Termination of short term melatonin treatment in children with delayed Dim Light Melatonin Onset: effects on sleep, health, behavior problems, and parenting stress

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Maanen, Annette; Meijer, Anne Marie; Smits, Marcel G.; Oort, Frans J.

2011-01-01

To investigate the effects of termination of short term melatonin treatment on sleep, health, behavior, and parenting stress in children with delayed Dim Light Melatonin Onset. Forty-one children (24 boys, 17 girls; mean age=9.43 years) entered melatonin treatment for 3 weeks and then discontinued

Effects of short-term training on behavioral learning and skill acquisition during intraoral fine motor task

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kumar, Abhishek; Grigoriadis, Joannis; Trulsson, Mats

2015-01-01

Sensory information from the orofacial mechanoreceptors are used by the nervous system to optimize the positioning of food, determine the force levels, and force vectors involved in biting of food morsels. Moreover, practice resulting from repetition could be a key to learning and acquiring a motor...... movements. Thirty healthy volunteers were asked to intraorally manipulate and split a chocolate candy, into two equal halves. The participants performed three series (with ten 10 trials) of the task before and after a short-term (approximately 30min) training. The accuracy of the split and vertical jaw...... task induces behavior learning, skill acquisition and optimization of jaw movements in terms of better performance and reduction in the duration of jaw movements, during the task. The finding of the present study provides insights on into how humans learn oral motor behaviors or the kind of adaptation...

Short- and long-term cognitive effects of chronic cannabinoids administration in late-adolescence rats.

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Hila Abush

Full Text Available The use of cannabis can impair cognitive function, especially short-term memory. A controversial question is whether long-term cannabis use during the late-adolescence period can cause irreversible deficits in higher brain function that persist after drug use stops. In order to examine the short- and long-term effects of chronic exposure to cannabinoids, rats were administered chronic i.p. treatment with the CB1/CB2 receptor agonist WIN55,212-2 (WIN; 1.2 mg/kg for two weeks during the late adolescence period (post-natal days 45-60 and tested for behavioral and electrophysiological measures of cognitive performance 24 hrs, 10 and 30 days after the last drug injection. The impairing effects of chronic WIN on short-term memory in the water maze and the object recognition tasks as well as long-term potentiation (LTP in the ventral subiculum (vSub-nucleus accumbens (NAc pathway were temporary as they lasted only 24 h or 10 d after withdrawal. However, chronic WIN significantly impaired hippocampal dependent short-term memory measured in the object location task 24 hrs, 10, 30, and 75 days after the last drug injection. Our findings suggest that some forms of hippocampal-dependent short-term memory are sensitive to chronic cannabinoid administration but other cognitive impairments are temporary and probably result from a residue of cannabinoids in the brain or acute withdrawal effects from cannabinoids. Understanding the effects of cannabinoids on cognitive function may provide us with tools to overcome these impairments and for cannabinoids to be more favorably considered for clinical use.

A Preliminary Report of Short-Term Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy for Inpatients With Personality Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

SPRINGER, TAMAR; LOHR, NAOMI E.; BUCHTEL, HENRY A.; SILK, KENNETH R.

1996-01-01

A randomized, controlled study evaluated the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral therapy group, based on Linehan’s dialectical behavior therapy, for inpatients with personality disorders. The treatment, a problem-solving skills group focused on parasuicidality, was compared with a discussion control group. Change was assessed by self-report measures and behavioral observations on the unit. Subjects in both groups improved significantly on most change measures, although no significant between-group differences were found. However, the treatment group patients viewed the intervention as more beneficial to them in their lives outside the hospital. The usefulness of this type of group on a short-term unit is discussed. PMID:22700265

Behavior control in the sensorimotor loop with short-term synaptic dynamics induced by self-regulating neurons

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Hazem eToutounji

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The behavior and skills of living systems depend on the distributed control provided by specialized and highly recurrent neural networks. Learning and memory in these systems is mediated by a set of adaptation mechanisms, known collectively as neuronal plasticity. Translating principles of recurrent neural control and plasticity to artificial agents has seen major strides, but is usually hampered by the complex interactions between the agent's body and its environment. One of the important standing issues is for the agent to support multiple stable states of behavior, so that its behavioral repertoire matches the requirements imposed by these interactions. The agent also must have the capacity to switch between these states in time scales that are comparable to those by which sensory stimulation varies. Achieving this requires a mechanism of short-term memory that allows the neurocontroller to keep track of the recent history of its input, which finds its biological counterpart in short-term synaptic plasticity. This issue is approached here by deriving synaptic dynamics in recurrent neural networks. Neurons are introduced as self-regulating units with a rich repertoire of dynamics. They exhibit homeostatic properties for certain parameter domains, which result in a set of stable states and the required short-term memory. They can also operate as oscillators, which allow them to surpass the level of activity imposed by their homeostatic operation conditions. Neural systems endowed with the derived synaptic dynamics can be utilized for the neural behavior control of autonomous mobile agents. The resulting behavior depends also on the underlying network structure, which is either engineered, or developed by evolutionary techniques. The effectiveness of these self-regulating units is demonstrated by controlling locomotion of a hexapod with eighteen degrees of freedom, and obstacle-avoidance of a wheel-driven robot.

The Hidden Cost of Tourism: Detecting Long-term Effects of Tourism Using Behavioral Information

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David Lusseau

2004-06-01

Full Text Available Increasingly, whales and dolphins are the focus of tourism activities in many coastal locations. Although these activities can affect individuals and populations of cetaceans, the biological significance and hence the cost of these impacts are as yet largely unknown. This study assessed the effects of boat interactions on the behavioral budget of two populations of bottlenose dolphins (Tersiops truncatus living in similar fjords but exposed to different levels of tourism activities. This comparison makes it possible to assess the costs of short-term avoidance strategies and the threshold at which those strategies are no longer effective. The effects of boat interactions were the same in both fjords. The resting state was the most sensitive to interactions; socializing was less sensitive. Short-term displacement was a typical response to boat exposure: dolphins were more likely to travel after an interaction with a vessel. Although the behavioral budgets of these populations were significantly altered during interactions with boats, their overall behavioral budgets were unchanged. Dolphins in Milford Sound actively avoided boat interactions, possibly to maintain their overall behavioral budget unchanged. This active avoidance led to avoidance of the area. Characteristics of dolphin-boat interactions in Milford Sound suggest that the advantages gained by short-term avoidance are lost if, on average, fewer than 68 min elapse between successive interactions with boats. If dolphin-boat interactions were more frequent than this, the dolphins switched to a longer-term response: area avoidance.

Rapid effects of estrogens on short-term memory: Possible mechanisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Paletta, Pietro; Sheppard, Paul A S; Matta, Richard; Ervin, Kelsy S J; Choleris, Elena

2018-06-01

Estrogens affect learning and memory through rapid and delayed mechanisms. Here we review studies on rapid effects on short-term memory. Estradiol rapidly improves social and object recognition memory, spatial memory, and social learning when administered systemically. The dorsal hippocampus mediates estrogen rapid facilitation of object, social and spatial short-term memory. The medial amygdala mediates rapid facilitation of social recognition. The three estrogen receptors, α (ERα), β (ERβ) and the G-protein coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) appear to play different roles depending on the task and brain region. Both ERα and GPER agonists rapidly facilitate short-term social and object recognition and spatial memory when administered systemically or into the dorsal hippocampus and facilitate social recognition in the medial amygdala. Conversely, only GPER can facilitate social learning after systemic treatment and an ERβ agonist only rapidly improved short-term spatial memory when given systemically or into the hippocampus, but also facilitates social recognition in the medial amygdala. Investigations into the mechanisms behind estrogens' rapid effects on short term memory showed an involvement of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) kinase pathways. Recent evidence also showed that estrogens interact with the neuropeptide oxytocin in rapidly facilitating social recognition. Estrogens can increase the production and/or release of oxytocin and other neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and acetylcholine. Therefore, it is possible that estrogens' rapid effects on short-term memory may occur through the regulation of various neurotransmitters, although more research is need on these interactions as well as the mechanisms of estrogens' actions on short-term memory. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Short-term exposure to gold nanoparticle suspension impairs swimming behavior in a widespread calanoid copepod.

Science.gov (United States)

Michalec, François-Gaël; Holzner, Markus; Barras, Alexandre; Lacoste, Anne-Sophie; Brunet, Loïc; Lee, Jae-Seong; Slomianny, Christian; Boukherroub, Rabah; Souissi, Sami

2017-09-01

Calanoid copepods play an important role in the functioning of marine and brackish ecosystems. Information is scarce on the behavioral toxicity of engineered nanoparticles to these abundant planktonic organisms. We assessed the effects of short-term exposure to nonfunctionalized gold nanoparticles on the swimming behavior of the widespread estuarine copepod Eurytemora affinis. By means of three-dimensional particle tracking velocimetry, we reconstructed the trajectories of males, ovigerous and non-ovigerous females. We quantified changes in their swimming activity and in the kinematics and geometrical properties of their motion, three important descriptors of the motility patterns of zooplankters. In females, exposure to gold nanoparticles in suspension (11.4 μg L -1 ) for 30 min caused depressed activity and lower velocity and acceleration, whereas the same exposure caused minimal effects in males. This response differs clearly from the hyperactive behavior that is commonly observed in zooplankters exposed to pollutants, and from the generally lower sensitivity of female copepods to toxicants. Accumulation of gold nanoparticles on the external appendages was not observed, precluding mechanical effects. Only very few nanoparticles appeared sporadically in the inner part of the gut in some samples, either as aggregates or as isolated nanoparticles, which does not suggest systemic toxicity resulting from pronounced ingestion. Hence, the precise mechanisms underlying the behavioral toxicity observed here remain to be elucidated. These results demonstrate that gold nanoparticles can induce marked behavioral alterations at very low concentration and short exposure duration. They illustrate the applicability of swimming behavior as a suitable and sensitive endpoint for investigating the toxicity of nanomaterials present in estuarine and marine environments. Changes in swimming behavior may impair the ability of planktonic copepods to interact with their environment

Short-Term Predictive Validity of Cluster Analytic and Dimensional Classification of Child Behavioral Adjustment in School

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sangwon; Kamphaus, Randy W.; Baker, Jean A.

2006-01-01

A constructive debate over the classification of child psychopathology can be stimulated by investigating the validity of different classification approaches. We examined and compared the short-term predictive validity of cluster analytic and dimensional classifications of child behavioral adjustment in school using the Behavior Assessment System…

Forecasting stock return volatility: A comparison between the roles of short-term and long-term leverage effects

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Zhiyuan; Liu, Li

2018-02-01

In this paper, we extend the GARCH-MIDAS model proposed by Engle et al. (2013) to account for the leverage effect in short-term and long-term volatility components. Our in-sample evidence suggests that both short-term and long-term negative returns can cause higher future volatility than positive returns. Out-of-sample results show that the predictive ability of GARCH-MIDAS is significantly improved after taking the leverage effect into account. The leverage effect for short-term volatility component plays more important role than the leverage effect for long-term volatility component in affecting out-of-sample forecasting performance.

The Effects of a Short-term Cognitive Behavioral Group Intervention on Bam Earthquake Related PTSD Symptoms in Adolescents

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Fatemeh Naderi

2009-04-01

Full Text Available "n "n "nObjective :Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD may be the first reaction after disasters. Many studies have shown the efficacy of cognitive- behavioral therapy in treatment of post traumatic stress disorder. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of group CBT in adolescent survivors of a large scale disaster (Bam earthquake. "n "nMethods: In a controlled trial, we evaluated the efficacy of a short term method of group cognitive-behavioral therapy in adolescent survivors of Bam earthquake who had PTSD symptoms and compared it with a control group. The adolescents who had severe PTSD or other psychiatric disorders that needed pharmacological interventions were excluded. We evaluated PTSD symptoms using Post traumatic Stress Scale (PSS pre and post intervention and compared them with a control group. "n "nResults: 100 adolescents were included in the study and 15 were excluded during the intervention. The mean age of the participants was 14.6±2.1 years. The mean score of total PTSD symptoms and the symptoms of avoidance was reduced after interventions, and was statistically significant. The mean change of re-experience and hyper arousal symptoms of PTSD were not significant. "n "nConclusion: Psychological debriefing and group cognitive behavioral therapy may be effective in reducing some of the PTSD symptoms.

How long do the short-term violent video game effects last?

Science.gov (United States)

Barlett, Christopher; Branch, Omar; Rodeheffer, Christopher; Harris, Richard

2009-01-01

How long do the effects of the initial short-term increase in aggression and physiological arousal last after violent video game play? Study 1 (N=91) had participants complete pre- and postvideo game measures of aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, and heart rate. Then, participants completed Time 3 measures after 4 min or 9 min of delay. Study 2 employed a similar procedure, but had participants (N=91) complete the hot sauce paradigm to assess aggressive behavior after a 0, 5, or 10 min delay. First, results indicated that aggressive feelings, aggressive thoughts, aggressive behavior, and heart rate initially increased after violent video game play. Second, results of the delay condition revealed that the increase in aggressive feelings and aggressive thoughts lasted less than 4 min, whereas heart rate and aggressive behavior lasted 4-9 min. Copyright 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Short-term regulation of hydro powerplants. Studies on the environmental effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sinisalmi, T.; Riihimaeki, J.; Vehanen, T.; Yrjaenae, T.

1997-01-01

The publication is a final report on a project studying effects of short-term regulation of hydro power plants. The project consists of two parts: (1) examining and developing methods for evaluation, (2) applying methods in a case study at the Oulujoki River. The economic value of short-term regulation was studied with a model consisting of an optimization model and a river simulation model. Constraints on water level or discharge variations could be given to the power plants and their economical influence could be studied. Effects on shoreline recreation use due to water level fluctuation were studied with a model where various effects are made commensurable and expressed in monetary terms. A literature survey and field experiments were used to study the methods for assessing effects of short-term regulation on river habitats. The state and development needs of fish stocks and fisheries in large regulated rivers were studied and an environmental classification was made. Remedial measures for the short-term regulated rivers were studied with a literature survey and enquiries. A comprehensive picture of the various effects of short-term regulation was gained in the case study in Oulujoki River (110 km long, 7 power plants). Harmful effects can be reduced with the given recommendations of remedial measures on environment and the usage of the hydro power plants. (orig.) 52 refs

Short-term regulation of hydro powerplants. Studies on the environmental effects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sinisalmi, T. [ed.; Forsius, J.; Muotka, J.; Soimakallio, H. [Imatran Voima Oy, Vantaa (Finland); Riihimaeki, J. [VTT, Espoo (Finland); Vehanen, T. [Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Inst. (Finland); Yrjaenae, T. [North Ostrobothnia Regional Environmental Centre, Oulu (Finland)

1997-12-31

The publication is a final report on a project studying effects of short-term regulation of hydro power plants. The project consists of two parts: (1) examining and developing methods for evaluation, (2) applying methods in a case study at the Oulujoki River. The economic value of short-term regulation was studied with a model consisting of an optimization model and a river simulation model. Constraints on water level or discharge variations could be given to the power plants and their economical influence could be studied. Effects on shoreline recreation use due to water level fluctuation were studied with a model where various effects are made commensurable and expressed in monetary terms. A literature survey and field experiments were used to study the methods for assessing effects of short-term regulation on river habitats. The state and development needs of fish stocks and fisheries in large regulated rivers were studied and an environmental classification was made. Remedial measures for the short-term regulated rivers were studied with a literature survey and enquiries. A comprehensive picture of the various effects of short-term regulation was gained in the case study in Oulujoki River (110 km long, 7 power plants). Harmful effects can be reduced with the given recommendations of remedial measures on environment and the usage of the hydro power plants. (orig.) 52 refs.

Short-Term Effects of Midseason Coach Turnover on Team Performance in Soccer

Science.gov (United States)

Balduck, Anne-Line; Buelens, Marc; Philippaerts, Renaat

2010-01-01

The present study addressed the issue of short-term performance effects of midseason coach turnover in soccer. The goal of this study was to examine this effect on subsequent short-term team performance. The purposes of this study were to (a) examine whether midseason coach turnover improved results in the short term, and (b) examine how team…

Short-Term Expectation Formation Versus Long-Term Equilibrium Conditions: The Danish Housing Market

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Andreas Hetland

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The primary contribution of this paper is to establish that the long-swings behavior observed in the market price of Danish housing since the 1970s can be understood by studying the interplay between short-term expectation formation and long-run equilibrium conditions. We introduce an asset market model for housing based on uncertainty rather than risk, which under mild assumptions allows for other forms of forecasting behavior than rational expectations. We test the theory via an I(2 cointegrated VAR model and find that the long-run equilibrium for the housing price corresponds closely to the predictions from the theoretical framework. Additionally, we corroborate previous findings that housing markets are well characterized by short-term momentum forecasting behavior. Our conclusions have wider relevance, since housing prices play a role in the wider Danish economy, and other developed economies, through wealth effects.

Provision or Good Genes? Menstrual Cycle Shifts in Women's Preferences for Short-Term and Long-Term Mates' Altruistic Behavior

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Ryo Oda

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Men's altruism may have evolved, via female choice, as a signal of either their genetic quality or their willingness to allocate resources to offspring. The possibility that men display altruism to signal their genetic quality may be tested by examining women's preference for men's altruism across the stages of the menstrual cycle. Because women can maximize reproductive benefits by mating with men who have “good genes” on high-fertility versus low-fertility days, women should show a heightened preference for male altruism on high-fertility days compared to low-fertility days, and this heightened preference should be more apparent when women evaluate men for short-term sexual relationships than for long-term committed relationships. The possibility that men display altruism to signal their willingness to provision, as opposed to their genetic quality, may be tested by examining women's preference for men's altruism toward different recipients. More specifically, altruistic behavior toward family members may reflect a willingness to provide resources for kin and, hence, willingness to provision, whereas altruistic behavior toward strangers may function as an honest signal of genetic quality. In two samples of young women (TVs = 131 and 481, we found no differences between high- and low-fertility participants in preference for men's altruism, and women preferred men's altruism more in long-term than short-term relationships. The findings suggest that men's altruistic behavior functions as a signal of willingness to provide resources rather than genetic quality.

A phenomenological memristor model for short-term/long-term memory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Ling; Li, Chuandong; Huang, Tingwen; Ahmad, Hafiz Gulfam; Chen, Yiran

2014-01-01

Memristor is considered to be a natural electrical synapse because of its distinct memory property and nanoscale. In recent years, more and more similar behaviors are observed between memristors and biological synapse, e.g., short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). The traditional mathematical models are unable to capture the new emerging behaviors. In this article, an updated phenomenological model based on the model of the Hewlett–Packard (HP) Labs has been proposed to capture such new behaviors. The new dynamical memristor model with an improved ion diffusion term can emulate the synapse behavior with forgetting effect, and exhibit the transformation between the STM and the LTM. Further, this model can be used in building new type of neural networks with forgetting ability like biological systems, and it is verified by our experiment with Hopfield neural network. - Highlights: • We take the Fick diffusion and the Soret diffusion into account in the ion drift theory. • We develop a new model based on the old HP model. • The new model can describe the forgetting effect and the spike-rate-dependent property of memristor. • The new model can solve the boundary effect of all window functions discussed in [13]. • A new Hopfield neural network with the forgetting ability is built by the new memristor model

Semantic and phonological contributions to short-term repetition and long-term cued sentence recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Meltzer, Jed A; Rose, Nathan S; Deschamps, Tiffany; Leigh, Rosie C; Panamsky, Lilia; Silberberg, Alexandra; Madani, Noushin; Links, Kira A

2016-02-01

The function of verbal short-term memory is supported not only by the phonological loop, but also by semantic resources that may operate on both short and long time scales. Elucidation of the neural underpinnings of these mechanisms requires effective behavioral manipulations that can selectively engage them. We developed a novel cued sentence recall paradigm to assess the effects of two factors on sentence recall accuracy at short-term and long-term stages. Participants initially repeated auditory sentences immediately following a 14-s retention period. After this task was complete, long-term memory for each sentence was probed by a two-word recall cue. The sentences were either concrete (high imageability) or abstract (low imageability), and the initial 14-s retention period was filled with either an undemanding finger-tapping task or a more engaging articulatory suppression task (Exp. 1, counting backward by threes; Exp. 2, repeating a four-syllable nonword). Recall was always better for the concrete sentences. Articulatory suppression reduced accuracy in short-term recall, especially for abstract sentences, but the sentences initially recalled following articulatory suppression were retained better at the subsequent cued-recall test, suggesting that the engagement of semantic mechanisms for short-term retention promoted encoding of the sentence meaning into long-term memory. These results provide a basis for using sentence imageability and subsequent memory performance as probes of semantic engagement in short-term memory for sentences.

Prosodic Similarity Effects in Short-Term Memory in Developmental Dyslexia.

Science.gov (United States)

Goswami, Usha; Barnes, Lisa; Mead, Natasha; Power, Alan James; Leong, Victoria

2016-11-01

Children with developmental dyslexia are characterized by phonological difficulties across languages. Classically, this 'phonological deficit' in dyslexia has been investigated with tasks using single-syllable words. Recently, however, several studies have demonstrated difficulties in prosodic awareness in dyslexia. Potential prosodic effects in short-term memory have not yet been investigated. Here we create a new instrument based on three-syllable words that vary in stress patterns, to investigate whether prosodic similarity (the same prosodic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables) exerts systematic effects on short-term memory. We study participants with dyslexia and age-matched and younger reading-level-matched typically developing controls. We find that all participants, including dyslexic participants, show prosodic similarity effects in short-term memory. All participants exhibited better retention of words that differed in prosodic structure, although participants with dyslexia recalled fewer words accurately overall compared to age-matched controls. Individual differences in prosodic memory were predicted by earlier vocabulary abilities, by earlier sensitivity to syllable stress and by earlier phonological awareness. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of prosodic similarity effects in short-term memory. The implications of a prosodic similarity effect for theories of lexical representation and of dyslexia are discussed. © 2016 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. © 2016 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Auditory-Cortex Short-Term Plasticity Induced by Selective Attention

Science.gov (United States)

Jääskeläinen, Iiro P.; Ahveninen, Jyrki

2014-01-01

The ability to concentrate on relevant sounds in the acoustic environment is crucial for everyday function and communication. Converging lines of evidence suggests that transient functional changes in auditory-cortex neurons, “short-term plasticity”, might explain this fundamental function. Under conditions of strongly focused attention, enhanced processing of attended sounds can take place at very early latencies (~50 ms from sound onset) in primary auditory cortex and possibly even at earlier latencies in subcortical structures. More robust selective-attention short-term plasticity is manifested as modulation of responses peaking at ~100 ms from sound onset in functionally specialized nonprimary auditory-cortical areas by way of stimulus-specific reshaping of neuronal receptive fields that supports filtering of selectively attended sound features from task-irrelevant ones. Such effects have been shown to take effect in ~seconds following shifting of attentional focus. There are findings suggesting that the reshaping of neuronal receptive fields is even stronger at longer auditory-cortex response latencies (~300 ms from sound onset). These longer-latency short-term plasticity effects seem to build up more gradually, within tens of seconds after shifting the focus of attention. Importantly, some of the auditory-cortical short-term plasticity effects observed during selective attention predict enhancements in behaviorally measured sound discrimination performance. PMID:24551458

Effect of Short-Term Study Abroad Programs on Students' Cultural Adaptability

Science.gov (United States)

Mapp, Susan C.

2012-01-01

The number of U.S. students studying abroad has been growing, particularly those participating in short-term trips. However, literature on the effect of these short-term trips is lacking. The purpose of this study was to assess quantitatively the effect on bachelor students' cross-cultural adaptability using a pre-post design. Significant changes…

Short-term and long-term effects of GDP on traffic deaths in 18 OECD countries, 1960-2011.

Science.gov (United States)

Dadgar, Iman; Norström, Thor

2017-02-01

Research suggests that increases in gross domestic product (GDP) lead to increases in traffic deaths plausibly due to the increased road traffic induced by an expanding economy. However, there also seems to exist a long-term effect of economic growth that is manifested in improved traffic safety and reduced rates of traffic deaths. Previous studies focus on either the short-term, procyclical effect, or the long-term, protective effect. The aim of the present study is to estimate the short-term and long-term effects jointly in order to assess the net impact of GDP on traffic mortality. We extracted traffic death rates for the period 1960-2011 from the WHO Mortality Database for 18 OECD countries. Data on GDP/capita were obtained from the Maddison Project. We performed error correction modelling to estimate the short-term and long-term effects of GDP on the traffic death rates. The estimates from the error correction modelling for the entire study period suggested that a one-unit increase (US$1000) in GDP/capita yields an instantaneous short-term increase in the traffic death rate by 0.58 (pGDP leads to an immediate increase in traffic deaths. However, after the mid-1970s this short-term effect is more than outweighed by a markedly stronger protective long-term effect, whereas the reverse is true for the period before the mid-1970s. 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/.

The effects of the administration of two different doses of manganese on short-term spatial memory and anxiety-like behavior in rats

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hogas M.

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Manganese is a very well known neurotoxic agent. It has been mainly linked to impaired motor skills and disturbed psychomotor development. However, very few aspects are known about the cognitive deficits and behavioral consequences of chronic manganese exposure. In this context, we report herein our findings regarding short-term spatial memory, motor and anxiety-like behavior assessments in male Wistar rats exposed for 45 days to two different doses (3 mg/kg b.w., i.p. and 10 mg/kg b.w., i.p. of manganese. Behavior testing (Y-maze task and elevated plus maze was performed after 45 days of manganese administration. Chronic manganese exposure in Wistar rats led to behavioral alterations consisting of cognitive deficiencies in the Y-maze task and anxiety/compulsive-like behaviors in the elevated plus maze, but no motor disturbances as tested by the number of arm entries in the Y-maze. Additional work is necessary to understand the longterm effects of different doses and dosing regimens of manganese on cognitive/affective and motor functioning.

Effect of short-term hyperglycemia on cerebral function in neurooncological patients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loginov, V.M.; Gnezditskij, V.V.; Emulyushina, O.N.; Mukhamedzhanov, N.Z.

1991-01-01

The paper is concerned with the results of investigation of the effect of short-term hyperglycemia on main cerebral functions in 13 neurooncological patients. Taking into account good tolerance of short-term hyperglycemia and the results of its effective use in general oncology, one can recommend it as a modifier in radiation therapy of brain gliomas

Temporal Prediction Errors Affect Short-Term Memory Scanning Response Time.

Science.gov (United States)

Limongi, Roberto; Silva, Angélica M

2016-11-01

The Sternberg short-term memory scanning task has been used to unveil cognitive operations involved in time perception. Participants produce time intervals during the task, and the researcher explores how task performance affects interval production - where time estimation error is the dependent variable of interest. The perspective of predictive behavior regards time estimation error as a temporal prediction error (PE), an independent variable that controls cognition, behavior, and learning. Based on this perspective, we investigated whether temporal PEs affect short-term memory scanning. Participants performed temporal predictions while they maintained information in memory. Model inference revealed that PEs affected memory scanning response time independently of the memory-set size effect. We discuss the results within the context of formal and mechanistic models of short-term memory scanning and predictive coding, a Bayes-based theory of brain function. We state the hypothesis that our finding could be associated with weak frontostriatal connections and weak striatal activity.

Short-Term Dynamics of Behavioral Thermoregulation by Adults of the Grasshopper Melanoplus sanguinipes

Science.gov (United States)

O'Neill, Kevin M.; Rolston, Marni G.

2007-01-01

The short-term behavioral responses of adult grasshoppers, Melanoplus sanguinipes (F.) (Orthoptera: Acrididae), were examined after they experienced changes in microclimate when beingforced to change positions in their habitat. It was also determined if and when behavioral tactics allowed adults to achieve body temperatures within their preferred range. The preferred or set-point range, here taken as the interquartile range of temperatures selected on a laboratory thermal gradient, was estimated to be 37.4–40.5°C. In the field, adults progressed through a relatively consistent daily sequence of behaviors, basking on the soil early in the day, but moving onto vegetation as temperatures increased. Although basking allowed grasshoppers to maximize body temperature within the available range, as much as 7°C in excess of air temperature, they could not attain preferred body temperatures until soil surface temperatures reach about 35°C. Basking was more effective in grazed than ungrazed pastures due to a lower degree of shading of the soil surface. As soil surface temperatures exceeded 35°C, grasshoppers could achieve body temperatures within the preferred range by moving to the appropriate height on vegetation. These results illustrate the advantage of assessing behavior in the field in relation to preferred body temperatures determined in the laboratory. PMID:20302531

The Short-Term Dynamics of Peers and Delinquent Behavior: An Analysis of Bi-weekly Changes Within a High School Student Network

NARCIS (Netherlands)

F.M. Weerman (Frank); P. Wilcox (Pamela); C.J. Sullivan (Christopher J.)

2017-01-01

markdownabstract_Objectives:_ To analyze short-term changes in peer affiliations, offending behavior and routine activities in order to evaluate three different processes: peer selection, peer socialization and situational peer influences. _Methods:_ The short-term longitudinal TEENS study was

Depletion of Serotonin Selectively Impairs Short-Term Memory without Affecting Long-Term Memory in Odor Learning in the Terrestrial Slug "Limax Valentianus"

Science.gov (United States)

Santa, Tomofumi; Kirino, Yutaka; Watanabe, Satoshi; Shirahata, Takaaki; Tsunoda, Makoto

2006-01-01

The terrestrial slug "Limax" is able to acquire short-term and long-term memories during aversive odor-taste associative learning. We investigated the effect of the selective serotonergic neurotoxin 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) on memory. Behavioral studies indicated that 5,7-DHT impaired short-term memory but not long-term memory. HPLC…

Predictive Validity of the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale for Short-Term Suicidal Behavior

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Conway, Paul Maurice; Erlangsen, Annette; Teasdale, Thomas William

2017-01-01

adolescents (90.6% females) who participated at follow-up (85.9%) out of the 99 (49.7%) baseline respondents. All adolescents were recruited from a specialized suicide-prevention clinic in Denmark. Through multivariate logistic regression analyses, we examined whether baseline suicidal behavior predicted......Using the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), we examined the predictive and incremental predictive validity of past-month suicidal behavior and ideation for short-term suicidal behavior among adolescents at high risk of suicide. The study was conducted in 2014 on a sample of 85...... subsequent suicidal behavior (actual attempts and suicidal behavior of any type, including preparatory acts, aborted, interrupted and actual attempts; mean follow-up of 80.8 days, SD = 52.4). Furthermore, we examined whether suicidal ideation severity and intensity incrementally predicted suicidal behavior...

Short- and long-term effectiveness of a three-month individualized need-supportive physical activity counseling intervention at the workplace

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anass Arrogi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The objective of the present study was to evaluate the short- and long-term intervention and mediation effects of a 3-month individualized need-supportive physical activity (PA counseling intervention on employees’ PA and sedentary behavior. Methods Insufficiently active employees (n = 300; mean age 42 ± 9 years; 78% female were recruited from a large pharmaceutical company in Flanders, Belgium. A quasi-experimental design was used in which the intervention group (N = 246 was recruited separately from the reference group (N = 54. Intervention group participants received a 3-month behavioral support intervention, which consisted of two one-hour face-to-face counseling sessions and three follow-up counseling contacts by e-mail or telephone at weeks three, six and nine. PA counseling, delivered by qualified PA counselors, aimed to satisfy participants’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Reference group participants did not receive individualized PA counseling. Outcome measures included objectively assessed and self-reported PA and sedentary time and psychological need satisfaction. Assessments were held at baseline, immediately after the intervention (short-term and 6 months post-intervention (long-term. Mixed model analyses and bootstrapping analyses were used to determine intervention and mediation effects, respectively. Results The intervention group increased weekday daily steps both in the short- and long-term, while the reference group showed reductions in daily step count (ES = .65 and ES = .48 in the short- and long-term, respectively. In the short-term, weekday moderate-to-vigorous PA increased more pronouncedly in the intervention group compared to the reference group (ES = .34. Moreover, the intervention group demonstrated reductions in self-reported sitting time during weekends both in the short- and long-term, whereas the reference group reported

Short-Term Treatment of Children With Encopresis

Science.gov (United States)

FIREMAN, GARY; KOPLEWICZ, HAROLD S.

1992-01-01

To examine the effectiveness of a short-term behavioral treatment of encopresis, 52 encopretic children were evaluated and treated according to a standardized protocol. The treatment was highly effective, with a significant decrease in soiling during the first month (P < 0.01). Of the children who began treatment, 84.6% successfully reached the criterion of 2 consecutive weeks with no soiling accidents in a mean time of 28 days, and 78.8% successfully completed an additional 7-week phaseout period. The evaluations provided rich descriptive information regarding the characteristics of encopretic children. In agreement with the literature, no specific pattern of behavioral pathology was apparent. PMID:22700057

Investigating the effect of adjusted DuPont ratio and its components on investor's decisions in short and long term

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Parvaneh Khaleghi Kasbi

2014-03-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the effect of adjusted DuPont ratio and its components on investors’ decisions in short and long term. The primary objective of this study is to find the effect of adjusted DuPont ratio and its components on herding behavior of investors in one and several year period. Hence, 85 corporations as the member of Tehran stock exchange over the period 2006-2011 are selected. In order to recognize the herding, by market index consideration, the herded β and in order to hypothesis validity SPSS software and multivariable linear regression have been used. As the results of this study indicate, the adjusted DuPont ratio and its components have more effect on investors’ decisions in short term but in long the period, the effect of this ratio on herding investors’ behavior are reduced. Furthermore, from the two components of adjusted DuPont ratio, profit margin has more effect on investor's decisions.

The global financial crisis and the behavior of short-term interest rates: International and Serbian aspects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Đukić Đorđe

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Throughout the current global financial crisis the market has continued to fall due to a lack of confidence of those banks that are not yet prepared to lend on the interbank money market. For instance, the negative repercussions of the crisis onto the Serbian financial sector have created a number of issues including a significant increase in lending rates, a difficulty, or impossibility, for the corporate sector to use cheap cross-border loans and a reduction in the supply of foreign exchange on that basis. The inability of the National Bank of Serbia to follow the aggressive reduction of the key interest rate that has been implemented by central banks in developed countries, partly explains the lack of a decline in short-term interest rates by the Serbian banking industry. The first section of the paper focuses on the effects of the financial crisis through the behavior of short-term interest rates in the US and Europe, while the second section gives an estimation of the effects of the global financial crisis on interest rates in the banking industry in Serbia.

Short-term effects of simultaneous cardiovascular workout and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PMD), has become a growing public health concern, as it may potentially result in the development of hearing difficulties. Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine the differential impact and short-term effects of simultaneous ...

Differences between late preterm and full-term infants: comparing effects of a short bout of practice on early reaching behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

de Almeida Soares, Daniele; Cunha, Andréa Baraldi; Tudella, Eloisa

2014-11-01

This study compared the effects of a short bout of practice on reaching behavior between late preterm and full-term infants at the onset of goal-directed reaching. Twelve late preterm infants and twelve full-term infants received reaching practice based on a serial schedule. Late preterm and full-term infants were assessed in 3.3±1.4 and 2.6±1.0 days after the onset of goal-directed reaching in two measures in a single day: immediately before practice (pre-test) and immediately after practice (post-test). During the assessments, the infants were placed in a baby chair and a rubber toy was presented at their midline within reaching distance for 2 min. Between assessments, the infants received practice of toy-oriented reaching in 3 activities repeated for approximately 4 min. The activities were elicited in a pre-established serial sequence and were applied by a physical therapist. During the pre-test, late preterm infants presented lower range of proximal adjustments, greater proportion of reaches with semi-open hand, and greater proportion of reaches without grasping than the full-term infants. During the post-test, late preterm infants presented greater motor variability of proximal adjustments, but explored and selected distal control and grasping outcomes less compared to the full-term group. Differences in reaching and gross motor behavior between late preterm and full-term infants can be found at the age of reaching onset. Practice provided new opportunities for late preterm infants to improve perception-action coupling to reach; however, relative to full-terms, they seemed less advanced in benefiting from the experience for more refined manual tasks. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lack of CRH Affects the Behavior but Does Not Affect the Formation of Short-Term Memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Varejkova, Eva; Plananska, Eva; Myslivecek, Jaromir

2018-01-01

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) is involved in modification of synaptic transmission and affects spatial discrimination learning, i.e., affects the formation of memory in long-term aspect. Therefore, we have focused on CRH effect on short-term memory. We have used stress task avoidance (maze containing three zones: entrance, aversive, and neutral) and compared the behavior and short-term memory in wild-type mice and mice lacking CRH (CRH KO) experiencing one 120-min session of restraint stress. As control, non-stressed animals were used. As expected, the animals that experienced the stress situation tend to spend less time in the zone in which the restraint chamber was present. The animals spent more time in the neutral zone. There were significant differences in number of freezing bouts in the aversive and entrance zones in CRH KO animals. CRH KO control animals entered the neutral zone much more faster than WT control and spent more time immobile in the neutral zone than WT control. These data give evidence that lacking of CRH itself improves the ability of mice to escape away from potentially dangerous area (i.e., those in which the scent of stressed animal is present).

The Role of Short-term Consolidation in Memory Persistence

OpenAIRE

Timothy J. Ricker

2015-01-01

Short-term memory, often described as working memory, is one of the most fundamental information processing systems of the human brain. Short-term memory function is necessary for language, spatial navigation, problem solving, and many other daily activities. Given its importance to cognitive function, understanding the architecture of short-term memory is of crucial importance to understanding human behavior. Recent work from several laboratories investigating the entry of information into s...

Circadian modulation of short-term memory in Drosophila.

Science.gov (United States)

Lyons, Lisa C; Roman, Gregg

2009-01-01

Endogenous biological clocks are widespread regulators of behavior and physiology, allowing for a more efficient allocation of efforts and resources over the course of a day. The extent that different processes are regulated by circadian oscillators, however, is not fully understood. We investigated the role of the circadian clock on short-term associative memory formation using a negatively reinforced olfactory-learning paradigm in Drosophila melanogaster. We found that memory formation was regulated in a circadian manner. The peak performance in short-term memory (STM) occurred during the early subjective night with a twofold performance amplitude after a single pairing of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. This rhythm in memory is eliminated in both timeless and period mutants and is absent during constant light conditions. Circadian gating of sensory perception does not appear to underlie the rhythm in short-term memory as evidenced by the nonrhythmic shock avoidance and olfactory avoidance behaviors. Moreover, central brain oscillators appear to be responsible for the modulation as cryptochrome mutants, in which the antennal circadian oscillators are nonfunctional, demonstrate robust circadian rhythms in short-term memory. Together these data suggest that central, rather than peripheral, circadian oscillators modulate the formation of short-term associative memory and not the perception of the stimuli.

Augmented Reality in Informal Learning Environments: Investigating Short-term and Long-term Effects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sommerauer, Peter; Müller, Oliver

2018-01-01

field experiment with 24 participants at a mathematics exhibition to measure the effect of AR on acquiring and retaining mathematical knowledge in an informal learning environment, both short-term (i.e., directly after visiting the exhibition) and long-term (i.e., two months after the museum visit). Our...

Effect of acoustic similarity on short-term auditory memory in the monkey.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Brian H; Mishkin, Mortimer; Yin, Pingbo

2013-04-01

Recent evidence suggests that the monkey's short-term memory in audition depends on a passively retained sensory trace as opposed to a trace reactivated from long-term memory for use in working memory. Reliance on a passive sensory trace could render memory particularly susceptible to confusion between sounds that are similar in some acoustic dimension. If so, then in delayed matching-to-sample, the monkey's performance should be predicted by the similarity in the salient acoustic dimension between the sample and subsequent test stimulus, even at very short delays. To test this prediction and isolate the acoustic features relevant to short-term memory, we examined the pattern of errors made by two rhesus monkeys performing a serial, auditory delayed match-to-sample task with interstimulus intervals of 1 s. The analysis revealed that false-alarm errors did indeed result from similarity-based confusion between the sample and the subsequent nonmatch stimuli. Manipulation of the stimuli showed that removal of spectral cues was more disruptive to matching behavior than removal of temporal cues. In addition, the effect of acoustic similarity on false-alarm response was stronger at the first nonmatch stimulus than at the second one. This pattern of errors would be expected if the first nonmatch stimulus overwrote the sample's trace, and suggests that the passively retained trace is not only vulnerable to similarity-based confusion but is also highly susceptible to overwriting. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enhanced stability of car-following model upon incorporation of short-term driving memory

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Da-Wei; Shi, Zhong-Ke; Ai, Wen-Huan

2017-06-01

Based on the full velocity difference model, a new car-following model is developed to investigate the effect of short-term driving memory on traffic flow in this paper. Short-term driving memory is introduced as the influence factor of driver's anticipation behavior. The stability condition of the newly developed model is derived and the modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) equation is constructed to describe the traffic behavior near the critical point. Via numerical method, evolution of a small perturbation is investigated firstly. The results show that the improvement of this new car-following model over the previous ones lies in the fact that the new model can improve the traffic stability. Starting and breaking processes of vehicles in the signalized intersection are also investigated. The numerical simulations illustrate that the new model can successfully describe the driver's anticipation behavior, and that the efficiency and safety of the vehicles passing through the signalized intersection are improved by considering short-term driving memory.

Visual dot interaction with short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Etindele Sosso, Faustin Armel

2017-06-01

Many neurodegenerative diseases have a memory component. Brain structures related to memory are affected by environmental stimuli, and it is difficult to dissociate effects of all behavior of neurons. Here, visual cortex of mice was stimulated with gratings and dot, and an observation of neuronal activity before and after was made. Bandwidth, firing rate and orientation selectivity index were evaluated. A primary communication between primary visual cortex and short-term memory appeared to show an interesting path to train cognitive circuitry and investigate the basics mechanisms of the neuronal learning. The findings also suggested the interplay between primary visual cortex and short-term plasticity. The properties inside a visual target shape the perception and affect the basic encoding. Using visual cortex, it may be possible to train the memory and improve the recovery of people with cognitive disabilities or memory deficit.

Long-term effects of interference on short-term memory performance in the rat.

Science.gov (United States)

Missaire, Mégane; Fraize, Nicolas; Joseph, Mickaël Antoine; Hamieh, Al Mahdy; Parmentier, Régis; Marighetto, Aline; Salin, Paul Antoine; Malleret, Gaël

2017-01-01

A distinction has always been made between long-term and short-term memory (also now called working memory, WM). The obvious difference between these two kinds of memory concerns the duration of information storage: information is supposedly transiently stored in WM while it is considered durably consolidated into long-term memory. It is well acknowledged that the content of WM is erased and reset after a short time, to prevent irrelevant information from proactively interfering with newly stored information. In the present study, we used typical WM radial maze tasks to question the brief lifespan of spatial WM content in rodents. Groups of rats were submitted to one of two different WM tasks in a radial maze: a WM task involving the repetitive presentation of a same pair of arms expected to induce a high level of proactive interference (PI) (HIWM task), or a task using a different pair in each trial expected to induce a low level of PI (LIWM task). Performance was effectively lower in the HIWM group than in LIWM in the final trial of each training session, indicative of a "within-session/short-term" PI effect. However, we also observed a different "between-session/long-term" PI effect between the two groups: while performance of LIWM trained rats remained stable over days, the performance of HIWM rats dropped after 10 days of training, and this impairment was visible from the very first trial of the day, hence not attributable to within-session PI. We also showed that a 24 hour-gap across training sessions known to allow consolidation processes to unfold, was a necessary and sufficient condition for the long-term PI effect to occur. These findings suggest that in the HIWM task, WM content was not entirely reset between training sessions and that, in specific conditions, WM content can outlast its purpose by being stored more permanently, generating a long-term deleterious effect of PI. The alternative explanation is that WM content could be transferred and stored

Long-term effects of interference on short-term memory performance in the rat.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mégane Missaire

Full Text Available A distinction has always been made between long-term and short-term memory (also now called working memory, WM. The obvious difference between these two kinds of memory concerns the duration of information storage: information is supposedly transiently stored in WM while it is considered durably consolidated into long-term memory. It is well acknowledged that the content of WM is erased and reset after a short time, to prevent irrelevant information from proactively interfering with newly stored information. In the present study, we used typical WM radial maze tasks to question the brief lifespan of spatial WM content in rodents. Groups of rats were submitted to one of two different WM tasks in a radial maze: a WM task involving the repetitive presentation of a same pair of arms expected to induce a high level of proactive interference (PI (HIWM task, or a task using a different pair in each trial expected to induce a low level of PI (LIWM task. Performance was effectively lower in the HIWM group than in LIWM in the final trial of each training session, indicative of a "within-session/short-term" PI effect. However, we also observed a different "between-session/long-term" PI effect between the two groups: while performance of LIWM trained rats remained stable over days, the performance of HIWM rats dropped after 10 days of training, and this impairment was visible from the very first trial of the day, hence not attributable to within-session PI. We also showed that a 24 hour-gap across training sessions known to allow consolidation processes to unfold, was a necessary and sufficient condition for the long-term PI effect to occur. These findings suggest that in the HIWM task, WM content was not entirely reset between training sessions and that, in specific conditions, WM content can outlast its purpose by being stored more permanently, generating a long-term deleterious effect of PI. The alternative explanation is that WM content could be

Evaluation of a Short-term, Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Primary Age Children with Anger-Related Difficulties

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, Rachel L.; Treadwell, Susanne; Dosani, Sima; Frederickson, Norah

2013-01-01

This study evaluated the school-based short-term, cognitive-behavioral group anger management programme, "Learning How to Deal with our Angry Feelings" (Southampton Psychology Service, 2003). Thirteen groups of children aged 7- to 11-years-old were randomly allocated to two different cohorts: One cohort ("n"?=?35) first…

Rape-related symptoms in adolescents: short- and long-term outcome after cognitive behavior group therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Bicanic, Iva; de Roos, Carlijn; van Wesel, Floryt; Sinnema, Gerben; van de Putte, Elise

2014-01-01

Efficacy studies on treatment in adolescent victims of single rape are lacking, even though sexual victimization is most likely to occur during adolescence and despite the fact that adolescents are at risk to develop subsequent posttraumatic stress disorder. The aim of this prospective observational study was to evaluate the short- and long-term outcomes of a nine-session cognitive behavior group therapy (STEPS), including a parallel six-session parents' group on rape-related symptomatology in female adolescents (13-18 years). STEPS includes psychoeducation, exposure in sensu as well as in vivo, cognitive restructuring, and relapse prevention. Fifty-five female adolescents with mental health problems due to single rape, but without prior sexual trauma, received STEPS while their parents participated in a support group. Subjects were assessed on posttraumatic stress (PTS) and comorbid symptoms using self-report questionnaires prior to and directly after treatment, and at 6 and 12 months follow-up. Repeated measures analysis showed a significant and large decrease in symptoms of PTS, anxiety, depression, anger, dissociation, sexual concerns, and behavior problems directly after treatment, which maintained at 12 months follow-up. Time since trauma did not influence the results. Dropout during STEPS was 1.8%. The results potentially suggest that the positive treatment outcomes at short- and long-term may be caused by STEPS. The encouraging findings need confirmation in future controlled studies on the effectiveness of STEPS because it may be possible that the treatment works especially well for more chronic symptoms, while the less chronic part of the sample showed considerable improvement on its own.

Temporal grouping effects in musical short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorin, Simon; Mengal, Pierre; Majerus, Steve

2018-07-01

Recent theoretical accounts of verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory (STM) have proposed the existence of domain-general mechanisms for the maintenance of serial order information. These accounts are based on the observation of similar behavioural effects across several modalities, such as temporal grouping effects. Across two experiments, the present study aimed at extending these findings, by exploring a STM modality that has received little interest so far, STM for musical information. Given its inherent rhythmic, temporal and serial organisation, the musical domain is of interest for investigating serial order STM processes such as temporal grouping. In Experiment 1, the data did not allow to determine the presence or the absence of temporal grouping effects. In Experiment 2, we observed that temporal grouping of tone sequences during encoding improves short-term recognition for serially presented probe tones. Furthermore, the serial position curves included micro-primacy and micro-recency effects, which are the hallmark characteristic of temporal grouping. Our results suggest that the encoding of serial order information in musical STM may be supported by temporal positional coding mechanisms similar to those reported in the verbal domain.

Selective potentiation of the antitumor radiation effect by means of short-term hyperglycemia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yarmonenko, S.P.; Shapot, V.S.; Voloshina, E.A.; Gorozhanskaya, Eh.G.; Dyuskaliev, Zh.D.; Krimker, V.M.

