediately loaded implants and their superstructures independent of the simultaneous application of bone substitute. The declared aim of socket preservation, the prevention avoiding bone loss, is achieved in the immediate implant placement scenario under immediate-loading conditions.

Immediate and delayed cutaneous reactions to radiocontrast media.

Science.gov (United States)

Brockow, Knut

2012-01-01

Hypersensitivity reactions to contrast media (CM) are frequent causes of anaphylaxis and drug exanthemas. Adverse events after CM exposure are classified into immediate (≤1 h) and non-immediate reactions (>1 h), with differing mechanisms. In the majority of patients with immediate reactions, IgE-mediated allergy cannot be demonstrated, and the underlying mechanism remains unknown. However, recent data have provided evidence for skin test positivity and/or specific IgE in some patients. T cell-mediated hypersensitivity is the responsible mechanism for the majority of non-immediate skin eruptions. These insights have consequences for diagnosis and prevention. Skin testing evolves to be a useful tool for diagnosis of CM allergy. Skin tests have been employed to confirm this hypersensitivity. Previous reactors have an increased risk to develop new reactions upon repeated exposure; however, other risk factors are poorly defined. The use of skin tests for the selection of a 'safe' CM is under investigation with promising results. In vitro tests to search for CM-specific cell activation include flow cytometric approaches, lymphocyte cultures and construction of cell lines and hybridomas. Premedication of previous reactors is common practice among radiologists; however, breakthrough reactions are a concern, and physicians should not rely on the efficacy of pharmacological premedication. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Immediate loading with single-piece implant following extraction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hemlata Dwivedi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Although dental implantology had evolved over a number of years, many dental surgeons are unaware of the concept of immediate loading with the use of one-piece implant that began in the early 1960s. The goal of successful prosthodontics rehabilitation is to provide function, esthetics, and comfort to the patient. The aim of this literature is to provide an overview of one-piece implant, with its advantages and disadvantages over conventional two-piece implant. Immediate prosthetic of a one-piece system allows for a better tissue healing and better adhesion of gingival mucosa to form a collar which is healthy and adherent to the implant, avoiding a second surgical procedure, and also includes a very important aspect esthetics. This article describes a case report of immediate loading with single-piece implant following extraction.

Bayesian Analysis of two Censored Shifted Gompertz Mixture Distributions using Informative and Noninformative Priors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tabassum Naz Sindhu

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This study deals with Bayesian analysis of shifted Gompertz mixture model under type-I censored samples assuming both informative and noninformative priors. We have discussed the Bayesian estimation of parameters of shifted Gompertz mixture model under the uniform, and gamma priors assuming three loss functions. Further, some properties of the model with some graphs of the mixture density are discussed. These properties include Bayes estimators, posterior risks and reliability function under simulation scheme. Bayes estimates are obtained considering two cases: (a when the shape parameter is known and (b when all parameters are unknown. We analyzed some simulated sets in order to investigate the effect of prior belief, loss functions, and performance of the proposed set of estimators of the mixture model parameters.

Different types of additional somatosensory information do not promote immediate benefits on gait in patients with Parkinson's disease and older adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ellen Lirani-Silva

2015-09-01

Full Text Available AbstractPlantar cutaneous stimulation has been shown to improve gait in Parkinson's disease (PD, but the effects of different types of insoles have not been tested. We evaluated the immediate effect of different types of insoles on gait in PD patients and healthy older adults. Nineteen PD patients and nineteen healthy older adults performed and performed a walking task at their self-selected speed in three conditions: conventional insole, insole with a raised ridge around the foot perimeter, and insole with half-spheres. Plantar sensation was evaluated before and after the walking protocol. There were no differences between groups for plantar sensation before and after the walking task. PD patients demonstrated reduced stride length and stride velocity. There were no immediate benefits offered by the insoles on gait of either group. The increased plantar cutaneous stimulation does not promote immediate benefits on gait in PD patients and healthy older adults.

The influence of prior knowledge on the retrieval-directed function of note taking in prior knowledge activation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wetzels, Sandra; Kester, Liesbeth; Van Merriënboer, Jeroen; Broers, Nick

2010-01-01

Wetzels, S. A. J., Kester, L., Van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Broers, N. J. (2011). The influence of prior knowledge on the retrieval-directed function of note taking in prior knowledge activation. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81(2), 274-291. doi: 10.1348/000709910X517425

Analysis of the IJCNN 2007 agnostic learning vs. prior knowledge challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

Guyon, Isabelle; Saffari, Amir; Dror, Gideon; Cawley, Gavin

2008-01-01

We organized a challenge for IJCNN 2007 to assess the added value of prior domain knowledge in machine learning. Most commercial data mining programs accept data pre-formatted in the form of a table, with each example being encoded as a linear feature vector. Is it worth spending time incorporating domain knowledge in feature construction or algorithm design, or can off-the-shelf programs working directly on simple low-level features do better than skilled data analysts? To answer these questions, we formatted five datasets using two data representations. The participants in the "prior knowledge" track used the raw data, with full knowledge of the meaning of the data representation. Conversely, the participants in the "agnostic learning" track used a pre-formatted data table, with no knowledge of the identity of the features. The results indicate that black-box methods using relatively unsophisticated features work quite well and rapidly approach the best attainable performance. The winners on the prior knowledge track used feature extraction strategies yielding a large number of low-level features. Incorporating prior knowledge in the form of generic coding/smoothing methods to exploit regularities in data is beneficial, but incorporating actual domain knowledge in feature construction is very time consuming and seldom leads to significant improvements. The AL vs. PK challenge web site remains open for post-challenge submissions: http://www.agnostic.inf.ethz.ch/.

Assessment of prior image induced nonlocal means regularization for low-dose CT reconstruction: Change in anatomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hao; Ma, Jianhua; Wang, Jing; Moore, William; Liang, Zhengrong

2017-09-01

Repeated computed tomography (CT) scans are prescribed for some clinical applications such as lung nodule surveillance. Several studies have demonstrated that incorporating a high-quality prior image into the reconstruction of subsequent low-dose CT (LDCT) acquisitions can either improve image quality or reduce data fidelity requirements. Our proposed previous normal-dose image induced nonlocal means (ndiNLM) regularization method for LDCT is an example of such a method. However, one major concern with prior image based methods is that they might produce false information when the prior image and the current LDCT image show different structures (for example, if a lung nodule emerges, grows, shrinks, or disappears over time). This study aims to assess the performance of the ndiNLM regularization method in situations with change in anatomy. We incorporated the ndiNLM regularization into the statistical image reconstruction (SIR) framework for reconstruction of subsequent LDCT images. Because of its patch-based search mechanism, a rough registration between the prior image and the current LDCT image is adequate for the SIR-ndiNLM method. We assessed the performance of the SIR-ndiNLM method in lung nodule surveillance for two different scenarios: (a) the nodule was not found in a baseline exam but appears in a follow-up LDCT scan; (b) the nodule was present in a baseline exam but disappears in a follow-up LDCT scan. We further investigated the effect of nodule size on the performance of the SIR-ndiNLM method. We found that a relatively large search-window (e.g., 33 × 33) should be used for the SIR-ndiNLM method to account for misalignment between the prior image and the current LDCT image, and to ensure that enough similar patches can be found in the prior image. With proper selection of other parameters, experimental results with two patient datasets demonstrated that the SIR-ndiNLM method did not miss true nodules nor introduce false nodules in the lung nodule

Immediate breast reconstruction using autologous skin graft associated with breast implant.

Science.gov (United States)

Dutra, A K; Andrade, W P; Carvalho, S M T; Makdissi, F B A; Yoshimatsu, E K; Domingues, M C; Maciel, M S

2012-02-01

Immediate breast reconstruction with skin graft is still little mentioned in the literature. Follow-up studies regarding the technique aspects are particularly scarce. The objective was to detail immediate breast reconstruction using autologous skin graft. Patients (n = 49) who underwent mastectomies and autologous immediate breast reconstruction with skin graft associated with a breast implant at A. C. Camargo Hospital (São Paulo, Brazil) between January 2007 and July 2010 were included. Information on clinical data, technique details and clinical outcome were prospectively collected. Following mastectomy, the autologous full-thickness skin graft was obtained through an inframammary fold incision along the contralateral breast in most patients. The skin graft was placed on the surface of the pectoralis major muscle after adjustments to conform to the mastectomy defect. A minimum of 10-month follow-up period was established. Patients' age ranged from 35 to 55 years and all received a silicone gel textured surface implant to obtain the necessary breast mound. The mean surgical time was 45 min, and the mean amount of skin resection was 4.5 cm in the largest diameter. Follow-up ranged from 10 to 35 months (median 23). All patients had silicone-gel textured surface implants to perform the breast mound reconstruction. No complications were observed in 87.8% of reconstructions. Forty-six patients (94%) had no complaints about the donor-site aesthetics. The result was a breast mound with a central ellipse of healed skin graft. Three (6%) poor results were observed. Thirty-six patients (67%) reported the results as good or very good. Our results lead us to conclude that autologous skin graft provided a reliable option in immediate breast reconstruction to skin-sparing mastectomy defects. The technique accomplished a single-stage implant breast reconstruction when there is inadequate skin coverage. Copyright © 2011 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and

Differential effect of prior heat treatment on the thermal enhancement of radiation damage in the ear of the mouse

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Law, M.P.; Ahier, R.G.

1982-01-01

The effect of prior heat treatment on thermal enhancement of radiodermatitis was investigated in the ear of the mouse. Ears were heated by immersion in hot water. A priming treatment of 43.5 0 C for 30 min (H) was given at various times before a second combined treatment of hypethermia at 43.5 0 C (h) given immediately before (hX) or after (Xh) a dose of X rays (X). The effect of H was measured in two ways. The heating time h, required to cause a given enhancement of radiodermatitis was estimated by fixing X and varying the duration of h. The thermal enhancement ratio, defined as the dose of X rays alone divided by the dose of X rays with heat required to cause a given reaction, was measured by fixing h and varying X. The priming treatment H reduced the skin response to hX. This effect was such that at 24 to 96 hr after H, the heating time h, had to be increased to about 1.5 times that required without prior hyperthermia. In contrast, the priming treatment had no effect on the response to Xh

Effects of lexical competition on immediate memory span for spoken words.

Science.gov (United States)

Goh, Winston D; Pisoni, David B

2003-08-01

Current theories and models of the structural organization of verbal short-term memory are primarily based on evidence obtained from manipulations of features inherent in the short-term traces of the presented stimuli, such as phonological similarity. In the present study, we investigated whether properties of the stimuli that are not inherent in the short-term traces of spoken words would affect performance in an immediate memory span task. We studied the lexical neighbourhood properties of the stimulus items, which are based on the structure and organization of words in the mental lexicon. The experiments manipulated lexical competition by varying the phonological neighbourhood structure (i.e., neighbourhood density and neighbourhood frequency) of the words on a test list while controlling for word frequency and intra-set phonological similarity (family size). Immediate memory span for spoken words was measured under repeated and nonrepeated sampling procedures. The results demonstrated that lexical competition only emerged when a nonrepeated sampling procedure was used and the participants had to access new words from their lexicons. These findings were not dependent on individual differences in short-term memory capacity. Additional results showed that the lexical competition effects did not interact with proactive interference. Analyses of error patterns indicated that item-type errors, but not positional errors, were influenced by the lexical attributes of the stimulus items. These results complement and extend previous findings that have argued for separate contributions of long-term knowledge and short-term memory rehearsal processes in immediate verbal serial recall tasks.

Image segmentation with a novel regularized composite shape prior based on surrogate study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhao, Tingting, E-mail: tingtingzhao@mednet.ucla.edu; Ruan, Dan, E-mail: druan@mednet.ucla.edu [The Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States)

2016-05-15

Purpose: Incorporating training into image segmentation is a good approach to achieve additional robustness. This work aims to develop an effective strategy to utilize shape prior knowledge, so that the segmentation label evolution can be driven toward the desired global optimum. Methods: In the variational image segmentation framework, a regularization for the composite shape prior is designed to incorporate the geometric relevance of individual training data to the target, which is inferred by an image-based surrogate relevance metric. Specifically, this regularization is imposed on the linear weights of composite shapes and serves as a hyperprior. The overall problem is formulated in a unified optimization setting and a variational block-descent algorithm is derived. Results: The performance of the proposed scheme is assessed in both corpus callosum segmentation from an MR image set and clavicle segmentation based on CT images. The resulted shape composition provides a proper preference for the geometrically relevant training data. A paired Wilcoxon signed rank test demonstrates statistically significant improvement of image segmentation accuracy, when compared to multiatlas label fusion method and three other benchmark active contour schemes. Conclusions: This work has developed a novel composite shape prior regularization, which achieves superior segmentation performance than typical benchmark schemes.

Image segmentation with a novel regularized composite shape prior based on surrogate study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao, Tingting; Ruan, Dan

2016-01-01

Purpose: Incorporating training into image segmentation is a good approach to achieve additional robustness. This work aims to develop an effective strategy to utilize shape prior knowledge, so that the segmentation label evolution can be driven toward the desired global optimum. Methods: In the variational image segmentation framework, a regularization for the composite shape prior is designed to incorporate the geometric relevance of individual training data to the target, which is inferred by an image-based surrogate relevance metric. Specifically, this regularization is imposed on the linear weights of composite shapes and serves as a hyperprior. The overall problem is formulated in a unified optimization setting and a variational block-descent algorithm is derived. Results: The performance of the proposed scheme is assessed in both corpus callosum segmentation from an MR image set and clavicle segmentation based on CT images. The resulted shape composition provides a proper preference for the geometrically relevant training data. A paired Wilcoxon signed rank test demonstrates statistically significant improvement of image segmentation accuracy, when compared to multiatlas label fusion method and three other benchmark active contour schemes. Conclusions: This work has developed a novel composite shape prior regularization, which achieves superior segmentation performance than typical benchmark schemes.

Outcomes of Gonioscopy-assisted Transluminal Trabeculotomy (GATT) in Eyes With Prior Incisional Glaucoma Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Grover, Davinder S; Godfrey, David G; Smith, Oluwatosin; Shi, Wei; Feuer, William J; Fellman, Ronald L

2017-01-01

To report on outcomes of gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) in eyes with prior incisional glaucoma surgery. A retrospective review was performed for all patients who underwent a GATT procedure with a history of prior incisional glaucoma surgery. Thirty-five eyes of 35 patients were treated. The mean age was 67.7 years. Nineteen eyes had a prior trabeculectomy, 13 eyes had a prior glaucoma drainage device, 4 eyes had a prior trabectome, and 5 eyes had prior endocyclophotocoagulation. Mean follow-up time was 22.7 months. For all eyes, the mean preoperative intraocular pressure (IOP) (SD) was 25.7 (6.5) mm Hg on 3.2 (1.0) glaucoma medications and at 24 months, the mean IOP (SD) was 15.4 (4.9) mm Hg on 2.0 (1.4) glaucoma medications (P<0.001). The prior trabeculectomy group had a preoperative IOP (SD) of 24.6 (6.4) mm Hg on 3.2 (1.0) medications and at month 24, the mean IOP (SD) was 16.7 (5.6) mm Hg on 2.1 (1.4) glaucoma medications. In the prior glaucoma drainage device group, the mean preoperative IOP (SD) was 27.0 (7.1) mm Hg on 3.4 (1.1) glaucoma medications and at 24 months, the mean IOP (SD) was 12.9 (2.6) mm Hg on 2.1 (1.2) glaucoma medications. At 24 months, the cumulative proportion of failure was 0.4 and the cumulative proportion of reoperation was 0.29. GATT appears to be safe and successful in treating 60% to 70% of open-angle patients with prior incisional glaucoma surgery. When considering all eyes, there was a significant decrease in IOP and required glaucoma medications at 24 months. This surgery should be considered in certain patients with open angles who have failed a primary traditional glaucoma surgery.

Basic life support: evaluation of learning using simulation and immediate feedback devices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucia Tobase

2017-10-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Objective: to evaluate students’ learning in an online course on basic life support with immediate feedback devices, during a simulation of care during cardiorespiratory arrest. Method: a quasi-experimental study, using a before-and-after design. An online course on basic life support was developed and administered to participants, as an educational intervention. Theoretical learning was evaluated by means of a pre- and post-test and, to verify the practice, simulation with immediate feedback devices was used. Results: there were 62 participants, 87% female, 90% in the first and second year of college, with a mean age of 21.47 (standard deviation 2.39. With a 95% confidence level, the mean scores in the pre-test were 6.4 (standard deviation 1.61, and 9.3 in the post-test (standard deviation 0.82, p <0.001; in practice, 9.1 (standard deviation 0.95 with performance equivalent to basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation, according to the feedback device; 43.7 (standard deviation 26.86 mean duration of the compression cycle by second of 20.5 (standard deviation 9.47; number of compressions 167.2 (standard deviation 57.06; depth of compressions of 48.1 millimeter (standard deviation 10.49; volume of ventilation 742.7 (standard deviation 301.12; flow fraction percentage of 40.3 (standard deviation 10.03. Conclusion: the online course contributed to learning of basic life support. In view of the need for technological innovations in teaching and systematization of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, simulation and feedback devices are resources that favor learning and performance awareness in performing the maneuvers.

Immediate loading of subcrestally placed dental implants in anterior and premolar sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Henningsen, Anders; Smeets, Ralf; Köppen, Kai; Sehner, Susanne; Kornmann, Frank; Gröbe, Alexander; Heiland, Max; Gerlach, Till

2017-11-01

Immediate loading of dental implants has been evolving into an appropriate procedure for the treatment of partially edentulous jaws. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical success and radiological outcome of immediately and delayed loaded dental implants in anterior and premolar sites. In this retrospective study, data of 163 individuals requiring tooth removal with subsequent implant placement in anterior and premolar sites were analyzed. Implants were immediately loaded by provisional acrylic resin bridges or loaded with delay. Implants were followed up annually for up to 9 years including intraoral radiographs. A total of 285 implants in 163 patients were placed. 218 implants were immediately loaded and 67 implants with delay. Fifteen implants failed during the follow-up period resulting in survival rates of 94.5% for immediate loading and 95.5% for delayed loading. After an initial decrease of 0.3 mm in the first 12 months the marginal bone level remained stable. No statistically significant differences were found in marginal bone loss between immediately and delayed loaded implants (P = 0.518, 95% CI). Within the limits of this study, immediate loading of immediately subcrestally placed dental implants in anterior and premolar sites is a reliable treatment option for dental rehabilitation. Copyright © 2017 European Association for Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Surgery. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Immediate Reconstruction of a Soft-Tissue Defect in a Burn Patient whit a Peroforator-Based Propeller Flap: A Case Report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Burhan Özalp

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Soft tissue reconstruction of the distal lower leg is a challenging issue for plastic surgeons. Immediate coverage of exposed anatomical structures with soft tissue after trauma prevents these structures from being infected, and this is very important for burn patients. Free flaps have recently been accepted as the gold-standard technique for ankle and foot reconstruction; however, this is changing with the increasing popularity of the perforator flaps. Today, perforator flaps are commonly performed for the reconstruction of the soft-tissue defects across the body. In this report, we want to present the reconstruction of a soft-tissue defect case using perforator-based propeller flap in a burn patient for immediate reconstruction. A 45-year-old male patient had a soft-tissue defect over the medial side of the ankle and foot due to a high-voltage electrical burn. The exposed bone tissue was covered with a propeller flap of 15×6 cm size, without any circulation problems during the postoperative period. In conclusion, we want to state that perforator-based propeller flaps are reliable, successful, and effective techniques for the immediate reconstruction of distal leg and foot. These flaps can be easily performed without requiring any microsurgical technique thus, they can be commonly performed by most of the plastic surgeons.

Proton Spectroscopy in a Cross-Section of HIV-Positive Asymptomatic Patients Receiving Immediate Compared with Deferred Zidovudine (Concorde Study).

Science.gov (United States)

Hall-Craggs, M A; Williams, I G; Wilkinson, I D; Paley, M; Chinn, R J; Chong, W K; Kendall, B E; Harrison, M J; Baldeweg, T; Pugh, K; Riccio, M; Catalan, J; Weller, I V

1997-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine by proton spectroscopy for any difference in cerebral metabolites in patients taking part in the Concorde study (comparing the efficacy of immediate versus deferred treatment with zidovudine on asymptomatic HIV infected individuals). Forty seven HIV positive male patients [29 immediate, 18 deferred zidovudine] were examined in the last 9 months of the therapeutic trial. Magnetic resonance imaging and proton spectroscopy were performed at 1.5 Tesla using a single voxel placed in the parieto-occipital white matter. No significant difference was found in metabolite ratios comparing immediate versus deferred zidovudine (NA/NA+Cho+Cr 0.52 vs. 0.52). High quality spectra were acquired in relatively large numbers of patients and logistically spectroscopy may be applied to clinical therapeutic studies.

Overt vs. covert speed cameras in combination with delayed vs. immediate feedback to the offender.

Science.gov (United States)

Marciano, Hadas; Setter, Pe'erly; Norman, Joel

2015-06-01

Speeding is a major problem in road safety because it increases both the probability of accidents and the severity of injuries if an accident occurs. Speed cameras are one of the most common speed enforcement tools. Most of the speed cameras around the world are overt, but there is evidence that this can cause a "kangaroo effect" in driving patterns. One suggested alternative to prevent this kangaroo effect is the use of covert cameras. Another issue relevant to the effect of enforcement countermeasures on speeding is the timing of the fine. There is general agreement on the importance of the immediacy of the punishment, however, in the context of speed limit enforcement, implementing such immediate punishment is difficult. An immediate feedback that mediates the delay between the speed violation and getting a ticket is one possible solution. This study examines combinations of concealment and the timing of the fine in operating speed cameras in order to evaluate the most effective one in terms of enforcing speed limits. Using a driving simulator, the driving performance of the following four experimental groups was tested: (1) overt cameras with delayed feedback, (2) overt cameras with immediate feedback, (3) covert cameras with delayed feedback, and (4) covert cameras with immediate feedback. Each of the 58 participants drove in the same scenario on three different days. The results showed that both median speed and speed variance were higher with overt than with covert cameras. Moreover, implementing a covert camera system along with immediate feedback was more conducive to drivers maintaining steady speeds at the permitted levels from the very beginning. Finally, both 'overt cameras' groups exhibit a kangaroo effect throughout the entire experiment. It can be concluded that an implementation strategy consisting of covert speed cameras combined with immediate feedback to the offender is potentially an optimal way to motivate drivers to maintain speeds at the

Own and Others’ Prior Experiences Influence Children’s Imitation of Causal Acts

OpenAIRE

Williamson, Rebecca A.; Meltzoff, Andrew N.

2011-01-01

Young children learn from others’ examples, and they do so selectively. We examine whether the efficacy of prior experiences influences children’s imitation. Thirty-six-month-olds had initial experience on a causal learning task either by performing the task themselves or by watching an adult perform it. The nature of the experience was manipulated such that the actor had either an easy or a difficult experience completing the task. Next, a second adult demonstrated an innovative technique fo...

Divided attention improves delayed, but not immediate retrieval of a consolidated memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Kessler, Yoav; Vandermorris, Susan; Gopie, Nigel; Daros, Alexander; Winocur, Gordon; Moscovitch, Morris

2014-01-01

A well-documented dissociation between memory encoding and retrieval concerns the role of attention in the two processes. The typical finding is that divided attention (DA) during encoding impairs future memory, but retrieval is relatively robust to attentional manipulations. However, memory research in the past 20 years had demonstrated that retrieval is a memory-changing process, in which the strength and availability of information are modified by various characteristics of the retrieval process. Based on this logic, several studies examined the effects of DA during retrieval (Test 1) on a future memory test (Test 2). These studies yielded inconsistent results. The present study examined the role of memory consolidation in accounting for the after-effect of DA during retrieval. Initial learning required a classification of visual stimuli, and hence involved incidental learning. Test 1 was administered 24 hours after initial learning, and therefore required retrieval of consolidated information. Test 2 was administered either immediately following Test 1 or after a 24-hour delay. Our results show that the effect of DA on Test 2 depended on this delay. DA during Test 1 did not affect performance on Test 2 when it was administered immediately, but improved performance when Test 2 was given 24-hours later. The results are consistent with other findings showing long-term benefits of retrieval difficulty. Implications for theories of reconsolidation in human episodic memory are discussed.

