Remobilization of Sleeping Beauty transposons in the germline of Xenopus tropicalis

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Yergeau Donald A

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Sleeping Beauty (SB transposon system has been used for germline transgenesis of the diploid frog, Xenopus tropicalis. Injecting one-cell embryos with plasmid DNA harboring an SB transposon substrate together with mRNA encoding the SB transposase enzyme resulted in non-canonical integration of small-order concatemers of the transposon. Here, we demonstrate that SB transposons stably integrated into the frog genome are effective substrates for remobilization. Results Transgenic frogs that express the SB10 transposase were bred with SB transposon-harboring animals to yield double-transgenic 'hopper' frogs. Remobilization events were observed in the progeny of the hopper frogs and were verified by Southern blot analysis and cloning of the novel integrations sites. Unlike the co-injection method used to generate founder lines, transgenic remobilization resulted in canonical transposition of the SB transposons. The remobilized SB transposons frequently integrated near the site of the donor locus; approximately 80% re-integrated with 3 Mb of the donor locus, a phenomenon known as 'local hopping'. Conclusions In this study, we demonstrate that SB transposons integrated into the X. tropicalis genome are effective substrates for excision and re-integration, and that the remobilized transposons are transmitted through the germline. This is an important step in the development of large-scale transposon-mediated gene- and enhancer-trap strategies in this highly tractable developmental model system.

Involvement of a bifunctional, paired-like DNA-binding domain and a transpositional enhancer in Sleeping Beauty transposition.

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Izsvák, Zsuzsanna; Khare, Dheeraj; Behlke, Joachim; Heinemann, Udo; Plasterk, Ronald H; Ivics, Zoltán

2002-09-13

Sleeping Beauty (SB) is the most active Tc1/mariner-like transposon in vertebrate species. Each of the terminal inverted repeats (IRs) of SB contains two transposase-binding sites (DRs). This feature, termed the IR/DR structure, is conserved in a group of Tc1-like transposons. The DNA-binding region of SB transposase, similar to the paired domain of Pax proteins, consists of two helix-turn-helix subdomains (PAI + RED = PAIRED). The N-terminal PAI subdomain was found to play a dominant role in contacting the DRs. Transposase was able to bind to mutant sites retaining the 3' part of the DRs; thus, primary DNA binding is not sufficient to determine the specificity of the transposition reaction. The PAI subdomain was also found to bind to a transpositional enhancer-like sequence within the left IR of SB, and to mediate protein-protein interactions between transposase subunits. A tetrameric form of the transposase was detected in solution, consistent with an interaction between the IR/DR structure and a transposase tetramer. We propose a model in which the transpositional enhancer and the PAI subdomain stabilize complexes formed by a transposase tetramer bound at the IR/DR. These interactions may result in enhanced stability of synaptic complexes, which might explain the efficient transposition of Sleeping Beauty in vertebrate cells.

Insertional engineering of chromosomes with Sleeping Beauty transposition: an overview.

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Grabundzija, Ivana; Izsvák, Zsuzsanna; Ivics, Zoltán

2011-01-01

Novel genetic tools and mutagenesis strategies based on the Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposable element are currently under development with a vision to link primary DNA sequence information to gene functions in vertebrate models. By virtue of its inherent capacity to insert into DNA, the SB transposon can be developed into powerful tools for chromosomal manipulations. Mutagenesis screens based on SB have numerous advantages including high throughput and easy identification of mutated alleles. Forward genetic approaches based on insertional mutagenesis by engineered SB transposons have the advantage of providing insight into genetic networks and pathways based on phenotype. Indeed, the SB transposon has become a highly instrumental tool to induce tumors in experimental animals in a tissue-specific -manner with the aim of uncovering the genetic basis of diverse cancers. Here, we describe a battery of mutagenic cassettes that can be applied in conjunction with SB transposon vectors to mutagenize genes, and highlight versatile experimental strategies for the generation of engineered chromosomes for loss-of-function as well as gain-of-function mutagenesis for functional gene annotation in vertebrate models.

Full-length Dysferlin Transfer by the Hyperactive Sleeping Beauty Transposase Restores Dysferlin-deficient Muscle

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Helena Escobar

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Dysferlin-deficient muscular dystrophy is a progressive disease characterized by muscle weakness and wasting for which there is no treatment. It is caused by mutations in DYSF, a large, multiexonic gene that forms a coding sequence of 6.2 kb. Sleeping Beauty (SB transposon is a nonviral gene transfer vector, already used in clinical trials. The hyperactive SB system consists of a transposon DNA sequence and a transposase protein, SB100X, that can integrate DNA over 10 kb into the target genome. We constructed an SB transposon-based vector to deliver full-length human DYSF cDNA into dysferlin-deficient H2K A/J myoblasts. We demonstrate proper dysferlin expression as well as highly efficient engraftment (>1,100 donor-derived fibers of the engineered myoblasts in the skeletal muscle of dysferlin- and immunodeficient B6. Cg-Dysfprmd Prkdcscid/J (Scid/BLA/J mice. Nonviral gene delivery of full-length human dysferlin into muscle cells, along with a successful and efficient transplantation into skeletal muscle are important advances towards successful gene therapy of dysferlin-deficient muscular dystrophy.

Exploring an Unknown Territory: "Sleeping Beauties" in the Nursing Research Literature.

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Kokol, Peter; Blažun Vošner, Helena; Vermeulen, Joeri

Sleeping Beauties (SBs) are publications that are scarcely cited in the years immediately following publication but then suddenly become highly cited later. Such publications have unique citation patterns and can reveal important developments in the field in which they appear. No holistic analysis of nursing SBs has been done yet. The aim of this study was to identify and analyze the SB phenomenon in the nursing research literature. The corpus for the nursing SB identification was harvested from the Web of Science Core Collection (Thomas Reuters) for the period 1934-2015. Citation histories of 212,239 publications were screened. From those, 3,209 publications with more than 100 citations were selected for analysis. We used our own software and applied the van Raan (2004) and Baumgartner (2010) criteria for SBs-a 5-year sleeping period with at most 10 citations during that time, an average of at least five citations per year after the first 10 years, with at least 100 citations in total. The knowledge context for SBs was determined using citing papers. All citing papers were analyzed with the help of VOSviewer software. Nine publications were identified as SBs (prevalence of 0.004%). The length of sleep duration ranged from 5 to 10 years (M = 6.8, SD = 2.0), depth of sleep ranged from 0.2 to 0.8 citations (M = 0.6, SD = 0.2), and awake intensity ranged from 6.4 to 15.0 citations (M = 11.0, SD = 3.8). The average number of citations to SBs was 229. Most nursing SBs were produced in the United States (n = 8) from top institutions in journals with high-impact factors. Nursing SBs covered topics including resilience, sampling in qualitative research, metasynthesis, postoperative pain in children, dementia rating scales, care of patients with Alzheimer's disease, nursing theory related to fatigue mechanisms in cancer patients, and family participation during resuscitation. Nursing SBs were cited by authors from a large number of institutions and countries; the number of

Somatic mutagenesis with a Sleeping Beauty transposon system leads to solid tumor formation in zebrafish.

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Maura McGrail

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Large-scale sequencing of human cancer genomes and mouse transposon-induced tumors has identified a vast number of genes mutated in different cancers. One of the outstanding challenges in this field is to determine which genes, when mutated, contribute to cellular transformation and tumor progression. To identify new and conserved genes that drive tumorigenesis we have developed a novel cancer model in a distantly related vertebrate species, the zebrafish, Danio rerio. The Sleeping Beauty (SB T2/Onc transposon system was adapted for somatic mutagenesis in zebrafish. The carp ß-actin promoter was cloned into T2/Onc to create T2/OncZ. Two transgenic zebrafish lines that contain large concatemers of T2/OncZ were isolated by injection of linear DNA into the zebrafish embryo. The T2/OncZ transposons were mobilized throughout the zebrafish genome from the transgene array by injecting SB11 transposase RNA at the 1-cell stage. Alternatively, the T2/OncZ zebrafish were crossed to a transgenic line that constitutively expresses SB11 transposase. T2/OncZ transposon integration sites were cloned by ligation-mediated PCR and sequenced on a Genome Analyzer II. Between 700-6800 unique integration events in individual fish were mapped to the zebrafish genome. The data show that introduction of transposase by transgene expression or RNA injection results in an even distribution of transposon re-integration events across the zebrafish genome. SB11 mRNA injection resulted in neoplasms in 10% of adult fish at ∼10 months of age. T2/OncZ-induced zebrafish tumors contain many mutated genes in common with human and mouse cancer genes. These analyses validate our mutagenesis approach and provide additional support for the involvement of these genes in human cancers. The zebrafish T2/OncZ cancer model will be useful for identifying novel and conserved genetic drivers of human cancers.

Germline transgenic pigs by Sleeping Beauty transposition in porcine zygotes and targeted integration in the pig genome.

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Wiebke Garrels

Full Text Available Genetic engineering can expand the utility of pigs for modeling human diseases, and for developing advanced therapeutic approaches. However, the inefficient production of transgenic pigs represents a technological bottleneck. Here, we assessed the hyperactive Sleeping Beauty (SB100X transposon system for enzyme-catalyzed transgene integration into the embryonic porcine genome. The components of the transposon vector system were microinjected as circular plasmids into the cytoplasm of porcine zygotes, resulting in high frequencies of transgenic fetuses and piglets. The transgenic animals showed normal development and persistent reporter gene expression for >12 months. Molecular hallmarks of transposition were confirmed by analysis of 25 genomic insertion sites. We demonstrate germ-line transmission, segregation of individual transposons, and continued, copy number-dependent transgene expression in F1-offspring. In addition, we demonstrate target-selected gene insertion into transposon-tagged genomic loci by Cre-loxP-based cassette exchange in somatic cells followed by nuclear transfer. Transposase-catalyzed transgenesis in a large mammalian species expands the arsenal of transgenic technologies for use in domestic animals and will facilitate the development of large animal models for human diseases.

Awakening sleeping beauty: production of propionic acid in Escherichia coli through the sbm operon requires the activity of a methylmalonyl-CoA epimerase.

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Gonzalez-Garcia, Ricardo Axayacatl; McCubbin, Tim; Wille, Annalena; Plan, Manuel; Nielsen, Lars Keld; Marcellin, Esteban

2017-07-17

Propionic acid is used primarily as a food preservative with smaller applications as a chemical building block for the production of many products including fabrics, cosmetics, drugs, and plastics. Biological production using propionibacteria would be competitive against chemical production through hydrocarboxylation of ethylene if native producers could be engineered to reach near-theoretical yield and good productivity. Unfortunately, engineering propionibacteria has proven very challenging. It has been suggested that activation of the sleeping beauty operon in Escherichia coli is sufficient to achieve propionic acid production. Optimising E. coli production should be much easier than engineering propionibacteria if tolerance issues can be addressed. Propionic acid is produced in E. coli via the sleeping beauty mutase operon under anaerobic conditions in rich medium via amino acid degradation. We observed that the sbm operon enhances amino acids degradation to propionic acid and allows E. coli to degrade isoleucine. However, we show here that the operon lacks an epimerase reaction that enables propionic acid production in minimal medium containing glucose as the sole carbon source. Production from glucose can be restored by engineering the system with a methylmalonyl-CoA epimerase from Propionibacterium acidipropionici (0.23 ± 0.02 mM). 1-Propanol production was also detected from the promiscuous activity of the native alcohol dehydrogenase (AdhE). We also show that aerobic conditions are favourable for propionic acid production. Finally, we increase titre 65 times using a combination of promoter engineering and process optimisation. The native sbm operon encodes an incomplete pathway. Production of propionic acid from glucose as sole carbon source is possible when the pathway is complemented with a methylmalonyl-CoA epimerase. Although propionic acid via the restored succinate dissimilation pathway is considered a fermentative process, the engineered pathway

Long-Term PEDF Release in Rat Iris and Retinal Epithelial Cells after Sleeping Beauty Transposon-Mediated Gene Delivery

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Laura Garcia-Garcia

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Pigment epithelium derived factor (PEDF is a potent antiangiogenic, neurotrophic, and neuroprotective molecule that is the endogenous inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF in the retina. An ex vivo gene therapy approach based on transgenic overexpression of PEDF in the eye is assumed to rebalance the angiogenic-antiangiogenic milieu of the retina, resulting in growth regression of choroidal blood vessels, the hallmark of neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Here, we show that rat pigment epithelial cells can be efficiently transfected with the PEDF-expressing non-viral hyperactive Sleeping Beauty transposon system delivered in a form free of antibiotic resistance marker miniplasmids. The engineered retinal and iris pigment epithelium cells secrete high (141 ± 13 and 222 ± 14 ng PEDF levels in 72 hr in vitro. In vivo studies showed cell survival and insert expression during at least 4 months. Transplantation of the engineered cells to the subretinal space of a rat model of choroidal neovascularization reduces almost 50% of the development of new vessels.

Sleeping Beauty-baculovirus hybrid vectors for long-term gene expression in the eye.

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Turunen, Tytteli Anni Kaarina; Laakkonen, Johanna Päivikki; Alasaarela, Laura; Airenne, Kari Juhani; Ylä-Herttuala, Seppo

2014-01-01

A baculovirus vector is capable of efficiently transducing many nondiving and diving cell types. However, the potential of baculovirus is restricted for many gene delivery applications as a result of the transient gene expression that it mediates. The plasmid-based Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon system integrates transgenes into target cell genome efficiently with a genomic integration pattern that is generally considered safer than the integration of many other integrating vectors; yet efficient delivery of therapeutic genes into cells of target tissues in vivo is a major challenge for nonviral gene therapy. In the present study, SB was introduced into baculovirus to obtain novel hybrid vectors that would combine the best features of the two vector systems (i.e. effective gene delivery and efficient integration into the genome), thus circumventing the major limitations of these vectors. We constructed and optimized SB-baculovirus hybrid vectors that bear either SB100x transposase or SB transposon in the forward or reverse orientations with respect to the viral backbone The functionality of the novel hybrid vectors was investigated in cell cultures and in a proof-of-concept study in the mouse eye. The hybrid vectors showed high and sustained transgene expression that remained stable and demonstrated no signs of decline during the 2 months follow-up in vitro. These results were verified in the mouse eye where persistent transgene expression was detected two months after intravitreal injection. Our results confirm that (i) SB-baculovirus hybrid vectors mediate long-term gene expression in vitro and in vivo, and (ii) the hybrid vectors are potential new tools for the treatment of ocular diseases. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Superconducting cavities for beauty factories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lengeler, H.