1981-01-01

Experiments on mice have shown that short-term induced hyperglycemia caused by 5-fold intraperitoneal administration of glucose at a dose of 2.6 and 1.3 g/kg increases notably the radiation injury to a solid type of Ehrlich carcinoma. Short-term induced hyperglycemia is mostly effective after irradiation. During irradiation together with its antitumor effect enhanced in the presence of short-term induced hyperglycemia there is observed selective protection of the normal tissues resulting from a decrease of oxygen pressure in them

The effects of long- and short-term interdisciplinary treatment approaches in women with fibromyalgia: a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Saral, Ilknur; Sindel, Dilsad; Esmaeilzadeh, Sina; Sertel-Berk, Hanife Ozlem; Oral, Aydan

2016-10-01

We investigated the effects of long- and short-term interdisciplinary treatment approaches for reducing symptoms and improving health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and physical functions of patients with fibromyalgia and compared the effects of two different interdisciplinary treatment approaches. We conducted a prospective, randomized, controlled trial involving 66 women with fibromyalgia eligible for the study at a university hospital setting. The patients were randomized into three groups (allocation ratio 1:1:1) using a computer-generated random numbers: a long-term interdisciplinary treatment group (LG, n = 22) that participated in 10 sessions (3-h once-weekly session for 10 weeks) of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) together with exercise training and other fibromyalgia related educational programs (two full days); a short-term interdisciplinary treatment group (SG, n = 22) that received two full days of educational, exercise, and CBT programs; and a control group (CG, n = 22). The patients were evaluated at baseline and 6 months after treatment using the visual analog scale (pain, fatigue, and sleep), Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, Short Form-36, tender point numbers, and pressure algometry as primary outcomes. The statistical analysis was confined to the 'per-protocol' set. No blinding was performed. The number of patients analyzed was 21 in the LG, 19 in the SG, and 19 in the CG. The intensity of pain (p treatment approaches when compared with controls; the long-term treatment was found more effective in reducing pain than the short-term. Both, long- and short-term interdisciplinary treatments were effective in reducing the severity of some symptoms and disease activity in patients with fibromyalgia. The short-term program well meets the needs of women with fibromyalgia particularly in relation to pain and health status as measured using FIQ; however, a long-term program may be beneficial in reducing fatigue and

Depletion of serotonin selectively impairs short-term memory without affecting long-term memory in odor learning in the terrestrial slug Limax valentianus.

Science.gov (United States)

Shirahata, Takaaki; Tsunoda, Makoto; Santa, Tomofumi; Kirino, Yutaka; Watanabe, Satoshi

2006-01-01

The terrestrial slug Limax is able to acquire short-term and long-term memories during aversive odor-taste associative learning. We investigated the effect of the selective serotonergic neurotoxin 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) on memory. Behavioral studies indicated that 5,7-DHT impaired short-term memory but not long-term memory. HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) analysis revealed that 5,7-DHT significantly reduced serotonin content in the central nervous system. The present study suggests that acquisition, retention, and/or retrieval of short-term memory involves serotonin, and neither acquisition nor retrieval of long-term memory requires serotonin at a level as high as that required for short-term memory.

Qualitative similarities in the visual short-term memory of pigeons and people.

Science.gov (United States)

Gibson, Brett; Wasserman, Edward; Luck, Steven J

2011-10-01

Visual short-term memory plays a key role in guiding behavior, and individual differences in visual short-term memory capacity are strongly predictive of higher cognitive abilities. To provide a broader evolutionary context for understanding this memory system, we directly compared the behavior of pigeons and humans on a change detection task. Although pigeons had a lower storage capacity and a higher lapse rate than humans, both species stored multiple items in short-term memory and conformed to the same basic performance model. Thus, despite their very different evolutionary histories and neural architectures, pigeons and humans have functionally similar visual short-term memory systems, suggesting that the functional properties of visual short-term memory are subject to similar selective pressures across these distant species.

Short-term effects of radiation in gliolalstoma spheroids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petterson, Stine Asferg; Jakobsen, Ida Pind; Jensen, Stine Skov

2016-01-01

was to investigate the short-term effects of radiation of spheroids containing tumor-initiating stem-like cells. We used a patient-derived glioblastoma stem cell enriched culture (T76) and the standard glioblastoma cell line U87. Primary spheroids were irradiated with doses between 2 and 50 Gy and assessed after two...

Qualitative similarities in the visual short-term memory of pigeons and people

OpenAIRE

Gibson, Brett; Wasserman, Edward; Luck, Steven J.

2011-01-01

Visual short-term memory plays a key role in guiding behavior, and individual differences in visual short-term memory capacity are strongly predictive of higher cognitive abilities. To provide a broader evolutionary context for understanding this memory system, we directly compared the behavior of pigeons and humans on a change detection task. Although pigeons had a lower storage capacity and a higher lapse rate than humans, both species stored multiple items in short-term memory and conforme...

Short and long-lasting behavioral consequences of agonistic encounters between male Drosophila melanogaster.

Science.gov (United States)

Trannoy, Séverine; Penn, Jill; Lucey, Kenia; Popovic, David; Kravitz, Edward A

2016-04-26

In many animal species, learning and memory have been found to play important roles in regulating intra- and interspecific behavioral interactions in varying environments. In such contexts, aggression is commonly used to obtain desired resources. Previous defeats or victories during aggressive interactions have been shown to influence the outcome of later contests, revealing loser and winner effects. In this study, we asked whether short- and/or long-term behavioral consequences accompany victories and defeats in dyadic pairings between male Drosophila melanogaster and how long those effects remain. The results demonstrated that single fights induced important behavioral changes in both combatants and resulted in the formation of short-term loser and winner effects. These decayed over several hours, with the duration depending on the level of familiarity of the opponents. Repeated defeats induced a long-lasting loser effect that was dependent on de novo protein synthesis, whereas repeated victories had no long-term behavioral consequences. This suggests that separate mechanisms govern the formation of loser and winner effects. These studies aim to lay a foundation for future investigations exploring the molecular mechanisms and circuitry underlying the nervous system changes induced by winning and losing bouts during agonistic encounters.

SHORT-TERM EFFECT OF DIESEL OIL ON PHYTOPLANKTON

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PROF. EKWEME

Short-term effect of Nigerian diesel oil was tested on the phytoplankton species in Great Kwa River ... aquatic environment. Plant life is the basis of all food web in nature and hence constitutes the makes this fundamental contribution by photosynthesis, utilizing radiant energy to .... (2 cells/ml) re-colonized the area. The three ...

Effect of Short-Term Hypergravity Treatment on Mouse 2-Cell Embryo Development

Science.gov (United States)

Ning, Li-Na; Lei, Xiao-Hua; Cao, Yu-Jing; Zhang, Yun-Fang; Cao, Zhong-Hong; Chen, Qi; Duan, En-Kui

2015-11-01

Though there are numerous biological experiments, which have been performed in a space environment, to study the physiological effect of space travel on living organisms, while the potential effect of weightlessness or short-term hypergravity on the reproductive system in most species, particularly in mammalian is still controversial and unclear. In our previous study, we investigated the effect of space microgravity on the development of mouse 4-cell embryos by using Chinese SJ-8. .Unexpectedly, we did not get any developed embryo during the space-flight. Considering that the process of space experiment is quite different from most experiments done on earth in several aspects such as, the vibration and short-term hypergravity during the rock launching and landing. Thus we want to know whether the short-term hypergravity produced by the launch process affect the early embryo development in mice, and howthe early embryos respond to the hypergravity. In present study, we are mimicking the short-term hypergravity during launch by using a centrifuge to investigate its influence on the development of early embryo (2-cell) in mice. We also examined the actin filament distribution in 2-cell embryos by immunostaining to test their potential capacity of development under short-term hypergravity exposure. Our results showed that most 2-cell embryos in the hypergravity exposure groups developed into blastocysts with normal morphology after 72h cultured in vitro, and there is no obvious difference in the development rate of blastocyst formation compared to the control. Moreover, there were no statistically significant differences in birth rates after oviduct transfer of 2-cell mouse embryos exposed on short-term hypergravity compared with 1 g condition. In addition, the well-organized actin distribution appeared in 2-cell embryos after exposed on hypergravity and also in the subsequent developmental blastocysts. Taken together, our data shows that short-term exposure in

Short- and Long-Term Effects of Adolescent Alcohol Access: Evidence from Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gupta, Nabanita Datta; Nilsson, Anton

We exploit changes in minimum legal alcohol purchasing ages in Denmark in order to estimate effects on short- and long-term health outcomes, as well as on human capital formation. Employing a difference-in-differences approach for immediate outcomes and a “regression kink design” for long......-term outcomes, we bring comprehensive evidence on the health and education effects of three reforms, which affected alcohol availability along different dimensions and margins – 1) establishing an off-premise alcohol purchase age of 15 (1998), 2) raising the off-premise alcohol purchase age to 16 (2004), and 3......) increasing the purchase age of beverages exceeding 16.5% in alcohol content from 16 to 18 (2011). Our findings show significant short-term effects of the first and third reforms in terms of reducing injuries and alcohol-related conditions, and some long-term effects of the first reform in terms of reducing...

Modification of severe violent and aggressive behavior among psychiatric inpatients through the use of a short-term token economy.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Jae Soon; Lee, Kyunghee

2012-12-01

Meager research has been carried out to determine the effectiveness of the token economy among patients behaving violently in mental hospitals. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Short-Term Token Economy (STTE) on violent behavior among chronic psychiatric in-patients. A nonequivalent control group design method was utilized. Participants in an experimental group (n=22) and control group (n=22) took part in this study from January to April, 2008. Observation on aggressive behavior among male in-patients in one hospital as a baseline was made during the week before the behavior modification program and measurement of aggressive behavior was done using the Overt Aggression Scale (OAS), which includes verbal attacks, property damage and physical attacks. The aggressive behavior scores of the experimental group decreased, those of the control group, scores showed an increase after the eight-week behavior modification program utilizing STTE. The results of the study indicate that STTE is effective in reducing the incidence of aggressive behavior among male in-patients in psychiatric hospitals. The outcome of this study should be helpful in reducing the use of coercive measures or psychoactive medication in controlling the violent behavior among in-patients in hospitals.

Rape-related symptoms in adolescents: short- and long-term outcome after cognitive behavior group therapy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iva Bicanic

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Background: Efficacy studies on treatment in adolescent victims of single rape are lacking, even though sexual victimization is most likely to occur during adolescence and despite the fact that adolescents are at risk to develop subsequent posttraumatic stress disorder. Aim: The aim of this prospective observational study was to evaluate the short- and long-term outcomes of a nine-session cognitive behavior group therapy (STEPS, including a parallel six-session parents’ group on rape-related symptomatology in female adolescents (13–18 years. STEPS includes psychoeducation, exposure in sensu as well as in vivo, cognitive restructuring, and relapse prevention. Methods: Fifty-five female adolescents with mental health problems due to single rape, but without prior sexual trauma, received STEPS while their parents participated in a support group. Subjects were assessed on posttraumatic stress (PTS and comorbid symptoms using self-report questionnaires prior to and directly after treatment, and at 6 and 12 months follow-up. Results: Repeated measures analysis showed a significant and large decrease in symptoms of PTS, anxiety, depression, anger, dissociation, sexual concerns, and behavior problems directly after treatment, which maintained at 12 months follow-up. Time since trauma did not influence the results. Dropout during STEPS was 1.8%. Conclusions: The results potentially suggest that the positive treatment outcomes at short- and long-term may be caused by STEPS. The encouraging findings need confirmation in future controlled studies on the effectiveness of STEPS because it may be possible that the treatment works especially well for more chronic symptoms, while the less chronic part of the sample showed considerable improvement on its own.

Effects of Cortisol on Short and Long Term Diet and Morphology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Peiman, Kathryn S.; Birnie-Gauvin, Kim; Larsen, Martin Hage

2017-01-01

Glucocorticoids such as cortisol are released during stressful events. However, many of the effects of cortisol on animals in the wild are still poorly documented. We evaluated the effects of artificially elevated cortisol on diet and morphology over the short term (2 weeks) and long term (4 months......) using a wild population of juvenile semi-anadromous brown trout (Salmo trutta) in Denmark. We caught, tagged and manipulated juvenile fish while in their natal freshwater streams in the fall. Manipulations consisted of an exogenous intracoelomic injection of cortisol suspended in vegetable shortening...... using geometric morphometrics. Cortisol affected carbon stable isotope signatures but had minimal effects on nitrogen isotopes and morphology. Irrespective of treatment, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values increased over time. This study shows that cortisol can have both short and long term...

Short-term memory across eye blinks.

Science.gov (United States)

Irwin, David E

2014-01-01

The effect of eye blinks on short-term memory was examined in two experiments. On each trial, participants viewed an initial display of coloured, oriented lines, then after a retention interval they viewed a test display that was either identical or different by one feature. Participants kept their eyes open throughout the retention interval on some blocks of trials, whereas on others they made a single eye blink. Accuracy was measured as a function of the number of items in the display to determine the capacity of short-term memory on blink and no-blink trials. In separate blocks of trials participants were instructed to remember colour only, orientation only, or both colour and orientation. Eye blinks reduced short-term memory capacity by approximately 0.6-0.8 items for both feature and conjunction stimuli. A third, control, experiment showed that a button press during the retention interval had no effect on short-term memory capacity, indicating that the effect of an eye blink was not due to general motoric dual-task interference. Eye blinks might instead reduce short-term memory capacity by interfering with attention-based rehearsal processes.

Botulinum toxin type A in simple motor tics: short-term and long-term treatment-effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Rath, Judith J G; Tavy, Dénes L J; Wertenbroek, Agnes A A C M; van Woerkom, Theodoor C A M; de Bruijn, Sebastiaan F T M

2010-08-01

To determine the short-term and long-term treatment-effects of botulinum toxin type A in simple motor tics, we analyzed 15 consecutive patients (18 tics) with simple motor tics that were treated every 3 months with injections of BTX-A. Efficacy (rated on a 4-level scale) and duration of effect of the first 2 and last 2 (if treated 5 times or more) treatments were recorded, as well as latency of response, changes of premonitory urges (PMUs) and possible side effects. Total number of treatments for each tic varied from 2 to 50 (mean 11, median 6). In 16 of 18 tics (89%) short-term efficacy was reported successful (good or moderate). Long-term efficacy was reported in 12 tics of which 11 showed similar or even increased beneficial effects. Premonitory urge (PMU) was reported in 8 patients (53%). PMU, if present, lessened or disappeared after treatment with BTX-A. A permanent remission of the treated tic was seen in 3 patients with a maximum follow-up of 10 years. BTX-A appears a safe and effective treatment for simple motor tics and retains its efficacy after long-term treatment. BTX may also induce permanent remission of the treated tics and effects of BTX are not restricted to merely motor behaviour.

Short-Term Effects of Drying-Rewetting and Long-Term Effects of Nutrient Loading on Periphyton N:P Stoichiometry

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Andres D. Sola

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Nitrogen (N and phosphorus (P concentrations and N:P ratios critically influence periphyton productivity and nutrient cycling in aquatic ecosystems. In coastal wetlands, variations in hydrology and water source (fresh or marine influence nutrient availability, but short-term effects of drying and rewetting and long-term effects of nutrient exposure on periphyton nutrient retention are uncertain. An outdoor microcosm experiment simulated short-term exposure to variation in drying-rewetting frequency on periphyton mat nutrient retention. A 13-year dataset from freshwater marshes of the Florida Everglades was examined for the effect of long-term proximity to different N and P sources on mat-forming periphyton nutrient standing stocks and stoichiometry. Field sites were selected from one drainage with shorter hydroperiod and higher connectivity to freshwater anthropogenic nutrient supplies (Taylor Slough/Panhandle, TS/Ph and another drainage with longer hydroperiod and higher connectivity to marine nutrient supplies (Shark River Slough, SRS. Total P, but not total N, increased in periphyton mats exposed to both low and high drying-rewetting frequency with respect to the control mats in our experimental microcosm. In SRS, N:P ratios slightly decreased downstream due to marine nutrient supplies, while TS/Ph increased. Mats exposed to short-term drying-rewetting had higher nutrient retention, similar to nutrient standing stocks from long-term field data. Periphyton mat microbial communities may undergo community shifts upon drying-rewetting and chronic exposure to nutrient loads. Additional work on microbial species composition may further explain how periphyton communities interact with drying-rewetting dynamics to influence nutrient cycling and retention in wetlands.

Occlusal stabilization splint for patients with temporomandibular disorders: Meta-analysis of short and long term effects.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jovana Kuzmanovic Pficer

Full Text Available Psychological discomfort, physical disability and functional limitations of the orofacial system have a major impact on everyday life of patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs. In this study we sought to determine short and long term effects of stabilization splint (SS in treatment of TMDs, and to identify factors influencing its efficacy.MEDLINE, Web of Science and EMBASE were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs comparing SS to: non-occluding splint, occlusal oral appliances, physiotherapy, behavioral therapy, counseling and no treatment. Random effects method was used to summarize outcomes. The effect estimates were expressed as odds ratio (OR or standardized mean difference (SMD with 95% confidence interval. Subgroup analyses were carried out according to the use of Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC/TMD and TMDs origin. Strength of evidence was assessed by GRADE. Meta-regression was applied.Thirty three eligible RCTs were included in meta-analysis. In short term, SS presented positive overall effect on pain reduction (OR 2.08; p = 0.01 and pain intensity (SMD -0.33; p = 0.02. Subgroup analyses confirmed SS effect in studies used RDC/TMD and revealed its effect in patients with TMDs of muscular origin. Important decrease of muscle tenderness (OR 1.97; p = 0.03 and improvement of mouth opening (SMD -0.30; p = 0.04 were found. SS in comparison to oral appliances showed no difference (OR 0.74; p = 0.24. Meta-regression identified continuous use of SS during the day as a factor influencing efficacy (p = 0.01. Long term results showed no difference in observed outcomes between groups. Low quality of evidence was found for primary outcomes.SS presented short term benefit for patients with TMDs. In long term follow up, the effect is equalized with other therapeutic modalities. Further studies based on appropriate use of standardized criteria for patient recruitment and outcomes under assessment are needed to better define SS

The effects of short-term and long-term learning on the responses of lateral intraparietal neurons to visually presented objects.

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Sigurdardottir, Heida M; Sheinberg, David L

2015-07-01

The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) is thought to play an important role in the guidance of where to look and pay attention. LIP can also respond selectively to differently shaped objects. We sought to understand to what extent short-term and long-term experience with visual orienting determines the responses of LIP to objects of different shapes. We taught monkeys to arbitrarily associate centrally presented objects of various shapes with orienting either toward or away from a preferred spatial location of a neuron. The training could last for less than a single day or for several months. We found that neural responses to objects are affected by such experience, but that the length of the learning period determines how this neural plasticity manifests. Short-term learning affects neural responses to objects, but these effects are only seen relatively late after visual onset; at this time, the responses to newly learned objects resemble those of familiar objects that share their meaning or arbitrary association. Long-term learning affects the earliest bottom-up responses to visual objects. These responses tend to be greater for objects that have been associated with looking toward, rather than away from, LIP neurons' preferred spatial locations. Responses to objects can nonetheless be distinct, although they have been similarly acted on in the past and will lead to the same orienting behavior in the future. Our results therefore indicate that a complete experience-driven override of LIP object responses may be difficult or impossible. We relate these results to behavioral work on visual attention.

Short- and Long-Term Effects of Conscious, Minimally Conscious and Unconscious Brand Logos

Science.gov (United States)

Gordts, Sarah; Soetens, Eric; Van den Bussche, Eva

2013-01-01

Unconsciously presented information can influence our behavior in an experimental context. However, whether these effects can be translated to a daily life context, such as advertising, is strongly debated. What hampers this translation is the widely accepted notion of the short-livedness of unconscious representations. The effect of unconscious information on behavior is assumed to rapidly vanish within a few hundreds of milliseconds. Using highly familiar brand logos (e.g., the logo of McDonald's) as subliminal and supraliminal primes in two priming experiments, we assessed whether these logos were able to elicit behavioral effects after a short (e.g., 350 ms), a medium (e.g., 1000 ms), and a long (e.g., 5000 ms) interval. Our results demonstrate that when real-life information is presented minimally consciously or even unconsciously, it can influence our subsequent behavior, even when more than five seconds pass between the presentation of the minimally conscious or unconscious information and the behavior on which it exerts its influence. PMID:23658681

Short- and long-term effects of conscious, minimally conscious and unconscious brand logos.

Science.gov (United States)

Muscarella, Charlotte; Brintazzoli, Gigliola; Gordts, Sarah; Soetens, Eric; Van den Bussche, Eva

2013-01-01

Unconsciously presented information can influence our behavior in an experimental context. However, whether these effects can be translated to a daily life context, such as advertising, is strongly debated. What hampers this translation is the widely accepted notion of the short-livedness of unconscious representations. The effect of unconscious information on behavior is assumed to rapidly vanish within a few hundreds of milliseconds. Using highly familiar brand logos (e.g., the logo of McDonald's) as subliminal and supraliminal primes in two priming experiments, we assessed whether these logos were able to elicit behavioral effects after a short (e.g., 350 ms), a medium (e.g., 1000 ms), and a long (e.g., 5000 ms) interval. Our results demonstrate that when real-life information is presented minimally consciously or even unconsciously, it can influence our subsequent behavior, even when more than five seconds pass between the presentation of the minimally conscious or unconscious information and the behavior on which it exerts its influence.

Short- and long-term effects of conscious, minimally conscious and unconscious brand logos.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charlotte Muscarella

Full Text Available Unconsciously presented information can influence our behavior in an experimental context. However, whether these effects can be translated to a daily life context, such as advertising, is strongly debated. What hampers this translation is the widely accepted notion of the short-livedness of unconscious representations. The effect of unconscious information on behavior is assumed to rapidly vanish within a few hundreds of milliseconds. Using highly familiar brand logos (e.g., the logo of McDonald's as subliminal and supraliminal primes in two priming experiments, we assessed whether these logos were able to elicit behavioral effects after a short (e.g., 350 ms, a medium (e.g., 1000 ms, and a long (e.g., 5000 ms interval. Our results demonstrate that when real-life information is presented minimally consciously or even unconsciously, it can influence our subsequent behavior, even when more than five seconds pass between the presentation of the minimally conscious or unconscious information and the behavior on which it exerts its influence.

Effects of age, gender, and stimulus presentation period on visual short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Kunimi, Mitsunobu

2016-01-01

This study focused on age-related changes in visual short-term memory using visual stimuli that did not allow verbal encoding. Experiment 1 examined the effects of age and the length of the stimulus presentation period on visual short-term memory function. Experiment 2 examined the effects of age, gender, and the length of the stimulus presentation period on visual short-term memory function. The worst memory performance and the largest performance difference between the age groups were observed in the shortest stimulus presentation period conditions. The performance difference between the age groups became smaller as the stimulus presentation period became longer; however, it did not completely disappear. Although gender did not have a significant effect on d' regardless of the presentation period in the young group, a significant gender-based difference was observed for stimulus presentation periods of 500 ms and 1,000 ms in the older group. This study indicates that the decline in visual short-term memory observed in the older group is due to the interaction of several factors.

A Field Experimental Design of a Strengths-Based Training to Overcome Academic Procrastination: Short- and Long-Term Effect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lennart Visser

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This study reports on the effect of a newly developed 4-week strengths-based training approach to overcome academic procrastination, given to first-year elementary teacher education students (N = 54. The training was based on a strengths-based approach, in which elements of the cognitive behavioral approach were also used. The purpose of the training was to promote awareness of the personal strengths of students who experience academic procrastination regularly and to teach them how to use their personal strengths in situations in which they usually tend to procrastinate. With a pretest-posttest control group design (two experimental groups: n = 31, control group: n = 23, the effect of the training on academic procrastination was studied after 1, 11, and 24 weeks. Results of a one-way analysis of covariance revealed a significant short-term effect of the training. In the long term (after 11 and 24 weeks, the scores for academic procrastination for the intervention groups remained stable, whereas the scores for academic procrastination for the control group decreased to the same level as those of the intervention groups. The findings of this study suggest that a strengths-based approach can be helpful to students at an early stage of their academic studies to initiate their individual process of dealing with academic procrastination. The findings for the long term show the importance of measuring the outcomes of an intervention not only shortly after the intervention but also in the long term. Further research is needed to find out how the short-term effect can be maintained in the long-term.

A Field Experimental Design of a Strengths-Based Training to Overcome Academic Procrastination: Short- and Long-Term Effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Visser, Lennart; Schoonenboom, Judith; Korthagen, Fred A J

2017-01-01

This study reports on the effect of a newly developed 4-week strengths-based training approach to overcome academic procrastination, given to first-year elementary teacher education students ( N = 54). The training was based on a strengths-based approach, in which elements of the cognitive behavioral approach were also used. The purpose of the training was to promote awareness of the personal strengths of students who experience academic procrastination regularly and to teach them how to use their personal strengths in situations in which they usually tend to procrastinate. With a pretest-posttest control group design (two experimental groups: n = 31, control group: n = 23), the effect of the training on academic procrastination was studied after 1, 11, and 24 weeks. Results of a one-way analysis of covariance revealed a significant short-term effect of the training. In the long term (after 11 and 24 weeks), the scores for academic procrastination for the intervention groups remained stable, whereas the scores for academic procrastination for the control group decreased to the same level as those of the intervention groups. The findings of this study suggest that a strengths-based approach can be helpful to students at an early stage of their academic studies to initiate their individual process of dealing with academic procrastination. The findings for the long term show the importance of measuring the outcomes of an intervention not only shortly after the intervention but also in the long term. Further research is needed to find out how the short-term effect can be maintained in the long-term.

Clinical trials with rasagiline: evidence for short-term and long-term effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Siderowf, Andrew; Stern, Matthew

2006-05-23

Rasagiline (N-propargyl-1 (R)-aminoindan) is a selective, potent irreversible inhibitor of MAO-B that possesses neuroprotective and anti-apoptotic properties in a variety of in vitro and in vivo animal models relevant to Parkinson's disease (PD). Several randomized controlled clinical trials have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of rasagiline as monotherapy in PD and as adjunctive therapy for patients receiving levodopa. In addition, the 1-year randomized, delayed-start analysis of the TEMPO study suggests that rasagiline may slow the rate of progression of PD. The randomized delayed-start paradigm has potential to differentiate short-term symptomatic effects from long-term effects of anti-parkinsonian agents. In the future, long-term trials to examine the potential disease-modifying effects of rasagiline, which incorporate biological markers as well as clinical endpoints, may further elucidate the role of rasagiline in the treatment of both early and advanced PD.

Behavioral relevance of gamma-band activity for short-term memory-based auditory decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaiser, Jochen; Heidegger, Tonio; Lutzenberger, Werner

2008-06-01

Oscillatory activity in the gamma-band range has been established as a correlate of cognitive processes, including perception, attention and memory. Only a few studies, however, have provided evidence for an association between gamma-band activity (GBA) and measures of behavioral performance. Here we focused on the comparison between sample and test stimuli S1 and S2 during an auditory spatial short-term memory task. Applying statistical probability mapping to magnetoencephalographic recordings from 28 human subjects, we identified GBA components distinguishing nonidentical from identical S1-S2 pairs. This activity was found at frequencies between 65 and 90 Hz and was localized over posterior cortical regions contralateral to the hemifield in which the stimuli were presented. The 10 best task performers showed higher amplitudes of this GBA component than the 10 worst performers. This group difference was most pronounced between about 150 and 300 ms after stimulus onset. Apparently the decision about whether test stimuli matched the stored representation of previously presented sample sounds relied partly on the oscillatory activation of networks representing differences between both stimuli. This result could be replicated by reanalyzing the combined data from two previous studies assessing short-term memory for sound duration and sound lateralization, respectively. Similarly to our main study, GBA amplitudes to nonmatching vs. matching S1-S2 pairs were higher in good performers than poor performers. The present findings demonstrate the behavioral relevance of GBA.

Microstructure and elemental distribution of americium containing MOX fuel under the short term irradiation tests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tanaka, Kosuke; Hirosawa, Takashi; Obayashi, Hiroshi; Koyama, Shin Ichi; Yoshimochi, Hiroshi; Tanaka, Kenya

2008-01-01

In order to investigate the effect of americium addition to MOX fuels on the irradiation behavior, the 'Am-1' program is being conducted in JAEA. The Am-1 program consists of two short term irradiation tests of 10-minute and 24 hour irradiations and a steady-state irradiation test. The short-term irradiation tests were successfully completed and the post irradiation examinations (PIEs) are in progress. The PIEs for Am-containing MOX fuels focused on the microstructural evolution and redistribution behavior of Am at the initial stage of irradiation and the results to date are reported

Verbal Short-Term Memory Span in Speech-Disordered Children: Implications for Articulatory Coding in Short-Term Memory.

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Raine, Adrian; And Others

1991-01-01

Children with speech disorders had lower short-term memory capacity and smaller word length effect than control children. Children with speech disorders also had reduced speech-motor activity during rehearsal. Results suggest that speech rate may be a causal determinant of verbal short-term memory capacity. (BC)

The effect of zinc supplementation of lactating rats on short-term and long-term memory of their male offspring.

Science.gov (United States)

Karami, Mohammad; Ehsanivostacolaee, Simin; Moazedi, Ali Ahmad; Nosrati, Anahita

2013-01-01

In this study the effect of zinc chloride (ZnCl2) administration on the short-term and long-term memory of rats were assessed. We enrolled six groups of adult female and control group of eight Wistar rats in each group. One group was control group with free access to food and water, and five groups drunk zinc chloride in different doses (20, 30, 50, 70 and 100 mg/kg/day) in drinking water for two weeks during lactation .One month after birth, a shuttle box used to short- term and long-term memory and the latency in entering the dark chamber as well. This experiment showed that maternal 70 mg/kg dietary zinc during lactation influenced the working memory of rats' offspring in all groups. Rats received 100 mg/kg/day zinc during lactation so they had significant impairment in working memory (short-term) of their offspring (Plong-term) memory of all groups. Drug consumption below70 mg/kg/day zinc chloride during lactation had no effect. While enhanced 100 mg/ kg/ day zinc in lactating rats could cause short-term memory impairment.

Short-term memory in zebrafish (Danio rerio).

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Jia, Jason; Fernandes, Yohaan; Gerlai, Robert

2014-08-15

Learning and memory represent perhaps the most complex behavioral phenomena. Although their underlying mechanisms have been extensively analyzed, only a fraction of the potential molecular components have been identified. The zebrafish has been proposed as a screening tool with which mechanisms of complex brain functions may be systematically uncovered. However, as a relative newcomer in behavioral neuroscience, the zebrafish has not been well characterized for its cognitive and mnemonic features, thus learning and/or memory screens with adults have not been feasible. Here we study short-term memory of adult zebrafish. We show animated images of conspecifics (the stimulus) to the experimental subject during 1 min intervals on ten occasions separated by different (2, 4, 8 or 16 min long) inter-stimulus intervals (ISI), a between subject experimental design. We quantify the distance of the subject from the image presentation screen during each stimulus presentation interval, during each of the 1-min post-stimulus intervals immediately following the stimulus presentations and during each of the 1-min intervals furthest away from the last stimulus presentation interval and just before the next interval (pre-stimulus interval), respectively. Our results demonstrate significant retention of short-term memory even in the longest ISI group but suggest no acquisition of reference memory. Because in the employed paradigm both stimulus presentation and behavioral response quantification is computer automated, we argue that high-throughput screening for drugs or mutations that alter short-term memory performance of adult zebrafish is now becoming feasible. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Short-term effects of playing computer games on attention.

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Tahiroglu, Aysegul Yolga; Celik, Gonca Gul; Avci, Ayse; Seydaoglu, Gulsah; Uzel, Mehtap; Altunbas, Handan

2010-05-01

The main aim of the present study is to investigate the short-term cognitive effects of computer games in children with different psychiatric disorders and normal controls. One hundred one children are recruited for the study (aged between 9 and 12 years). All participants played a motor-racing game on the computer for 1 hour. The TBAG form of the Stroop task was administered to all participants twice, before playing and immediately after playing the game. Participants with improved posttest scores, compared to their pretest scores, used the computer on average 0.67 +/- 1.1 hr/day, while the average administered was measured at 1.6 +/- 1.4 hr/day and 1.3 +/- 0.9 hr/day computer use for participants with worse or unaltered scores, respectively. According to the regression model, male gender, younger ages, duration of daily computer use, and ADHD inattention type were found to be independent risk factors for worsened posttest scores. Time spent playing computer games can exert a short-term effect on attention as measured by the Stroop test.

Temporal trends in respiratory mortality and short-term effects of air pollutants in Shenyang, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Xue, Xiaoxia; Chen, Jianping; Sun, Baijun; Zhou, Baosen; Li, Xuelian

2018-04-01

Short-term exposures to air pollution are associated with acute effects on respiratory health. This study aimed to describe 10-year temporal trends in respiratory mortality in the urban areas of Shenyang, China, according to gender and age and estimate the effects of air pollution on respiratory diseases (ICD-10J00-J99) and lung cancer (ICD-10 C33-C34) using a case-crossover design. During the study period 2013-2015, the exposure-response relationship between ambient air pollutants and mortality data was fitted by a quasi-Poisson model. Age-standardized mortality rates for a combined number of respiratory diseases and for lung cancer declined in Shenyang; however, death counts increased with aging. Deaths from respiratory diseases increased by 4.7% (95% CI, 0.00-9.9), and lung cancer mortality increased by 6.5% (95% CI, 1.2-12.0), both associated with a 10 μg/m 3 increase in exposure to particulate matter pollutants. These results provided an updated estimate of the short-term effects of air pollution in Shenyang. Since population aging is also associated with increasing mortality from respiratory diseases and lung cancer, reinforcing air quality control measures and health-promoting behaviors is urgent and necessary in Shenyang.

Short-term plasticity as a neural mechanism supporting memory and attentional functions.

Science.gov (United States)

Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Ahveninen, Jyrki; Andermann, Mark L; Belliveau, John W; Raij, Tommi; Sams, Mikko

2011-11-08

Based on behavioral studies, several relatively distinct perceptual and cognitive functions have been defined in cognitive psychology such as sensory memory, short-term memory, and selective attention. Here, we review evidence suggesting that some of these functions may be supported by shared underlying neuronal mechanisms. Specifically, we present, based on an integrative review of the literature, a hypothetical model wherein short-term plasticity, in the form of transient center-excitatory and surround-inhibitory modulations, constitutes a generic processing principle that supports sensory memory, short-term memory, involuntary attention, selective attention, and perceptual learning. In our model, the size and complexity of receptive fields/level of abstraction of neural representations, as well as the length of temporal receptive windows, increases as one steps up the cortical hierarchy. Consequently, the type of input (bottom-up vs. top down) and the level of cortical hierarchy that the inputs target, determine whether short-term plasticity supports purely sensory vs. semantic short-term memory or attentional functions. Furthermore, we suggest that rather than discrete memory systems, there are continuums of memory representations from short-lived sensory ones to more abstract longer-duration representations, such as those tapped by behavioral studies of short-term memory. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Assessing and comparing the short-term effects of TPB only and TPB plus implementation intentions interventions on snacking behavior in Iranian adolescent girls: a cluster randomized trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Karimi-Shahanjarini, Akram; Rashidian, Arash; Omidvar, Nasrin; Majdzadeh, Reza

2013-01-01

The evidence for the effectiveness of theory of planned behavior (TPB)-based interventions is mixed. There is also mixed evidence on the effectiveness of adding implementation intentions to TPB-based interventions. In this study we assessed and compared the short-term effects of TPB-only intervention and TPB plus implementation intentions intervention on snacking behavior and intention to consume unhealthy snacks in Iranian adolescent girls. Three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial. Ten middle schools in Tehran (Iran). A total of 29 classes included 739 female adolescents (age range: 12-15 years). Intervention. Two brief interventions including TPB-only intervention and TPB plus implementation intentions intervention. Food frequency questionnaire and intentions at baseline, 10 days, and 3 months measuring snacking behavior and cognitions about unhealthy snack consumption, respectively. Hierarchical linear modeling to assess the interventions' effects. Both interventions successfully decreased intention to consume and consumption of unhealthy snacks at postintervention. Calculation of the effect sizes revealed that the TPB plus implementation intentions intervention was more effective than the TPB-only intervention. The effects remained significant at 3-month follow-up in the TPB plus implementation intentions intervention group only, although the effect size decreased. Overall, the study suggests that adding implementation intentions on top of TPB-based persuasive messages improves effectiveness and sustainability of desirable changes.

Short-Term Effects of Playing Computer Games on Attention

Science.gov (United States)

Tahiroglu, Aysegul Yolga; Celik, Gonca Gul; Avci, Ayse; Seydaoglu, Gulsah; Uzel, Mehtap; Altunbas, Handan

2010-01-01

Objective: The main aim of the present study is to investigate the short-term cognitive effects of computer games in children with different psychiatric disorders and normal controls. Method: One hundred one children are recruited for the study (aged between 9 and 12 years). All participants played a motor-racing game on the computer for 1 hour.…

Short-term mechanisms influencing volumetric brain dynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nikki Dieleman

2017-01-01

Full Text Available With the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI and brain analysis tools, it has become possible to measure brain volume changes up to around 0.5%. Besides long-term brain changes caused by atrophy in aging or neurodegenerative disease, short-term mechanisms that influence brain volume may exist. When we focus on short-term changes of the brain, changes may be either physiological or pathological. As such determining the cause of volumetric dynamics of the brain is essential. Additionally for an accurate interpretation of longitudinal brain volume measures by means of neurodegeneration, knowledge about the short-term changes is needed. Therefore, in this review, we discuss the possible mechanisms influencing brain volumes on a short-term basis and set-out a framework of MRI techniques to be used for volumetric changes as well as the used analysis tools. 3D T1-weighted images are the images of choice when it comes to MRI of brain volume. These images are excellent to determine brain volume and can be used together with an analysis tool to determine the degree of volume change. Mechanisms that decrease global brain volume are: fluid restriction, evening MRI measurements, corticosteroids, antipsychotics and short-term effects of pathological processes like Alzheimer's disease, hypertension and Diabetes mellitus type II. Mechanisms increasing the brain volume include fluid intake, morning MRI measurements, surgical revascularization and probably medications like anti-inflammatory drugs and anti-hypertensive medication. Exercise was found to have no effect on brain volume on a short-term basis, which may imply that dehydration caused by exercise differs from dehydration by fluid restriction. In the upcoming years, attention should be directed towards studies investigating physiological short-term changes within the light of long-term pathological changes. Ultimately this may lead to a better understanding of the physiological short-term effects of

Cellular activation of hypothalamic hypocretin/orexin neurons facilitates short-term spatial memory in mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Aitta-Aho, Teemu; Pappa, Elpiniki; Burdakov, Denis; Apergis-Schoute, John

2016-12-01

The hypothalamic hypocretin/orexin (HO) system holds a central role in the regulation of several physiological functions critical for food-seeking behavior including mnemonic processes for effective foraging behavior. It is unclear however whether physiological increases in HO neuronal activity can support such processes. Using a designer rM3Ds receptor activation approach increasing HO neuronal activity resulted in improved short-term memory for novel locations. When tested on a non-spatial novelty object recognition task no significant difference was detected between groups indicating that hypothalamic HO neuronal activation can selectively facilitate short-term spatial memory for potentially supporting memory for locations during active exploration. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Short-term changes in affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of body image after bariatric surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Gail A; Hudson, Danae L; Whisenhunt, Brooke L; Stone, Megan; Heinberg, Leslie J; Crowther, Janis H

2018-04-01

Many bariatric surgery candidates report body image concerns before surgery. Research has reported post-surgical improvements in body satisfaction, which may be associated with weight loss. However, research has failed to comprehensively examine changes in affective, behavioral, and cognitive body image. This research examined (1) short-term changes in affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of body image from pre-surgery to 1- and 6-months after bariatric surgery, and (2) the association between percent weight loss and these changes. Participants were recruited from a private hospital in the midwestern United States. Eighty-eight females (original N = 123; lost to follow-up: n = 15 at 1-month and n = 20 at 6-months post-surgery) completed a questionnaire battery, including the Body Attitudes Questionnaire, Body Checking Questionnaire, Body Image Avoidance Questionnaire, and Body Shape Questionnaire, and weights were obtained from patients' medical records before and at 1- and 6-months post-surgery. Results indicated significant decreases in body dissatisfaction, feelings of fatness, and body image avoidance at 1- and 6-months after bariatric surgery, with the greatest magnitude of change occurring for body image avoidance. Change in feelings of fatness was significantly correlated with percent weight loss at 6-months, but not 1-month, post-surgery. These findings highlight the importance of examining short-term changes in body image from a multidimensional perspective in the effort to improve postsurgical outcomes. Unique contributions include the findings regarding the behavioral component of body image, as body image avoidance emerges as a particularly salient concern that changes over time among bariatric surgery candidates. Copyright © 2018 American Society for Bariatric Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Applicability of short-term accelerated biofouling studies to predict long-term biofouling accumulation in reverse osmosis membrane systems

KAUST Repository

Sanawar, Huma

2018-02-02

Biofouling studies addressing biofouling control are mostly executed in short-term studies. It is unclear whether data collected from these experiments are representative for long-term biofouling as occurring in full-scale membrane systems. This study investigated whether short-term biofouling studies accelerated by biodegradable nutrient dosage to feed water were predictive for long-term biofouling development without nutrient dosage. Since the presence of a feed spacer has an strong effect on the degree of biofouling, this study employed six geometrically different feed spacers. Membrane fouling simulators (MFSs) were operated with the same (i) membrane, (ii) feed flow and (iii) feed water, but with feed spacers varying in geometry. For the short-term experiment, biofilm formation was enhanced by nutrient dosage to the MFS feed water, whereas no nutrient dosage was applied in the long-term experiment. Pressure drop development was monitored to characterize the extent of biofouling, while the accumulated viable biomass content at the end of the experimental run was quantified by adenosine triphosphate (ATP) measurements. Impact of feed spacer geometry on biofouling was compared for the short-term and long-term biofouling study. The results of the study revealed that the feed spacers exhibited the same biofouling behavior for (i) the short-term (9-d) study with nutrient dosage and (ii) the long-term (96-d) study without nutrient dosage. For the six different feed spacers, the accumulated viable biomass content (pg ATP.cm) was roughly the same, but the biofouling impact in terms of pressure drop increase in time was significantly different. The biofouling impact ranking of the six feed spacers was the same for the short-term and long-term biofouling studies. Therefore, it can be concluded that short-term accelerated biofouling studies in MFSs are a representative and suitable approach for the prediction of biofouling in membrane filtration systems after long-term

Short-term Mobility and Increased Partnership Concurrency among Men in Zimbabwe.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan Cassels

Full Text Available Migration has long been understood as an underlying factor for HIV transmission, and sexual partner concurrency has been increasingly studied as an important component of HIV transmission dynamics. However, less work has examined the role of short-term mobility in sexual partner concurrency using a network approach. Short-term mobility may be a risk for HIV for the migrant's partner as well either through the partner's risk behaviors while the migrant is away, such as the partner having additional partners, or via exposure to the return migrant.Using data from the 2010-11 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey, weighted generalized linear regression models were used to investigate the associations between short-term mobility and partnership concurrency at the individual and partnership levels.At the individual level, we find strong evidence of an association between short-term mobility and concurrency. Men who traveled were more likely to have concurrent partnerships compared to men who did not travel and the relationship was non-linear: each trip was associated with a 2% higher probability of concurrency, with a diminishing risk at 60 trips (p<0.001. At the partnership level, short-term mobility by the male only or both partners was associated with male concurrency. Couples in which the female only traveled exhibited less male concurrency.Short-term mobility has the ability to impact population-level transmission dynamics by facilitating partnership concurrency and thus onward HIV transmission. Short-term migrants may be an important population to target for HIV testing, treatment, or social and behavioral interventions to prevent the spread of HIV.

The Effect of Zinc Supplementation of Lactating Rats on Short-Term and Long-Term Memory of Their Male Offspring

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Mohammad Karami

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Background: In this study the effect of zinc chloride (ZnCl2 administration on the short-term and long-term memory of rats were assessed. Methods: We enrolled six groups of adult female and control group of eight Wistar rats in each group. One group was control group with free access to food and water, and five groups drunk zinc chloride in different doses (20, 30, 50, 70 and 100 mg/kg/day in drinking water for two weeks during lactation .One month after birth, a shuttle box used to short- term and long-term memory and the latency in entering the dark chamber as well. Results: This experiment showed that maternal 70 mg/kg dietary zinc during lactation influenced the working memory of rats’ offspring in all groups. Rats received 100 mg/kg/day zinc during lactation so they had significant impairment in working memory (short-term of their offspring (P<0.05. There was no significant difference in reference (long-term memory of all groups. Conclusion: Drug consumption below70 mg/kg/day zinc chloride during lactation had no effect. While enhanced 100 mg/ kg/ day zinc in lactating rats could cause short-term memory impairment.

Short-term effects of dietary advanced glycation end products in rats

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poulsen, Malene Wibe; Andersen, Jeanette Marker; Hedegaard, Rikke Susanne Vingborg

2016-01-01

Dietary advanced glycation end products (AGE) formed during heating of food have gained interest as potential nutritional toxins with adverse effects on inflammation and glucose metabolism. In the present study, we investigated the short-term effects of high and low molecular weight (HMW and LMW)...

Short-term effect of short, intensive speech therapy on articulation and resonance in Ugandan patients with cleft (lip and) palate

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Anke Luyten; H. Vermeersch; A. Hodges; K. Bettens; K. van Lierde; G. Galiwango

2016-01-01

Objectives: The purpose of the current study was to assess the short-term effectiveness of short and intensive speech therapy provided to patients with cleft (lip and) palate (C(L)P) in terms of articulation and resonance. Methods: Five Ugandan patients (age: 7.3-19.6 years) with non-syndromic C(L)P

The effects of short- and long-term air pollutants on plant phenology and leaf characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jochner, Susanne; Markevych, Iana; Beck, Isabelle; Traidl-Hoffmann, Claudia

2015-01-01

Pollution adversely affects vegetation; however, its impact on phenology and leaf morphology is not satisfactorily understood yet. We analyzed associations between pollutants and phenological data of birch, hazel and horse chestnut in Munich (2010) along with the suitability of leaf morphological parameters of birch for monitoring air pollution using two datasets: cumulated atmospheric concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and ozone derived from passive sampling (short-term exposure) and pollutant information derived from Land Use Regression models (long-term exposure). Partial correlations and stepwise regressions revealed that increased ozone (birch, horse chestnut), NO_2, NO_x and PM levels (hazel) were significantly related to delays in phenology. Correlations were especially high when rural sites were excluded suggesting a better estimation of long-term within-city pollution. In situ measurements of foliar characteristics of birch were not suitable for bio-monitoring pollution. Inconsistencies between long- and short-term exposure effects suggest some caution when interpreting short-term data collected within field studies. - Highlights: • We present results of a field survey examining pollution effects on vegetation. • Particularly ozone was significantly associated with delays in spring phenology. • Leaf morphology of birch was found to be inadequate for bio-monitoring pollution. • Inconsistencies between long-/short-term exposure effects suggest caution. - Pollutants were significantly associated with delays in spring phenology. However, inconsistencies between long- and short-term exposure effects suggest some caution when interpreting results.

Short-term incentive schemes for hospital managers

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Lucas Malambe

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Short-term incentives, considered to be an extrinsic motivation, are commonly used to motivate performance. This study explored hospital managers’ perceptions of short term incentives in maximising performance and retention. Research purpose: The study explored the experiences, views and perceptions of private hospital managers in South Africa regarding the use of short-term incentives to maximise performance and retention, as well as the applicability of the findings to public hospitals. Motivation for the study: Whilst there is an established link between performance reward schemes and organisational performance, there is little understanding of the effects of short term incentives on the performance and retention of hospital managers within the South African context. Research design, approach, and method: The study used a qualitative research design: interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 19 hospital managers, and a thematic content analysis was performed. Main findings: Short-term incentives may not be the primary motivator for hospital managers, but they do play a critical role in sustaining motivation. Participants indicated that these schemes could also be applicable to public hospitals. Practical/managerial implications: Hospital managers are inclined to be more motivated by intrinsic than extrinsic factors. However, hospital managers (as middle managers also seem to be motivated by short-term incentives. A combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators should thus be used to maximise performance and retention. Contribution/value-add: Whilst the study sought to explore hospital managers’ perceptions of short-term incentives, it also found that an adequate balance between internal and external motivators is key to implementing an effective short-term incentive scheme.

SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM WATER LEVEL PREDICTION AT ONE RIVER MEASUREMENT LOCATION

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Rudolf Scitovski

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Global hydrological cycles mainly depend on climate changes whose occurrence is predominantly triggered by solar and terrestrial influence, and the knowledge of the high water regime is widely applied in hydrology. Regular monitoring and studying of river water level behavior is important from several perspectives. On the basis of the given data, by using modifications of general approaches known from literature, especially from investigation in hydrology, the problem of long- and short-term water level forecast at one river measurement location is considered in the paper. Long-term forecasting is considered as the problem of investigating the periodicity of water level behavior by using linear-trigonometric regression and short-term forecasting is based on the modification of the nearest neighbor method. The proposed methods are tested on data referring to the Drava River level by Donji Miholjac, Croatia, in the period between the beginning of 1900 and the end of 2012.

Audit of long-term and short-term liabilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Korinko M.D.

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The article determines the importance of long-term and short-term liabilities for the management of financial and material resources of an enterprise. It reviews the aim, objects and information generators for realization of audit of short-term and long-term obligations. The organizing and methodical providing of audit of long-term and short-term liabilities of an enterprise are generalized. The authors distinguish the stages of realization of audit of long-term and short-term liabilities, the aim of audit on each of the presented stages, and recommend methodical techniques. It is fixed that it is necessary to conduct the estimation of the systems of internal control and record-keeping of an enterprise by implementation of public accountant procedures for determination of volume and maintenance of selection realization. After estimating the indicated systems, a public accountant determines the methodology for realization of public accountant verification of long-term and short-term liabilities. The analytical procedures that public accountants are expedient to use for realization of audit of short-term and long-term obligations are determined. The authors suggest the classification of the educed defects on the results of the conducted public accountant verification of short-term and long-term obligations.

Short-term data forecasting based on wavelet transformation and chaos theory

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yi; Li, Cunbin; Zhang, Liang

2017-09-01

A sketch of wavelet transformation and its application was given. Concerning the characteristics of time sequence, Haar wavelet was used to do data reduction. After processing, the effect of “data nail” on forecasting was reduced. Chaos theory was also introduced, a new chaos time series forecasting flow based on wavelet transformation was proposed. The largest Lyapunov exponent was larger than zero from small data sets, it verified the data change behavior still met chaotic behavior. Based on this, chaos time series to forecast short-term change behavior could be used. At last, the example analysis of the price from a real electricity market showed that the forecasting method increased the precision of the forecasting more effectively and steadily.

The more you play, the more aggressive you become: A long-term experimental study of cumulative violent video game effects on hostile expectations and aggressive behavior

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hasan, Y.; Bègue, L.; Scharkow, M.; Bushman, B.J.

2012-01-01

It is well established that violent video games increase aggression. There is a stronger evidence of short-term violent video game effects than of long-term effects. The present experiment tests the cumulative long-term effects of violent video games on hostile expectations and aggressive behavior

Experimental Study of Short-Term Training in Social Cognition in Pre-Schoolers

Science.gov (United States)

Houssa, Marine; Nader-Grosbois, Nathalie; Jacobs, Emilie

2014-01-01

Using an experimental approach, our study examined the differentiated effects on pre-schoolers' social cognition of two short-term social information processing (SIP) and Theory of Mind (ToM) training sessions dealing with emotions and beliefs. The links between ToM, SIP, and social adjustment or externalizing behavior were examined. 47…

Attention Problems, Phonological Short-Term Memory, and Visuospatial Short-Term Memory: Differential Effects on Near- and Long-Term Scholastic Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Sarver, Dustin E.; Rapport, Mark D.; Kofler, Michael J.; Scanlan, Sean W.; Raiker, Joseph S.; Altro, Thomas A.; Bolden, Jennifer

2012-01-01

The current study examined individual differences in children's phonological and visuospatial short-term memory as potential mediators of the relationship among attention problems and near- and long-term scholastic achievement. Nested structural equation models revealed that teacher-reported attention problems were associated negatively with…

Analysis of short and long crack behavior and single overload effect by crack opening stress

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Song, Sam Hong; Lee, Kyeong Ro

1999-01-01

The study analyzed the behaviors of short and long crack as well as the effect of single tensile overload on the crack behaviors by using fatigue crack opening behavior. Crack opening stress is measured by an elastic compliance method which may precisely and continuously provide many data using strain gages during experiment. The unusual growth behaviors of short crack and crack after the single tensile overload applied, was explained by the variations of crack opening stress. In addition, fatigue crack growth rate was expressed as a linear form for short crack as for long crack by using effective stress intensity factor range as fracture mechanical parameter, which is based on crack closure concept. And investigation is performed with respect to the relation between plastic zone size formed at the crack tip and crack retardation, crack length and the number of cycles promoted or retarded, and the overload effect on the fatigue life

Short- and long-term memory contributions to immediate serial recognition: evidence from serial position effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Purser, Harry; Jarrold, Christopher

2010-04-01

A long-standing body of research supports the existence of separable short- and long-term memory systems, relying on phonological and semantic codes, respectively. The aim of the current study was to measure the contribution of long-term knowledge to short-term memory performance by looking for evidence of phonologically and semantically coded storage within a short-term recognition task, among developmental samples. Each experimental trial presented 4-item lists. In Experiment 1 typically developing children aged 5 to 6 years old showed evidence of phonologically coded storage across all 4 serial positions, but evidence of semantically coded storage at Serial Positions 1 and 2. In a further experiment, a group of individuals with Down syndrome was investigated as a test case that might be expected to use semantic coding to support short-term storage, but these participants showed no evidence of semantically coded storage and evidenced phonologically coded storage only at Serial Position 4, suggesting that individuals with Down syndrome have a verbal short-term memory capacity of 1 item. Our results suggest that previous evidence of semantic effects on "short-term memory performance" does not reflect semantic coding in short-term memory itself, and provide an experimental method for researchers wishing to take a relatively pure measure of verbal short-term memory capacity, in cases where rehearsal is unlikely.

Spatial patterns of persistent neural activity vary with the behavioral context of short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Daie, Kayvon; Goldman, Mark S; Aksay, Emre R F

2015-02-18

A short-term memory can be evoked by different inputs and control separate targets in different behavioral contexts. To address the circuit mechanisms underlying context-dependent memory function, we determined through optical imaging how memory is encoded at the whole-network level in two behavioral settings. Persistent neural activity maintaining a memory of desired eye position was imaged throughout the oculomotor integrator after saccadic or optokinetic stimulation. While eye position was encoded by the amplitude of network activity, the spatial patterns of firing were context dependent: cells located caudally generally were most persistent following saccadic input, whereas cells located rostrally were most persistent following optokinetic input. To explain these data, we computationally identified four independent modes of network activity and found these were differentially accessed by saccadic and optokinetic inputs. These results show how a circuit can simultaneously encode memory value and behavioral context, respectively, in its amplitude and spatial pattern of persistent firing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Short-term Memory as a Processing Shift

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis-Smith, Marion Quinn

1975-01-01

The series of experiments described here examined the predictions for free recall from sequential models and the shift formulation, focusing on the roles of short- and long-term memory in the primacy/recency shift and on the effects of expectancies on short- and long-term memory. (Author/RK)

No effect of transcranial direct current stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jing; Wen, Jian-Bing; Li, Xiao-Li

2018-01-01

Short-term memory refers to the capacity for holding information in mind for a short period of time with conscious memorization. It is an important ability for daily life and is impaired in several neurological and psychiatric disorders. Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was reported to enhance the capability of short-term memory in healthy subjects. However, results were not consistent and what is the possible impact factor is not known. One important factor that may significantly influence the effect of tDCS is the timing of tDCS administration. In order to explore whether tDCS impact short-term memory and the optimal timing of tDCS administration, we applied anodal tDCS to the left DLPFC to explore the modulatory effect of online and off-line tDCS on digit span as well as visual short-term memory performance in healthy subjects. Results showed tDCS of the left DLPFC did not influence intentional digit span memory performance, whether before the task or during the task. In addition, tDCS of the DLPFC administered before the task showed no effect on visual short-term memory, while there was a trend of increase in false alarm when tDCS of the DLPFC administered during the task. These results did not provide evidence for the enhancement of short-term memory by tDCS of the left DLPFC in healthy subjects, but it suggested an importance of administration time for visual short-term memory. Further studies are required to taking into account the baseline performance of subjects and time-dependence feature of tDCS. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

[Development and short-term effects of a standardized patient education program for in-patient cardiologic rehabilitation].

Science.gov (United States)

Seekatz, B; Haug, G; Mosler, G; Schwaab, B; Altstidl, R; Worringen, U; Faller, H; Meng, K

2013-10-01

Patient education is an essential part in the treatment of coronary heart disease in medical rehabilitation. In the German-speaking area, no standardized and evaluated patient education program for coronary heart disease is available so far. In this paper, we demonstrate the development of a quality assured patient education program based on a health-education program of the German statutory pension insurance scheme. In a multi-level approach, an existing program was modified concerning treatment evidence, practical guidelines, theories of health and illness behavior and quality criteria for patient education as well as clinical experience and thereafter manualized. In a formative evaluation, feasibility and patient acceptance of this modified program were assessed using evaluation questionnaires of patients and trainers. Afterwards, effects of the patient education program as compared to a traditional education program were assessed on a short-term (at discharge), medium-term (6-month follow-up) and long-term (12-month follow-up) basis in a multicenter quasi-experimental control group study of patients with coronary heart disease (n=434). Results of the formative evaluation demonstrate an overall good acceptance and a good feasibility of the manualized program. Short-term results show a significant small treatment effect in the primary outcome variable patients' knowledge (p=0.001, η2 =0.028). Furthermore, small effects were also observed among some secondary outcomes, such as attitude towards medication, planning of physical activity, psychological quality of life and satisfaction with the education program. A standardized education program for patients with coronary heart disease has been developed in a systematic process based on established quality standards. Depending on the outstanding medium and long-term effects, the program may be recommended for general use in medical rehabilitation. The manual provides the prerequisites allowing for a successful

The importance of short-term off-target effects in estimating the long-term renal and cardiovascular protection of angiotensin receptor blockers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Smink, P A; Miao, Y; Eijkemans, M J C

2014-01-01

Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) have multiple effects that may contribute to their efficacy on renal/cardiovascular outcomes. We developed and validated a risk score that incorporated short-term changes in multiple risk markers to predict the ARB effect on renal/cardiovascular outcomes.......98), in addition to being markedly more accurate than predicted RRRs based on changes in single markers. The score was validated in an independent ARB trial. Predictions of long-term renal/cardiovascular ARB effects are more accurate when considering short-term changes in multiple risk markers, challenging the use...

Stochastic health effects assessment due to short-term external exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raicevic, J.J.; Raskob, W.; Merkle, M.; Ninkovic, M.M.

2001-01-01

The new model for calculation of stochastic health effects is presented in this paper. The exposure pathways which are briefly considered are the short-term external exposure due to passage of the radioactive cloud (cloudshine) and the short-term external exposure due to radioactive material deposited on skin and clothes (skin contamination). The quantitative assessment of stochastic effects is expressed in numbers of deaths, which are given as a functions of the time at the accident, and age at death, what on the other side enables estimation of the number of deaths within the specified range of the time/age parameters. That means the model calculates the number of deaths within one particular year, summed up over all ages at deaths, or vice versa, it finds the number of deaths within the specified range of ages at death, summed up over all observation times. Results presented in this paper are implemented in the module LATEHEAL, which is incorporated in RODOS, a new European system for decision support for nuclear emergencies. (author)

Word-length effect in verbal short-term memory in individuals with Down's syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Kanno, K; Ikeda, Y

2002-11-01

Many studies have indicated that individuals with Down's syndrome (DS) show a specific deficit in short-term memory for verbal information. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of the length of words on verbal short-term memory in individuals with DS. Twenty-eight children with DS and 10 control participants matched for memory span were tested on verbal serial recall and speech rate, which are thought to involve rehearsal and output speed. Although a significant word-length effect was observed in both groups for the recall of a larger number of items with a shorter spoken duration than for those with a longer spoken duration, the number of correct recalls in the group with DS was reduced compared to the control subjects. The results demonstrating poor short-term memory in children with DS were irrelevant to speech rate. In addition, the proportion of repetition-gained errors in serial recall was higher in children with DS than in control subjects. The present findings suggest that poor access to long-term lexical knowledge, rather than overt articulation speed, constrains verbal short-term memory functions in individuals with DS.

Competitive short-term and long-term memory processes in spatial habituation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanderson, David J; Bannerman, David M

2011-04-01

Exposure to a spatial location leads to habituation of exploration such that, in a novelty preference test, rodents subsequently prefer exploring a novel location to the familiar location. According to Wagner's (1981) theory of memory, short-term and long-term habituation are caused by separate and sometimes opponent processes. In the present study, this dual-process account of memory was tested. Mice received a series of exposure training trials to a location before receiving a novelty preference test. The novelty preference was greater when tested after a short, rather than a long, interval. In contrast, the novelty preference was weaker when exposure training trials were separated by a short, rather than a long interval. Furthermore, it was found that long-term habituation was determined by the independent effects of the amount of exposure training and the number of exposure training trials when factors such as the intertrial interval and the cumulative intertrial interval were controlled. A final experiment demonstrated that a long-term reduction of exploration could be caused by a negative priming effect due to associations formed during exploration. These results provide evidence against a single-process account of habituation and suggest that spatial habituation is determined by both short-term, recency-based memory and long-term, incrementally strengthened memory.

Presynaptic learning and memory with a persistent firing neuron and a habituating synapse: a model of short term persistent habituation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramanathan, Kiruthika; Ning, Ning; Dhanasekar, Dhiviya; Li, Guoqi; Shi, Luping; Vadakkepat, Prahlad

2012-08-01

Our paper explores the interaction of persistent firing axonal and presynaptic processes in the generation of short term memory for habituation. We first propose a model of a sensory neuron whose axon is able to switch between passive conduction and persistent firing states, thereby triggering short term retention to the stimulus. Then we propose a model of a habituating synapse and explore all nine of the behavioral characteristics of short term habituation in a two neuron circuit. We couple the persistent firing neuron to the habituation synapse and investigate the behavior of short term retention of habituating response. Simulations show that, depending on the amount of synaptic resources, persistent firing either results in continued habituation or maintains the response, both leading to longer recovery times. The effectiveness of the model as an element in a bio-inspired memory system is discussed.

Insensitivity of visual short-term memory to irrelevant visual information.

Science.gov (United States)

Andrade, Jackie; Kemps, Eva; Werniers, Yves; May, Jon; Szmalec, Arnaud

2002-07-01

Several authors have hypothesized that visuo-spatial working memory is functionally analogous to verbal working memory. Irrelevant background speech impairs verbal short-term memory. We investigated whether irrelevant visual information has an analogous effect on visual short-term memory, using a dynamic visual noise (DVN) technique known to disrupt visual imagery (Quinn & McConnell, 1996b). Experiment I replicated the effect of DVN on pegword imagery. Experiments 2 and 3 showed no effect of DVN on recall of static matrix patterns, despite a significant effect of a concurrent spatial tapping task. Experiment 4 showed no effect of DVN on encoding or maintenance of arrays of matrix patterns, despite testing memory by a recognition procedure to encourage visual rather than spatial processing. Serial position curves showed a one-item recency effect typical of visual short-term memory. Experiment 5 showed no effect of DVN on short-term recognition of Chinese characters, despite effects of visual similarity and a concurrent colour memory task that confirmed visual processing of the characters. We conclude that irrelevant visual noise does not impair visual short-term memory. Visual working memory may not be functionally analogous to verbal working memory, and different cognitive processes may underlie visual short-term memory and visual imagery.

Effects of stress on heart rate complexity--a comparison between short-term and chronic stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Schubert, C; Lambertz, M; Nelesen, R A; Bardwell, W; Choi, J-B; Dimsdale, J E

2009-03-01

This study examined chronic and short-term stress effects on heart rate variability (HRV), comparing time, frequency and phase domain (complexity) measures in 50 healthy adults. The hassles frequency subscale of the combined hassles and uplifts scale (CHUS) was used to measure chronic stress. Short-term stressor reactivity was assessed with a speech task. HRV measures were determined via surface electrocardiogram (ECG). Because respiration rate decreased during the speech task (pshort-term stress decreased HR D2 (calculated via the pointwise correlation dimension PD2) (pshort-term stress. Partial correlation adjusting for respiration rate showed that HR D2 was associated with chronic stress (r=-.35, p=.019). Differential effects of chronic and short-term stress were observed on several HRV measures. HR D2 decreased under both stress conditions reflecting lowered functionality of the cardiac pacemaker. The results confirm the importance of complexity metrics in modern stress research on HRV.

Reorganization of brain function after a short-term behavioral intervention for stuttering.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Chunming; Zheng, Lifen; Long, Yuhang; Yan, Qian; Ding, Guosheng; Liu, Li; Peng, Danling; Howell, Peter

2017-05-01

This study investigated changes in brain function that occurred over a 7-day behavioral intervention for adults who stutter (AWS). Thirteen AWS received the intervention (AWS+), and 13 AWS did not receive the intervention (AWS-). There were 13 fluent controls (FC-). All participants were scanned before and after the intervention. Whole-brain analysis pre-intervention showed significant differences in task-related brain activation between AWS and FC- in the right inferior frontal cortex (IFC) and left middle temporal cortex, but there were no differences between the two AWS groups. Across the 7-day period of the intervention, AWS+ alone showed a significant increase of brain activation in the left ventral IFC/insula. There were no changes in brain function for the other two groups. Further analysis revealed that the change did not correlate with resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) that AWS showed in the cerebellum (Lu et al., 2012). However, both changes in task-related brain function and RSFC correlated with changes in speech fluency level. Together, these findings suggest that functional reorganization in a brain region close to the left IFC that shows anomalous function in AWS, occurs after a short-term behavioral intervention for stuttering. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Short-term side effects and patient-reported outcomes of bleomycin sclerotherapy in vascular malformations.

Science.gov (United States)

Mack, Joana M; Richter, Gresham T; Becton, David; Salem, Omar; Hill, Sarah E M; Crary, Shelley E

2018-06-01

Vascular malformations (VM) are congenital lesions that can be debilitating and cause significant aesthetic and functional limitations. The chemotherapeutic agent bleomycin has been utilized as a sclerosant, directly injected percutaneously into the VM. Unfortunately, little is known about the benefits and short-term side effects of bleomycin with intralesional injections. An IRB approved, retrospective chart review was performed on patients with VM who had been treated with intralesional bleomycin. Data included type of VM, number of treatments, total bleomycin dose per m², and adverse effects. A questionnaire was administered to available patients to assess subjective outcomes and side effects. Forty-six patients were treated with 141 procedures of bleomycin sclerotherapy for VM. Patient ages ranged from 1 to 20 years (median age 10 years). The median cumulative bleomycin dose was 16.3 units/m²/person (range of 1.7-97.0 units/m²/person). Sixty-three percent of patients were reached for a questionnaire to assess short-term side effects. Ninety percent of patients surveyed were satisfied to very satisfied with the results from the procedure. About 24% of patients experienced transient nausea, vomiting and/or local hyperpigmentation. Bleomycin sclerotherapy can be an effective treatment of VM with repeat exposure with minor risk of short-term side effects, however, long-term risks are of great concern. Further studies are required to assess systemic absorption and long-term risks. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Social evolution and genetic interactions in the short and long term.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Cleve, Jeremy

2015-08-01

The evolution of social traits remains one of the most fascinating and feisty topics in evolutionary biology even after half a century of theoretical research. W.D. Hamilton shaped much of the field initially with his 1964 papers that laid out the foundation for understanding the effect of genetic relatedness on the evolution of social behavior. Early theoretical investigations revealed two critical assumptions required for Hamilton's rule to hold in dynamical models: weak selection and additive genetic interactions. However, only recently have analytical approaches from population genetics and evolutionary game theory developed sufficiently so that social evolution can be studied under the joint action of selection, mutation, and genetic drift. We review how these approaches suggest two timescales for evolution under weak mutation: (i) a short-term timescale where evolution occurs between a finite set of alleles, and (ii) a long-term timescale where a continuum of alleles are possible and populations evolve continuously from one monomorphic trait to another. We show how Hamilton's rule emerges from the short-term analysis under additivity and how non-additive genetic interactions can be accounted for more generally. This short-term approach reproduces, synthesizes, and generalizes many previous results including the one-third law from evolutionary game theory and risk dominance from economic game theory. Using the long-term approach, we illustrate how trait evolution can be described with a diffusion equation that is a stochastic analogue of the canonical equation of adaptive dynamics. Peaks in the stationary distribution of the diffusion capture classic notions of convergence stability from evolutionary game theory and generally depend on the additive genetic interactions inherent in Hamilton's rule. Surprisingly, the peaks of the long-term stationary distribution can predict the effects of simple kinds of non-additive interactions. Additionally, the peaks

Examining the Causes and Consequences of Short-Term Behavioral Change during the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu, South Africa.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicholas J Conard

Full Text Available Sibudu in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa with its rich and high-resolution archaeological sequence provides an ideal case study to examine the causes and consequences of short-term variation in the behavior of modern humans during the Middle Stone Age (MSA. We present the results from a technological analysis of 11 stratified lithic assemblages which overlie the Howiesons Poort deposits and all date to ~58 ka. Based on technological and typological attributes, we conducted inter-assemblage comparisons to characterize the nature and tempo of cultural change in successive occupations. This work identified considerable short-term variation with clear temporal trends throughout the sequence, demonstrating that knappers at Sibudu varied their technology over short time spans. The lithic assemblages can be grouped into three cohesive units which differ from each other in the procurement of raw materials, the frequency in the methods of core reduction, the kind of blanks produced, and in the nature of tools the inhabitants of Sibudu made and used. These groups of assemblages represent different strategies of lithic technology, which build upon each other in a gradual, cumulative manner. We also identify a clear pattern of development toward what we have previously defined as the Sibudan cultural taxonomic unit. Contextualizing these results on larger geographical scales shows that the later phase of the MSA during MIS 3 in KwaZulu-Natal and southern Africa is one of dynamic cultural change rather than of stasis or stagnation as has at times been claimed. In combination with environmental, subsistence and contextual information, our high-resolution data on lithic technology suggest that short-term behavioral variability at Sibudu can be best explained by changes in technological organization and socio-economic dynamics instead of environmental forcing.

Examining the Causes and Consequences of Short-Term Behavioral Change during the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu, South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Conard, Nicholas J; Will, Manuel

2015-01-01

Sibudu in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) with its rich and high-resolution archaeological sequence provides an ideal case study to examine the causes and consequences of short-term variation in the behavior of modern humans during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). We present the results from a technological analysis of 11 stratified lithic assemblages which overlie the Howiesons Poort deposits and all date to ~58 ka. Based on technological and typological attributes, we conducted inter-assemblage comparisons to characterize the nature and tempo of cultural change in successive occupations. This work identified considerable short-term variation with clear temporal trends throughout the sequence, demonstrating that knappers at Sibudu varied their technology over short time spans. The lithic assemblages can be grouped into three cohesive units which differ from each other in the procurement of raw materials, the frequency in the methods of core reduction, the kind of blanks produced, and in the nature of tools the inhabitants of Sibudu made and used. These groups of assemblages represent different strategies of lithic technology, which build upon each other in a gradual, cumulative manner. We also identify a clear pattern of development toward what we have previously defined as the Sibudan cultural taxonomic unit. Contextualizing these results on larger geographical scales shows that the later phase of the MSA during MIS 3 in KwaZulu-Natal and southern Africa is one of dynamic cultural change rather than of stasis or stagnation as has at times been claimed. In combination with environmental, subsistence and contextual information, our high-resolution data on lithic technology suggest that short-term behavioral variability at Sibudu can be best explained by changes in technological organization and socio-economic dynamics instead of environmental forcing.

Short-term mindfulness intervention reduces the negative attentional effects associated with heavy media multitasking.

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Gorman, Thomas E; Green, C Shawn

2016-04-18

Recent research suggests that frequently switching between various forms of media (i.e. 'media multitasking') is associated with diminished attentional abilities, a disconcerting result given the prevalence of media multitasking in today's society. In the present study, we sought to investigate the extent to which the deficits associated with frequent media multitasking can be temporarily ameliorated via a short-term mindfulness intervention previously shown to produce beneficial effects on the attentional abilities of normally functioning individuals. Consistent with previous work, we found: (1) that heavy media multitaskers showed generally poorer attentional abilities than light media multitaskers and (2) that all participants showed benefits from the short-term mindfulness intervention. Furthermore, we found that the benefits of the short-term mindfulness intervention were not equivalently large across participants. Instead, these benefits were disproportionately large in the heavy media multitaskers. While the positive outcomes were short-lived, this opens the possibility of performing long-term interventions with the goal of realizing lasting gains in this population.

Genetic deletion of melanin-concentrating hormone neurons impairs hippocampal short-term synaptic plasticity and hippocampal-dependent forms of short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Le Barillier, Léa; Léger, Lucienne; Luppi, Pierre-Hervé; Fort, Patrice; Malleret, Gaël; Salin, Paul-Antoine

2015-11-01

The cognitive role of melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) neurons, a neuronal population located in the mammalian postero-lateral hypothalamus sending projections to all cortical areas, remains poorly understood. Mainly activated during paradoxical sleep (PS), MCH neurons have been implicated in sleep regulation. The genetic deletion of the only known MCH receptor in rodent leads to an impairment of hippocampal dependent forms of memory and to an alteration of hippocampal long-term synaptic plasticity. By using MCH/ataxin3 mice, a genetic model characterized by a selective deletion of MCH neurons in the adult, we investigated the role of MCH neurons in hippocampal synaptic plasticity and hippocampal-dependent forms of memory. MCH/ataxin3 mice exhibited a deficit in the early part of both long-term potentiation and depression in the CA1 area of the hippocampus. Post-tetanic potentiation (PTP) was diminished while synaptic depression induced by repetitive stimulation was enhanced suggesting an alteration of pre-synaptic forms of short-term plasticity in these mice. Behaviorally, MCH/ataxin3 mice spent more time and showed a higher level of hesitation as compared to their controls in performing a short-term memory T-maze task, displayed retardation in acquiring a reference memory task in a Morris water maze, and showed a habituation deficit in an open field task. Deletion of MCH neurons could thus alter spatial short-term memory by impairing short-term plasticity in the hippocampus. Altogether, these findings could provide a cellular mechanism by which PS may facilitate memory encoding. Via MCH neuron activation, PS could prepare the day's learning by increasing and modulating short-term synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Short-term and long-term effects of transient exogenous cortisol manipulation on oxidative stress in juvenile brown trout

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Birnie-Gauvin, Kim; Peiman, Kathryn S.; Larsen, Martin Hage

2017-01-01

available for physiological functions like defence against oxidative stress. Using brown trout (Salmo trutta), we evaluated the short-term (2 weeks) and long-term (4 months over winter) effects of exogenous cortisol manipulations (versus relevant shams and controls) on the oxidative status of wild juveniles...

Short- and Long-Term Effects of CBT-I in Groups for School-Age Children Suffering From Chronic Insomnia: The KiSS-Program.

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Schlarb, Angelika A; Bihlmaier, Isabel; Velten-Schurian, Kerstin; Poets, Christian F; Hautzinger, Martin

2018-01-01

This intervention study evaluates the short- and long-term effects of cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) in groups for school-age children and their parents, named the KiSS-program. CBT-I was implemented in three sessions for children and three sessions for parents. All in all, 112 children with chronic childhood insomnia were randomly assigned to a wait-list (WL) control or treatment condition. According to subjective measures as well as objective wrist actigraphy, children in the CBT-I condition reported greater improvements in sleep behavior immediately after the treatment compared to the WL group. Improvements in sleep behavior after CBT-I persisted over the 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up assessments. The present study is the first randomized controlled trial that provides evidence for the long-term effectiveness of CBT-I in treating school-age children with chronic insomnia.

Effect of BRCA1/2 mutation on short-term and long-term breast cancer survival: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Eun-Ha; Park, Sue K; Park, Boyoung; Kim, Sung-Won; Lee, Min Hyuk; Ahn, Sei Hyun; Son, Byung Ho; Yoo, Keun-Young; Kang, Daehee

2010-07-01

Reports of BRCA genetic mutations and risk of death or recurrence are inconsistent. This study aimed to compare overall and disease-free breast cancer survival rates between BRCA1/2 mutation carriers and non-carriers for short-term and long-term outcomes separately. We searched the PUBMED and EMBASE databases and retrieved 452 articles using keywords that included breast cancer, BRCA mutation, and survival. Seventeen articles were selected for systematic review and among them 11 were included in our meta-analysis. We used the random-effects model to calculate the summary hazard ratio and corresponding 95% confidence interval. BRCA1 mutation carriers had significantly lower short-term and long-term overall survival rates (OSR) relative to non-carriers (HR = 1.92 [95% CI = 1.45-2.53]; 1.33 [1.12-1.58], respectively), while both short-term and long-term OSR of BRCA2 carriers did not differ from non-carriers (HR = 1.30 [95% CI = 0.95-1.76]; 1.12 [95% CI = 0.86-1.45], respectively). For short-term progression-free survival rate (PFSR), BRCA1 mutation carriers had a significantly lower rate than non-carriers (HR = 1.54 [95% CI = 1.12-2.12]), while BRCA2 mutation carriers had a similar PFSR (HR = 1.23 [95% CI = 0.96-1.58]). For long-term PFSRs, we found no significant results. Our results suggest that BRCA1 mutation decreases short-term and long-term OSRs and short-term PFSR, however, BRCA2 mutation does not affect either short-term or long-term survival rate, which is attributed to the different carcinogenic pathways for BRCA1 and BRCA2.

Facilitative Effects of Forgetting from Short-Term Memory on Growth of Long-Term Memory in Retardates

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Sperber, Richard D.

1976-01-01

Competing explanations of the beneficial effect of spacing in retardate discrimination learning were tested. Results are inconsistent with consolidation and rehearsal theories but support the prediction of the Geber, Greenfield, and House spacing model that forgetting from short-term memory facilities retardate learning. (Author/SB)

Pediatric polytrauma : Short-term and long-term outcomes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

vanderSluis, CK; Kingma, J; Eisma, WH; tenDuis, HJ

Objective: To assess the short-term and long-term outcomes of pediatric polytrauma patients and to analyze the extent to which short-term outcomes can predict long-term outcomes. Materials and Methods: Ail pediatric polytrauma patients (Injury Severity Score of greater than or equal to 16, less than

Frequency-specific insight into short-term memory capacity

OpenAIRE

Feurra, Matteo; Galli, Giulia; Pavone, Enea Francesco; Rossi, Alessandro; Rossi, Simone

2016-01-01

We provided novel evidence of a frequency-specific effect by transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) of the left posterior parietal cortex on short-term memory, during a digit span task. the effect was prominent with stimulation at beta frequency for young and not for middle-aged adults and correlated with age. Our findings highlighted a short-term memory capacity improvement by tACS application.

Order effects and vowel decay in short-term memory: the neutralization hypothesis

OpenAIRE

Karypidis, Charalampos

2007-01-01

International audience; Information stored in short-term memory decays extremely fast compared to the content of long-termmemory. The nature of this memory loss being littleknown (random or systematic), this paper examinesthe presentation order effect in the light of the neutralization hypothesis, according to which the firstvowel in a pair decays, while retained in short-termmemory, toward [er]. Twelve French listeners participated in three AX roving discrimination sessions.For each of the 1...

Effect of active warm-up duration on morning short-term maximal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Purpose: To examine the effect of active warm-up duration on short-term maximal performance assessed during Ramadan in the morning. Methods: Twelve healthy active men performed four Wingate tests for measurement of peak power and mean power before and during Ramadan at 09:00 a.m. The tests were performed ...

The Effect of Synchronized Forced Running with Chronic Stress on Short, Mid and Long- term Memory in Rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Radahmadi, Maryam; Alaei, Hojjatallah; Sharifi, Mohammad-Reza; Hosseini, Nasrin

2013-03-01

Impairment of learning and memory processes has been demonstrated by many studies using different stressors. Other reports suggested that exercise has a powerful behavioral intervention to improve cognitive function and brain health. In this research, we investigated protective effects of treadmill running on chronic stress-induced memory deficit in rats. Fifty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups (n=10) as follows: Control (Co), Sham (Sh), Stress (St), Exercise (Ex) and Stress and Exercise (St & Ex) groups. Chronic restraint stress was applied by 6h/day/21days and also treadmill running at a speed 20-21m/min for 1h/day/21days. Memory function was evaluated by the passive avoidance test in different intervals (1, 7 and 21 days) after foot shock. OUR RESULTS SHOWED THAT: 1) Although exercise alone showed beneficial effects especially on short and mid-term memory (Pshort, mid and long-term memory deficit in stressed rats. 2) Short and mid-term memory deficit was significantly (PMemory deficit in synchronized exercise with stress group was nearly similar to stressed rats. 4) Helpful effects of exercise were less than harmful effects of stress when they were associated together. The data correspond to the possibility that although treadmill running alone has helpful effects on learning and memory consolidation, but when it is synchronized with stress there is no significant benefit and protective effects in improvement of memory deficit induced by chronic stress. However, it is has a better effect than no training on memory deficit in stressed rats.

Behavior change techniques used in group-based behavioral support by the English stop-smoking services and preliminary assessment of association with short-term quit outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

West, Robert; Evans, Adam; Michie, Susan

2011-12-01

To develop a reliable coding scheme for components of group-based behavioral support for smoking cessation, to establish the frequency of inclusion in English Stop-Smoking Service (SSS) treatment manuals of specific components, and to investigate the associations between inclusion of behavior change techniques (BCTs) and service success rates. A taxonomy of BCTs specific to group-based behavioral support was developed and reliability of use assessed. All English SSSs (n = 145) were contacted to request their group-support treatment manuals. BCTs included in the manuals were identified using this taxonomy. Associations between inclusion of specific BCTs and short-term (4-week) self-reported quit outcomes were assessed. Fourteen group-support BCTs were identified with >90% agreement between coders. One hundred and seven services responded to the request for group-support manuals of which 30 had suitable documents. On average, 7 BCTs were included in each manual. Two were positively associated with 4-week quit rates: "communicate group member identities" and a "betting game" (a financial deposit that is lost if a stop-smoking "buddy" relapses). It is possible to reliably code group-specific BCTs for smoking cessation. Fourteen such techniques are present in guideline documents of which 2 appear to be associated with higher short-term self-reported quit rates when included in treatment manuals of English SSSs.

Short-Term Synaptic Plasticity Regulation in Solution-Gated Indium-Gallium-Zinc-Oxide Electric-Double-Layer Transistors.

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, Chang Jin; Liu, Yang Hui; Zhu, Li Qiang; Feng, Ping; Shi, Yi; Wan, Qing

2016-04-20

In the biological nervous system, synaptic plasticity regulation is based on the modulation of ionic fluxes, and such regulation was regarded as the fundamental mechanism underlying memory and learning. Inspired by such biological strategies, indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) electric-double-layer (EDL) transistors gated by aqueous solutions were proposed for synaptic behavior emulations. Short-term synaptic plasticity, such as paired-pulse facilitation, high-pass filtering, and orientation tuning, was experimentally emulated in these EDL transistors. Most importantly, we found that such short-term synaptic plasticity can be effectively regulated by alcohol (ethyl alcohol) and salt (potassium chloride) additives. Our results suggest that solution gated oxide-based EDL transistors could act as the platforms for short-term synaptic plasticity emulation.

Retrospective attention in short-term memory has a lasting effect on long-term memory across age.

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Strunk, Jonathan; Morgan, Lauren; Reaves, Sarah; Verhaeghen, Paul; Duarte, Audrey

2018-04-13

Declines in both short- and long-term memory are typical of healthy aging. Recent findings suggest that retrodictive attentional cues ("retro-cues") that indicate the location of to-be-probed items in short-term memory (STM) have a lasting impact on long-term memory (LTM) performance in young adults. Whether older adults can also use retro-cues to facilitate both STM and LTM is unknown. Young and older adults performed a visual STM task in which spatially informative retro-cues or non-informative neutral-cues were presented during STM maintenance of real-world objects. We tested participants' memory at both STM and LTM delays for objects that were previously cued with retrodictive or neutral cues during STM order to measure the lasting impact of retrospective attention on LTM. Older adults showed reduced STM and LTM capacity compared to young adults. However, they showed similar magnitude retro-cue memory benefits as young adults at both STM and LTM delays. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate whether retro-cues in STM facilitate the encoding of objects into LTM such that they are more likely to be subsequently retrieved by older adults. Our results support the idea that retrospective attention can be an effective means by which older adults can improve their short and long-term memory performance, even in the context of reduced memory capacity.

Predicting short-term stock fluctuations by using processing fluency

Science.gov (United States)

Alter, Adam L.; Oppenheimer, Daniel M.

2006-01-01

Three studies investigated the impact of the psychological principle of fluency (that people tend to prefer easily processed information) on short-term share price movements. In both a laboratory study and two analyses of naturalistic real-world stock market data, fluently named stocks robustly outperformed stocks with disfluent names in the short term. For example, in one study, an initial investment of $1,000 yielded a profit of $112 more after 1 day of trading for a basket of fluently named shares than for a basket of disfluently named shares. These results imply that simple, cognitive approaches to modeling human behavior sometimes outperform more typical, complex alternatives. PMID:16754871

Retrieval-Induced Inhibition in Short-Term Memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Min-Suk; Choi, Joongrul

2015-07-01

We used a visual illusion called motion repulsion as a model system for investigating competition between two mental representations. Subjects were asked to remember two random-dot-motion displays presented in sequence and then to report the motion directions for each. Remembered motion directions were shifted away from the actual motion directions, an effect similar to the motion repulsion observed during perception. More important, the item retrieved second showed greater repulsion than the item retrieved first. This suggests that earlier retrieval exerted greater inhibition on the other item being held in short-term memory. This retrieval-induced motion repulsion could be explained neither by reduced cognitive resources for maintaining short-term memory nor by continued inhibition between short-term memory representations. These results indicate that retrieval of memory representations inhibits other representations in short-term memory. We discuss mechanisms of retrieval-induced inhibition and their implications for the structure of memory. © The Author(s) 2015.

Long-term associative learning predicts verbal short-term memory performance

OpenAIRE

Jones, Gary; Macken, Bill

2017-01-01

Studies using tests such as digit span and nonword repetition have implicated short-term memory across a range of developmental domains. Such tests ostensibly assess specialized processes for the short-term manipulation and maintenance of information that are often argued to enable long-term learning. However, there is considerable evidence for an influence of long-term linguistic learning on performance in short-term memory tasks that brings into question the role of a specialized short-term...

Effects of Short-term Hypergravity Exposure on Germination, Growth and Photosynthesis of Triticum aestivum L.

Science.gov (United States)

Vidyasagar, Pandit B.; Jagtap, Sagar S.; Dixit, Jyotsana P.; Kamble, Shailendra M.; Dhepe, Aarti P.

2014-12-01

Numerous studies have been carried out to investigate the hypergravity effect on plants, where seedlings (4-5 days old) were continuously exposed and grown under hypergravity condition. Here, we have used a novel `shortterm hypergravity exposure experimental method' where imbibed caryopses (instead of seedlings) were exposed to higher hypergravity values ranging from 500 g to 2500 g for a short interval time of 10 minutes and post short-term hypergravity treated caryopses were grown under 1 g conditions for five days. Changing patterns in caryopsis germination and growth, along with various photosynthetic and biochemical parameters were studied. Results revealed the significant inhibition of caryopsis germination and growth in short-term hypergravity treated seeds over control. Photosynthesis parameters such as chlorophyll content, rate of photosynthesis (PN), transpiration rate (Evap) and stomatal conductance (Gs), along with intracellular CO2 concentration (Cint) were found to be affected significantly in 5 days old seedlings exposed to short-term hypergravity treatment. In order to investigate the cause of observed inhibition, we examined the α-amylase activity and antioxidative enzyme activities. α-amylase activity was found to be inhibited, along with the reduction of sugars necessary for germination and earlier growth in short-term hypergravity treated caryopses. The activities of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase and guaiacol peroxidase were increased in short-term hypergravity treated caryopses, suggesting that caryopses might have experienced oxidative stress upon short-term hypergravity exposure.

Long-term associative learning predicts verbal short-term memory performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Gary; Macken, Bill

2018-02-01

Studies using tests such as digit span and nonword repetition have implicated short-term memory across a range of developmental domains. Such tests ostensibly assess specialized processes for the short-term manipulation and maintenance of information that are often argued to enable long-term learning. However, there is considerable evidence for an influence of long-term linguistic learning on performance in short-term memory tasks that brings into question the role of a specialized short-term memory system separate from long-term knowledge. Using natural language corpora, we show experimentally and computationally that performance on three widely used measures of short-term memory (digit span, nonword repetition, and sentence recall) can be predicted from simple associative learning operating on the linguistic environment to which a typical child may have been exposed. The findings support the broad view that short-term verbal memory performance reflects the application of long-term language knowledge to the experimental setting.

Short-Term Bluff Recession Behavior Along Pennsylvania's Great Lakes Coastline, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Foyle, A. M.; Naber, M. D.; Pluta, M. J.

2011-12-01

Coastal bluff retreat is a common problem along the world's unconsolidated coastlines. On the Great Lakes coast of Pennsylvania, Quaternary clay-rich glacial till, paleo-lake plain, and sandy strandplain sequences overlie Devonian bedrock. These Quaternary strata are subject to subaerial and lacustrine erosional processes that cause permanent coastal land loss at spatially variable rates, with the former (runoff, slumping, groundwater focusing, etc) dominating over the latter (wave and current scour, abrasion, etc). Land loss is of concern to environmental agencies because land-use planning should account for spatial and temporal variability in land-loss rates, and because bluff erosion contributes to a temporary degradation in coastal water quality. The goal of this study is to evaluate spatial variability in bluff retreat rates along a 20 km sector of Pennsylvania's short Great Lakes coast. High resolution LiDAR data covering a one-decade time frame (1998-2007) permit bluff-crest mapping on two comparable data sets that captures change within a timeframe similar to CZM planning intervals. Short-term recession data can be more useful, cost-effective, and accurate than long-term analyses that use lower-resolution field measurements, T-sheets, and historical aerial photography. Bluffs along the 20 km coastal study site consist of up to 26 m of unlithified Quaternary sediments overlying a 1-4 m ledge of sub-horizontal Devonian shale and sandstone. Bluff slopes range from 20-90 degrees, beaches are narrow (wide) or absent, and the bluffs are seasonally shielded by ground-freeze and lake ice. DEMs, hillshades, and slope and contour maps were generated from bare-earth 1998 and 2007 LiDAR data, and checked against 2005 aerial ortho-photography. Maps were analyzed at a scale of 1:120 in ArcGIS and the bluff crest was identified primarily by the visual-break-in-slope method. Rates of bluff retreat derived using DSAS vary from unresolvable to as much as 2.2 m/yr, averaging

Short-term plasticity as a neural mechanism supporting memory and attentional functions

OpenAIRE

Jääskeläinen, Iiro P.; Ahveninen, Jyrki; Andermann, Mark L.; Belliveau, John W.; Raij, Tommi; Sams, Mikko

2011-01-01

Based on behavioral studies, several relatively distinct perceptual and cognitive functions have been defined in cognitive psychology such as sensory memory, short-term memory, and selective attention. Here, we review evidence suggesting that some of these functions may be supported by shared underlying neuronal mechanisms. Specifically, we present, based on an integrative review of the literature, a hypothetical model wherein short-term plasticity, in the form of transient center-excitatory ...

Short-Term Memory and Aphasia: From Theory to Treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Minkina, Irene; Rosenberg, Samantha; Kalinyak-Fliszar, Michelene; Martin, Nadine

2017-02-01

This article reviews existing research on the interactions between verbal short-term memory and language processing impairments in aphasia. Theoretical models of short-term memory are reviewed, starting with a model assuming a separation between short-term memory and language, and progressing to models that view verbal short-term memory as a cognitive requirement of language processing. The review highlights a verbal short-term memory model derived from an interactive activation model of word retrieval. This model holds that verbal short-term memory encompasses the temporary activation of linguistic knowledge (e.g., semantic, lexical, and phonological features) during language production and comprehension tasks. Empirical evidence supporting this model, which views short-term memory in the context of the processes it subserves, is outlined. Studies that use a classic measure of verbal short-term memory (i.e., number of words/digits correctly recalled in immediate serial recall) as well as those that use more intricate measures (e.g., serial position effects in immediate serial recall) are discussed. Treatment research that uses verbal short-term memory tasks in an attempt to improve language processing is then summarized, with a particular focus on word retrieval. A discussion of the limitations of current research and possible future directions concludes the review. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Randomized controlled trial evaluating the temporal effects of high-intensity exercise on learning, short-term and long-term memory, and prospective memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Frith, Emily; Sng, Eveleen; Loprinzi, Paul D

2017-11-01

The broader purpose of this study was to examine the temporal effects of high-intensity exercise on learning, short-term and long-term retrospective memory and prospective memory. Among a sample of 88 young adult participants, 22 were randomized into one of four different groups: exercise before learning, control group, exercise during learning, and exercise after learning. The retrospective assessments (learning, short-term and long-term memory) were assessed using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Long-term memory including a 20-min and 24-hr follow-up assessment. Prospective memory was assessed using a time-based procedure by having participants contact (via phone) the researchers at a follow-up time period. The exercise stimulus included a 15-min bout of progressive maximal exertion treadmill exercise. High-intensity exercise prior to memory encoding (vs. exercise during memory encoding or consolidation) was effective in enhancing long-term memory (for both 20-min and 24-h follow-up assessments). We did not observe a differential temporal effect of high-intensity exercise on short-term memory (immediate post-memory encoding), learning or prospective memory. The timing of high-intensity exercise may play an important role in facilitating long-term memory. © 2017 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Sustained Cortical and Subcortical Measures of Auditory and Visual Plasticity following Short-Term Perceptual Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Lau, Bonnie K; Ruggles, Dorea R; Katyal, Sucharit; Engel, Stephen A; Oxenham, Andrew J

2017-01-01

Short-term training can lead to improvements in behavioral discrimination of auditory and visual stimuli, as well as enhanced EEG responses to those stimuli. In the auditory domain, fluency with tonal languages and musical training has been associated with long-term cortical and subcortical plasticity, but less is known about the effects of shorter-term training. This study combined electroencephalography (EEG) and behavioral measures to investigate short-term learning and neural plasticity in both auditory and visual domains. Forty adult participants were divided into four groups. Three groups trained on one of three tasks, involving discrimination of auditory fundamental frequency (F0), auditory amplitude modulation rate (AM), or visual orientation (VIS). The fourth (control) group received no training. Pre- and post-training tests, as well as retention tests 30 days after training, involved behavioral discrimination thresholds, steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP) to the flicker frequencies of visual stimuli, and auditory envelope-following responses simultaneously evoked and measured in response to rapid stimulus F0 (EFR), thought to reflect subcortical generators, and slow amplitude modulation (ASSR), thought to reflect cortical generators. Enhancement of the ASSR was observed in both auditory-trained groups, not specific to the AM-trained group, whereas enhancement of the SSVEP was found only in the visually-trained group. No evidence was found for changes in the EFR. The results suggest that some aspects of neural plasticity can develop rapidly and may generalize across tasks but not across modalities. Behaviorally, the pattern of learning was complex, with significant cross-task and cross-modal learning effects.