Protective effects of acute exercise prior to doxorubicin on cardiac function of breast cancer patients: A proof-of-concept RCT.

Science.gov (United States)

Kirkham, A A; Shave, R E; Bland, K A; Bovard, J M; Eves, N D; Gelmon, K A; McKenzie, D C; Virani, S A; Stöhr, E J; Warburton, D E R; Campbell, K L

2017-10-15

Preclinical studies have reported that a single treadmill session performed 24h prior to doxorubicin provides cardio-protection. We aimed to characterize the acute change in cardiac function following an initial doxorubicin treatment in humans and determine whether an exercise session performed 24h prior to treatment changes this response. Breast cancer patients were randomized to either 30min of vigorous-intensity exercise 24h prior to the first doxorubicin treatment (n=13), or no vigorous exercise for 72h prior to treatment (control, n=11). Echocardiographically-derived left ventricular volumes, longitudinal strain, twist, E/A ratio, and circulating NT-proBNP, a marker of later cardiotoxicity, were measured before and 24-48h after the treatment. Following treatment in the control group, NT-proBNP, end-diastolic and stroke volumes, cardiac output, E/A ratio, strain, diastolic strain rate, twist, and untwist velocity significantly increased (all p≤0.01). Whereas systemic vascular resistance (pvolume overload, and changes in longitudinal strain and twist opposite in direction to documented longer-term changes. An exercise session performed 24h prior to treatment attenuated NT-proBNP release and increased systolic function. Future investigations should verify these findings in a larger cohort and across multiple courses of doxorubicin. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Immediate CT findings following embolization of cerebral aneurysms: suggestion of blood-brain barrier or vascular permeability change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baik, Seung Kug; Kim, Yong Sun; Lee, Hui Jung; Kim, Gab Chul; Park, Jaechan

2008-01-01

Although endovascular techniques are widely used for the treatment of cerebral aneurysms, the immediate postprocedural brain CT findings have not been reported. Therefore, in the present study we assessed the immediate postprocedural brain CT findings following the uneventful coil embolization of cerebral aneurysms. Included in the study were 59 patients with 61 cerebral aneurysms after uncomplicated coil embolization. Acute subarachnoid hemorrhage was present with 32 of the 61 aneurysms. All patients underwent a brain CT scan just before and within 2 h after the endovascular treatment. If the postprocedural CT scan revealed any new findings, a follow-up CT scan and/or MRI were performed within 24 h. The variables related to the abnormal CT findings were also evaluated. Among the 61 immediate brain CT scans, 26 (43%) showed abnormal findings, including cortical contrast enhancement (n=21, 34%), subarachnoid contrast enhancement (n=8, 13%), intraventricular contrast enhancement (n=5, 8%), and striatal contrast enhancement (n=2, 3%). Single or mixed CT findings were also seen. None of the 61 aneurysms was associated with new neurological symptoms after endovascular treatment, and all patients made an uneventful recovery. Abnormal findings were more likely to be found with lower body weight and with increased corrected amounts of contrast material and heparin (P<0.05). After uneventful endovascular treatment of cerebral aneurysms, the immediate brain CT findings can reveal various patterns of abnormal contrast enhancement. Recognizing the immediate brain CT findings is important, as they can mimic various diseases. (orig.)

The paca that roared: Immediate cumulative semantic interference among newly acquired words.

Science.gov (United States)

Oppenheim, Gary M

2018-08-01

With 40,000 words in the average vocabulary, how can speakers find the specific words that they want so quickly and easily? Cumulative semantic interference in language production provides a clue: when naming a large series of pictures, with a few mammals sprinkled about, naming each subsequent mammal becomes slower and more error-prone. Such interference mirrors predictions from an incremental learning algorithm applied to meaning-driven retrieval from an established vocabulary, suggesting retrieval benefits from a constant, implicit, re-optimization process (Oppenheim et al., 2010). But how quickly would a new mammal (e.g. paca) engage in this re-optimization? In this experiment, 18 participants studied 3 novel and 3 familiar exemplars from each of six semantic categories, and immediately performed a timed picture-naming task. Consistent with the learning model's predictions, naming latencies revealed immediate cumulative semantic interference in all directions: from new words to new words, from new words to old words, from old words to new words, and from old words to old words. Repeating the procedure several days later produced similar-magnitude effects, demonstrating that newly acquired words can be immediately semantically integrated, at least to the extent necessary to produce typical cumulative semantic interference. These findings extend the Dark Side model's scope to include novel word production, and are considered in terms of mechanisms for lexical selection. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Parametric Bayesian priors and better choice of negative examples improve protein function prediction.

Science.gov (United States)

Youngs, Noah; Penfold-Brown, Duncan; Drew, Kevin; Shasha, Dennis; Bonneau, Richard

2013-05-01

Computational biologists have demonstrated the utility of using machine learning methods to predict protein function from an integration of multiple genome-wide data types. Yet, even the best performing function prediction algorithms rely on heuristics for important components of the algorithm, such as choosing negative examples (proteins without a given function) or determining key parameters. The improper choice of negative examples, in particular, can hamper the accuracy of protein function prediction. We present a novel approach for choosing negative examples, using a parameterizable Bayesian prior computed from all observed annotation data, which also generates priors used during function prediction. We incorporate this new method into the GeneMANIA function prediction algorithm and demonstrate improved accuracy of our algorithm over current top-performing function prediction methods on the yeast and mouse proteomes across all metrics tested. Code and Data are available at: http://bonneaulab.bio.nyu.edu/funcprop.html

Random walks with shape prior for cochlea segmentation in ex vivo μCT

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ruiz Pujadas, Esmeralda; Kjer, Hans Martin; Piella, Gemma

2016-01-01

Purpose Cochlear implantation is a safe and effective surgical procedure to restore hearing in deaf patients. However, the level of restoration achieved may vary due to differences in anatomy, implant type and surgical access. In order to reduce the variability of the surgical outcomes, we...... propose a new framework for cochlea segmentation in ex vivo μCT images using random walks where a distance-based shape prior is combined with a region term estimated by a Gaussian mixture model. The prior is also weighted by a confidence map to adjust its influence according to the strength of the image...... contour. Random walks is performed iteratively, and the prior mask is aligned in every iteration. Results We tested the proposed approach in ten μCT data sets and compared it with other random walks-based segmentation techniques such as guided random walks (Eslami et al. in Med Image Anal 17...

Offending prior to first psychiatric contact

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stevens, H; Agerbo, E; Dean, K

2012-01-01

There is a well-established association between psychotic disorders and subsequent offending but the extent to which those who develop psychosis might have a prior history of offending is less clear. Little is known about whether the association between illness and offending exists in non-psychot......-psychotic disorders. The aim of this study was to determine whether the association between mental disorder and offending is present prior to illness onset in psychotic and non-psychotic disorders.......There is a well-established association between psychotic disorders and subsequent offending but the extent to which those who develop psychosis might have a prior history of offending is less clear. Little is known about whether the association between illness and offending exists in non...

Immediate implant placement and restoration in the anterior maxilla: Tissue dimensional changes after 2-5 year follow up.

Science.gov (United States)

Arora, Himanshu; Khzam, Nabil; Roberts, David; Bruce, William L; Ivanovski, Saso

2017-08-01

Immediate implant placement followed by an immediate restoration has proven to be a viable technique in the anterior maxillary region. This prospective study evaluated the mid-long term (2-5 years) tissue changes around immediately placed and restored implants in the anterior maxilla using flapless surgery and simultaneous hard tissue augmentation. Thirty AstraTech implants were immediately placed in 30 patients, followed by the delivery of an immediate provisional restoration on the same day. All participating 30 patients underwent the same treatment strategy that involved flapless removal of a failing maxillary anterior tooth, immediate implant placement, simultaneous augmentation with a deproteinized particulate xenograft, followed by the connection of a screw-retained provisional restoration. Radiographs and photographs were used to measure hard and soft tissue changes. Aesthetic evaluation was performed using the Pink Esthetic Score (PES). All implants remained osseointegrated during the follow up period of 2-5 years (mean 47 ± 15 months). Twelve of the thirty patients completed the 5 year follow up. Radiographic evaluation revealed average gains in bone levels of 0.18 and 0.34 mm mesially and distally, respectively. Soft tissue evaluation showed a mean tissue loss of 0.05 ± 0.64 mm and 0.16 ± 0.63 mm at the mesial and distal papillae, respectively, while mid-facial mucosal recession was 0.29 ± 0.74 mm. A significant improvement in the Pink Esthetic Scores was seen at the final follow-up (mean PES 11.50), as compared to the baseline (mean PES 10.27) (P = .001). In addition to a favorable implant success rate and peri-implant bony response, the soft tissue levels and overall aesthetics around single immediately placed and restored implants can also be maintained in the mid-long term. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Case of Immediate Hypersensitivity Reaction to Maltitol

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Rodríguez Trabado

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Maltitol is a sugar alcohol that is frequently used as a noncaloric sweetener, although it is also used as an excipient, a plasticizer in gelatin capsules, and an emollient. It has not been previously described as an agent involved in immediate hypersensitivity reactions. Methods. We report on an anaphylactoid reaction with pharyngeal occlusion suffered by a 60-year-old man after ingestion of a candy containing maltitol syrup. A prick-to-prick test was performed with the candy and maltitol powder. Other allergens were excluded as causative agents of the adverse reaction, although the patient refused to undergo an oral challenge test with the candy. A basophil activation test (BAT was performed with maltitol powder, and a dose-response curve was generated. The test was also performed in 3 healthy controls. Results. Both prick-to-prick tests were negative. The result of the BAT was positive at all the concentrations tested in the patient’s blood and negative in all the controls. Conclusions. The BAT can help to clarify the agents implicated in an adverse reaction and can reduce the risk involved in diagnosis. The BAT can also prove useful in the study of reactions caused by low-molecular-weight antigens, for which routine diagnostic tests are not feasible.

Terminology for pregnancy loss prior to viability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kolte, A M; Bernardi, L A; Christiansen, O B

2015-01-01

Pregnancy loss prior to viability is common and research in the field is extensive. Unfortunately, terminology in the literature is inconsistent. The lack of consensus regarding nomenclature and classification of pregnancy loss prior to viability makes it difficult to compare study results from...... different centres. In our opinion, terminology and definitions should be based on clinical findings, and when possible, transvaginal ultrasound. With this Early Pregnancy Consensus Statement, it is our goal to provide clear and consistent terminology for pregnancy loss prior to viability....

Immediate-type hypersensitivity to polyethylene glycols

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wenande, E; Garvey, L H

2016-01-01

Polyethylene glycols (PEGs) or macrogols are polyether compounds widely used in medical and household products. Although generally considered biologically inert, cases of mild to life-threatening immediate-type PEG hypersensitivity are reported with increasing frequency. Nevertheless, awareness...

Improving Bayesian credibility intervals for classifier error rates using maximum entropy empirical priors.

Science.gov (United States)

Gustafsson, Mats G; Wallman, Mikael; Wickenberg Bolin, Ulrika; Göransson, Hanna; Fryknäs, M; Andersson, Claes R; Isaksson, Anders

2010-06-01

Successful use of classifiers that learn to make decisions from a set of patient examples require robust methods for performance estimation. Recently many promising approaches for determination of an upper bound for the error rate of a single classifier have been reported but the Bayesian credibility interval (CI) obtained from a conventional holdout test still delivers one of the tightest bounds. The conventional Bayesian CI becomes unacceptably large in real world applications where the test set sizes are less than a few hundred. The source of this problem is that fact that the CI is determined exclusively by the result on the test examples. In other words, there is no information at all provided by the uniform prior density distribution employed which reflects complete lack of prior knowledge about the unknown error rate. Therefore, the aim of the study reported here was to study a maximum entropy (ME) based approach to improved prior knowledge and Bayesian CIs, demonstrating its relevance for biomedical research and clinical practice. It is demonstrated how a refined non-uniform prior density distribution can be obtained by means of the ME principle using empirical results from a few designs and tests using non-overlapping sets of examples. Experimental results show that ME based priors improve the CIs when employed to four quite different simulated and two real world data sets. An empirically derived ME prior seems promising for improving the Bayesian CI for the unknown error rate of a designed classifier. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Spatially adapted augmentation of age-specific atlas-based segmentation using patch-based priors

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Mengyuan; Seshamani, Sharmishtaa; Harrylock, Lisa; Kitsch, Averi; Miller, Steven; Chau, Van; Poskitt, Kenneth; Rousseau, Francois; Studholme, Colin

2014-03-01

One of the most common approaches to MRI brain tissue segmentation is to employ an atlas prior to initialize an Expectation- Maximization (EM) image labeling scheme using a statistical model of MRI intensities. This prior is commonly derived from a set of manually segmented training data from the population of interest. However, in cases where subject anatomy varies significantly from the prior anatomical average model (for example in the case where extreme developmental abnormalities or brain injuries occur), the prior tissue map does not provide adequate information about the observed MRI intensities to ensure the EM algorithm converges to an anatomically accurate labeling of the MRI. In this paper, we present a novel approach for automatic segmentation of such cases. This approach augments the atlas-based EM segmentation by exploring methods to build a hybrid tissue segmentation scheme that seeks to learn where an atlas prior fails (due to inadequate representation of anatomical variation in the statistical atlas) and utilize an alternative prior derived from a patch driven search of the atlas data. We describe a framework for incorporating this patch-based augmentation of EM (PBAEM) into a 4D age-specific atlas-based segmentation of developing brain anatomy. The proposed approach was evaluated on a set of MRI brain scans of premature neonates with ages ranging from 27.29 to 46.43 gestational weeks (GWs). Results indicated superior performance compared to the conventional atlas-based segmentation method, providing improved segmentation accuracy for gray matter, white matter, ventricles and sulcal CSF regions.

Incorporation prior belief in the general path model: A comparison of information sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coble, Jamie; Hines, Wesley

2014-01-01

The general path model (GPM) is one approach for performing degradation-based, or Type III, prognostics. The GPM fits a parametric function to the collected observations of a prognostic parameter and extrapolates the fit to a failure threshold. This approach has been successfully applied to a variety of systems when a sufficient number of prognostic parameter observations are available. However, the parametric fit can suffer significantly when few data are available or the data are very noisy. In these instances, it is beneficial to include additional information to influence the fit to conform to a prior belief about the evolution of system degradation. Bayesian statistical approaches have been proposed to include prior information in the form of distributions of expected model parameters. This requires a number of run-to-failure cases with tracked prognostic parameters; these data may not be readily available for many systems. Reliability information and stressor-based (Type I and Type II, respectively) prognostic estimates can provide the necessary prior belief for the GPM. This article presents the Bayesian updating framework to include prior information in the GPM and compares the efficacy of including different information sources on two data sets.

Is immediate imaging important in managing low back pain?

Science.gov (United States)

Andersen, J C

2011-01-01

Chou R, Fu R, Carrino JA, Deyo RA. Imaging strategies for low-back pain: systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2009;373(9662):463-472. In patients with low back pain (LBP) who do not have indications of a serious underlying condition, does routine, immediate lumbar imaging result in improved patient outcomes when compared with clinical care without immediate imaging? Studies were identified by searching MEDLINE (1966 through first week of August 2008) and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (third quarter of 2008). The reference lists of identified studies were manually reviewed for additional citations. The search terms spine, low-back pain, diagnostic imaging, and randomized controlled trials were used in both databases. The complete search strategy was made available as an online supplement. The search criteria were applied to the articles obtained from the electronic searches and the subsequent manual searches with no language restrictions. This systematic review and meta-analysis included randomized, controlled trials that compared immediate, routine lumbar imaging (or routine provision of imaging findings) with usual clinical care without immediate lumbar imaging (or not routinely providing results of imaging) for LBP without indications of serious underlying conditions. Data extraction and assessment of study quality were well described. The trials assessed one or more of the following outcomes: pain, function, mental health, quality of life, patient satisfaction, and overall patient-reported improvement. Two reviewers independently appraised citations considered potentially relevant, with disagreements between reviewers resolved by consensus. Two independent reviewers abstracted data from the trials and assessed quality with modified Cochrane Back Review Group criteria. The criterion for blinding of patients and providers was excluded because of lack of applicability to imaging studies. In addition, the criterion of co

Browsing while reading: effects of instructional design and learners' prior knowledge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Theimo Müller-Kalthoff

2006-12-01

Full Text Available One of the key reasons that multimedia, and particularly hypertext systems, are gaining in importance is that they inspire hopes of optimizing learners' processes of knowledge construction. The present study is concerned with the respective influence of individual learner variables (i.e. particularly domain-specific prior knowledge on the use of different design attributes. Thirty-six university students worked through a hierarchically structured two-part hypertext about the psychology of memory under two experimental browsing conditions (reduced versus free browsing. Results show that deeper-level comprehension (i.e. structural knowledge was predicted by the interaction of experimental condition and prior knowledge, but that simply retaining facts was not. Participants with low prior knowledge performed better on the comprehension test if they had worked on the version with reduced access. Moreover, the version with reduced access helped to reduce feelings of disorientation. The measure of disorientation also appeared to be closely linked with the individual's computer experience, self-concept of computer ability and subject-related interest. The main implications for educational practice relate to the design of an adaptive multimedia and hypertext learning system and the successful learning with it.

Economic consequences of immediate or delayed insemination of a cowhhhh

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Steeneveld, W.; Hogeveen, H.

2012-01-01

Most dairy farmers are not certain whether immediate insemination or delaying the insemination is the best economic decision for a cow in oestrus. A model was developed for determining, based on herd and cow characteristics, the economic consequences of immediate or delayed insemination. The model

Evaluation of Parallel Level Sets and Bowsher's Method as Segmentation-Free Anatomical Priors for Time-of-Flight PET Reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Schramm, Georg; Holler, Martin; Rezaei, Ahmadreza; Vunckx, Kathleen; Knoll, Florian; Bredies, Kristian; Boada, Fernando; Nuyts, Johan

2018-02-01

In this article, we evaluate Parallel Level Sets (PLS) and Bowsher's method as segmentation-free anatomical priors for regularized brain positron emission tomography (PET) reconstruction. We derive the proximity operators for two PLS priors and use the EM-TV algorithm in combination with the first order primal-dual algorithm by Chambolle and Pock to solve the non-smooth optimization problem for PET reconstruction with PLS regularization. In addition, we compare the performance of two PLS versions against the symmetric and asymmetric Bowsher priors with quadratic and relative difference penalty function. For this aim, we first evaluate reconstructions of 30 noise realizations of simulated PET data derived from a real hybrid positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MR) acquisition in terms of regional bias and noise. Second, we evaluate reconstructions of a real brain PET/MR data set acquired on a GE Signa time-of-flight PET/MR in a similar way. The reconstructions of simulated and real 3D PET/MR data show that all priors were superior to post-smoothed maximum likelihood expectation maximization with ordered subsets (OSEM) in terms of bias-noise characteristics in different regions of interest where the PET uptake follows anatomical boundaries. Our implementation of the asymmetric Bowsher prior showed slightly superior performance compared with the two versions of PLS and the symmetric Bowsher prior. At very high regularization weights, all investigated anatomical priors suffer from the transfer of non-shared gradients.

Gene regulatory network inference by point-based Gaussian approximation filters incorporating the prior information.

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Bin; Wang, Xiaodong

2013-12-17

: The extended Kalman filter (EKF) has been applied to inferring gene regulatory networks. However, it is well known that the EKF becomes less accurate when the system exhibits high nonlinearity. In addition, certain prior information about the gene regulatory network exists in practice, and no systematic approach has been developed to incorporate such prior information into the Kalman-type filter for inferring the structure of the gene regulatory network. In this paper, an inference framework based on point-based Gaussian approximation filters that can exploit the prior information is developed to solve the gene regulatory network inference problem. Different point-based Gaussian approximation filters, including the unscented Kalman filter (UKF), the third-degree cubature Kalman filter (CKF3), and the fifth-degree cubature Kalman filter (CKF5) are employed. Several types of network prior information, including the existing network structure information, sparsity assumption, and the range constraint of parameters, are considered, and the corresponding filters incorporating the prior information are developed. Experiments on a synthetic network of eight genes and the yeast protein synthesis network of five genes are carried out to demonstrate the performance of the proposed framework. The results show that the proposed methods provide more accurate inference results than existing methods, such as the EKF and the traditional UKF.

Does attention speed up processing? Decreases and increases of processing rates in visual prior entry.

Science.gov (United States)

Tünnermann, Jan; Petersen, Anders; Scharlau, Ingrid

2015-03-02

Selective visual attention improves performance in many tasks. Among others, it leads to "prior entry"--earlier perception of an attended compared to an unattended stimulus. Whether this phenomenon is purely based on an increase of the processing rate of the attended stimulus or if a decrease in the processing rate of the unattended stimulus also contributes to the effect is, up to now, unanswered. Here we describe a novel approach to this question based on Bundesen's Theory of Visual Attention, which we use to overcome the limitations of earlier prior-entry assessment with temporal order judgments (TOJs) that only allow relative statements regarding the processing speed of attended and unattended stimuli. Prevalent models of prior entry in TOJs either indirectly predict a pure acceleration or cannot model the difference between acceleration and deceleration. In a paradigm that combines a letter-identification task with TOJs, we show that indeed acceleration of the attended and deceleration of the unattended stimuli conjointly cause prior entry. © 2015 ARVO.

Reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces of Gaussian priors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vaart, van der A.W.; Zanten, van J.H.; Clarke, B.; Ghosal, S.

2008-01-01

We review definitions and properties of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces attached to Gaussian variables and processes, with a view to applications in nonparametric Bayesian statistics using Gaussian priors. The rate of contraction of posterior distributions based on Gaussian priors can be described

9 CFR 381.116 - Wording on labels of immediate containers.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Wording on labels of immediate containers. 381.116 Section 381.116 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE... the container: Provided, however, That there is, immediately to the right or left of such principal...

Prior Knowledge Assessment Guide

Science.gov (United States)

2014-12-01

assessment in a reasonable amount of time. Hands-on assessments can be extremely diverse in makeup and administration depending on the subject matter...DEVELOPING AND USING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENTS TO TAILOR TRAINING D-3 ___ Brush and scrub ___ Orchards ___ Rice

Immediate arterial hemostasis after cardiac catheterization: initial experience with a new puncture closure device.

Science.gov (United States)

Aker, U T; Kensey, K R; Heuser, R R; Sandza, J G; Kussmaul, W G

1994-03-01

A novel device for obtaining arterial hemostasis after invasive procedures was tested in 30 patients undergoing diagnostic catheterization (26 patients) or coronary angioplasty (4 patients). The device is deployed through an arterial sheath and forms a positive mechanical seal both inside and outside the defect in the arterial wall. The components are all bioabsorbable. Thirteen patients received a heparin bolus during the catheterization procedure. The activated clotting time recorded in 15 patients just prior to device deployment averaged 264 sec. 29 of 32 attempted device deployments were successful (91%); and the remaining 3 devices pulled completely out as called for by design in the event of incomplete deployment. Twenty-nine patients ultimately achieved successful hemostasis using the device, with the other patient receiving manual hemostasis. Of these 29, hemostasis was immediate and complete in 19 patients. Light digital pressure was required in another 8 patients for less than 5 min. There was minor delayed bleeding requiring supplemental light pressure in several cases. A total of 11 patients required supplemental pressure in addition to the hemostasis device. The use of bolus heparin was significantly (P = 0.05, Fisher's exact test) related to the requirement for supplemental pressure. Three patients developed hematomas, one of which was present prior to device deployment. The other two patients had received bolus heparin. No patient required transfusion or surgical repair. There was no change in the ankle/brachial systolic blood pressure index after device deployment or at late (30-60 day) follow-up. Ultrasound studies revealed no significant pathology relative to the device.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Planned caesarean in the interventional radiology cath lab to enable immediate uterine artery embolization for the conservative treatment of placenta accreta

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bouvier, A.; Sentilhes, L.; Thouveny, F.; Bouet, P.-E.; Gillard, P.; Willoteaux, S.; Aubé, C.