1992-01-01

The possibilities and merits of superconducting accelerating cavities for Beauty-factories are considered. There exist already large sc systems of size and frequency comparable to the ones needed for Beauty-factories. Their status and operation experience is discussed. A comparison of normal conducting and superconducting systems is done for two typical Beauty-factory rings

Beauty sleep: experimental study on the perceived health and attractiveness of sleep deprived people

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Axelsson, J.; Ingre, M.; van Someren, E.J.W.; Olsson, A.; Lekander, M.

2010-01-01

Objective To investigate whether sleep deprived people are perceived as less healthy, less attractive, and more tired than after a normal night's sleep. Design Experimental study. Setting Sleep laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden. Participants 23 healthy, sleep deprived adults (age 18-31) who were

Manufacture of clinical-grade CD19-specific T cells stably expressing chimeric antigen receptor using Sleeping Beauty system and artificial antigen presenting cells.

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Harjeet Singh

Full Text Available Adoptive transfer of T cells expressing a CD19-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR is being evaluated in multiple clinical trials. Our current approach to adoptive immunotherapy is based on a second generation CAR (designated CD19RCD28 that signals through a CD28 and CD3-ζ endodomain. T cells are electroporated with DNA plasmids from the Sleeping Beauty (SB transposon/transposase system to express this CAR. Stable integrants of genetically modified T cells can then be retrieved when co-cultured with designer artificial antigen presenting cells (aAPC in the presence of interleukin (IL-2 and 21. Here, we reveal how the platform technologies of SB-mediated transposition and CAR-dependent propagation on aAPC were adapted for human application. Indeed, we have initiated clinical trials in patients with high-risk B-lineage malignancies undergoing autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT. We describe the process to manufacture clinical grade CD19-specific T cells derived from healthy donors. Three validation runs were completed in compliance with current good manufacturing practice for Phase I/II trials demonstrating that by 28 days of co-culture on γ-irradiated aAPC ∼10(10 T cells were produced of which >95% expressed CAR. These genetically modified and propagated T cells met all quality control testing and release criteria in support of infusion.

Conditional gene expression in the mouse using a Sleeping Beauty gene-trap transposon

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Hackett Perry B

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Insertional mutagenesis techniques with transposable elements have been popular among geneticists studying model organisms from E. coli to Drosophila and, more recently, the mouse. One such element is the Sleeping Beauty (SB transposon that has been shown in several studies to be an effective insertional mutagen in the mouse germline. SB transposon vector studies have employed different functional elements and reporter molecules to disrupt and report the expression of endogenous mouse genes. We sought to generate a transposon system that would be capable of reporting the expression pattern of a mouse gene while allowing for conditional expression of a gene of interest in a tissue- or temporal-specific pattern. Results Here we report the systematic development and testing of a transposon-based gene-trap system incorporating the doxycycline-repressible Tet-Off (tTA system that is capable of activating the expression of genes under control of a Tet response element (TRE promoter. We demonstrate that the gene trap system is fully functional in vitro by introducing the "gene-trap tTA" vector into human cells by transposition and identifying clones that activate expression of a TRE-luciferase transgene in a doxycycline-dependent manner. In transgenic mice, we mobilize gene-trap tTA vectors, discover parameters that can affect germline mobilization rates, and identify candidate gene insertions to demonstrate the in vivo functionality of the vector system. We further demonstrate that the gene-trap can act as a reporter of endogenous gene expression and it can be coupled with bioluminescent imaging to identify genes with tissue-specific expression patterns. Conclusion Akin to the GAL4/UAS system used in the fly, we have made progress developing a tool for mutating and revealing the expression of mouse genes by generating the tTA transactivator in the presence of a secondary TRE-regulated reporter molecule. A vector like the gene

Is better beautiful or is beautiful better? Exploring the relationship between beauty and category structure.

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Sanders, Megan; Davis, Tyler; Love, Bradley C

2013-06-01

We evaluate two competing accounts of the relationship between beauty and category structure. According to the similarity-based view, beauty arises from category structure such that central items are favored due to their increased fluency. In contrast, the theory-based view holds that people's theories of beauty shape their perceptions of categories. In the present study, subjects learned to categorize abstract paintings into meaningfully labeled categories and rated the paintings' beauty, value, and typicality. Inconsistent with the similarity-based view, beauty ratings were highly correlated across conditions despite differences in fluency and assigned category structure. Consistent with the theory-based view, beautiful paintings were treated as central members for categories expected to contain beautiful paintings (e.g., art museum pieces), but not in others (e.g., student show pieces). These results suggest that the beauty of complex, real-world stimuli is not determined by fluency within category structure but, instead, interacts with people's prior knowledge to structure categories.

ON BEAUTY AND THE BEAUTIFUL IN AESTHETIC EDUCATION

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Borce Kostov

2013-06-01

Full Text Available We titled our work “On Beauty and the Beautiful in Aesthetic Education” and we analyzed the category beautiful in function of better understanding the issues of aesthetic education.The basic point was the fact that the determination of the term beautiful is being different in both, time aspect and space aspect. Also, the authors involved in this matter have got different understanding on beautiful issue, on its essence, on its role in human development and on the development of the aesthetics and the aesthetic education.Therefore, within our work, there is an attempt to differ the approaches towards the category beautiful, to comment it, to compare it and finally to give our approach.

Beauty Requires Thought.

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Brielmann, Aenne A; Pelli, Denis G

2017-05-22

The experience of beauty is a pleasure, but common sense and philosophy suggest that feeling beauty differs from sensuous pleasures such as eating or sex. Immanuel Kant [1, 2] claimed that experiencing beauty requires thought but that sensuous pleasure can be enjoyed without thought and cannot be beautiful. These venerable hypotheses persist in models of aesthetic processing [3-7] but have never been tested. Here, participants continuously rated the pleasure felt from a nominally beautiful or non-beautiful stimulus and then judged whether they had experienced beauty. The stimuli, which engage various senses, included seeing images, tasting candy, and touching a teddy bear. The observer reported the feelings that the stimulus evoked. The time course of pleasure, across stimuli, is well-fit by a model with one free parameter: pleasure amplitude. Pleasure amplitude increases linearly with the feeling of beauty. To test Kant's claim of a need for thought, we reduce cognitive capacity by adding a "two-back" task to distract the observer's thoughts. The distraction greatly reduces the beauty and pleasure experienced from stimuli that otherwise produce strong pleasure and spares that of less-pleasant stimuli. We also find that strong pleasure is always beautiful, whether produced reliably by beautiful stimuli or just occasionally by sensuous stimuli. In sum, we confirm Kant's claim that only the pleasure associated with feeling beauty requires thought and disprove his claim that sensuous pleasures cannot be beautiful. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The sense of beauty.

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Hagman, George

2002-06-01

This paper proposes an integrative psychoanalytic model of the sense of beauty. The following definition is used: beauty is an aspect of the experience of idealisation in which an object(s), sound(s) or concept(s) is believed to possess qualities of formal perfection. The psychoanalytic literature regarding beauty is explored in depth and fundamental similarities are stressed. The author goes on to discuss the following topics: (1) beauty as sublimation: beauty reconciles the polarisation of self and world; (2) idealisation and beauty: the love of beauty is an indication of the importance of idealisation during development; (3) beauty as an interactive process: the sense of beauty is interactive and intersubjective; (4) the aesthetic and non-aesthetic emotions: specific aesthetic emotions are experienced in response to the formal design of the beautiful object; (5) surrendering to beauty: beauty provides us with an occasion for transcendence and self-renewal; (6) beauty's restorative function: the preservation or restoration of the relationship to the good object is of utmost importance; (7) the self-integrative function of beauty: the sense of beauty can also reconcile and integrate self-states of fragmentation and depletion; (8) beauty as a defence: in psychopathology, beauty can function defensively for the expression of unconscious impulses and fantasies, or as protection against self-crisis; (9) beauty and mortality: the sense of beauty can alleviate anxiety regarding death and feelings of vulnerability. In closing the paper, the author offers a new understanding of Freud'semphasis on love of beauty as a defining trait of civilisation. For a people not to value beauty would mean that they cannot hope and cannot assert life over the inevitable and ubiquitous forces of entropy and death.

Suicidal autointegration of sleeping beauty and piggyBac transposons in eukaryotic cells.

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Yongming Wang

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Transposons are discrete segments of DNA that have the distinctive ability to move and replicate within genomes across the tree of life. 'Cut and paste' DNA transposition involves excision from a donor locus and reintegration into a new locus in the genome. We studied molecular events following the excision steps of two eukaryotic DNA transposons, Sleeping Beauty (SB and piggyBac (PB that are widely used for genome manipulation in vertebrate species. SB originates from fish and PB from insects; thus, by introducing these transposons to human cells we aimed to monitor the process of establishing a transposon-host relationship in a naïve cellular environment. Similarly to retroviruses, neither SB nor PB is capable of self-avoidance because a significant portion of the excised transposons integrated back into its own genome in a suicidal process called autointegration. Barrier-to-autointegration factor (BANF1, a cellular co-factor of certain retroviruses, inhibited transposon autointegration, and was detected in higher-order protein complexes containing the SB transposase. Increasing size sensitized transposition for autointegration, consistent with elevated vulnerability of larger transposons. Both SB and PB were affected similarly by the size of the transposon in three different assays: excision, autointegration and productive transposition. Prior to reintegration, SB is completely separated from the donor molecule and followed an unbiased autointegration pattern, not associated with local hopping. Self-disruptive autointegration occurred at similar frequency for both transposons, while aberrant, pseudo-transposition events were more frequently observed for PB.

Stable gene transfer of CCR5 and CXCR4 siRNAs by sleeping beauty transposon system to confer HIV-1 resistance

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Akkina Ramesh

2008-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Thus far gene therapy strategies for HIV/AIDS have used either conventional retroviral vectors or lentiviral vectors for gene transfer. Although highly efficient, their use poses a certain degree of risk in terms of viral mediated oncogenesis. Sleeping Beauty (SB transposon system offers a non-viral method of gene transfer to avoid this possible risk. With respect to conferring HIV resistance, stable knock down of HIV-1 coreceptors CCR5 and CXCR4 by the use of lentiviral vector delivered siRNAs has proved to be a promising strategy to protect cells from HIV-1 infection. In the current studies our aim is to evaluate the utility of SB system for stable gene transfer of CCR5 and CXCR4 siRNA genes to derive HIV resistant cells as a first step towards using this system for gene therapy. Results Two well characterized siRNAs against the HIV-1 coreceptors CCR5 and CXCR4 were chosen based on their previous efficacy for the SB transposon gene delivery. The siRNA transgenes were incorporated individually into a modified SB transfer plasmid containing a FACS sortable red fluorescence protein (RFP reporter and a drug selectable neomycin resistance gene. Gene transfer was achieved by co-delivery with a construct expressing a hyperactive transposase (HSB5 into the GHOST-R3/X4/R5 cell line, which expresses the major HIV receptor CD4 and and the co-receptors CCR5 and CXCR4. SB constructs expressing CCR5 or CXCR4 siRNAs were also transfected into MAGI-CCR5 or MAGI-CXCR4 cell lines, respectively. Near complete downregulation of CCR5 and CXCR4 surface expression was observed in transfected cells. During viral challenge with X4-tropic (NL4.3 or R5-tropic (BaL HIV-1 strains, the respective transposed cells showed marked viral resistance. Conclusion SB transposon system can be used to deliver siRNA genes for stable gene transfer. The siRNA genes against HIV-1 coreceptors CCR5 and CXCR4 are able to downregulate the respective cell surface proteins

Diffractive beauty production at the LHC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eggert, K.; Morsch, A.

1994-01-01

Using the framework of Pomeron exchange to describe diffractive pp collisions at the LHC we discuss beauty production in those events. The cross sections for beauty production at different diffractive masses and the topology for the beauty particles and the underlying event are given. When triggering on large diffractive masses, the beauty system is boosted into the Pomeron hemisphere opposite the underlying event, which tends to follow the excited proton direction. This may offer some advantages for the acceptance of beauty and its reconstruction in forward spectrometers. For the identification of diffractive events at the LHC collider, we present a scheme to measure the momentum loss of forward protons in the range 2x10 -3 < Δp/p <0.1. This momentum loss can be determined with a precision of about 10%. ((orig.))

Is moral beauty different from facial beauty? Evidence from an fMRI study

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Wang, Tingting; Mo, Ce; Tan, Li Hai; Cant, Jonathan S.; Zhong, Luojin; Cupchik, Gerald

2015-01-01

Is moral beauty different from facial beauty? Two functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments were performed to answer this question. Experiment 1 investigated the network of moral aesthetic judgments and facial aesthetic judgments. Participants performed aesthetic judgments and gender judgments on both faces and scenes containing moral acts. The conjunction analysis of the contrasts ‘facial aesthetic judgment > facial gender judgment’ and ‘scene moral aesthetic judgment > scene gender judgment’ identified the common involvement of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), inferior temporal gyrus and medial superior frontal gyrus, suggesting that both types of aesthetic judgments are based on the orchestration of perceptual, emotional and cognitive components. Experiment 2 examined the network of facial beauty and moral beauty during implicit perception. Participants performed a non-aesthetic judgment task on both faces (beautiful vs common) and scenes (containing morally beautiful vs neutral information). We observed that facial beauty (beautiful faces > common faces) involved both the cortical reward region OFC and the subcortical reward region putamen, whereas moral beauty (moral beauty scenes > moral neutral scenes) only involved the OFC. Moreover, compared with facial beauty, moral beauty spanned a larger-scale cortical network, indicating more advanced and complex cerebral representations characterizing moral beauty. PMID:25298010

Value and Payment in Sleep Medicine.