Investigating Executive Working Memory and Phonological Short-Term Memory in Relation to Fluency and Self-Repair Behavior in L2 Speech

Science.gov (United States)

Georgiadou, Effrosyni; Roehr-Brackin, Karen

2017-01-01

This paper reports the findings of a study investigating the relationship of executive working memory (WM) and phonological short-term memory (PSTM) to fluency and self-repair behavior during an unrehearsed oral task performed by second language (L2) speakers of English at two levels of proficiency, elementary and lower intermediate. Correlational…

Short-term exposure to enriched environment rescues chronic stress-induced impaired hippocampal synaptic plasticity, anxiety, and memory deficits.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhagya, Venkanna Rao; Srikumar, Bettadapura N; Veena, Jayagopalan; Shankaranarayana Rao, Byrathnahalli S

2017-08-01

Exposure to prolonged stress results in structural and functional alterations in the hippocampus including reduced long-term potentiation (LTP), neurogenesis, spatial learning and working memory impairments, and enhanced anxiety-like behavior. On the other hand, enriched environment (EE) has beneficial effects on hippocampal structure and function, such as improved memory, increased hippocampal neurogenesis, and progressive synaptic plasticity. It is unclear whether exposure to short-term EE for 10 days can overcome restraint stress-induced cognitive deficits and impaired hippocampal plasticity. Consequently, the present study explored the beneficial effects of short-term EE on chronic stress-induced impaired LTP, working memory, and anxiety-like behavior. Male Wistar rats were subjected to chronic restraint stress (6 hr/day) over a period of 21 days, and then they were exposed to EE (6 hr/day) for 10 days. Restraint stress reduced hippocampal CA1-LTP, increased anxiety-like symptoms in elevated plus maze, and impaired working memory in T-maze task. Remarkably, EE facilitated hippocampal LTP, improved working memory performance, and completely overcame the effect of chronic stress on anxiety behavior. In conclusion, exposure to EE can bring out positive effects on synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus and thereby elicit its beneficial effects on cognitive functions. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Short-Term Behavior of Slag Concretes Exposed to a Real In Situ Mediterranean Climate Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortega, José Marcos; Sánchez, Isidro; Cabeza, Marta; Climent, Miguel Ángel

2017-08-08

At present, one of the most suitable ways to get a more sustainable cement industry is to reduce the CO₂ emissions generated during cement production. In order to reach that goal, the use of ground granulated blast-furnace slag as clinker replacement is becoming increasingly popular. Although the effects of this addition in the properties of cementitious materials are influenced by their hardening conditions, there are not too many experimental studies in which slag concretes have been exposed to real in situ environments. Then, the main objective of this research is to study the short-term effects of exposure to real Mediterranean climate environment of an urban site, where the action of airborne chlorides from sea water and the presence of CO₂ are combined, in the microstructure and service properties of a commercial slag cement concrete, compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The microstructure was studied with mercury intrusion porosimetry. The effective porosity, capillary suction coefficient, chloride migration coefficient, carbonation front depth, and compressive strength were also analyzed. Considering the results obtained, slag concretes exposed to a real in situ Mediterranean climate environment show good service properties in the short-term (180 days), in comparison with OPC.

Short-term power plant operation scheduling in thermal systems with long-term boundary conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wolter, H.

1990-01-01

For the first time, the modeling of long-term quantitative conditions within the short-term planning of the application of power stations is made via their shadow prices. It corresponds to a decomposition of the quantitative conditions by means of the method of the Langrange relaxation. The shadow prices determined by the planning for energy application regarding long- term quantitative conditions pass into the short-term planning for power station application and subsidize or rather punish the application of limited amounts as for as they are not claimed for sufficiently or excessively. The clear advantage of this modeling is that the short-term planning of power station application can deviate from the envisioned energy application regarding the total optimum, because the shadow prices contain all information about the cost effect of the energy shifts in the residual total period, which become necessary due to the deviations in the short-term period to be planned in the current short-term period. (orig./DG) [de

Assessing the associative deficit of older adults in long-term and short-term/working memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Tina; Naveh-Benjamin, Moshe

2012-09-01

Older adults exhibit a deficit in associative long-term memory relative to younger adults. However, the literature is inconclusive regarding whether this deficit is attenuated in short-term/working memory. To elucidate the issue, three experiments assessed younger and older adults' item and interitem associative memory and the effects of several variables that might potentially contribute to the inconsistent pattern of results in previous studies. In Experiment 1, participants were tested on item and associative recognition memory with both long-term and short-term retention intervals in a single, continuous recognition paradigm. There was an associative deficit for older adults in the short-term and long-term intervals. Using only short-term intervals, Experiment 2 utilized mixed and blocked test designs to examine the effect of test event salience. Blocking the test did not attenuate the age-related associative deficit seen in the mixed test blocks. Finally, an age-related associative deficit was found in Experiment 3, under both sequential and simultaneous presentation conditions. Even while accounting for some methodological issues, the associative deficit of older adults is evident in short-term/working memory.

The effect of retraining of nurses on cardiopulmonary resuscitationsuccess rate and short-term and long-term survival in patients revived

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dahi M

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Background and Objective: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR is performed in order to restore the functioning of two most important body organs the heart and brain. The present study was performed to investigate the effect of retraining of nurses on CPR success rate and short-term and long-term CPR survival. Materials and Method: The study population of the present quasi-experimental study consisted of all nurses of Taleghani Hospital affiliated with Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran, in 2011. The study subjects (n = 400 were selected using convenience and purposive sampling method. The patient survival rate during the first 24 hours (short-term survival and discharge from the hospital (long-term survival after CPR were reported. Then, the study subjects, in groups of 20, participated in CPR training courses. Short-term (24 hours and long-term (discharge from hospital in good mental status survival subsequent to CPR were reevaluated and compared with pre-training results. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20, and t-test and chi-square test. Results: Retraining promoted CPR success rates. This increase in the short-term success rate was not significant, but the increase in long-term success rate was statistically significant (P = 0.007. Conclusion: Periodic retraining of nurses may improve CPR success rate particularly long-term survival or discharge from hospital. Therefore, further studies on long-term success of CPR considering confounding factors are recommended

Effects of ageing on single muscle fibre contractile function following short-term immobilisation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvid, Lars G; Ørtenblad, Niels; Aagaard, Per

2011-01-01

Very little attention has been given to the combined effect of healthy ageing and short-term disuse on the contractile function of human single muscle fibres. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of 2 weeks of lower limb cast immobilisation (i.e. disuse) on selected contractile...

The effect of artesunate on short-term memory in Lyme borreliosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Puri, B K; Hakkarainen-Smith, J S; Monro, J A

2017-08-01

Lyme borreliosis is associated with memory deficits. While this may be related to cerebral infection by Borrelia bacteria, it may also be caused by concomitant co-infection by Babesia protozoa. The anti-malarial artemisinin-derivative artesunate has been shown to be effective against a number of Babesia species and to have efficacy against human cerebral malaria. We hypothesised that concomitant administration of artesunate in Lyme borreliosis patients would help alleviate the severity of self-reported short-term memory impairment. This hypothesis was tested in a small pilot study in which patients were treated with both an intravenous antibiotic and oral artesunate (20mg four times per day); treatment was associated with a reduction in the severity of short-term memory difficulties (P≃0.08). In light of these findings, we recommend that a formal randomised, placebo-controlled study be carried out. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of Short Term Memory Span Function In Children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barış ERGÜL

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Although details of the information encoded in the short-term memory where it is stored temporarily be recorded in the working memory in the next stage. Repeating the information mentally makes it remain in memory for a long time. Studies investigating the relationship between short-term memory and reading skills that are carried out to examine the relationship between short-term memory processes and reading comprehension. In this study information coming to short-term memory and the factors affecting operation of short term memory are investigated with regression model. The aim of the research is to examine the factors (age, IQ and reading skills that are expected the have an effect on short-term memory in children through regression analysis. One of the assumptions of regression analysis is to examine which has constant variance and normal distribution of the error term. In this study, because the error term is not normally distributed, robust regression techniques were applied. Also, for each technique; coefficient of determination is determined. According to the findings, the increase in age, IQ and reading skills caused the increase in short term memory in children. After applying robust regression techniques, the Winsorized Least Squares (WLS technique gives the highest coefficient of determination.

Short term effect of air pollution, noise and heat waves on preterm births in Madrid (Spain).

Science.gov (United States)

Arroyo, Virginia; Díaz, Julio; Ortiz, Cristina; Carmona, Rocío; Sáez, Marc; Linares, Cristina

2016-02-01

these, heat temperatures at Lag 1 (RR: 1.055; 95% CI:( (1.018 1.092)) on preterm births in Madrid City during the studied period. In the model adjusted for preterm births, similar RR was obtained for the same environmental variables. Especially PM2.5, diurnal noise levels and O3 have a short-term impact on total births and heat temperatures on preterm births in Madrid City during the studied period. Our results suggest that, given the widespread exposure of the population to the environmental factors analyzed and the possible effects on long-term health associated to low birth weight. There is a clear need to minimize this exposure through the decrease of air pollution and noise levels and through the behavior modification of the mothers. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

What characterizes changing-state speech in affecting short-term memory? An EEG study on the irrelevant sound effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlittmeier, Sabine J; Weisz, Nathan; Bertrand, Olivier

2011-12-01

The irrelevant sound effect (ISE) describes reduced verbal short-term memory during irrelevant changing-state sounds which consist of different and distinct auditory tokens. Steady-state sounds lack such changing-state features and do not impair performance. An EEG experiment (N=16) explored the distinguishing neurophysiological aspects of detrimental changing-state speech (3-token sequence) compared to ineffective steady-state speech (1-token sequence) on serial recall performance. We analyzed evoked and induced activity related to the memory items as well as spectral activity during the retention phase. The main finding is that the behavioral sound effect was exclusively reflected by attenuated token-induced gamma activation most pronounced between 50-60 Hz and 50-100 ms post-stimulus onset. Changing-state speech seems to disrupt a behaviorally relevant ongoing process during target presentation (e.g., the serial binding of the items). Copyright © 2011 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

The short- and long-term effects of development projects:evidence from Ethiopia

OpenAIRE

Petrikova, Ivica

2014-01-01

This paper examines the short-term and long-term impact of development projects on recipients’ wellbeing in Ethiopia. Specifically, it compares the effects of five types of development projects – unconditional and conditional direct transfers, agricultural and social-infrastructure knowledge transfers, and credit projects – on children’s nutrition and on household consumption and income levels. The main finding is that knowledge transfers have the largest positive impact on children’s nutriti...

Musicians' and nonmusicians' short-term memory for verbal and musical sequences: comparing phonological similarity and pitch proximity.

Science.gov (United States)

Williamson, Victoria J; Baddeley, Alan D; Hitch, Graham J

2010-03-01

Language-music comparative studies have highlighted the potential for shared resources or neural overlap in auditory short-term memory. However, there is a lack of behavioral methodologies for comparing verbal and musical serial recall. We developed a visual grid response that allowed both musicians and nonmusicians to perform serial recall of letter and tone sequences. The new method was used to compare the phonological similarity effect with the impact of an operationalized musical equivalent-pitch proximity. Over the course of three experiments, we found that short-term memory for tones had several similarities to verbal memory, including limited capacity and a significant effect of pitch proximity in nonmusicians. Despite being vulnerable to phonological similarity when recalling letters, however, musicians showed no effect of pitch proximity, a result that we suggest might reflect strategy differences. Overall, the findings support a limited degree of correspondence in the way that verbal and musical sounds are processed in auditory short-term memory.

Numerical study of the effect of earth tides on recurring short-term slow slip events

Science.gov (United States)

Matsuzawa, T.; Tanaka, Y.; Shibazaki, B.

2017-12-01

Short-term slow slip events (SSEs) in the Nankai region are affected by earth tides (e.g., Nakata et al., 2008; Ide and Tanaka, 2014; Yabe et al., 2015). The effect of tidal stress on the SSEs is also examined numerically (e.g., Hawthorne and Rubin, 2013). In our previous study (Matsuzawa et al., 2017, JpGU-AGU), we numerically simulated SSEs in the Shikoku region, and reported that tidal stress makes the variance of recurrence intervals of SSEs smaller in relatively isolated SSE regions. However, the reason of such stable recurrence was not clear. In this study, we examine the tidal effect on short-term SSEs based on a flat plate and a realistic plate model (e.g., Matsuzawa et al., 2013, GRL). We adopt a rate- and state-dependent friction law (RS-law) with cutoff velocities as in our previous studies (Matsuzawa et al., 2013). We assume that (a-b) value in the RS-law is negative within the short-term SSE region, and positive outside the region. In a flat plate model, the short-term SSE region is a circular patch with the radius of 6 km. In a realistic plate model, the short-term SSE region is based on the actual distribution of low-frequency tremor. Low effective normal stress is assumed at the depth of SSEs. Calculating stress change by earth tides as in Yabe et al., (2015), we examine the stress perturbation by two different earth tides with the period of semidiurnal (M2) and fortnight (Mf) tide in this study. In the result of a flat plate case, amplitude of SSEs becomes smaller just after the slip at whole simulated area. Recurring SSEs become clear again within one year in the case with tides (M2 or Mf), while the recurrence becomes clear after seven years in the case without tides. Interestingly, the effect of the Mf tide is similar to the case with the M2 tide, even though the amplitude of the Mf tide (0.01 kPa) is two-order smaller than that of the M2 tide. In the realistic plate model of Shikoku, clear recurrence of short-term SSEs is found earlier than the

Effects of Short-Term Hypergravity Exposure are Reversible in Triticum aestivum L. Caryopses

Science.gov (United States)

Dixit, Jyotsana P.; Jagtap, Sagar S.; Kamble, Shailendra M.; Vidyasagar, Pandit B.

2017-10-01

Short-term hypergravity exposure is shown to retard seed germination, growth and photosynthesis in wheat caryopses. This study investigates the reversibility of effects of short-term hypergravity on imbibed wheat ( Triticum aestivum var L.) caryopses. After hypergravity exposure (500 × g - 2500 × g for 10 min) on a centrifuge, exposed caryopses were kept under normal gravity (1 × g) up to six days and then sown on agar. Results of the present study showed that percentage germination and growth were completely restored for DAY 6 compared to DAY 0. Restoration of germination and growth was accompanied by increased α-amylase activity. The specific activity of antioxidative enzyme viz. catalase and guaiacol peroxidase was lowered on DAY 6 compared to DAY 0 suggesting an alleviation of oxidative cellular damage against hypergravity stress. Chlorophyll pigment recovery along with chlorophyll fluorescence (PI and Fv/Fm) on DAY 6 indicates a transient rather than permanent damage of the photosynthetic apparatus. Thus, our findings demonstrate that short-term hypergravity effects are reversible in wheat caryopses. The metabolic cause of restoration of seed germination and growth upon transferring the caryopses to normal gravity is performed by a reactivation of carbohydrate- metabolizing enzymes, α-amylase and alleviation of oxidative stress damage with subsequent recovery of chlorophyll biosynthesis and photosynthetic activity.

Short-term fasting alters cytochrome P450-mediated drug metabolism in humans

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lammers, Laureen A.; Achterbergh, Roos; de Vries, Emmely M.; van Nierop, F. Samuel; Klümpen, Heinz-Josef; Soeters, Maarten R.; Boelen, Anita; Romijn, Johannes A.; Mathôt, Ron A. A.

2015-01-01

Experimental studies indicate that short-term fasting alters drug metabolism. However, the effects of short-term fasting on drug metabolism in humans need further investigation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of short-term fasting (36 h) on P450-mediated drug

Short-Term Group Treatment for Adult Children of Alcoholics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Alvin; McCormack, WIlliam A.

1992-01-01

Adult children of alcoholics (n=24) were tested on measures of loneliness, anxiety, hostility, depression, and interpersonal dependency before and after participation in short-term group therapy. Highly significant test score changes supported effectiveness of individual therapy in short-term groups. (Author/NB)

Cash Management and Short-Term Investments for Colleges and Universities.

Science.gov (United States)

Haag, Leonard H.

Effective cash management and short-term investing are discussed in this "how to" guide designed to benefit most institutions of higher education. The following premises are examined: proper compensation for effective cash management is not an expense but an investment; effective cash management and short-term investment programs do not depend on…

Strong and long: effects of word length on phonological binding in verbal short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Jefferies, Elizabeth; Frankish, Clive; Noble, Katie

2011-02-01

This study examined the effects of item length on the contribution of linguistic knowledge to immediate serial recall (ISR). Long words are typically recalled more poorly than short words, reflecting the greater demands that they place on phonological encoding, rehearsal, and production. However, reverse word length effects--that is, better recall of long than short words--can also occur in situations in which phonological maintenance is difficult, suggesting that long words derive greater support from long-term lexical knowledge. In this study, long and short words and nonwords (containing one vs. three syllables) were presented for immediate serial recall in (a) pure lists and (b) unpredictable mixed lists of words and nonwords. The mixed-list paradigm is known to disrupt the phonological stability of words, encouraging their phonemes to recombine with the elements of other list items. In this situation, standard length effects were seen for nonwords, while length effects for words were absent or reversed. A detailed error analysis revealed that long words were more robust to the mixed-list manipulation than short words: Their phonemes were less likely to be omitted and to recombine with phonemes from other list items. These findings support an interactive view of short-term memory, in which long words derive greater benefits from lexical knowledge than short words-especially when their phonological integrity is challenged by the inclusion of nonwords in mixed lists.

Effects of stress on heart rate complexity—A comparison between short-term and chronic stress

OpenAIRE

Schubert, C.; Lambertz, M.; Nelesen, R.A.; Bardwell, W.; Choi, J.-B.; Dimsdale, J.E.

2008-01-01

This study examined chronic and short-term stress effects on heart rate variability (HRV), comparing time, frequency and phase domain (complexity) measures in 50 healthy adults. The hassles frequency subscale of the combined hassles and uplifts scale (CHUS) was used to measure chronic stress. Short-term stressor reactivity was assessed with a speech task. HRV measures were determined via surface electrocardiogram (ECG). Because respiration rate decreased during the speech task (p < .001), thi...

Effect of individual parameter changes on the outcome of the estimated short-term dietary exposure to pesticides.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Velde-Koerts, Trijntje; Breysse, Nicolas; Pattingre, Lauriane; Hamey, Paul Y; Lutze, Jason; Mahieu, Karin; Margerison, Sam; Ossendorp, Bernadette C; Reich, Hermine; Rietveld, Anton; Sarda, Xavier; Vial, Gaelle; Sieke, Christian

2018-01-01

In 2015 a scientific workshop was held in Geneva, where updating the International Estimate of Short-Term Intake (IESTI) equations was suggested. This paper studies the effects of the proposed changes in residue inputs, large portions, variability factors and unit weights on the overall short-term

Investigating Executive Working Memory and Phonological Short-Term Memory in Relation to Fluency and Self-Repair Behavior in L2 Speech.

Science.gov (United States)

Georgiadou, Effrosyni; Roehr-Brackin, Karen

2017-08-01

This paper reports the findings of a study investigating the relationship of executive working memory (WM) and phonological short-term memory (PSTM) to fluency and self-repair behavior during an unrehearsed oral task performed by second language (L2) speakers of English at two levels of proficiency, elementary and lower intermediate. Correlational analyses revealed a negative relationship between executive WM and number of pauses in the lower intermediate L2 speakers. However, no reliable association was found in our sample between executive WM or PSTM and self-repair behavior in terms of either frequency or type of self-repair. Taken together, our findings suggest that while executive WM may enhance performance at the conceptualization and formulation stages of the speech production process, self-repair behavior in L2 speakers may depend on factors other than working memory.

Aggregated effects of combining daily milk consumption and aerobic exercise on short-term memory and sustained attention among female students.

Science.gov (United States)

Leong, In-Tyng; Moghadam, Sedigheh; Hashim, Hairul A

2015-02-01

Regular aerobic exercise and milk consumption have been found to have positive effects on certain cognitive functions such as short-term memory and sustained attention. However, aggregated effects of combining these modalities have not been explored. This study examined the combined effects of milk supplementation and aerobic exercise on the short-term memory and sustained attention of female students aged 16 yr. (N = 81). The intervention involved serving of 250 ml of regular milk during school days and/or a 1-hr. aerobic exercise period twice per week for 6 weeks. The Digit Span Test and Digit Vigilance Test were used to measure short-term memory and sustained attention, respectively. The combination group (milk and exercise) and exercise group performed significantly better than did the milk and control groups in terms of short-term memory. No significant interaction or group differences were found for sustained attention. The results suggest benefits of regular exercise for students' short-term memory.

Attentional priorities and access to short-term memory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gillebert, Celine; Dyrholm, Mads; Vangkilde, Signe Allerup

2012-01-01

The intraparietal sulcus (IPS) has been implicated in selective attention as well as visual short-term memory (VSTM). To contrast mechanisms of target selection, distracter filtering, and access to VSTM, we combined behavioral testing, computational modeling and functional magnetic resonance......, thereby displaying a significant interaction between the two factors. The interaction between target and distracter set size in IPS could not be accounted for by a simple explanation in terms of number of items accessing VSTM. Instead, it led us to a model where items accessing VSTM receive differential...

Effect of short-term food restriction on iron metabolism, relative well-being and depression symptoms in healthy women.

Science.gov (United States)

Wojciak, Rafal W

2014-01-01

The idea that iron deficiency anemia can be recognized in depressive patients has been around for a few years, as well as negative association between ferritin levels and depression. Iron deficiency anemia, associated with low iron intake, has been observed in women using restriction diets, for example in vegetarians or anorexics. There are no data on the influence of the short-term food restrictions, observed for example in slimming women, on iron management and its connection with behavior expressed via changes in the subject's emotional state. This study describes the effect of one- and two-day food restrictions (every 8 days for a period of 48 days) on selected iron management parameters in the serum and blood of 46 healthy volunteer women (23 in each group), aged 25.5 ± 3.0 years, in association with the subjects' self-described emotional status and depression symptoms. The association between iron parameters and depression was also analyzed. Results show that short-term (2 days) fasting significantly decreases iron concentrations in serum and hair, as well as levels of ferritin, hemoglobin, hematocrit, red blood cells, and total iron binding capacity, but the short-term fasting did not influence the other iron management parameters. Each model of food restrictions also increased negative feelings towards depression. A significant negative correlation between serum ferritin levels and depression was found in women who starved for 2 days. The study shows that, through an impact on mineral levels, even short-term food restrictions, as observed in many slimming women and girls, can be a reason for iron deficiency and also can alter the emotional status of healthy women. Maybe depression symptoms in anorexia or other eating disorders patients can be associated with iron deficiencies.

Big Five Traits Related to Short-Term Mating: From Personality to Promiscuity across 46 Nations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David P. Schmitt

2008-04-01

Full Text Available As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, 13,243 participants from 46 nations responded to self-report measures of personality and mating behavior. Several traits showed consistent links with short-term mating. Extraversion positively correlated with interest in short-term mating, unrestricted sociosexuality, having engaged in short-term mate poaching attempts, having succumbed to short-term poaching attempts of others, and lacking relationship exclusivity. Low levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness also related to short-term mating, especially with extra-pair mating. Neuroticism and openness were associated with short-term mating as well, but these links were less consistent across sex and nation. Nation-level links between personality and sexuality replicated within-region findings, such as the strong association between national extraversion and national sociosexuality. Discussion focuses on the origins of personality-sexuality links and their implications across nations.

The roles of long-term phonotactic and lexical prosodic knowledge in phonological short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanida, Yuki; Ueno, Taiji; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A; Saito, Satoru

2015-04-01

Many previous studies have explored and confirmed the influence of long-term phonological representations on phonological short-term memory. In most investigations, phonological effects have been explored with respect to phonotactic constraints or frequency. If interaction between long-term memory and phonological short-term memory is a generalized principle, then other phonological characteristics-that is, suprasegmental aspects of phonology-should also exert similar effects on phonological short-term memory. We explored this hypothesis through three immediate serial-recall experiments that manipulated Japanese nonwords with respect to lexical prosody (pitch-accent type, reflecting suprasegmental characteristics) as well as phonotactic frequency (reflecting segmental characteristics). The results showed that phonotactic frequency affected the retention not only of the phonemic sequences, but also of pitch-accent patterns, when participants were instructed to recall both the phoneme sequence and accent pattern of nonwords. In addition, accent pattern typicality influenced the retention of the accent pattern: Typical accent patterns were recalled more accurately than atypical ones. These results indicate that both long-term phonotactic and lexical prosodic knowledge contribute to phonological short-term memory performance.

Short-Term and Long-Term Educational Mobility of Families: A Two-Sex Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Xi; Mare, Robert D

2017-02-01

We use a multigenerational perspective to investigate how families reproduce and pass their educational advantages to succeeding generations. Unlike traditional mobility studies that have typically focused on one-sex influences from fathers to sons, we rely on a two-sex approach that accounts for interactions between males and females-the process in which males and females mate and have children with those of similar educational statuses and jointly determine the educational status attainment of their offspring. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we approach this issue from both a short-term and a long-term perspective. For the short term, grandparents' educational attainments have a direct association with grandchildren's education as well as an indirect association that is mediated by parents' education and demographic behaviors. For the long term, initial educational advantages of families may benefit as many as three subsequent generations, but such advantages are later offset by the lower fertility of highly educated persons. Yet, all families eventually achieve the same educational distribution of descendants because of intermarriages between families of high- and low-education origin.

Weighted integration of short-term memory and sensory signals in the oculomotor system.

Science.gov (United States)

Deravet, Nicolas; Blohm, Gunnar; de Xivry, Jean-Jacques Orban; Lefèvre, Philippe

2018-05-01

Oculomotor behaviors integrate sensory and prior information to overcome sensory-motor delays and noise. After much debate about this process, reliability-based integration has recently been proposed and several models of smooth pursuit now include recurrent Bayesian integration or Kalman filtering. However, there is a lack of behavioral evidence in humans supporting these theoretical predictions. Here, we independently manipulated the reliability of visual and prior information in a smooth pursuit task. Our results show that both smooth pursuit eye velocity and catch-up saccade amplitude were modulated by visual and prior information reliability. We interpret these findings as the continuous reliability-based integration of a short-term memory of target motion with visual information, which support modeling work. Furthermore, we suggest that saccadic and pursuit systems share this short-term memory. We propose that this short-term memory of target motion is quickly built and continuously updated, and constitutes a general building block present in all sensorimotor systems.

The sensitivity testing of Wilms' tumors to cytostatic agents with an autoradiographic in vitro short-term test

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Willnow, U.

1984-01-01

Sensitivity of 15 Wilms' tumors in children was tested towards cytostatic agents in vitro by means of an autoradiographic short-term test. Sensitivity was measured as the magnitude of the inhibition of 3 H-thymidine or 3 H-uridine incorporation. The test was performed with Adriamycin, Actinomycin D, Daunomycin, Bleomycin, Cyclophosphamide, Ifosfamide, Trenimon, and Arabinosylcytosine. None of the tumors is resistant to all substances, they are responsive against 2 or more drugs. The most effective drugs tested are Adriamycin, Actinomycin D and Cyclophosphamide. The tumors show a marked individual sensitivity pattern. This behavior is explained mainly by the usually high proliferative activity of Wilms' tumors. The possibilities and limits of long-term and short-term methods for sensitivity testing are discussed critically. For the evaluation of the results of in vitro testing and in vivo effectiveness the close correlation should be considered between the type of cytostatic agent and proliferation kinetics of the tumor, cytostatic agent and effect on tumor metabolism as well as the effect of the cytostatics and the nucleic acid precursors used for the short-term test. Despite the methodological limitations preclinical testing should be preferred to unselected chemotherapy. (author)

A novel TRNSYS type for short-term borehole heat exchanger simulation: B2G model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Rosa, Mattia; Ruiz-Calvo, Félix; Corberán, José M.; Montagud, Carla; Tagliafico, Luca A.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • A novel dynamic borehole heat exchanger model is presented. • Theoretical approach for model parameters calculation is described. • The short-term model is validated against experimental data of a real GSHP. • Strong dynamic conditions due to the ON–OFF regulation are investigated. - Abstract: Models of ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems are used as an aid for the correct design and optimization of the system. For this purpose, it is necessary to develop models which correctly reproduce the dynamic thermal behavior of each component in a short-term basis. Since the borehole heat exchanger (BHE) is one of the main components, special attention should be paid to ensuring a good accuracy on the prediction of the short-term response of the boreholes. The BHE models found in literature which are suitable for short-term simulations usually present high computational costs. In this work, a novel TRNSYS type implementing a borehole-to-ground (B2G) model, developed for modeling the short-term dynamic performance of a BHE with low computational cost, is presented. The model has been validated against experimental data from a GSHP system located at Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain. Validation results show the ability of the model to reproduce the short-term behavior of the borehole, both for a step-test and under normal operating conditions

Geopathic stress zones: short-term effects on work performance and well-being?

Science.gov (United States)

Augner, Christoph; Hacker, Gerhard W; Jekel, Ilse

2010-06-01

The aim of the study was to evaluate whether two different locations in the same room as tested by dowsers ("geopathic stress zone" [GSZ] versus "more neutral zone" [NZ]) would show significant short-term effects on work performance and well-being. It was also tested whether a device reported to "neutralize" GSZ would influence results obtained with the specific setup used in this study. This was a blinded, randomized, short-term laboratory experiment using a within-subject design. The study was conducted in the laboratory of the Research Institute for Frontier Questions of Medicine and Biotechnology at Salzburg Federal Hospital. The subjects were 26 persons, aged 20-57. Participants had to accomplish reaction tasks during three different conditions: GSZ, NZ, and GSZ with a device reported to "neutralize" GSZ. These conditions were counterbalanced into six different sequences and randomized to the subjects. At the end of each condition, a standardized well-being questionnaire had to be completed. Dependent variables were reactive stress tolerance (reaction time, timely right answers, right answers, false answers, left out) and well-being (described by six adjectives). No location-dependent effects on performance during reactive stress tolerance test were seen. For well-being, analysis of variance revealed a trend (p = 0.07) and showed significantly poorer well-being during the GSZ condition compared to NZ (p = 0.01). This study shows that well-being can be location dependent and that this might be caused by a so-called GSZ. However, in our short-term experiment, factors of work performance tested remained unaffected.

Short-horizon regulation for long-term investors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shi, Z.; Werker, B.J.M.

2012-01-01

We study the effects of imposing repeated short-horizon regulatory constraints on long-term investors. We show that Value-at-Risk and Expected Shortfall constraints, when imposed dynamically, lead to similar optimal portfolios and wealth distributions. We also show that, in utility terms, the costs

Ape Behavior in Two Alternating Environments: Comparing Exhibit and Short-Term Holding Areas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ross, Stephen R.; Wagner, Katherine E.; Schapiro, Steven J.

2010-01-01

be balanced with the desire to maintain enriching and naturalistic exhibit enclosures that benefit ape residents and attract the visiting public. In these settings, examinations of ape behavior and welfare typically focus exclusively on activity in the primary exhibit area. However, physical, social...... and sensory experiences unique to each area may shape different patterns of behavior. In the current study, zoo-living chimpanzees and gorillas were moved each day from exhibit areas to off-exhibit holding areas for a short duration as a part of regular management procedures. Behavioral data indicated species......-specific reactions to the holding area, including increased aggression and self-directed behavior by chimpanzees and increased activity and prosocial behavior among gorilla subjects. Both species showed more feeding-foraging behavior while in the exhibit enclosure. Results suggest that holding areas may not meet all...

Short-term adaptations as a response to travel time: results of a stated adaptation experimentincreases

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Psarra, I.; Arentze, T.A.; Timmermans, H.J.P.

2016-01-01

This study focused on short-term dynamics of activity-travel behavior as a response to travel time increases. It is assumed that short-term changes are triggered by stress, which is defined as the deviation between an individual’s aspirations and his or her daily experiences. When stress exceeds a

Emotion-based decision-making in healthy subjects: short-term effects of reducing dopamine levels.

Science.gov (United States)

Sevy, Serge; Hassoun, Youssef; Bechara, Antoine; Yechiam, Eldad; Napolitano, Barbara; Burdick, Katherine; Delman, Howard; Malhotra, Anil

2006-10-01

Converging evidences from animal and human studies suggest that addiction is associated with dopaminergic dysfunction in brain reward circuits. So far, it is unclear what aspects of addictive behaviors are related to a dopaminergic dysfunction. We hypothesize that a decrease in dopaminergic activity impairs emotion-based decision-making. To demonstrate this hypothesis, we investigated the effects of a decrease in dopaminergic activity on the performance of an emotion-based decision-making task, the Iowa gambling task (IGT), in 11 healthy human subjects. We used a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject design to examine the effect of a mixture containing the branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) valine, isoleucine and leucine on prolactin, IGT performance, perceptual competency and visual aspects of visuospatial working memory, visual attention and working memory, and verbal memory. The expectancy-valence model was used to determine the relative contributions of distinct IGT components (attention to past outcomes, relative weight of wins and losses, and choice strategies) in the decision-making process. Compared to placebo, the BCAA mixture increased prolactin levels and impaired IGT performance. BCAA administration interfered with a particular component process of decision-making related to attention to more recent events as compared to more distant events. There were no differences between placebo and BCAA conditions for other aspects of cognition. Our results suggest a direct link between a reduced dopaminergic activity and poor emotion-based decision-making characterized by shortsightedness, and thus difficulties resisting short-term reward, despite long-term negative consequences. These findings have implications for behavioral and pharmacological interventions targeting impaired emotion-based decision-making in addictive disorders.

Retroactive effects of irrelevant speech on serial recall from short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Norris, Dennis; Baddeley, Alan D; Page, Michael P A

2004-09-01

The authors report 5 serial-recall experiments. In 4 of the 5 experiments, they show that irrelevant sound (IS) has a retroactive effect on material already in memory. In Experiment 1, IS presented during a filled retention interval had a reliable effect on list recall. Four further experiments, 3 of which used retroactive IS, showed that IS continued to-have an effect on recall following a long, filled retention interval. Articulatory suppression during visual input was found to abolish the long-lasting, retroactive effect of IS, supporting the idea that IS affects the phonological-loop component of short-term memory. IS also, therefore, seems to affect a longer term memory system with which the loop interacts. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

Examining the Contemporaneous, Short-Term, and Long-Term Effects of Secondary Exposure to Violence on Adolescent Substance Use.

Science.gov (United States)

Zimmerman, Gregory M; Kushner, Mackenzie

2017-09-01

The relationship between secondary exposure to violence-defined as witnessing violence in the home, community, or school-and adolescent substance use is well-documented. Yet, multi-wave empirical studies examining this relationship are sparse. In addition, studies have only begun to examine whether this relationship varies by the situational components of the violent event. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), this study examines the contemporaneous, short-term, and long-term effects of secondary exposure to violence on substance use, and whether witnessing violence in which a weapon is present has a different impact on adolescent substance use than does witnessing violence without a weapon. Hierarchical logistic regression models on a racially and ethnically diverse sample of 1670 youth (51.5% female) residing in 79 neighborhoods indicated that: (1) the effects of secondary exposure to violence on alcohol and marijuana use were enduring, albeit attenuated, over time; (2) the effect of secondary exposure to violence on illicit drug use was suppressed in the short-term but significant in the long-term; (3) witnessing violence without a weapon was salient for alcohol and marijuana use at all time points; and (4) witnessing violence with a weapon impacted illicit drug use in the long-term. The results suggest that addressing the consequences of secondary exposure to violence requires prolonged intervention efforts and that the study of secondary exposure to violence requires a more nuanced approach that accounts for situational aspects of the violent event.

Effects of short-term variability of meteorological variables on soil temperature in permafrost regions

Science.gov (United States)

Beer, Christian; Porada, Philipp; Ekici, Altug; Brakebusch, Matthias

2018-03-01

Effects of the short-term temporal variability of meteorological variables on soil temperature in northern high-latitude regions have been investigated. For this, a process-oriented land surface model has been driven using an artificially manipulated climate dataset. Short-term climate variability mainly impacts snow depth, and the thermal diffusivity of lichens and bryophytes. These impacts of climate variability on insulating surface layers together substantially alter the heat exchange between atmosphere and soil. As a result, soil temperature is 0.1 to 0.8 °C higher when climate variability is reduced. Earth system models project warming of the Arctic region but also increasing variability of meteorological variables and more often extreme meteorological events. Therefore, our results show that projected future increases in permafrost temperature and active-layer thickness in response to climate change will be lower (i) when taking into account future changes in short-term variability of meteorological variables and (ii) when representing dynamic snow and lichen and bryophyte functions in land surface models.

Ultra-Short-Term Heart Rate Variability is Sensitive to Training Effects in Team Sports Players.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakamura, Fabio Y; Flatt, Andrew A; Pereira, Lucas A; Ramirez-Campillo, Rodrigo; Loturco, Irineu; Esco, Michael R

2015-09-01

The aim of this study was to test the possibility of the ultra-short-term lnRMSSD (measured in 1-min post-1-min stabilization period) to detect training induced adaptations in futsal players. Twenty-four elite futsal players underwent HRV assessments pre- and post-three or four weeks preseason training. From the 10-min HRV recording period, lnRMSSD was analyzed in the following time segments: 1) from 0-5 min (i.e., stabilization period); 2) from 0-1 min; 1-2 min; 2-3 min; 3-4 min; 4-5 min and; 3) from 5-10 min (i.e., criterion period). The lnRMSSD was almost certainly higher (100/00/00) using the magnitude-based inference in all periods at the post- moment. The correlation between changes in ultra-short-term lnRMSSD (i.e., 0-1 min; 1-2 min; 2-3 min; 3-4 min; 4-5 min) and lnRMSSDCriterion ranged between 0.45-0.75, with the highest value (p = 0.75; 90% CI: 0.55 - 0.85) found between ultra-short-term lnRMDSSD at 1-2 min and lnRMSSDCriterion. In conclusion, lnRMSSD determined in a short period of 1-min is sensitive to training induced changes in futsal players (based on the very large correlation to the criterion measure), and can be used to track cardiac autonomic adaptations. Key pointsThe ultra-short-term (1 min) natural log of the root-mean-square difference of successive normal RR intervals (lnRMSSD) is sensitive to training effects in futsal playersThe ultra-short-term lnRMSSD may simplify the assessment of the cardiac autonomic changes in the field compared to the traditional and lengthier (10 min duration) analysisCoaches are encouraged to implement the ultra-short-term heart rate variability in their routines to monitor team sports athletes.

Some effects of cognitive similarity on proactive and retriactive interference in short-term memory

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bunt, A.A.; Sanders, A.F.

1972-01-01

An experiment is reported on the effects of cognitive similarity on proactive and retroactive interference (PI, RI) in short term memory. To avoid confounding between cognitive and acoustic similarity, the materials - i.e. words and digits - were matched with respect to vowel pattern. Effects of

Category Specific Knowledge Modulate Capacity Limitations of Visual Short-Term Memory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dall, Jonas Olsen; Watanabe, Katsumi; Sørensen, Thomas Alrik

2016-01-01

We explore whether expertise can modulate the capacity of visual short-term memory, as some seem to argue that training affects capacity of short-term memory [13] while others are not able to find this modulation [12]. We extend on a previous study [3] demonstrating expertise effects by investiga...... are in line with the theoretical interpretation that visual short-term memory reflects the sum of the reverberating feedback loops to representations in long-term memory.......We explore whether expertise can modulate the capacity of visual short-term memory, as some seem to argue that training affects capacity of short-term memory [13] while others are not able to find this modulation [12]. We extend on a previous study [3] demonstrating expertise effects......), and expert observers (Japanese university students). For both the picture and the letter condition we find no performance difference in memory capacity, however, in the critical hiragana condition we demonstrate a systematic difference relating expertise differences between the groups. These results...

Simulation of short-term annealing of displacement cascades in FCC metals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heinisch, H.L.; Doran, D.G.; Schwartz, D.M.

1980-01-01

Computer models have been developed for the simulation of high energy displacement cascades. The objective is the generation of defect production functions for use in correlation analysis of radiation effects in fusion reactor materials. In particular, the stochastic cascade annealing simulation code SCAS has been developed and used to model the short-term annealing behavior of simulated cascades in FCC metals. The code is fast enough to make annealing of high energy cascades practical. Sets of cascades from 5 keV to 100 keV in copper were generated by the binary collision code MARLOWE

Stress-related endocrinological and psychopathological effects of short- and long-term 50Hz electromagnetic field exposure in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Szemerszky, Renáta; Zelena, Dóra; Barna, István; Bárdos, György

2010-01-15

It is believed that different electromagnetic fields do have beneficial and harmful biological effects. The aim of the present work was to study the long-term consequences of 50 Hz electromagnetic field (ELF-EMF) exposure with special focus on the development of chronic stress and stress-induced psychopathology. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to ELF-EMF (50 Hz, 0.5 mT) for 5 days, 8h daily (short) or for 4-6 weeks, 24h daily (long). Anxiety was studied in elevated plus maze test, whereas depression-like behavior of the long-treated group was examined in the forced swim test. Some days after behavioral examination, the animals were decapitated among resting conditions and organ weights, blood hormone levels as well as proopiomelanocortin mRNA level from the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland were measured. Both treatments were ineffective on somatic parameters, namely none of the changes characteristic to chronic stress (body weight reduction, thymus involution and adrenal gland hypertrophy) were present. An enhanced blood glucose level was found after prolonged ELF-EMF exposure (p=0.013). The hormonal stress reaction was similar in control and short-term exposed rats, but significant proopiomelanocortin elevation (pfloating time; p=0.006) were found following long-term ELF-EMF exposure. Taken together, long and continuous exposure to relatively high intensity electromagnetic field may count as a mild stress situation and could be a factor in the development of depressive state or metabolic disturbances. Although we should stress that the average intensity of the human exposure is normally much smaller than in the present experiment.

Short-term effect of two education methods on oral health among hearing impairment children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shiva Pouradeli

2016-12-01

CONCLUSION: Both video and dental model effectively improve the oral health of children with HI in short term. Continuous school-based oral health education programs, particularly for HI children, need to be considered.

Short-Term Effectiveness of Psychotherapy Treatments Delivered at a University Counselling Service

Science.gov (United States)

Monti, Fiorella; Tonetti, Lorenzo; Ricci Bitti, Pio Enrico

2016-01-01

This work aimed to evaluate the short-term effectiveness of psychotherapy delivered at the counselling service of the University of Bologna (Italy), by means of a single group longitudinal study including a 6-months follow-up. To this end, sixty-six students completed the 6-months follow-up and filled in the Symptom Questionnaire (SQ) three times,…

Short- and long-term health consequences of sleep disruption.

Science.gov (United States)

Medic, Goran; Wille, Micheline; Hemels, Michiel Eh

2017-01-01

Sleep plays a vital role in brain function and systemic physiology across many body systems. Problems with sleep are widely prevalent and include deficits in quantity and quality of sleep; sleep problems that impact the continuity of sleep are collectively referred to as sleep disruptions. Numerous factors contribute to sleep disruption, ranging from lifestyle and environmental factors to sleep disorders and other medical conditions. Sleep disruptions have substantial adverse short- and long-term health consequences. A literature search was conducted to provide a nonsystematic review of these health consequences (this review was designed to be nonsystematic to better focus on the topics of interest due to the myriad parameters affected by sleep). Sleep disruption is associated with increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, metabolic effects, changes in circadian rhythms, and proinflammatory responses. In otherwise healthy adults, short-term consequences of sleep disruption include increased stress responsivity, somatic pain, reduced quality of life, emotional distress and mood disorders, and cognitive, memory, and performance deficits. For adolescents, psychosocial health, school performance, and risk-taking behaviors are impacted by sleep disruption. Behavioral problems and cognitive functioning are associated with sleep disruption in children. Long-term consequences of sleep disruption in otherwise healthy individuals include hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, weight-related issues, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and colorectal cancer. All-cause mortality is also increased in men with sleep disturbances. For those with underlying medical conditions, sleep disruption may diminish the health-related quality of life of children and adolescents and may worsen the severity of common gastrointestinal disorders. As a result of the potential consequences of sleep disruption, health care

Effects of short-term xylitol gum chewing on the oral microbiome.

Science.gov (United States)

Söderling, Eva; ElSalhy, Mohamed; Honkala, Eino; Fontana, Margherita; Flannagan, Susan; Eckert, George; Kokaras, Alexis; Paster, Bruce; Tolvanen, Mimmi; Honkala, Sisko

2015-03-01

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of short-term xylitol gum chewing on the salivary microbiota of children. The study was a randomised, controlled, double-blind trial. Healthy children used xylitol chewing gum (xylitol group, n = 35) or sorbitol chewing gum (control group, n = 38) for 5 weeks. The daily dose of xylitol/sorbitol was approximately 6 g/day. At baseline and at the end of the test period, unstimulated and paraffin-stimulated saliva were collected. The microbial composition of the saliva was assessed using human oral microbe identification microarray (HOMIM). Mutans streptococci (MS) were plate cultured. As judged by HOMIM results, no xylitol-induced changes in the salivary microbiota took place in the xylitol group. In the control group, Veillonella atypica showed a significant decrease (p = 0.0001). The xylitol gum chewing decreased viable counts of MS in both stimulated (p = 0.006) and unstimulated (p = 0.002) saliva, but similar effects were also seen in the control group. The use of xylitol gum decreased MS, in general, but did not change the salivary microbial composition. Short-term consumption of xylitol had no impact on the composition of the salivary microbiota, but resulted in a decrease in the levels of MS.

The Effects of Antenatal Corticosteroids on Short- and Long-Term Outcomes in Small-for-Gestational-Age Infants

Science.gov (United States)

Ishikawa, Hiroshi; Miyazaki, Ken; Ikeda, Tomoaki; Murabayashi, Nao; Hayashi, Kazutoshi; Kai, Akihiko; Ishikawa, Kaoru; Miyamoto, Yoshihiro; Nishimura, Kunihiro; Kono, Yumi; Kusuda, Satoshi; Fujimura, Masanori

2015-01-01

Aim: To evaluate the effect of antenatal corticosteroids (ANS) on short- and long-term outcomes in small-for-gestational age (SGA) infants. Methods: A retrospective database analysis was performed. A total of 1,931 single infants (birth weight <1,500 g) born at a gestational age between 22 weeks and 33 weeks 6 days who were determined to be SGA registered in the Neonatal Research Network Database in Japan between 2003 and 2007 were evaluated for short-term outcome and long-term outcome. Results: ANS was administered to a total of 719 infants (37%) in the short-term outcome evaluation group and 344 infants (36%) in the long-term outcome evaluation group. There were no significant differences between the ANS group and the no-ANS group for primary short-term outcome (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.73; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.45-1.20; P-value 0.22) or primary long-term outcome (adjusted OR 0.69; 95% CI 0.40-1.17; P-value 0.17). Conclusions: Our results show that ANS does not affect short- or long-term outcome in SGA infants when the birth weight is less than 1500 g. This study strongly suggests that administration of ANS resulted in few benefits for preterm FGR fetuses. PMID:25897289

EFFECT OF SHORT-TERM ART INTERRUPTION ON LEVELS OF INTEGRATED HIV DNA.

Science.gov (United States)

Strongin, Zachary; Sharaf, Radwa; VanBelzen, D Jake; Jacobson, Jeffrey M; Connick, Elizabeth; Volberding, Paul; Skiest, Daniel J; Gandhi, Rajesh T; Kuritzkes, Daniel R; O'Doherty, Una; Li, Jonathan Z

2018-03-28

Analytic treatment interruption (ATI) studies are required to evaluate strategies aimed at achieving ART-free HIV remission, but the impact of ATI on the viral reservoir remains unclear. We validated a DNA size selection-based assay for measuring levels of integrated HIV DNA and applied it to assess the effects of short-term ATI on the HIV reservoir. Samples from participants from four AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) ATI studies were assayed for integrated HIV DNA levels. Cryopreserved PBMCs were obtained for 12 participants with available samples pre-ATI and approximately 6 months after ART resumption. Four participants also had samples available during the ATI. The median duration of ATI was 12 weeks. Validation of the HIV Integrated DNA size-Exclusion (HIDE) assay was performed using samples spiked with unintegrated HIV DNA, HIV-infected cell lines, and participant PBMCs. The HIDE assay eliminated 99% of unintegrated HIV DNA species and strongly correlated with the established Alu- gag assay. For the majority of individuals, integrated DNA levels increased during ATI and subsequently declined upon ART resumption. There was no significant difference in levels of integrated HIV DNA between the pre- and post-ATI time points, with the median ratio of post:pre-ATI HIV DNA levels of 0.95. Using a new integrated HIV DNA assay, we found minimal change in the levels of integrated HIV DNA in participants who underwent an ATI followed by 6 months of ART. This suggests that short-term ATI can be conducted without a significant impact on levels of integrated proviral DNA in the peripheral blood. IMPORTANCE Interventions aimed at achieving sustained antiretroviral therapy (ART)-free HIV remission require treatment interruption trials to assess their efficacy. However, these trials are accompanied by safety concerns related to the expansion of the viral reservoir. We validated an assay that uses an automated DNA size-selection platform for quantifying levels of integrated

The Effects of Aging on the Components of Auditory – Verbal Short-Term Memory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clémence Verhaegen

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This study aimed at exploring the effects of aging on the multiple components of the auditory-verbal short-term memory (STM. Participants of 45–54, 55–64, 65–74 and 75–84 years of age were presented STM tasks assessing short-term retention of order and item information, and of phonological and lexical-semantic information separately. Because older participants often present reduced hearing levels, we sought to control for an effect of hearing status on performance on STM tasks. Participants’ hearing thresholds were measured with a pure-tone audiometer. The results showed age-related effects on all STM components. However, after hearing status was controlled for in analyses of covariance, the age-related differences became non-significant for all STM processes. The fact that age-related hearing loss may in large part explain decreases in performance on STM tasks with aging is discussed.