2012-01-01

Aim: To evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of routine uterine artery embolization (UAE) immediately after planned caesareans performed in the cath lab for conservative treatment of placenta accreta. Materials and methods: A retrospective study included all patients who had a planned caesarean in the cath lab for conservative treatment of placenta accreta at Angers University Hospital, which is a tertiary care centre, from April 2001 to September 2010. Twelve patients underwent UAE immediately after caesarean with the placenta left partially or totally in situ. The success rate of embolization, blood loss, and complications were reported. Results: Diagnosis of abnormal placentation was confirmed by caesarean findings in 14 cases. Four patients had a percreta form with bladder invasion. In seven cases blood loss was insignificant and UAE was prophylactic; no secondary haemorrhage was observed in this group. Postpartum haemorrhage occurred in five cases: control of immediate postpartum bleeding by embolization was successful in three and failed in two leading to hysterectomy. In one case uterine necrosis occurred 6 weeks after embolization, requiring a hysterectomy. Delayed complications resulted in hysterectomy and partial bladder resection 3 months after delivery for one of the patients with placenta percreta. Conclusion: UAE immediately after a caesarean performed in the cath lab is a feasible therapeutic option for conservative treatment of placenta accreta. Advantages include reducing stress and risks associated with transferring women with potentially unstable haemodynamics.

Physical Exertion and Immediate Classroom Mental Performance Among Elementary School Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Gabbard, Carl

This study was designed (1) to investigate the relationship between physical exertion and mental performance in elementary school children and (2) to determine if male or female mental performances are more affected by physical exertion. A total of 95 second graders participated in six treatments of induced physical exertion during their regularly…

Immediate occlusal loading of NanoTite PREVAIL implants: a prospective 1-year clinical and radiographic study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ostman, Pär-Olov; Wennerberg, Ann; Albrektsson, Tomas

2010-03-01

Recently, a new implant surface texture, featuring application of nanometer-scale calcium phosphate has been shown to enhance early bone fixation and formation in preclinical studies and in human histomorphometric studies, which may be beneficial in immediate loading situations. The purpose of the present prospective clinical study was to, during 1 year, clinically and radiographically evaluate a nanometer scale surface modified implant placed for immediate loading of fixed prostheses in both maxillary and mandibular regions. Thirty-five out of 38 patients who needed implant treatment and met inclusion criteria agreed to participate in the study and were consecutively enrolled. Surgical implant placement requirements consisted of a final torque of a least 25 Ncm prior to final seating and an implant stability quotient above 55. A total of 102 NanoTite PREVAIL (NTP) implants (BIOMET 3i, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, USA) (66 maxillary and 36 mandibular) were placed by one investigator, and the majority of these were placed in posterior regions (65%) and in soft bone (69%). A total of 44 prosthetic constructions were evaluated consisting of 14 single-tooth restorations, 26 fixed partial dentures, and four complete fixed restorations. All provisional constructions were delivered within 1 hour, and the final constructions placed after 4 months. Implants were monitored for clinical and radiographic outcomes at follow-up examinations scheduled for 3, 6, and 12 months. Of the 102 study implants, one implant failed. The simple cumulative survival rate value at 1 year was 99.2%. The average marginal bone resorption was 0.37 mm (SD 0.39) during the first year in function. According to the success criteria of Albrektsson and Zarb, success grade 1 was found with 93% of the implants. Although limited to the short follow-up, immediate loading of NanoTite Prevail implants seems to be a viable option in implant rehabilitation, at least when a good initial fixation is achieved.

Immediate occlusal loading of NanoTite™ tapered implants: a prospective 1-year clinical and radiographic study.

Science.gov (United States)

Östman, Pär-Olov; Wennerberg, Ann; Ekestubbe, Annika; Albrektsson, Tomas

2013-12-01

During the last decade, high success rates have been reported for implants placed with immediate loading procedures, especially when bone quality and quantity provide good implant stability. In many of these studies, straight-walled implants with moderately rough surfaces were employed. Tapered implants are becoming increasingly more popular due to standardized drilling protocols and reports of high initial primary stability. The aim of the present prospective, single center clinical study was to evaluate surface topographical analysis and the clinical and radiographic outcomes of the NanoTite™ (BIOMET 3i, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, USA) Tapered Implant when used for immediate loading of fixed prostheses and single-tooth restorations. Forty-two patients who needed implant treatment and met admission criteria agreed to participate in the study and were consecutively enrolled. Surgical implant placement requirements consisted of a final torque of a least 30 Ncm prior to final seating and an implant stability quotient above 55. A total of 139 NanoTite Tapered implants (112 maxillary and 27 mandibular) were placed by one investigator, and the majority of these implants (n = 77/55%) were placed in posterior regions, and in soft bone (n = 90/65%). A total of 57 prosthetic constructions were evaluated consisting of 20 single-tooth restorations, 30 fixed partial dentures, and 7 complete, fixed maxillary restorations. Radiographs were taken at baseline and at 12 months of follow-up. Of the 139 study implants, one implant failure was declared. The overall cumulative survival rate at 1 year is 99.4%. Mean marginal bone resorption is 1.01 mm (SD 0.85) during the first year of function. Although limited to the short follow-up, immediate loading of NanoTite Tapered implants seems to be a viable option in implant rehabilitation, when insertion torque of at least 30 Ncm is achieved. Further studies are needed to authenticate the finding of this study. © 2012 Wiley

Penalised Maximum Likelihood Simultaneous Longitudinal PET Image Reconstruction with Difference-Image Priors.

Science.gov (United States)

Ellis, Sam; Reader, Andrew J

2018-04-26

Many clinical contexts require the acquisition of multiple positron emission tomography (PET) scans of a single subject, for example to observe and quantify changes in functional behaviour in tumours after treatment in oncology. Typically, the datasets from each of these scans are reconstructed individually, without exploiting the similarities between them. We have recently shown that sharing information between longitudinal PET datasets by penalising voxel-wise differences during image reconstruction can improve reconstructed images by reducing background noise and increasing the contrast-to-noise ratio of high activity lesions. Here we present two additional novel longitudinal difference-image priors and evaluate their performance using 2D simulation studies and a 3D real dataset case study. We have previously proposed a simultaneous difference-image-based penalised maximum likelihood (PML) longitudinal image reconstruction method that encourages sparse difference images (DS-PML), and in this work we propose two further novel prior terms. The priors are designed to encourage longitudinal images with corresponding differences which have i) low entropy (DE-PML), and ii) high sparsity in their spatial gradients (DTV-PML). These two new priors and the originally proposed longitudinal prior were applied to 2D simulated treatment response [ 18 F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) brain tumour datasets and compared to standard maximum likelihood expectation-maximisation (MLEM) reconstructions. These 2D simulation studies explored the effects of penalty strengths, tumour behaviour, and inter-scan coupling on reconstructed images. Finally, a real two-scan longitudinal data series acquired from a head and neck cancer patient was reconstructed with the proposed methods and the results compared to standard reconstruction methods. Using any of the three priors with an appropriate penalty strength produced images with noise levels equivalent to those seen when using standard

Immediate impact of 'penalty points legislation' on acute hospital trauma services.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Lenehan, Brian

2012-02-03

Road traffic accident (RTA) related mortality and injury may be reduced by up to 40% with the introduction of \\'road safety\\' legislation. Little is known regarding changes in pattern of injury and overall resource impact on acute trauma services. This prospective study examines RTA related admissions, injuries sustained and resultant sub-speciality operative workload in a Level 1 Trauma Centre during the 12 months immediately prior to and following the introduction of \\'penalty points\\' legislation. Eight hundred and twenty RTA related admissions were identified over the 24-month period from 01\\/11\\/2001 to 31\\/10\\/2003. There was a 36.7% decrease in RTA related admissions subsequent to the introduction of new legislation. Bed occupancy was almost halved. However, the relative Orthopaedic workload increased from 34% to 41% with a 10% increase in relative bed occupancy. The pattern of orthopaedic injury was significantly altered with a >50% absolute reduction in high velocity injuries. Curiously, there was no change in the absolute number of spinal fractures seen. This favourable early Irish experience of \\'penalty points\\' legislation mirrors that of worldwide published literature. Our findings demonstrate that the injury reduction effects were primarily enjoyed by non-orthopaedic sub-specialities. Such findings mandate consideration when allocating vital resources to sub-specialities within busy trauma units.

No Neurocognitive Advantage for Immediate Antiretroviral Treatment in adults with greater than 500 CD4+ T Cell Counts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wright, Edwina J; Grund, Birgit; Robertson, Kevin R

2018-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effect of immediate versus deferred antiretroviral treatment (ART) on neuropsychological test performance in treatment-naive HIV-positive adults with >500 CD4+ cells/μL. DESIGN: Randomized trial. METHODS: The START parent study randomized participants to commence immediate...... versus deferred ART until CD4+ cells/μL. The START Neurology substudy used 8 neuropsychological tests, at baseline, months 4, 8, 12 and annually, to compare groups for changes in test performance. Test results were internally standardized to z-scores. The primary outcome was the average of the eight...... test z-scores (QNPZ-8). Mean changes in QNPZ-8 from baseline were compared by intent-to-treat using longitudinal mixed models. Changes from baseline to specific time points were compared using ANCOVA models. RESULTS: 592 participants had a median age of 34 years; median baseline CD4+ count of 629 cells...

Immediate Breast Reconstruction with Expander Assisted Latissimus Dorsi Flap after Skin Sparing Mastectomy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdalla, H.M.; Shallan, M.A.; Fouad, F.A.; Elsayed, A.A.

2006-01-01

Background and Purpose: The latissimus dorsi my-ocutaneous flap (LDMF) used to. be the standard practice far breast reconstruction; haw ever, with the increased use of tissue expanders and the development of the transverse rectus-abdomen's myocutaneaus flap for autologous tissue breast reconstruction, its use has decreased. To. reassess the role of the LDMF in breast reconstruction, a prospective study was performed to. evaluate women who. had a skin sparing mastectomy followed by immediate reconstruction with a latissimus dorsi flap and tissue expander implant. Patients and Methods: Twenty-five women with early breast cancer underwent immediate latissimus dorsi my-ocutaneaus flaps with tissue expander after skin sparing mastectamy. The ancalagic safety at skin sparing mastectamy, the pastaperative aesthetic results and camplicatians were evaluated. Results: Between May 2003 and April 2005, 25 can-secutive wamen diagnased with breast cancer underwent skin sparing mas tecta my and expander assisted immediate latissimus darsi breast recanstructian. Their median age was 42 years, ranging fram 34 to 48 years. The pracedure duratian ranged fram 2.5 to. 6 haurs, with a median at 3.9 haurs, hawever, expansian was campleted by 4 manths (range I to. 8 manths). Patients were discharged 7 days after surgery with a range af 5 to. 15 days. The camplicatian rate was law, manifesting with skin flap necrosis in 12%, waund infectian in 4%, and part site extrusian in 4%. There was no. flap lass. With the exceptian af serama farmatian, the danar site marbidity was law (seroma 40%, hematama 4%, back pain 8%, and limited arm mavement 4%). No. lacal recurrence was recorded. The aesthetic result af surgery was rated as excellent in 20%, gaad in 60%, fair in 24%, and paar in 4% af cases. The duratian af past-aperative fallaw up was 14.7 manths, ranging fram 6 to 24 manths. Conclusions: Skin sparing mastectamy and immediate breast recanstructian is an ancalagically safe technique. The use

Lung cancer gene expression database analysis incorporating prior knowledge with support vector machine-based classification method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huang Desheng

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A reliable and precise classification is essential for successful diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Gene expression microarrays have provided the high-throughput platform to discover genomic biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Rational use of the available bioinformation can not only effectively remove or suppress noise in gene chips, but also avoid one-sided results of separate experiment. However, only some studies have been aware of the importance of prior information in cancer classification. Methods Together with the application of support vector machine as the discriminant approach, we proposed one modified method that incorporated prior knowledge into cancer classification based on gene expression data to improve accuracy. A public well-known dataset, Malignant pleural mesothelioma and lung adenocarcinoma gene expression database, was used in this study. Prior knowledge is viewed here as a means of directing the classifier using known lung adenocarcinoma related genes. The procedures were performed by software R 2.80. Results The modified method performed better after incorporating prior knowledge. Accuracy of the modified method improved from 98.86% to 100% in training set and from 98.51% to 99.06% in test set. The standard deviations of the modified method decreased from 0.26% to 0 in training set and from 3.04% to 2.10% in test set. Conclusion The method that incorporates prior knowledge into discriminant analysis could effectively improve the capacity and reduce the impact of noise. This idea may have good future not only in practice but also in methodology.

Improved automated perimetry performance in elderly subjects after listening to Mozart

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Junia Cabral Marques

2009-01-01

Full Text Available PURPOSE: To evaluate the performance of automated perimetry of elderly subjects naïve to AP after listening to a Mozart sonata. INTRODUCTION: Automated perimetry (AP is a psychophysical test used to assess visual fields in patients with neurological disorders and glaucoma. In a previous study, Fiorelli et al. showed that young subjects who listened to a Mozart sonata prior to undergoing AP performed better in terms of reliability than those who did not listen to the sonata. METHODS: Fifty-two AP-naïve, normal subjects underwent Automated perimetry (SITA 24-2. The study group (25 subjects underwent AP after listening to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, and the control group (27 subjects underwent Automated perimetry without prior exposure to the music. RESULTS: The study group had significantly lower false negative rates and a lower visual field reliability score than the controls (P=0.04 and P=0.04, respectively. The test time was shorter for the study group (P=0.03. DISCUSSION: This study shows that elderly subjects, when exposed to the Mozart sonata immediately before AP testing, have lower false negative rates and lower visual field reliability scores when compared with an age- and gender-matched control group. Our results differ from those of Fiorelli et al. who found lower false positive rates and less fixation loss in addition to lower false negative rates. CONCLUSION: Listening to a Mozart sonata seems to improve automated perimetry reliability in elderly subjects.

Functional sequelae following bilateral mastectomy and immediate reconstruction with latissimus dorsi flap: medium-term follow-up.

Science.gov (United States)

Paolini, Guido; Amoroso, Matteo; Pugliese, Pierfrancesco; Longo, Benedetto; Santanelli, Fabio

2014-04-01

Arm morbidity following unilateral Latissimus Dorsi (LD) flap harvest is controversial and bilateral harvest is considered potentially disabling. Arm and shoulder disability was investigated in patients undergoing bilateral mastectomy and immediate LD flap reconstruction. Thirty consecutive bilateral immediate reconstructions with denervated LD flaps, performed between 2005-2009, were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were assessed for arm function by conducting the Disability of Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) test, between 12-51 months after surgery (mean 23 months). Disability scores ranged from 1-100%, with 1-25% being regarded as mild dysfunction, 26-50% as moderate dysfunction, 51-75% as severe dysfunction, and 76-100% as total dysfunction. A statistical analysis was performed using the Fisher exact test and the multivariate linear regression model for variables. The Global Mean Dash score was 14.8%. Twenty-four patients presented a mild functional deficit (50%). Five of them presented a score LD flaps (p test is a useful tool in terms of informing patients and helping the surgeon to choose the best surgical option.

Learning priors for Bayesian computations in the nervous system.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Max Berniker

Full Text Available Our nervous system continuously combines new information from our senses with information it has acquired throughout life. Numerous studies have found that human subjects manage this by integrating their observations with their previous experience (priors in a way that is close to the statistical optimum. However, little is known about the way the nervous system acquires or learns priors. Here we present results from experiments where the underlying distribution of target locations in an estimation task was switched, manipulating the prior subjects should use. Our experimental design allowed us to measure a subject's evolving prior while they learned. We confirm that through extensive practice subjects learn the correct prior for the task. We found that subjects can rapidly learn the mean of a new prior while the variance is learned more slowly and with a variable learning rate. In addition, we found that a Bayesian inference model could predict the time course of the observed learning while offering an intuitive explanation for the findings. The evidence suggests the nervous system continuously updates its priors to enable efficient behavior.

Associations between number of consecutive night shifts and impairment of neurobehavioral performance during a subsequent simulated night shift.

Science.gov (United States)

Magee, Michelle; Sletten, Tracey L; Ferguson, Sally A; Grunstein, Ronald R; Anderson, Clare; Kennaway, David J; Lockley, Steven W; Rajaratnam, Shantha Mw

2016-05-01

This study aimed to investigate sleep and circadian phase in the relationships between neurobehavioral performance and the number of consecutive shifts worked. Thirty-four shift workers [20 men, mean age 31.8 (SD 10.9) years] worked 2-7 consecutive night shifts immediately prior to a laboratory-based, simulated night shift. For 7 days prior, participants worked their usual shift sequence, and sleep was assessed with logs and actigraphy. Participants completed a 10-minute auditory psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) at the start (~21:00 hours) and end (~07:00 hours) of the simulated night shift. Mean reaction times (RT), number of lapses and RT distribution was compared between those who worked 2-3 consecutive night shifts versus those who worked 4-7 shifts. Following 4-7 shifts, night shift workers had significantly longer mean RT at the start and end of shift, compared to those who worked 2-3 shifts. The slowest and fastest 10% RT were significantly slower at the start, but not end, of shift among participants who worked 4-7 nights. Those working 4-7 nights also demonstrated a broader RT distribution at the start and end of shift and had significantly slower RT based on cumulative distribution analysis (5 (th), 25 (th), 50 (th), 75 (th)percentiles at the start of shift; 75th percentile at the end of shift). No group differences in sleep parameters were found for 7 days and 24 hours prior to the simulated night shift. A greater number of consecutive night shifts has a negative impact on neurobehavioral performance, likely due to cognitive slowing.

5000 Meter Run Performance is not Enhanced 24 Hrs After an Intense Exercise Bout and Cold Water Immersion.

Science.gov (United States)

Stenson, Mary C; Stenson, Matthew R; Matthews, Tracey D; Paolone, Vincent J

2017-06-01

Cold water immersion (CWI) is used by endurance athletes to speed recovery between exercise bouts, but little evidence is available on the effects of CWI on subsequent endurance performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of CWI following an acute bout of interval training on 5000 m run performance 24 hrs after interval training, perceived muscle soreness (PMS), range of motion (ROM), thigh circumference (TC), and perceived exertion (RPE). Nine endurance-trained males completed 2 trials, each consisting of an interval training session of 8 repetitions of 1200 m at a running pace equal to 75% of VO 2 peak, either a control or CWI treatment, and a timed 5000 m run 24 hrs post interval training session. CWI was performed for 12 min at 12 degrees Celsius on the legs. Recovery treatments were performed in a counterbalanced design. Run time for 5000 m was not different between the CWI and control trials (CWI = 1317.33 ± 128.33 sec, control = 1303.44 ± 105.53 sec; p = 0.48). PMS increased significantly from baseline to immediately post exercise (BL = 1.17 ± 0.22, POST = 2.81 ± 0.52; p = 0.02) and remained elevated from baseline to 24 hrs post exercise (POST24 = 2.19 ± 0.32; p = 0.02), but no difference was observed between the treatments. No differences were observed for the interaction between time and treatment for TC (λ = 0.73, p = 0.15) and ROM (λ = 0.49; p = 0.10). CWI performed immediately following an interval training exercise bout did not enhance subsequent 5000 m run performance or reduce PMS. CWI may not provide a recovery or performance advantage when athletes are accustomed to the demands of the prior exercise bout.

Does prior acute exercise affect postexercise substrate oxidation in response to a high carbohydrate meal?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hickey Matthew S

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Consumption of a mixed meal increases postprandial carbohydrate utilization and decreases fat oxidation. On the other hand, acute endurance exercise increases fat oxidation and decreases carbohydrate utilization during the post-exercise recovery period. It is possible that the resulting post-exercise increase in circulating nonesterified fatty acids could attenuate the ability of ingested carbohydrate to inhibit lipid oxidation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether prior exercise attenuates the usual meal-induced decline in lipid oxidation. Methods Six healthy, physically active young subjects (x age = 26.3 years, 4 males, 2 females completed three treatments in random order after a ~10 h fast: (a Exercise/Carbohydrate (Ex/CHO – subjects completed a bout of exercise at 70% VO2peak (targeted net energy cost of 400 kcals, followed by consumption of a carbohydrate-rich meal; (b Exercise/Placebo (Ex/Placebo – subjects completed an identical bout of exercise followed by consumption of a placebo; and (c No Exercise/Carbohydrate (NoEx/CHO – subjects sat quietly rather than exercising and then consumed the carbohydrate-rich meal. Blood samples were obtained before and during the postprandial period to determine plasma glucose, insulin, and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA. Respiratory gas exchange measures were used to estimate rates of fat and carbohydrate oxidation. Results Plasma NEFA were approximately two-fold higher immediately following the two exercise conditions compared to the no-exercise condition, while meal consumption significantly increased insulin and glucose in both Ex/CHO and NoEx/CHO. NEFA concentrations fell rapidly during the 2-h postprandial period, but remained higher compared to the NoEx/CHO treatment. Carbohydrate oxidation increased rapidly and fat oxidation decreased in response to the meal, with no differences in the rates of carbohydrate and fat oxidation during recovery between the Ex

Automatized spleen segmentation in non-contrast-enhanced MR volume data using subject-specific shape priors

Science.gov (United States)

Gloger, Oliver; Tönnies, Klaus; Bülow, Robin; Völzke, Henry

2017-07-01

To develop the first fully automated 3D spleen segmentation framework derived from T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging data and to verify its performance for spleen delineation and volumetry. This approach considers the issue of low contrast between spleen and adjacent tissue in non-contrast-enhanced MR images. Native T1-weighted MR volume data was performed on a 1.5 T MR system in an epidemiological study. We analyzed random subsamples of MR examinations without pathologies to develop and verify the spleen segmentation framework. The framework is modularized to include different kinds of prior knowledge into the segmentation pipeline. Classification by support vector machines differentiates between five different shape types in computed foreground probability maps and recognizes characteristic spleen regions in axial slices of MR volume data. A spleen-shape space generated by training produces subject-specific prior shape knowledge that is then incorporated into a final 3D level set segmentation method. Individually adapted shape-driven forces as well as image-driven forces resulting from refined foreground probability maps steer the level set successfully to the segment the spleen. The framework achieves promising segmentation results with mean Dice coefficients of nearly 0.91 and low volumetric mean errors of 6.3%. The presented spleen segmentation approach can delineate spleen tissue in native MR volume data. Several kinds of prior shape knowledge including subject-specific 3D prior shape knowledge can be used to guide segmentation processes achieving promising results.

Divided attention improves delayed, but not immediate retrieval of a consolidated memory.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoav Kessler

Full Text Available A well-documented dissociation between memory encoding and retrieval concerns the role of attention in the two processes. The typical finding is that divided attention (DA during encoding impairs future memory, but retrieval is relatively robust to attentional manipulations. However, memory research in the past 20 years had demonstrated that retrieval is a memory-changing process, in which the strength and availability of information are modified by various characteristics of the retrieval process. Based on this logic, several studies examined the effects of DA during retrieval (Test 1 on a future memory test (Test 2. These studies yielded inconsistent results. The present study examined the role of memory consolidation in accounting for the after-effect of DA during retrieval. Initial learning required a classification of visual stimuli, and hence involved incidental learning. Test 1 was administered 24 hours after initial learning, and therefore required retrieval of consolidated information. Test 2 was administered either immediately following Test 1 or after a 24-hour delay. Our results show that the effect of DA on Test 2 depended on this delay. DA during Test 1 did not affect performance on Test 2 when it was administered immediately, but improved performance when Test 2 was given 24-hours later. The results are consistent with other findings showing long-term benefits of retrieval difficulty. Implications for theories of reconsolidation in human episodic memory are discussed.

Valid MR imaging predictors of prior knee arthroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Discepola, Federico; Le, Huy B.Q.; Park, John S.; Clopton, Paul; Knoll, Andrew N.; Austin, Matthew J.; Resnick, Donald L.

2012-01-01

To determine whether fibrosis of the medial patellar reticulum (MPR), lateral patellar reticulum (LPR), deep medial aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (MDH), or deep lateral aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (LDH) is a valid predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. Institutional review board approval and waiver of informed consent were obtained for this HIPPA-compliant study. Initially, fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH in MR imaging studies of 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 100 patients without was recorded. Subsequently, two additional radiologists, blinded to clinical data, retrospectively and independently recorded the presence of fibrosis of the MPR in 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 50 without. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy for detecting the presence of fibrosis in the MPR were calculated. κ statistics were used to analyze inter-observer agreement. Fibrosis of each of the regions examined during the first portion of the study showed a significant association with prior knee arthroscopy (p < 0.005 for each). A patient with fibrosis of the MPR, LDH, or LPR was 45.5, 9, or 3.7 times more likely, respectively, to have had a prior knee arthroscopy. Logistic regression analysis indicated that fibrosis of the MPR supplanted the diagnostic utility of identifying fibrosis of the LPR, LDH, or MDH, or combinations of these (p ≥ 0.09 for all combinations). In the second portion of the study, fibrosis of the MPR demonstrated a mean sensitivity of 82%, specificity of 72%, PPV of 75%, NPV of 81%, and accuracy of 77% for predicting prior knee arthroscopy. Analysis of MR images can be used to determine if a patient has had prior knee arthroscopy by identifying fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH. Fibrosis of the MPR was the strongest predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. (orig.)