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Wickwire, Emerson M; Verma, Tilak

2018-05-15

Value, like beauty, exists in the eye of the beholder. This article places the value of clinical sleep medicine services in historical context and presents a vision for the value-based sleep of the future. First, the history of value and payment in sleep medicine is reviewed from the early days of the field, to innovative disruption, to the widespread adoption of home sleep apnea testing. Next, the importance of economic perspective is discussed, with emphasis on cost containment and cost-shifting between payers, employers, providers, and patients. Specific recommendations are made for sleep medicine providers and the field at large to maximize the perceived value of sleep. Finally, alternate payment models and value-based care are presented, with an eye toward the future for clinical service providers as well as integrated health delivery networks. © 2018 American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Is moral beauty different from facial beauty? Evidence from an fMRI study.

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Wang, Tingting; Mo, Lei; Mo, Ce; Tan, Li Hai; Cant, Jonathan S; Zhong, Luojin; Cupchik, Gerald

2015-06-01

Is moral beauty different from facial beauty? Two functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments were performed to answer this question. Experiment 1 investigated the network of moral aesthetic judgments and facial aesthetic judgments. Participants performed aesthetic judgments and gender judgments on both faces and scenes containing moral acts. The conjunction analysis of the contrasts 'facial aesthetic judgment > facial gender judgment' and 'scene moral aesthetic judgment > scene gender judgment' identified the common involvement of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), inferior temporal gyrus and medial superior frontal gyrus, suggesting that both types of aesthetic judgments are based on the orchestration of perceptual, emotional and cognitive components. Experiment 2 examined the network of facial beauty and moral beauty during implicit perception. Participants performed a non-aesthetic judgment task on both faces (beautiful vs common) and scenes (containing morally beautiful vs neutral information). We observed that facial beauty (beautiful faces > common faces) involved both the cortical reward region OFC and the subcortical reward region putamen, whereas moral beauty (moral beauty scenes > moral neutral scenes) only involved the OFC. Moreover, compared with facial beauty, moral beauty spanned a larger-scale cortical network, indicating more advanced and complex cerebral representations characterizing moral beauty. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The role of sleep in aesthetic perception and empathy: A mediation analysis.

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Peretti, Sara; Tempesta, Daniela; Socci, Valentina; Pino, Maria C; Mazza, Monica; Valenti, Marco; De Gennaro, Luigi; Di Dio, Cinzia; Marchetti, Antonella; Ferrara, Michele

2018-02-06

The ability to experience aesthetics plays a fundamental role in human social interactions, as well as the capacity to feel empathy. Some studies have shown that beauty perception shares part of the neural network underlying emotional and empathic abilities, which are also known to affect sleep quality and duration. In this study, we evaluated for the first time the effects of sleep on the relation between aesthetic perception and empathic abilities in healthy subjects using a mediation analysis approach. One-hundred and twenty-six subjects participated in this study. One-hundred and one subjects slept at home (Sleep Group). The remaining 25 subjects were tested as controls after 1 night of sleep deprivation to assess the effects of lack of sleep on aesthetic perception and empathy (Sleep-Deprived Group). All participants underwent one testing session in which they performed a battery of empathy tests and an aesthetic perception task (Golden Beauty). The results showed that sleep duration mediates the relationship between empathy and aesthetic perception in the sleep group. The mediation effect of sleep was more evident on the emotional empathy measures. Conversely, in the sleep deprivation group the lack of correlations among empathy, aesthetic perception and sleep variables did not allow to perform the mediation analysis. These results suggest that adequate sleep duration may play a significant role in improving cognitive and emotional empathic abilities as well as the capability to give accurate aesthetic judgements. © 2018 European Sleep Research Society.

The beauty and the beast inside: the american beauty--does cosmetic surgery help?

Science.gov (United States)

Lijtmaer, Ruth

2010-01-01

American society's feminine ideal has consistently emphasized youth as beauty and getting old as ugly. Feeling unattractive produces several intrapsychic conflicts leading to depression and anxiety. Summary of the literature on beauty and aging, beauty and culture, and theories of physical beauty will be presented. With a clinical example of a female patient, the writer investigates the conscious and unconscious fantasies, conflicts, and sense of self inside and outside that impelled a physically beautiful female patient to bring her own body closer to her perception of idealized beauty with the aid of plastic surgery.

Beauty production at CDF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shears, Tara

2008-01-01

A review of recent measurements of beauty production, based on proton antiproton collision data at √s = 1.96 TeV and using the CDF detector, is given. Previous measurements of beauty (b) quark production at the Tevatron, carried out at centre-of-mass energies √s = 1.8 TeV, have shown discrepancies when compared to Next to Leading Order (NLO) predictions [1]. Improved predictions and experimental procedures have reduced this discrepancy [2]. Improved parton density functions, better fragmentation functions and more complete theoretical calculations have improved theoretical accuracy. Experimentally, measurements of beauty production at √s = 1.96 TeV are now presented in terms of b hadrons or B mesons, to avoid problems unfolding back to the quark level. In this review [3] measurements of inclusive beauty (where one beauty jet or hadron is reconstructed in the event), and beauty + X (where X can be a boson or another beauty jet or hadron), production will be presented: inclusive beauty jet cross-section; semi and fully reconstructed B meson cross-section; beauty dijet cross-section; semi-reconstructed B B meson cross-section; Z boson + beauty jet cross-section. More information concerning other measurements of heavy quark production can be found elsewhere [4

Neural substrates of embodied natural beauty and social endowed beauty: An fMRI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wei; He, Xianyou; Lai, Siyan; Wan, Juan; Lai, Shuxian; Zhao, Xueru; Li, Darong

2017-08-02

What are the neural mechanisms underlying beauty based on objective parameters and beauty based on subjective social construction? This study scanned participants with fMRI while they performed aesthetic judgments on concrete pictographs and abstract oracle bone scripts. Behavioral results showed both pictographs and oracle bone scripts were judged to be more beautiful when they referred to beautiful objects and positive social meanings, respectively. Imaging results revealed regions associated with perceptual, cognitive, emotional and reward processing were commonly activated both in beautiful judgments of pictographs and oracle bone scripts. Moreover, stronger activations of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and motor-related areas were found in beautiful judgments of pictographs, whereas beautiful judgments of oracle bone scripts were associated with putamen activity, implying stronger aesthetic experience and embodied approaching for beauty were elicited by the pictographs. In contrast, only visual processing areas were activated in the judgments of ugly pictographs and negative oracle bone scripts. Results provide evidence that the sense of beauty is triggered by two processes: one based on the objective parameters of stimuli (embodied natural beauty) and the other based on the subjective social construction (social endowed beauty).

Prolonged Expression of Secreted Enzymes in Dogs After Liver-Directed Delivery of Sleeping Beauty Transposons: Implications for Non-Viral Gene Therapy of Systemic Disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Aronovich, Elena L; Hyland, Kendra A; Hall, Bryan C; Bell, Jason B; Olson, Erik R; Rusten, Myra Urness; Hunter, David W; Ellinwood, N Matthew; McIvor, R Scott; Hackett, Perry B

2017-07-01

The non-viral, integrating Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon system is efficient in treating systemic monogenic disease in mice, including hemophilia A and B caused by deficiency of blood clotting factors and mucopolysaccharidosis types I and VII caused by α-L-iduronidase (IDUA) and β-glucuronidase (GUSB) deficiency, respectively. Modified approaches of the hydrodynamics-based procedure to deliver transposons to the liver in dogs were recently reported. Using the transgenic canine reporter secreted alkaline phosphatase (cSEAP), transgenic protein in the plasma was demonstrated for up to 6 weeks post infusion. This study reports that immunosuppression of dogs with gadolinium chloride (GdCl 3 ) prolonged the presence of cSEAP in the circulation up to 5.5 months after a single vector infusion. Transgene expression declined gradually but appeared to stabilize after about 2 months at approximately fourfold baseline level. Durability of transgenic protein expression in the plasma was inversely associated with transient increase of liver enzymes alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase in response to the plasmid delivery procedure, which suggests a deleterious effect of hepatocellular toxicity on transgene expression. GdCl 3 treatment was ineffective for repeat vector infusions. In parallel studies, dogs were infused with potentially therapeutic transposons. Activities of transgenic IDUA and GUSB in plasma peaked at 50-350% of wildtype, but in the absence of immunosuppression lasted only a few days. Transposition was detectable by excision assay only when the most efficient transposase, SB100X, was used. Dogs infused with transposons encoding canine clotting factor IX (cFIX) were treated with GdCl 3 and showed expression profiles similar to those in cSEAP-infused dogs, with expression peaking at 40% wt (2 μg/mL). It is concluded that GdCl 3 can support extended transgene expression after hydrodynamic introduction of SB transposons in dogs, but that alternative

Development of Home-Based Sleep Monitoring System for Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Peirong; Chen, Guan-Ting; Cui, Yanyan; Li, Jin-Wei; Kuo, Terry B J; Chang, Polun

2017-01-01

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) has been proven to increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, obesity, and diabetes. If people would like to know whether they are suffering from this sleep disorder, they need to go to particular hospital with which a sleep center that could perform polysomnography (PSG); however, for most people, this is not convenient. Consequently, the goal of this study is to develop a convenient, lower priced, and easy-to-use home-based sleep monitoring system. The researchers have developed the "Sleep Healthcare Management System" for OSA patients and healthcare providers. It combines smartphone and wearable devices that can perform real-time sleep monitoring. Healthcare providers could apply their professional knowledge to provide customized feedback via a web application. When the patient is diagnosed with an abnormal sleep health condition, healthcare providers may be able to provide appropriate and timely care.

Beautiful economic features of public landscaping in city beautiful

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emilson Caputo Delfino Silva

2013-08-01

Full Text Available City beautiful was a movement of great reach and inspiration, which apparently, was initiated in Chicago in 1893 during the World’s Columbian Exposition. The movement’s premises were artistic, architectural, social, political and economic. Among the artistic and architectural aspects of the city beautiful movement, the provision of high quality public landscaping was of paramount importance. As for the economic rationale behind the movement, we encounter the thinking that a beautiful city should increase its residents’ enjoyment of the city’s attributes and hence attachment to the city, raise real estate values as well as expand city business, with larger sales of city goods and services to local and touristic customers. This paper examines the economic rationale behind the city beautiful movement. We consider a “regional” economy consisting of two adjacent cities, which are identical in many of its attributes, such as the sizes of their populations. We build a general equilibrium model for the agents (consumers and producers in this economy and demonstrate that the economic rationale behind the city beautiful movement is sound. Each city’s wealth and welfare are proportional to its quality level and a city’s quality level is proportional to the city’s public landscaping quality.

Wireless remote monitoring system for sleep apnea

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Sechang; Kwon, Hyeokjun; Varadan, Vijay K.

2011-04-01

Sleep plays the important role of rejuvenating the body, especially the central nervous system. However, more than thirty million people suffer from sleep disorders and sleep deprivation. That can cause serious health consequences by increasing the risk of hypertension, diabetes, heart attack and so on. Apart from the physical health risk, sleep disorders can lead to social problems when sleep disorders are not diagnosed and treated. Currently, sleep disorders are diagnosed through sleep study in a sleep laboratory overnight. This involves large expenses in addition to the inconvenience of overnight hospitalization and disruption of daily life activities. Although some systems provide home based diagnosis, most of systems record the sleep data in a memory card, the patient has to face the inconvenience of sending the memory card to a doctor for diagnosis. To solve the problem, we propose a wireless sensor system for sleep apnea, which enables remote monitoring while the patient is at home. The system has 5 channels to measure ECG, Nasal airflow, body position, abdominal/chest efforts and oxygen saturation. A wireless transmitter unit transmits signals with Zigbee and a receiver unit which has two RF modules, Zigbee and Wi-Fi, receives signals from the transmitter unit and retransmits signals to the remote monitoring system with Zigbee and Wi-Fi, respectively. By using both Zigbee and Wi-Fi, the wireless sensor system can achieve a low power consumption and wide range coverage. The system's features are presented, as well as continuous monitoring results of vital signals.

[Beauty and esthetics: juridical approach].

Science.gov (United States)

Béry, Alain; Delprat, Laurent

2014-03-01

Although beauty is increasingly becoming a right mostly as it relates to objects, people are now beginning to make a new demand - the right to personal beauty: the right to live in and surrounded by beauty and the right to be beautiful. © EDP Sciences, SFODF, 2014.

Perceiving beauty in all women: Psychometric evaluation of the Broad Conceptualization of Beauty Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Tylka, Tracy L; Iannantuono, Amy C

2016-06-01

Women's ability to broadly conceptualize beauty (i.e., perceive many looks, appearances, body sizes/shapes, and inner characteristics as beautiful) has been identified as a facet of positive body image in qualitative research. A scale is needed to be able to assess this construct within quantitative research. Therefore, we developed the Broad Conceptualization of Beauty Scale (BCBS), which measures the extent women define female beauty widely within external and internal characteristics, and examined its psychometric properties among four community samples totaling 1086 women. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a unidimensional structure with nine items. The internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct (convergent, discriminant, and incremental) validity of its scores were upheld. Researchers and clinicians can use the BCBS alone to assess women's perceptions of female beauty, or they can use the BCBS alongside women's perceptions of self-beauty to more comprehensively explore women's ability to broadly conceptualize beauty for others and themselves. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Beauty Photoproduction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Turcato, M.

2002-01-01

Beauty photoproduction in ep collisions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA, at a center-of-mass energy of 300 GeV. Beauty quarks are tagged via their semi-leptonic decay into a muon or an electron. Events are selected by requiring the presence of two high-transverse energy jets and one high - p T lepton in the final state. The discrimination between beauty and background events is done by a fit to the p rel T variable, the transverse momentum of the lepton with respect to the jet axis. Total and differential cross sections are presented and compared to leading order Monte Carlo simulations and next-to-leading order QCD predictions. (author)

Is beauty skin deep – an approach to a beautiful face

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neerja Puri

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Everyone dreams of a beautiful and flawless face but true beauty is God given gift. Plastic surgery and various filler techniques can just highlight certain features and are just the temporary procedures. Features that further enhance the attractiveness of a beautiful face are the hair, skin, and teeth. These areas are the easiest to routinely enhance. There are many methods of facial sculpting including botulinum toxin, fillers and various other invasive plastic surgery techniques.