DYNAMICS OF THE ANXIETY DISORDERS IN THE COURSE OF SHORT-TERM PSYCHOTHERAPY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T.N. Hmylova

2008-06-01

Full Text Available The tendency of psychotherapy modern concepts referring to the short-term forms having been taken into account, we carried out the research aimed at the study of short-term form personality-oriented psychotherapy effect on the anxiety disorder dynamics. 103 patients with neurotic disorders were examined in the neurosis and psychotherapy department of the Bekhterev Psychoneurological Research Institute. The findings revealed the situational and personal anxiety level to be objectively decreased in the short-term group psychotherapy course. The short-term group psychotherapy was proved to bean effective method in anxiety disorders treatment considering indications and limitations.

Parental divorce: long-term effects on mental health, family relations and adult sexual behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Jónsson, F H; Njardvik, U; Olafsdóttir, G; Grétarsson, S J

2000-06-01

Specific long term effects of parental divorce were examined in a sample of 179 Icelanders, 20 to 30 years of age. The participants answered the Borromean Family Index, the Affect Balance Scale and a number of questions on sexual behavior and attitudes towards marriage and divorce. Results showed that compared to adults whose parents remained married, those of divorced parents reported more negative emotional experiences at the time of the study and had looser family ties. They also had greater number of short love affairs, had their first love affair at a younger age, had a greater number of sexual partners, and were younger at the time of their first sexual intercourse than adults whose parents remained married.

The phonological neighbourhood effect on short-term memory for order.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarkson, L; Roodenrys, S; Miller, L M; Hulme, C

2017-03-01

There is a growing body of literature that suggests that long-term memory (LTM) and short-term memory (STM) structures that were once thought to be distinct are actually co-dependent, and that LTM can aid retrieval from STM. The mechanism behind this effect is commonly argued to act on item memory but not on order memory. The aim of the current study was to examine whether LTM could exert an influence on STM for order by examining an effect attributed to LTM, the phonological neighbourhood effect, in a task that reduced the requirement to retain item information. In Experiment 1, 18 participants completed a serial reconstruction task where neighbourhood density alternated within the lists. In Experiment 2, 22 participants completed a serial reconstruction task using pure lists of dense and sparse neighbourhood words. In Experiment 3, 22 participants completed a reconstruction task with both mixed and pure lists. There was a significant effect of neighbourhood density with better recall for dense than sparse neighbourhood words in pure lists but not in mixed lists. Results suggest that LTM exerts an influence prior to that proposed by many models of memory for order.

Short-term effects of a rights-based sexuality education curriculum for high-school students: a cluster-randomized trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Constantine, Norman A; Jerman, Petra; Berglas, Nancy F; Angulo-Olaiz, Francisca; Chou, Chih-Ping; Rohrbach, Louise A

2015-03-26

An emerging model for sexuality education is the rights-based approach, which unifies discussions of sexuality, gender norms, and sexual rights to promote the healthy sexual development of adolescents. A rigorous evaluation of a rights-based intervention for a broad population of adolescents in the U.S. has not previously been published. This paper evaluates the immediate effects of the Sexuality Education Initiative (SEI) on hypothesized psychosocial determinants of sexual behavior. A cluster-randomized trial was conducted with ninth-grade students at 10 high schools in Los Angeles. Classrooms at each school were randomized to receive either a rights-based curriculum or basic sex education (control) curriculum. Surveys were completed by 1,750 students (N = 934 intervention, N = 816 control) at pretest and immediate posttest. Multilevel regression models examined the short-term effects of the intervention on nine psychosocial outcomes, which were hypothesized to be mediators of students' sexual behaviors. Compared with students who received the control curriculum, students receiving the rights-based curriculum demonstrated significantly greater knowledge about sexual health and sexual health services, more positive attitudes about sexual relationship rights, greater communication about sex and relationships with parents, and greater self-efficacy to manage risky situations at immediate posttest. There were no significant differences between the two groups for two outcomes, communication with sexual partners and intentions to use condoms. Participation in the rights-based classroom curriculum resulted in positive, statistically significant effects on seven of nine psychosocial outcomes, relative to a basic sex education curriculum. Longer-term effects on students' sexual behaviors will be tested in subsequent analyses. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02009046.

Long-term effects of short-term retinal bleb detachments in rabbits.

Science.gov (United States)

Ivert, Lena; Kjeldbye, Hild; Gouras, Peter

2002-03-01

To examine the effects of saline-induced bleb detachments in rabbit retina. Retinal bleb detachments were produced by the injection of 50 microl of balanced salt solution (BSS) into the subretinal space of one eye of each of six rabbits using a glass pipette with a flat tip, 50 microm in diameter. The retina was examined by biomicroscopy, scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO), auto-fluorescence and simultaneous fluorescein and indocyanine green (ICG) angiography. Histological examination was carried out at 1, 2, 3 and 4 months after surgery. All rabbits showed leakage of fluorescein for at least a day after detachment, but within 1 month the leakage ceased. ICG staining developed gradually at the level of the RPE or Bruch's membrane near sites of previous staining. Lipofuscin fluorescence also developed gradually around areas of staining. Histology revealed the source of the excessive lipofuscin to be in the RPE layer, especially in cells migrating away from Bruch's membrane. Short-term bleb detachments cause a transient breakdown in the blood-retinal barrier, long-term ICG staining at or deep to the RPE layer, hyperlipofuscinosis and migration of the RPE. The abnormal lipofuscin accumulation is apparent on fluorescence ophthalmoscopy and can be confused with markers such as green fluorescent protein.

What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory?

Science.gov (United States)

Cowan, Nelson

2008-01-01

In the recent literature there has been considerable confusion about the three types of memory: long-term, short-term, and working memory. This chapter strives to reduce that confusion and makes up-to-date assessments of these types of memory. Long- and short-term memory could differ in two fundamental ways, with only short-term memory demonstrating (1) temporal decay and (2) chunk capacity limits. Both properties of short-term memory are still controversial but the current literature is rather encouraging regarding the existence of both decay and capacity limits. Working memory has been conceived and defined in three different, slightly discrepant ways: as short-term memory applied to cognitive tasks, as a multi-component system that holds and manipulates information in short-term memory, and as the use of attention to manage short-term memory. Regardless of the definition, there are some measures of memory in the short term that seem routine and do not correlate well with cognitive aptitudes and other measures (those usually identified with the term "working memory") that seem more attention demanding and do correlate well with these aptitudes. The evidence is evaluated and placed within a theoretical framework depicted in Fig. 1.

Insensitivity of visual short-term memory to irrelevant visual information

OpenAIRE

Andrade, Jackie; Kemps, Eva; Werniers, Yves; May, Jon; Szmalec, Arnaud

2002-01-01

Several authors have hypothesised that visuo-spatial working memory is functionally analogous to verbal working memory. Irrelevant background speech impairs verbal short-term memory. We investigated whether irrelevant visual information has an analogous effect on visual short-term memory, using a dynamic visual noise (DVN) technique known to disrupt visual imagery (Quinn & McConnell, 1996a). Experiment 1 replicated the effect of DVN on pegword imagery. Experiments 2 and 3 showed no effect of ...

Predictive Validity of the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale for Short-Term Suicidal Behavior: A Danish Study of Adolescents at a High Risk of Suicide.

Science.gov (United States)

Conway, Paul Maurice; Erlangsen, Annette; Teasdale, Thomas William; Jakobsen, Ida Skytte; Larsen, Kim Juul

2017-07-03

Using the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), we examined the predictive and incremental predictive validity of past-month suicidal behavior and ideation for short-term suicidal behavior among adolescents at high risk of suicide. The study was conducted in 2014 on a sample of 85 adolescents (90.6% females) who participated at follow-up (85.9%) out of the 99 (49.7%) baseline respondents. All adolescents were recruited from a specialized suicide-prevention clinic in Denmark. Through multivariate logistic regression analyses, we examined whether baseline suicidal behavior predicted subsequent suicidal behavior (actual attempts and suicidal behavior of any type, including preparatory acts, aborted, interrupted and actual attempts; mean follow-up of 80.8 days, SD = 52.4). Furthermore, we examined whether suicidal ideation severity and intensity incrementally predicted suicidal behavior at follow-up over and above suicidal behavior at baseline. Actual suicide attempts at baseline strongly predicted suicide attempts at follow-up. Baseline suicidal ideation severity and intensity did not significantly predict future actual attempts over and above baseline attempts. The suicidal ideation intensity items deterrents and duration were significant predictors of subsequent actual attempts after adjustment for baseline suicide attempts and suicidal behavior of any type, respectively. Suicidal ideation severity and intensity, and the intensity items frequency, duration and deterrents, all significantly predicted any type of suicidal behavior at follow-up, also after adjusting for baseline suicidal behavior. The present study points to an incremental predictive validity of the C-SSRS suicidal ideation scales for short-term suicidal behavior of any type among high-risk adolescents.

Misremembering what you see or hear: Dissociable effects of modality on short- and long-term false recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Olszewska, Justyna M; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A; Munier, Emily; Bendler, Sara A

2015-09-01

False working memories readily emerge using a visual item-recognition variant of the converging associates task. Two experiments, manipulating study and test modality, extended prior working memory results by demonstrating a reliable false recognition effect (more false alarms to associatively related lures than to unrelated lures) within seconds of encoding in either the visual or auditory modality. However, false memories were nearly twice as frequent when study lists were seen than when they were heard, regardless of test modality, although study-test modality mismatch was generally disadvantageous (consistent with encoding specificity). A final experiment that varied study-test modality using a hybrid short- and long-term memory test (Flegal, Atkins & Reuter-Lorenz, 2010) replicated the auditory advantage in the short term but revealed a reversal in the long term: The false memory effect was greater in the auditory study-test condition than in the visual study-test condition. Thus, the same encoding conditions gave rise to an opposite modality advantage depending on whether recognition was tested under short-term or long-term memory conditions. Although demonstrating continuity in associative processing across delay, the results indicate that delay condition affects the availability of modality-dependent features of the memory trace and, thus, distinctiveness, leading to dissociable patterns of short- and long-term memory performance. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The Sleeper Effect of Intimate Partner Violence Exposure: Long-Term Consequences on Young Children's Aggressive Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Holmes, Megan R.

2013-01-01

Background: Children who have been exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) experience a wide variety of short-term social adjustment and emotional difficulties, including externalizing behavioral problems such as aggression. While children are affected by IPV at all ages, little is known about the long-term consequences of IPV exposure at…

Short- and long-term functional effects of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in hemodialysis vascular access

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J. van der Linden (Joke); J.H. Smits (Johannes); J.H. Assink (Jan Hendrik); D.W. Wolterbeek (Derk); J.J. Zijlstra (Jan); G.H.T. de Jong (Gijs); M.A. van den Dorpel (Marinus); P.J. Blankestijn (Peter)

2002-01-01

textabstractThe efficacy of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) is usually expressed as the angiographic result. Access flow (Qa) measurements offer a means to quantify the functional effects. This study was performed to evaluate the short-term functional and

Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of an experimental short-term inpatient Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) program: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

van den Bosch, Louisa M C; Sinnaeve, Roland; Hakkaart-van Roijen, Leona; van Furth, Eric F

2014-05-01

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a serious psychiatric condition associated with substantial mortality, burden and public health costs. DBT is the treatment model with the largest number of published research articles showing effectiveness. However, some patients are not sufficiently engaged in outpatient treatment while presenting severe parasuicidal behavior, making hospitalization necessary. The Center for Personality Disorders Jelgersma developed an intensive 12-week inpatient DBT program that (i) rapidly reduces core borderline symptoms like suicidal behavior, (ii) minimizes the negative effects of an inpatient setting, and (iii) enhances compliance with outpatient treatment. We evaluate the (cost-) effectiveness of this experimental program. Seventy patients, aged 18 to 45 years with a primary diagnosis of BPD, showing a chronic pattern of parasuicidal gestures and/or reporting high degrees of severity of other borderline symptoms, are randomly allocated to the control and intervention groups. Subjects in the control group receive standard outpatient DBT, provided in one of three regular mental health settings in GGZ Rivierduinen. Subjects in the intervention group receive 12 weeks of intensified inpatient DBT plus six months of standard DBT, provided in the Center for Personality Disorders Jelgersma. The primary outcome is the number of suicide attempts/self-harming acts. Secondary outcomes are severity of other borderline complaints, quality of life, general psychopathological symptoms and health care utilization and productivity costs. Data are gathered using a prospective, two (group: intervention and control) by five (time of measurement) repeated measures factorial design.Participants will complete three-monthly outcome assessments in the course of therapy: at baseline, and 12, 24, 36 and 52 weeks after the start of the treatment. The period of recruitment started in March 2012 and the study will end in December 2014. Highly suicidal

Short-term effects of manipulative treatment versus a therapeutic home exercise protocol for chronic cervical pain

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Galindez-Ibarbengoetxea, Xabier; Setuain, Igor; Ramírez-Velez, Robinson

2018-01-01

BACKGROUND: While both manipulative treatment and physical exercises are used to treat cervical pain, it remains unclear which is most effective. OBJECTIVE: To compare the short-term effects of high-velocity, low-amplitude manipulation techniques (MT) with those of home-exercise (HE) with stretch......BACKGROUND: While both manipulative treatment and physical exercises are used to treat cervical pain, it remains unclear which is most effective. OBJECTIVE: To compare the short-term effects of high-velocity, low-amplitude manipulation techniques (MT) with those of home-exercise (HE...... scale (VAS); neck disability index (NDI); pressure pain thresholds; cervical spine range of motion and electromyography during the cranio-cervical flexion test was measured before and one week after the intervention. RESULTS: After the intervention, both groups showed improved (P

What do short-term and long-term relationships look like? Building the relationship coordination and strategic timing (ReCAST) model.

Science.gov (United States)

Eastwick, Paul W; Keneski, Elizabeth; Morgan, Taylor A; McDonald, Meagan A; Huang, Sabrina A

2018-05-01

Close relationships research has examined committed couples (e.g., dating relationships, marriages) using intensive methods that plot relationship development over time. But a substantial proportion of people's real-life sexual experiences take place (a) before committed relationships become "official" and (b) in short-term relationships; methods that document the time course of relationships have rarely been applied to these contexts. We adapted a classic relationship trajectory-plotting technique to generate the first empirical comparisons between the features of people's real-life short-term and long-term relationships across their entire timespan. Five studies compared long-term and short-term relationships in terms of the timing of relationship milestones (e.g., flirting, first sexual intercourse) and the occurrence/intensity of important relationship experiences (e.g., romantic interest, strong sexual desire, attachment). As romantic interest was rising and partners were becoming acquainted, long-term and short-term relationships were indistinguishable. Eventually, romantic interest in short-term relationships plateaued and declined while romantic interest in long-term relationships continued to rise, ultimately reaching a higher peak. As relationships progressed, participants evidenced more features characteristic of the attachment-behavioral system (e.g., attachment, caregiving) in long-term than short-term relationships but similar levels of other features (e.g., sexual desire, self-promotion, intrasexual competition). These data inform a new synthesis of close relationships and evolutionary psychological perspectives called the Relationship Coordination and Strategic Timing (ReCAST) model. ReCAST depicts short-term and long-term relationships as partially overlapping trajectories (rather than relationships initiated with distinct strategies) that differ in their progression along a normative relationship development sequence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c

Conversion of short-term to long-term memory in the novel object recognition paradigm.

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Shannon J; Deshpande, Kaivalya; Stinnett, Gwen S; Seasholtz, Audrey F; Murphy, Geoffrey G

2013-10-01

It is well-known that stress can significantly impact learning; however, whether this effect facilitates or impairs the resultant memory depends on the characteristics of the stressor. Investigation of these dynamics can be confounded by the role of the stressor in motivating performance in a task. Positing a cohesive model of the effect of stress on learning and memory necessitates elucidating the consequences of stressful stimuli independently from task-specific functions. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine the effect of manipulating a task-independent stressor (elevated light level) on short-term and long-term memory in the novel object recognition paradigm. Short-term memory was elicited in both low light and high light conditions, but long-term memory specifically required high light conditions during the acquisition phase (familiarization trial) and was independent of the light level during retrieval (test trial). Additionally, long-term memory appeared to be independent of stress-mediated glucocorticoid release, as both low and high light produced similar levels of plasma corticosterone, which further did not correlate with subsequent memory performance. Finally, both short-term and long-term memory showed no savings between repeated experiments suggesting that this novel object recognition paradigm may be useful for longitudinal studies, particularly when investigating treatments to stabilize or enhance weak memories in neurodegenerative diseases or during age-related cognitive decline. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Long-term Diet and Biomarker Changes after a Short-term Intervention among Hispanic Breast Cancer Survivors: The ¡Cocinar Para Su Salud! Randomized Controlled Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenlee, Heather; Ogden Gaffney, Ann; Aycinena, A Corina; Koch, Pam; Contento, Isobel; Karmally, Wahida; Richardson, John M; Shi, Zaixing; Lim, Emerson; Tsai, Wei-Yann; Santella, Regina M; Blaner, William S; Clugston, Robin D; Cremers, Serge; Pollak, Susan; Sirosh, Iryna; Crew, Katherine D; Maurer, Matthew; Kalinsky, Kevin; Hershman, Dawn L

2016-11-01

Among Hispanic breast cancer survivors, we examined the long-term effects of a short-term culturally based dietary intervention on increasing fruits/vegetables (F/V), decreasing fat, and changing biomarkers associated with breast cancer recurrence risk. Spanish-speaking women (n = 70) with a history of stage 0-III breast cancer who completed treatment were randomized to ¡Cocinar Para Su Salud! (n = 34), a culturally based 9-session program (24 hours over 12 weeks, including nutrition education, cooking classes, and food-shopping field trips), or a control group (n = 36, written dietary recommendations for breast cancer survivors). Diet recalls, fasting blood, and anthropometric measures were collected at baseline, 6, and 12 months. We report changes between groups at 12 months in dietary intake and biomarkers using 2-sample Wilcoxon t tests and generalized estimating equation (GEE) models. At 12 months, the intervention group compared with the control group reported higher increases in mean daily F/V servings (total: +2.0 vs. -0.4; P Salud! program was effective at increasing long-term F/V intake in Hispanic breast cancer survivors and changed biomarkers associated with breast cancer recurrence risk. It is possible for short-term behavioral interventions to have long-term effects on behaviors and biomarkers in minority cancer patient populations. Results can inform future study designs. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 25(11); 1491-502. ©2016 AACR. ©2016 American Association for Cancer Research.

The (lack of) effect of dynamic visual noise on the concreteness effect in short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Castellà, Judit; Campoy, Guillermo

2018-05-17

It has been suggested that the concreteness effect in short-term memory (STM) is a consequence of concrete words having more distinctive and richer semantic representations. The generation and storage of visual codes in STM could also play a crucial role on the effect because concrete words are more imaginable than abstract words. If this were the case, the introduction of a visual interference task would be expected to disrupt recall of concrete words. A Dynamic Visual Noise (DVN) display, which has been proven to eliminate the concreteness effect on long-term memory (LTM), was presented along encoding of concrete and abstract words in a STM serial recall task. Results showed a main effect of word type, with more item errors in abstract words, a main effect of DVN, which impaired global performance due to more order errors, but no interaction, suggesting that DVN did not have any impact on the concreteness effect. These findings are discussed in terms of LTM participation through redintegration processes and in terms of the language-based models of verbal STM.

The Demonstration of Short-Term Consolidation.

Science.gov (United States)

Jolicoeur, Pierre; Dell'Acqua, Roberto

1998-01-01

Results of seven experiments involving 112 college students or staff using a dual-task approach provide evidence that encoding information into short-term memory involves a distinct process termed short-term consolidation (STC). Results suggest that STC has limited capacity and that it requires central processing mechanisms. (SLD)

Short-term effect of American summer treatment program for Japanese children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamashita, Yushiro; Mukasa, Akiko; Honda, Yuko; Anai, Chizuru; Kunisaki, Chie; Koutaki, Jun-ichi; Motoyama, Satoko; Miura, Naoki; Sugimoto, Ami; Ohya, Takashi; Nakashima, Masayuki; Nagamitsu, Shin-ichiro; Gnagy, Elizabeth M; Greiner, Andrew R; Pelham, William E; Matsuishi, Toyojiro

2010-02-01

We reported the results of the 3-week summer treatment program (STP) for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 2006. The STP was based on methods established by Professor Pelham in Buffalo, NY and has been used in a number of studies and at a number of sites in the U.S. This is the first STP outside North America. Thirty-six children age 6-12 years with ADHD participated. The collection of evidence-based behavioral modification techniques that comprises the STP's behavioral program (e.g., point system, daily report card, positive reinforcement, time out) was used. Most children showed positive behavioral changes in multiple domains of functioning, demonstrated by significant improvement in points earned daily, which reflect behavior frequencies. Only one child with ADHD co-morbid with pervasive developmental disorder required an individualized program for excessive time outs. The ADHD rating scale, symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder, and hyperactivity/inattention in Strength and Difficulties Questionnaires evaluated by parents significantly improved after STP. Although the 3-week STP was much shorter than most STPs run in the U.S., the program is more intensive than typical outpatient treatment, providing 105h of intervenion in 3 weeks. The short-term effect of the STP was demonstrated for Japanese children with ADHD. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

GSM base stations: short-term effects on well-being.

Science.gov (United States)

Augner, Christoph; Florian, Matthias; Pauser, Gernot; Oberfeld, Gerd; Hacker, Gerhard W

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of short-term GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) cellular phone base station RF-EMF (radiofrequency electromagnetic fields) exposure on psychological symptoms (good mood, alertness, calmness) as measured by a standardized well-being questionnaire. Fifty-seven participants were selected and randomly assigned to one of three different exposure scenarios. Each of those scenarios subjected participants to five 50-min exposure sessions, with only the first four relevant for the study of psychological symptoms. Three exposure levels were created by shielding devices in a field laboratory, which could be installed or removed during the breaks between sessions such that double-blinded conditions prevailed. The overall median power flux densities were 5.2 microW/m(2) during "low," 153.6 microW/m(2) during "medium," and 2126.8 microW/m(2) during "high" exposure sessions. For scenario HM and MH, the first and third sessions were "low" exposure. The second session was "high" and the fourth was "medium" in scenario HM; and vice versa for scenario MH. Scenario LL had four successive "low" exposure sessions constituting the reference condition. Participants in scenarios HM and MH (high and medium exposure) were significantly calmer during those sessions than participants in scenario LL (low exposure throughout) (P = 0.042). However, no significant differences between exposure scenarios in the "good mood" or "alertness" factors were obtained. We conclude that short-term exposure to GSM base station signals may have an impact on well-being by reducing psychological arousal. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Ecotoxicological evaluation of the short term effects of fresh and stabilized textile sludges before application in forest soil restoration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosa, Edson V.C.; Giuradelli, Thayse M.; Correa, Albertina X.R.; Roerig, Leonardo R.; Schwingel, Paulo R.; Resgalla, Charrid; Radetski, Claudemir M.

2007-01-01

The short term (eco)toxicity potential of fresh and stabilized textile sludges, as well as the short term (eco)toxicity of leachates obtained from both fresh and stabilized textile sludges, was evaluated by a battery of toxicity tests carried out with bacteria, algae, daphnids, fish, earthworms, and higher plants. The (eco)toxicological results showed that, after 120 d of stabilization, the experimental loading ratio of 25% sludge:75% soil (v/v) (equivalent to 64.4 ton/ha) did not significantly increase toxicity effects and increased significantly the biomass yield for earthworms and higher plants. The rank of biological sensitivity endpoints was: Algae ∼ Plant biomass > Plant germination ∼ Daphnids > Bacteria ∼ Fish > Annelids. The lack of short term toxicity effects and the stimulant effect observed with higher plants and earthworms are good indications of the fertilizer/conditioner potential of this industrial waste, which after stabilization can be used in the restoration of a non-productive forest soil. - Short term ecotoxicity evaluation of textile sludge showed that stabilized sludge can be used in the restoration of a non-productive forest soil

The effect of sepsis and short-term exposure to nitrous oxide on the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

It is recognised that prolonged anaesthesia with nitrous oxide (N20) induces megaloblastic anaemia by oxidising vitamin B12 To determine whether sepsis aggravates the effect of H20 on haemopoiesis 5 patients with severe sepsis, who required surgery and were exposed to short-term (45 - 105 minutes) N20 anaesthesia, ...

Spatiotemporal Proximity Effects in Visual Short-Term Memory Examined by Target-Nontarget Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Sapkota, Raju P.; Pardhan, Shahina; van der Linde, Ian

2016-01-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is a limited-capacity system that holds a small number of objects online simultaneously, implying that competition for limited storage resources occurs (Phillips, 1974). How the spatial and temporal proximity of stimuli affects this competition is unclear. In this 2-experiment study, we examined the effect of the…

Short-Term Effect of Prosthesis Transforming Sensory Modalities on Walking in Stroke Patients with Hemiparesis

Science.gov (United States)

Sekiguchi, Yusuke; Honda, Keita; Ishiguro, Akio

2016-01-01

Sensory impairments caused by neurological or physical disorders hamper kinesthesia, making rehabilitation difficult. In order to overcome this problem, we proposed and developed a novel biofeedback prosthesis called Auditory Foot for transforming sensory modalities, in which the sensor prosthesis transforms plantar sensations to auditory feedback signals. This study investigated the short-term effect of the auditory feedback prosthesis on walking in stroke patients with hemiparesis. To evaluate the effect, we compared four conditions of auditory feedback from plantar sensors at the heel and fifth metatarsal. We found significant differences in the maximum hip extension angle and ankle plantar flexor moment on the affected side during the stance phase, between conditions with and without auditory feedback signals. These results indicate that our sensory prosthesis could enhance walking performance in stroke patients with hemiparesis, resulting in effective short-term rehabilitation. PMID:27547456

Short-term depression and transient memory in sensory cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Gillary, Grant; Heydt, Rüdiger von der; Niebur, Ernst

2017-12-01

Persistent neuronal activity is usually studied in the context of short-term memory localized in central cortical areas. Recent studies show that early sensory areas also can have persistent representations of stimuli which emerge quickly (over tens of milliseconds) and decay slowly (over seconds). Traditional positive feedback models cannot explain sensory persistence for at least two reasons: (i) They show attractor dynamics, with transient perturbations resulting in a quasi-permanent change of system state, whereas sensory systems return to the original state after a transient. (ii) As we show, those positive feedback models which decay to baseline lose their persistence when their recurrent connections are subject to short-term depression, a common property of excitatory connections in early sensory areas. Dual time constant network behavior has also been implemented by nonlinear afferents producing a large transient input followed by much smaller steady state input. We show that such networks require unphysiologically large onset transients to produce the rise and decay observed in sensory areas. Our study explores how memory and persistence can be implemented in another model class, derivative feedback networks. We show that these networks can operate with two vastly different time courses, changing their state quickly when new information is coming in but retaining it for a long time, and that these capabilities are robust to short-term depression. Specifically, derivative feedback networks with short-term depression that acts differentially on positive and negative feedback projections are capable of dynamically changing their time constant, thus allowing fast onset and slow decay of responses without requiring unrealistically large input transients.

Short-term effects of air pollution on hospital admissions in Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Son, Ji-Young; Lee, Jong-Tae; Park, Yoon Hyeong; Bell, Michelle L

2013-07-01

Numerous studies have identified short-term effects of air pollution on morbidity in North America and Europe. The effects of air pollution may differ by region of the world. Evidence on air pollution and morbidity in Asia is limited. We investigated associations between ambient air pollution and hospital admissions in eight Korean cities for 2003-2008. We applied a two-stage Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate city-specific effects and the overall effects across the cities. We considered lagged effects of pollutants by cause (allergic disease, asthma, selected respiratory disease, and cardiovascular disease), sex, and age (0-14, 15-64, 65-74, and ≥ 75 years). We found evidence of associations between hospital admissions and short-term exposure to air pollution. An interquartile range (IQR) increase in PM10 (30.7 µg/m) was associated with an overall increase of 2.2% (95% posterior interval = 0.5%-3.9%), 2.8% (1.3%-4.4%), 1.7% (0.9%-2.6%), and 0.7% (0.0%-1.4%) in allergic, asthma, selected respiratory, and cardiovascular admissions, respectively. For NO2 (IQR 12.2 ppb), the corresponding figures were 2.3% (0.6%-4.0%), 2.2% (0.3%-4.1%), 2.2% (0.6%-3.7%), and 2.2% (1.1%-3.4%). For O3, we found positive associations for all the studied diagnoses except cardiovascular disease. SO2 was associated with hospital admissions for selected respiratory or cardiovascular causes, whereas O3 was negatively associated with cardiovascular admissions. We found suggestive evidence for stronger associations in younger and older age groups. Associations were similar for men and women. Ambient air pollution was associated with increased risk of hospital admissions in Korea. Results suggest increased susceptibility among the young or the elderly for pollution effects on specific diseases.

What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory?

OpenAIRE

Cowan, Nelson

2008-01-01

In the recent literature there has been considerable confusion about the three types of memory: long-term, short-term, and working memory. This chapter strives to reduce that confusion and makes up-to-date assessments of these types of memory. Long- and short-term memory could differ in two fundamental ways, with only short-term memory demonstrating (1) temporal decay and (2) chunk capacity limits. Both properties of short-term memory are still controversial but the current literature is rath...

Short-term effects of recombinant human growth hormone and feeding on gluconeogenesis in humans

Science.gov (United States)

After a short-term fast, lactating women have increased rates of glucose production but not gluconeogenesis (GNG) despite relative hypoinsulinemia. We explored the effects of non-insulin-dependent increase in glucose utilization and recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) on glucose production, glyc...

Short- and long-term effects of nicotine and the histone deacetylase inhibitor phenylbutyrate on novel object recognition in zebrafish.

Science.gov (United States)

Faillace, M P; Pisera-Fuster, A; Medrano, M P; Bejarano, A C; Bernabeu, R O

2017-03-01

Zebrafish have a sophisticated color- and shape-sensitive visual system, so we examined color cue-based novel object recognition in zebrafish. We evaluated preference in the absence or presence of drugs that affect attention and memory retention in rodents: nicotine and the histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) phenylbutyrate (PhB). The objective of this study was to evaluate whether nicotine and PhB affect innate preferences of zebrafish for familiar and novel objects after short- and long-retention intervals. We developed modified object recognition (OR) tasks using neutral novel and familiar objects in different colors. We also tested objects which differed with respect to the exploratory behavior they elicited from naïve zebrafish. Zebrafish showed an innate preference for exploring red or green objects rather than yellow or blue objects. Zebrafish were better at discriminating color changes than changes in object shape or size. Nicotine significantly enhanced or changed short-term innate novel object preference whereas PhB had similar effects when preference was assessed 24 h after training. Analysis of other zebrafish behaviors corroborated these results. Zebrafish were innately reluctant or prone to explore colored novel objects, so drug effects on innate preference for objects can be evaluated changing the color of objects with a simple geometry. Zebrafish exhibited recognition memory for novel objects with similar innate significance. Interestingly, nicotine and PhB significantly modified innate object preference.

An investigation of the effects of interference speech on short-term memory for verbally presented prose

Science.gov (United States)

Lodico, Dana M.; Torres, Rendell R.; Shimizu, Yasushi; Hunter, Claudia

2004-05-01

This study investigates the effects of interference speech and the built acoustical environment on human performance, and the possibility of designing spaces to architecturally meet the acoustical goals of office and classroom environments. The effects of room size, geometry, and acoustical parameters on human performance are studied through human subject testing. Three experiments are used to investigate the effects of distracting background speech on short-term memory for verbally presented prose under constrained laboratory conditions. Short-term memory performance is rated within four different acoustical spaces and five background noise levels, as well as a quiet condition. The presentation will cover research methods, results, and possibilities for furthering this research. [Work supported by the Program in Architectural Acoustics, School of Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Insight into the short- and long-term effects of Cu(II) on denitrifying biogranules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Hui; Chen, Qian-Qian; Jiang, Xiao-Yan; Hu, Hai-Yan; Shi, Man-Ling; Jin, Ren-Cun

2016-01-01

Highlights: • It is the first time to evaluate the effect of Cu"2"+ on denitrifying biogranules. • A high level of Cu(II) was investigated during batch assays and continuous tests. • Mechanisms of the effects of Cu"2"+ on denitrifying biogranules were discussed. • Effects of pre-exposure to Cu"2"+ and starvation treatments were investigated. - Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the short- and long-term effects of Cu"2"+ on the activity and performance of denitrifying bacteria. The short-term effects of various concentrations of Cu"2"+ on the denitrifying bacteria were evaluated using batch assays. The specific denitrifying activity (SDA) decreased from 14.3 ± 2.2 (without Cu"2"+) to 6.1 ± 0.1 mg N h"−"1 g"−"1 VSS (100 mgCu"2"+ L"−"1) when Cu"2"+ increased from 0 to 100 mg L"−"1 with an increment of 10 mgCu"2"+ L"−"1. A non-competitive inhibition model was used to calculate the 50% inhibition concentration (IC_5_0) of Cu"2"+ on denitrifying sludge (30.6 ± 2.5 mg L"−"1). Monod and Luong models were applied to investigate the influence of the initial substrate concentration, and the results suggested that the maximum substrate removal rate would be reduced with Cu"2"+ supplementation. Pre-exposure to Cu"2"+ could lead to an 18.2–46.2% decrease in the SDA and decreasing percentage of the SDA increased with both exposure time and concentration. In the continuous-flow test, Cu"2"+ concentration varied from 1 to 75 mg L"−"1; however, no clear deterioration was observed in the reactor, and the reactor was kept stable, with the total nitrogen removal efficiency and total organic carbon efficiency greater than 89.0 and 85.0%, respectively. The results demonstrated the short-term inhibition of Cu"2"+ upon denitrification, and no notable adversity was observed during the continuous-flow test after long-term acclimation.

Fall Preventive Exercise With or Without Behavior Change Support for Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial With Short-Term Follow-up.

Science.gov (United States)

Arkkukangas, Marina; Söderlund, Anne; Eriksson, Staffan; Johansson, Ann-Christin

2017-02-27

effects occurred within the OEP + MI group, indicating that there may be some possible value in behavioral change support combined with exercise in older adults that requires further evaluation in both short- and long-term studies.

Divergent short- and long-term effects of acute stress in object recognition memory are mediated by endogenous opioid system activation.

Science.gov (United States)

Nava-Mesa, Mauricio O; Lamprea, Marisol R; Múnera, Alejandro

2013-11-01

Acute stress induces short-term object recognition memory impairment and elicits endogenous opioid system activation. The aim of this study was thus to evaluate whether opiate system activation mediates the acute stress-induced object recognition memory changes. Adult male Wistar rats were trained in an object recognition task designed to test both short- and long-term memory. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive an intraperitoneal injection of saline, 1 mg/kg naltrexone or 3 mg/kg naltrexone, four and a half hours before the sample trial. Five minutes after the injection, half the subjects were submitted to movement restraint during four hours while the other half remained in their home cages. Non-stressed subjects receiving saline (control) performed adequately during the short-term memory test, while stressed subjects receiving saline displayed impaired performance. Naltrexone prevented such deleterious effect, in spite of the fact that it had no intrinsic effect on short-term object recognition memory. Stressed subjects receiving saline and non-stressed subjects receiving naltrexone performed adequately during the long-term memory test; however, control subjects as well as stressed subjects receiving a high dose of naltrexone performed poorly. Control subjects' dissociated performance during both memory tests suggests that the short-term memory test induced a retroactive interference effect mediated through light opioid system activation; such effect was prevented either by low dose naltrexone administration or by strongly activating the opioid system through acute stress. Both short-term memory retrieval impairment and long-term memory improvement observed in stressed subjects may have been mediated through strong opioid system activation, since they were prevented by high dose naltrexone administration. Therefore, the activation of the opioid system plays a dual modulating role in object recognition memory. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights

Short term memory bowing effect is consistent with presentation rate dependent decay.

Science.gov (United States)

Tarnow, Eugen

2010-12-01

I reanalyze the free recall data of Murdock, J Exp Psychol 64(5):482-488 (1962) and Murdock and Okada, J Verbal Learn and Verbal Behav 86:263-267 (1970) which show the famous bowing effect in which initial and recent items are recalled better than intermediate items (primacy and recency effects). Recent item recall probabilities follow a logarithmic decay with time of recall consistent with the tagging/retagging theory. The slope of the decay increases with increasing presentation rate. The initial items, with an effectively low presentation rate, decay with the slowest logarithmic slope, explaining the primacy effect. The finding that presentation rate limits the duration of short term memory suggests a basis for memory loss in busy adults, for the importance of slow music practice, for long term memory deficiencies for people with attention deficits who may be artificially increasing the presentation rates of their surroundings. A well-defined, quantitative measure of the primacy effect is introduced.

Short-term memory and dual task performance

Science.gov (United States)

Regan, J. E.

1982-01-01

Two hypotheses concerning the way in which short-term memory interacts with another task in a dual task situation are considered. It is noted that when two tasks are combined, the activity of controlling and organizing performance on both tasks simultaneously may compete with either task for a resource; this resource may be space in a central mechanism or general processing capacity or it may be some task-specific resource. If a special relationship exists between short-term memory and control, especially if there is an identity relationship between short-term and a central controlling mechanism, then short-term memory performance should show a decrement in a dual task situation. Even if short-term memory does not have any particular identity with a controlling mechanism, but both tasks draw on some common resource or resources, then a tradeoff between the two tasks in allocating resources is possible and could be reflected in performance. The persistent concurrence cost in memory performance in these experiments suggests that short-term memory may have a unique status in the information processing system.

[Short-term effects of a cognitive-behavioural group therapy in social phobia: evaluation of sixty patients].

Science.gov (United States)

Camart, N; André, C; Trybou, V; Bourdel, M-C

2006-01-01

This study analyses the short term effects of a cognitive-behavioral group therapy with 60 patients suffering from social phobia according to the diagnostic criteria of the DSM IV. The therapeutic program is based on 12 sessions of 2 hours (for 6 to 9 subjects) and includes exposure, cognitive restructuring and social skills training. The sample included 34 women and 26 men, with an average age of 34.8 years (SD=9.3). Most patients presented generalized social phobia (n=42; not generalized social phobia: n=18), and 24 received at least one comorbid axis I diagnosis. Subjects were evaluated before and after the therapy with instruments measuring the intensity of social phobia (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale), the assertiveness (Rathus Assertiveness Schedule), the disability associated with the disorder (Sheehan Disability Scale), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale and Beck shortened Depression Inventory), and self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale). The results show significant differences (pScale, total score) to 0.51 (Sheehan item 3), exhibiting patients' improvement on all variables. The highest effect sizes are observed with the instruments specifically designed for the assessment of social phobia (Liebowitz, Rathus and Sheehan scales). Our patients show the major improvements in the Liebowitz Scale (ES=1.29), the best indicator for social phobia, concerning the intensity of anxiety in social situations (ES=1.28) and concerning the frequency of avoidance (ES=1.16). Logically, the effect sizes are somehow lower on Sheehan (ES=1.06) and Rathus (ES=1.00) scales, which are less specifically centered on the score symptoms of social phobia. The improvement is also significant but less remarkable in the other measurements. The Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale reveals a reduction in the level of anxiety and depression, however more significant for anxiety (ES=0.88) than for depression (ES=0.60), that is consistent with the fact that social

Remembering over the short-term: the case against the standard model.

Science.gov (United States)

Nairne, James S

2002-01-01

Psychologists often assume that short-term storage is synonymous with activation, a mnemonic property that keeps information in an immediately accessible form. Permanent knowledge is activated, as a result of on-line cognitive processing, and an activity trace is established "in" short-term (or working) memory. Activation is assumed to decay spontaneously with the passage of time, so a refreshing process-rehearsal-is needed to maintain availability. Most of the phenomena of immediate retention, such as capacity limitations and word length effects, are assumed to arise from trade-offs between rehearsal and decay. This "standard model" of how we remember over the short-term still enjoys considerable popularity, although recent research questions most of its main assumptions. In this chapter I review the recent research and identify the empirical and conceptual problems that plague traditional conceptions of short-term memory. Increasingly, researchers are recognizing that short-term retention is cue driven, much like long-term memory, and that neither rehearsal nor decay is likely to explain the particulars of short-term forgetting.

Short-term effects of ultrafine particles on daily mortality by primary vehicle exhaust versus secondary origin in three Spanish cities.

Science.gov (United States)

Tobías, Aurelio; Rivas, Ioar; Reche, Cristina; Alastuey, Andrés; Rodríguez, Sergio; Fernández-Camacho, Rocío; Sánchez de la Campa, Ana M; de la Rosa, Jesús; Sunyer, Jordi; Querol, Xavier

2018-02-01

Evidence on the short-term effects of ultrafine particles (with diameterorigin of UFP determines their short-term effect on human health. BC is possibly the better parameter to evaluate the health effects of particulate vehicle exhaust emissions, although in areas influenced by domestic solid fuel combustion this should also be taken into account. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

False memory for face in short-term memory and neural activity in human amygdala.

Science.gov (United States)

Iidaka, Tetsuya; Harada, Tokiko; Sadato, Norihiro

2014-12-03

Human memory is often inaccurate. Similar to words and figures, new faces are often recognized as seen or studied items in long- and short-term memory tests; however, the neural mechanisms underlying this false memory remain elusive. In a previous fMRI study using morphed faces and a standard false memory paradigm, we found that there was a U-shaped response curve of the amygdala to old, new, and lure items. This indicates that the amygdala is more active in response to items that are salient (hit and correct rejection) compared to items that are less salient (false alarm), in terms of memory retrieval. In the present fMRI study, we determined whether the false memory for faces occurs within the short-term memory range (a few seconds), and assessed which neural correlates are involved in veridical and illusory memories. Nineteen healthy participants were scanned by 3T MRI during a short-term memory task using morphed faces. The behavioral results indicated that the occurrence of false memories was within the short-term range. We found that the amygdala displayed a U-shaped response curve to memory items, similar to those observed in our previous study. These results suggest that the amygdala plays a common role in both long- and short-term false memory for faces. We made the following conclusions: First, the amygdala is involved in detecting the saliency of items, in addition to fear, and supports goal-oriented behavior by modulating memory. Second, amygdala activity and response time might be related with a subject's response criterion for similar faces. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Short-term LNG-markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eldegard, Tom; Lund, Arne-Christian; Miltersen, Kristian; Rud, Linda

2005-01-01

The global Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) industry has experienced substantial growth in the past decades. In the traditional trade patterns of LNG the product has typically been handled within a dedicated chain of plants and vessels fully committed by long term contracts or common ownership, providing risk sharing of large investments in a non-liquid market. Increasing gas prices and substantial cost reductions in all parts of the LNG chain have made LNG projects viable even if only part of the capacity is secured by long-term contracts, opening for more flexible trade of the remainder. Increasing gas demand, especially in power generation, combined with cost reductions in the cost of LNG terminals, open new markets for LNG. For the LNG supplier, the flexibility of shifting volumes between regions represents an additional value. International trade in LNG has been increasing, now accounting for more than one fifth of the world's cross-border gas trade. Despite traditional vertical chain bonds, increased flexibility has contributed in fact to an increasing LNG spot trade, representing 8% of global trade in 2002. The focus of this paper is on the development of global short-term LNG markets, and their role with respect to efficiency and security of supply in European gas markets. Arbitrage opportunities arising from price differences between regional markets (such as North America versus Europe) are important impetuses for flexible short-term trade. However, the short-term LNG trade may suffer from problems related to market access, e.g. limited access to terminals and regulatory issues, as well as rigidities connected to vertical binding within the LNG chain. Important issues related to the role of short-term LNG-trade in the European gas market are: Competition, flexibility in meeting peak demand, security of supply and consequences of differences in pricing policies (oil-linked prices in Europe and spot market prices in North America). (Author)

Impact of long-term and short-term therapies on seminal parameters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jlenia Elia

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Aim: The aim of this work was: i to evaluate the prevalence of male partners of subfertile couples being treated with long/short term therapies for non andrological diseases; ii to study their seminal profile for the possible effects of their treatments on spermatogenesis and/or epididymal maturation. Methods: The study group was made up of 723 subjects, aged between 25 and 47 years. Semen analysis was performed according to World Health Organization (WHO guidelines (1999. The Superimposed Image Analysis System (SIAS, which is based on the computerized superimposition of spermatozoa images, was used to assess sperm motility parameters. Results: The prevalence of subjects taking pharmacological treatments was 22.7% (164/723. The prevalence was 3.7% (27/723 for the Short-Term Group and 18.9% (137/723 for the Long-Term Group. The subjects of each group were also subdivided into subgroups according to the treatments being received. Regarding the seminal profile, we did not observe a significant difference between the Long-Term, Short-Term or the Control Group. However, regarding the subgroups, we found a significant decrease in sperm number and progressive motility percentage in the subjects receiving treatment with antihypertensive drugs compared with the other subgroups and the Control Group. Conclusions: In the management of infertile couples, the potential negative impact on seminal parameters of any drugs being taken as Long-Term Therapy should be considered. The pathogenic mechanism needs to be clarified.

Massed versus Spaced Practice in Vocology: Effect of a Short-Term Intensive Voice Training versus a Longer-Term Traditional Voice Training

Science.gov (United States)

Meerschman, Iris; Van Lierde, Kristiane; Van Puyvelde, Caro; Bostyn, Astrid; Claeys, Sofie; D'haeseleer, Evelien

2018-01-01

Background: In contrast with most medical and pharmaceutical therapies, the optimal dosage for voice therapy or training is unknown. Aims: The aim of this study was to compare the effect of a short-term intensive voice training (IVT) with a longer-term traditional voice training (TVT) on the vocal quality and vocal capacities of vocally healthy…

Short-Term Monocular Deprivation Enhances Physiological Pupillary Oscillations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paola Binda

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Short-term monocular deprivation alters visual perception in adult humans, increasing the dominance of the deprived eye, for example, as measured with binocular rivalry. This form of plasticity may depend upon the inhibition/excitation balance in the visual cortex. Recent work suggests that cortical excitability is reliably tracked by dilations and constrictions of the pupils of the eyes. Here, we ask whether monocular deprivation produces a systematic change of pupil behavior, as measured at rest, that is independent of the change of visual perception. During periods of minimal sensory stimulation (in the dark and task requirements (minimizing body and gaze movements, slow pupil oscillations, “hippus,” spontaneously appear. We find that hippus amplitude increases after monocular deprivation, with larger hippus changes in participants showing larger ocular dominance changes (measured by binocular rivalry. This tight correlation suggests that a single latent variable explains both the change of ocular dominance and hippus. We speculate that the neurotransmitter norepinephrine may be implicated in this phenomenon, given its important role in both plasticity and pupil control. On the practical side, our results indicate that measuring the pupil hippus (a simple and short procedure provides a sensitive index of the change of ocular dominance induced by short-term monocular deprivation, hence a proxy for plasticity.

Are narcissists sexy? Zeroing in on the effect of narcissism on short-term mate appeal.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dufner, M.; Rauthmann, J.F.; Czarna, A.Z.; Denissen, J.J.A.

2013-01-01

This research was aimed to provide a comprehensive test of the classic notion that narcissistic individuals are appealing as short-term romantic or sexual partners. In three studies, we tested the hypotheses that narcissism exerts a positive effect on an individual’s mate appeal and that this effect

Short- and long-term behavioral effects of exposure to 21%, 40% and 100% oxygen after perinatal hypoxia-ischemia in the rat.