Valid MR imaging predictors of prior knee arthroscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Discepola, Federico; Le, Huy B.Q. [McGill University Health Center, Jewsih General Hospital, Division of Musculoskeletal Radiology, Montreal, Quebec (Canada); Park, John S. [Annapolis Radiology Associates, Division of Musculoskeletal Radiology, Annapolis, MD (United States); Clopton, Paul; Knoll, Andrew N.; Austin, Matthew J.; Resnick, Donald L. [University of California San Diego (UCSD), Division of Musculoskeletal Radiology, San Diego, CA (United States)

2012-01-15

To determine whether fibrosis of the medial patellar reticulum (MPR), lateral patellar reticulum (LPR), deep medial aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (MDH), or deep lateral aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (LDH) is a valid predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. Institutional review board approval and waiver of informed consent were obtained for this HIPPA-compliant study. Initially, fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH in MR imaging studies of 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 100 patients without was recorded. Subsequently, two additional radiologists, blinded to clinical data, retrospectively and independently recorded the presence of fibrosis of the MPR in 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 50 without. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy for detecting the presence of fibrosis in the MPR were calculated. {kappa} statistics were used to analyze inter-observer agreement. Fibrosis of each of the regions examined during the first portion of the study showed a significant association with prior knee arthroscopy (p < 0.005 for each). A patient with fibrosis of the MPR, LDH, or LPR was 45.5, 9, or 3.7 times more likely, respectively, to have had a prior knee arthroscopy. Logistic regression analysis indicated that fibrosis of the MPR supplanted the diagnostic utility of identifying fibrosis of the LPR, LDH, or MDH, or combinations of these (p {>=} 0.09 for all combinations). In the second portion of the study, fibrosis of the MPR demonstrated a mean sensitivity of 82%, specificity of 72%, PPV of 75%, NPV of 81%, and accuracy of 77% for predicting prior knee arthroscopy. Analysis of MR images can be used to determine if a patient has had prior knee arthroscopy by identifying fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH. Fibrosis of the MPR was the strongest predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. (orig.)

Maxillary and mandibular immediately loaded implant-supported interim complete fixed dental prostheses on immediately placed dental implants with a digital approach: A clinical report.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Ryan C; Harris, Bryan T; Sarno, Robert; Morton, Dean; Llop, Daniel R; Lin, Wei-Shao

2015-09-01

This clinical report describes the treatment of maxillary and mandibular immediate implant placement and immediately loaded implant-supported interim complete fixed dental prostheses with a contemporary digital approach. The virtual diagnostic tooth arrangement eliminated the need for a customized radiographic template, and the diagnostic data collection required for computer-guided surgery (digital diagnostic impressions, digital photographs, and a cone beam-computed tomography [CBCT] scan) was completed in a single visit with improved workflow efficiency. Computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM)-fabricated surgical templates and interim prosthesis templates were made in a dental laboratory to facilitate computer-guided surgery and the immediate loading process. Copyright © 2015 Editorial Council for the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Is immediate adjunctive CBT more beneficial than delayed CBT in treating depression?: A Pilot Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Rizvi, Sakina J; Zaretsky, Ari; Schaffer, Ayal; Levitt, Anthony

2015-03-01

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an efficacious first-line therapy for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Due to the limited accessibility of CBT, long wait lists result in delayed treatment, which may affect treatment outcomes. The goal of this pilot study was to obtain preliminary data from a randomized controlled trial to determine whether delayed CBT reduces the effectiveness of the therapy compared to immediate CBT in patients with MDD receiving pharmacotherapy. Patients were randomized to receive immediate CBT (n=18) or to begin CBT after 6 months (n=20) and received 14 weekly sessions, followed by two additional booster sessions. During the active treatment months, patients in the immediate group demonstrated reductions in scores on the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) that were similar to those in the delayed CBT group. However, when the analysis was performed using only data from patients in the delayed group who were still in a depressive episode, there was an overall greater decrease in BDI-II scores in the immediate group vs. the delayed group over the active treatment months, but not specifically at the 6-month endpoint. These findings suggest delays in depression treatment, similar to what occurs with real-world wait list times, may not have a significant impact on the effectiveness of CBT in patients who are already receiving treatment as usual. However, such delays may affect the effectiveness of CBT in those patients who remain depressed during the time delay. A larger trial is necessary to confirm these findings. (Journal of Psychiatric Practice 2015;21:107-113).

IMMEDIATE RECIPROCAL CHANGES AT ADJACENT LEVEL FOLLOWING SINGLE-LEVEL ALIF

OpenAIRE

Uribe, Enrique Vargas; Amaral, Rodrigo; Marchi, Luis; Jensen, Rubens; Oliveira, Leonardo; Fortti, Fernanda; Coutinho, Etevaldo; Pimenta, Luiz

2015-01-01

Objective : To assess the segmental sagittal parameters and the adjacent mobile segment after interbody fusion by anterior approach in single-level L5-S1. Methods : Retrospective study. Inclusion: Interbody fusion by anterior approach (10°/15° angle), due to DDD, low-grade spondylolisthesis and/or stenosis without prior lumbar fusion. Thirty-five cases were included (25 women; mean age 47±15 years). Analysis of lumbar radiographs were performed preoperatively and 3 months after surgery. The ...

[Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome in the immediate puerperium].

Science.gov (United States)

Ortiz, P; Castro, A; Vallés, M; Coll, E; Casas, M; Mauri, J M

2003-01-01

We describe a female previously diagnosed of primary antiphospholipid antibody syndrome who presented a preclampsia in the second pregnancy. An urgent caesaria was made because of a worsening high blood pressure and oliguria. In the immediated puerperium she showed low platelets and persistent high blood pressure. Afterwards acute renal failure and neurological signs with a severe aortic valvulopathy were diagnosed. An haemolytic anemia was also detected. Definitive diagnosis was made by kidney biopsy with the result of a thrombotic microangiopathy. Treatment with low weight heparin and aspirin and systemic corticosteroids was started in the immediate puerperium and fresh frozen plasma was then added with a good response to treatment. Actually she is still with high blood pressure, aortic valvulopathy. Renal function is normal one year later.

The effect of pre-course e-learning prior to advanced life support training: a randomised controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Perkins, Gavin D; Fullerton, James N; Davis-Gomez, Nicole; Davies, Robin P; Baldock, Catherine; Stevens, Harry; Bullock, Ian; Lockey, Andrew S

2010-07-01

The role of e-learning in contemporary healthcare education is quickly developing. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the use of an e-learning simulation programme (Microsim, Laerdal, UK) prior to attending an Advanced Life Support (ALS) course and the subsequent relationship to candidate performance. An open label, multi-centre randomised controlled study was conducted. The control group received a course manual and pre-course MCQ four weeks prior to the face to face course. The intervention group in addition received the Microsim programme on a CD. The primary outcome was performance during a simulated cardiac arrest at the end of the course. Secondary outcomes were performance during multiple choice exams, resuscitation skills assessments and feedback to Microsim programme. 572 participants were randomised (287 Microsim, 285 control). There were no significant differences in the primary outcome (performance during a standard cardiac arrest simulation) or secondary outcomes. User evaluations were favorable. 79% would recommend it to colleagues. 9% stated Microsim could replace the entire ALS course, 25% parts. Over 70% of participants' perceived that Microsim improved their understanding of the key learning domains of the ALS course. Distributing Microsim to healthcare providers prior to attending an ALS courses did not improve either cognitive or psychomotor skills performance during cardiac arrest simulation testing. The challenge that lies ahead is to identify the optimal way to use e-learning as part of a blended approach to learning for this type of training programme.

Aesthetics and Survival of Immediately Restored Implants in Partially Edentulous Anterior Maxillary Patients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roni Kolerman

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This retrospective study was undertaken to determine survival rates and aesthetic outcomes of immediate placement of multiple implants at anterior maxilla sites. One hundred and eighteen implants placed in 39 patients (21 women and 18 men; average age 58.3 years were immediately restored (24–72 h after placement. Aesthetic assessment, radiographic bone loss, and biological and prosthetic complications were evaluated. Data collection between 12 and 84 months (mean 32.2 ± 18 after final prosthetic installation revealed that no implants were lost, and that 106/118 (89.8% implants had no more than 1.5 mm of bone loss by the end of the first year and an additional 0.2 mm for each successive year. The marginal bone loss was higher for extractions due to periodontitis compared to extractions due to caries (mean mesial loss of 1.37 mm vs. 1.01 mm, respectively, and mean distal loss of 1.37 mm and 0.99 mm, respectively, p = 0.001. The mesial papilla was present in 83/118 implants (70.3%, while the distal papilla was present in 76/118 implants (64.4%. The cervical metallic part of the abutment was exposed in 16/118 (13.5% implants. There was a higher ratio of recessions and missing papillae in patients in whom the extractions were performed due to periodontal reasons. Within the limitations of the present study, aesthetic and radiographic parameters support immediate restoration of partially edentulous maxillae.

Calibrated birth-death phylogenetic time-tree priors for bayesian inference.

Science.gov (United States)

Heled, Joseph; Drummond, Alexei J

2015-05-01

Here we introduce a general class of multiple calibration birth-death tree priors for use in Bayesian phylogenetic inference. All tree priors in this class separate ancestral node heights into a set of "calibrated nodes" and "uncalibrated nodes" such that the marginal distribution of the calibrated nodes is user-specified whereas the density ratio of the birth-death prior is retained for trees with equal values for the calibrated nodes. We describe two formulations, one in which the calibration information informs the prior on ranked tree topologies, through the (conditional) prior, and the other which factorizes the prior on divergence times and ranked topologies, thus allowing uniform, or any arbitrary prior distribution on ranked topologies. Although the first of these formulations has some attractive properties, the algorithm we present for computing its prior density is computationally intensive. However, the second formulation is always faster and computationally efficient for up to six calibrations. We demonstrate the utility of the new class of multiple-calibration tree priors using both small simulations and a real-world analysis and compare the results to existing schemes. The two new calibrated tree priors described in this article offer greater flexibility and control of prior specification in calibrated time-tree inference and divergence time dating, and will remove the need for indirect approaches to the assessment of the combined effect of calibration densities and tree priors in Bayesian phylogenetic inference. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists.

Rehearsal and recall in immediate memory

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sanders, A.F.

1961-01-01

Experiments on the influence of rehearsal on the retention and recoil of digit combinations are described, from the results of which it appears that a rehearsal period facilitates recall by producing a transition from immediate to permanent memory. It further seems that some parts of the material

Case of immediate hypersensitivity to beer.

Science.gov (United States)

Inoue, Tomoko; Yagami, Akiko; Shimojo, Naoshi; Hara, Kazuhiro; Nakamura, Masashi; Matsunaga, Kayoko

2016-06-01

We report here a case of immediate hypersensitivity to beer, in which a female patient developed angioedema of the eyelids shortly after consuming beer. In skin prick tests, the patient showed positive reactions to the base ingredients of beer, particularly malt and barley. The specific serum immunoglobulin E antibodies against barley and malt displayed weakly positive reactivity. To identify the immunoreactive antigens, malt and barley proteins were separated by 2-D polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoreacted with the patient's serum. The results of mass spectrometric analysis revealed that the main antigen was a protein with similarity to protein z-type serpin. Notably, the identified antigen had a molecular weight of 20-25 kDa, which is markedly smaller than that previously reported for protein Z4 (44 kDa). Taken together, these analyses indicate that a possible new antigen which belongs to the protein Z family elicits immediate hypersensitivity to beer. © 2015 Japanese Dermatological Association.

Examining the Relationship between Immediate Serial Recall and Immediate Free Recall: Common Effects of Phonological Loop Variables but Only Limited Evidence for the Phonological Loop

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Spurgeon, Jessica; Ward, Geoff; Matthews, William J.

2014-01-01

We examined the contribution of the phonological loop to immediate free recall (IFR) and immediate serial recall (ISR) of lists of between one and 15 words. Following Baddeley (1986, 2000, 2007, 2012), we assumed that visual words could be recoded into the phonological store when presented silently but that recoding would be prevented by…

Performance changes and relationship between vertical jump measures and actual sprint performance in elite sprinters with visual impairment throughout a Parapan American games training season

Science.gov (United States)

Loturco, Irineu; Winckler, Ciro; Kobal, Ronaldo; Cal Abad, Cesar C.; Kitamura, Katia; Veríssimo, Amaury W.; Pereira, Lucas A.; Nakamura, Fábio Y.

2015-01-01

The aims of this study were to estimate the magnitude of variability and progression in actual competitive and field vertical jump test performances in elite Paralympic sprinters with visual impairment in the year leading up to the 2015 Parapan American Games, and to investigate the relationships between loaded and unloaded vertical jumping test results and actual competitive sprinting performance. Fifteen Brazilian Paralympic sprinters with visual impairment attended seven official competitions (four national, two international and the Parapan American Games 2015) between April 2014 and August 2015, in the 100- and 200-m dash. In addition, they were tested in five different periods using loaded (mean propulsive power [MPP] in jump squat [JS] exercise) and unloaded (squat jump [SJ] height) vertical jumps within the 3 weeks immediately prior to the main competitions. The smallest important effect on performances was calculated as half of the within-athlete race-to-race (or test-to-test) variability and a multiple regression analysis was performed to predict the 100- and 200-m dash performances using the vertical jump test results. Competitive performance was enhanced during the Parapan American Games in comparison to the previous competition averages, overcoming the smallest worthwhile enhancement in both the 100- (0.9%) and 200-m dash (1.43%). In addition, The SJ and JS explained 66% of the performance variance in the competitive results. This study showed that vertical jump tests, in loaded and unloaded conditions, could be good predictors of the athletes' sprinting performance, and that during the Parapan American Games the Brazilian team reached its peak competitive performance. PMID:26594181

Performance changes and relationship between vertical jump measures and actual sprint performance in elite sprinters with visual impairment throughout a Parapan American games training season

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irineu eLoturco

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The aims of this study were to estimate the magnitude of variability and progression in actual competitive and field vertical jump test performances in elite Paralympic sprinters with visual impairment in the year leading up to the 2015 Parapan American Games, and to investigate the relationships between loaded and unloaded vertical jumping test results and actual competitive sprinting performance. Fifteen Brazilian Paralympic sprinters with visual impairment attended seven official competitions (four national, two international and the Parapan American Games 2015 between April 2014 and August 2015, in the 100- and 200-m dash. In addition, they were tested in five different periods using loaded (mean propulsive power [MPP] in jump squat [JS] exercise and unloaded (squat jump [SJ] height vertical jumps within the 3 weeks immediately prior to the main competitions. The smallest important effect on performances was calculated as half of the within-athlete race-to-race (or test-to-test variability and a multiple regression analysis was performed to predict the 100- and 200-m dash performances using the vertical jump test results. Competitive performance was enhanced during the Parapan American Games in comparison to the previous competition averages, overcoming the smallest worthwhile enhancement in both the 100- (0.9% and 200-m dash (1.43%. In addition, The SJ and JS explained 66% of the performance variance in the competitive results. This study showed that vertical jump tests, in loaded and unloaded conditions, could be good predictors of the athletes’ sprinting performance, and that during the Parapan American Games the Brazilian team reached its peak competitive performance.

Effects of prior exposure to office noise and music on aspects of working memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Andrew; Waters, Beth; Jones, Hywel

2010-01-01

Previous research has suggested that prior exposure to noise reduces the effect of subsequent exposure due to habituation. Similarly, a number of studies have shown that exposure to Mozart's music leads to better subsequent spatial reasoning performance. Two studies were conducted to extend these findings. The first one examined whether habituation occurs to office noise (including speech) and, if so, how long it takes to develop. Thirty-six young adults participated in the first study which compared effects of office noise with quiet on the performance of a maths task. The study also examined the effects of prior exposure to the office noise on the subsequent effect of the noise. The results showed that performance was initially impaired by the office noise but that the effects of the noise were removed by 10 minutes of exposure between tasks. The second experiment attempted to replicate the "Mozart effect" which represents an improvement in spatial reasoning following listening to Mozart. The study also examined whether the Mozart effect could be explained by changes in mood. Twenty-four young adults participated in the study. The results replicated the Mozart effect and showed that it was not due to changes in mood. Overall, these results show that prior exposure to noise or music can influence aspects of working memory. Such effects need to be incorporated into models of effects of noise on cognition and attempts have to be made to eliminate alternative explanations rather than just describing changes that occur in specific contexts.

Effects of prior exposure to office noise and music on aspects of working memory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew Smith

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Previous research has suggested that prior exposure to noise reduces the effect of subsequent exposure due to habituation. Similarly, a number of studies have shown that exposure to Mozart′s music leads to better subsequent spatial reasoning performance. Two studies were conducted to extend these findings. The first one examined whether habituation occurs to office noise (including speech and, if so, how long it takes to develop. Thirty-six young adults participated in the first study which compared effects of office noise with quiet on the performance of a maths task. The study also examined the effects of prior exposure to the office noise on the subsequent effect of the noise. The results showed that performance was initially impaired by the office noise but that the effects of the noise were removed by 10 minutes of exposure between tasks. The second experiment attempted to replicate the "Mozart effect" which represents an improvement in spatial reasoning following listening to Mozart. The study also examined whether the Mozart effect could be explained by changes in mood. Twenty-four young adults participated in the study. The results replicated the Mozart effect and showed that it was not due to changes in mood. Overall, these results show that prior exposure to noise or music can influence aspects of working memory. Such effects need to be incorporated into models of effects of noise on cognition and attempts have to be made to eliminate alternative explanations rather than just describing changes that occur in specific contexts.

The Effect of D-Cycloserine on Immediate vs. Delayed Extinction of Learned Fear

Science.gov (United States)

Langton, Julia M.; Richardson, Rick

2010-01-01

We compared the effect of D-cycloserine (DCS) on immediate (10 min after conditioning) and delayed (24 h after conditioning) extinction of learned fear in rats. DCS facilitated both immediate and delayed extinction when the drug was administered after extinction training. However, DCS did not facilitate immediate extinction when administered prior…

The contribution to immediate serial recall of rehearsal, search speed, access to lexical memory, and phonological coding: an investigation at the construct level.

Science.gov (United States)

Tehan, Gerald; Fogarty, Gerard; Ryan, Katherine

2004-07-01

Rehearsal speed has traditionally been seen to be the prime determinant of individual differences in memory span. Recent studies, in the main using young children as the participant population, have suggested other contributors to span performance. In the present research, we used structural equation modeling to explore, at the construct level, individual differences in immediate serial recall with respect to rehearsal, search, phonological coding, and speed of access to lexical memory. We replicated standard short-term phenomena; we showed that the variables that influence children's span performance influence adult performance in the same way; and we showed that speed of access to lexical memory and facility with phonological codes appear to be more potent sources of individual differences in immediate memory than is either rehearsal speed or search factors.

Immediate implant placement and provisionalization with simultaneous guided bone regeneration in the esthetic zone

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chih-Long Chen

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The procedure for immediate implant placement and provisionalization is time-saving, possibly with only one surgical intervention required, although allowing maximal preservation of peri-implant tissues. In this case, we extracted a fractured maxillary right central incisor of a 46-year-old woman with high esthetic expectations, and a transmucosal implant was immediately installed. Simultaneous guided bone regeneration was performed to correct the defects at the facial side of the socket and augment the alveolar ridge horizontally. Primary stability of the implant body and wound closure without tension were confirmed. Connection of a 15° angled abutment and fabrication of a provisional acrylic resin crown without occlusal contact were also completed in the same appointment. After intensive follow-up and soft-tissue molding for 6 months, the customized zirconia abutment and all-ceramic crown were definitively fabricated. During the 18-month follow-up period, the patient was satisfied with the esthetic and functional results.

Balloon dilatation of tuberculous bronchial stenosis: immediate and long term effect

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Sang Yoon; Kwak, Byung Kook; Kang, Ho Yeong; Kim, Tae Hoon; Kim, Soo Rhan; Park, Hyun Sun; Lee, Shin Hyung; Lee, Chang Joon

1997-01-01

To evaluate the long-term immediate effects of balloon dilatation of the tuberculous bronchial stenosis. Twenty-three women with tuberculous bronchial stenosis (19, left main bronchus ; 4, right main bronchus) underwent balloon dilatation (13 bronchoscopically guided ; 10 fluoroscopically guided). Immediate (n=23) and long-term follow-up (mean, 17.2 months; range, 1month-6years 3months ; n=20) assessments focused on changes in the results of the pulmonary function test (PFT). An increase in FVC or FEVI of more than 10% after the procedure was considered effective. In all patients, any complications were evaluated. Balloon dilatation was effective at immediate follow-up in 69.5% of patients(16/23) and in 75.0%(15/20) at long-term follow-up. Bronchoscopically and fluoroscopically-guided balloon dilatation proved effective in 61.5%(8/13) and 80.0% of patients(8/10) on immediate follow-up respectively, but in 90.0%(9/10) and 60.0%(6/10) on long term follow-up respectively. Balloon dilatation was effective in the active(n 10) and inactive(n = 13) stage of tuberculous bronchitis in 80.0%(8/10) and 61.5% of cases(8/13) on immediate follow-up respectively, but in 66.6%(6/9) and 81.8%(9/11) on long term follow-up study, respectively. On immediate follow-up, balloon dilatation of tubular bronchial stenosis was more effective in the active than in the inactive stage, but on long-term follow-up was less effective ; long-term improvement in the inactive stage was, however, well-maintained

Biowaiver Monographs for Immediate Release Solid Oral Dosage Forms: Proguanil Hydrochloride.

Science.gov (United States)

Plöger, Gerlinde F; Abrahamsson, Bertil; Cristofoletti, Rodrigo; Groot, Dirk W; Langguth, Peter; Mehta, Mehul U; Parr, Alan; Polli, James E; Shah, Vinod P; Tajiri, Tomokazu; Dressman, Jennifer B

2018-07-01

Literature data relevant to the decision to waive in vivo bioequivalence testing for the approval of generic immediate release solid oral dosage forms of proguanil hydrochloride are reviewed. To elucidate the Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) classification, experimental solubility and dissolution studies were also carried out. The antimalarial proguanil hydrochloride, effective via the parent compound proguanil and the metabolite cycloguanil, is not considered to be a narrow therapeutic index drug. Proguanil hydrochloride salt was shown to be highly soluble according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, World Health Organization, and European Medicines Agency guidelines, but data for permeability are inconclusive. Therefore, proguanil hydrochloride is conservatively classified as a BCS class 3 substance. In view of this information and the assessment of risks associated with a false positive decision, a BCS-based biowaiver approval procedure can be recommended for orally administered solid immediate release products containing proguanil hydrochloride, provided well-known excipients are used in usual amounts and provided the in vitro dissolution of the test and reference products is very rapid (85% or more are dissolved in 15 min at pH 1.2, 4.5, and 6.8) and is performed according to the current requirements for BCS-based biowaivers. Copyright © 2018 American Pharmacists Association®. All rights reserved.