Cycles of Beauty Culture: Ethnography of Beauty Clinics Commodification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sri Murlianti

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Skin care is not a completely new in beauty treatments. Previously there have been other types of cultural industry which also adopted the medical science, such as cosmetic and beauty salon industries. But, skin care beauty clinic successfully introduces the services of beauty treatments which are considered the healthiest. This paper is a summary of the research on how beauty clinic quickly became a part of everyday life of its consumers. The research focused on Natasha Skin Care, a most popular beauty clinic in Indonesia at the moment. According to Richard Johnson, the process of a culture industry reaches the society through a communication that in form a pattern cyclic communications. The stages in the pattern are interconnected but slipped, each stage is affecting others but are not specified in an uncertain manner; between the producer of culture industry with its consumers. This study is a multidiscipline research using three methods of interpretation namely ethnography, discourses analysis, and social hermeneutic study.Klinik kecantikan bukanlah budaya yang benar-benar baru dalam perawatan kecantikan. Sebelumnya telah ada jenis industri budaya lain yang juga mengadopsi ilmu kedokteran, seperti industri kosmetik dan salon kecantikan. Namun klinik kecantikan sukses menyandang predikat sebagai jasa perawatan kecantikan yang dianggap paling sehat. Tulisan ini merupakan rigkasan penelitian tentang bagaimana klinik kecantikan begitu cepat menjadi bagian hidup sehari–hari masyarakat konsumennya. Fokus penelitian ini adalah Natasha Skin Care, sebuah klinik kecantikan paling popular di Indonesia saat ini. Menurut Richard Johson proses sebuah industri budaya sampai pada masyarakat konsumennya melalui komunikasi yang timpang, membentuk pola komunikasi siklik, saling terhubung namun penuh dengan keterpelesetan, saling mewarnai namun tidak menentukan secara pasti antara produsen industri budaya dengan masyarakat konsumennya. Penelitian ini ditempuh

Beauty Or Health? A Personal View.

Science.gov (United States)

Riji, Haliza Mohd

2006-01-01

This paper deals with the question of beauty and health in women. It discusses changing definitions of beauty as a result of influences from the entertainment, beauty and health product industries. Advertisements are seen to be major players in defining beauty through promotion of cosmetic, skin, hair and slimming products. Concerns relating to beauty become inculcated in girls through the process of socialisation as they mature into womanhood. The media plays a significant role in portraying the meaning of beauty through its representation of women. These influences largely influence and alter women's perceptions of their body image and in trying to meet the goals of beauty as represented by the media. This may result in dissatisfaction with their body image. Advertisements can encourage women to indulge in smoking as a fashionable trend or opt for plastic surgery in attempts to acquire beauty. This paper concludes with implications of the issues relating to changing perceptions of beauty and suggests recommendations.

BEAUTY OR HEALTH? A PERSONAL VIEW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haliza Mohd Riji

2006-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the question of beauty and health in women. It discusses changing definitions of beauty as a result of influences from the entertainment, beauty and health product industries. Advertisements are seen to be major players in defining beauty through promotion of cosmetic, skin, hair and slimming products. Concerns relating to beauty become inculcated in girls through the process of socialisation as they mature into womanhood. The media plays a significant role in portraying the meaning of beauty through its representation of women. These influences largely influence and alter women’s perceptions of their body image and in trying to meet the goals of beauty as represented by the media. This may result in dissatisfaction with their body image. Advertisements can encourage women to indulge in smoking as a fashionable trend or opt for plastic surgery in attempts to acquire beauty. This paper concludes with implications of the issues relating to changing perceptions of beauty and suggests recommendations.

Sleeping to fuel the immune system: mammalian sleep and resistance to parasites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Opp Mark R

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Sleep is an enigma. Why animals forgo eating and reproducing, while potentially increasing their risk of predation remains unknown. Although some may question whether all animals sleep, it is clear that all living organisms possess defenses against attack by pathogens. Immune responses of humans and animals are impaired by sleep loss, and responses to immune challenge include altered sleep. Thus, sleep is hypothesized to be a component of the acute phase response to infection and to function in host defense. Examining phylogenetic relationships among sleep parameters, components of the mammalian immune system and resistance to infection may provide insight into the evolution of sleep and lead to a greater appreciation for the role of sleep in host defense.

The medicalization of beauty

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paulo Poli Neto

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Concern with body image and medical interventions related to physical beauty has greatly increased in the past few years. The purpose of this study is to investigate how medicine is dealing with the theme of beauty. The 2003/2004 editions of the periodicals Aesthetic Surgery Journal and Aesthetic Plastic Surgery were analyzed, in order to investigate the rationality buttressing their discourse. Three categories were prioritized for this study: definition of aesthetic plastic surgery's study object; beauty patterns guiding interventions; and understanding popular demand for aesthetic corrections. Discourse is sustained by biomedical rationality, structured around a disease theory and a dual construction between normal and pathological, with emphasis on biology. In the articles, the beauty patterns guiding therapeutic practices are anchored in biological norms defined through several anthropometric measures, which refer to abstract concepts of beauty, harmony, proportionality and symmetry. In this discourse, there are no references to patterns or to social norms of beauty; motivation for aesthetic intervention appears to be rooted in low self-esteem related to the aging process or to some bodily nonconformity. As per the meaning of 'medicalization' adopted herein, biomedical rationality appropriates variations or anomalies of physical appearance, thus allowing the theme to be dealt with in terms of health and disease, normal and pathological.

Beauty Or Health? A Personal View

OpenAIRE

Riji, Haliza Mohd

2006-01-01

This paper deals with the question of beauty and health in women. It discusses changing definitions of beauty as a result of influences from the entertainment, beauty and health product industries. Advertisements are seen to be major players in defining beauty through promotion of cosmetic, skin, hair and slimming products. Concerns relating to beauty become inculcated in girls through the process of socialisation as they mature into womanhood. The media plays a significant role in portraying...

The relationships between memory systems and sleep stages.

Science.gov (United States)

Rauchs, Géraldine; Desgranges, Béatrice; Foret, Jean; Eustache, Francis

2005-06-01

Sleep function remains elusive despite our rapidly increasing comprehension of the processes generating and maintaining the different sleep stages. Several lines of evidence support the hypothesis that sleep is involved in the off-line reprocessing of recently-acquired memories. In this review, we summarize the main results obtained in the field of sleep and memory consolidation in both animals and humans, and try to connect sleep stages with the different memory systems. To this end, we have collated data obtained using several methodological approaches, including electrophysiological recordings of neuronal ensembles, post-training modifications of sleep architecture, sleep deprivation and functional neuroimaging studies. Broadly speaking, all the various studies emphasize the fact that the four long-term memory systems (procedural memory, perceptual representation system, semantic and episodic memory, according to Tulving's SPI model; Tulving, 1995) benefit either from non-rapid eye movement (NREM) (not just SWS) or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, or from both sleep stages. Tulving's classification of memory systems appears more pertinent than the declarative/non-declarative dichotomy when it comes to understanding the role of sleep in memory. Indeed, this model allows us to resolve several contradictions, notably the fact that episodic and semantic memory (the two memory systems encompassed in declarative memory) appear to rely on different sleep stages. Likewise, this model provides an explanation for why the acquisition of various types of skills (perceptual-motor, sensory-perceptual and cognitive skills) and priming effects, subserved by different brain structures but all designated by the generic term of implicit or non-declarative memory, may not benefit from the same sleep stages.

Detecting beauty baryons and heavy beauty mesons with the j/PSI trigger

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bigi, I.I.; Clavelli, L.

1987-01-01

The authors note that the combination of a vertex detector with a J/Psi trigger should enable one to measure the masses and lifetimes of various beauty baryons and heavy beauty mesons at the SSC or Tevatron II

Free Beauty, Dependent Beauty, and Art.

Science.gov (United States)

Stecker, Robert

1987-01-01

Explains the difference between free and dependent beauty. States that these distinctions, formed by Immanuel Kant, have important implications for aesthetic education. Concludes with a defense of Kant's aesthetics. (JDH)

How (and why) the immune system makes us sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Imeri, Luca; Opp, Mark R

2009-03-01

Good sleep is necessary for physical and mental health. For example, sleep loss impairs immune function, and sleep is altered during infection. Immune signalling molecules are present in the healthy brain, where they interact with neurochemical systems to contribute to the regulation of normal sleep. Animal studies have shown that interactions between immune signalling molecules (such as the cytokine interleukin 1) and brain neurochemical systems (such as the serotonin system) are amplified during infection, indicating that these interactions might underlie the changes in sleep that occur during infection. Why should the immune system cause us to sleep differently when we are sick? We propose that the alterations in sleep architecture during infection are exquisitely tailored to support the generation of fever, which in turn imparts survival value.

Musings about Beauty

Science.gov (United States)

Kintsch, Walter

2012-01-01

In this essay, I explore how cognitive science could illuminate the concept of beauty. Two results from the extensive literature on aesthetics guide my discussion. As the term "beauty" is overextended in general usage, I choose as my starting point the notion of "perfect form." Aesthetic theorists are in reasonable agreement about the criteria for…

The sleeping brain as a complex system.

Science.gov (United States)

Olbrich, Eckehard; Achermann, Peter; Wennekers, Thomas

2011-10-13

'Complexity science' is a rapidly developing research direction with applications in a multitude of fields that study complex systems consisting of a number of nonlinear elements with interesting dynamics and mutual interactions. This Theme Issue 'The complexity of sleep' aims at fostering the application of complexity science to sleep research, because the brain in its different sleep stages adopts different global states that express distinct activity patterns in large and complex networks of neural circuits. This introduction discusses the contributions collected in the present Theme Issue. We highlight the potential and challenges of a complex systems approach to develop an understanding of the brain in general and the sleeping brain in particular. Basically, we focus on two topics: the complex networks approach to understand the changes in the functional connectivity of the brain during sleep, and the complex dynamics of sleep, including sleep regulation. We hope that this Theme Issue will stimulate and intensify the interdisciplinary communication to advance our understanding of the complex dynamics of the brain that underlies sleep and consciousness.

Who Engages with Moral Beauty?

Science.gov (United States)

Diessner, Rhett; Iyer, Ravi; Smith, Meghan M.; Haidt, Jonathan

2013-01-01

Aristotle considered moral beauty to be the "telos" of the human virtues. Displays of moral beauty have been shown to elicit the moral emotion of elevation and cause a desire to become a better person and to engage in prosocial behavior. Study 1 ("N" = 5380) shows engagement with moral beauty is related to several psychological…

Literary aesthetics: beauty, the brain, and Mrs. Dalloway.

Science.gov (United States)

Hogan, Patrick Colm

2013-01-01

Empirical research indicates that beauty is in part a matter of prototype approximation. Some research suggests that unanticipated pattern recognition is important as well. This essay begins by briefly outlining an account of beauty based on these factors. It goes on to consider complications. Minor complications include the partial incompatibility of these accounts and the importance of differentiating judgments of beauty from aesthetic response. More serious issues include the relative neglect of literature in neurologically-based discussions of beauty, which tend to focus on music or visual art. There is also a relative neglect of emotion, beyond the reward system. Finally, there is the almost complete absence of the sublime. After considering these problems broadly, the essay turns to Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, examining its treatment of beauty and sublimity. The aim of this section is not merely to illuminate Woolf's novel by reference to neuroscientific research. It is equally, perhaps more fully, to expand our neuroscientifically grounded account of aesthetic response by drawing on Woolf's novel. In Mrs. Dalloway, there are gestures toward prototypes and patterns in beauty. But the key features are clearly emotional. Specifically, the emotions at issue in feelings of beauty and sublimity appear to be primarily attachment, on the one hand, and a profound sense of isolation, on the other. Woolf's novel also points us toward other features of aesthetic experience, crucially including the emotion-sharing that is a key function of the production and circulation of art. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Measurement of beauty production from dimuon events at HERA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-01-01

Beauty production in events containing two muons in the final state has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 114 pb -1 . A low transverse-momentum threshold for muon identification, in combination with the large rapidity coverage of the ZEUS muon system, gives access to almost the full phase space for beauty production. The total cross section for beauty production in ep collisions at (s) 1/2 = 318 GeV has been measured to be σ tot (ep → b b-bar X) = 13.9 ± 1.5(stat.) +4.0 -4.3 (syst.) nb. Differential cross sections and a measurement of b b-bar correlations are also obtained, and compared to other beauty cross-section measurements, Monte Carlo models and next-to-leading-order QCD predictions.

Beauty and cuteness in peripheral vision

Science.gov (United States)

Kuraguchi, Kana; Ashida, Hiroshi

2015-01-01

Guo et al. (2011) showed that attractiveness was detectable in peripheral vision. Since there are different types of attractiveness (Rhodes, 2006), we investigated how beauty and cuteness are detected in peripheral vision with a brief presentation. Participants (n = 45) observed two Japanese female faces for 100 ms, then were asked to respond which face was more beautiful (or cuter). The results indicated that both beauty and cuteness were detectable in peripheral vision, but not in the same manner. Discrimination rates for judging beauty were invariant in peripheral and central vision, while discrimination rates for judging cuteness declined in peripheral vision as compared with central vision. This was not explained by lower resolution in peripheral vision. In addition, for male participants, it was more difficult to judge cuteness than beauty in peripheral vision, thus suggesting that gender differences can have a certain effect when judging cuteness. Therefore, central vision might be suitable for judging cuteness while judging beauty might not be affected by either central or peripheral vision. This might be related with the functional difference between beauty and cuteness. PMID:25999883

ATLAS Potential for Beauty Physics Measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smizanska, M.