Science.gov (United States)

Woodworth, K Nina; Palmateer, Julie; Swide, Joseph; Grafe, Marjorie R

2011-10-01

Until recently, supplementation with 100% oxygen was standard therapy for newborns who required resuscitation at birth or suffered later hypoxic-ischemic events. Exposure to high concentrations of oxygen, however, may worsen oxidative stress induced by ischemic injury. In this study we investigated the short- and long-term behavioral outcomes in rats that had undergone hypoxic-ischemic brain injury on postnatal day 7, followed by 2h exposure to 21%, 40%, or 100% oxygen, compared to normal controls. There were no differences in the development of walking, head lifting and righting reflexes from postnatal days 9 to 15. Cliff avoidance showed some abnormal responses in the H21 animals. From postnatal days 28 to 56, three tests of sensorimotor coordination were performed weekly: ledged tapered beam, cylinder, and bilateral tactile stimulation. The ledged tapered beam test without prior training of animals was sensitive to injury, but did not distinguish between treatment groups. The cylinder test showed a greater use of the unimpaired limb in female 21% and 40% oxygen groups compared to controls. Performance in both cylinder and the beam tests showed a correlation with the degree of brain injury. The bilateral tactile stimulation test showed that the male 21% oxygen groups had worse sensory asymmetry than male 40% or 100% oxygen groups, but was not statistically significantly different from controls. We thus found a minor benefit to post-hypoxia-ischemic treatment with 100% and 40% oxygen compared to 21% in one test of early motor skills. Our results for long-term sensorimotor behavior, however, showed conflicting results, however, as males treated with 40% or 100% oxygen had less sensory asymmetry (better performance) in the bilateral tactile stimulation test than males treated with 21% oxygen, while females had impaired motor performance in the cylinder test with both 21% and 40% oxygen. Copyright © 2011 ISDN. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Concreteness effects in short-term memory: a test of the item-order hypothesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Roche, Jaclynn; Tolan, G Anne; Tehan, Gerald

2011-12-01

The following experiments explore word length and concreteness effects in short-term memory within an item-order processing framework. This framework asserts order memory is better for those items that are relatively easy to process at the item level. However, words that are difficult to process benefit at the item level for increased attention/resources being applied. The prediction of the model is that differential item and order processing can be detected in episodic tasks that differ in the degree to which item or order memory are required by the task. The item-order account has been applied to the word length effect such that there is a short word advantage in serial recall but a long word advantage in item recognition. The current experiment considered the possibility that concreteness effects might be explained within the same framework. In two experiments, word length (Experiment 1) and concreteness (Experiment 2) are examined using forward serial recall, backward serial recall, and item recognition. These results for word length replicate previous studies showing the dissociation in item and order tasks. The same was not true for the concreteness effect. In all three tasks concrete words were better remembered than abstract words. The concreteness effect cannot be explained in terms of an item-order trade off. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

[Short-and long-term effects of cannabinoids on memory, cognition and mental illness].

Science.gov (United States)

Sagie, Shira; Eliasi, Yehuda; Livneh, Ido; Bart, Yosi; Monovich, Einat

2013-12-01

Marijuana is considered the most commonly used drug in the world, with estimated millions of users. There is dissent in the medical world about the positive and negative effects of marijuana, and recently, a large research effort has been directed to that domain. The main influencing drug ingredient is THC, which acts on the cannabinoid system and binds to the CB1 receptor. The discovery of the receptor led to the finding of an endogenous ligand, anandamide, and another receptor-CB2. The researchers also discovered that cannabinoids have extensive biological activity, and its short and long-term effects may cause cognitive and emotional deficiencies. Findings show that the short-term effects, such as shortterm memory and verbal Learning, are reversible. However, despite the accumulation of evidence about long-term cognitive damage due to cannabis use, it is difficult to find unequivocal results, arising from the existence of many variables such as large differences between cannabis users, frequency of use, dosage and endogenous brain compensation. Apart from cognitive damage, current studies investigate how marijuana affects mental illness: a high correlation between cannabis use and schizophrenia was found and a high risk to undergo a psychotic attack. Furthermore, patients with schizophrenia who used cannabis showed a selective neuro-psychological disruption, and similar cognitive deficiencies and brain morphological changes were found among healthy cannabis users and schizophrenia patients. In contrast to the negative effects of marijuana including addiction, there are the medical uses: reducing pain, anxiety and nausea, increasing appetite and an anti-inflammatory activity. Medicalization of marijuana encourages frequent use, which may elevate depression.

The role of selective attention in short-term memory and goal-directed behavior

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vissers, M.E.

2018-01-01

Selective attention enables the prioritization of goal-relevant aspects of our sensory environment in order to guide our actions, or to store goal-relevant information in short-term memory. Yet, it remains largely unclear how attention prioritizes goal-relevant information. For example, selective

Short-Term Intercultural Psychotherapy: Ethnographic Inquiry

Science.gov (United States)

Seeley, Karen M.

2004-01-01

This article examines the challenges specific to short-term intercultural treatments and recently developed approaches to intercultural treatments based on notions of cultural knowledge and cultural competence. The article introduces alternative approaches to short-term intercultural treatments based on ethnographic inquiry adapted for clinical…

Why do short term workers have high mortality?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kolstad, Henrik; Olsen, Jørn

1999-01-01

or violence, the rate ratios for short term employment were 2.30 (95% Cl 1.74-3.06) and 1.86 (95% Cl 1.35-2.56), respectively. An unhealthy lifestyle may also be a determinant of short term employment. While it is possible in principle to adjust for lifestyle factors if proper data are collected, the health......Increased mortality is often reported among workers in short term employment. This may indicate either a health-related selection process or the presence of different lifestyle or social conditions among short term workers. The authors studied these two aspects of short term employment among 16...

Effect of juvenile hormone on short-term olfactory memory in young honeybees (Apis mellifera).

Science.gov (United States)

Maleszka, R; Helliwell, P

2001-11-01

Reliable retention of olfactory learning following a 1-trial classical conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex (PER) is not achieved in honeybees until they are 6-7 days old. Here we show that treatment of newly emerged honeybees with juvenile hormone (JH) has a profound effect on the maturation of short-term olfactory memory. JH-treated individuals display excellent short-term (1 h) memory of associative learning at times as early as 3 days of age and perform consistently better than untreated bees for at least the first week of their lives. By contrast, the retention of long-term (24 h) memory following a 3-trial conditioning of the PER is not significantly improved in JH-treated bees. Our study also shows that experience and (or) chemosensory activation are not essential to improve learning performance in olfactory tasks. The lack of accelerated development of long-term retention of olfactory memories in JH-treated honeybees is discussed in the context of neural circuits suspected to mediate memory formation and retrieval in the honeybee brain. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Effects of aging on muscle mechanical function and muscle fiber morphology during short-term immobilization and subsequent retraining

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvid, Lars; Aagaard, Per; Justesen, Lene

2010-01-01

Very little attention has been given to the combined effects of aging and disuse as separate factors causing deterioration in muscle mechanical function. Thus the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 2 wk of immobilization followed by 4 wk of retraining on knee extensor muscle...... to the deleterious effects of short-term muscle disuse on muscle fiber size and rapid force capacity than YM. Furthermore, OM seems to require longer time to recover and regain rapid muscle force capacity, which may lead to a larger risk of falling in aged individuals after periods of short-term disuse....

Citalopram restores short-term memory deficit and non-cognitive behaviors in APP/PS1 mice while halting the advance of Alzheimer's disease-like pathology.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Qin; Yang, Chen; Liu, Tianyao; Liu, Liang; Li, Fen; Cai, Yulong; Lv, Keyi; Li, Xin; Gao, Junwei; Sun, Dayu; Xu, Haiwei; Yang, Qingwu; Fan, Xiaotang

2018-03-15

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. In addition to cognitive impairments, deficits in non-cognitive behaviors are also common neurological sequelae in AD. Here, we show that complex behavioral deficits in 7-month-old APPswe/PSEN1dE9 (APP/PS1) mice include impairments in object recognition, deficient social interaction, increased depression and buried marbles. Citalopram, one of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), ameliorated the amyloid deposition in AD patients and transgenic animal models. After treatment for 4 weeks, citalopram rescued the deficits in short-term memory, sociability and depression in these mice. Further immunohistochemical analysis showed chronic citalopram treatment significantly attenuated β-amyloid deposition and microglial activation in the brains of APP/PS1 mice as demonstrated previously. Parvalbumin (PV) interneurons, which are the primary cellular subtype of GABAergic neurons and considered indispensable for short-term memory and social interaction, also contributed to the progress of depression. Additionally, we found the citalopram could significantly increase the PV-positive neurons in the cortex of APP/PS1 mice without alteration in the hippocampus, which might contribute to the improvement of behavioral performance. Our findings suggest that citalopram might be a potential candidate for the early treatment of AD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Behavioural Models of Motor Control and Short-Term Memory

OpenAIRE

Imanaka, Kuniyasu; Funase, Kozo; Yamauchi, Masaki

1995-01-01

We examined in this review article the behavioural and conceptual models of motor control and short-term memory which have intensively been investigated since the 1970s. First, we reviewed both the dual-storage model of short-term memory in which movement information is stored and a typical model of motor control which emphasizes the importance of efferent factors. We then examined two models of preselection effects: a cognitive model and a cognitive/ efferent model. Following this we reviewe...

A Cognitive- Behavioral Therapeutic Program for Patients with Obesity and Binge Eating Disorder: Short- and Long- Term Follow-Up Data of a Prospective Study

Science.gov (United States)

Vanderlinden, Johan; Adriaensen, An; Vancampfort, Davy; Pieters, Guido; Probst, Michel; Vansteelandt, Kristof

2012-01-01

The goal of this study is to investigate the efficacy of a manualized cognitive-behavioral therapeutic (CBT) approach for patients with obesity and binge eating disorder (BED) on the short and longer term. A prospective study without a control group consisting of three measurements (a baseline measurement and two follow-up assessments up to 5…

Impact of short-term severe accident management actions in a long-term perspective. Final Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-03-01

The present systems for severe accident management are focused on mitigating the consequences of special severe accident phenomena and to reach a safe plant state. However, in the development of strategies and procedures for severe accident management, it is also important to consider the long-term perspective of accident management and especially to secure the safe state of the plant. The main reason for this is that certain short-term actions have an impact on the long-term scenario. Both positive and negative effects from short-term actions on the accident management in the long-term perspective have been included in this paper. Short-term actions are accident management measures taken within about 24 hours after the initiating event. The purpose of short-term actions is to reach a stable status of the plant. The main goal in the long-term perspective is to maintain the reactor in a stable state and prevent uncontrolled releases of activity. The purpose of this short Technical Note, deliberately limited in scope, is to draw attention to potential long-term problems, important to utilities and regulatory authorities, arising from the way a severe accident would be managed during the first hours. Its objective is to encourage discussions on the safest - and maybe also most economical - way to manage a severe accident in the long term by not making the situation worse through inappropriate short-term actions, and on the identification of short-term actions likely to make long-term management easier and safer. The Note is intended as a contribution to the knowledge base put at the disposal of Member countries through international collaboration. The scope of the work has been limited to a literature search. Useful further activities have been identified. However, there is no proposal, at this stage, for more detailed work to be undertaken under the auspices of the CSNI. Plant-specific applications would need to be developed by utilities

Effect of whey protein supplementation on long and short term appetite: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Mollahosseini, Mehdi; Shab-Bidar, Sakineh; Rahimi, Mohammad Hossein; Djafarian, Kurosh

2017-08-01

Specific components of dairy, such as whey proteins may have beneficial effects on body composition by suppressing appetite, although the findings of existing studies have been inconsistent. Therefore, a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was performed to investigate effect of whey protein supplementation on long and short term appetite. A systematic search was conducted to identify eligible publications. Means and SDs for hunger, fullness, satiety, desire to eat and prospective consumption of food, before and after intervention, were extracted and then composite appetite score (CAS) calculated. To pool data, either a fixed-effects model or a random-effects model and for assessing heterogeneity, Cochran's Q and I 2 tests were used. Eight publications met inclusion criteria that 5 records were on short term and 3 records on long term appetite. The meta-analysis showed a significant reduction in long term appetite by 4.13 mm in combined appetite score (CAS) (95% Confidence interval (CI): -6.57, -1.96; p = 0.001). No significant reduction in short term appetite was also seen (Mean difference (MD) = -0.39 95% CI = -2.07, 1.30; p = 0.653). Subgroup analyses by time showed that compared with carbohydrate, the reduction in appetite following consumption of whey consumption was not significant (MD = -0.39, 95% CI = -2.07, 1.3, p = 0.65, I 2  = 0.0%.)A significant reduction in prospective food consumption was seen (MD = -2.17, 95% CI = -3.86, -0.48). The results of our meta-analysis showed that whey protein may reduce the long and short term appetite, but our finding did not show any significant difference in appetite reduction between whey protein and carbohydrate in short duration. Copyright © 2017 European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The hard fall effect: high working memory capacity leads to a higher, but less robust short-term memory performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomassin, Noémylle; Gonthier, Corentin; Guerraz, Michel; Roulin, Jean-Luc

2015-01-01

Participants with a high working memory span tend to perform better than low spans in a variety of tasks. However, their performance is paradoxically more impaired when they have to perform two tasks at once, a phenomenon that could be labeled the "hard fall effect." The present study tested whether this effect exists in a short-term memory task, and investigated the proposal that the effect is due to high spans using efficient facilitative strategies under simple task conditions. Ninety-eight participants performed a spatial short-term memory task under simple and dual task conditions; stimuli presentation times either allowed for the use of complex facilitative strategies or not. High spans outperformed low spans only under simple task conditions when presentation times allowed for the use of facilitative strategies. These results indicate that the hard fall effect exists on a short-term memory task and may be caused by individual differences in strategy use.

Short- and long-term effects of nutrient enrichment on microbial exoenzyme activity in mangrove peat

KAUST Repository

Keuskamp, Joost A.; Feller, Ilka C.; Laanbroek, Hendrikus J.; Verhoeven, Jos T.A.; Hefting, Mariet M.

2015-01-01

-limited mangroves. To examine this, we quantified the short- and long-term effects of N and P enrichment on microbial biomass and decomposition-related enzyme activities in a Rhizophora mangle-dominated mangrove, which had been subjected to fertilisation treatments

Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of an Exercise-Based Patient Education Programme in People with Multiple Sclerosis: A Pilot Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christina Lutz

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Although people with Multiple Sclerosis (pwMS benefit from physical exercise, they still show reduced physical activity and exercise behaviour. This study aimed to investigate short- and long-term effects of an exercise-based patient education programme (ePEP that focuses on empowering pwMS to a sustainable and self-regulated exercise training management. Methods. Fourteen pwMS were randomly assigned to immediate experimental group (EG-I: n=8 and waitlist-control group (EG-W: n=6 and attended biweekly in a six-week ePEP. All participants were measured for walking ability, quality of life, fatigue, and self-efficacy towards physical exercise before and after the ePEP, after 12 weeks, and one year after baseline. Short-term effects were analysed in a randomised control trial and long-term effects of all ePEP participants (EG-I + EG-W = EG-all in a quasi-experimental design. Results. Only functional gait significantly improved in EG-I compared to EG-W (p=0.008, r=-0.67. Moderate to large effects were found in EG-all for walking ability. Not significant, however, relevant changes were detected for quality of life and fatigue. Self-efficacy showed no changes. Conclusion. The ePEP seems to be a feasible option to empower pwMS to a self-regulated and sustainable exercise training management shown in long-term walking improvements.

An Artificial Neural Network Based Short-term Dynamic Prediction of Algae Bloom

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yao Junyang

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a method of short-term prediction of algae bloom based on artificial neural network. Firstly, principal component analysis is applied to water environmental factors in algae bloom raceway ponds to get main factors that influence the formation of algae blooms. Then, a model of short-term dynamic prediction based on neural network is built with the current chlorophyll_a values as input and the chlorophyll_a values in the next moment as output to realize short-term dynamic prediction of algae bloom. Simulation results show that the model can realize short-term prediction of algae bloom effectively.

The essential oil of rosemary and its effect on the human image and numerical short-term memory

OpenAIRE

O.V. Filiptsova; L.V. Gazzavi-Rogozina; I.A. Timoshyna; O.I. Naboka; Ye.V. Dyomina; A.V. Ochkur

2017-01-01

The research results of the effect of essential oil of rosemary on the human short-term image and numerical memory have been described. The study involved 53 secondary school students (24 boys and 29 girls) aged 13–15 years, residents of the Ukrainian metropolis. Participants were divided into the control group and “Rosemary” group, in which the rosemary essential oil was sprayed. The statistically significant differences in productivity of the short-term memory of the participants of these t...

Acute Sleep Deprivation Blocks Short- and Long-Term Operant Memory in Aplysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Krishnan, Harini C; Gandour, Catherine E; Ramos, Joshua L; Wrinkle, Mariah C; Sanchez-Pacheco, Joseph J; Lyons, Lisa C

2016-12-01

Insufficient sleep in individuals appears increasingly common due to the demands of modern work schedules and technology use. Consequently, there is a growing need to understand the interactions between sleep deprivation and memory. The current study determined the effects of acute sleep deprivation on short and long-term associative memory using the marine mollusk Aplysia californica , a relatively simple model system well known for studies of learning and memory. Aplysia were sleep deprived for 9 hours using context changes and tactile stimulation either prior to or after training for the operant learning paradigm, learning that food is inedible (LFI). The effects of sleep deprivation on short-term (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) were assessed. Acute sleep deprivation prior to LFI training impaired the induction of STM and LTM with persistent effects lasting at least 24 h. Sleep deprivation immediately after training blocked the consolidation of LTM. However, sleep deprivation following the period of molecular consolidation did not affect memory recall. Memory impairments were independent of handling-induced stress, as daytime handled control animals demonstrated no memory deficits. Additional training immediately after sleep deprivation failed to rescue the induction of memory, but additional training alleviated the persistent impairment in memory induction when training occurred 24 h following sleep deprivation. Acute sleep deprivation inhibited the induction and consolidation, but not the recall of memory. These behavioral studies establish Aplysia as an effective model system for studying the interactions between sleep and memory formation. © 2016 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

Short-Term Psychological Effects of Interactive Video Game Technology Exercise on Mood and Attention

Science.gov (United States)

Russell, William D.; Newton, Mark

2008-01-01

Recent interest in interactive video game technology (IVGT) has spurred the notion that exercise from this technology may have meaningful physiological and psychological benefits for children and adolescents. The purpose of this study was to examine the short-term psychological effects of interactive video game exercise in young adults and whether…

Real-time energy resources scheduling considering short-term and very short-term wind forecast

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Silva, Marco; Sousa, Tiago; Morais, Hugo; Vale, Zita [Polytechnic of Porto (Portugal). GECAD - Knowledge Engineering and Decision Support Research Center

2012-07-01

This paper proposes an energy resources management methodology based on three distinct time horizons: day-ahead scheduling, hour-ahead scheduling, and real-time scheduling. In each scheduling process the update of generation and consumption operation and of the storage and electric vehicles storage status are used. Besides the new operation conditions, the most accurate forecast values of wind generation and of consumption using results of short-term and very short-term methods are used. A case study considering a distribution network with intensive use of distributed generation and electric vehicles is presented. (orig.)

The Effects of Music on High-intensity Short-term Exercise in Well Trained Athletes.

Science.gov (United States)

Jarraya, Mohamed; Chtourou, Hamdi; Aloui, Asma; Hammouda, Omar; Chamari, Karim; Chaouachi, Anis; Souissi, Nizar

2012-12-01

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the effects of listening to music during warm-up on short-term supramaximal performances during the 30-s Wingate test in highly trained athletes. Twelve young male athletes (20.6±1.8 yrs, 177±4.4 cm and 72.3±5.3 kg) underwent two Wingate tests in separate sessions with a recovery period of 48 h in-between, either after a 10 min of warm-up with (MWU) or without (NMWU) music. High tempo music (>120 to 140bpm) was selected for the study. Heart rate (HR) and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded after the warm-up (for HR = average of warm-up) and immediately after the Wingate test. HR, RPE and the fatigue index during the Wingate test are not affected by the incorporation of music during warm-up. However, power output (P(peak) and P(mean)) was significantly higher after MWU than NMWU (Peffect of music during warm-up on short-term supramaximal performances. As it's a legal method and an additional aid, music may be used during warm-up before performing activities requiring powerful lower limbs' muscles contractions during short-term supramaximal exercises.

Assessing the short-term effects of an extreme storm on Mediterranean forest raptors

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez, José E.; Jiménez-Franco, María V.; Zuberogoitia, Iñigo; León-Ortega, Mario; Calvo, José F.

2013-04-01

Different species show different responses to natural disturbances, depending on their capacity to exploit the altered environment and occupy new niches. In the case of semi-arid Mediterranean areas, there is no information available on the response of bird communities to disturbance caused by extreme weather events. Here, we evaluate the short-term effects of a heavy snowfall and strong winds on three long-lived species of forest-dwelling raptor in a semi-arid Mediterranean region situated in the south-east of Spain. The loss of nests was significantly higher in the first and second years following the disturbance than in the third year. The three species studied exhibited great tolerance to the short-term effects of the storm since we found no differences in density or reproductive parameters between the nine breeding seasons prior to the disturbance and the three which immediately followed it. We suggest that the tolerance shown by these three species to windstorms in semi-arid Mediterranean zones could be an adaptive response, resulting from the climatic and human pressures which have prevailed from the Bronze Age to the present day.

The Mind and Brain of Short-Term Memory

OpenAIRE

Jonides, John; Lewis, Richard L.; Nee, Derek Evan; Lustig, Cindy A.; Berman, Marc G.; Moore, Katherine Sledge

2008-01-01

The past 10 years have brought near-revolutionary changes in psychological theories about short-term memory, with similarly great advances in the neurosciences. Here, we critically examine the major psychological theories (the “mind”) of short-term memory and how they relate to evidence about underlying brain mechanisms. We focus on three features that must be addressed by any satisfactory theory of short-term memory. First, we examine the evidence for the architecture of short-term memory, w...

Very-long-term and short-term chromatic adaptation: are their influences cumulative?

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Belmore, Suzanne C; Shevell, Steven K

2011-02-09

Very-long-term (VLT) chromatic adaptation results from exposure to an altered chromatic environment for days or weeks. Color shifts from VLT adaptation are observed hours or days after leaving the altered environment. Short-term chromatic adaptation, on the other hand, results from exposure for a few minutes or less, with color shifts measured within seconds or a few minutes after the adapting light is extinguished; recovery to the pre-adapted state is complete in less than an hour. Here, both types of adaptation were combined. All adaptation was to reddish-appearing long-wavelength light. Shifts in unique yellow were measured following adaptation. Previous studies demonstrate shifts in unique yellow due to VLT chromatic adaptation, but shifts from short-term chromatic adaptation to comparable adapting light can be far greater than from VLT adaptation. The question considered here is whether the color shifts from VLT adaptation are cumulative with large shifts from short-term adaptation or, alternatively, does simultaneous short-term adaptation eliminate color shifts caused by VLT adaptation. The results show the color shifts from VLT and short-term adaptation together are cumulative, which indicates that both short-term and very-long-term chromatic adaptation affect color perception during natural viewing. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Couple disagreement about short-term fertility desires in Austria: Effects on intentions and contraceptive behaviour

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Rita Testa

2012-02-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND Because of the dyadic nature of reproduction, the couple is the most suitable context forstudying reproductive decision-making. OBJECTIVE I investigate the effects of couple disagreement about short-term childbearing desires on the formulation and implementation of fertility intentions. Do men and women incorporate the perception of a disagreement with the partner about wanting a(nother child now in their reports on short-term fertility intentions and contraceptive behaviour? Are there relevant differences by type of disagreement, parity, gender and gender equality within the couple? METHODS Using individual-level data from the Austrian Generation and Gender Survey conductedin 2008, I regress respondent's short-term fertility intentions (ordinal regression modelsand non-use of contraception (logistic regression model on couple's short-term childbearing desires and a set of background variables. RESULTS The findings show that disagreement is shifted toward a pregnancy intentionpregnancy-seeking behaviour at parity zero and toward avoiding pregnancy and maintainingcontraceptive use at higher parities. Childless women are less responsive to the perceptionof their partner's desires than childless men when they express their short-termchildbearing intentions. Neither women nor men are likely to stop contraception if they perceive a disagreement with their partner about wanting a(nother child. Moreover, if theman is actively involved in childcare duties the chance to resolve the couple conflict in favour of childbearing increases. CONCLUSIONS This paper calls for the collection of data from both members of each couple so that theanalysis of the partner's actual desires can complement the analysis of the partner's perceived desires.

Short-term memory for spatial, sequential and duration information.

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Manohar, Sanjay G; Pertzov, Yoni; Husain, Masud

2017-10-01

Space and time appear to play key roles in the way that information is organized in short-term memory (STM). Some argue that they are crucial contexts within which other stored features are embedded, allowing binding of information that belongs together within STM. Here we review recent behavioral, neurophysiological and imaging studies that have sought to investigate the nature of spatial, sequential and duration representations in STM, and how these might break down in disease. Findings from these studies point to an important role of the hippocampus and other medial temporal lobe structures in aspects of STM, challenging conventional accounts of involvement of these regions in only long-term memory.

Independent and Combined Effects of Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Bilingualism on Children's Vocabulary and Verbal Short-Term Memory.

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Meir, Natalia; Armon-Lotem, Sharon

2017-01-01

The current study explores the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) and bilingualism on the linguistic skills and verbal short-term memory of preschool children. In previous studies comparing children of low and mid-high SES, the terms "a child with low-SES" and "a child speaking a minority language" are often interchangeable, not enabling differentiated evaluation of these two variables. The present study controls for this confluence by testing children born and residing in the same country and attending the same kindergartens, with all bilingual children speaking the same heritage language (HL-Russian). A total of 120 children (88 bilingual children: 44 with low SES; and 32 monolingual children: 16 with low SES) with typical language development, aged 5; 7-6; 7, were tested in the societal language (SL-Hebrew) on expressive vocabulary and three repetition tasks [forward digit span (FWD), nonword repetition (NWR), and sentence repetition (SRep)], which tap into verbal short-term memory. The results indicated that SES and bilingualism impact different child abilities. Bilingualism is associated with decreased vocabulary size and lower performance on verbal short-term memory tasks with higher linguistic load in the SL-Hebrew. The negative effect of bilingualism on verbal short-term memory disappears once vocabulary is accounted for. SES influences not only linguistic performance, but also verbal short-term memory with lowest linguistic load. The negative effect of SES cannot be solely attributed to lower vocabulary scores, suggesting that an unprivileged background has a negative impact on children's cognitive development beyond a linguistic disadvantage. The results have important clinical implications and call for more research exploring the varied impact of language and life experience on children's linguistic and cognitive skills.

Short-term Treatment of Daumone Improves Hepatic Inflammation in Aged Mice.

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Park, Jong Hee; Ha, Hunjoo

2015-05-01

Chronic inflammation has been proposed as one of the main molecular mechanisms of aging and age-related diseases. Although evidence in humans is limited, short-term calorie restriction (CR) has been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects in aged experimental animals. We reported on the long-term treatment of daumone, a synthetic pheromone secreted by Caenorhabditis elegans in an energy deficient environment, extends the life-span and attenuates liver injury in aged mice. The present study examined whether late onset short-term treatment of daumone exerts anti-inflammatory effects in the livers of aged mice. Daumone was administered orally at doses of 2 or 20 mg/kg/day for 5 weeks to 24-month-old male C57BL/6J mice. Increased liver macrophage infiltration and gene expression of proinflammatory cytokines in aged mice were significantly attenuated by daumone treatment, suggesting that short-term oral administration of daumone may have hepatoprotective effects. Daumone also dose-dependently suppressed tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-induced nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) phosphorylation in HepG2 cells. The present data demonstrated that short-term treatment of daumone has anti-inflammatory effects in aged mouse livers possibly through suppression of NF-κB signaling and suggest that daumone may become a lead compound targeting aging and age-associated diseases.

Language familiarity effects in short-term memory: the role of output delay and long-term knowledge.

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Thorn, Annabel S C; Gathercole, Susan E; Frankish, Clive R

2002-10-01

Four experiments examined the origins of language familiarity effects in bilingual short-term recall. In Experiments 1A and 1B, bilingual adults were tested on serial recall and probed serial recall of words and nonwords in their first and second languages. A first-language advantage was obtained on both measures, indicating that the beneficial effects of language familiarity are not exclusively attributable to lesser output delay during overt recall. In Experiments 2A and 2B, the same group of bilinguals was tested on serial recall and serial recognition of word lists in both languages. Although a sizeable first-language advantage was obtained on the serial recall measure, recognition performance was comparable in the two languages. On the basis of these results it is suggested that language differences in bilingual immediate memory arise in large part as a consequence of the differential availability of language-specific long-term knowledge with which to support retrieval processes in serial recall.

Dispositional optimism as predictor of outcome in short- and long-term psychotherapy.

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Heinonen, Erkki; Heiskanen, Tiia; Lindfors, Olavi; Härkäpää, Kristiina; Knekt, Paul

2017-09-01

Dispositional optimism predicts various beneficial outcomes in somatic health and treatment, but has been little studied in psychotherapy. This study investigated whether an optimistic disposition differentially predicts patients' ability to benefit from short-term versus long-term psychotherapy. A total of 326 adult outpatients with mood and/or anxiety disorder were randomized into short-term (solution-focused or short-term psychodynamic) or long-term psychodynamic therapy and followed up for 3 years. Dispositional optimism was assessed by patients at baseline with the self-rated Life Orientation Test (LOT) questionnaire. Outcome was assessed at baseline and seven times during the follow-up, in terms of depressive (BDI, HDRS), anxiety (SCL-90-ANX, HARS), and general psychiatric symptoms (SCL-90-GSI), all seven follow-up points including patients' self-reports and three including interview-based measures. Lower dispositional optimism predicted faster symptom reduction in short-term than in long-term psychotherapy. Higher optimism predicted equally rapid and eventually greater benefits in long-term, as compared to short-term, psychotherapy. Weaker optimism appeared to predict sustenance of problems early in long-term therapy. Stronger optimism seems to best facilitate engaging in and benefiting from a long-term therapy process. Closer research might clarify the psychological processes responsible for these effects and help fine-tune both briefer and longer interventions to optimize treatment effectiveness for particular patients and their psychological qualities. Weaker dispositional optimism does not appear to inhibit brief therapy from effecting symptomatic recovery. Patients with weaker optimism do not seem to gain added benefits from long-term therapy, but instead may be susceptible to prolonged psychiatric symptoms in the early stages of long-term therapy. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

Short-term influences and long-term fundamentals: stabilizing and destabilizing effects in the energy industries

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Robinson, Silvan [Royal Inst. of International Affairs, London (United Kingdom)

1992-10-01

The ideology of the market economy has become dominant in all walks of economic life and the energy industries are no exception. In the oil business, the stabilizing structures of the international majors and of long-term prices have been replaced by industrial fragmentation and market price mechanisms. Monopolies in other energy industries are being progressively dismantled. This live experiment is being conducted on an industry which historically has suffered from feast and famine economics and has tried to protect itself through various forms of cartelization. The short-term effects of this open market have so far tended to improve flexibility and consumer choice. The price instability has proved manageable. The danger is that cash flow compression will reduced investments in the future and an ability to make very long lead time shifts in the energy mix. For this some government intervention in markets is necessary. (author).

Context-specific differences in fronto-parieto-occipital effective connectivity during short-term memory maintenance.

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Kundu, Bornali; Chang, Jui-Yang; Postle, Bradley R; Van Veen, Barry D

2015-07-01

Although visual short-term memory (VSTM) performance has been hypothesized to rely on two distinct mechanisms, capacity and filtering, the two have not been dissociated using network-level causality measures. Here, we hypothesized that behavioral tasks challenging capacity or distraction filtering would both engage a common network of areas, namely dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), superior parietal lobule (SPL), and occipital cortex, but would do so according to dissociable patterns of effective connectivity. We tested this by estimating directed connectivity between areas using conditional Granger causality (cGC). Consistent with our prediction, the results indicated that increasing mnemonic load (capacity) increased the top-down drive from dlPFC to SPL, and cGC in the alpha (8-14Hz) frequency range was a predominant component of this effect. The presence of distraction during encoding (filtering), in contrast, was associated with increased top-down drive from dlPFC to occipital cortices directly and from SPL to occipital cortices directly, in both cases in the beta (15-25Hz) range. Thus, although a common anatomical network may serve VSTM in different contexts, it does so via specific functions that are carried out within distinct, dynamically configured frequency channels. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Frequency-specific insight into short-term memory capacity.

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Feurra, Matteo; Galli, Giulia; Pavone, Enea Francesco; Rossi, Alessandro; Rossi, Simone

2016-07-01

The digit span is one of the most widely used memory tests in clinical and experimental neuropsychology for reliably measuring short-term memory capacity. In the forward version, sequences of digits of increasing length have to be reproduced in the order in which they are presented, whereas in the backward version items must be reproduced in the reversed order. Here, we assessed whether transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) increases the memory span for digits of young and midlife adults. Imperceptibly weak electrical currents in the alpha (10 Hz), beta (20 Hz), theta (5 Hz), and gamma (40 Hz) range, as well as a sham stimulation, were delivered over the left posterior parietal cortex, a cortical region thought to sustain maintenance processes in short-term memory through oscillatory brain activity in the beta range. We showed a frequency-specific effect of beta-tACS that robustly increased the forward memory span of young, but not middle-aged, healthy individuals. The effect correlated with age: the younger the subjects, the greater the benefit arising from parietal beta stimulation. Our results provide evidence of a short-term memory capacity improvement in young adults by online frequency-specific tACS application. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Short-term and long-term plasticity interaction in human primary motor cortex.

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Iezzi, Ennio; Suppa, Antonio; Conte, Antonella; Li Voti, Pietro; Bologna, Matteo; Berardelli, Alfredo

2011-05-01

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over primary motor cortex (M1) elicits changes in motor evoked potential (MEP) size thought to reflect short- and long-term forms of synaptic plasticity, resembling short-term potentiation (STP) and long-term potentiation/depression (LTP/LTD) observed in animal experiments. We designed this study in healthy humans to investigate whether STP as elicited by 5-Hz rTMS interferes with LTP/LTD-like plasticity induced by intermittent and continuous theta-burst stimulation (iTBS and cTBS). The effects induced by 5-Hz rTMS and iTBS/cTBS were indexed as changes in MEP size. We separately evaluated changes induced by 5-Hz rTMS, iTBS and cTBS applied alone and those induced by iTBS and cTBS delivered after priming 5-Hz rTMS. Interactions between 5-Hz rTMS and iTBS/cTBS were investigated under several experimental conditions by delivering 5-Hz rTMS at suprathreshold and subthreshold intensity, allowing 1 and 5 min intervals to elapse between 5-Hz rTMS and TBS, and delivering one and ten 5-Hz rTMS trains. We also investigated whether 5-Hz rTMS induces changes in intracortical excitability tested with paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation. When given alone, 5-Hz rTMS induced short-lasting and iTBS/cTBS induced long-lasting changes in MEP amplitudes. When M1 was primed with 10 suprathreshold 5-Hz rTMS trains at 1 min before iTBS or cTBS, the iTBS/cTBS-induced after-effects disappeared. The 5-Hz rTMS left intracortical excitability unchanged. We suggest that STP elicited by suprathreshold 5-Hz rTMS abolishes iTBS/cTBS-induced LTP/LTD-like plasticity through non-homeostatic metaplasticity mechanisms. Our study provides new information on interactions between short-term and long-term rTMS-induced plasticity in human M1. © 2011 The Authors. European Journal of Neuroscience © 2011 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Short term memory in echo state networks

OpenAIRE

Jaeger, H.

2001-01-01

The report investigates the short-term memory capacity of echo state recurrent neural networks. A quantitative measure MC of short-term memory capacity is introduced. The main result is that MC 5 N for networks with linear Output units and i.i.d. input, where N is network size. Conditions under which these maximal memory capacities are realized are described. Several theoretical and practical examples demonstrate how the short-term memory capacities of echo state networks can be exploited for...

Short- and long-term memory: differential involvement of neurotransmitter systems and signal transduction cascades

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MÔNICA R.M. VIANNA

2000-09-01

Full Text Available Since William James (1890 first distinguished primary from secondary memory, equivalent to short- and long-term memory, respectively, it has been assumed that short-term memory processes are in charge of cognition while long-term memory is being consolidated. From those days a major question has been whether short-term memory is merely a initial phase of long-term memory, or a separate phenomena. Recent experiments have shown that many treatments with specific molecular actions given into the hippocampus and related brain areas after one-trial avoidance learning can effectively cancel short-term memory without affecting long-term memory formation. This shows that short-term memory and long-term memory involve separate mechanisms and are independently processed. Other treatments, however, influence both memory types similarly, suggesting links between both at the receptor and at the post-receptor level, which should not be surprising as they both deal with nearly the same sensorimotor representations. This review examines recent advances in short- and long-term memory mechanisms based on the effect of intra-hippocampal infusion of drugs acting upon neurotransmitter and signal transduction systems on both memory types.

Effects of heavy-ion exposure to rat's hypothalamus on the copulatory behavior

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saito, Masayoshi; Kawata, Tetsuya; Liu, C.; Kan'o, Momoe; Ito, Hisao; Takai, Nobuhiko; Ando, Koichi

2005-01-01

The effect of heavy-ion irradiation to brain on sexual behavior is not yet known. The present study was designed to determine whether irradiation (carbon particles 290 MeV/nucleon, Mono peak 15∼120 Gy, irradiation field 5-millimeter cube in hypothalamus) to rat's hypothalamus modifies the copulatory behavior of male rats. For the first year, we planned to estimate the short-term effects of carbon-irradiation on the copulatory behavior using a relatively high doses, and observation of sexual behavior was conducted for 30 min after 1, 2 or 3 months following irradiation. Results obtained in the first year are as follows. At dosages of 15 Gy, 30 Gy, 45 Gy and 60 Gy these were no changes in copulatory behavior after one month following irradiation; however, the intromission and ejaculation was found to decrease after 3-month follow-up in rats exposed to 60 Gy. At higher doses such as 90 Gy, 120 Gy, the number of mounting, intromission (120 Gy alone) and ejaculation (90 Gy, 120 Gy) were decreased. It may be possible to describe that carbon irradiation to hypothalamus does not inhibit the activity of copulatory behavior after short-term. Further experiments after long-term follow-up after irradiation are necessary to determine the chronic effects of heavy ions on the copulatory behavior. (author)

Toxicological Effects of Caco-2 Cells Following Short-Term and Long-Term Exposure to Ag Nanoparticles

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Ni Chen

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Extensive utilization increases the exposure of humans to Ag nanoparticles (NPs via the oral pathway. To comprehensively address the action of Ag NPs to the gastrointestinal systems in real situations, i.e., the long-term low-dose exposure, we evaluated and compared the toxicity of three Ag NPs (20–30 nm with different surface coatings to the human intestine cell Caco-2 after 1-day and 21-day exposures, using various biological assays. In both the short- and long-term exposures, the variety of surface coating predominated the toxicity of Ag NPs in a descending order of citrate-coated Ag NP (Ag-CIT, bare Ag NP (Ag-B, and poly (N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone-coated Ag NP (Ag-PVP. The short-term exposure induced cell growth inhibition and death. The cell viability loss appeared after cells were exposed to 0.7 μg/mL Ag-CIT, 0.9 μg/mL Ag-B or >1.0 μg/mL Ag-PVP for 24 h. The short-term and higher-dose exposure also induced reactive oxygen species (ROS generation, mitochondrial damage, cell membrane leakage, apoptosis, and inflammation (IL-8 level. The long-term exposure only inhibited the cell proliferation. After 21-day exposure to 0.4 μg/mL Ag-CIT, the cell viability dropped to less than 50%, while cells exposed to 0.5 μg/mL Ag-PVP remained normal as the control. Generally, 0.3 μg/mL is the non-toxic dose for the long-term exposure of Caco-2 cells to Ag NPs in this study. However, cells presented inflammation after exposure to Ag NPs with the non-toxic dose in the long-term exposure.

Short term and medium term power distribution load forecasting by neural networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yalcinoz, T.; Eminoglu, U.

2005-01-01

Load forecasting is an important subject for power distribution systems and has been studied from different points of view. In general, load forecasts should be performed over a broad spectrum of time intervals, which could be classified into short term, medium term and long term forecasts. Several research groups have proposed various techniques for either short term load forecasting or medium term load forecasting or long term load forecasting. This paper presents a neural network (NN) model for short term peak load forecasting, short term total load forecasting and medium term monthly load forecasting in power distribution systems. The NN is used to learn the relationships among past, current and future temperatures and loads. The neural network was trained to recognize the peak load of the day, total load of the day and monthly electricity consumption. The suitability of the proposed approach is illustrated through an application to real load shapes from the Turkish Electricity Distribution Corporation (TEDAS) in Nigde. The data represents the daily and monthly electricity consumption in Nigde, Turkey

Acute ethanol has biphasic effects on short- and long-term memory in both foreground and background contextual fear conditioning in C57BL/6 mice.

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Gulick, Danielle; Gould, Thomas J

2007-09-01

Ethanol is a frequently abused, addictive drug that impairs cognitive function. Ethanol may disrupt cognitive processes by altering attention, short-term memory, and/or long-term memory. Interestingly, some research suggests that ethanol may enhance cognitive processes at lower doses. The current research examined the dose-dependent effects of ethanol on contextual and cued fear conditioning. In addition, the present studies assessed the importance of stimulus salience in the effects of ethanol and directly compared the effects of ethanol on short-term and long-term memory. This study employed both foreground and background fear conditioning, which differ in the salience of contextual stimuli, and tested conditioning at 4 hours, 24 hours, and 1 week in order to assess the effects of ethanol on short-term and long-term memory. Foreground conditioning consisted of 2 presentations of a foot shock unconditioned stimulus (US) (2 seconds, 0.57 mA). Background conditioning consisted of 2 auditory conditioned stimulus (30 seconds, 85 dB white noise)-foot shock (US; 2 seconds, 0.57 mA) pairings. For both foreground and background conditioning, ethanol enhanced short-term and long-term memory for contextual and cued conditioning at a low dose (0.25 g/kg) and impaired short-term and long-term memory for contextual and cued conditioning at a high dose (1.0 g/kg). These results suggest that ethanol has long-lasting, biphasic effects on short-term and long-term memory for contextual and cued conditioning. Furthermore, the effects of ethanol on contextual fear conditioning are independent of the salience of the context.

Searching for the Hebb effect in Down syndrome: evidence for a dissociation between verbal short-term memory and domain-general learning of serial order.

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Mosse, E K; Jarrold, C

2010-04-01

The Hebb effect is a form of repetition-driven long-term learning that is thought to provide an analogue for the processes involved in new word learning. Other evidence suggests that verbal short-term memory also constrains now vocabulary acquisition, but if the Hebb effect is independent of short-term memory, then it may be possible to demonstrate its preservation in a sample of individuals with Down syndrome, who typically show a verbal short-term memory deficit alongside surprising relative strengths in vocabulary. In two experiments, individuals both with and without Down syndrome (matched for receptive vocabulary) completed immediate serial recall tasks incorporating a Hebb repetition paradigm in either verbal or visuospatial conditions. Both groups demonstrated equivalent benefit from Hebb repetition, despite individuals with Down syndrome showing significantly lower verbal short-term memory spans. The resultant Hebb effect was equivalent across verbal and visuospatial domains. These studies suggest that the Hebb effect is essentially preserved within Down syndrome, implying that explicit verbal short-term memory is dissociable from potentially more implicit Hebb learning. The relative strength in receptive vocabulary observed in Down syndrome may therefore be supported by largely intact long-term as opposed to short-term serial order learning. This in turn may have implications for teaching methods and interventions that present new phonological material to individuals with Down syndrome.

Short-Term Depression, Temporal Summation, and Onset Inhibition Shape Interval Tuning in Midbrain Neurons

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Christa A.

2014-01-01

A variety of synaptic mechanisms can contribute to single-neuron selectivity for temporal intervals in sensory stimuli. However, it remains unknown how these mechanisms interact to establish single-neuron sensitivity to temporal patterns of sensory stimulation in vivo. Here we address this question in a circuit that allows us to control the precise temporal patterns of synaptic input to interval-tuned neurons in behaviorally relevant ways. We obtained in vivo intracellular recordings under multiple levels of current clamp from midbrain neurons in the mormyrid weakly electric fish Brienomyrus brachyistius during stimulation with electrosensory pulse trains. To reveal the excitatory and inhibitory inputs onto interval-tuned neurons, we then estimated the synaptic conductances underlying responses. We found short-term depression in excitatory and inhibitory pathways onto all interval-tuned neurons. Short-interval selectivity was associated with excitation that depressed less than inhibition at short intervals, as well as temporally summating excitation. Long-interval selectivity was associated with long-lasting onset inhibition. We investigated tuning after separately nullifying the contributions of temporal summation and depression, and found the greatest diversity of interval selectivity among neurons when both mechanisms were at play. Furthermore, eliminating the effects of depression decreased sensitivity to directional changes in interval. These findings demonstrate that variation in depression and summation of excitation and inhibition helps to establish tuning to behaviorally relevant intervals in communication signals, and that depression contributes to neural coding of interval sequences. This work reveals for the first time how the interplay between short-term plasticity and temporal summation mediates the decoding of temporal sequences in awake, behaving animals. PMID:25339741

Short-term effects of glucose and sucrose on cognitive performance and mood in elderly people

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zwaluw, N.L. van der; Rest, O. van de; Kessels, R.P.C.; Groot, C.P.G.M. de

2014-01-01

In this study we determined the short-term effects of a glucose drink and a sucrose drink compared to a placebo on cognitive performance and mood in elderly people with subjective, mild memory complaints using a randomized crossover study design. In total, 43 nondiabetic older adults with

[Impulsiveness Among Short-Term Prisoners with Antisocial Personality Disorder].

Science.gov (United States)

Lang, Fabian U; Otte, Stefanie; Vasic, Nenad; Jäger, Markus; Dudeck, Manuela

2015-07-01

The study aimed to investigate the correlation between impulsiveness and the antisocial personality disorder among short-term prisoners. The impulsiveness was diagnosed by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). Short-term prisoners with antisocial personality disorder scored significant higher marks on the BIS total scale than those without any personality disorder. In detail, they scored higher marks on each subscale regarding attentional, motor and nonplanning impulsiveness. Moderate and high effects were calculated. It is to be considered to regard impulsivity as a conceptual component of antisociality. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Short-term enrichment makes male rats more attractive, more defensive and alters hypothalamic neurons.

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Rupshi Mitra

Full Text Available Innate behaviors are shaped by contingencies built during evolutionary history. On the other hand, environmental stimuli play a significant role in shaping behavior. In particular, a short period of environmental enrichment can enhance cognitive behavior, modify effects of stress on learned behaviors and induce brain plasticity. It is unclear if modulation by environment can extend to innate behaviors which are preserved by intense selection pressure. In the present report we investigate this issue by studying effects of relatively short (14-days environmental enrichment on two prominent innate behaviors in rats, avoidance of predator odors and ability of males to attract mates. We show that enrichment has strong effects on both the innate behaviors: a enriched males were more avoidant of a predator odor than non-enriched controls, and had a greater rise in corticosterone levels in response to the odor; and b had higher testosterone levels and were more attractive to females. Additionally, we demonstrate decrease in dendritic length of neurons of ventrolateral nucleus of hypothalamus, important for reproductive mate-choice and increase in the same in dorsomedial nucleus, important for defensive behavior. Thus, behavioral and hormonal observations provide evidence that a short period of environmental manipulation can alter innate behaviors, providing a good example of gene-environment interaction.

Verbal Short-Term Memory Span in Children: Long-Term Modality Dependent Effects of Intrauterine Growth Restriction

Science.gov (United States)

Geva, R.; Eshel, R.; Leitner, Y.; Fattal-Valevski, A.; Harel, S.

2008-01-01

Background: Recent reports showed that children born with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) are at greater risk of experiencing verbal short-term memory span (STM) deficits that may impede their learning capacities at school. It is still unknown whether these deficits are modality dependent. Methods: This long-term, prospective design study…

Holding multiple items in short term memory: a neural mechanism.

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Edmund T Rolls

Full Text Available Human short term memory has a capacity of several items maintained simultaneously. We show how the number of short term memory representations that an attractor network modeling a cortical local network can simultaneously maintain active is increased by using synaptic facilitation of the type found in the prefrontal cortex. We have been able to maintain 9 short term memories active simultaneously in integrate-and-fire simulations where the proportion of neurons in each population, the sparseness, is 0.1, and have confirmed the stability of such a system with mean field analyses. Without synaptic facilitation the system can maintain many fewer memories active in the same network. The system operates because of the effectively increased synaptic strengths formed by the synaptic facilitation just for those pools to which the cue is applied, and then maintenance of this synaptic facilitation in just those pools when the cue is removed by the continuing neuronal firing in those pools. The findings have implications for understanding how several items can be maintained simultaneously in short term memory, how this may be relevant to the implementation of language in the brain, and suggest new approaches to understanding and treating the decline in short term memory that can occur with normal aging.

Holding multiple items in short term memory: a neural mechanism.

Science.gov (United States)

Rolls, Edmund T; Dempere-Marco, Laura; Deco, Gustavo

2013-01-01

Human short term memory has a capacity of several items maintained simultaneously. We show how the number of short term memory representations that an attractor network modeling a cortical local network can simultaneously maintain active is increased by using synaptic facilitation of the type found in the prefrontal cortex. We have been able to maintain 9 short term memories active simultaneously in integrate-and-fire simulations where the proportion of neurons in each population, the sparseness, is 0.1, and have confirmed the stability of such a system with mean field analyses. Without synaptic facilitation the system can maintain many fewer memories active in the same network. The system operates because of the effectively increased synaptic strengths formed by the synaptic facilitation just for those pools to which the cue is applied, and then maintenance of this synaptic facilitation in just those pools when the cue is removed by the continuing neuronal firing in those pools. The findings have implications for understanding how several items can be maintained simultaneously in short term memory, how this may be relevant to the implementation of language in the brain, and suggest new approaches to understanding and treating the decline in short term memory that can occur with normal aging.