Immediate or deferred adjustment of drug regimens in multidose drug dispensing systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Mertens, Bram J; Kwint, Henk-Frans; van Marum, Rob J; Bouvy, Marcel L

2018-05-18

Multidose drug dispensing (MDD) is used to help patients take their medicines appropriately. Little is known about drug regimen changes within these MDD systems and how they are effectuated by the community pharmacist. Manual immediate adjustments of the MDD system could introduce dispensing errors. MDD guidelines therefore recommend to effectuate drug regimen changes at the start of a new MDD system. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency, type, procedure followed, immediate necessity, and time taken to make MDD adjustments. This was a cross-sectional study in eight community pharmacies in the Netherlands. All adjustments to MDD systems were systematically documented for 3 weeks by the community pharmacist. Overall, 261 MDD adjustments involving 364 drug changes were documented for 250 patients: 127 (35%) drug changes involved the addition of a new drug, 124 (34%) a change in dosage, and 95 (26%) drug discontinuation. Of the MDD adjustments, 135 (52%) were effectuated immediately: 81 (31%) by adjusting the MDD system manually, 49 (19%) by temporarily dispensing the drug separately from the MDD system, and 5 (2%) by ordering a new MDD system. Pharmacists considered that 36 (27%) of the immediate MDD adjustments could have been deferred until the next MDD system was produced. Immediate adjustment took significantly longer than deferred adjustment (p < 0.001). This study shows that in patients using MDD systems, over half of the drug regimen changes are adjusted immediately. The necessity of these immediate changes should be critically evaluated. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Improving Open Access through Prior Learning Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Shuangxu; Kawachi, Paul

2013-01-01

This paper explores and presents new data on how to improve open access in distance education through using prior learning assessments. Broadly there are three types of prior learning assessment (PLAR): Type-1 for prospective students to be allowed to register for a course; Type-2 for current students to avoid duplicating work-load to gain…

Immediate drop on demand technology (I-DOT) coupled with mass spectrometry via an open port sampling interface.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Berkel, Gary J; Kertesz, Vilmos; Boeltz, Harry

2017-11-01

The aim of this work was to demonstrate and evaluate the analytical performance of coupling the immediate drop on demand technology to a mass spectrometer via the recently introduced open port sampling interface and ESI. Methodology & results: A maximum sample analysis throughput of 5 s per sample was demonstrated. Signal reproducibility was 10% or better as demonstrated by the quantitative analysis of propranolol and its stable isotope-labeled internal standard propranolol-d7. The ability of the system to multiply charge and analyze macromolecules was demonstrated using the protein cytochrome c. This immediate drop on demand technology/open port sampling interface/ESI-MS combination allowed for the quantitative analysis of relatively small mass analytes and was used for the identification of macromolecules like proteins.

Progressive immediate loading of a perforated maxillary sinus dental implant: a case report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Al-Juboori MJ

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Mohammed Jasim Al-Juboori Department of Oral Surgery, MAHSA University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Abstract: The displacement of a dental implant into the maxillary sinus may lead to implant failure due to exposure of the apical third or the tip of the implant beyond the bone, resulting in soft tissue growth. This case report discusses dental implant placement in the upper first molar area with maxillary sinus involvement of approximately 2 mm. A new technique for progressive implant loading was used, involving immediately loaded implants with maxillary sinus perforation and low primary stability. Follow-up was performed with resonance frequency analysis and compared with an implant placed adjacent in the upper second premolar area using a conventional delayed loading protocol. Implants with maxillary sinus involvement showed increasing stability during the healing period. We found that progressive implant loading may be a safe technique for the placement of immediately loaded implants with maxillary sinus involvement. Keywords: progressive implant loading, resonance frequency analysis, implant stability, provisional crown, bone density, maxillary sinus

Vertical Root Fracture: Preservation of the Alveolar Ridge Using Immediate Implants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edmar de Oliveira Oya

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Teeth with vertical root fracture (VRF have complete or incomplete fractures that begin in the root and extend toward the occlusal surface. The most frequent causes of VRF originate from physical trauma, occlusal prematurity, inadequate endodontic treatment, and iatrogenic causes. Diagnose is difficult and delay can cause stomatognathic system problem. The purpose of this case report was to evaluate immediate implant placement after extraction of teeth with vertical root fracture. For the 1st case, the VRF in 1st left lower molar was confirmed during surgical flap and at the same time, the tooth was removed and immediate implant was placed. For the 2nd case, the VRF 1st left lower molar was confirmed during endodontic access and at the same appointment, the tooth was removed and the immediate implant is placed. Several studies have shown that immediate implants have similar success rates when compared with late implants. Consider that this approach is a safe procedure with favorable prognosis. In cases of VRF, the main factor to be considered is the presence of adequate bone support and immediate implants can preserve the vertical bone height, adding the fact that good patient compliance reduces the number of surgical interventions and promotes the functionality of stomatognathic system.

Training shortest-path tractography: Automatic learning of spatial priors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kasenburg, Niklas; Liptrot, Matthew George; Reislev, Nina Linde

2016-01-01

Tractography is the standard tool for automatic delineation of white matter tracts from diffusion weighted images. However, the output of tractography often requires post-processing to remove false positives and ensure a robust delineation of the studied tract, and this demands expert prior...... knowledge. Here we demonstrate how such prior knowledge, or indeed any prior spatial information, can be automatically incorporated into a shortest-path tractography approach to produce more robust results. We describe how such a prior can be automatically generated (learned) from a population, and we...

Acquisition of multiple prior distributions in tactile temporal order judgment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yasuhito eNagai

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The Bayesian estimation theory proposes that the brain acquires the prior distribution of a task and integrates it with sensory signals to minimize the effect of sensory noise. Psychophysical studies have demonstrated that our brain actually implements Bayesian estimation in a variety of sensory-motor tasks. However, these studies only imposed one prior distribution on participants within a task period. In this study, we investigated the conditions that enable the acquisition of multiple prior distributions in temporal order judgment (TOJ of two tactile stimuli across the hands. In Experiment 1, stimulation intervals were randomly selected from one of two prior distributions (biased to right hand earlier and biased to left hand earlier in association with color cues (green and red, respectively. Although the acquisition of the two priors was not enabled by the color cues alone, it was significant when participants shifted their gaze (above or below in response to the color cues. However, the acquisition of multiple priors was not significant when participants moved their mouths (opened or closed. In Experiment 2, the spatial cues (above and below were used to identify which eye position or retinal cue position was crucial for the eye-movement-dependent acquisition of multiple priors in Experiment 1. The acquisition of the two priors was significant when participants moved their gaze to the cues (i.e., the cue positions on the retina were constant across the priors, as well as when participants did not shift their gazes (i.e., the cue positions on the retina changed according to the priors. Thus, both eye and retinal cue positions were effective in acquiring multiple priors. Based on previous neurophysiological reports, we discuss possible neural correlates that contribute to the acquisition of multiple priors.

Entropy Econometrics for combining regional economic forecasts: A Data-Weighted Prior Estimator

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández-Vázquez, Esteban; Moreno, Blanca

2017-10-01

Forecast combination has been studied in econometrics for a long time, and the literature has shown the superior performance of forecast combination over individual predictions. However, there is still controversy on which is the best procedure to specify the forecast weights. This paper explores the possibility of using a procedure based on Entropy Econometrics, which allows setting the weights for the individual forecasts as a mixture of different alternatives. In particular, we examine the ability of the Data-Weighted Prior Estimator proposed by Golan (J Econom 101(1):165-193, 2001) to combine forecasting models in a context of small sample sizes, a relative common scenario when dealing with time series for regional economies. We test the validity of the proposed approach using a simulation exercise and a real-world example that aims at predicting gross regional product growth rates for a regional economy. The forecasting performance of the Data-Weighted Prior Estimator proposed is compared with other combining methods. The simulation results indicate that in scenarios of heavily ill-conditioned datasets the approach suggested dominates other forecast combination strategies. The empirical results are consistent with the conclusions found in the numerical experiment.

Immediate effects of kinesiotaping on quadriceps muscle strength: a single-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Vercelli, Stefano; Sartorio, Francesco; Foti, Calogero; Colletto, Lorenzo; Virton, Domenico; Ronconi, Gianpaolo; Ferriero, Giorgio

2012-07-01

To investigate the immediate effects on maximal muscle strength of kinesiotaping (KT) applied to the dominant quadriceps of healthy subjects. Single-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial. "Salvatore Maugeri" Foundation. With ethical approval and informed consent, a convenience sample of 36 healthy volunteers were recruited. Two subjects did not complete the sessions and were excluded from the analysis. Subjects were tested across 3 different sessions, randomly receiving 2 experimental KT conditions applied with the aim of enhancing and inhibiting muscle strength and a sham KT application. Quadriceps muscle strength was measured by means of an isokinetic maximal test performed at 60 and 180 degrees per second. Two secondary outcome measures were performed: the single-leg triple hop for distance to measure limb performance and the Global Rating of Change Scale (GRCS) to calculate agreement between KT application and subjective perception of strength. Compared with baseline, none of the 3 taping conditions showed a significant change in muscle strength and performance (all P > 0.05). Effect size was very low under all conditions (≤0.08). Very few subjects showed an individual change greater than the minimal detectable change. Global Rating of Change Scale scores demonstrated low to moderate agreement with the type of KT applied, but some placebo effects were reported independently of condition. Our findings indicated no significant effect in the maximal quadriceps strength immediately after the application of inhibition, facilitation, or sham KT. These results do not support the use of KT applied in this way to change maximal muscle strength in healthy people.

Music-dependent memory in immediate and delayed word recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Balch, W R; Bowman, K; Mohler, L

1992-01-01

Undergraduate volunteers rated a series of words for pleasantness while hearing a particular background music. The subjects in Experiment 1 received, immediately or after a 48-h delay, an unexpected word-recall test in one of the following musical cue contexts: same cue (S), different cue (D), or no cue (N). For immediate recall, context dependency (S-D) was significant but same-cue facilitation (S-N) was not. No cue effects at all were found for delayed recall, and there was a significant interaction between cue and retention interval. A similar interaction was also found in Experiment 3, which was designed to rule out an alternative explanation with respect to distraction. When the different musical selection was changed specifically in either tempo or form (genre), only pieces having an altered tempo produced significantly lower immediate recall compared with the same pieces (Experiment 2). The results support a stimulus generalization view of music-dependent memory.

A study on M/G/1 retrial G - queue with two phases of service, immediate feedback and working vacations

Science.gov (United States)

Varalakshmi, M.; Chandrasekaran, V. M.; Saravanarajan, M. C.

2017-11-01

In this paper, we discuss about the steady state behaviour of M/G/1 retrial queueing system with two phases of services and immediate feedbacks under working vacation policy where the regular busy server is affected due to the arrival of negative customers. Upon arrival if the customer finds the server busy, breakdown or on working vacation it enters an orbit; otherwise the customer enters into the service area immediately. After service completion, the customer is allowed to make finite number of immediate feedback. The feedback service also consists of two phases. At the service completion epoch of a positive customer, if the orbit is empty the server goes for a working vacation. The server works at a lower service rate during working vacation (WV) period. Using the supplementary variable technique, we found out the steady state probability generating function for the system and in orbit. System performance measures and reliability measures are discussed. Finally, some numerical examples are presented to validate the analyticalresults.

Accuracy Assessment of Immediate and Delayed Implant Placements Using CAD/CAM Surgical Guides.

Science.gov (United States)

Alzoubi, Fawaz; Massoomi, Nima; Nattestad, Anders

2016-10-01

The aim of this study is to assess the accuracy of immediately placed implants using Anatomage Invivo5 computer-assisted design/computer-assisted manufacturing (CAD/CAM) surgical guides and compare the accuracy to delayed implant placement protocol. Patients who had implants placed using Anatomage Invivo5 CAD/CAM surgical guides during the period of 2012-2015 were evaluated retrospectively. Patients who received immediate implant placements and/or delayed implant placements replacing 1-2 teeth were included in this study. Pre- and postsurgical images were superimposed to evaluate deviations at the crest, apex, and angle. A total of 40 implants placed in 29 patients were included in this study. The overall mean deviations measured at the crest, apex, and angle were 0.86 mm, 1.25 mm, and 3.79°, respectively. The means for the immediate group deviations were: crest = 0.85 mm, apex = 1.10, and angle = 3.49°. The means for the delayed group deviations were: crest = 0.88 mm, apex = 1.59, and angle = 4.29°. No statistically significant difference was found at the crest and angle; however, there was a statistically significant difference between the immediate and delayed group at the apex, with the immediate group presenting more accurate placements at the apical point than the delayed group. CAD/CAM surgical guides can be reliable tools to accurately place implants immediately and/or in a delayed fashion. No statistically significant differences were found between the delayed and the immediate group at the crest and angle, however apical position was more accurate in the immediate group.

Endoscope-assisted breast reconstruction. 1. Immediate breast reconstruction after lateral quadrantectomy with endoscopically harvested latissimus dorsi muscle flap

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Satake, Toshihiko; Hasegawa, Takamitsu; Kurihara, Kazunao; Kudo, Tetsuya; Kim, Shiei; Wakamatsu, Shingo.

1996-01-01

Breast conserving therapy (BCT) now is widely accepted in Japan. Quadrantectomy has been chosen from among the several available breast conserving operations for its minimal recurrence rate. Quadrantectomy, or excision of one-quarter volume of the breast, leaves a moderate degree of deformity which diminishes the quality of life. The authors have introduced immediate post-ectomy breast reconstruction utilizing an endoscopically harvested latissimus dorsi (LD) muscle flap which results in a minimal donor site scar. Five cases of endoscope-assisted LD muscle reconstruction of a quadrantectomized breast have been followed by irradiation therapy. Prior to reconstruction, with the patient in the supine position, quadrantectomy and dissection of axillary lymphnodes are performed through an incision extending from the anterior axillary to the inflamammary line. The patient then is placed in the lateral supine position. LD muscle flap dissection by electrocautery begins through the initial incision. Dissections of posterior portions of the muscle continue, under endoscopic visualization, through one or two ports along the anterior margin of the muscle. Moderate amount of adipose tissue is left attached to the muscle to obtain full augmentation. The raised flap then is transferred and secured to the post-quandrantectomy defect. Some post-irradiation shrinkage of the inserted LD muscle has been a common occurrence of breast reconstruction. An ample amount of adipose tissue left attached to the muscle margin will solve this matter since fatty tissue is more resistant to post-irradiation atrophy. (J.P.N.)

Endoscope-assisted breast reconstruction. 1. Immediate breast reconstruction after lateral quadrantectomy with endoscopically harvested latissimus dorsi muscle flap

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Satake, Toshihiko; Hasegawa, Takamitsu; Kurihara, Kazunao; Kudo, Tetsuya; Kim, Shiei [Kawaguchi Municipal Medical Center, Saitama (Japan); Wakamatsu, Shingo

1996-08-01

Breast conserving therapy (BCT) now is widely accepted in Japan. Quadrantectomy has been chosen from among the several available breast conserving operations for its minimal recurrence rate. Quadrantectomy, or excision of one-quarter volume of the breast, leaves a moderate degree of deformity which diminishes the quality of life. The authors have introduced immediate post-ectomy breast reconstruction utilizing an endoscopically harvested latissimus dorsi (LD) muscle flap which results in a minimal donor site scar. Five cases of endoscope-assisted LD muscle reconstruction of a quadrantectomized breast have been followed by irradiation therapy. Prior to reconstruction, with the patient in the supine position, quadrantectomy and dissection of axillary lymphnodes are performed through an incision extending from the anterior axillary to the inflamammary line. The patient then is placed in the lateral supine position. LD muscle flap dissection by electrocautery begins through the initial incision. Dissections of posterior portions of the muscle continue, under endoscopic visualization, through one or two ports along the anterior margin of the muscle. Moderate amount of adipose tissue is left attached to the muscle to obtain full augmentation. The raised flap then is transferred and secured to the post-quandrantectomy defect. Some post-irradiation shrinkage of the inserted LD muscle has been a common occurrence of breast reconstruction. An ample amount of adipose tissue left attached to the muscle margin will solve this matter since fatty tissue is more resistant to post-irradiation atrophy. (J.P.N.)

Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells with Thin Silicon Passivation Film Deposited prior to Phosphorous Diffusion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ching-Tao Li

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We demonstrate the performance improvement of p-type single-crystalline silicon (sc-Si solar cells resulting from front surface passivation by a thin amorphous silicon (a-Si film deposited prior to phosphorus diffusion. The conversion efficiency was improved for the sample with an a-Si film of ~5 nm thickness deposited on the front surface prior to high-temperature phosphorus diffusion, with respect to the samples with an a-Si film deposited on the front surface after phosphorus diffusion. The improvement in conversion efficiency is 0.4% absolute with respect to a-Si film passivated cells, that is, the cells with an a-Si film deposited on the front surface after phosphorus diffusion. The new technique provided a 0.5% improvement in conversion efficiency compared to the cells without a-Si passivation. Such performance improvements result from reduced surface recombination as well as lowered contact resistance, the latter of which induces a high fill factor of the solar cell.

Errorless learning and working memory: the impact of errors, distractors, and memory span load on immediate recall in healthy adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Nordvik, Jan E; Schanke, Anne-Kristine; Landro, Nils I

2011-06-01

Errorless learning represents an important contribution to current neuropsychological rehabilitation. Previous research has mainly explained the benefits of errorless learning through properties of long-term memory. This study aims to explore how errors affect immediate recall performance. A new, supplementary perspective focusing on the role of working memory in errorless learning is introduced. Sixty university students participated in a within-subject design experiment measuring the effect of errors, memory span load, and attentional distractors on a digit recall task. Errors were found to have significant negative impact on immediate recall, while distractors had an effect only in interaction with errors.

Resection of parathyroid tumor in the aorticopulmonary window without prior neck exploration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McHenry, C.; Walsh, M.; Jarosz, H.; Henkin, R.; Tope, J.; Lawrence, A.M.; Paloyan, E.

1988-01-01

Of 522 patients with hyperparathyroidism operated on from 1973 to 1987 at our institution, there were seven (1.3%), each with an ectopic, hyperfunctioning mediastinal parathyroid adenoma, who required median sternotomy. In three of these seven patients, the tumor was located in the aorticopulmonary window. A 61-year-old woman with primary hyperparathyroidism had a preoperative thallium-technetium subtraction scan that showed thallium uptake at the base of the heart without any uptake in the neck. After further workup and without prior neck exploration, a parathyroid adenoma was found in the aorticopulmonary window through a median sternotomy. Six months later, serum calcium, phosphorus, and parathyroid hormone values remain normal. Two other cases of parathyroid adenoma in the aorticopulmonary window are presented. Of these two patients, the thallium scan was a key element in the immediate mediastinal exploration of one, who was transferred from another hospital comatose and intubated, in acute hypercalcemic crisis. Since mediastinal parathyroid tumors that necessitate median sternotomy occur in less than 2% of patients with primary hyperparathyroidism, we do not advocate routine preoperative localization studies before an initial cervical operation; localization, however, may be justified in selected cases, such as in critically ill patients or in instances of acute hyperparathyroidism, when the first operation needs to be curative

Immediate remediation of heavy metal (Cr(VI)) contaminated soil by high energy electron beam irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Jing; Zhang, Guilong; Cai, Dongqing; Wu, Zhengyan

2015-01-01

Highlights: • An immediate remediation method for Cr(VI) contaminated soil (CCS) was developed. • High energy electron beam (HEEB) irradiation could reduce Cr(VI) in CCS to Cr(III). • This effect was attributed to electrons, hydrated electrons, and reductive radicals. • This remediation method was effective, environmentally friendly, and low-cost. - Abstract: This work developed an immediate and high-performance remediation method for Cr(VI) contaminated soil (CCS) using high energy electron beam (HEEB) irradiation. The result indicated that, compared with γ-ray irradiation, HEEB irradiation displayed a significant reduction efficiency on Cr(VI) in CCS to Cr(III) with substantially lower toxicity, which was mainly attributed to the reduction effects of electrons, hydrated electrons, and reductive radicals generated in the irradiation process of HEEB. This work could provide a one-step and effective method for the remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil (HMCS)

Immediate remediation of heavy metal (Cr(VI)) contaminated soil by high energy electron beam irradiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Jing; Zhang, Guilong [Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bioengineering, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Anhui Province, Hefei 230031 (China); Bioenergy Forest Research Center of State Forestry Administration, Hefei 230031 (China); Cai, Dongqing, E-mail: dqcai@ipp.ac.cn [Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bioengineering, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Anhui Province, Hefei 230031 (China); Bioenergy Forest Research Center of State Forestry Administration, Hefei 230031 (China); Wu, Zhengyan, E-mail: zywu@ipp.ac.cn [Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bioengineering, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Anhui Province, Hefei 230031 (China); Bioenergy Forest Research Center of State Forestry Administration, Hefei 230031 (China)

2015-03-21

Highlights: • An immediate remediation method for Cr(VI) contaminated soil (CCS) was developed. • High energy electron beam (HEEB) irradiation could reduce Cr(VI) in CCS to Cr(III). • This effect was attributed to electrons, hydrated electrons, and reductive radicals. • This remediation method was effective, environmentally friendly, and low-cost. - Abstract: This work developed an immediate and high-performance remediation method for Cr(VI) contaminated soil (CCS) using high energy electron beam (HEEB) irradiation. The result indicated that, compared with γ-ray irradiation, HEEB irradiation displayed a significant reduction efficiency on Cr(VI) in CCS to Cr(III) with substantially lower toxicity, which was mainly attributed to the reduction effects of electrons, hydrated electrons, and reductive radicals generated in the irradiation process of HEEB. This work could provide a one-step and effective method for the remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil (HMCS)

Is pre-operative imaging essential prior to ureteric stone surgery?

Science.gov (United States)

Youssef, F R; Wilkinson, B A; Hastie, K J; Hall, J

2012-09-01

The aim of this study was to identify patients not requiring ureteric stone surgery based on pre-operative imaging (within 24 hours) prior to embarking on semirigid ureteroscopy (R-URS) for urolithiasis. The imaging of all consecutive patients on whom R-URS for urolithiasis was performed over a 12-month period was reviewed. All patients had undergone a plain x-ray of the kidney, ureters and bladder (KUB), abdominal non-contrast computed tomography (NCCT-KUB) or both on the day of surgery. A total of 96 patients were identified for the study. Stone sizes ranged from 3 mm to 20 mm. Thirteen patients (14%) were cancelled as no stone(s) were identified on pre-operative imaging. Of the patients cancelled, 8 (62%) required NCCT-KUB to confirm spontaneous stone passage. One in seven patients were stone free on the day of surgery. This negates the need for unnecessary anaesthetic and instrumentation of the urinary tract, with the associated morbidity. Up-to-date imaging prior to embarking on elective ureteric stone surgery is highly recommended.

Adaptive local thresholding for robust nucleus segmentation utilizing shape priors

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xiuzhong; Srinivas, Chukka

2016-03-01

This paper describes a novel local thresholding method for foreground detection. First, a Canny edge detection method is used for initial edge detection. Then, tensor voting is applied on the initial edge pixels, using a nonsymmetric tensor field tailored to encode prior information about nucleus size, shape, and intensity spatial distribution. Tensor analysis is then performed to generate the saliency image and, based on that, the refined edge. Next, the image domain is divided into blocks. In each block, at least one foreground and one background pixel are sampled for each refined edge pixel. The saliency weighted foreground histogram and background histogram are then created. These two histograms are used to calculate a threshold by minimizing the background and foreground pixel classification error. The block-wise thresholds are then used to generate the threshold for each pixel via interpolation. Finally, the foreground is obtained by comparing the original image with the threshold image. The effective use of prior information, combined with robust techniques, results in far more reliable foreground detection, which leads to robust nucleus segmentation.

Noncontrast chest computed tomography immediately after transarterial chemoembolization in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: Clinical benefits and effect of radiation reduction on image quality in low-dose scanning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Joon-Il; Kim, Hyun Beom; Kim, Min Ju; Lee, Jong Seok; Koh, Young Whan; An, Sang Bu; Ko, Heung-kyu; Park, Joong-Won

2011-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical benefits of noncontrast chest computed tomography (CT) immediately after transarterial chemoembolization in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and to assess the effect of radiation reduction on image quality in low-dose scanning. Materials and methods: From June to October 2010, we performed standard-dose, noncontrast chest CTs immediately after transarterial chemoembolization in 160 patients and low-dose CTs in 88 patients. We reviewed the entire noncontrast chest CTs and follow-up CTs to reveal the clinical benefits of CT evaluation immediately after transarterial chemoembolization. Using two independent readers, we also retrospectively evaluated the radiation dose and image quality in terms of the image noise, contrast between the liver parenchyma and iodized oil and diagnostic acceptability for the evaluation of treatment response after transarterial chemoembolization. Results: In 5.2% of the patients, additional treatment was performed immediately after the interpretation of the noncontrast chest CT, and additional pulmonary lesions were found in 8.5% of the patients. The measured mean dose-length product for the low-dose scanning was 18.4% of that of the standard-dose scanning. The image noise was significantly higher with the low-dose scanning (p < 0.001). However, all of the low-dose CT scans were diagnostically acceptable, and the mean scores for the subjective assessments of the contrast and diagnostic acceptability showed no significant differences for either reader. Conclusion: A noncontrast chest CT immediately after transarterial chemoembolization has some clinical benefits for immediate decision making and detecting pulmonary lesions. Low-dose, noncontrast chest CTs immediately after transarterial chemoembolization consistently provide diagnostically acceptable images and information on treatment response in patients who have undergone transarterial chemoembolization.