2001-01-01

The main focus of ATLAS b physics has traditionally been on the standard model. In the last few years also the aspects of new physics in B-decays has been addressed. Another new field of studies started recently is a beauty production. We give an overview of the older as well as more recent results. After an introduction outlining selected trigger and detector performance characteristics, we explain methods and goals of CP violation measurements in decay channels of B d 0 meson, physics of B s 0 system and of rare decays. Finally, the ATLAS program for beauty production measurements is presented. (author)

Portable Prescreening System for Sleep Apnea

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Guul, Martin Kjær; Jennum, Poul; Sørensen, Helge Bjarup Dissing

2016-01-01

for sleep apnea is at high risk or low risk of having OSA. A new test setup was developed containing an Android based smartphone, the built in accelerometer, and a microphone. To ease the clinical analysis of the data a MATLAB based graphical user interface has been developed visualizing the data allowing......Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) occurs in more than 4 % of the adult population. Diagnoses for OSA in sleep clinics are costly and more than half of those submitted to a sleep clinic do not have OSA. A simple, easy, and portable homebased monitoring system to evaluate who are in high- or low risk...... of suffering from OSA would be beneficial. The system must be able to identify individuals with a high pre-test reliability regarding OSA with the aim of referral and further investigation. We aimed to develop a portable, smartphone, and homebased monitoring system to classify whether a patient screened...

"Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder"? Aspects of beauty and attractiveness.

Science.gov (United States)

Borelli, Claudia; Berneburg, Mirjam

2010-05-01

Discussing aesthetic issues and their management with patients is a growing area of dermatologic practice. Sometimes treatment options within one's own discipline are rapidly discussed, without a clear idea of the various aspects of the face which all combine to produce beauty and attractiveness. We review various features leading to the impression of beauty and attractiveness. Familiarity with these concepts should facilitate a broader discussion with the patient on the aspects of beauty and attractiveness beyond the borders of one's own discipline and also lead to multidisciplinary treatment options. We also examine the question how much the personality of the beholder himself is involved in the perception of attractiveness and beauty (of the person sitting opposite to him). The "ideal" face has an average profile with slightly protrusive and full lips. Attractiveness increases with average features and symmetry. Moreover, particular features such as the scheme of childlike characteristics combined with aspects of maturity and expression make a female face appear especially beautiful. Which attributes contribute to attractiveness of a man's face are controversial. Clear male signals such as a strong chin are likely not to increase attractiveness.

Detection of Sleeping Beauty transposition in the genome of host cells by non-radioactive Southern blot analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aravalli, Rajagopal N., E-mail: aravalli@umn.edu [Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, MMC 292, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (United States); Park, Chang W. [Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, MMC 36, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (United States); Steer, Clifford J., E-mail: steer001@umn.edu [Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, MMC 36, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (United States); Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (United States)

2016-08-26

The Sleeping Beauty transposon (SB-Tn) system is being used widely as a DNA vector for the delivery of therapeutic transgenes, as well as a tool for the insertional mutagenesis in animal models. In order to accurately assess the insertional potential and properties related to the integration of SB it is essential to determine the copy number of SB-Tn in the host genome. Recently developed SB100X transposase has demonstrated an integration rate that was much higher than the original SB10 and that of other versions of hyperactive SB transposases, such as HSB3 or HSB17. In this study, we have constructed a series of SB vectors carrying either a DsRed or a human β-globin transgene that was encompassed by cHS4 insulator elements, and containing the SB100X transposase gene outside the SB-Tn unit within the same vector in cis configuration. These SB-Tn constructs were introduced into the K-562 erythroid cell line, and their presence in the genomes of host cells was analyzed by Southern blot analysis using non-radioactive probes. Many copies of SB-Tn insertions were detected in host cells regardless of transgene sequences or the presence of cHS4 insulator elements. Interestingly, the size difference of 2.4 kb between insulated SB and non-insulated controls did not reflect the proportional difference in copy numbers of inserted SB-Tns. We then attempted methylation-sensitive Southern blots to assess the potential influence of cHS4 insulator elements on the epigenetic modification of SB-Tn. Our results indicated that SB100X was able to integrate at multiple sites with the number of SB-Tn copies larger than 6 kb in size. In addition, the non-radioactive Southern blot protocols developed here will be useful to detect integrated SB-Tn copies in any mammalian cell type.

Detection of Sleeping Beauty transposition in the genome of host cells by non-radioactive Southern blot analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aravalli, Rajagopal N.; Park, Chang W.; Steer, Clifford J.

2016-01-01

The Sleeping Beauty transposon (SB-Tn) system is being used widely as a DNA vector for the delivery of therapeutic transgenes, as well as a tool for the insertional mutagenesis in animal models. In order to accurately assess the insertional potential and properties related to the integration of SB it is essential to determine the copy number of SB-Tn in the host genome. Recently developed SB100X transposase has demonstrated an integration rate that was much higher than the original SB10 and that of other versions of hyperactive SB transposases, such as HSB3 or HSB17. In this study, we have constructed a series of SB vectors carrying either a DsRed or a human β-globin transgene that was encompassed by cHS4 insulator elements, and containing the SB100X transposase gene outside the SB-Tn unit within the same vector in cis configuration. These SB-Tn constructs were introduced into the K-562 erythroid cell line, and their presence in the genomes of host cells was analyzed by Southern blot analysis using non-radioactive probes. Many copies of SB-Tn insertions were detected in host cells regardless of transgene sequences or the presence of cHS4 insulator elements. Interestingly, the size difference of 2.4 kb between insulated SB and non-insulated controls did not reflect the proportional difference in copy numbers of inserted SB-Tns. We then attempted methylation-sensitive Southern blots to assess the potential influence of cHS4 insulator elements on the epigenetic modification of SB-Tn. Our results indicated that SB100X was able to integrate at multiple sites with the number of SB-Tn copies larger than 6 kb in size. In addition, the non-radioactive Southern blot protocols developed here will be useful to detect integrated SB-Tn copies in any mammalian cell type.

Triggering on beauty

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duff, B.G.

1984-01-01

Three CERN experiments (NA19, WA75 and WA78) are discussed. The aim is to study the hadroproduction of naked ''beauty'' and, in the first two cases, to directly measure the lifetime of the beauty states. A comparison of the relative sensitivity is given and the various on-line and off-line selections which are made to attempt the extraction of a signal

Measurement of beauty production from dimuon events at HERA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chekanov, S.; Derrick, M.; Magill, S. [Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL (United States)] (and others)

2008-09-15

Beauty production in events containing two muons in the final state has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 114 pb{sup -1}. A low transverse-momentum threshold for muon identification, in combination with the large rapidity coverage of the ZEUS muon system, gives access to almost the full phase space for beauty production. The total cross section for beauty production in ep collisions at {radical}(s) = 318 GeV has been measured to be {sigma}{sub tot}(ep {yields} b anti bX) = 13.9 {+-} 1.5(stat.){sub -4.3}{sup +4.0}(syst.) nb. Differential cross sections and a measurement of b anti b correlations are also obtained, and compared to other beauty cross-section measurements, Monte Carlo models and next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. (orig.)

Introduction to beauty-hadron physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fridman, A.

1995-03-01

These lectures discuss methods for analyzing the decay of beauty hadrons (B mesons and beauty baryons) produced in pp interactions. At the c.m. energies around 14 TeV planned for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the B meson production rate is expected to be ca 105 larger than in an e+e- B factory. The pp collider could then offer, in principle, important advantages. However, the detection of beauty hadrons produced in a pp collider will be a task of great complexity. In particular, the triggering difficulties of events in a large background will be one of the major problems. Therefore, it would be useful to discuss the various aspects that can be investigated in beauty physics arising from pp interactions. It is first described the general features of the formalisms of B mixing and search for CP violation in the meson decays. Then the specific problems appearing for beauty hadrons produced in pN interactions are considered. Some comparison between investigations which could be carried out with B factories and pp colliders are also mentioned, although this is not the main concern of these lectures. Finally it is also presented some elements of beauty baryon decays which can only be studied efficiently by means of pN interaction

Introduction to beauty-hadron physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fridman, A. [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Trieste (Italy)

1995-03-01

These lectures discuss methods for analyzing the decay of beauty hadrons (B mesons and beauty baryons) produced in pp interactions. At the c.m. energies around 14 TeV planned for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the B meson production rate is expected to be ca 105 larger than in an e+e- B factory. The pp collider could then offer, in principle, important advantages. However, the detection of beauty hadrons produced in a pp collider will be a task of great complexity. In particular, the triggering difficulties of events in a large background will be one of the major problems. Therefore, it would be useful to discuss the various aspects that can be investigated in beauty physics arising from pp interactions. It is first described the general features of the formalisms of B mixing and search for CP violation in the meson decays. Then the specific problems appearing for beauty hadrons produced in pN interactions are considered. Some comparison between investigations which could be carried out with B factories and pp colliders are also mentioned, although this is not the main concern of these lectures. Finally it is also presented some elements of beauty baryon decays which can only be studied efficiently by means of pN interaction.

Sleeping Beauty transposon mutagenesis identifies genes that cooperate with mutant Smad4 in gastric cancer development.

Science.gov (United States)

Takeda, Haruna; Rust, Alistair G; Ward, Jerrold M; Yew, Christopher Chin Kuan; Jenkins, Nancy A; Copeland, Neal G

2016-04-05

Mutations in SMAD4 predispose to the development of gastrointestinal cancer, which is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths. To identify genes driving gastric cancer (GC) development, we performed a Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon mutagenesis screen in the stomach of Smad4(+/-) mutant mice. This screen identified 59 candidate GC trunk drivers and a much larger number of candidate GC progression genes. Strikingly, 22 SB-identified trunk drivers are known or candidate cancer genes, whereas four SB-identified trunk drivers, including PTEN, SMAD4, RNF43, and NF1, are known human GC trunk drivers. Similar to human GC, pathway analyses identified WNT, TGF-β, and PI3K-PTEN signaling, ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, adherens junctions, and RNA degradation in addition to genes involved in chromatin modification and organization as highly deregulated pathways in GC. Comparative oncogenomic filtering of the complete list of SB-identified genes showed that they are highly enriched for genes mutated in human GC and identified many candidate human GC genes. Finally, by comparing our complete list of SB-identified genes against the list of mutated genes identified in five large-scale human GC sequencing studies, we identified LDL receptor-related protein 1B (LRP1B) as a previously unidentified human candidate GC tumor suppressor gene. In LRP1B, 129 mutations were found in 462 human GC samples sequenced, and LRP1B is one of the top 10 most deleted genes identified in a panel of 3,312 human cancers. SB mutagenesis has, thus, helped to catalog the cooperative molecular mechanisms driving SMAD4-induced GC growth and discover genes with potential clinical importance in human GC.

Sleep Sleeping Patch

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2008-01-01

The Sleep Sleeping Patch is a new kind of external patch based on modern sleep medicine research achievements, which uses the internationally advanced transdermal therapeutic system (TTS). The Sleep Sleeping Patch transmits natural sleep inducers such as peppermint and liquorice extracts and melatonin through the skin to induce sleep. Clinical research proves that the Sleep Sleeping Patch can effectively improve insomnia and the quality of sleep. Highly effective: With the modern TTS therapy,

Introducing 'beauty and health'

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Edmonds, A.; van der Geest, S.

2009-01-01

The authors discuss the concepts ‘beauty’ and ‘health’ and their ambiguous relationship. The quest for beauty is perceived both as an enhancement of health and well-being and as a health risk. The article is an introduction to a collection of six anthropological essays on beauty and health.

Beauty at a glance: The feeling of beauty and the amplitude of pleasure are independent of stimulus duration.

Science.gov (United States)

Brielmann, Aenne A; Vale, Lauren; Pelli, Denis G

2017-12-01

Over time, how does beauty develop and decay? Common sense suggests that beauty is intensely felt only after prolonged experience of the object. Here, we present one of various stimuli for a variable duration (1-30 s), measure the observers' pleasure over time, and, finally, ask whether they felt beauty. On each trial, participants (N = 21) either see an image that they had chosen as "movingly beautiful," see an image with prerated valence, or suck a candy. During the stimulus and a further 60 s, participants rate pleasure continuously using a custom touchscreen web app, EmotionTracker.com. After each trial, participants judge whether they felt beauty. Across all stimulus kinds, durations, and beauty responses, the dynamic pleasure rating has a stereotypical time course that is well fit by a one-parameter model with a brief exponential onset (roughly 2.5 s), a sustained plateau during stimulus presentation, and a long exponential decay (roughly 70 s). Across conditions, only the plateau amplitude varies. Beauty and pleasure amplitude are nearly independent of stimulus duration. The final beauty rating is positively correlated with pleasure amplitude (r = 0.60), and nearly independent of duration (r = 0.10). Beauty's independence from duration is unlike Bentham's 18th-century notion of value (utility), which he supposed to depend on the product of pleasure amplitude and duration. Participants report having felt pleasure as strongly after a mere 1 s stimulus as after longer durations, up to 30 s. Thus, we find that amplitude of pleasure is independent of stimulus duration.

Beauty, Identity and Consumption: A Malay Muslim Perspective

OpenAIRE

French, Juliana Angeline

2017-01-01

This thesis takes an interactionist perspective in understanding beauty. Beauty starts on the global stage with international beauty pageants, models on runways, magazines, music and entertainment that travel the global circuit and subsequently exert influence over beauty discourses in individual nation states. At the local nation state, beauty discourses are formed as a result of the nation’s own socio-historical past which then intersect with global discourses and are ofte...

Beauty in the Breakdown

Science.gov (United States)

Brisco, Nicole

2008-01-01

Most human beings look at erosion as the destruction of a surface, but artists can see that erosion often creates indefinable beauty. Where do you see beauty in the breakdown? In this article, the author presents an innovative lesson that would allow students to observe both human and physical nature. In this activity students will create a work…

The experience of beauty derived from sorrow.

Science.gov (United States)

Ishizu, Tomohiro; Zeki, Semir

2017-08-01

We studied the neural mechanisms that are engaged during the experience of beauty derived from sorrow and from joy, two experiences that share a common denominator (beauty) but are linked to opposite emotional valences. Twenty subjects viewed and rerated, in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner, 120 images which each had classified into the following four categories: beautiful and sad; beautiful and joyful; neutral; ugly. The medial orbito-frontal cortex (mOFC) was active during the experience of both types of beauty. Otherwise, the two experiences engaged different parts of the brain: joyful beauty engaged areas linked to positive emotions while sorrowful beauty engaged areas linked to negative experiences. Separate regions of the cerebellum were engaged during experience of the two conditions. A functional connectivity analysis indicated that the activity within the mOFC was modulated by the supplementary motor area/middle cingulate cortex, known to be engaged during empathetic experiences provoked by other peoples' sadness. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4185-4200, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Smartphone based monitoring system for long-term sleep assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Domingues, Alexandre

2015-01-01

The diagnosis of sleep disorders, highly prevalent in Western countries, typically involves sophisticated procedures and equipment that are highly intrusive to the patient. The high processing capabilities and storage capacity of current portable devices, together with a big range of available sensors, many of them with wireless capabilities, create new opportunities and change the paradigms in sleep studies. In this work, a smartphone based sleep monitoring system is presented along with the details of the hardware, software and algorithm implementation. The aim of this system is to provide a way for subjects, with no pre-diagnosed sleep disorders, to monitor their sleep habits, and on the initial screening of abnormal sleep patterns.