Holding Multiple Items in Short Term Memory: A Neural Mechanism

Science.gov (United States)

Rolls, Edmund T.; Dempere-Marco, Laura; Deco, Gustavo

2013-01-01

Human short term memory has a capacity of several items maintained simultaneously. We show how the number of short term memory representations that an attractor network modeling a cortical local network can simultaneously maintain active is increased by using synaptic facilitation of the type found in the prefrontal cortex. We have been able to maintain 9 short term memories active simultaneously in integrate-and-fire simulations where the proportion of neurons in each population, the sparseness, is 0.1, and have confirmed the stability of such a system with mean field analyses. Without synaptic facilitation the system can maintain many fewer memories active in the same network. The system operates because of the effectively increased synaptic strengths formed by the synaptic facilitation just for those pools to which the cue is applied, and then maintenance of this synaptic facilitation in just those pools when the cue is removed by the continuing neuronal firing in those pools. The findings have implications for understanding how several items can be maintained simultaneously in short term memory, how this may be relevant to the implementation of language in the brain, and suggest new approaches to understanding and treating the decline in short term memory that can occur with normal aging. PMID:23613789

Speech, "Inner Speech," and the Development of Short-Term Memory: Effects of Picture-Labeling on Recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Hitch, Graham J.; And Others

1991-01-01

Reports on experiments to determine effects of overt speech on children's use of inner speech in short-term memory. Word length and phonemic similarity had greater effects on older children and when pictures were labeled at presentation. Suggests that speaking or listening to speech activates an internal articulatory loop. (Author/GH)

Effects of ethanolic extract and naphthoquinones obtained from the bulbs of Cipura paludosa on short-term and long-term memory: involvement of adenosine A₁ and A₂A receptors.

Science.gov (United States)

Lucena, Greice M R S; Matheus, Filipe C; Ferreira, Vania M; Tessele, Priscila B; Azevedo, Mariangela S; Cechinel-Filho, Valdir; Prediger, Rui D

2013-04-01

Previous studies from our group have indicated important biological properties of the ethanolic extract and isolated compounds from the bulbs of Cipura paludosa (Iridaceae), a native plant widely distributed in northern Brazil, including antioxidant, neuroprotective and anti-nociceptive activities. In the present study, the effects of the ethanolic extract and its two naphthoquinones (eleutherine and isoeleutherine) on the short- and long-term memory of adult rodents were assessed in social recognition and inhibitory avoidance tasks. Acute pre-training oral administration of the ethanolic extract improved the short-term social memory in rats as well as facilitated the step-down inhibitory avoidance short- and long-term memory in mice. Moreover, the co-administration of 'non-effective' doses of the extract of Cipura paludosa and the adenosine receptor antagonists caffeine (non-selective), DPCPX (adenosine A1 receptor antagonist) and ZM241385 (adenosine A2A receptor antagonist) improved the social recognition memory of rats. In the inhibitory avoidance task, the co-administration of sub-effective doses of the extract with caffeine or ZM241385, but not with DPCPX, improved the short- and long-term memory of mice. Finally, the acute oral administration of eleutherine and isoeleutherine facilitated the inhibitory avoidance short- and long-term memory in mice. These results demonstrate for the first time the cognitive-enhancing properties of the extract and isolated compounds from the bulbs of Cipura paludosa in rodents and suggest a possible involvement of adenosine A1 and A2A receptors in these effects. © 2012 The Authors Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology © 2012 Nordic Pharmacological Society.

Independence of long-term contextual memory and short-term perceptual hypotheses: Evidence from contextual cueing of interrupted search.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlagbauer, Bernhard; Mink, Maurice; Müller, Hermann J; Geyer, Thomas

2017-02-01

Observers are able to resume an interrupted search trial faster relative to responding to a new, unseen display. This finding of rapid resumption is attributed to short-term perceptual hypotheses generated on the current look and confirmed upon subsequent looks at the same display. It has been suggested that the contents of perceptual hypotheses are similar to those of other forms of memory acquired long-term through repeated exposure to the same search displays over the course of several trials, that is, the memory supporting "contextual cueing." In three experiments, we investigated the relationship between short-term perceptual hypotheses and long-term contextual memory. The results indicated that long-term, contextual memory of repeated displays neither affected the generation nor the confirmation of short-term perceptual hypotheses for these displays. Furthermore, the analysis of eye movements suggests that long-term memory provides an initial benefit in guiding attention to the target, whereas in subsequent looks guidance is entirely based on short-term perceptual hypotheses. Overall, the results reveal a picture of both long- and short-term memory contributing to reliable performance gains in interrupted search, while exerting their effects in an independent manner.

Get the gist? The effects of processing depth on false recognition in short-term and long-term memory

OpenAIRE

Flegal, Kristin E.; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A.

2014-01-01

Gist-based processing has been proposed to account for robust false memories in the converging-associates task. The deep-encoding processes known to enhance verbatim memory also strengthen gist memory and increase distortions of long-term memory (LTM). Recent research has demonstrated that compelling false memory illusions are relatively delay-invariant, also occurring under canonical short-term memory (STM) conditions. To investigate the contributions of gist to false memory at short and lon...

Effects of standardized Ginkgo biloba extract on the acquisition, retrieval and extinction of conditioned suppression: Evidence that short-term memory and long-term memory are differentially modulated.

Science.gov (United States)

Zamberlam, C R; Vendrasco, N C; Oliveira, D R; Gaiardo, R B; Cerutti, S M

2016-10-15

Studies in our laboratory have characterized the putative neuromodulatory effects of a standardized extract of the green leaves of Ginkgo biloba (EGb), which comprises a formulation of 24% ginkgo-flavoglycosides and 6% ginkgo-terpenoid lactones, on conditioned suppression. This model comprises a suitable animal model for investigating the behavioral changes and pharmacological mechanisms that underlie fear memory and anxiety. The characterization of the effects on distinct stages of fear memory or fear extinction will help illustrate both the beneficial and harmful effects. Three hundred adult male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to 30 groups according to the treatment as follows: i-ii) control groups (CS-US and CSno-US); iii) vehicle group (12% Tween®80); and iv-vi) EGb groups (250, 500 and 1000mgkg(-1)); or experimental procedures designed to assess the effects of EGb treatment prior to the acquisition (n=20 per group) and retrieval of conditioned fear (n=10 per group) or prior to the extinction training (n=10 per group) and extinction retention test (n=10 per group). Furthermore, to better understand the effects of acute EGb treatment on fear memory, we conducted two additional analyses: the acquisition of within- and between-session extinction of fear memory (short- and long-term memory, respectively). No difference was identified between the control and treatment groups during the retention test (P>0.05), with the exception of the CSno-US group in relation to all groups (Pmemory, which was verified by the suppression ration in the first trial of extinction training (SR=0.39) and the extinction retention test session (SR=0.53, Pmemory acquisition, which were evaluated during the retention test (SR=0.79). Moreover, EGb administered at 1000mgkg(-1) prior to conditioning did not enhance the long-term extinction memory, i.e., it did not prevent the return of extinguished fear memory in the extinction retention test, in which the spontaneous recovery of fear was

Mothers with HIP - the short term and long-term impact, what is new?

Science.gov (United States)

Mecacci, Federico; Ottanelli, Serena; Petraglia, Felice

2018-05-03

Hyperglycemia is one of the most common medical conditions that women encounter during pregnancy and it is due to gestational diabetes (GDM) in the majority of cases [1]. GDM is associated with a higher incidence of maternal morbidity in pregnancy in term of hypertensive disorders/preclampsia and higher rate of cesarean delivery but also with long-term risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Pregnancy can therefore be considered a stress test; diagnosis of HIP can unmask a preexisting susceptibility and consequently a future risk for type 2 diabetes and can be a useful marker of future cardiovascular risk. Postpartum follow up provides an excellent opportunity to implement healthy lifestyle behaviors to prevent or delay the development of diabetes or cardiovascular disease. The aim of the current review is to focus on short and long term maternal morbidity of HIP. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Effects of short-term administration of estradiol on reperfusion arrhythmias in rats of different ages

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Savergnini, S.Q.; Reis, A.M.; Santos, R.A.S.; Santos, P.E.B.; Ferreira, A.J.; Almeida, A.P.

2012-01-01

Little is known about age-related differences in short-term effects of estradiol on ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) insults. The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of short-term treatment with estradiol on reperfusion arrhythmias in isolated hearts of 6-7-week-old and 12-14-month-old female rats. Wistar rats were sham-operated, ovariectomized and treated with vehicle or ovariectomized and treated with 17β-estradiol (E 2 ; 5 µg·100 g −1 ·day −1 ) for 4 days. Hearts were perfused by the Langendorff technique. Reperfusion arrhythmias, i.e., ventricular tachycardia and/or ventricular fibrillation, were induced by 15 min of left coronary artery ligation and 30 min of reperfusion. The duration and incidence of I/R arrhythmias were significantly higher in young rats compared to middle-aged rats (arrhythmia severity index: 9.4 ± 1.0 vs 3.0 ± 0.3 arbitrary units, respectively, P < 0.05). In addition, middle-aged rats showed lower heart rate, systolic tension and coronary flow. Four-day E 2 treatment caused an increase in uterine weight. Although E 2 administration had no significant effect on the duration of I/R arrhythmias in middle-aged rats, it induced a marked reduction in the rhythm disturbances of young rats accompanied by a decrease in heart rate of isolated hearts. Also, this reduction was associated with an increase in QT interval. No significant changes were observed in the QT interval of middle-aged E 2 -treated rats. These data demonstrate that short-term estradiol treatment protects against I/R arrhythmias in hearts of young female rats. The anti-arrhythmogenic effect of estradiol might be related to a lengthening of the QT interval

Effects of short-term administration of estradiol on reperfusion arrhythmias in rats of different ages

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Savergnini, S.Q.; Reis, A.M. [Departamento de Fisiologia e Biofísica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil); Santos, R.A.S. [1Departamento de Fisiologia e Biofísica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil); Santos, P.E.B. [Departamento de Farmacologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil); Ferreira, A.J. [Departamento de Morfologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil); Almeida, A.P. [Departamento de Fisiologia e Biofísica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)

2012-11-01

Little is known about age-related differences in short-term effects of estradiol on ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) insults. The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of short-term treatment with estradiol on reperfusion arrhythmias in isolated hearts of 6-7-week-old and 12-14-month-old female rats. Wistar rats were sham-operated, ovariectomized and treated with vehicle or ovariectomized and treated with 17β-estradiol (E{sub 2}; 5 µg·100 g{sup −1}·day{sup −1}) for 4 days. Hearts were perfused by the Langendorff technique. Reperfusion arrhythmias, i.e., ventricular tachycardia and/or ventricular fibrillation, were induced by 15 min of left coronary artery ligation and 30 min of reperfusion. The duration and incidence of I/R arrhythmias were significantly higher in young rats compared to middle-aged rats (arrhythmia severity index: 9.4 ± 1.0 vs 3.0 ± 0.3 arbitrary units, respectively, P < 0.05). In addition, middle-aged rats showed lower heart rate, systolic tension and coronary flow. Four-day E{sub 2} treatment caused an increase in uterine weight. Although E{sub 2} administration had no significant effect on the duration of I/R arrhythmias in middle-aged rats, it induced a marked reduction in the rhythm disturbances of young rats accompanied by a decrease in heart rate of isolated hearts. Also, this reduction was associated with an increase in QT interval. No significant changes were observed in the QT interval of middle-aged E{sub 2}-treated rats. These data demonstrate that short-term estradiol treatment protects against I/R arrhythmias in hearts of young female rats. The anti-arrhythmogenic effect of estradiol might be related to a lengthening of the QT interval.

Effects of short term and long term soil warming on ecosystem phenology of a sub-arctic grassland: an NDVI-based approach

Science.gov (United States)

Leblans, Niki; Sigurdsson, Bjarni D.; Janssens, Ivan A.

2014-05-01

Phenology has been defined as the study of the timing of recurring biological events and the causes of their timing with regard to abiotic and biotic factors. Ecosystem phenology, including the onset of the growing season and its senescence in autumn, plays an important role in the carbon, water and energy exchange between biosphere and atmosphere at higher latitudes. Factors that influence ecosystem phenology can therefore induce important climate-controlling feedback mechanisms. Global surface temperatures have been predicted to increase in the coming decades. Hence, a better understanding of the effect of temperature on ecosystem phenology is essential. Natural geothermal soil temperature gradients in Iceland offer a unique opportunity to study the soil temperature (Ts) dependence of ecosystem phenology and distinguish short-term (transient) warming effects (in recently established Ts gradients) from long-term (permanent) effects (in centuries-old Ts gradients). This research was performed in the framework of an international research project (ForHot; www.forhot.is). ForHot includes two natural grassland areas with gradients in Ts, dominated by Festuca sp., Agrostis sp.. The first warmed area was created in 2008, when an earthquake in S-Iceland caused geothermal systems to be shifted to previously cold soils. The second area is located about 3 km away from this newly warmed grassland. For this area, there are proofs that the natural soil warming has been continuous for at least 300 year. In the present study we focus on Ts elevation gradients of +0 to +10°C. The experiment consists of five transects with five temperature levels (+0,+1,+3,+5 and +10°C) in the two aforementioned grassland ecosystems (n=25 in each grassland). From April until November 2013, weekly measurements of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were taken. In the short-term warmed grassland, the greening of the vegetation was 36 days advanced at +10°C Ts and the date of 50

Drought analysis and short-term forecast in the Aison River Basin (Greece

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S. Kavalieratou

2012-05-01

Full Text Available A combined regional drought analysis and forecast is elaborated and applied to the Aison River Basin (Greece. The historical frequency, duration and severity were estimated using the standardized precipitation index (SPI computed on variable time scales, while short-term drought forecast was investigated by means of 3-D loglinear models. A quasi-association model with homogenous diagonal effect was proposed to fit the observed frequencies of class transitions of the SPI values computed on the 12-month time scale. Then, an adapted submodel was selected for each data set through the backward elimination method. The analysis and forecast of the drought class transition probabilities were based on the odds of the expected frequencies, estimated by these submodels, and the respective confidence intervals of these odds. The parsimonious forecast models fitted adequately the observed data. Results gave a comprehensive insight on drought behavior, highlighting a dominant drought period (1988–1991 with extreme drought events and revealing, in most cases, smooth drought class transitions. The proposed approach can be an efficient tool in regional water resources management and short-term drought warning, especially in irrigated districts.

An Analysis of Short- Term Overreaction to Stock Market News: Iranian Evidence

OpenAIRE

Masoumeh Naderi; Sasan Mekanik

2012-01-01

In Financial markets information is in the form of signs, news and different predictions coming from inside or outside of the company which makes reactions and as a result changes in stock prices. Such as increase and decrease over the limit or long period of times. However, this behavior is non-rational behavior of market which can be a rational response to perceived uncertainty that is understood by investors. We investigate the stock market short –term overreaction. The Aim of this project...

Prevention of mammary carcinogenesis by short-term estrogen and progestin treatments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rajkumar, Lakshmanaswamy; Guzman, Raphael C; Yang, Jason; Thordarson, Gudmundur; Talamantes, Frank; Nandi, Satyabrata

2004-01-01

Women who have undergone a full-term pregnancy before the age of 20 have one-half the risk of developing breast cancer compared with women who have never gone through a full-term pregnancy. This protective effect is observed universally among women of all ethnic groups. Parity in rats and mice also protects them against chemically induced mammary carcinogenesis. Seven-week-old virgin Lewis rats were given N-methyl-N-nitrosourea. Two weeks later the rats were treated with natural or synthetic estrogens and progestins for 7–21 days by subcutaneous implantation of silastic capsules. In our current experiment, we demonstrate that short-term sustained exposure to natural or synthetic estrogens along with progestins is effective in preventing mammary carcinogenesis in rats. Treatment with 30 mg estriol plus 30 mg progesterone for 3 weeks significantly reduced the incidence of mammary cancer. Short-term exposure to ethynyl estradiol plus megesterol acetate or norethindrone was effective in decreasing the incidence of mammary cancers. Tamoxifen plus progesterone treatment for 3 weeks was able to confer only a transient protection from mammary carcinogenesis, while 2-methoxy estradiol plus progesterone was effective in conferring protection against mammary cancers. The data obtained in the present study demonstrate that, in nulliparous rats, long-term protection against mammary carcinogenesis can be achieved by short-term treatments with natural or synthetic estrogen and progesterone combinations

High-intensity exercise and recovery during short-term ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective. To determine the effect of short-term creatine supplementation plus a protein-carbohydrate formula on high-intensity exercise performance and recovery. Design. A repeated-measures, experimental study, employing a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, group comparison design was used.

Short- and long-term health consequences of sleep disruption

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Medic G

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Goran Medic,1,2 Micheline Wille,1 Michiel EH Hemels1 1Market Access, Horizon Pharma B.V., Utrecht, 2Unit of Pharmacoepidemiology & Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Pharmacy, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: Sleep plays a vital role in brain function and systemic physiology across many body systems. Problems with sleep are widely prevalent and include deficits in quantity and quality of sleep; sleep problems that impact the continuity of sleep are collectively referred to as sleep disruptions. Numerous factors contribute to sleep disruption, ranging from lifestyle and environmental factors to sleep disorders and other medical conditions. Sleep disruptions have substantial adverse short- and long-term health consequences. A literature search was conducted to provide a nonsystematic review of these health consequences (this review was designed to be nonsystematic to better focus on the topics of interest due to the myriad parameters affected by sleep. Sleep disruption is associated with increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, metabolic effects, changes in circadian rhythms, and proinflammatory responses. In otherwise healthy adults, short-term consequences of sleep disruption include increased stress responsivity, somatic pain, reduced quality of life, emotional distress and mood disorders, and cognitive, memory, and performance deficits. For adolescents, psychosocial health, school performance, and risk-taking behaviors are impacted by sleep disruption. Behavioral problems and cognitive functioning are associated with sleep disruption in children. Long-term consequences of sleep disruption in otherwise healthy individuals include hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, weight-related issues, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and colorectal cancer. All-cause mortality is also increased in men with sleep disturbances. For those with

Intact short-term memory and impaired executive functions in obsessive compulsive disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Demeter, Gyula; Racsmány, Mihály; Csigó, Katalin; Harsányi, András; Németh, Attila; Döme, László

2013-01-30

Previous neuropsychological studies produced inconsistent results with tasks tapping short-term verbal and visual-spatial memory and executive functions in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of deficits in these cognitive domains. A further goal was to describe the distribution of patients in different impairment ranges for all functions, and clarify the relationship between symptom severity and cognitive impairments. Thirty patients with OCD (DSM-IV) and 30 healthy volunteers were compared using well-known neuropsychological tasks. We assessed short-term verbal memory with the Digit Span Forward and Digit Span Backward Tasks, short-term visual-spatial memory with the Corsi Block Tapping Task, while we measured the level of executive functions with the StroopTask and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Compared with a matched healthy control group, the performance of OCD patients was in the impaired range only in the two executive tasks. We find a significant positive correlations between the Y-BOCS (Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale) total scores and the number of perseverative responses (r(28) = 0.409, p short-term memory is intact in OCD. This is in line with neuropsychological model of OCD that the deficit of cognitive and behavioral inhibition are responsible for the main cognitive findings of this disorder, most prevalently the deficit in set shifting and prepotent response inhibition.

MEMANTINE ATTENUATES THE OKADAIC ACID INDUCED SHORT-TERM SPATIAL MEMORY IMPAIRMENT AND HIPPOCAMPAL CELL LOSS IN RATS.

Science.gov (United States)

Dashniani, M; Chighladze, M; Burjanadze, M; Beselia, G; Kruashvili, L

2016-03-01

In the present study, the possible beneficial effect of memantine on the Okadaic Acid (OA) induced spatial short-term memory impairment was examined in spatial alternation task, and the neuroprotective potential of memantine on OA-induced structural changes in the hippocampus was evaluated by Nissl staining. OA was dissolved in artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) and injected intracerebroventriculary (ICV) 200 ng in a volume of 10 μl bilaterally. Vehicle control received aCSF ICV bilaterally. Control and OA injected rats were divided into 2 subgroups injected i.p. with saline or memantine (5 mg/kg). Memantine or saline were given daily for 13 days starting from the day of OA injection. Behavioral study showed that bilateral ICV microinjection of OA induced impairment in spatial short-term memory. Nissl staining in the present study showed that the ICV microinjection of OA significantly decreased the number of surviving pyramidal neurons in the CA1 region of the hippocampus. Chronic administration of memantine effectively attenuated OA induced spatial short-term memory impairment and the OA-induced neuropathological changes in the hippocampus. Therefore, ICV injection of OA can be used as an experimental model to study mechanisms of neurodegeneration and define novel therapeutics targets for AD pathology.

Auditory short-term memory in the primate auditory cortex.

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Scott, Brian H; Mishkin, Mortimer

2016-06-01

Sounds are fleeting, and assembling the sequence of inputs at the ear into a coherent percept requires auditory memory across various time scales. Auditory short-term memory comprises at least two components: an active ׳working memory' bolstered by rehearsal, and a sensory trace that may be passively retained. Working memory relies on representations recalled from long-term memory, and their rehearsal may require phonological mechanisms unique to humans. The sensory component, passive short-term memory (pSTM), is tractable to study in nonhuman primates, whose brain architecture and behavioral repertoire are comparable to our own. This review discusses recent advances in the behavioral and neurophysiological study of auditory memory with a focus on single-unit recordings from macaque monkeys performing delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) tasks. Monkeys appear to employ pSTM to solve these tasks, as evidenced by the impact of interfering stimuli on memory performance. In several regards, pSTM in monkeys resembles pitch memory in humans, and may engage similar neural mechanisms. Neural correlates of DMS performance have been observed throughout the auditory and prefrontal cortex, defining a network of areas supporting auditory STM with parallels to that supporting visual STM. These correlates include persistent neural firing, or a suppression of firing, during the delay period of the memory task, as well as suppression or (less commonly) enhancement of sensory responses when a sound is repeated as a ׳match' stimulus. Auditory STM is supported by a distributed temporo-frontal network in which sensitivity to stimulus history is an intrinsic feature of auditory processing. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Auditory working memory. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Centralising and optimising decentralised stroke care systems : A simulation study on short-term costs and effects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lahr, Maarten M. H.; van der Zee, Durk-Jouke; Luijckx, Gert-Jan; Vroomen, Patrick C. A. J.; Buskens, Erik

2017-01-01

Background: Centralisation of thrombolysis may offer substantial benefits. The aim of this study was to assess short term costs and effects of centralisation of thrombolysis and optimised care in a decentralised system. Methods: Using simulation modelling, three scenarios to improve decentralised

Psychomotor and Memory Effects of Haloperidol, Olanzapine, and Paroxetine in Healthy Subjects After Short-Term Administration

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Morrens, M.; Wezenberg, E.; Verkes, R.J.; Hulstijn, W.; Ruigt, G.S.F.; Sabbe, B.G.C.

2007-01-01

Rationale: Impaired psychomotor function has been shown to be associated with clinical and functional outcome in schizophrenia. However, few studies have investigated the short-term effects of antipsychotics on the cognitive and psychomotor functions of this patient group. Because many confounding

Psychomotor and memory effects of haloperidol, olanzapine, and paroxetine in healthy subjects after short-term administration.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Morrens, M.; Wezenberg, E.; Verkes, R.J.; Hulstijn, W.; Ruigt, G.S.F.; Sabbe, B.G.C.

2007-01-01

RATIONALE: Impaired psychomotor function has been shown to be associated with clinical and functional outcome in schizophrenia. However, few studies have investigated the short-term effects of antipsychotics on the cognitive and psychomotor functions of this patient group. Because many confounding

Predictors of Short- and Long-Term Attrition From the Parents as Agents of Change Randomized Controlled Trial for Managing Pediatric Obesity.

Science.gov (United States)

Spence, Nicholas D; Newton, Amanda S; Keaschuk, Rachel A; Ambler, Kathryn A; Jetha, Mary M; Holt, Nicholas L; Rosychuk, Rhonda J; Spence, John C; Sharma, Arya M; Ball, Geoff D C

Attrition in pediatric weight management is a substantial problem. This study examined factors associated with short- and long-term attrition from a lifestyle and behavioral intervention for parents of children with overweight or obesity. Fifty-two families with children ages 6 to 12 years old and body mass index at or above the 85th percentile participated in a randomized controlled trial focused on parents, comparing parent-based cognitive behavioral therapy with parent-based psychoeducation for pediatric weight management. We examined program attrition using two clinical phases of the intervention: short-term and long-term attrition, modeled using the general linear model. Predictors included intervention type, child/parent weight status, sociodemographic factors, and health of the family system. Higher self-assessed health of the family system was associated with lower short-term attrition; higher percentage of intervention sessions attended by parents was associated with lower long-term attrition. Different variables were significant in our short- and long-term models. Attrition might best be conceptualized based on short- and long-term phases of clinical, parent-based interventions for pediatric weight management. Copyright © 2016 National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Short-term memories with a stochastic perturbation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pontes, Jose C.A. de; Batista, Antonio M.; Viana, Ricardo L.; Lopes, Sergio R.

2005-01-01

We investigate short-term memories in linear and weakly nonlinear coupled map lattices with a periodic external input. We use locally coupled maps to present numerical results about short-term memory formation adding a stochastic perturbation in the maps and in the external input

A comparison of serial order short-term memory effects across verbal and musical domains.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorin, Simon; Mengal, Pierre; Majerus, Steve

2018-04-01

Recent studies suggest that the mechanisms involved in the short-term retention of serial order information may be shared across short-term memory (STM) domains such as verbal and visuospatial STM. Given the intrinsic sequential organization of musical material, the study of STM for musical information may be particularly informative about serial order retention processes and their domain-generality. The present experiment examined serial order STM for verbal and musical sequences in participants with no advanced musical expertise and experienced musicians. Serial order STM for verbal information was assessed via a serial order reconstruction task for digit sequences. In the musical domain, serial order STM was assessed using a novel melodic sequence reconstruction task maximizing the retention of tone order information. We observed that performance for the verbal and musical tasks was characterized by sequence length as well as primacy and recency effects. Serial order errors in both tasks were characterized by similar transposition gradients and ratios of fill-in:infill errors. These effects were observed for both participant groups, although the transposition gradients and ratios of fill-in:infill errors showed additional specificities for musician participants in the musical task. The data support domain-general serial order STM effects but also suggest the existence of additional domain-specific effects. Implications for models of serial order STM in verbal and musical domains are discussed.

Short-term memory

Science.gov (United States)

Toulouse, G.

This is a rather bold attempt to bridge the gap between neuron structure and psychological data. We try to answer the question: Is there a relation between the neuronal connectivity in the human cortex (around 5,000) and the short-term memory capacity (7±2)? Our starting point is the Hopfield model (Hopfield 1982), presented in this volume by D.J. Amit.

Cardioprotective Signature of Short-Term Caloric Restriction.

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Hossein Noyan

Full Text Available To understand the molecular pathways underlying the cardiac preconditioning effect of short-term caloric restriction (CR.Lifelong CR has been suggested to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease through a variety of mechanisms. However, prolonged adherence to a CR life-style is difficult. Here we reveal the pathways that are modulated by short-term CR, which are associated with protection of the mouse heart from ischemia.Male 10-12 wk old C57bl/6 mice were randomly assigned to an ad libitum (AL diet with free access to regular chow, or CR, receiving 30% less food for 7 days (d, prior to myocardial infarction (MI via permanent coronary ligation. At d8, the left ventricles (LV of AL and CR mice were collected for Western blot, mRNA and microRNA (miR analyses to identify cardioprotective gene expression signatures. In separate groups, infarct size, cardiac hemodynamics and protein abundance of caspase 3 was measured at d2 post-MI.This short-term model of CR was associated with cardio-protection, as evidenced by decreased infarct size (18.5±2.4% vs. 26.6±1.7%, N=10/group; P=0.01. mRNA and miR profiles pre-MI (N=5/group identified genes modulated by short-term CR to be associated with circadian clock, oxidative stress, immune function, apoptosis, metabolism, angiogenesis, cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix (ECM. Western blots pre-MI revealed CR-associated increases in phosphorylated Akt and GSK3ß, reduced levels of phosphorylated AMPK and mitochondrial related proteins PGC-1α, cytochrome C and cyclooxygenase (COX IV, with no differences in the levels of phosphorylated eNOS or MAPK (ERK1/2; p38. CR regimen was also associated with reduced protein abundance of cleaved caspase 3 in the infarcted heart and improved cardiac function.

Food, stress, and reproduction: short-term fasting alters endocrine physiology and reproductive behavior in the zebra finch.

Science.gov (United States)

Lynn, Sharon E; Stamplis, Teresa B; Barrington, William T; Weida, Nicholas; Hudak, Casey A

2010-07-01

Stress is thought to be a potent suppressor of reproduction. However, the vast majority of studies focus on the relationship between chronic stress and reproductive suppression, despite the fact that chronic stress is rare in the wild. We investigated the role of fasting in altering acute stress physiology, reproductive physiology, and reproductive behavior of male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) with several goals in mind. First, we wanted to determine if acute fasting could stimulate an increase in plasma corticosterone and a decrease in corticosteroid binding globulin (CBG) and testosterone. We then investigated whether fasting could alter expression of undirected song and courtship behavior. After subjecting males to fasting periods ranging from 1 to 10h, we collected plasma to measure corticosterone, CBG, and testosterone. We found that plasma corticosterone was elevated, and testosterone was decreased after 4, 6, and 10h of fasting periods compared with samples collected from the same males during nonfasted (control) periods. CBG was lower than control levels only after 10h of fasting. We also found that, coincident with these endocrine changes, males sang less and courted females less vigorously following short-term fasting relative to control conditions. Our data demonstrate that acute fasting resulted in rapid changes in endocrine physiology consistent with hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis activation and hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis deactivation. Fasting also inhibited reproductive behavior. We suggest that zebra finches exhibit physiological and behavioral flexibility that makes them an excellent model system for studying interactions of acute stress and reproduction. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Response of stream invertebrates to short-term salinization: A mesocosm approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cañedo-Argüelles, Miguel; Grantham, Theodore E.; Perrée, Isabelle; Rieradevall, Maria; Céspedes-Sánchez, Raquel; Prat, Narcís

2012-01-01

Salinization is a major and growing threat to freshwater ecosystems, yet its effects on aquatic invertebrates have been poorly described at a community-level. Here we use a controlled experimental setting to evaluate short-term stream community responses to salinization, under conditions designed to replicate the duration (72 h) and intensity (up to 5 mS cm −1 ) of salinity pulses common to Mediterranean rivers subjected to mining pollution during runoff events. There was a significant overall effect, but differences between individual treatments and the control were only significant for the highest salinity treatment. The community response to salinization was characterized by a decline in total invertebrate density, taxon richness and diversity, an increase in invertebrate drift and loss of the most sensitive taxa. The findings indicate that short-term salinity increases have a significant impact on the stream invertebrate community, but concentrations of 5 mS cm −1 are needed to produce a significant ecological response. - Highlights: ► Short-term salinization has a significant impact on the aquatic invertebrates. ► A significant short-term ecological response is registered at 5 mS cm −1 . ► Salinization causes a decline in invertebrate density, richness and diversity. ► Biotic quality indices decline with increasing salinity and exposure time. - Short-term salinization in a stream mesocosm caused a significant response in the aquatic invertebrate community and led to declines in biological quality indices.

Attentional Demands Predict Short-Term Memory Load Response in Posterior Parietal Cortex

Science.gov (United States)

Magen, Hagit; Emmanouil, Tatiana-Aloi; McMains, Stephanie A.; Kastner, Sabine; Treisman, Anne

2009-01-01

Limits to the capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM) indicate a maximum storage of only 3 or 4 items. Recently, it has been suggested that activity in a specific part of the brain, the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), is correlated with behavioral estimates of VSTM capacity and might reflect a capacity-limited store. In three experiments that…

The short-term effects of effort-reward imbalance : Daily and within-day psychological and physiological measurements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hanson, E.K.S.

2000-01-01

In the present thesis, the short-term effects of Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) are studied by measuring indices of vagal control, hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPAC) activity and affect. The studies provide an illustration of recent developments in the field. Primarily, Ecological Momentary

Gender Inequality in Biology Classes in China and Its Effects on Students' Short-Term Outcomes

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ning; Neuhaus, Birgit

2014-01-01

This study investigated gender inequality in biology lessons and analysed the effects of the observed inequality on students' short-term knowledge achievement, situational interest and students' evaluation of teaching (SET). Twenty-two biology teachers and 803 7th-grade students from rural and urban classrooms in China participated in the study.…

An investigation into the effects of nicotine gum on short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, S; Fox, P

1998-12-01

Using a between-subjects 2x2x2 factorial design, 60 smokers and 60 non-smokers (equal number of males and females) performed a short-term memory task requiring delayed free recall of a visually presented supraspan word list. Using a double-blind procedure, half the subjects chewed nicotine gum and the other half chewed placebo gum prior to performing the memory task. Results support previous research findings which show that nicotine significantly improves short-term memory. Sex differences were also investigated, but findings showed no significant differences between male and female subjects. Methodological considerations are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.

Verbal short-term memory span in children: long-term modality dependent effects of intrauterine growth restriction.

Science.gov (United States)

Geva, R; Eshel, R; Leitner, Y; Fattal-Valevski, A; Harel, S

2008-12-01

Recent reports showed that children born with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) are at greater risk of experiencing verbal short-term memory span (STM) deficits that may impede their learning capacities at school. It is still unknown whether these deficits are modality dependent. This long-term, prospective design study examined modality-dependent verbal STM functions in children who were diagnosed at birth with IUGR (n = 138) and a control group (n = 64). Their STM skills were evaluated individually at 9 years of age with four conditions of the Visual-Aural Digit Span Test (VADS; Koppitz, 1981): auditory-oral, auditory-written, visuospatial-oral and visuospatial-written. Cognitive competence was evaluated with the short form of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children--revised (WISC-R95; Wechsler, 1998). We found IUGR-related specific auditory-oral STM deficits (p long-term relationship between prenatal aberrant head growth and auditory verbal STM deficits by the end of the first decade of life. Empirical, clinical and educational implications are presented.

Short- and Long-Term Effects of Concurrent Strength and HIIT Training in Octogenarians with COPD.

Science.gov (United States)

Guadalupe-Grau, Amelia; Aznar-Laín, Susana; Mañas, Asier; Castellanos, Juan; Alcázar, Julián; Ara, Ignacio; Mata, Esmeralda; Daimiel, Rosa; García-García, Francisco José

2017-01-01

To investigate the short- and long-term effects of concurrent strength and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on octogenarian COPD patients, nine males (age = 84.2 ± 2.8 years, BMI = 29.3 ± 2.3) with low to severe COPD levels (2.1 ± 1.5 BODE index) underwent a supervised 9-week strength and HIIT exercise program. Training had a significant (p HIIT training increases physical fitness in the oldest-old COPD patients, and has potential long-term benefits.

Short- and long-term effects of unemployment on fertility

Science.gov (United States)

Currie, Janet; Schwandt, Hannes

2014-01-01

Scholars have been examining the relationship between fertility and unemployment for more than a century. Most studies find that fertility falls with unemployment in the short run, but it is not known whether these negative effects persist, because women simply may postpone childbearing to better economic times. Using more than 140 million US birth records for the period 1975–2010, we analyze both the short- and long-run effects of unemployment on fertility. We follow fixed cohorts of US-born women defined by their own state and year of birth, and relate their fertility to the unemployment rate experienced by each cohort at different ages. We focus on conceptions that result in a live birth. We find that women in their early 20s are most affected by high unemployment rates in the short run and that the negative effects on fertility grow over time. A one percentage point increase in the average unemployment rate experienced between the ages of 20 and 24 reduces the short-run fertility of women in this age range by six conceptions per 1,000 women. When we follow these women to age 40, we find that a one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate experienced at ages 20–24 leads to an overall loss of 14.2 conceptions. This long-run effect is driven largely by women who remain childless and thus do not have either first births or higher-order births. PMID:25267622

Evaluation of Short Term Memory Span Function In Children

OpenAIRE

Barış ERGÜL; Arzu ALTIN YAVUZ; Ebru GÜNDOĞAN AŞIK

2016-01-01

Although details of the information encoded in the short-term memory where it is stored temporarily be recorded in the working memory in the next stage. Repeating the information mentally makes it remain in memory for a long time. Studies investigating the relationship between short-term memory and reading skills that are carried out to examine the relationship between short-term memory processes and reading comprehension. In this study information coming to short-term memory and the factors ...

The Short Term Effectiveness of an Outdoor Environmental Education on Environmental Awareness and Sensitivity of In-Service Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Okur-Berberoglu, Emel; Ozdilek, Hasan Göksel; Yalcin-Ozdilek, Sükran

2015-01-01

Outdoor education is mostly mentioned in terms of environmental education. The aim of this research is to determine the short term effectiveness of an outdoor environmental education program on biodiversity awareness, environmental awareness and sensitivity to natural environment. The data is collected from an outdoor environmental education…

Short-Term Effects of Understory and Overstory Management on Breeding Birds in Arkansas Oak-Hickory Forests

Science.gov (United States)

Paul G. Rodewald; Kimberly G. Smith

1998-01-01

Relatively little is known about the effects of uneven-aged forest management practices on eastern forest birds, despite the fact that such methods are now commonly practiced. In 1993-94, we studied the short-term effects of uneven-aged forest management on bird communities in oak-hickory forests of north-western Arkansas. We estimated bird abundance in mature forests...

Short-term cognitive behavioral partial hospital treatment: a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Neuhaus, Edmund C; Christopher, Michael; Jacob, Karen; Guillaumot, Julien; Burns, James P

2007-09-01

Brief, cost-contained, and effective psychiatric treatments benefit patients and public health. This naturalistic pilot study examined the effectiveness of a 2-week, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) oriented partial hospital program. Study participants were 57 patients with mood, anxiety, and/or personality disorders receiving treatment in a private psychiatric partial hospital (PH) setting. A flexible treatment model was used that adapts evidence-based CBT treatment interventions to the PH context with emphases on psychoeducation and skills training. Participants completed self-report measures at admission and after 1 and 2 weeks, to assess stabilization and functional improvements, with added attention to the acquisition of cognitive and behavioral skills. The data were analyzed using repeated measures analyses of variance and correlation. Participants reported a decrease in symptoms and negative thought patterns, improved satisfaction with life, and acquisition and use of cognitive and behavioral skills. Skill acquisition was correlated with symptom reduction, reduced negative thought patterns, and improved satisfaction with life. Results of this pilot study suggest that a 2-week PH program can be effective for a heterogeneous patient population with mood, anxiety, and/or personality disorders. These findings are promising given the prevalence of treatments of such brief duration in private sector PH programs subject to the managed care marketplace. Future studies are planned to test this flexible PH treatment model, with particular attention to the effectiveness of the CBT approach for the treatment of different disorders and to whether effectiveness is sustained at follow-up. Further study should also examine whether skill acquisition is a mechanism of change for symptom reduction and functional improvements.

Searching for the Hebb Effect in down Syndrome: Evidence for a Dissociation between Verbal Short-Term Memory and Domain-General Learning of Serial Order

Science.gov (United States)

Mosse, E. K.; Jarrold, C.

2010-01-01

Background: The Hebb effect is a form of repetition-driven long-term learning that is thought to provide an analogue for the processes involved in new word learning. Other evidence suggests that verbal short-term memory also constrains now vocabulary acquisition, but if the Hebb effect is independent of short-term memory, then it may be possible…

Neuropeptide S overcomes short term memory deficit induced by sleep restriction by increasing prefrontal cortex activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomasson, Julien; Canini, Frédéric; Poly-Thomasson, Betty; Trousselard, Marion; Granon, Sylvie; Chauveau, Frédéric

2017-12-01

Sleep restriction (SR) impairs short term memory (STM) that might be related to different processes. Neuropeptide S (NPS), an endogenous neuropeptide that improves short term memory, activates arousal and decreases anxiety is likely to counteract the SR-induced impairment of STM. The objective of the present study was to find common cerebral pathways in sleep restriction and NPS action in order to ultimately antagonize SR effect on memory. The STM was assessed using a spontaneous spatial alternation task in a T-maze. C57-Bl/6J male mice were distributed in 4 groups according to treatment (0.1nmol of NPS or vehicle intracerebroventricular injection) and to 20h-SR. Immediately after behavioural testing, regional c-fos immunohistochemistry was performed and used as a neural activation marker for spatial short term memory (prefrontal cortex, dorsal hippocampus) and emotional reactivity (basolateral amygdala and ventral hippocampus). Anxiety-like behaviour was assessed using elevated-plus maze task. Results showed that SR impaired short term memory performance and decreased neuronal activation in cingular cortex.NPS injection overcame SR-induced STM deficits and increased neuronal activation in infralimbic cortex. SR spared anxiety-like behavior in the elevated-plus maze. Neural activation in basolateral nucleus of amygdala and ventral hippocampus were not changed after SR.In conclusion, the present study shows that NPS overcomes SR-induced STM deficits by increasing prefrontal cortex activation independently of anxiety-like behaviour. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Short-term heart rate variability in asthmatic obese children: effect of exhaustive exercise and different humidity conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Rezvan, K; Dabidi Roshan, V; Mahmudi, S A

2015-11-01

Asthmatic obese children experience changes in functional capacity and autonomic control. Previous heart rate variability (HRV) studies were based on 24-hour recordings, little research has been conducted on the short-term HRV in asthmatic obese children, primarily during physical effort indifferent environmental humidity conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of aerobic activity on short-term HRV in asthmatic obese children under two different environmental humidity conditions. Ten obese boys with mild asthma as experimental group and 15 obese healthy boys with the same conditions were involved as a control group. Protocol included progressive and exhaustive aerobic activities on a calibrated ergometer pedal bicycle in two various environmental humidity 35±5% and 65±5%. HRV was measured by PADSY MEDSET Holter monitoring device during three phases; pre-test, mid-test and post-test. Then, short-term HRV was assessed from calculation of the mean R-R interval measured on HRV at each phases. HRV significantly decreased at mid-test and post-test among asthmatic and health children. However, the aforesaid changes were significantly higher in the asthmatic than health children following. Moreover, decrease of short-term HRV was significantly greater in the 35±5% than 65±5% environmental humidity. Our findings suggest from the autonomic standpoint, asthmatic and non-asthmatic children respond differently to exhaustive exercise induced stress. Aerobic exercise at an environment with high humidity compared with the low humidity appears to have additional benefits on short-term HRV in that it enhances the parasympathetic and autonomic modulation of the heart in asthmatic obese children.

On the relationship between short- and long-term memory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Thomas Alrik

James (1890) divided memory into separate stores; primary and secondary – or short-term and long-term memory. The interaction between the two stores often assumes that information initially is represented in volatile short-term store before entering and consolidating in the more durable long-term......, accepted). Counter to popular beliefs this suggest that long-term memory precedes short-term memory and not vice versa....... memory system (e.g. Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968). Short-term memory seems to provide a surprising processing bottleneck where only a very limited amount of information can be represented at any given moment (Miller, 1956; Cowan, 2001). A number of studies have investigated the nature of this processing...

Independent and Combined Effects of Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Bilingualism on Children’s Vocabulary and Verbal Short-Term Memory

Science.gov (United States)

Meir, Natalia; Armon-Lotem, Sharon

2017-01-01

The current study explores the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) and bilingualism on the linguistic skills and verbal short-term memory of preschool children. In previous studies comparing children of low and mid-high SES, the terms “a child with low-SES” and “a child speaking a minority language” are often interchangeable, not enabling differentiated evaluation of these two variables. The present study controls for this confluence by testing children born and residing in the same country and attending the same kindergartens, with all bilingual children speaking the same heritage language (HL-Russian). A total of 120 children (88 bilingual children: 44 with low SES; and 32 monolingual children: 16 with low SES) with typical language development, aged 5; 7–6; 7, were tested in the societal language (SL-Hebrew) on expressive vocabulary and three repetition tasks [forward digit span (FWD), nonword repetition (NWR), and sentence repetition (SRep)], which tap into verbal short-term memory. The results indicated that SES and bilingualism impact different child abilities. Bilingualism is associated with decreased vocabulary size and lower performance on verbal short-term memory tasks with higher linguistic load in the SL-Hebrew. The negative effect of bilingualism on verbal short-term memory disappears once vocabulary is accounted for. SES influences not only linguistic performance, but also verbal short-term memory with lowest linguistic load. The negative effect of SES cannot be solely attributed to lower vocabulary scores, suggesting that an unprivileged background has a negative impact on children’s cognitive development beyond a linguistic disadvantage. The results have important clinical implications and call for more research exploring the varied impact of language and life experience on children’s linguistic and cognitive skills. PMID:28890706

Independent and Combined Effects of Socioeconomic Status (SES and Bilingualism on Children’s Vocabulary and Verbal Short-Term Memory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalia Meir

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The current study explores the influence of socioeconomic status (SES and bilingualism on the linguistic skills and verbal short-term memory of preschool children. In previous studies comparing children of low and mid-high SES, the terms “a child with low-SES” and “a child speaking a minority language” are often interchangeable, not enabling differentiated evaluation of these two variables. The present study controls for this confluence by testing children born and residing in the same country and attending the same kindergartens, with all bilingual children speaking the same heritage language (HL-Russian. A total of 120 children (88 bilingual children: 44 with low SES; and 32 monolingual children: 16 with low SES with typical language development, aged 5; 7–6; 7, were tested in the societal language (SL-Hebrew on expressive vocabulary and three repetition tasks [forward digit span (FWD, nonword repetition (NWR, and sentence repetition (SRep], which tap into verbal short-term memory. The results indicated that SES and bilingualism impact different child abilities. Bilingualism is associated with decreased vocabulary size and lower performance on verbal short-term memory tasks with higher linguistic load in the SL-Hebrew. The negative effect of bilingualism on verbal short-term memory disappears once vocabulary is accounted for. SES influences not only linguistic performance, but also verbal short-term memory with lowest linguistic load. The negative effect of SES cannot be solely attributed to lower vocabulary scores, suggesting that an unprivileged background has a negative impact on children’s cognitive development beyond a linguistic disadvantage. The results have important clinical implications and call for more research exploring the varied impact of language and life experience on children’s linguistic and cognitive skills.

Unmasking Stem/Progenitor Cell Properties in Differentiated Epithelial Cells Using Short-term Transplantation

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Lewis, Michael T

2006-01-01

...) To determine the range of mammary stem cell types participating in gland regeneration. 2) To develop the short-term transplantation assay as a means by which critical regulators of stem and progenitor cell behavior can be discovered and evaluated. Relevance: Studies will provide a direct test of prevailing stem cell models.

Unmasking Stem/Progenitor Cell Properties in Differentiated Epithelial Cells Using Short-term Transplantation

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Lewis, Michael T

2007-01-01

...) To determine the range of mammary stem cell types participating in gland regeneration. 2) To develop the short-term transplantation assay as a means by which critical regulators of stem and progenitor cell behavior can be discovered and evaluated. Relevance: Studies will provide a direct test of prevailing stem cell models.

Short-term memory and long-term memory are still different.

Science.gov (United States)

Norris, Dennis

2017-09-01

A commonly expressed view is that short-term memory (STM) is nothing more than activated long-term memory. If true, this would overturn a central tenet of cognitive psychology-the idea that there are functionally and neurobiologically distinct short- and long-term stores. Here I present an updated case for a separation between short- and long-term stores, focusing on the computational demands placed on any STM system. STM must support memory for previously unencountered information, the storage of multiple tokens of the same type, and variable binding. None of these can be achieved simply by activating long-term memory. For example, even a simple sequence of digits such as "1, 3, 1" where there are 2 tokens of the digit "1" cannot be stored in the correct order simply by activating the representations of the digits "1" and "3" in LTM. I also review recent neuroimaging data that has been presented as evidence that STM is activated LTM and show that these data are exactly what one would expect to see based on a conventional 2-store view. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Fluoroscopically guided caudal epidural steroid injection for management of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis: short-term and long-term results

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Joon Woo; Myung, Jae Sung; Kang, Heung Sik [Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Department of Radiology, Seong Nam, Gyeongi-do (Korea); Park, Kun Woo; Yeom, Jin S. [Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Seong Nam, Gyeongi-do (Korea); Kim, Ki-Jeong; Kim, Hyun-Jib [Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Seong Nam, Gyeongi-do (Korea)

2010-07-15

To evaluate the short-term and long-term effects of fluoroscopically guided caudal epidural steroid injection (ESI) for the management of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (DLSS) and to analyze outcome predictors. All patients who underwent caudal ESI in 2006 for DLSS were included in the study. Response was based on chart documentation (aggravated, no change, slightly improved, much improved, no pain). In June 2009 telephone interviews were conducted, using formatted questions including the North American Spine Society (NASS) patient satisfaction scale. For short-term and long-term effects, age difference was evaluated by the Mann-Whitney U test, and gender, duration of symptoms, level of DLSS, spondylolisthesis, and previous operations were evaluated by Fisher's exact test. Two hundred and sixteen patients (male: female = 75:141; mean age 69.2 years; range 48{proportional_to}91 years) were included in the study. Improvements (slightly improved, much improved, no pain) were seen in 185 patients (85.6%) after an initial caudal ESI and in 189 patients (87.5%) after a series of caudal ESIs. Half of the patients (89/179, 49.8%) replied positively to the NASS patient satisfaction scale (1 or 2). There were no significant outcome predictors for either the short-term or the long-term responses. Fluoroscopically guided caudal ESI was effective for the management of DLSS (especially central canal stenosis) with excellent short-term and good long-term results, without significant outcome predictors. (orig.)