Cost-effectiveness of 'immediate IVF' versus 'delayed IVF': a prospective study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eijkemans, M.J.; Kersten, F.A.M.; Lintsen, A.M.E.; Hunault, C.C.; Bouwmans, C.A.; Roijen, L.H.; Habbema, J.D.; Braat, D.D.M.

2017-01-01

STUDY QUESTION: How does the cost-effectiveness (CE) of immediate IVF compared with postponing IVF for 1 year, depend on prognostic characteristics of the couple? SUMMARY ANSWER: The CE ratio, i.e. the incremental costs of immediate versus delayed IVF per extra live birth, is the highest (range of

Estimating Functions with Prior Knowledge, (EFPK) for diffusions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nolsøe, Kim; Kessler, Mathieu; Madsen, Henrik

2003-01-01

In this paper a method is formulated in an estimating function setting for parameter estimation, which allows the use of prior information. The main idea is to use prior knowledge of the parameters, either specified as moments restrictions or as a distribution, and use it in the construction of a...... of an estimating function. It may be useful when the full Bayesian analysis is difficult to carry out for computational reasons. This is almost always the case for diffusions, which is the focus of this paper, though the method applies in other settings.......In this paper a method is formulated in an estimating function setting for parameter estimation, which allows the use of prior information. The main idea is to use prior knowledge of the parameters, either specified as moments restrictions or as a distribution, and use it in the construction...

Variable Selection for Nonparametric Gaussian Process Priors: Models and Computational Strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Savitsky, Terrance; Vannucci, Marina; Sha, Naijun

2011-02-01

This paper presents a unified treatment of Gaussian process models that extends to data from the exponential dispersion family and to survival data. Our specific interest is in the analysis of data sets with predictors that have an a priori unknown form of possibly nonlinear associations to the response. The modeling approach we describe incorporates Gaussian processes in a generalized linear model framework to obtain a class of nonparametric regression models where the covariance matrix depends on the predictors. We consider, in particular, continuous, categorical and count responses. We also look into models that account for survival outcomes. We explore alternative covariance formulations for the Gaussian process prior and demonstrate the flexibility of the construction. Next, we focus on the important problem of selecting variables from the set of possible predictors and describe a general framework that employs mixture priors. We compare alternative MCMC strategies for posterior inference and achieve a computationally efficient and practical approach. We demonstrate performances on simulated and benchmark data sets.

Chest Computed Tomography (CT) Immediately after CT-Guided Transthoracic Needle Aspiration Biopsy as a Predictor of Overt Pneumothorax

Science.gov (United States)

Noh, Tae June; Lee, Chang Hoon; Kang, Young Ae; Kwon, Sung-Youn; Yoon, Ho-Il; Kim, Tae Jung; Lee, Kyung Won; Lee, Jae Ho

2009-01-01

Background/Aims This study examined the correlation between pneumothorax detected by immediate post-transthoracic needle aspiration-biopsy (TTNB) chest computed tomography (CT) and overt pneumothorax detected by chest PA, and investigated factors that might influence the correlation. Methods Adult patients who had undergone CT-guided TTNB for lung lesions from May 2003 to June 2007 at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital were included. Immediate post-TTNB CT and chest PA follow-up at 4 and 16 hours after CT-guided TTNB were performed in 934 patients. Results Pneumothorax detected by immediate chest CT (CT-pneumothorax) was found in 237 (25%) and overt pneumothorax was detected by chest PA follow-up in 92 (38.8%) of the 237 patients. However, overt pneumothorax was found in 18 (2.6%) of the 697 patients without CT-pneumothorax. The width and depth of CT-pneumothorax were predictive risk factors for overt pneumothorax. Conclusions CT-pneumothorax is very sensitive for predicting overt pneumothorax, and the width and depth on CT-pneumothorax are reliable risk factors for predicting overt pneumothorax. PMID:19949733

Arthur Prior and 'Now'

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blackburn, Patrick Rowan; Jørgensen, Klaus Frovin

2016-01-01

’s search led him through the work of Castañeda, and back to his own work on hybrid logic: the first made temporal reference philosophically respectable, the second made it technically feasible in a modal framework. With the aid of hybrid logic, Prior built a bridge from a two-dimensional UT calculus...

Basic life support: evaluation of learning using simulation and immediate feedback devices1.

Science.gov (United States)

Tobase, Lucia; Peres, Heloisa Helena Ciqueto; Tomazini, Edenir Aparecida Sartorelli; Teodoro, Simone Valentim; Ramos, Meire Bruna; Polastri, Thatiane Facholi

2017-10-30

to evaluate students' learning in an online course on basic life support with immediate feedback devices, during a simulation of care during cardiorespiratory arrest. a quasi-experimental study, using a before-and-after design. An online course on basic life support was developed and administered to participants, as an educational intervention. Theoretical learning was evaluated by means of a pre- and post-test and, to verify the practice, simulation with immediate feedback devices was used. there were 62 participants, 87% female, 90% in the first and second year of college, with a mean age of 21.47 (standard deviation 2.39). With a 95% confidence level, the mean scores in the pre-test were 6.4 (standard deviation 1.61), and 9.3 in the post-test (standard deviation 0.82, p basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation, according to the feedback device; 43.7 (standard deviation 26.86) mean duration of the compression cycle by second of 20.5 (standard deviation 9.47); number of compressions 167.2 (standard deviation 57.06); depth of compressions of 48.1 millimeter (standard deviation 10.49); volume of ventilation 742.7 (standard deviation 301.12); flow fraction percentage of 40.3 (standard deviation 10.03). the online course contributed to learning of basic life support. In view of the need for technological innovations in teaching and systematization of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, simulation and feedback devices are resources that favor learning and performance awareness in performing the maneuvers.

Advanced immediate functional loading: requirements for long-term success in modern implant dentistry.

Science.gov (United States)

Romanos, Georgios E

2014-01-01

There are benefits to be derived from the use of advanced surgical protocols in conjunction with immediate functional loading using various dental implant designs and implant-abutment connections. Clinical protocols with simultaneous bone grafting, immediate implant placement, and/or sinus augmentations when a shortened treatment period is needed are included in this report, with the aim of providing understanding of the main protocol characteristics and prerequisites for long-term success in implant dentistry. This article presents three clinical cases that illustrate possibilities for advanced immediate loading using different implant designs. It demonstrates treatment of severe bone defects and the facilitation of placing implants in regenerated bone that can be immediately loaded.

Bayesian Prior Probability Distributions for Internal Dosimetry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miller, G.; Inkret, W.C.; Little, T.T.; Martz, H.F.; Schillaci, M.E

2001-07-01

The problem of choosing a prior distribution for the Bayesian interpretation of measurements (specifically internal dosimetry measurements) is considered using a theoretical analysis and by examining historical tritium and plutonium urine bioassay data from Los Alamos. Two models for the prior probability distribution are proposed: (1) the log-normal distribution, when there is some additional information to determine the scale of the true result, and (2) the 'alpha' distribution (a simplified variant of the gamma distribution) when there is not. These models have been incorporated into version 3 of the Bayesian internal dosimetric code in use at Los Alamos (downloadable from our web site). Plutonium internal dosimetry at Los Alamos is now being done using prior probability distribution parameters determined self-consistently from population averages of Los Alamos data. (author)

Adaptive aspirations and performance heterogeneity : Attention allocation among multiple reference points

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blettner, D.P.; He, Z.; Hu, S.; Bettis, R.

Organizations learn and adapt their aspiration levels based on reference points (prior aspiration, prior performance, and prior performance of reference groups). The relative attention that organizations allocate to these reference points impacts organizational search and strategic decisions.

Prior acetaminophen consumption impacts the early adaptive cellular response of human skeletal muscle to resistance exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

D'Lugos, Andrew C; Patel, Shivam H; Ormsby, Jordan C; Curtis, Donald P; Fry, Christopher S; Carroll, Chad C; Dickinson, Jared M

2018-04-01

Resistance exercise (RE) is a powerful stimulus for skeletal muscle adaptation. Previous data demonstrate that cyclooxygenase (COX)-inhibiting drugs alter the cellular mechanisms regulating the adaptive response of skeletal muscle. The purpose of this study was to determine whether prior consumption of the COX inhibitor acetaminophen (APAP) alters the immediate adaptive cellular response in human skeletal muscle after RE. In a double-blinded, randomized, crossover design, healthy young men ( n = 8, 25 ± 1 yr) performed two trials of unilateral knee extension RE (8 sets, 10 reps, 65% max strength). Subjects ingested either APAP (1,000 mg/6 h) or placebo (PLA) for 24 h before RE (final dose consumed immediately after RE). Muscle biopsies (vastus lateralis) were collected at rest and 1 h and 3 h after exercise. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) complex 1 signaling was assessed through immunoblot and immunohistochemistry, and mRNA expression of myogenic genes was examined via RT-qPCR. At 1 h p-rpS6 Ser240/244 was increased in both groups but to a greater extent in PLA. At 3 h p-S6K1 Thr389 was elevated only in PLA. Furthermore, localization of mTOR to the lysosome (LAMP2) in myosin heavy chain (MHC) II fibers increased 3 h after exercise only in PLA. mTOR-LAMP2 colocalization in MHC I fibers was greater in PLA vs. APAP 1 h after exercise. Myostatin mRNA expression was reduced 1 h after exercise only in PLA. MYF6 mRNA expression was increased 1 h and 3 h after exercise only in APAP. APAP consumption appears to alter the early adaptive cellular response of skeletal muscle to RE. These findings further highlight the mechanisms through which COX-inhibiting drugs impact the adaptive response of skeletal muscle to exercise. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The extent to which the cellular reaction to acetaminophen impacts the mechanisms regulating the adaptive response of human skeletal muscle to resistance exercise is not well understood. Consumption of acetaminophen before

Immediate and Longer-Term Stressors and the Mental Health of Hurricane Ike Survivors

OpenAIRE

Lowe, Sarah R.; Tracy, Melissa; Cerdá, Magdalena; Norris, Fran H.; Galea, Sandro

2013-01-01

Previous research has documented that individuals exposed to more stressors during disasters and their immediate aftermath (immediate stressors) are at risk of experiencing longer-term postdisaster stressors. Longer-term stressors, in turn, have been found to play a key role in shaping postdisaster psychological functioning. Few studies have simultaneously explored the links from immediate to longer-term stressors, and from longer-term stressors to psychological functioning,...

Speciation of the immediately mobilisable As(III), As(V), MMA and DMA in river sediments by high performance liquid chromatography-hydride generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry following ultrasonic extraction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huerga, A.; Lavilla, I.; Bendicho, C.

2005-01-01

In this work, a fast method is developed for the speciation of As(III), As(V), MMA and DMA in the immediately mobilisable fraction of river sediments (i.e. water-soluble and phosphate-exchangeable) by high performance liquid chromatography-hydride generation-atomic fluorescence detection (HPLC-HG-AFD) after extraction using focused ultrasound. The influence of relevant parameters influencing an ion-pairing chromatographic separation following isocratic elution (i.e. amount of MeOH in the mobile phase, ion pair reagent concentration, pH, flow rate) was studied. Focused ultrasound transmitted from an ultrasonic probe provided the same extractable contents as conventional extraction with no changes in the species distribution. The effect of the drying step over extraction of As species was investigated. The following drying procedures were compared: freeze-, oven-, microwave- and air-drying. No influence of the drying operation on the water-extractable fraction was observed. However, freeze- and air-drying yielded significantly higher phosphate-extractable amounts of As(III) and As(V) as compared to oven and microwaves. Detection limits for the As species were in the range 1.3-4.1 ng/g for the water-soluble fraction and 1.6-4.8 ng/g for the phosphate buffer exchangeable fraction. The method was applied to the speciation of immediately mobilisable As(III), As(V), DMA and MMA in 11 sediment samples collected along the beds of the Louro River (southern Galicia, Spain)

Isolation Effect in Immediate and Delayed Recall

Science.gov (United States)

Bellezza, Francis S.; Cheney, Terry L.

1973-01-01

If the hypothesis of selective rehearsal is used to account for the isolation effect, then the recall of isolated items will depend both on the serial position of the isolated item and on whether recall is immediate or delayed. (Author)

Immediate effect of exercise on achilles tendon properties: systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Obst, Steven J; Barrett, Rod S; Newsham-West, Richard

2013-08-01

Understanding the mechanical and morphological adaptation of the Achilles tendon (AT) in response to acute exercise could have important implications for athletic performance, injury prevention, and rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review and critical evaluation of the literature to determine the immediate effect of a single bout of exercise on the mechanical and morphological properties of the AT in vivo. Five electronic research databases were systematically searched for intervention-based studies reporting mechanical and morphological properties of the AT after a single bout of exercise. Searches revealed 3292 possible articles; 21 met the inclusion criteria. There is evidence that maximal isometric contractions and prolonged static stretching (>5 min) of the triceps surae complex cause an immediate decrease in AT stiffness, whereas prolonged running and hopping have minimal effect. Limited but consistent evidence exists, indicating that AT hysteresis is reduced after prolonged static stretching. Consistent evidence supports a reduction in free AT diameter (anterior-posterior) after dynamic ankle exercise, and this change appears most pronounced in the healthy tendon and after eccentric exercise. The mechanical and morphological properties of the AT in vivo are affected by acute exercise in a mode- and dose-dependent manner. Transient changes in AT stiffness, hysteresis, and diameter after unaccustomed exercise modes and doses may expose the tendon to increased risk of strain injury and impact on the mechanical function of the triceps surae muscle-tendon unit.

Bayesian Model Comparison With the g-Prior

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jesper Kjær; Christensen, Mads Græsbøll; Cemgil, Ali Taylan

2014-01-01

’s asymptotic MAP rule was an improvement, and in this paper we extend the work by Djuric in several ways. Specifically, we consider the elicitation of proper prior distributions, treat the case of real- and complex-valued data simultaneously in a Bayesian framework similar to that considered by Djuric......, and develop new model selection rules for a regression model containing both linear and non-linear parameters. Moreover, we use this framework to give a new interpretation of the popular information criteria and relate their performance to the signal-to-noise ratio of the data. By use of simulations, we also...... demonstrate that our proposed model comparison and selection rules outperform the traditional information criteria both in terms of detecting the true model and in terms of predicting unobserved data. The simulation code is available online....

Chronic stress induces a hyporeactivity of the autonomic nervous system in response to acute mental stressor and impairs cognitive performance in business executives.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renata Roland Teixeira

Full Text Available The present study examined the incidence of chronic stress in business executives (109 subjects: 75 male and 34 female and its relationship with cortisol levels, cognitive performance, and autonomic nervous system (ANS reactivity after an acute mental stressor. Blood samples were collected from the subjects to measure cortisol concentration. After the sample collection, the subjects completed the Lipp Inventory of Stress Symptoms for Adults and the Stroop Color-Word Test to evaluate stress and cognitive performance levels, respectively. Saliva samples were collected prior to, immediately after, and five minutes after the test. The results revealed that 90.1% of the stressed subjects experienced stress phases that are considered chronic stress. At rest, the subjects with chronic stress showed higher cortisol levels, and no gender differences were observed. No differences were found between the stressed and non-stressed subjects regarding salivary amylase activity prior to test. Chronic stress also impaired performance on the Stroop test, which revealed higher rates of error and longer reaction times in the incongruent stimulus task independently of gender. For the congruent stimulus task of the Stroop test, the stressed males presented a higher rate of errors than the non-stressed males and a longer reaction time than the stressed females. After the acute mental stressor, the non-stressed male group showed an increase in salivary alpha-amylase activity, which returned to the initial values five minutes after the test; this ANS reactivity was not observed in the chronically stressed male subjects. The ANS responses of the non-stressed vs stressed female groups were not different prior to or after the Stroop test. This study is the first to demonstrate a blunted reactivity of the ANS when male subjects with chronic psychological stress were subjected to an acute mental stressor, and this change could contribute to impairments in cognitive

Chronic stress induces a hyporeactivity of the autonomic nervous system in response to acute mental stressor and impairs cognitive performance in business executives.

Science.gov (United States)

Teixeira, Renata Roland; Díaz, Miguel Mauricio; Santos, Tatiane Vanessa da Silva; Bernardes, Jean Tofoles Martins; Peixoto, Leonardo Gomes; Bocanegra, Olga Lucia; Neto, Morun Bernardino; Espindola, Foued Salmen

2015-01-01

The present study examined the incidence of chronic stress in business executives (109 subjects: 75 male and 34 female) and its relationship with cortisol levels, cognitive performance, and autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactivity after an acute mental stressor. Blood samples were collected from the subjects to measure cortisol concentration. After the sample collection, the subjects completed the Lipp Inventory of Stress Symptoms for Adults and the Stroop Color-Word Test to evaluate stress and cognitive performance levels, respectively. Saliva samples were collected prior to, immediately after, and five minutes after the test. The results revealed that 90.1% of the stressed subjects experienced stress phases that are considered chronic stress. At rest, the subjects with chronic stress showed higher cortisol levels, and no gender differences were observed. No differences were found between the stressed and non-stressed subjects regarding salivary amylase activity prior to test. Chronic stress also impaired performance on the Stroop test, which revealed higher rates of error and longer reaction times in the incongruent stimulus task independently of gender. For the congruent stimulus task of the Stroop test, the stressed males presented a higher rate of errors than the non-stressed males and a longer reaction time than the stressed females. After the acute mental stressor, the non-stressed male group showed an increase in salivary alpha-amylase activity, which returned to the initial values five minutes after the test; this ANS reactivity was not observed in the chronically stressed male subjects. The ANS responses of the non-stressed vs stressed female groups were not different prior to or after the Stroop test. This study is the first to demonstrate a blunted reactivity of the ANS when male subjects with chronic psychological stress were subjected to an acute mental stressor, and this change could contribute to impairments in cognitive performance.

Spectrally Consistent Satellite Image Fusion with Improved Image Priors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Aanæs, Henrik; Jensen, Thomas B.S.

2006-01-01

Here an improvement to our previous framework for satellite image fusion is presented. A framework purely based on the sensor physics and on prior assumptions on the fused image. The contributions of this paper are two fold. Firstly, a method for ensuring 100% spectrally consistency is proposed......, even when more sophisticated image priors are applied. Secondly, a better image prior is introduced, via data-dependent image smoothing....

Personality, depressive symptoms and prior trauma exposure of new recruits at two Metropolitan Police Service academies in South Africa

OpenAIRE

U Subramaney; E Libhaber; N Pitts; M Vorster

2012-01-01

Background. Police officers are predisposed to trauma exposure. The development of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be influenced by personality style, prior exposure to traumatic events and prior depression. Objectives. To describe the personality profiles of new Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officers, and to determine the association between personality profiles, trauma exposure and depressive symptoms. Methods. We performed a cross-sectional analysis o...

Immediate effects of the trunk stabilizing exercise on static balance parameters in double-leg and one-leg stances

OpenAIRE

Kim, Jwa-jun; Park, Se-yeon

2016-01-01

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to evaluate the immediate effect of stabilizing exercise using the PNF technique on standing balance in one-leg and double-leg stances. [Subjects and Methods] The present study recruited 34 healthy participants from a local university. The Participants performed four balance tests (double-leg stance with and without vision, one-leg stance with and without vision), before and after exercise. The exercise consisted of exercises performed using PNF techniq...

Immediate re-transplantation following early kidney transplant thrombosis.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Phelan, Paul J

2012-02-01

Allograft thrombosis is a devastating early complication of renal transplantation that ultimately leads to allograft loss. We report here on our experience of nine cases of immediate re-transplantation following early kidney transplant thrombosis at a single centre between January 1990 and June 2009. The mean age was 42.9 years at time of transplant. For seven patients, the allograft thrombosis was their first kidney transplant and seven of the nine cases had a deceased donor transplant. The initial transplants functioned for a mean of 1.67 days and the patients received a second allograft at a mean of 3.1 days after graft failure. All of the re-transplants worked immediately. Four allografts failed after a mean of 52.5 months (2-155 months). Two of these died with a functioning allograft, one failed owing to chronic allograft nephropathy and one owing to persistent acute cellular rejection. The remaining five patients still have a functioning allograft after a mean of 101.8 months (7-187 months). One year allograft and patient survival after re-transplantation were 87.5% and 100% respectively (after 5 years, both were 57%). Immediate re-transplantation following early kidney transplant thrombosis can be a success. It may be considered in selected cases after allograft thrombosis.

Assistance in immediate puerperium: the role of physiotherapy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juliana Schulze Burti

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: To assess the effects of physical therapy intervention for women in immediately postpartum attended in a public hospital in the city of Barueri, São Paulo, Brazil. Methods: Women in the immediate postpartum period after vaginal delivery or cesarean section were included. They underwent a physical therapy evaluation, followed by a single intervention (45 minutes, including diaphragm and abdominal re-education exercises, pelvic floor muscle training, metabolic exercises, elimination of flatus maneuver and guidelines regarding posture, early walking and breastfeeding encouraging. Before and after intervention, the visual analogue scale (VAS of pain and the subjective scale for the general welfare were applied. For statistical analysis, the significance level used was 5%. Results: Fifty women, 25 vaginal deliveries and 25 caesarean sections were evaluated and treated. After intervention, which achieved 100% compliance, there was a significant improvement in pain in the cesarean group (3.99±2.11 to 2.85±2.63 and in the vaginal delivery group (2.00±1.52 to 1.34±0.92 (p<0.05. And 82% of the sample related improvement in general well-being, regardless of the type of delivery. Conclusion: The exercise protocol positively contributed to the improvement of pain and general well-being, diminishing discomforts of immediately postpartum.

Computed tomography contrast media extravasation: treatment algorithm and immediate treatment by squeezing with multiple slit incisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sue Min; Cook, Kyung Hoon; Lee, Il Jae; Park, Dong Ha; Park, Myong Chul

2017-04-01

In our hospital, an adverse event reporting system was initiated that alerts the plastic surgery department immediately after suspecting contrast media extravasation injury. This system is particularly important for a large volume of extravasation during power injector use. Between March 2011 and May 2015, a retrospective chart review was performed on all patients experiencing contrast media extravasation while being treated at our hospital. Immediate treatment by squeezing with multiple slit incisions was conducted for a portion of these patients. Eighty cases of extravasation were reported from approximately 218 000 computed tomography scans. The expected extravasation volume was larger than 50 ml, or severe pressure was felt on the affected limb in 23 patients. They were treated with multiple slit incisions followed by squeezing. Oedema of the affected limb disappeared after 1-2 hours after treatment, and the skin incisions healed within a week. We propose a set of guidelines for the initial management of contrast media extravasation injuries for a timely intervention. For large-volume extravasation cases, immediate management with multiple slit incisions is safe and effective in reducing the swelling quickly, preventing patient discomfort and decreasing skin and soft tissue problems. © 2016 Medicalhelplines.com Inc and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Bayesian Inference for Structured Spike and Slab Priors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Michael Riis; Winther, Ole; Hansen, Lars Kai

2014-01-01

Sparse signal recovery addresses the problem of solving underdetermined linear inverse problems subject to a sparsity constraint. We propose a novel prior formulation, the structured spike and slab prior, which allows to incorporate a priori knowledge of the sparsity pattern by imposing a spatial...

The clinical course of immediate breast implant reconstruction after breast cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvilsom, Gitte B.; Friis, Søren; Frederiksen, Kirsten

2011-01-01

The number of women suitable for breast conserving treatment as well as immediate reconstruction after breast cancer has been increasing, and studies of complications hereafter are needed.......The number of women suitable for breast conserving treatment as well as immediate reconstruction after breast cancer has been increasing, and studies of complications hereafter are needed....