Global facial beauty: approaching a unified aesthetic ideal.

Science.gov (United States)

Sands, Noah B; Adamson, Peter A

2014-04-01

Recognition of facial beauty is both inborn and learned through social discourses and exposures. Demographic shifts across the globe, in addition to cross-cultural interactions that typify 21st century globalization in virtually all industries, comprise major active evolutionary forces that reshape our individual notions of facial beauty. This article highlights the changing perceptions of beauty, while defining and distinguishing natural beauty and artificial beauty. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Returns to beauty over the life course

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jæger, Mads Meier

’ facial attractiveness as well as data on SES, marital, and health outcomes from their mid-20s to their mid-60s. I find that beauty has lasting positive returns for women since more beautiful women have higher SES throughout their working life, have a higher probability of being married at age 25......, and marry high-SES husbands. I find no effects of beauty on health and, in general, no returns to beauty for men....

Modeling the scenic beauty of the Highland Scenic Highway, West Virginia

Science.gov (United States)

Ishwar Dhami; Jinyang. Deng

2010-01-01

Finding sites with a pleasant view is important to maximize visitors' scenic satisfaction. A geographic information systems analysis of viewsheds is helpful for locating sites with maximum visibility. Viewshed analyses can also be combined with public perceptions of scenic beauty for selecting the most scenic sites. This research modeled the perceived beauty of...

Sublime Views and Beautiful Explanations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barry, Daved; Meisiek, Stefan; Hatch, Mary Jo

To create a generative theory that provides beautiful explanations and sublime views requires both a crafts and an art approach to scientific theorizing. The search for generativity leads scholars to perform various theorizing moves between the confines of simple, yet eloquent beauty...

The environmental injustice of beauty: framing chemical exposures from beauty products as a health disparities concern.

Science.gov (United States)

Zota, Ami R; Shamasunder, Bhavna

2017-10-01

The obstetrics-gynecology community has issued a call to action to prevent toxic environmental chemical exposures and their threats to healthy human reproduction. Recent committee opinions recognize that vulnerable and underserved women may be impacted disproportionately by environmental chemical exposures and recommend that reproductive health professionals champion policies that secure environmental justice. Beauty product use is an understudied source of environmental chemical exposures. Beauty products can include reproductive and developmental toxicants such as phthalates and heavy metals; however, disclosure requirements are limited and inconsistent. Compared with white women, women of color have higher levels of beauty product-related environmental chemicals in their bodies, independent of socioeconomic status. Even small exposures to toxic chemicals during critical periods of development (such as pregnancy) can trigger adverse health consequences (such as impacts on fertility and pregnancy, neurodevelopment, and cancer). In this commentary, we seek to highlight the connections between environmental justice and beauty product-related chemical exposures. We describe racial/ethnic differences in beauty product use (such as skin lighteners, hair straighteners, and feminine hygiene products) and the potential chemical exposures and health risks that are associated with these products. We also discuss how targeted advertising can take advantage of mainstream beauty norms to influence the use of these products. Reproductive health professionals can use this information to advance environmental justice by being prepared to counsel patients who have questions about toxic environmental exposures from beauty care products and other sources. Researchers and healthcare providers can also promote health-protective policies such as improved ingredient testing and disclosure for the beauty product industry. Future clinical and public health research should consider beauty

A Place for Beauty in Art Education

Science.gov (United States)

Watts, Robert

2018-01-01

For the past 100 years beauty has been marginalised in Western art and regarded as a problematic notion in a range of cultural contexts. Art educators tend to associate experiences of beauty with passive appreciation rather than active engagement, while researchers of children's understanding of art characterise references to beauty as evidence of…

''Beauty of Wholeness and Beauty of Partiality.'' New Terms Defining the Concept of Beauty in Architecture in Terms of Sustainability and Computer Aided Design

Science.gov (United States)

Farid, Ayman A.; Zaghloul, Weaam M.; Dewidar, Khaled M.

2014-01-01

The great shift in sustainability and computer aided design in the field of architecture caused a remarkable change in the architecture philosophy, new aspects of beauty and aesthetic values are being introduced, and traditional definitions for beauty cannot fully cover this aspects, which causes a gap between; new architecture works criticism and…

Toward a brain-based theory of beauty.

Science.gov (United States)

Ishizu, Tomohiro; Zeki, Semir

2011-01-01

We wanted to learn whether activity in the same area(s) of the brain correlate with the experience of beauty derived from different sources. 21 subjects took part in a brain-scanning experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Prior to the experiment, they viewed pictures of paintings and listened to musical excerpts, both of which they rated on a scale of 1-9, with 9 being the most beautiful. This allowed us to select three sets of stimuli--beautiful, indifferent and ugly--which subjects viewed and heard in the scanner, and rated at the end of each presentation. The results of a conjunction analysis of brain activity showed that, of the several areas that were active with each type of stimulus, only one cortical area, located in the medial orbito-frontal cortex (mOFC), was active during the experience of musical and visual beauty, with the activity produced by the experience of beauty derived from either source overlapping almost completely within it. The strength of activation in this part of the mOFC was proportional to the strength of the declared intensity of the experience of beauty. We conclude that, as far as activity in the brain is concerned, there is a faculty of beauty that is not dependent on the modality through which it is conveyed but which can be activated by at least two sources--musical and visual--and probably by other sources as well. This has led us to formulate a brain-based theory of beauty.

Role of REM Sleep, Melanin Concentrating Hormone and Orexin/Hypocretin Systems in the Sleep Deprivation Pre-Ischemia.

Science.gov (United States)

Pace, Marta; Adamantidis, Antoine; Facchin, Laura; Bassetti, Claudio

2017-01-01

Sleep reduction after stroke is linked to poor recovery in patients. Conversely, a neuroprotective effect is observed in animals subjected to acute sleep deprivation (SD) before ischemia. This neuroprotection is associated with an increase of the sleep, melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) and orexin/hypocretin (OX) systems. This study aims to 1) assess the relationship between sleep and recovery; 2) test the association between MCH and OX systems with the pathological mechanisms of stroke. Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to four experimental groups: (i) SD_IS: SD performed before ischemia; (ii) IS: ischemia; (iii) SD_Sham: SD performed before sham surgery; (iv) Sham: sham surgery. EEG and EMG were recorded. The time-course of the MCH and OX gene expression was measured at 4, 12, 24 hours and 3, 4, 7 days following ischemic surgery by qRT-PCR. A reduction of infarct volume was observed in the SD_IS group, which correlated with an increase of REM sleep observed during the acute phase of stroke. Conversely, the IS group showed a reduction of REM sleep. Furthermore, ischemia induces an increase of MCH and OX systems during the acute phase of stroke, although, both systems were still increased for a long period of time only in the SD_IS group. Our data indicates that REM sleep may be involved in the neuroprotective effect of SD pre-ischemia, and that both MCH and OX systems were increased during the acute phase of stroke. Future studies should assess the role of REM sleep as a prognostic marker, and test MCH and OXA agonists as new treatment options in the acute phase of stroke.

Role of REM Sleep, Melanin Concentrating Hormone and Orexin/Hypocretin Systems in the Sleep Deprivation Pre-Ischemia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marta Pace

Full Text Available Sleep reduction after stroke is linked to poor recovery in patients. Conversely, a neuroprotective effect is observed in animals subjected to acute sleep deprivation (SD before ischemia. This neuroprotection is associated with an increase of the sleep, melanin concentrating hormone (MCH and orexin/hypocretin (OX systems. This study aims to 1 assess the relationship between sleep and recovery; 2 test the association between MCH and OX systems with the pathological mechanisms of stroke.Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to four experimental groups: (i SD_IS: SD performed before ischemia; (ii IS: ischemia; (iii SD_Sham: SD performed before sham surgery; (iv Sham: sham surgery. EEG and EMG were recorded. The time-course of the MCH and OX gene expression was measured at 4, 12, 24 hours and 3, 4, 7 days following ischemic surgery by qRT-PCR.A reduction of infarct volume was observed in the SD_IS group, which correlated with an increase of REM sleep observed during the acute phase of stroke. Conversely, the IS group showed a reduction of REM sleep. Furthermore, ischemia induces an increase of MCH and OX systems during the acute phase of stroke, although, both systems were still increased for a long period of time only in the SD_IS group.Our data indicates that REM sleep may be involved in the neuroprotective effect of SD pre-ischemia, and that both MCH and OX systems were increased during the acute phase of stroke. Future studies should assess the role of REM sleep as a prognostic marker, and test MCH and OXA agonists as new treatment options in the acute phase of stroke.

Sleep and the Cardiovascular System in Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Paul, Grace R; Pinto, Swaroop

2017-06-01

Subspecialty pediatric practice provides comprehensive medical care for a range of ages, from premature infants to children, and often includes adults with complex medical and surgical issues that warrant multidisciplinary care. Normal physiologic variations involving different body systems occur during sleep and these vary with age, stage of sleep, and underlying health conditions. This article is a concise review of the cardiovascular (CV) physiology and pathophysiology in children, sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) contributing to CV morbidity, congenital and acquired CV pathology resulting in SDB, and the relationship between SDB and CV morbidity in different clinical syndromes and systemic diseases in the expanded pediatric population. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Connection between Beauty and Morality in Kant's aesthetics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali salmani

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract At first glance it seems that Kant distinguishes beauty from morality because while analyzing the matter of beauty according to quality, he explicitly separates pleasure of beauty from pleasure of agreeable and pleasure of good; and believes that the pleasure of the beauty is neither to satisfy our physical desires nor to achieve a moral purpose. On the other hand, Kant speaks of a connection between beauty and morality in some sections of his critique of judgment. This essay intends to study the mentioned sections and clarifies how one can distinguish beauty from morality and simultaneously believes in the connection between beauty and morality. Following this, we are going to discuss why Kant deems such a connection necessary. Examining this matter, we will find out that morality and aesthetics can be indirectly related to each other. Kant's most major concern with regard to the connection between beauty and morality is the connection between feelings and foredoom.

The Beauty of Brand Loyalty : – a case study of how marketers view Millennials' brand loyalty in the beauty industry

OpenAIRE

Kulle, Julia; Hellsten, Julia

2017-01-01

The generation of Millennials is becoming a very important segment in today's beauty market, because of their large size, purchasing power and engagement on social media. The Millennial consumers are heavy buyers of beauty products, but heavy buyers are not always loyal to the beauty brands. The concept of what is considered beautiful constantly changes, and there is an aspect of trendiness to the use of cosmetic products. Brands launch new products on a regular basis to follow fashion and be...

Determination of toxic elements in beauty creams by X-ray spectrometric techniques (2001-2002)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

War-War-Myo-Aung

2002-01-01

This paper is carried out to examine the contents of toxic heavy metals in various kinds of beauty creams by using Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Technique (EDXRF). By applying EDXRF system, it si found that most of the beauty creams contained titanium and zinc, and some of the beauty creams contained lead, bismuth, iron and mercury. Among the heavy toxic metals, mercury is the most harmful to human's health. (author)

Beautiful Data The Stories Behind Elegant Data Solutions

CERN Document Server

Segaran, Toby

2009-01-01

In this insightful book, you'll learn from the best data practitioners in the field just how wide-ranging -- and beautiful -- working with data can be. Join 39 contributors as they explain how they developed simple and elegant solutions on projects ranging from the Mars lander to a Radiohead video. With Beautiful Data, you will: Explore the opportunities and challenges involved in working with the vast number of datasets made available by the WebLearn how to visualize trends in urban crime, using maps and data mashupsDiscover the challenges of designing a data processing system that works wi

Beauty and Hope: A Moral Beauty Intervention

Science.gov (United States)

Diessner, Rhett; Rust, Teri; Solom, Rebecca C.; Frost, Nellie; Parsons, Lucas

2006-01-01

Pedagogical intervention regarding engagement with natural, artistic and moral beauty can lead to an increase in trait hope. In a quasi-experimental design with college students the intervention group showed significantly higher gain scores on trait hope than did the comparison group; the effect size was moderate. The experimental group also…

Does sleep quality affect involuntary attention switching system?

Science.gov (United States)

Salmi, Juha; Huotilainen, Minna; Pakarinen, Satu; Siren, Teo; Alho, Kimmo; Aronen, Eeva T

2005-12-30

We studied the relationship between sleep quality and quantity and subsequently recorded automatically evoked event-related potential (ERP) responses. In previous studies decrement of attentional processing has been associated with changes in sleep. Sleep is shown to associate also with ERPs elicited by unattended sound stream, however, there is no consensus on these effects. A recent study suggested that the early anterior P3a to novel stimuli in attended stream is attenuated and the late parietal P3a is strengthened by total sleep deprivation. We carried out 72-h consecutive actigraphy measurements in a naturalistic setting to collect information about variation in sleep duration, sleep onset latency, sleep efficiency, and percentage of sleep. MMN and P3a deflections to infrequent changes in sound duration and pitch in unattended sound stream were obtained in a separate recording session from the same subjects when they were awake. No significant correlations were found between sleep and MMN parameters, indicating that MMN is resistant to normal variation in sleep. However, P3a to both pitch and duration changes correlated positively with sleep onset latency, and P3a to duration changes correlated negatively with sleep efficiency and percentage of sleep. The correlation was higher in the posterior scalp areas. Our results suggest that the involuntary attention switching system, reflected by the P3a is sensitized as a function of decreased sleep quality.