Implicit short- and long-term memory direct our gaze in visual search.

Science.gov (United States)

Kruijne, Wouter; Meeter, Martijn

2016-04-01

Visual attention is strongly affected by the past: both by recent experience and by long-term regularities in the environment that are encoded in and retrieved from memory. In visual search, intertrial repetition of targets causes speeded response times (short-term priming). Similarly, targets that are presented more often than others may facilitate search, even long after it is no longer present (long-term priming). In this study, we investigate whether such short-term priming and long-term priming depend on dissociable mechanisms. By recording eye movements while participants searched for one of two conjunction targets, we explored at what stages of visual search different forms of priming manifest. We found both long- and short- term priming effects. Long-term priming persisted long after the bias was present, and was again found even in participants who were unaware of a color bias. Short- and long-term priming affected the same stage of the task; both biased eye movements towards targets with the primed color, already starting with the first eye movement. Neither form of priming affected the response phase of a trial, but response repetition did. The results strongly suggest that both long- and short-term memory can implicitly modulate feedforward visual processing.

Fast Weight Long Short-Term Memory

OpenAIRE

Keller, T. Anderson; Sridhar, Sharath Nittur; Wang, Xin

2018-01-01

Associative memory using fast weights is a short-term memory mechanism that substantially improves the memory capacity and time scale of recurrent neural networks (RNNs). As recent studies introduced fast weights only to regular RNNs, it is unknown whether fast weight memory is beneficial to gated RNNs. In this work, we report a significant synergy between long short-term memory (LSTM) networks and fast weight associative memories. We show that this combination, in learning associative retrie...

Short term depression unmasks the ghost frequency.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tjeerd V Olde Scheper

Full Text Available Short Term Plasticity (STP has been shown to exist extensively in synapses throughout the brain. Its function is more or less clear in the sense that it alters the probability of synaptic transmission at short time scales. However, it is still unclear what effect STP has on the dynamics of neural networks. We show, using a novel dynamic STP model, that Short Term Depression (STD can affect the phase of frequency coded input such that small networks can perform temporal signal summation and determination with high accuracy. We show that this property of STD can readily solve the problem of the ghost frequency, the perceived pitch of a harmonic complex in absence of the base frequency. Additionally, we demonstrate that this property can explain dynamics in larger networks. By means of two models, one of chopper neurons in the Ventral Cochlear Nucleus and one of a cortical microcircuit with inhibitory Martinotti neurons, it is shown that the dynamics in these microcircuits can reliably be reproduced using STP. Our model of STP gives important insights into the potential roles of STP in self-regulation of cortical activity and long-range afferent input in neuronal microcircuits.

Morphological processing with deficient phonological short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Kavé, Gitit; Ze'ev, Hagit Bar; Lev, Anita

2007-07-01

This paper investigates the processing of Hebrew derivational morphology in an individual (S.E.) with deficient phonological short-term memory. In comparison to 10 age- and education-matched men, S.E. was impaired on digit span tasks and demonstrated no recency effect in word list recall. S.E. had low word retention span, but he exhibited phonological similarity and word length effects. His ability to make lexical decisions was intact. In a paired-associate test S.E. successfully learned semantically and morphologically related pairs but not phonologically related pairs, and his learning of nonwords was facilitated by the presence of Hebrew consonant roots. Semantic and morphological similarity enhanced immediate word recall. Results show that S.E. is capable of conducting morphological decomposition of Hebrew-derived words despite his phonological deficit, suggesting that transient maintenance of morphological constituents is independent of temporary storage and rehearsal of phonological codes, and that each is processed separately within short-term memory.

Health impact of exposure to fine particles. Epidemiology of short-term effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peters, Annette; Wichmann, H.-Erich; Univ. Muenchen; Heinrich, Joachim

2002-01-01

Epidemiological studies on short-term effects of fine particles are investigating whether morbidity or mortality increase on days with high particle concentrations. Multi-center studies have shown on a daily basis that there is an increase in morbidity and/or mortality in association with particle concentrations. Studies on the effects of particles on the respiratory tract have indicated that there is an impact of particles at their place of deposition. In addition, numerous studies have revealed that particles also have effects on the cardiovascular system, including acute-phase reactions, increased hospital admissions, and also an increase in cardiovascular disease mortality in association with elevated particle concentrations. For PM 10 consistent effects were found. Furthermore, the analyses showed that no threshold value could be established, but a linear dose-effect relation. Studies measuring PM 2.5 point to fine particles being mainly responsible for these effects. Current studies show that in addition to fine particles, ultra-fine particles can cause further health effects. (orig.) [de

The role of selective attention in short-term memory and goal-directed behavior

OpenAIRE

Vissers, M.E.

2018-01-01

Selective attention enables the prioritization of goal-relevant aspects of our sensory environment in order to guide our actions, or to store goal-relevant information in short-term memory. Yet, it remains largely unclear how attention prioritizes goal-relevant information. For example, selective attention may enhance processing of goal-relevant information, suppress processing of distracting information, or both. The research presented in this dissertation examined the neurophysiological mec...

Improving creativity performance by short-term meditation

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Background One form of meditation intervention, the integrative body-mind training (IBMT) has been shown to improve attention, reduce stress and change self-reports of mood. In this paper we examine whether short-term IBMT can improve performance related to creativity and determine the role that mood may play in such improvement. Methods Forty Chinese undergraduates were randomly assigned to short-term IBMT group or a relaxation training (RT) control group. Mood and creativity performance were assessed by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) questionnaire respectively. Results As predicted, the results indicated that short-term (30 min per day for 7 days) IBMT improved creativity performance on the divergent thinking task, and yielded better emotional regulation than RT. In addition, cross-lagged analysis indicated that both positive and negative affect may influence creativity in IBMT group (not RT group). Conclusions Our results suggested that emotion-related creativity-promoting mechanism may be attributed to short-term meditation. PMID:24645871

Short-term predictability of crude oil markets: A detrended fluctuation analysis approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvarez-Ramirez, Jose; Alvarez, Jesus; Rodriguez, Eduardo

2008-01-01

This paper analyzes the auto-correlations of international crude oil prices on the basis of the estimation of the Hurst exponent dynamics for returns over the period from 1987 to 2007. In doing so, a model-free statistical approach - detrended fluctuation analysis - that reduces the effects of non-stationary market trends and focuses on the intrinsic auto-correlation structure of market fluctuations over different time horizons, is used. Tests for time variations of the Hurst exponent indicate that over long horizons the crude oil market is consistent with the efficient market hypothesis. However, meaningful auto-correlations cannot be excluded for time horizons smaller than one month where the Hurst exponent manifests cyclic, non-periodic dynamics. This means that the market exhibits a time-varying short-term inefficient behavior that becomes efficient in the long term. The proposed methodology and its findings are put in perspective with previous studies and results. (author)

Changes of levels of depression and quality of life after short-term cognitive behavioral educational program for adolescent students in health class.

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Aki, Atsuko; Tomotake, Masahito

2015-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the changes of levels of depression and quality of life in adolescent students after receiving short-term cognitive behavioral educational program in health class for stress management. Subjects were 176 middle school students aged 12 to 14 years. They completed the Depression Self-Rating Scale for Children (DSRS-C) and the Revised Children Quality of Life Questionnaire (Kiddo-KINDL(R)) before, after and 6-months after the program. The three-session program consisted of psychoeducation and learning skills of cognitive restructuring and problem solving. The total scores of the DSRS-C and the Kiddo-KINDL(R) in all subjects did not significantly change after the completion of program. However, as for the high risk group (score of the DSRS-C≥16), significant improvement in the two scales was found after the program. Especially, depression level in the high risk group significantly decreased and the improvement was maintained 6-months later. These results suggest that this type of approach may be effective for adolescents with high risk of depression in terms of improving not only depressive symptom but also quality of life.

Audiovisual integration facilitates monkeys' short-term memory.

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Bigelow, James; Poremba, Amy

2016-07-01

Many human behaviors are known to benefit from audiovisual integration, including language and communication, recognizing individuals, social decision making, and memory. Exceptionally little is known about the contributions of audiovisual integration to behavior in other primates. The current experiment investigated whether short-term memory in nonhuman primates is facilitated by the audiovisual presentation format. Three macaque monkeys that had previously learned an auditory delayed matching-to-sample (DMS) task were trained to perform a similar visual task, after which they were tested with a concurrent audiovisual DMS task with equal proportions of auditory, visual, and audiovisual trials. Parallel to outcomes in human studies, accuracy was higher and response times were faster on audiovisual trials than either unisensory trial type. Unexpectedly, two subjects exhibited superior unimodal performance on auditory trials, a finding that contrasts with previous studies, but likely reflects their training history. Our results provide the first demonstration of a bimodal memory advantage in nonhuman primates, lending further validation to their use as a model for understanding audiovisual integration and memory processing in humans.

Short- and long-term effectiveness of intracavitary urokinase in loculated thoracic empyema

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeong, Tae Gon; Han, Young Min; Chang, Suk Kyeong; Chung, Gyung Ho; Sohn, Myung Hee; Kim, Chong Soo; Choi, Ki Chul

1995-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the short-and long-term effectiveness of intracavitary urokinase with percutaneous catheter drainage in loculated thoracic empyemas. 15 patients were identified as second stage of loculated thoracic empyema by estimating nature of pleural fluid, chest PA, lateral decubitus view and CT scan. Under the guidance of fluoroscopy or ultrasound, catheter was inserted percutaneously. Instillation of urokinase was started when amount of drained fluid became less than 30 ml per day with 100,000U of urokinase mixed with 100 ml of normal saline. Trial of urokinase was repeated until complete drainage of empyema was demonstrated on plain chest film obtained after 48 hours. Successful complete drainage was achieved in 14 of 15 patients. In long-term study, complete resorption was demonstrated in 11 of 12 patients. Average dosage of used urokinase was 330,000U and mean duration of catheter insertion was 35 days. Intracavitary urokinase with percutaneous catheter drainage is a safe and effective method to facilitate drainage of loculated empyema and to prevent recurrence

Short-term plasticity in auditory cognition.

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Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Ahveninen, Jyrki; Belliveau, John W; Raij, Tommi; Sams, Mikko

2007-12-01

Converging lines of evidence suggest that auditory system short-term plasticity can enable several perceptual and cognitive functions that have been previously considered as relatively distinct phenomena. Here we review recent findings suggesting that auditory stimulation, auditory selective attention and cross-modal effects of visual stimulation each cause transient excitatory and (surround) inhibitory modulations in the auditory cortex. These modulations might adaptively tune hierarchically organized sound feature maps of the auditory cortex (e.g. tonotopy), thus filtering relevant sounds during rapidly changing environmental and task demands. This could support auditory sensory memory, pre-attentive detection of sound novelty, enhanced perception during selective attention, influence of visual processing on auditory perception and longer-term plastic changes associated with perceptual learning.

The Structure and Content of Long-Term and Short-Term Mate Preferences

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Peter K. Jonason

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This study addresses two limitations in the mate preferences literature. First, research all-too-often relies on single-item assessments of mate preferences precluding more advanced statistical techniques like factor analysis. Second, when factor analysis could be done, it exclusively has done for long-term mate preferences, at the exclusion of short-term mate preferences. In this study (N = 401, we subjected 20 items designed to measure short- and long-term mate preferences to both principle components (n = 200 and confirmatory factor analysis (n = 201. In the long-term context, we replicated previous findings that there are three different categories of preferences: physical attractiveness, interpersonal warmth, and social status. In the short-term context, physical attractiveness occupied two parts of the structure, social status dropped out, and interpersonal warmth remained. Across short- and long-term contexts, there were slight changes in what defined the shared dimensions (i.e., physical attractiveness and interpersonal warmth, suggesting prior work that applies the same inventory to each context might be flawed. We also replicated sex differences and similarities in mate preferences and correlates with sociosexuality and mate value. We adopt an evolutionary paradigm to understand our results.

Short-term energy outlook, annual supplement 1994

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-08-01

The Short-Term Energy Outlook Annual Supplement (Supplement) is published once a year as a complement to the Short-Term Energy Outlook (Outlook), Quarterly Projections. The purpose of the Supplement is to review the accuracy of the forecasts published in the Outlook, make comparisons with other independent energy forecasts, and examine current energy topics that affect the forecasts

Short-term energy outlook annual supplement, 1993

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1993-08-06

The Short-Term Energy Outlook Annual Supplement (supplement) is published once a year as a complement to the Short-Term Energy Outlook (Outlook), Quarterly Projections. The purpose of the Supplement is to review the accuracy of the forecasts published in the Outlook, make comparisons with other independent energy forecasts, and examine current energy topics that affect the forecasts.

Theta coupling between V4 and prefrontal cortex predicts visual short-term memory performance.

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Liebe, Stefanie; Hoerzer, Gregor M; Logothetis, Nikos K; Rainer, Gregor

2012-01-29

Short-term memory requires communication between multiple brain regions that collectively mediate the encoding and maintenance of sensory information. It has been suggested that oscillatory synchronization underlies intercortical communication. Yet, whether and how distant cortical areas cooperate during visual memory remains elusive. We examined neural interactions between visual area V4 and the lateral prefrontal cortex using simultaneous local field potential (LFP) recordings and single-unit activity (SUA) in monkeys performing a visual short-term memory task. During the memory period, we observed enhanced between-area phase synchronization in theta frequencies (3-9 Hz) of LFPs together with elevated phase locking of SUA to theta oscillations across regions. In addition, we found that the strength of intercortical locking was predictive of the animals' behavioral performance. This suggests that theta-band synchronization coordinates action potential communication between V4 and prefrontal cortex that may contribute to the maintenance of visual short-term memories.

How visual short-term memory maintenance modulates subsequent visual aftereffects.

Science.gov (United States)

Saad, Elyana; Silvanto, Juha

2013-05-01

Prolonged viewing of a visual stimulus can result in sensory adaptation, giving rise to perceptual phenomena such as the tilt aftereffect (TAE). However, it is not known if short-term memory maintenance induces such effects. We examined how visual short-term memory (VSTM) maintenance modulates the strength of the TAE induced by subsequent visual adaptation. We reasoned that if VSTM maintenance induces aftereffects on subsequent encoding of visual information, then it should either enhance or reduce the TAE induced by a subsequent visual adapter, depending on the congruency of the memory cue and the adapter. Our results were consistent with this hypothesis and thus indicate that the effects of VSTM maintenance can outlast the maintenance period.

The short-term effects of air pollutants on respiratory disease mortality in Wuhan, China: comparison of time-series and case-crossover analyses

OpenAIRE

Meng Ren; Na Li; Zhan Wang; Yisi Liu; Xi Chen; Yuanyuan Chu; Xiangyu Li; Zhongmin Zhu; Liqiao Tian; Hao Xiang

2017-01-01

Few studies have compared different methods when exploring the short-term effects of air pollutants on respiratory disease mortality in Wuhan, China. This study assesses the association between air pollutants and respiratory disease mortality with both time-series and time-stratified?case-crossover designs. The generalized additive model (GAM) and the conditional logistic regression model were used to assess the short-term effects of air pollutants on respiratory disease mortality. Stratified...

Short-term cytotoxic effects and long-term instability of RNAi delivered using lentiviral vectors

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Kruithof Egbert KO

2004-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background RNA interference (RNAi can potently reduce target gene expression in mammalian cells and is in wide use for loss-of-function studies. Several recent reports have demonstrated that short double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs, used to mediate RNAi, can also induce an interferon-based response resulting in changes in the expression of many interferon-responsive genes. Off-target gene silencing has also been described, bringing into question the validity of certain RNAi-based approaches for studying gene function. We have targeted the plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 (PAI-2 or SERPINB2 mRNA using lentiviral vectors for delivery of U6 promoter-driven PAI-2-targeted short hairpin RNA (shRNA expression. PAI-2 is reported to have anti-apoptotic activity, thus reduction of endogenous expression may be expected to make cells more sensitive to programmed cell death. Results As expected, we encountered a cytotoxic phenotype when targeting the PAI-2 mRNA with vector-derived shRNA. However, this predicted phenotype was a potent non-specific effect of shRNA expression, as functional overexpression of the target protein failed to rescue the phenotype. By decreasing the shRNA length or modifying its sequence we maintained PAI-2 silencing and reduced, but did not eliminate, cytotoxicity. ShRNA of 21 complementary nucleotides (21 mers or more increased expression of the oligoadenylate synthase-1 (OAS1 interferon-responsive gene. 19 mer shRNA had no effect on OAS1 expression but long-term selective pressure on cell growth was observed. By lowering lentiviral vector titre we were able to reduce both expression of shRNA and induction of OAS1, without a major impact on the efficacy of gene silencing. Conclusions Our data demonstrate a rapid cytotoxic effect of shRNAs expressed in human tumor cell lines. There appears to be a cut-off of 21 complementary nucleotides below which there is no interferon response while target gene silencing is maintained

Short-term effects of splenectomy on serum fibrosis indexes in liver cirrhosis patients.

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Kong, Degang; Chen, Xiuli; Lu, Shichun; Guo, Qingliang; Lai, Wei; Wu, Jushan; Lin, Dongdong; Zeng, Daobing; Duan, Binwei; Jiang, Tao; Cao, Jilei

2015-01-01

To determine the changing patterns of 4 liver fibrosis markers pre and post splenectomy (combined with pericardial devascularization [PCDV]) and to examine the short-term effects of splenectomy on liver fibrosis. Four liver fibrosis markers of 39 liver cirrhosis patients were examined pre, immediately post, 2 days post, and 1 week post (15 cases) splenectomy (combined with PCDV). The laminin (LN) level decreased immediately post surgery compared with the preoperative LN level (P splenectomy showed characteristic changes, splenectomy may transiently initiate the degradation process of liver fibrosis.

Short-term effects of glucose and sucrose on cognitive performance and mood in elderly people.

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van der Zwaluw, Nikita L; van de Rest, Ondine; Kessels, Roy P C; de Groot, Lisette C P G M

2014-01-01

In this study we determined the short-term effects of a glucose drink and a sucrose drink compared to a placebo on cognitive performance and mood in elderly people with subjective, mild memory complaints using a randomized crossover study design. In total, 43 nondiabetic older adults with self-reported memory complaints were included. Drinks consisted of 250 ml with dissolved glucose (50 g), sucrose (100 g), or a mixture of artificial sweeteners (placebo). Multiple neuropsychological tests were performed and were combined by means of z scores into four cognitive domains: episodic memory, working memory, attention and information (processing speed), and executive functioning. Mood was assessed with the short Profile of Mood Status (s-POMS) questionnaire. Blood glucose concentrations were measured at five time points to divide participants into those with a better or poorer blood glucose recovery. Performance on the domain of attention and information processing speed was significantly better after consuming the sucrose drink (domain score of 0.06, SD = 0.91) than after the placebo drink (-0.08, SD = 0.92, p = .04). Sucrose had no effect on the other three domains, and glucose had no effect on any of the domains compared to the placebo. When dividing participants into poorer or better glucose recoverers, the beneficial effect of sucrose on attention and information processing speed was only seen in participants with a poorer recovery. After sucrose consumption, depressive feelings and tension were slightly higher than after the placebo. To conclude, 100 g sucrose, but not 50 g glucose, optimized attention and information processing speed in the short term in this study in elderly people with subjective, mild memory complaints.

Differential age-related effects on conjunctive and relational visual short-term memory binding.

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Bastin, Christine

2017-12-28

An age-related associative deficit has been described in visual short-term binding memory tasks. However, separate studies have suggested that ageing disrupts relational binding (to associate distinct items or item and context) more than conjunctive binding (to integrate features within an object). The current study directly compared relational and conjunctive binding with a short-term memory task for object-colour associations in 30 young and 30 older adults. Participants studied a number of object-colour associations corresponding to their individual object span level in a relational task in which objects were associated to colour patches and a conjunctive task where colour was integrated into the object. Memory for individual items and for associations was tested with a recognition memory test. Evidence for an age-related associative deficit was observed in the relational binding task, but not in the conjunctive binding task. This differential impact of ageing on relational and conjunctive short-term binding is discussed by reference to two underlying age-related cognitive difficulties: diminished hippocampally dependent binding and attentional resources.

In Search of Decay in Verbal Short-Term Memory

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Berman, Marc G.; Jonides, John; Lewis, Richard L.

2009-01-01

Is forgetting in the short term due to decay with the mere passage of time, interference from other memoranda, or both? Past research on short-term memory has revealed some evidence for decay and a plethora of evidence showing that short-term memory is worsened by interference. However, none of these studies has directly contrasted decay and…

Short-term memory and critical clusterization in brain neurons spike series

Science.gov (United States)

Bershadskii, A.; Dremencov, E.; Yadid, G.

2003-06-01

A new phenomenon: critical clusterization, is observed in the neuron firing of a genetically defined rat model of depression. The critical clusterization is studied using a multiscaling analysis of the data obtained from the neurons belonging to the Red Nucleus area of the depressive brains. It is suggested that this critical phenomenon can be partially responsible for the observed ill behavior of the depressive brains: loss of short-term motor memory and slow motor reaction.

Perceived stress and anhedonia predict short-and long-term weight change, respectively, in healthy adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Ibrahim, Mostafa; Thearle, Marie S; Krakoff, Jonathan; Gluck, Marci E

2016-04-01

Perceived stress; emotional eating; anhedonia; depression and dietary restraint, hunger, and disinhibition have been studied as risk factors for obesity. However, the majority of studies have been cross-sectional and the directionality of these relationships remains unclear. In this longitudinal study, we assess their impact on future weight change. Psychological predictors of weight change in short- (6month) and long-term (>1year) periods were studied in 65 lean and obese individuals in two cohorts. Subjects participated in studies of food intake and metabolism that did not include any type of medication or weight loss interventions. They completed psychological questionnaires at baseline and weight change was monitored at follow-up visits. At six months, perceived stress predicted weight gain (r(2)=0.23, P=0.02). There was a significant interaction (r(2)=.38, P=0.009) between perceived stress and positive emotional eating, such that higher scores in both predicted greater weight gain, while those with low stress but high emotional eating scores lost weight. For long-term, higher anhedonia scores predicted weight gain (r(2)=0.24, P=0.04). Depression moderated these effects such that higher scores in both predicted weight gain but higher depression and lower anhedonia scores predicted weight loss. There are different behavioral determinants for short- and long-term weight change. Targeting perceived stress may help with short-term weight loss while depression and anhedonia may be better targets for long-term weight regulation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A short-term longitudinal study of relational aggression and social skills of preschool children

OpenAIRE

Isobe, Miyoshi

2003-01-01

This short-term longitudinal study was designed to examine relational aggression associated with social skills and anxiety-withdrawn behavior of preschool children. Relational aggression, social skills (self-control skills, friendship making skills, and assertion skills), and anxiety-withdrawn behavior of one hundred and twenty 5-year old children were assessed two times across a 6-months period by using teacher rating measures. For the data analysis, the children were divided according to th...

Crack closure and growth behavior of short fatigue cracks under random loading (part I : details of crack closure behavior)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Shin Young; Song, Ji Ho

2000-01-01

Crack closure and growth behavior of physically short fatigue cracks under random loading are investigated by performing narrow-and wide-band random loading tests for various stress ratios. Artificially prepared two-dimensional, short through-thickness cracks are used. The closure behavior of short cracks under random loading is discussed, comparing with that of short cracks under constant-amplitude loading and also that of long cracks under random loading. Irrespective of random loading spectrum or block length, the crack opening load of short cracks is much lower under random loading than under constant-amplitude loading corresponding to the largest load cycle in a random load history, contrary to the behavior of long cracks that the crack opening load under random loading is nearly the same as or slightly higher than constant-amplitude results. This result indicates that the largest load cycle in a random load history has an effect to enhance crack opening of short cracks

Auditory short-term memory behaves like visual short-term memory.

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Kristina M Visscher

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Are the information processing steps that support short-term sensory memory common to all the senses? Systematic, psychophysical comparison requires identical experimental paradigms and comparable stimuli, which can be challenging to obtain across modalities. Participants performed a recognition memory task with auditory and visual stimuli that were comparable in complexity and in their neural representations at early stages of cortical processing. The visual stimuli were static and moving Gaussian-windowed, oriented, sinusoidal gratings (Gabor patches; the auditory stimuli were broadband sounds whose frequency content varied sinusoidally over time (moving ripples. Parallel effects on recognition memory were seen for number of items to be remembered, retention interval, and serial position. Further, regardless of modality, predicting an item's recognizability requires taking account of (1 the probe's similarity to the remembered list items (summed similarity, and (2 the similarity between the items in memory (inter-item homogeneity. A model incorporating both these factors gives a good fit to recognition memory data for auditory as well as visual stimuli. In addition, we present the first demonstration of the orthogonality of summed similarity and inter-item homogeneity effects. These data imply that auditory and visual representations undergo very similar transformations while they are encoded and retrieved from memory.

Auditory short-term memory behaves like visual short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Visscher, Kristina M; Kaplan, Elina; Kahana, Michael J; Sekuler, Robert

2007-03-01

Are the information processing steps that support short-term sensory memory common to all the senses? Systematic, psychophysical comparison requires identical experimental paradigms and comparable stimuli, which can be challenging to obtain across modalities. Participants performed a recognition memory task with auditory and visual stimuli that were comparable in complexity and in their neural representations at early stages of cortical processing. The visual stimuli were static and moving Gaussian-windowed, oriented, sinusoidal gratings (Gabor patches); the auditory stimuli were broadband sounds whose frequency content varied sinusoidally over time (moving ripples). Parallel effects on recognition memory were seen for number of items to be remembered, retention interval, and serial position. Further, regardless of modality, predicting an item's recognizability requires taking account of (1) the probe's similarity to the remembered list items (summed similarity), and (2) the similarity between the items in memory (inter-item homogeneity). A model incorporating both these factors gives a good fit to recognition memory data for auditory as well as visual stimuli. In addition, we present the first demonstration of the orthogonality of summed similarity and inter-item homogeneity effects. These data imply that auditory and visual representations undergo very similar transformations while they are encoded and retrieved from memory.

Clinical Effectiveness of Aripiprazole in Short-term Treatment of Tic Disorder in Children and Adolescents: A Naturalistic Study

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Che-Sheng Ho

2014-02-01

Conclusion: Aripiprazole is effective for short-term treatment of TD, especially vocal tics, in children and adolescents with mild adverse effects. However, further double-blind trials against placebo or other medications are needed to verify the efficacy of aripiprazole in the pharmacotherapy of TD.

How long-term dynamics of sediment subduction controls short-term dynamics of seismicity

Science.gov (United States)

Brizzi, S.; van Zelst, I.; van Dinther, Y.; Funiciello, F.; Corbi, F.

2017-12-01

controlling the seismogenic behavior of subduction megathrusts. Furthermore, they illustrate the distinct impact long-term subduction dynamics can have on short-term seismogenesis. This impact likely surpasses the effect a lower static friction would have on seismogenesis, especially for the maximum magnitude of subduction segments.

Protocol for Short- and Longer-term Spatial Learning and Memory in Mice

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Emily F. Willis

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Studies on the role of the hippocampus in higher cognitive functions such as spatial learning and memory in rodents are reliant upon robust and objective behavioral tests. This protocol describes one such test—the active place avoidance (APA task. This behavioral task involves the mouse continuously integrating visual cues to orientate itself within a rotating arena in order to actively avoid a shock zone, the location of which remains constant relative to the room. This protocol details the step-by-step procedures for a novel paradigm of the hippocampal-dependent APA task, measuring acquisition of spatial learning during a single 20-min trial (i.e., short-term memory, with spatial memory encoding and retrieval (i.e., long-term memory assessed by trials conducted over consecutive days. Using the APA task, cognitive flexibility can be assessed using the reversal learning paradigm, as this increases the cognitive load required for efficient performance in the task. In addition to a detailed experimental protocol, this paper also describes the range of its possible applications, the expected key results, as well as the analytical methods to assess the data, and the pitfalls/troubleshooting measures. The protocol described herein is highly robust and produces replicable results, thus presenting an important paradigm that enables the assessment of subtle short-term changes in spatial learning and memory, such as those observed for many experimental interventions.

Short-Term Reciprocity in Late Parent-Child Relationships

Science.gov (United States)

Leopold, Thomas; Raab, Marcel

2011-01-01

Long-term concepts of parent-child reciprocity assume that the amount of support given and received is only balanced in a generalized fashion over the life course. We argue that reciprocity in parent-child relationships also operates in the short term. Our analysis of short-term reciprocity focuses on concurrent exchange in its main upward and…

Near-infrared spectroscopic study on the effects of chewing on short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Wada, Mayumi; Hoshi, Yoko; Iguchi, Yoshinobu; Kida, Ikuhiro

2011-12-01

Using near-infrared spectroscopy, we examined whether chewing gum improves performance in a short-term memory task - immediate recall of random eight-digit numbers - by assessing cerebral hemodynamic response in the prefrontal cortex. We found that the oxyhemoglobin concentration during and after chewing gum was higher than that before chewing; further, the concentration increased during the task, and this increase was reduced with chewing, although non-significantly. Chewing did not improve task performance. Therefore, chewing-induced hemodynamic responses were unrelated to the performance in short-term memory tasks. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Implementing a short-term loyalty program : case: Bosch Lawn & Garden and the Ventum short-term loyalty program

OpenAIRE

Logvinova, Veronika

2015-01-01

In 2015, one of the Bosch Home and Garden divisions, Bosch Lawn and Garden, has made a strategic decision to adopt a points-based short-term loyalty program called Ventum LG in the German supermarkets and petrol stations. It was decided that the base of this program will be completed Ventum PT short-term loyalty program which was managed by another division, Bosch Power Tools, and proved to be successful. This thesis aims to evaluate the worthiness of the Ventum LG loyalty program for Bosch L...

"Effects of the novel relatively short-acting kappa opioid receptor antagonist LY2444296 in behaviors observed after chronic extended-access cocaine self-administration in rats".

Science.gov (United States)

Valenza, Marta; Butelman, Eduardo R; Kreek, Mary Jeanne

2017-08-01

The recruitment of the stress circuitry contributes to a shift from positive to negative reinforcement mechanisms sustaining long-term cocaine addiction. The kappa opioid receptor (KOPr) signaling is upregulated by stress and chronic cocaine exposure. While KOPr agonists induce anhedonia and dysphoria, KOPr antagonists display antidepressant and anxiolytic properties. Most of the knowledge on KOPr antagonism is based on drugs with unusual pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, complicating interpretation of results. Here we characterized in vivo behavioral and neuroendocrine effects of the novel relatively short-acting KOPr antagonist LY2444296. To date, no study has investigated whether systemic KOPr blockade reduced anxiety-like and depressive-like behaviors in animals previously exposed to chronic extended access cocaine self-administration. We tested the effect of LY2444296 in blocking KOPr-mediated aversive and neuroendocrine effects. Then, we tested acute systemic LY2444296 in reducing anxiety- and depression-like behaviors, as well as releasing the stress hormone corticosterone (CORT), observed after chronic extended access (18 h/day for 14 days) cocaine self-administration. LY2444296 blocked U69,593-induced place aversion and -reduced motor activity as well as U69,593-induced release of serum CORT, confirming its major site of action, without exerting an effect per se. Acute systemic administration of LY2444296 reduced anxiety-like and depressive-like behaviors, as well as CORT release, in rats tested after chronic extended access cocaine self-administration, but not in cocaine-naïve rats. Results suggest that acute blockade of KOPr by a relatively short-acting antagonist produces therapeutic-like effects selectively in rats with a history of chronic extended access cocaine self-administration.

The Effects of Early-Life Predator Stress on Anxiety- and Depression-Like Behaviors of Adult Rats

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Lu-jing Chen

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Childhood emotional trauma contributes significantly to certain psychopathologies, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. In experimental animals, however, whether or not early-life stress results in behavioral abnormalities in adult animals still remains controversial. Here, we investigated both short-term and long-term changes of anxiety- and depression-like behaviors of Wistar rats after being exposed to chronic feral cat stress in juvenile ages. The 2-week predator stress decreased spontaneous activities immediately following stress but did not increase depression- or anxiety-like behaviors 4 weeks after the stimulation in adulthood. Instead, juvenile predator stress had some protective effects, though not very obvious, in adulthood. We also exposed genetic depression model rats, Wistar Kyoto (WKY rats, to the same predator stress. In WKY rats, the same early-life predator stress did not enhance anxiety- or depression-like behaviors in both the short-term and long-term. However, the stressed WKY rats showed slightly reduced depression-like behaviors in adulthood. These results indicate that in both normal Wistar rats and WKY rats, early-life predator stress led to protective, rather than negative, effects in adulthood.

The Effects of Early-Life Predator Stress on Anxiety- and Depression-Like Behaviors of Adult Rats

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lu-jing; Shen, Bing-qing; Liu, Dan-dan; Li, Sheng-tian

2014-01-01

Childhood emotional trauma contributes significantly to certain psychopathologies, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. In experimental animals, however, whether or not early-life stress results in behavioral abnormalities in adult animals still remains controversial. Here, we investigated both short-term and long-term changes of anxiety- and depression-like behaviors of Wistar rats after being exposed to chronic feral cat stress in juvenile ages. The 2-week predator stress decreased spontaneous activities immediately following stress but did not increase depression- or anxiety-like behaviors 4 weeks after the stimulation in adulthood. Instead, juvenile predator stress had some protective effects, though not very obvious, in adulthood. We also exposed genetic depression model rats, Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats, to the same predator stress. In WKY rats, the same early-life predator stress did not enhance anxiety- or depression-like behaviors in both the short-term and long-term. However, the stressed WKY rats showed slightly reduced depression-like behaviors in adulthood. These results indicate that in both normal Wistar rats and WKY rats, early-life predator stress led to protective, rather than negative, effects in adulthood. PMID:24839560

Evaluation of short-term and long-term stability of emulsions by centrifugation and NMR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tcholakova, S.; Denkov, N.; Ivanov, I.; Marinov, R.

2004-01-01

The effect of storage time on the coalescence stability and drop size distribution of egg yolk and whey protein concentrate stabilized emulsions is studied. The emulsion stability is evaluated by centrifugation, whereas the drop size distribution is measured by means of NMR and optical microscopy. The experimental results show that there is no general relation between the emulsion stability and the changes in the mean drop diameter upon shelf-storage of protein emulsions. On the other hand, it is shown that the higher short-term stability, measured by centrifugation immediately after emulsion preparation, corresponds to higher long-term stability (after their self-storage up to 60 days) for emulsions stabilized by the same type of emulsifier. In this way, we are able to obtain information for the long-term stability of emulsions in a relatively short period of time.(authors)

Decay uncovered in nonverbal short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Mercer, Tom; McKeown, Denis

2014-02-01

Decay theory posits that memory traces gradually fade away over the passage of time unless they are actively rehearsed. Much recent work exploring verbal short-term memory has challenged this theory, but there does appear to be evidence for trace decay in nonverbal auditory short-term memory. Numerous discrimination studies have reported a performance decline as the interval separating two tones is increased, consistent with a decay process. However, most of this tone comparison research can be explained in other ways, without reference to decay, and these alternative accounts were tested in the present study. In Experiment 1, signals were employed toward the end of extended retention intervals to ensure that listeners were alert to the presence and frequency content of the memoranda. In Experiment 2, a mask stimulus was employed in an attempt to distinguish between a highly detailed sensory trace and a longer-lasting short-term memory, and the distinctiveness of the stimuli was varied. Despite these precautions, slow-acting trace decay was observed. It therefore appears that the mere passage of time can lead to forgetting in some forms of short-term memory.

Short-term energy outlook annual supplement, 1993

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-01-01

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) prepares quarterly, short-term energy supply, demand, and price projections for publication in February, May, August, and November in the Short-Term Energy Outlook (Outlook). An annual supplement analyzes the performance of previous forecasts, compares recent cases with those of other forecasting services, and discusses current topics related to the short-term energy markets. (See Short-Term Energy Outlook Annual Supplement, DOE/EIA-0202.) The forecast period for this issue of the Outlook extends from the third quarter of 1993 through the fourth quarter of 1994. Values for the second quarter of 1993, however, are preliminary EIA estimates (for example, some monthly values for petroleum supply and disposition are derived in part from weekly data reported in the Weekly Petroleum Status Report) or are calculated from model simulations using the latest exogenous information available (for example, electricity sales and generation are simulated using actual weather data). The historical energy data are EIA data published in the Monthly Energy Review, Petroleum Supply Monthly, and other EIA publications. Minor discrepancies between the data in these publications and the historical data in this Outlook are due to independent rounding

School-based smoking prevention programs with the promise of long-term effects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Flay Brian R

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract I provide a systematic review of trials of school-based smoking prevention programs that had at least 15 sessions, preferably with some in high school, that reported significant short-term effects, and that included long-term follow-up. This is supplemented with a description of some other programs that produce short-term effects that portend large long-term effects. I conclude that school-based programs can have long-term effects of practical importance it they: include 15 or more sessions over multiple years, including some in high school; use the social influence model and interactive delivery methods; include components on norms, commitment not to use, intentions not to use, and training and practice in the use of refusal and other life skills; and use peer leaders in some role. School-based programs of this type can reduce smoking onset by 25–30%, and school plus community programs can reduce smoking onset by 35–40% by the end of high school. Some early childhood programs that do not have smoking prevention as their main aim, including home nursing, the Good Behavior Game, the Positive Action program and others, seem to change the developmental trajectories of children so that they are less likely to engage in multiple problem behaviors, including smoking, as adolescents. This review makes it clear that effective school-based smoking prevention programs exist and can be adopted, adapted and deployed with success – and should be.

Thin-plate spline analysis of the short- and long-term effects of rapid maxillary expansion.

Science.gov (United States)

Franchi, Lorenzo; Baccetti, Tiziano; Cameron, Christopher G; Kutcipal, Elizabeth A; McNamara, James A

2002-04-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the short- and long-term effects induced by rapid maxillary expansion (RME) on the shape of the maxillary and circummaxillary structures by means of thin-plate spline (TPS) analysis. The sample consisted of 42 patients who were compared with a control sample of 20 subjects. The treated subjects underwent Haas-type RME, followed by fixed appliance therapy. Postero-anterior (PA) cephalograms were analysed for each treated subject at T1 (pre-treatment), T2 (immediate post-expansion), and T3 (long-term observation), and were available at T1 and T3 for the control group (CG). The mean age at T1 was 11 years and 10 months for both groups. The mean chronological ages at T3 were 20 years, 6 months for the treated group (TG) and 17 years, 8 months for the control group. The study focused on shape changes in the maxillary, nasal, zygomatic, and orbital regions. TPS analysis revealed significant shape changes in the TG. They consisted of an upward and lateral displacement of the two halves of the naso-maxillary complex as a result of active expansion in the short-term, and normalization of maxillary shape in the transverse dimension in the long-term (the initial transverse deficiency of the maxilla in the treated group was eliminated by RME therapy both in the short- and long-term). At the end of the observation period, the nasal cavities were larger when compared with both their pre-expansion configuration and the final configuration in the controls. RME with the Haas appliance appears to be an efficient therapeutic means to induce permanent favourable changes in the shape of the naso-maxillary complex.

The efficacy of a technology-based system in a short-term behavioral weight loss intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Polzien, Kristen M; Jakicic, John M; Tate, Deborah F; Otto, Amy D

2007-04-01

The objective was to examine the efficacy of adding a technology-based program to an in-person, behavioral weight loss intervention. Fifty-seven subjects (BMI=33.1+/-2.8 kg/m2; age=41.3+/-8.7 years) participated in a 12-week intervention with random assignment to Standard In-Person Behavioral Weight Control Program (SBWP) or Intermittent or Continuous Technology-Based Program (INT-TECH, CON-TECH). SBWP subjects received seven individualized weight loss sessions encouraging dietary and exercise modifications. INT-TECH and CON-TECH subjects received all SBWP components; additionally, these groups used a SenseWear Pro Armband (BodyMedia, Inc.) to monitor energy expenditure and an Internet-based program to monitor eating behaviors. These features were used by INT-TECH subjects during weeks 1, 5, and 9 and CON-TECH subjects weekly throughout the intervention. Intent-to-treat analysis revealed weight loss of 4.1+/-2.8 kg, 3.4+/-3.4 kg, and 6.2+/-4.0 kg, for SBWP, INT-TECH, and CON-TECH groups, respectively (CON-TECH>INT-TECH, ptechnology-based program needs to be used continuously throughout the intervention period to significantly impact weight loss. Future studies should examine the long-term and independent effect of this technology on weight loss, and for whom this intervention format is most effective.

Effectiveness of short-term psychodynamic group therapy in a public outpatient psychotherapy unit

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Hans Henrik; Mortensen, Erik Lykke; Lotz, Martin

2010-01-01

BACKGROUND: Short-term psychodynamic group therapy in heterogeneous patient groups is common in the public Danish psychiatric system but is in need of evaluation. AIM: To investigate improvement in 39-session psychodynamic group therapy using three criteria: 1) effect size (Cohen's d), 2...... compared with Danish norms. Clinical implications: Patients referred to public outpatient treatment settings may need alternative or longer treatment than 39 sessions of psychodynamic group therapy over 3 months.......) and subscales. Analyses were conducted on the total sample and after exclusion of 32 GSI pre-treatment no-cases. RESULTS: The total sample GSI effect size was 0.74 indicating a moderate to large effect size (ranging from 0.67 in depressed to 0.74 in neurotic and personality disorder patients), which increased...

Reduced short-term memory capacity in Alzheimer's disease: the role of phonological, lexical, and semantic processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Caza, Nicole; Belleville, Sylvie

2008-05-01

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are often reported to have reduced verbal short-term memory capacity, typically attributed to their attention/executive deficits. However, these individuals also tend to show progressive impairment of semantic, lexical, and phonological processing which may underlie their low short-term memory capacity. The goals of this study were to assess the contribution of each level of representation (phonological, lexical, and semantic) to immediate serial recall performance in 18 individuals with AD, and to examine how these linguistic effects on short-term memory were modulated by their reduced capacity to manipulate information in short-term memory associated with executive dysfunction. Results showed that individuals with AD had difficulty recalling items that relied on phonological representations, which led to increased lexicality effects relative to the control group. This finding suggests that patients have a greater reliance on lexical/semantic information than controls, possibly to make up for deficits in retention and processing of phonological material. This lexical/semantic effect was not found to be significantly correlated with patients' capacity to manipulate verbal material in short-term memory, indicating that language processing and executive deficits may independently contribute to reducing verbal short-term memory capacity in AD.

Critical neural networks with short- and long-term plasticity

Science.gov (United States)

Michiels van Kessenich, L.; Luković, M.; de Arcangelis, L.; Herrmann, H. J.

2018-03-01

In recent years self organized critical neuronal models have provided insights regarding the origin of the experimentally observed avalanching behavior of neuronal systems. It has been shown that dynamical synapses, as a form of short-term plasticity, can cause critical neuronal dynamics. Whereas long-term plasticity, such as Hebbian or activity dependent plasticity, have a crucial role in shaping the network structure and endowing neural systems with learning abilities. In this work we provide a model which combines both plasticity mechanisms, acting on two different time scales. The measured avalanche statistics are compatible with experimental results for both the avalanche size and duration distribution with biologically observed percentages of inhibitory neurons. The time series of neuronal activity exhibits temporal bursts leading to 1 /f decay in the power spectrum. The presence of long-term plasticity gives the system the ability to learn binary rules such as xor, providing the foundation of future research on more complicated tasks such as pattern recognition.

[Estimating emergency hospital admissions to gauge short-term effects of air pollution: evaluation of health data quality].

Science.gov (United States)

Bois de Fer, Béatrice; Host, Sabine; Chardon, Benoît; Chatignoux, Edouard; Beaujouan, Laure; Brun-Ney, Dominique; Grémy, Isabelle

2009-01-01

The study of the short-term effects and health impact of air pollution is carrier out by the ERPURS regional surveillance program which utilizes hospitalization data obtained from the French hospital information system (PMSI) to determine these links. This system does not permit the distinction between emergency hospital admissions from scheduled ones, which cannot be related to short term changes in air pollution levels. This study examines how scheduled admissions affect the quality of the health indicators used to estimate air pollution effects. This indicator is compared to three new emergency hospitalisation indicators reconstructed based on data from the public hospitals in Paris, partly from the PMSI data and partly with data from an on-line emergency network that regroups all of the computerized emergency services. According to the pathology, scheduled admissions present a difficulty which affects the capacity to highlight the weakest risks with any precision.

Short-term effects of implemented high intensity shoulder elevation during computer work

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Mette K.; Samani, Afshin; Madeleine, Pascal

2009-01-01

computer work to prevent neck-shoulder pain may be possible without affecting the working routines. However, the unexpected reduction in clavicular trapezius rest during a pause with preceding high intensity contraction requires further investigation before high intensity shoulder elevations can......BACKGROUND: Work-site strength training sessions are shown effective to prevent and reduce neck-shoulder pain in computer workers, but difficult to integrate in normal working routines. A solution for avoiding neck-shoulder pain during computer work may be to implement high intensity voluntary...... contractions during the computer work. However, it is unknown how this may influence productivity, rate of perceived exertion (RPE) as well as activity and rest of neck-shoulder muscles during computer work. The aim of this study was to investigate short-term effects of a high intensity contraction...

Parent-Offspring Conflict over Short-Term Mating Strategies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Spyroulla Georgiou

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Individuals engage in short-term mating strategies that enable them to obtain fitness benefits from casual relationships. These benefits, however, count for less and cost more to their parents. On this basis three hypotheses are tested. First, parents and offspring are likely to disagree over short-term mating strategies, with the former considering these as less acceptable than the latter. Second, parents are more likely to disapprove of the short-term mating strategies of their daughters than of their sons. Finally, mothers and fathers are expected to agree on how much they disagree over the short-term mating strategies of their children. Evidence from a sample of 148 Greek-Cypriot families (140 mothers, 105 fathers, 119 daughters, 77 sons provides support for the first two hypotheses and partial support for the third hypothesis. The implications of these findings for understanding family dynamics are further discussed.

Aspects if stochastic models for short-term hydropower scheduling and bidding

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belsnes, Michael Martin [Sintef Energy, Trondheim (Norway); Follestad, Turid [Sintef Energy, Trondheim (Norway); Wolfgang, Ove [Sintef Energy, Trondheim (Norway); Fosso, Olav B. [Dep. of electric power engineering NTNU, Trondheim (Norway)

2012-07-01

This report discusses challenges met when turning from deterministic to stochastic decision support models for short-term hydropower scheduling and bidding. The report describes characteristics of the short-term scheduling and bidding problem, different market and bidding strategies, and how a stochastic optimization model can be formulated. A review of approaches for stochastic short-term modelling and stochastic modelling for the input variables inflow and market prices is given. The report discusses methods for approximating the predictive distribution of uncertain variables by scenario trees. Benefits of using a stochastic over a deterministic model are illustrated by a case study, where increased profit is obtained to a varying degree depending on the reservoir filling and price structure. Finally, an approach for assessing the effect of using a size restricted scenario tree to approximate the predictive distribution for stochastic input variables is described. The report is a summary of the findings of Work package 1 of the research project #Left Double Quotation Mark#Optimal short-term scheduling of wind and hydro resources#Right Double Quotation Mark#. The project aims at developing a prototype for an operational stochastic short-term scheduling model. Based on the investigations summarized in the report, it is concluded that using a deterministic equivalent formulation of the stochastic optimization problem is convenient and sufficient for obtaining a working prototype. (author)