The perceived impact of an emergency department immediate reporting service: An exploratory survey

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Snaith, Beverly; Hardy, Maryann

2013-01-01

Background: Immediate reporting, commonly referred to as a ‘hot reporting’, has been advocated as a method of effectively supporting clinical decision making. However, its implementation nationally has been limited with poor understanding of its value in practice. Method: A cross sectional attitudinal survey was distributed to emergency department clinicians (medical and nursing staff) and radiographers to explore perceptions of an immediate reporting service in terms of its influence on professional role and autonomy, patient care and service quality. Results: A total of 87 (n = 87/155; 56.1%) completed questionnaires were returned. The findings suggest that significant support for immediate reporting exists. Immediate reporting is believed to improve service quality, reduce clinical errors and provide opportunity for image interpretation skills development. However, responses were not consistent across clinical professions and staff grades. Conclusion: The immediate reporting of emergency department images is perceived to benefit patient, emergency department clinicians and hospital organisation

Fluoroscopically Guided Sacroiliac Joint Injections: Comparison of the Effects of Intraarticular and Periarticular Injections on Immediate and Short-Term Pain Relief.

Science.gov (United States)

Nacey, Nicholas C; Patrie, James T; Fox, Michael G

2016-11-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether intraarticular sacroiliac joint injections provide greater immediate and short-term pain relief than periarticular sacroiliac joint injections do. The records of all fluoroscopically guided sacroiliac joint injections performed over a 4-year period were identified. Patients who received an injection of 0.5 mL of bupivacaine and 0.5 mL (20 mg) of triamcinolone and who had preinjection, immediate, and 1-week postinjection pain scores (0-10 numeric scale) were included. Images from the procedures were retrospectively reviewed by two musculoskeletal radiologists to determine intraarticular or periarticular administration of the injection with discrepancies resolved by consensus. One hundred thirteen injections in 99 patients (65 women, 34 men; mean age, 59.4 years) met the inclusion criteria. There were 55 intraarticular and 58 periarticular injections. The mean preinjection, immediate, and 1-week postinjection pain scores for the intraarticular injections were 6.0, 1.6, and 4.1 and for the periarticular injections were 6.1, 2.0, and 4.2. The mean immediate and 1-week postinjection pain reduction were statistically significant in both groups (p sacroiliac joint injections provide statistically significant immediate and 1-week postinjection pain relief, no significant difference in the degree of pain relief achieved with intraarticular and periarticular injections was noted.

Shape prior modeling using sparse representation and online dictionary learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Shaoting; Zhan, Yiqiang; Zhou, Yan; Uzunbas, Mustafa; Metaxas, Dimitris N

2012-01-01

The recently proposed sparse shape composition (SSC) opens a new avenue for shape prior modeling. Instead of assuming any parametric model of shape statistics, SSC incorporates shape priors on-the-fly by approximating a shape instance (usually derived from appearance cues) by a sparse combination of shapes in a training repository. Theoretically, one can increase the modeling capability of SSC by including as many training shapes in the repository. However, this strategy confronts two limitations in practice. First, since SSC involves an iterative sparse optimization at run-time, the more shape instances contained in the repository, the less run-time efficiency SSC has. Therefore, a compact and informative shape dictionary is preferred to a large shape repository. Second, in medical imaging applications, training shapes seldom come in one batch. It is very time consuming and sometimes infeasible to reconstruct the shape dictionary every time new training shapes appear. In this paper, we propose an online learning method to address these two limitations. Our method starts from constructing an initial shape dictionary using the K-SVD algorithm. When new training shapes come, instead of re-constructing the dictionary from the ground up, we update the existing one using a block-coordinates descent approach. Using the dynamically updated dictionary, sparse shape composition can be gracefully scaled up to model shape priors from a large number of training shapes without sacrificing run-time efficiency. Our method is validated on lung localization in X-Ray and cardiac segmentation in MRI time series. Compared to the original SSC, it shows comparable performance while being significantly more efficient.

Maximum entropy reconstruction of spin densities involving non uniform prior

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schweizer, J.; Ressouche, E.; Papoular, R.J.; Zheludev, A.I.

1997-01-01

Diffraction experiments give microscopic information on structures in crystals. A method which uses the concept of maximum of entropy (MaxEnt), appears to be a formidable improvement in the treatment of diffraction data. This method is based on a bayesian approach: among all the maps compatible with the experimental data, it selects that one which has the highest prior (intrinsic) probability. Considering that all the points of the map are equally probable, this probability (flat prior) is expressed via the Boltzman entropy of the distribution. This method has been used for the reconstruction of charge densities from X-ray data, for maps of nuclear densities from unpolarized neutron data as well as for distributions of spin density. The density maps obtained by this method, as compared to those resulting from the usual inverse Fourier transformation, are tremendously improved. In particular, any substantial deviation from the background is really contained in the data, as it costs entropy compared to a map that would ignore such features. However, in most of the cases, before the measurements are performed, some knowledge exists about the distribution which is investigated. It can range from the simple information of the type of scattering electrons to an elaborate theoretical model. In these cases, the uniform prior which considers all the different pixels as equally likely, is too weak a requirement and has to be replaced. In a rigorous bayesian analysis, Skilling has shown that prior knowledge can be encoded into the Maximum Entropy formalism through a model m(rvec r), via a new definition for the entropy given in this paper. In the absence of any data, the maximum of the entropy functional is reached for ρ(rvec r) = m(rvec r). Any substantial departure from the model, observed in the final map, is really contained in the data as, with the new definition, it costs entropy. This paper presents illustrations of model testing

Testing animal-assisted cleaning prior to transplantation in coral reef restoration.

Science.gov (United States)

Frias-Torres, Sarah; van de Geer, Casper

2015-01-01

Rearing coral fragments in nurseries and subsequent transplantation onto a degraded reef is a common approach for coral reef restoration. However, if barnacles and other biofouling organisms are not removed prior to transplantation, fish will dislodge newly cemented corals when feeding on biofouling organisms. This behavior can lead to an increase in diver time due to the need to reattach the corals. Thus, cleaning nurseries to remove biofouling organisms such as algae and invertebrates is necessary prior to transplantation, and this cleaning constitutes a significant time investment in a restoration project. We tested a novel biomimicry technique of animal-assisted cleaning on nursery corals prior to transplantation at a coral reef restoration site in Seychelles, Indian Ocean. To determine whether animal-assisted cleaning was possible, preliminary visual underwater surveys were performed to quantify the fish community at the study site. Then, cleaning stations consisting of nursery ropes carrying corals and biofouling organisms, set at 0.3 m, 2 m, 4 m, 6 m and 8 m from the seabed, were placed at both the transplantation (treatment) site and the nursery (control) site. Remote GoPro video cameras recorded fish feeding at the nursery ropes without human disturbance. A reef fish assemblage of 32 species from 4 trophic levels (18.8% herbivores, 18.8% omnivores, 59.3% secondary consumers and 3.1% carnivores) consumed 95% of the barnacles on the coral nursery ropes placed 0.3 m above the seabed. Using this cleaning station, we reduced coral dislodgement from 16% to zero. This cleaning station technique could be included as a step prior to coral transplantation worldwide on the basis of location-specific fish assemblages and during the early nursery phase of sexually produced juvenile corals.

Testing animal-assisted cleaning prior to transplantation in coral reef restoration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Frias-Torres

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Rearing coral fragments in nurseries and subsequent transplantation onto a degraded reef is a common approach for coral reef restoration. However, if barnacles and other biofouling organisms are not removed prior to transplantation, fish will dislodge newly cemented corals when feeding on biofouling organisms. This behavior can lead to an increase in diver time due to the need to reattach the corals. Thus, cleaning nurseries to remove biofouling organisms such as algae and invertebrates is necessary prior to transplantation, and this cleaning constitutes a significant time investment in a restoration project. We tested a novel biomimicry technique of animal-assisted cleaning on nursery corals prior to transplantation at a coral reef restoration site in Seychelles, Indian Ocean. To determine whether animal-assisted cleaning was possible, preliminary visual underwater surveys were performed to quantify the fish community at the study site. Then, cleaning stations consisting of nursery ropes carrying corals and biofouling organisms, set at 0.3 m, 2 m, 4 m, 6 m and 8 m from the seabed, were placed at both the transplantation (treatment site and the nursery (control site. Remote GoPro video cameras recorded fish feeding at the nursery ropes without human disturbance. A reef fish assemblage of 32 species from 4 trophic levels (18.8% herbivores, 18.8% omnivores, 59.3% secondary consumers and 3.1% carnivores consumed 95% of the barnacles on the coral nursery ropes placed 0.3 m above the seabed. Using this cleaning station, we reduced coral dislodgement from 16% to zero. This cleaning station technique could be included as a step prior to coral transplantation worldwide on the basis of location-specific fish assemblages and during the early nursery phase of sexually produced juvenile corals.

Testing animal-assisted cleaning prior to transplantation in coral reef restoration

Science.gov (United States)

van de Geer, Casper

2015-01-01

Rearing coral fragments in nurseries and subsequent transplantation onto a degraded reef is a common approach for coral reef restoration. However, if barnacles and other biofouling organisms are not removed prior to transplantation, fish will dislodge newly cemented corals when feeding on biofouling organisms. This behavior can lead to an increase in diver time due to the need to reattach the corals. Thus, cleaning nurseries to remove biofouling organisms such as algae and invertebrates is necessary prior to transplantation, and this cleaning constitutes a significant time investment in a restoration project. We tested a novel biomimicry technique of animal-assisted cleaning on nursery corals prior to transplantation at a coral reef restoration site in Seychelles, Indian Ocean. To determine whether animal-assisted cleaning was possible, preliminary visual underwater surveys were performed to quantify the fish community at the study site. Then, cleaning stations consisting of nursery ropes carrying corals and biofouling organisms, set at 0.3 m, 2 m, 4 m, 6 m and 8 m from the seabed, were placed at both the transplantation (treatment) site and the nursery (control) site. Remote GoPro video cameras recorded fish feeding at the nursery ropes without human disturbance. A reef fish assemblage of 32 species from 4 trophic levels (18.8% herbivores, 18.8% omnivores, 59.3% secondary consumers and 3.1% carnivores) consumed 95% of the barnacles on the coral nursery ropes placed 0.3 m above the seabed. Using this cleaning station, we reduced coral dislodgement from 16% to zero. This cleaning station technique could be included as a step prior to coral transplantation worldwide on the basis of location-specific fish assemblages and during the early nursery phase of sexually produced juvenile corals. PMID:26468440

Horizontal alveolar ridge expansion followed by immediate placement of implants and rehabilitation with zirconia prosthesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatiana Miranda Deliberador

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, there have been a growing number of procedures involving dental implants. Most cases, though, are characterized by bone atrophy, especially horizontal atrophy. This clinical case aims to report a technique for the expansion of the horizontal alveolar ridge. A longitudinal fracture was created in the alveolar ridge to expand the bone, followed by immediate insertion of dental implants along with a particulate allogeneic bone graft. Eight implants were placed in the maxilla, and after 12 months, a surgical reopening was performed, along with rehabilitation with a protocol-type prosthesis, for which a zirconia infrastructure was made. The patient was observed during a 10-month follow-up period in which an effective osseointegration of all implants was achieved as a result of such a technique. The split-crest technique followed by the immediate placement of implants and a particulate allogeneic bone graft proved to be effective, with a predictable osseointegration.

Immediate renal imaging and renography with /sup 99m/Tc methylene diphosphonate to assess renal blood flow, excretory function, and anatomy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glass, E.C.; DeNardo, G.L.; Hines, H.H.

1980-01-01

/sup 99m/Tc methylene diphosphonate (/sup 99m/Tc MDP) was evaluated as a clinical renal imaging agent in 20 patients referred for bone scintigraphy. Sequential scintigraphy, which was started immediately after injection, yielded blood flow studies of high quality, and subsequent images accurately delineated renal anatomy and excretion in nonazotemic patients. In comparison with delayed images, early images were vastly superior in quality and demonstrated improved target-to-nontarget activity ratios (p < 0.001) and improved lesion detectability (p < 0.01). Renal imaging performed incidental to bone scintigraphy with MDP can be greatly enhanced by initiating sequential scintigraphy immediately after injection

Hysteroscopic polypectomy prior to infertility treatment: A cost analysis and systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Mouhayar, Youssef; Yin, Ophelia; Mumford, Sunni L; Segars, James H

2017-06-01

The cost of fertility treatment is expensive and interventions that reduce cost can lead to greater efficiency and fewer embryos transferred. Endometrial polyps contribute to infertility and are frequently removed prior to infertility treatment. It is unclear whether polypectomy reduces fertility treatment cost and if so, the magnitude of cost reduction afforded by the procedure. The aim of this study was to determine whether performing office or operative hysteroscopic polypectomy prior to infertility treatment would be cost-effective. PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane libraries were used to identify publications reporting pregnancy rates after hysteroscopic polypectomy. Studies were required to have a polypectomy treatment group and control group of patients with polyps that were not resected. The charges of infertility treatments and polypectomy were obtained through infertility organizations and a private healthcare cost reporting website. These charges were applied to a decision tree model over the range of pregnancy rates observed in the representative studies to calculate an average cost per clinical or ongoing pregnancy. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess cost savings of polypectomy over a range of pregnancy rates and polypectomy costs. Pre-treatment office or operative hysteroscopic polypectomy ultimately saved €6658 ($7480) and €728 ($818), respectively, of the average cost per clinical pregnancy in women treated with four cycles of intrauterine insemination. Polypectomy prior to intrauterine insemination was cost-effective for clinical pregnancy rates greater than 30.2% for office polypectomy and 52.6% for operative polypectomy and for polypectomy price <€4414 ($4959). Office polypectomy or operative polypectomy saved €15,854 ($17,813) and €6644 ($7465), respectively, from the average cost per ongoing pregnancy for in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection treated women and was cost-effective for ongoing pregnancy rates

Combining symbolic cues with sensory input and prior experience in an iterative Bayesian framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frederike Hermi Petzschner

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Perception and action are the result of an integration of various sources of information, such as current sensory input, prior experience, or the context in which a stimulus occurs. Often, the interpretation is not trivial hence needs to be learned from the co-occurrence of stimuli. Yet, how do we combine such diverse information to guide our action?Here we use a distance production-reproduction task to investigate the influence of auxiliary, symbolic cues, sensory input, and prior experience on human performance under three different conditions that vary in the information provided. Our results indicate that subjects can (1 learn the mapping of a verbal, symbolic cue onto the stimulus dimension and (2 integrate symbolic information and prior experience into their estimate of displacements.The behavioral results are explained by to two distinct generative models that represent different structural approaches of how a Bayesian observer would combine prior experience, sensory input, and symbolic cue information into a single estimate of displacement. The first model interprets the symbolic cue in the context of categorization, assuming that it reflects information about a distinct underlying stimulus range (categorical model. The second model applies a multi-modal integration approach and treats the symbolic cue as additional sensory input to the system, which is combined with the current sensory measurement and the subjects’ prior experience (cue-combination model. Notably, both models account equally well for the observed behavior despite their different structural assumptions. The present work thus provides evidence that humans can interpret abstract symbolic information and combine it with other types of information such as sensory input and prior experience. The similar explanatory power of the two models further suggest that issues such as categorization and cue-combination could be explained by alternative probabilistic approaches.

Immediate Effects of Smoking on Cardiorespiratory Responses During Dynamic Exercise: Arm Vs. Leg Ergometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chien-Liang; Tang, Jing-Shia; Li, Ping-Chia; Chou, Pi-Ling

2015-01-01

This study compared the immediate effects of smoking on cardiorespiratory responses to dynamic arm and leg exercises. This randomized crossover study recruited 14 college students. Each participant underwent two sets of arm-cranking (AC) and leg-cycling (LC) exercise tests. The testing sequences of the control trial (participants refrained from smoking for 8 h before testing) and the experimental trial (participants smoked two cigarettes immediately before testing) were randomly chosen. We observed immediate changes in pulmonary function and heart rate variability after smoking and before the exercise test. The participants then underwent graded exercise tests of their arms and legs until reaching exhaustion. We compared the peak work achieved and time to exhaustion during the exercise tests with various cardiorespiratory indices [i.e., heart rate, oxygen consumption (VO2), minute ventilation (VE)]. The differences between the smoking and control trials were calculated using paired t-tests. For the exercise test periods, VO2, heart rate, and VE values were calculated at every 10% increment of the maximal effort time. The main effects of the time and trial, as well as their trial-by-time (4 × 10) interaction effects on the outcome measures, were investigated using repeated measure ANOVA with trend analysis. 5 min after smoking, the participants exhibited reduced forced vital capacities and forced expiratory volumes in the first second (P exercise test periods, smoking reduced the time to exhaustion (P = 0.005) and the ventilatory threshold (P exercise test (all P exercise response of the smoking trial than in those of the control LC trials, whereas no discernable inter-trial difference was observed in the AC trials. Moreover, the differences in heart rate and VE response between the LC and AC exercises were significantly smaller after the participants smoked. This study verified that smoking significantly decreased performance and cardiorespiratory responses to leg

Biowaiver Monograph for Immediate-Release Solid Oral Dosage Forms: Amoxicillin Trihydrate.

Science.gov (United States)

Thambavita, Dhanusha; Galappatthy, Priyadarshani; Mannapperuma, Uthpali; Jayakody, Lal; Cristofoletti, Rodrigo; Abrahamsson, Bertil; Groot, Dirk W; Langguth, Peter; Mehta, Mehul; Parr, Alan; Polli, James E; Shah, Vinod P; Dressman, Jennifer

2017-10-01

Literature and experimental data relevant to waiver of in vivo bioequivalence (BE) testing for the approval of immediate-release solid oral dosage forms containing amoxicillin trihydrate are reviewed. Solubility and permeability characteristics according to the Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS), therapeutic uses, therapeutic index, excipient interactions, as well as dissolution and BE and bioavailability studies were taken into consideration. Solubility and permeability studies indicate that amoxicillin doses up to 875 mg belong to BCS class I, whereas 1000 mg belongs to BCS class II and doses of more than 1000 mg belong to BCS class IV. Considering all aspects, the biowaiver procedure can be recommended for solid oral products of amoxicillin trihydrate immediate-release preparations containing amoxicillin as the single active pharmaceutical ingredient at dose strengths of 875 mg or less, provided (a) only the excipients listed in this monograph are used, and only in their usual amounts, (b) the biowaiver study is performed according to the World Health Organization-, U.S. Food and Drug Administration-, or European Medicines Agency-recommended method using the innovator as the comparator, and (c) results comply with criteria for "very rapidly dissolving" or "similarly rapidly dissolving." Products containing other excipients and those containing more than 875 mg amoxicillin per unit should be subjected to an in vivo BE study. Copyright © 2017 American Pharmacists Association®. All rights reserved.

Determination of some organophosphorus pesticides in water and watermelon samples by microextraction prior to high-performance liquid chromatography.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Chun; Wu, Qiuhua; Wu, Chunxia; Wang, Zhi

2011-11-01

A novel method based on simultaneous liquid-liquid microextraction and carbon nanotube reinforced hollow fiber microporous membrane solid-liquid phase microextraction has been developed for the determination of six organophosphorus pesticides, i.e. isocarbophos, phosmet, parathion-methyl, triazophos, fonofos and phoxim, in water and watermelon samples prior to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Under the optimum conditions, the method shows a good linearity within a range of 1-200 ng/mL for water samples and 5-200 ng/g for watermelon samples, with the correlation coefficients (r) varying from 0.9990 to 0.9997 and 0.9986 to 0.9995, respectively. The limits of detection (LODs) were in the range between 0.1 and 0.3 ng/mL for water samples and between 1.0 and 1.5 ng/g for watermelon samples. The recoveries of the method at spiking levels of 5.0 and 50.0 ng/mL for water samples were between 85.4 and 100.8%, and at spiking levels of 5.0 and 50.0 ng/g for watermelon samples, they were between 82.6 and 92.4%, with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) varying from 4.5-6.9% and 5.2-7.4%, respectively. The results suggested that the developed method represents a simple, low-cost, high analytes preconcentration and excellent sample cleanup procedure for the determination of organophosphorus pesticides in water and watermelon samples. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Neutrino mass priors for cosmology from random matrices

Science.gov (United States)

Long, Andrew J.; Raveri, Marco; Hu, Wayne; Dodelson, Scott

2018-02-01

Cosmological measurements of structure are placing increasingly strong constraints on the sum of the neutrino masses, Σ mν, through Bayesian inference. Because these constraints depend on the choice for the prior probability π (Σ mν), we argue that this prior should be motivated by fundamental physical principles rather than the ad hoc choices that are common in the literature. The first step in this direction is to specify the prior directly at the level of the neutrino mass matrix Mν, since this is the parameter appearing in the Lagrangian of the particle physics theory. Thus by specifying a probability distribution over Mν, and by including the known squared mass splittings, we predict a theoretical probability distribution over Σ mν that we interpret as a Bayesian prior probability π (Σ mν). Assuming a basis-invariant probability distribution on Mν, also known as the anarchy hypothesis, we find that π (Σ mν) peaks close to the smallest Σ mν allowed by the measured mass splittings, roughly 0.06 eV (0.1 eV) for normal (inverted) ordering, due to the phenomenon of eigenvalue repulsion in random matrices. We consider three models for neutrino mass generation: Dirac, Majorana, and Majorana via the seesaw mechanism; differences in the predicted priors π (Σ mν) allow for the possibility of having indications about the physical origin of neutrino masses once sufficient experimental sensitivity is achieved. We present fitting functions for π (Σ mν), which provide a simple means for applying these priors to cosmological constraints on the neutrino masses or marginalizing over their impact on other cosmological parameters.

Estimating security betas using prior information based on firm fundamentals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cosemans, M.; Frehen, R.; Schotman, P.C.; Bauer, R.

2010-01-01

This paper proposes a novel approach for estimating time-varying betas of individual stocks that incorporates prior information based on fundamentals. We shrink the rolling window estimate of beta towards a firm-specific prior that is motivated by asset pricing theory. The prior captures structural

Immediate sensitivity to structural constraints in pronoun resolution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wing Yee eChow

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Real-time interpretation of pronouns is sometimes sensitive to the presence of grammatically-illicit antecedents, and sometimes not. This occasional sensitivity has been taken as evidence that structural constraints do not immediately impact the initial antecedent retrieval for pronoun interpretation. We argue that it is important to separate effects that reflect the initial antecedent retrieval process from those that reflect later processes. We present results from five reading comprehension experiments. Both the current results and previous evidence support the hypothesis that agreement features and structural constraints immediately constrain the antecedent retrieval process for pronoun interpretation. Occasional sensitivity to grammatically-illicit antecedents may be due to repair processes triggered when the initial retrieval fails to return a grammatical antecedent.

34 CFR 303.403 - Prior notice; native language.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Prior notice; native language. 303.403 Section 303.403... TODDLERS WITH DISABILITIES Procedural Safeguards General § 303.403 Prior notice; native language. (a... file a complaint and the timelines under those procedures. (c) Native language. (1) The notice must be...

Comparison of immediate effects between two medical stretching techniques on Hamstrings flexibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Aye, Thanda; Kuramoto-Ahuja, Tsugumi; Han, Heonsoo; Maruyama, Hitoshi

2017-09-01

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to compare immediate effects between new medical stretching (NMS) and conventional medical stretching (CMS) techniques on Hamstrings flexibility. [Subjects and Methods] Thirteen healthy adult males, with finger floor distance (FFD) less than zero centimeter, without known musculoskeletal and neurological impairment in spine or lower extremities, were included. The subjects were randomly allocated to two groups. The subjects were instructed to perform NMS and CMS (hold for 30 seconds once, twice for each side of lower extremity) for both sides (total two minutes, only one session for one day). The interval between the two techniques was one week. FFD was measured with digital standing trunk flexion meter at the pre-intervention and post-intervention of both techniques. [Results] The mean values of FFD improved at the post-interventions of both techniques. The tests of within subject effects indicated that the main effect of treatment was not significant but the main effect of time was significant and the interaction of treatment and time was also significant. [Conclusion] The results of this study indicated that both medical stretching techniques were effective on Hamstrings flexibility immediately after the intervention and NMS technique was more effective on improving flexibility.