Effects of bedding systems selected by manual muscle testing on sleep and sleep-related respiratory disturbances.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Ling-Ling; Liu, Hau-Min

2008-03-01

In this study, we investigated the feasibility of applying manual muscle testing (MMT) for bedding selection and examined the bedding effect on sleep. Four lay testers with limited training in MMT performed muscle tests for the selection of the bedding systems from five different mattresses and eight different pillows for 14 participants with mild sleep-related respiratory disturbances. For each participant individually, two bedding systems-one inducing stronger muscle forces and the other inducing weaker forces-were selected. The tester-participant pairs showed 85% and 100% agreement, respectively, for the selection of mattresses and pillows that induced the strongest muscle forces. The firmness of the mattress and the height of the pillow were significantly correlated with the body weight and body mass index of the participants for the selected strong bedding system but not for the weak bedding system. Finally, differences were observed between the strong and the weak bedding systems with regard to sleep-related respiratory disturbances and the percentage of slow-wave sleep. It was concluded that MMT can be performed by inexperienced testers for the selection of bedding systems.

Post-human body and beauty.

Science.gov (United States)

Russo, Maria Teresa; Di Stefano, Nicola

2014-01-01

The article calls into question the very possibility of a post-human aesthetics, starting from the following premise: rather than post-human, it is more correct to speak of post-natural, indicating by this expression a reality produced through a new type of evolution, which does not simply change human nature, but de-natures it, radically transforming it into an artefact. This post-nature which aspires to be perfect, immortal, invulnerable, is entirely devoid of beauty. In fact, while there may be an aesthetic of the artificial and of the artefact if it is in relation to objects, there is, however, no aesthetic of the post-human body. This is because is configured as a non-body and does not have the characteristics for what is commonly intended as beauty (harmony between matter and form, a reflection of inner life, uniqueness). Also in this case, it is more correct to speak of post-beauty, which in its properties appears to be the mirror image of beauty and ultimately, represents its complete dissolution.

Why Landscape Beauty Matters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Angelika Krebs

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This philosophical paper explores the aesthetic argument for landscape conservation. The main claim is that the experience of beautiful landscapes is an essential part of the good human life. Beautiful landscapes make us feel at home in the world. Their great and irreplaceable value lies therein. To establish this claim, the concepts of landscape and “Stimmung” are clarified. It is shown how “Stimmung” (in the sense of mood is infused into landscape (as atmosphere and how we respond to it aesthetically. We respond by resonating or feeling at home. The paper ends by indicating how art can help us to better appreciate landscape beauty. This is done by way of an example from contemporary nature poetry, Michael Donhauser’s Variationen in Prosa, which begins with “Und was da war, es nahm uns an” (“And what was there accepted us”.

Collider phenomenology of light strange-beauty squarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheung, Kingman; Hou Weizshu

2004-01-01

Strong mixing between right-handed strange and beauty squarks is a possible solution to the CP violation discrepancy in B→φK S decay as recently suggested by the Belle data. In this scenario, thanks to the strong mixing one of the strange-beauty squarks can be as light as 200 GeV, even though the generic supersymmetry scale is at TeV. In this work, we study the production of this light right-handed strange-beauty squark at hadronic colliders and discuss the detection in various decay scenarios. Detection prospect at the Tevatron run II is good for the strange-beauty squark mass up to about 300 GeV

Sleep System Sensitization: Evidence for Changing Roles of Etiological Factors in Insomnia

Science.gov (United States)

Kalmbach, David A.; Pillai, Vivek; Arnedt, J. Todd; Anderson, Jason R.; Drake, Christopher L.

2016-01-01

Objectives To test for sensitization of the sleep system in response to insomnia development and major life stress. In addition, to evaluate the impact on depression and anxiety associated with sleep system sensitization. Methods A longitudinal study with three annual assessments. The community-based sample included 262 adults with no history of insomnia or depression who developed insomnia 1 year after baseline (67.6% female; 44.0±13.4y). Measures included the Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test to assess sleep reactivity, Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology, and Beck Anxiety Inventory. Insomnia classification was based on DSM-IV criteria. Sleep system sensitization was operationally defined as significant increases in sleep reactivity. Results Sensitization of the sleep system was observed from baseline to insomnia onset at 1-y follow-up among insomniacs with low premorbid vulnerability (pinsomnia remission (pinsomnia onset. The impact of sensitization on depression was stable at 2-y follow-up (p=.01). Conclusions Evidence supports sensitization of the sleep system as consequence of insomnia development and major life stress among individuals with low premorbid sleep reactivity. Sleep system sensitization may serve as a mechanism by which insomnia is perpetuated. Harmful effects of the sensitization process may increase risk for insomnia-related depression and anxiety. PMID:27448474

Beauty production at HERA using the ZEUS experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yaguees, A

2008-01-01

Beauty quark production in ep collisions is being studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The latest measurements of beauty production in deep inelastic scattering and photoproduction regime are presented. The first measurement exploits the potential of the ZEUS microvertex detector to identify beauty in photoproduction dijet events with a muon in the final state. The second is based on statistical methods to determine the fraction of beauty in photoproduction dijet events with an electron in the final state. Finally, the first measurement by ZEUS of the beauty contribution to the proton structure function, F 2 bb, in deep inelastic scattering is presented. The three measurements are compared with QCD predictions as well as with previous results. All the results presented here are preliminary

Wireless telemedicine systems for diagnosing sleep disorders with Zigbee star network topology

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Sechang; Kwon, Hyeokjun; Varadan, Vijay K.

2012-10-01

Good sleep is critical for one's overall physical and mental health but more than 50 million Americans have experienced or are suffering from sleep disorders. Nevertheless, 85% of them remain undiagnosed or untreated. They can lead to chronic diseases. Sleep disorders are diagnosed through polysomnography, also known as sleep study, performed in a sleep laboratory overnight. This perturbs his/her daily sleep routine, and consequently, an accurate diagnosis cannot be made. Many companies have been developing home sleep test systems to reduce the cost of sleep studies and provide a more convenience solution to patients. The category of the system varies as type II, type III and type IV according to the type of sleep study. Current systems cannot be easily extended from one type to include a higher type. A patient who has a type III system to diagnose sleep apnea should additionally purchase a type II system which has functions that overlap with a type III system, to evaluate sleep stages. In this paper, we propose a wireless telemedicine system for easy extension of channels using the start network topology of the Zigbee protocol. The HST system consists of two wireless HST devices with a Zigbee module, a wireless HST receiver with both a Zigbee and a Wi-Fi module, and a sever which monitors/saves the physiological signals. One transmitter provides 5 channels for 2x EOG, 2x EEG and EMG to evaluate sleep stages. The other transmitter provides 5 additional channels for ECG, nasal air flow, body position, abdominal/chest efforts and oxygen saturation to diagnose sleep apnea. These two transmitters, acting as routers, and the receiver as a coordinator form a Zigbee star network. The data from each transmitter in the receiver are retransmitted to the monitoring unit through Wi-Fi. By building a star network with Zigbee, channels can be easily extended so that low level systems can be upgraded to higher level systems by simply adding the necessary channels. In addition

Beauty in abstract paintings: Perceptual contrast and statistical properties

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birgit eMallon

2014-03-01

Full Text Available In this study, we combined the behavioral and objective approach in the field of empirical aesthetics. First, we studied the perception of beauty by investigating shifts in evaluation on perceived beauty of abstract artworks (Experiment 1. Because the participants showed heterogeneous individual preferences for the paintings, we divided them into seven clusters for the test. The experiment revealed a clear pattern of perceptual contrast. The perceived beauty of abstract paintings increased after exposure to paintings that were rated as less beautiful, and it decreased after exposure to paintings that were rated as more beautiful. Next, we searched for correlations of beauty ratings and perceptual contrast with statistical properties of abstract artworks (Experiment 2. The participants showed significant preferences for certain image properties. These preferences differed between the clusters of participants. Strikingly, next to color measures like hue, saturation, value and lightness, the recently described PHOG self-similarity value seems to be a predictor for aesthetic appreciation of abstract artworks. We speculate that the shift in evaluation in Experiment 1 was, at least in part, based on low-level adaptation to some of the statistical image properties analyzed in Experiment 2. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that the perception of beauty in abstract artworks is altered after exposure to beautiful or non-beautiful images and correlates with particular image properties, especially color measures and self-similarity.

Open beauty production at the CERN SPS collider

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Redelberger, T.

1988-01-01

We report here evidence for open beauty production through the observation of high transverse momentum dimuons and single muons. From the dimuon data the beauty quark production cross section has been measured to σ(panti p→banti b; p Tb >5 GeV, vertical strokeη b vertical stroke T beauty production. (orig.)

Regulation of sleep by neuropeptide Y-like system in Drosophila melanogaster.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chunxia He

Full Text Available Sleep is important for maintenance of normal physiology in animals. In mammals, neuropeptide Y (NPY, a homolog of Drosophila neuropeptide F (NPF, is involved in sleep regulation, with different effects in human and rat. However, the function of NPF on sleep in Drosophila melanogaster has not yet been described. In this study, we investigated the effects of NPF and its receptor-neuropeptide F receptor (NPFR1 on Drosophila sleep. Male flies over-expressing NPF or NPFR1 exhibited increased sleep during the nighttime. Further analysis demonstrated that sleep episode duration during nighttime was greatly increased and sleep latency was significantly reduced, indicating that NPF and NPFR1 promote sleep quality, and their action on sleep is not because of an impact of the NPF signal system on development. Moreover, the homeostatic regulation of flies after sleep deprivation was disrupted by altered NPF signaling, since sleep deprivation decreased transcription of NPF in control flies, and there were less sleep loss during sleep deprivation and less sleep gain after sleep deprivation in flies overexpressing NPF and NPFR1 than in control flies, suggesting that NPF system auto-regulation plays an important role in sleep homeostasis. However, these effects did not occur in females, suggesting a sex-dependent regulatory function in sleep for NPF and NPFR1. NPF in D1 brain neurons showed male-specific expression, providing the cellular locus for male-specific regulation of sleep by NPF and NPFR1. This study brings a new understanding into sleep studies of a sexually dimorphic regulatory mode in female and male flies.

Sleep system sensitization: evidence for changing roles of etiological factors in insomnia.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalmbach, David A; Pillai, Vivek; Arnedt, J Todd; Anderson, Jason R; Drake, Christopher L

2016-05-01

To test for sensitization of the sleep system in response to insomnia development and major life stress. In addition, to evaluate the impact on depression and anxiety associated with sleep system sensitization. A longitudinal study with three annual assessments. The community-based sample included 262 adults with no history of insomnia or depression who developed insomnia one year after baseline (67.6% female; 44.0 ± 13.4 yr). Measures included the Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test to assess sleep reactivity, Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology, and Beck Anxiety Inventory. Insomnia classification was based on DSM-IV criteria. Sleep system sensitization was operationally defined as significant increases in sleep reactivity. Sensitization of the sleep system was observed from baseline to insomnia onset at 1-yr follow-up among insomniacs with low premorbid vulnerability (p insomnia remission (p insomnia onset. The impact of sensitization on depression was stable at 2-yr follow-up (p = 0.01). Evidence supports sensitization of the sleep system as a consequence of insomnia development and major life stress among individuals with low premorbid sleep reactivity. Sleep system sensitization may serve as a mechanism by which insomnia is perpetuated. Harmful effects of the sensitization process may increase risk for insomnia-related depression and anxiety. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A beautiful question finding nature’s deep design

CERN Document Server

Wilczek, Frank

2015-01-01

Artists as well as scientists throughout human history have pondered this “beautiful question.” With Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek as your guide, embark on a voyage of related discoveries, from Plato and Pythagoras up to the present. Wilczek’s groundbreaking work in quantum physics was inspired by his intuition to look for a deeper order of beauty in nature. In fact, every major advance in his career came from this intuition: to assume that the universe embodies beautiful forms, forms whose hallmarks are symmetry—harmony, balance, proportion—and economy. There are other meanings of “beauty,” but this is the deep logic of the universe—and it is no accident that it is also at the heart of what we find aesthetically pleasing and inspiring. Wilczek is hardly alone among great scientists in charting his course using beauty as his compass. As he reveals in A Beautiful Question, this has been the heart of scientific pursuit from Pythagoras, the ancient Greek who was the first to argue that “all thi...

Introduction to Beautiful Soup

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeri Wieringa

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Beautiful Soup is a Python library for getting data out of HTML, XML, and other markup languages. Say you’ve found some webpages that display data relevant to your research, such as date or address information, but that do not provide any way of downloading the data directly. Beautiful Soup helps you pull particular content from a webpage, remove the HTML markup, and save the information. It is a tool for web scraping that helps you clean up and parse the documents you have pulled down from the web.

Introduction to Beautiful Soup

OpenAIRE

Jeri Wieringa

2012-01-01

Beautiful Soup is a Python library for getting data out of HTML, XML, and other markup languages. Say you’ve found some webpages that display data relevant to your research, such as date or address information, but that do not provide any way of downloading the data directly. Beautiful Soup helps you pull particular content from a webpage, remove the HTML markup, and save the information. It is a tool for web scraping that helps you clean up and parse the documents you have pulled down from t...