Immediate Hypersensitivity Reactions Induced by Triamcinolone in a Patient with Atopic Dermatitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Son, Jee Hee; Park, Sook Young; Cho, Yong Se; Chung, Bo Young; Kim, Hye One; Park, Chun Wook

2018-03-19

Corticosteroids are potent anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic agents used in the treatment of various inflammatory diseases, including allergic disease. They are frequently considered the therapy-of-choice for many skin diseases. However, allergic reactions caused by corticosteroids have been reported. Among these, delayed reactions to topical steroids are more common, whereas immediate reactions to systemic steroids are rare. Herein, we report the case of a 32-year-old woman with triamcinolone-induced immediate hypersensitivity reaction, in which the patient had a positive prick test result with triamcinolone. She has had atopic dermatitis (AD) for three years. She had used systemic steroid, cyclosporine, and antihistamine with topical steroids for AD. In clinic, approximately 10 minutes after intralesional injection of triamcinolone, she complained of erythematous patches with slight elevation and itching on the face, trunk, and both hands. After intravenous injection of dexamethasone, her symptoms got worse. After treatment with epinephrine, all symptoms resolved within two hours. We performed an open test and skin prick test. She had a positive result only from the prick test with triamcinolone; all other steroids showed negative results from the open tests. Dermatologists should be aware of the possibility of anaphylaxis or other allergic hypersensitivity in response to corticosteroids. © 2018 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

Resuscitation Prior to Emergency Endotracheal Intubation: Results of a National Survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert S. Green

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Respiratory failure is a common problem in emergency medicine (EM and critical care medicine (CCM. However, little is known about the resuscitation of critically ill patients prior to emergency endotracheal intubation (EETI. Our aim was to describe the resuscitation practices of EM and CCM physicians prior to EETI. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was developed and tested for content validity and retest reliability by members of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group. The questionnaire was distributed to all EM and CCM physician members of three national organizations. Using three clinical scenarios (trauma, pneumonia, congestive heart failure, we assessed physician preferences for use and types of fluid and vasopressor medication in pre-EETI resuscitation of critically ill patients. Results: In total, 1,758 physicians were surveyed (response rate 50.2%, 882/1,758. Overall, physicians would perform pre-EETI resuscitation using either fluids or vasopressors in 54% (1,193/2,203 of cases. Most physicians would “always/often” administer intravenous fluid pre-EETI in the three clinical scenarios (81%, 1,484/1,830. Crystalloids were the most common fluid physicians would “always/often” administer in congestive heart failure (EM 43%; CCM 44%, pneumonia (EM 97%; CCM 95% and trauma (EM 96%; CCM 96%. Pre-EETI resuscitation using vasopressors was uncommon (4.9%. Training in CCM was associated with performing pre-EETI resuscitation (odds ratio, 2.20; 95% CI, [1.44-3.36], p<0.001. Conclusion: Pre-EETI resuscitation is common among Canadian EM and CCM physicians. Most physicians use crystalloids pre-EETI as a resuscitation fluid, while few would give vasopressors. Physicians with CCM training were more likely to perform pre-EETI resuscitation.

Skin Sparing Mastectomy and Immediate Breast Reconstruction (SSMIR for early breast cancer: Eight years single institution experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bobin Jean

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Skin Sparing Mastectomy (SSM and immediate breast reconstruction has become increasingly popular as an effective treatment for patients with breast carcinoma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome of skin sparing mastectomy in early breast cancer at a single population-based institution. Methods Records of ninety-five consecutive patients with operable breast cancer who had skin-sparing mastectomy and immediate breast reconstructions between 1995 and 2003 were reviewed. Patient and tumor characteristic, type of reconstruction, postoperative complications, aesthetic results and incidence of recurrence were analyzed. Results Mean age of the patients was 51.6(range 33–72 years. The AJCC pathologic stages were 0 (n = 51, 53.7%, I (n = 20, 21.1%, and II (n = 2, 2.1%. Twenty of the patients had recurrent disease (21.1%. The immediate breast reconstructions were performed with autologus tissue including latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap in 63 (66.3% patients and transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous (TRAM flap in 4 (4.2% patients. Implants were used in 28 (29.4% patients. The average hospital stay was 7.7 days. Flap complication occurred in seven (10.4% patients resulting in four (6% re-operations and there were no delay in accomplishing postoperative adjuvant therapy. At a median follow-up of 69 months (range 48 to 144, local recurrence was seen in one patient (1.1% and systemic recurrence was seen in two patients (2.1%. Conclusion Skin sparing mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction for early breast cancer is associated with low morbidity and low rate of local recurrence.

Immediate physical therapy in dogs with rupture of the cranial cruciate ligament submitted to extracapsular surgical stabilization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Berté

2012-02-01

Full Text Available The study evaluated the influence of immediate physical therapy on the functional recovery of hind limbs of dogs with experimental cranial cruciate ligament rupture which underwent surgical extracapsular stabilization as well as to verify its interference in joint stability. Eight dogs were randomly divided into two groups: GI (control (n=4 and GII (physical therapy (n=4. The dogs in GII underwent the following therapeutic treatments in the postoperative period: cryotherapy, passive joint movement, massage, passive straightening, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, hydrotherapy (bath and aquatic mat and therapeutic exercises. We performed evaluations of the thigh circumference, goniometry, X-ray, and knee stability (drawer test. Results did not demonstrate a significant difference between the groups nor between different post-operative times. Regarding gait analysis, we found that the 4 dogs in GI remained in degree 3 of lameness 45 and 90 days postoperatively. However, in GII, one dog remained in degree 3 45 and 90 days after surgery; one dog changed from degree 3 to 4 90 days after surgery and the other 2 dogs changed from degree 3 to 5 90 days after surgery. It is possible to conclude that dogs with CCL rupture that undergo immediate physical therapy demonstrate better results in regards to functional gait recovery. The therapeutic modalities used in the immediate post-operative period did not cause instability of the operated knee. Further studies are needed with a larger number of dogs to indicate the immediate physical therapy in dogs with CCL ligament rupture which underwent extracapsular stabilization.

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing prior to myeloablative allo-SCT: a feasibility study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelsey, C R; Scott, J M; Lane, A; Schwitzer, E; West, M J; Thomas, S; Herndon, J E; Michalski, M G; Horwitz, M E; Hennig, T; Jones, L W

2014-10-01

The feasibility of symptom-limited cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) prior to allo-SCT was assessed in addition to the prognostic value of CPET-derived measures. CPET was performed prospectively on 21 patients with hematologic malignancies, with assessments of peak (for example, peak oxygen consumption, VO2peak) and submaximal (for example, ventilatory threshold (VT)) measures of cardiopulmonary function. No serious adverse events were observed during CPET procedures, with 95% of patients achieving criteria for a peak test. Mean VO2peak was 24.7±6.4 mL kg(-1 )min(-1) (range: 10.9-35.5), equivalent to 29%±17% below that of age-matched healthy controls. All patients proceeded with the conditioning regimen followed by allo-SCT. Median follow-up was 25 months. During this period, 11 (52.4%) patients died (n=6, relapsed disease; n=5, non-relapse mortality (NRM)); 9 patients (43%) developed pulmonary toxicity. In univariate analyses, both peak and submaximal markers of cardiopulmonary function were predictors of OS, pulmonary toxicity and NRM. For OS, the HR for VO2peak and VT were 0.89 (95% CI, 0.8-0.99, P=0.04) and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.71-0.98, P=0.03), respectively. In conclusion, CPET is safe and feasible prior to allo-SCT. Patients have marked impairments in cardiopulmonary function prior to allo-SCT. CPET-derived metrics may complement conventional measures to improve risk stratification.

Immediate re-transplantation following early kidney transplant thrombosis.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Phelan, Paul J

2011-08-01

Allograft thrombosis is a devastating early complication of renal transplantation that ultimately leads to allograft loss. We report here on our experience of nine cases of immediate re-transplantation following early kidney transplant thrombosis at a single centre between January 1990 and June 2009. The mean age was 42.9 years at time of transplant. For seven patients, the allograft thrombosis was their first kidney transplant and seven of the nine cases had a deceased donor transplant. The initial transplants functioned for a mean of 1.67 days and the patients received a second allograft at a mean of 3.1 days after graft failure. All of the re-transplants worked immediately. Four allografts failed after a mean of 52.5 months (2-155 months). Two of these died with a functioning allograft, one failed owing to chronic allograft nephropathy and one owing to persistent acute cellular rejection. The remaining five patients still have a functioning allograft after a mean of 101.8 months (7-187 months). One year allograft and patient survival after re-transplantation were 87.5% and 100% respectively (after 5 years, both were 57%). Immediate re-transplantation following early kidney transplant thrombosis can be a success. It may be considered in selected cases after allograft thrombosis.

Immediate behavioural responses to earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindell, Michael K; Prater, Carla S; Wu, Hao Che; Huang, Shih-Kai; Johnston, David M; Becker, Julia S; Shiroshita, Hideyuki

2016-01-01

This study examines people's immediate responses to earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan. Data collected from 257 respondents in Christchurch and 332 respondents in Hitachi revealed notable similarities between the two cities in people's emotional reactions, risk perceptions, and immediate protective actions during the events. Respondents' physical, household, and social contexts were quite similar, but Hitachi residents reported somewhat higher levels of emotional reaction and risk perception than did Christchurch residents. Contrary to the recommendations of emergency officials, the most frequent response of residents in both cities was to freeze. Christchurch residents were more likely than Hitachi residents to drop to the ground and take cover, whereas Hitachi residents were more likely than Christchurch residents to evacuate immediately the building in which they were situated. There were relatively small correlations between immediate behavioural responses and demographic characteristics, earthquake experience, and physical, social, or household context. © 2016 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2016.

Effects of Various Warm Up Protocol on Special Judo Fitness Test Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Lum, Danny

2017-02-13

The purposed of this study was to compare the effects of postactivation potentiation (PAP) on Special Judo Fitness Test (SJFT) performance using explosive exercises that activates upper and lower limbs muscles. Eleven male judo athletes (mean ± SD, age, 16 - 29 years; height, 170 ± 7 cm; body mass, 73 ± 16 kg) attended four separate sessions. The first session was used to familiarise the subjects to the experimental procedure, the SJFT, the high pull test (HPT) and the two explosive exercises including resistance band pull and standing broad jump. Subsequently, subjects were randomly assigned in a counterbalanced manner to either perform the upper and lower body PAP (ULB), lower body PAP (LB) or usual competition (CON) warm up routine prior to performing the HPT and SJFT. The following variables were quantified: throws performed during series A, B, and C; total number of throws; heart rate immediately and 1 minute after the test; test index; peak power; and RPE after warm up. During series 1, number of throws performed in LB and ULB were significantly greater than CON (p < 0.05). Only ULB resulted in significantly greater number of total throws (p < 0.01) and higher peak power (p < 0.01) than CON. The RPE for both LB and ULB were significantly lower than CON (p < 0.01). Peak power was moderately correlated to total number of throws performed (r=0.4, p < 0.05). This study suggest that performing ULB before SJFT can result in improved performance and peak power.

Influence of immediate loading on provisional restoration in dental implant stability

Science.gov (United States)

Ikbal, M.; Odang, R. W.; Indrasari, M.; Dewi, R. S.

2017-08-01

The success of dental implant treatment is determined by the primary stability at placement. One factor that could influence this stability is occlusal loading through provisional restoration. Two types of loading protocols are usually used: immediate and delayed loading. However, some controversies remain about the influence of occlusal loading on implant stability. Therefore, the influence of immediate loading on implant stability must be studied. An animal study was conducted by placing nine dental implants in the mandibular jaw of three Macaca fascicularis. Provisional restorations with various occlusal contacts (no, light, and normal contact) were placed on the implant. The implant stability was measured using the Ostell ISQ three times: immediately (baseline) and at the first and second months after implant placement. The implant stability between implants with no and normal occlusal contact as well as light and normal occlusal contact showed significant differences (p implant placement. However, no significant increase (p > 0.05) in implant stability was seen at the baseline and the first and second months after implant placement for all occlusal contact groups. Immediate loading influenced the implant stability, and provisional restoration of implant without occlusal contact showed the highest implant stability.

30 CFR 872.29 - What are prior balance replacement funds?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What are prior balance replacement funds? 872... § 872.29 What are prior balance replacement funds? “Prior balance replacement funds” are moneys we must... general funds of the United States Treasury that are otherwise unappropriated. Under section 411(h)(1) of...

Fates of dissolved and particulate materials from the Mississippi river immediately after discharge into the northern Gulf of Mexico, USA, during a period of low wind stress

Science.gov (United States)

Dagg, M. J.; Bianchi, T.; McKee, B.; Powell, R.

2008-07-01

In June 2003, we conducted a two-part field exercise to examine biogeochemical characteristics of water in the lower Mississippi river during the 4 days prior to discharge and in the Mississippi river plume over 2 days after discharge. Here we describe the fates of materials immediately after their discharge through Southwest Pass of the Mississippi delta into the northern Gulf of Mexico. Changes in surface water properties immediately after discharge were much larger and more rapid than changes prior to discharge. Total suspended matter (TSM) declined, probably due to sinking, dissolved macronutrients were rapidly diminished by mixing and biological uptake, and phytoplankton populations increased dramatically, and then declined. This decline appeared to begin at salinities of approximately 10 and was nearly complete by 15. A large increase in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) occurred over approximately the same salinity range. Weak winds (releasing large amounts of DOC. Macronutrients from the river were utilized by the river phytoplankton community in the extensive freshwater lens. This contrasted with the more typical situation in which river nutrients stimulate a marine phytoplankton bloom at salinities in the mid-20s. We concluded that the direct effects of dissolved and particulate bio-reactive materials discharged by the Mississippi river were spatially restricted at this time to low-salinity water, at least as surface phenomena. After being transported through the lower river essentially unaltered, these materials were biogeochemically processed within days and tens of km. More generally, the mixing rate of plume water with receiving oceanic water has profound effects on the food web structure and biogeochemical cycling in the plume.

Personalization of immediate feedback to learning styles

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vasilyeva, E.; Pechenizkiy, M.; Gavrilova, T.; Puuronen, S.; Spector, J.M.; Sampson, D.G.; Okamoto, T.; Cerri, S.A.; Ueno, M.; Kashihara, A.

2007-01-01

Feedback provided to a user is an important part of learning and interaction in e-learning systems. In this paper we present the results of our pilot experiment aimed to study interrelation between several types of immediate feedback presentation and learning styles (LSs) of users. In the experiment

Discrimination Acquisition in Children with Developmental Disabilities under Immediate and Delayed Reinforcement

Science.gov (United States)

Sy, Jolene R.; Vollmer, Timothy R.

2012-01-01

We evaluated the discrimination acquisition of individuals with developmental disabilities under immediate and delayed reinforcement. In Experiment 1, discrimination between two alternatives was examined when reinforcement was immediate or delayed by 20 s, 30 s, or 40 s. In Experiment 2, discrimination between 2 alternatives was compared across an…

Prior opportunities to identify abuse in children with abusive head trauma.

Science.gov (United States)

Letson, Megan M; Cooper, Jennifer N; Deans, Katherine J; Scribano, Philip V; Makoroff, Kathi L; Feldman, Kenneth W; Berger, Rachel P

2016-10-01

Infants with minor abusive injuries are at risk for more serious abusive injury, including abusive head trauma (AHT). Our study objective was to determine if children with AHT had prior opportunities to detect abuse and to describe the opportunities. All AHT cases from 7/1/2009 to 12/31/2011 at four tertiary care children's hospitals were included. A prior opportunity was defined as prior evaluation by either a medical or child protective services (CPS) professional when the symptoms and/or referral could be consistent with abuse but the diagnosis was not made and/or an alternate explanation was given and accepted. Two-hundred-thirty-two children with AHT were identified; median age (IQR) was 5.40 (3.30, 14.60) months. Ten percent (22/232) died. Of the 232 patients diagnosed with AHT, 31% (n=73) had a total of 120 prior opportunities. Fifty-nine children (25%) had at least one prior opportunity to identify abuse in a medical setting, representing 98 prior opportunities. An additional 14 (6%) children had 22 prior opportunities through previous CPS involvement. There were no differences between those with and without a prior opportunity based on age, gender, race, insurance, mortality, or institution. Children with prior opportunities in a medical setting were more likely to have chronic subdural hemorrhage (48 vs. 17%, p<0.01) and healing fractures (31 vs. 19%, p=0.05). The most common prior opportunities included vomiting 31.6% (38/120), prior CPS contact 20% (24/120), and bruising 11.7% (14/120). Improvements in earlier recognition of AHT and subsequent intervention might prevent additional injuries and reduce mortality. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Variational segmentation problems using prior knowledge in imaging and vision

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fundana, Ketut

This dissertation addresses variational formulation of segmentation problems using prior knowledge. Variational models are among the most successful approaches for solving many Computer Vision and Image Processing problems. The models aim at finding the solution to a given energy functional defined......, prior knowledge is needed to obtain the desired solution. The introduction of shape priors in particular, has proven to be an effective way to segment objects of interests. Firstly, we propose a prior-based variational segmentation model to segment objects of interest in image sequences, that can deal....... Many objects have high variability in shape and orientation. This often leads to unsatisfactory results, when using a segmentation model with single shape template. One way to solve this is by using more sophisticated shape models. We propose to incorporate shape priors from a shape sub...

Immediate Implant Placement into Extraction Sockets with Labial Plate Dehiscence Defects: A Clinical Case Series.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarnachiaro, Guido O; Chu, Stephen J; Sarnachiaro, Evangelina; Gotta, Sergio Luis; Tarnow, Dennis P

2016-08-01

To measure the buccal plate reconstruction of extraction sockets with labial plate dehiscence defects using a bone allograft in combination with an absorbable collagen membrane and a custom-healing abutment at the time of tooth removal. Ten patients underwent immediate implant placement and reconstruction of the buccal plate. Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) was performed preextraction, immediately after bone grafting and implant placement (day 0), and between 6 and 9 months following implant surgery. Measurements were taken at three levels: coronal (L1), middle (L2), and apical (L3) level. Implants placed into sockets with labial plate dehiscence defects demonstrated radiographic reformation of the labial plate dehiscence defect at 6 to 9 months posttreatment. The net gain in labial plate on cone beam computerized tomography (CBCT) in L1 and L2 was 3.0 mm, where 0 mm existed at pretreatment. The minimum amount of labial plate thickness of 2.0 mm was achieved in all treated sites, evaluated radiographically at 6 to 9 months postoperatively, in a single procedure, without flap elevation and maintaining the gingival architecture and satisfactory esthetics. Placing an absorbable membrane, bone graft, and custom-healing abutment at the time of flapless anterior tooth extraction and immediate implant placement into a socket with a labial osseous dehiscence is a viable clinical technique to reconstitute the absence of the labial bone plate. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Simulation Pedagogy With Nurse Practitioner Students: Impact of Receiving Immediate Individualized Faculty Feedback.

Science.gov (United States)

Grossman, Sheila; Conelius, Jaclyn

2015-01-01

Family nurse practitioner (FNP) students must achieve basic competency in managing patients' primary care needs across the lifespan. Students in the FNP program have simulations integrated throughout their clinical theory courses to increase practice time with various patient cases. Students who received individualized faculty feedback immediately after self-evaluation of simulation performance showed statistically significantly increased knowledge (as evidenced by higher grades in course examinations and preceptor evaluations) than a control group of students who received feedback in a group class via a rubric grading guide 2-4 weeks after all students completed their individual simulations.

Detection of architectural distortion in prior screening mammograms using Gabor filters, phase portraits, fractal dimension, and texture analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rangayyan, Rangaraj M.; Prajna, Shormistha; Ayres, Fabio J.; Desautels, J.E.L.

2008-01-01

Mammography is a widely used screening tool for the early detection of breast cancer. One of the commonly missed signs of breast cancer is architectural distortion. The purpose of this study is to explore the application of fractal analysis and texture measures for the detection of architectural distortion in screening mammograms taken prior to the detection of breast cancer. A method based on Gabor filters and phase portrait analysis was used to detect initial candidates for sites of architectural distortion. A total of 386 regions of interest (ROIs) were automatically obtained from 14 ''prior mammograms'', including 21 ROIs related to architectural distortion. From the corresponding set of 14 ''detection mammograms'', 398 ROIs were obtained, including 18 related to breast cancer. For each ROI, the fractal dimension and Haralick's texture features were computed. The fractal dimension of the ROIs was calculated using the circular average power spectrum technique. The average fractal dimension of the normal (false-positive) ROIs was significantly higher than that of the ROIs with architectural distortion (p = 0.006). For the ''prior mammograms'', the best receiver operating characteristics (ROC) performance achieved, in terms of the area under the ROC curve, was 0.80 with a Bayesian classifier using four features including fractal dimension, entropy, sum entropy, and inverse difference moment. Analysis of the performance of the methods with free-response receiver operating characteristics indicated a sensitivity of 0.79 at 8.4 false positives per image in the detection of sites of architectural distortion in the ''prior mammograms''. Fractal dimension offers a promising way to detect the presence of architectural distortion in prior mammograms. (orig.)

The Prior Can Often Only Be Understood in the Context of the Likelihood

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew Gelman

2017-10-01

Full Text Available A key sticking point of Bayesian analysis is the choice of prior distribution, and there is a vast literature on potential defaults including uniform priors, Jeffreys’ priors, reference priors, maximum entropy priors, and weakly informative priors. These methods, however, often manifest a key conceptual tension in prior modeling: a model encoding true prior information should be chosen without reference to the model of the measurement process, but almost all common prior modeling techniques are implicitly motivated by a reference likelihood. In this paper we resolve this apparent paradox by placing the choice of prior into the context of the entire Bayesian analysis, from inference to prediction to model evaluation.

Quantum steganography using prior entanglement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mihara, Takashi

2015-01-01

Steganography is the hiding of secret information within innocent-looking information (e.g., text, audio, image, video, etc.). A quantum version of steganography is a method based on quantum physics. In this paper, we propose quantum steganography by combining quantum error-correcting codes with prior entanglement. In many steganographic techniques, embedding secret messages in error-correcting codes may cause damage to them if the embedded part is corrupted. However, our proposed steganography can separately create secret messages and the content of cover messages. The intrinsic form of the cover message does not have to be modified for embedding secret messages. - Highlights: • Our steganography combines quantum error-correcting codes with prior entanglement. • Our steganography can separately create secret messages and the content of cover messages. • Errors in cover messages do not have affect the recovery of secret messages. • We embed a secret message in the Steane code as an example of our steganography

Quantum steganography using prior entanglement

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mihara, Takashi, E-mail: mihara@toyo.jp

2015-06-05

Steganography is the hiding of secret information within innocent-looking information (e.g., text, audio, image, video, etc.). A quantum version of steganography is a method based on quantum physics. In this paper, we propose quantum steganography by combining quantum error-correcting codes with prior entanglement. In many steganographic techniques, embedding secret messages in error-correcting codes may cause damage to them if the embedded part is corrupted. However, our proposed steganography can separately create secret messages and the content of cover messages. The intrinsic form of the cover message does not have to be modified for embedding secret messages. - Highlights: • Our steganography combines quantum error-correcting codes with prior entanglement. • Our steganography can separately create secret messages and the content of cover messages. • Errors in cover messages do not have affect the recovery of secret messages. • We embed a secret message in the Steane code as an example of our steganography.

Crowdsourcing prior information to improve study design and data analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeffrey S Chrabaszcz

Full Text Available Though Bayesian methods are being used more frequently, many still struggle with the best method for setting priors with novel measures or task environments. We propose a method for setting priors by eliciting continuous probability distributions from naive participants. This allows us to include any relevant information participants have for a given effect. Even when prior means are near-zero, this method provides a principle way to estimate dispersion and produce shrinkage, reducing the occurrence of overestimated effect sizes. We demonstrate this method with a number of published studies and compare the effect of different prior estimation and aggregation methods.

Formulating informative, data-based priors for failure probability estimation in reliability analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guikema, Seth D.

2007-01-01

Priors play an important role in the use of Bayesian methods in risk analysis, and using all available information to formulate an informative prior can lead to more accurate posterior inferences. This paper examines the practical implications of using five different methods for formulating an informative prior for a failure probability based on past data. These methods are the method of moments, maximum likelihood (ML) estimation, maximum entropy estimation, starting from a non-informative 'pre-prior', and fitting a prior based on confidence/credible interval matching. The priors resulting from the use of these different methods are compared qualitatively, and the posteriors are compared quantitatively based on a number of different scenarios of observed data used to update the priors. The results show that the amount of information assumed in the prior makes a critical difference in the accuracy of the posterior inferences. For situations in which the data used to formulate the informative prior is an accurate reflection of the data that is later observed, the ML approach yields the minimum variance posterior. However, the maximum entropy approach is more robust to differences between the data used to formulate the prior and the observed data because it maximizes the uncertainty in the prior subject to the constraints imposed by the past data