Measurement of beauty quark mass at HERA and impact on Higgs production in association with beauty quarks at LHC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gizhko, Andrii

2016-06-01

Three different, but related topics are the subject of this thesis, performed in the context of the ZEUS and CMS groups at DESY. The first measurement of the MS beauty-quark mass m b (m b ) at an electron-proton collider is presented. The measurement is based on a QCD analysis of beauty production cross sections in deep inelastic (DIS) ep scattering measured by ZEUS at HERA, together with inclusive DIS HERA data, using Next-to-Leading-Order QCD predictions. The measured value of the running beauty-quark mass in the MS scheme was found to be m b (m b )=4.07±0.14 (fit) +0.01 -0.07 (mod.) +0.05 -0.00 (param.) +0.08 -0.05 ( theo.) GeV, which is in good agreement with the world average Particle Data Group value and previous measurements at electron-positron colliders. It is also found to be consistent with the expected running of m b (μ). A first measurement of the charm-quark mass m c (μ) running in the MS scheme is presented. The measurement is based on a QCD analysis of the published H1 and ZEUS combination of charm cross section measurements in DIS ep scattering at HERA, together with inclusive DIS HERA data, using Next-to-Leading-Order QCD predictions. The running charm-quark mass m c (μ) was measured at different scales μ and is presented in a charm-quark mass running plot with a comparison to the world average Particle Data Group m c (m c ) evolved to higher scales. The running is found to be consistent with the expectations from QCD. The uncertainties of the theoretical predictions for Higgs production in association with beauty-quarks originating from the beauty-quark mass were studied and reduced for massive and massless QCD calculations. The beauty-quark mass measurement m b (m b ) was used to decrease the variation of the beauty-quark mass to 0.17 GeV. It was shown that the uncertainty from the beauty-quark mass m b (m b ) in the case of massive calculations for Hb anti b production at LHC can be reduced to 2%. This makes it negligible compared to other

Measurement of beauty quark mass at HERA and impact on Higgs production in association with beauty quarks at LHC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gizhko, Andrii

2016-06-15

Three different, but related topics are the subject of this thesis, performed in the context of the ZEUS and CMS groups at DESY. The first measurement of the MS beauty-quark mass m{sub b}(m{sub b}) at an electron-proton collider is presented. The measurement is based on a QCD analysis of beauty production cross sections in deep inelastic (DIS) ep scattering measured by ZEUS at HERA, together with inclusive DIS HERA data, using Next-to-Leading-Order QCD predictions. The measured value of the running beauty-quark mass in the MS scheme was found to be m{sub b}(m{sub b})=4.07±0.14 (fit){sup +0.01}{sub -0.07}(mod.){sup +0.05}{sub -0.00}(param.){sup +0.08}{sub -0.05}( theo.) GeV, which is in good agreement with the world average Particle Data Group value and previous measurements at electron-positron colliders. It is also found to be consistent with the expected running of m{sub b}(μ). A first measurement of the charm-quark mass m{sub c}(μ) running in the MS scheme is presented. The measurement is based on a QCD analysis of the published H1 and ZEUS combination of charm cross section measurements in DIS ep scattering at HERA, together with inclusive DIS HERA data, using Next-to-Leading-Order QCD predictions. The running charm-quark mass m{sub c}(μ) was measured at different scales μ and is presented in a charm-quark mass running plot with a comparison to the world average Particle Data Group m{sub c}(m{sub c}) evolved to higher scales. The running is found to be consistent with the expectations from QCD. The uncertainties of the theoretical predictions for Higgs production in association with beauty-quarks originating from the beauty-quark mass were studied and reduced for massive and massless QCD calculations. The beauty-quark mass measurement m{sub b}(m{sub b}) was used to decrease the variation of the beauty-quark mass to 0.17 GeV. It was shown that the uncertainty from the beauty-quark mass m{sub b}(m{sub b}) in the case of massive calculations for Hb anti b

Beauty in abstract paintings: perceptual contrast and statistical properties

Science.gov (United States)

Mallon, Birgit; Redies, Christoph; Hayn-Leichsenring, Gregor U.

2014-01-01

In this study, we combined the behavioral and objective approach in the field of empirical aesthetics. First, we studied the perception of beauty by investigating shifts in evaluation on perceived beauty of abstract artworks (Experiment 1). Because the participants showed heterogeneous individual preferences for the paintings, we divided them into seven clusters for the test. The experiment revealed a clear pattern of perceptual contrast. The perceived beauty of abstract paintings increased after exposure to paintings that were rated as less beautiful, and it decreased after exposure to paintings that were rated as more beautiful. Next, we searched for correlations of beauty ratings and perceptual contrast with statistical properties of abstract artworks (Experiment 2). The participants showed significant preferences for particular image properties. These preferences differed between the clusters of participants. Strikingly, next to color measures like hue, saturation, value and lightness, the recently described Pyramid of Histograms of Orientation Gradients (PHOG) self-similarity value seems to be a predictor for aesthetic appreciation of abstract artworks. We speculate that the shift in evaluation in Experiment 1 was, at least in part, based on low-level adaptation to some of the statistical image properties analyzed in Experiment 2. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that the perception of beauty in abstract artworks is altered after exposure to beautiful or non-beautiful images and correlates with particular image properties, especially color measures and self-similarity. PMID:24711791

Escaping Beauty through moral narratives

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sloth, Erik

2010-01-01

This study investigate through ethnographic studies the shared cultural meanings expressed about human beauty. How is sense making about the notion of beauty constructed, verballized and negotiated in a group of young females between 24 and 26 years old. Furthermore the study discuss and elaborat...... on the concept of a postpostmodern condition, with the Brand Dove as an example of a Brand acting as a Citizen-Artist (Holt 2002)....

Rare beauty and charm decays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blake, T.

2016-01-01

Rare beauty and charm decays can provide powerful probes of physics beyond the Standard Model. These proceedings summarise the latest measurements of rare beauty and charm decays from the LHCb experiment at the end of Run 1 of the LHC. Whilst the majority of the measurements are consistent with SM predictions, small differences are seen in the rate and angular distribution of b → sℓ"+ℓ"− decay processes.

Two beautiful new particles

CERN Multimedia

Antonella Del Rosso

2012-01-01

In beautiful agreement with the Standard Model, two new excited states (see below) of the Λb beauty particle have just been observed by the LHCb Collaboration. Similarly to protons and neutrons, Λb is composed of three quarks. In the Λb’s case, these are up, down and… beauty.   Although discovering new particles is increasingly looking like a routine exercise for the LHC experiments (see previous features), it is far from being an obvious performance, particularly when the mass of the particles is high. Created in the high-energy proton-proton collisions produced by the LHC, these new excited states of the Λb particle have been found to have a mass of, respectively, 5912 MeV/c2 and 5920 MeV/c2. In other words, they are over five times heavier than the proton or the neutron. Physicists only declare a discovery when data significantly show the relevant signal. In order to do that, they often have to analyse large samples of data. To ...

Integration of Oncogenes via Sleeping Beauty as a Mouse Model of HPV16+ Oral Tumors and Immunologic Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Yi-Hsin; Yang, Ming-Chieh; Tseng, Ssu-Hsueh; Jiang, Rosie; Yang, Andrew; Farmer, Emily; Peng, Shiwen; Henkle, Talia; Chang, Yung-Nien; Hung, Chien-Fu; Wu, T-C

2018-01-23

Human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) is the etiologic factor for cervical cancer and a subset of oropharyngeal cancers. Although several prophylactic HPV vaccines are available, no effective therapeutic strategies to control active HPV diseases exist. Tumor implantation models are traditionally used to study HPV-associated buccal tumors. However, they fail to address precancerous phases of disease progression and display tumor microenvironments distinct from those observed in patients. Previously, K14-E6/E7 transgenic mouse models have been used to generate spontaneous tumors. However, the rate of tumor formation is inconsistent, and the host often develops immune tolerance to the viral oncoproteins. We developed a preclinical, spontaneous, HPV16 + buccal tumor model using submucosal injection of oncogenic plasmids expressing HPV16-E6/E7, NRas G12V , luciferase, and sleeping beauty (SB) transposase, followed by electroporation in the buccal mucosa. We evaluated responses to immunization with a pNGVL4a-CRT/E7(detox) therapeutic HPV DNA vaccine and tumor cell migration to distant locations. Mice transfected with plasmids encoding HPV16-E6/E7, NRas G12V , luciferase, and SB transposase developed tumors within 3 weeks. We also found transient anti-CD3 administration is required to generate tumors in immunocompetent mice. Bioluminescence signals from luciferase correlated strongly with tumor growth, and tumors expressed HPV16-associated markers. We showed that pNGVL4a-CRT/E7(detox) administration resulted in antitumor immunity in tumor-bearing mice. Lastly, we demonstrated that the generated tumor could migrate to tumor-draining lymph nodes. Our model provides an efficient method to induce spontaneous HPV + tumor formation, which can be used to identify effective therapeutic interventions, analyze tumor migration, and conduct tumor biology research. Cancer Immunol Res; 6(3); 1-15. ©2018 AACR. ©2018 American Association for Cancer Research.

A role for the preoptic sleep-promoting system in absence epilepsy.

Science.gov (United States)

Suntsova, N; Kumar, S; Guzman-Marin, R; Alam, M N; Szymusiak, R; McGinty, D

2009-10-01

Absence epilepsy (AE) in humans and the genetic AE model in WAG/Rij rats are both associated with abnormalities in sleep architecture that suggest insufficiency of the sleep-promoting mechanisms. In this study we compared the functionality of sleep-active neuronal groups within two well-established sleep-promoting sites, the ventrolateral and median preoptic nuclei (VLPO and MnPN, respectively), in WAG/Rij and control rats. Neuronal activity was assessed using c-Fos immunoreactivity and chronic single-unit recording techniques. We found that WAG/Rij rats exhibited a lack of sleep-associated c-Fos activation of GABAergic MnPN and VLPO neurons, a lower percentage of MnPN and VLPO cells increasing discharge during sleep and reduced firing rates of MnPN sleep-active neurons, compared to non-epileptic rats. The role of sleep-promoting mechanisms in pathogenesis of absence seizures was assessed in non-epileptic rats using electrical stimulation and chemical manipulations restricted to the MnPN. We found that fractional activation of the sleep-promoting system in waking was sufficient to elicit absence-like seizures. Given that reciprocally interrelated sleep-promoting and arousal neuronal groups control thalamocortical excitability, we hypothesize that malfunctioning of sleep-promoting system results in impaired ascending control over thalamocortical rhythmogenic mechanisms during wake-sleep transitions thus favoring aberrant thalamocortical oscillations. Our findings suggest a pathological basis for AE-associated sleep abnormalities and a mechanism underlying association of absence seizures with wake-sleep transitions.

Neighborhood Stress and Autonomic Nervous System Activity during Sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Mellman, Thomas Alan; Bell, Kimberly Ann; Abu-Bader, Soleman Hassan; Kobayashi, Ihori

2018-04-04

Stressful neighborhood environments are known to adversely impact health and contribute to health disparities but underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Healthy sleep can provide a respite from sustained sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity. Our objective was to evaluate relationships between neighborhood stress and nocturnal and daytime SNS and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity. Eighty five urban-residing African Americans (56.5% female; mean age of 23.0) participated. Evaluation included surveys of neighborhood stress and sleep-related vigilance; and continuous ECG and actigraphic recording in participants' homes from which heart rate variability (HRV) analysis for low frequency/high frequency (LF/HF) ratio and normalized high frequency (nHF), as indicators of SNS and PNS activity, respectively, and total sleep time (TST), and wake after sleep onset were derived. All significant relationships with HRV measures were from the sleep period. Neighborhood disorder correlated negatively with nHF (r = -.24, p = .035). There were also significant correlations of HRV indices with sleep duration and sleep fears. Among females, LF/HF correlated with exposure to violence, r = .39, p = .008 and nHF with census tract rates for violent crime (r = -.35, p = .035). In a stepwise regression, TST accounted for the variance contributed by violent crime to nHF in the female participants. Further investigation of relationships between neighborhood environments and SNS/PNS balance during sleep and their consequences, and strategies for mitigating such effects would have implications for health disparities.

Sleeping brain, learning brain. The role of sleep for memory systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Peigneux, P; Laureys, S; Delbeuck, X; Maquet, P

2001-12-21

The hypothesis that sleep participates in the consolidation of recent memory traces has been investigated using four main paradigms: (1) effects of post-training sleep deprivation on memory consolidation, (2) effects of learning on post-training sleep, (3) effects of within sleep stimulation on the sleep pattern and on overnight memories, and (4) re-expression of behavior-specific neural patterns during post-training sleep. These studies convincingly support the idea that sleep is deeply involved in memory functions in humans and animals. However, the available data still remain too scarce to confirm or reject unequivocally the recently upheld hypothesis that consolidations of non-declarative and declarative memories are respectively dependent upon REM and NREM sleep processes.

Bathing in Reeking Wounds: The Liberal Arts, Beauty, and War

Science.gov (United States)

Stimpson, Catharine R.

2014-01-01

A historic dialectic exists between the beautiful and the bestial. The bestial destroys the beautiful, but in a bloody miracle, the beautiful emerges from the womb of the bestial, the "terrible beauty" of which the poet W. B. Yeats wrote. The liberal arts, so often thought to dwell in a remote ivory tower, embody this dialectic. Wars and…

Natural Tendency towards Beauty in Humans: Evidence from Binocular Rivalry.

Science.gov (United States)

Mo, Ce; Xia, Tiansheng; Qin, Kaixin; Mo, Lei

2016-01-01

Although human preference for beauty is common and compelling in daily life, it remains unknown whether such preference is essentially subserved by social cognitive demands or natural tendency towards beauty encoded in the human mind intrinsically. Here we demonstrate experimentally that humans automatically exhibit preference for visual and moral beauty without explicit cognitive efforts. Using a binocular rivalry paradigm, we identified enhanced gender-independent perceptual dominance for physically attractive persons, and the results suggested universal preference for visual beauty based on perceivable forms. Moreover, we also identified perceptual dominance enhancement for characters associated with virtuous descriptions after controlling for facial attractiveness and vigilance-related attention effects, which suggested a similar implicit preference for moral beauty conveyed in prosocial behaviours. Our findings show that behavioural preference for beauty is driven by an inherent natural tendency towards beauty in humans rather than explicit social cognitive processes.

Sleep and the endocrine system.

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, Dionne; Tsai, Sheila C

2015-07-01

In this article, the effect of sleep and sleep disorders on endocrine function and the influence of endocrine abnormalities on sleep are discussed. Sleep disruption and its associated endocrine consequences in the critically ill patient are also reviewed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Performing Beauty in Participatory Art and Culture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heinrich, Falk

This book investigates the notion of beauty in participatory art, an interdisciplinary form that necessitates the audience’s agential participation and that is often seen in interactive art and technology-driven media installations. After considering established theories of beauty, for example...

The hypocretin/orexin system in sleep disorders: preclinical insights and clinical progress.

Science.gov (United States)

Chow, Matthew; Cao, Michelle

2016-01-01

Much of the understanding of the hypocretin/orexin (HCRT/OX) system in sleep-wake regulation came from narcolepsy-cataplexy research. The neuropeptides hypocretin-1 and -2/orexin-A and -B (HCRT-1 and -2/OX-A and -B, respectively), as we know, are intimately involved in the regulation wakefulness. The HCRT/OX system regulates sleep-wake control through complex interactions between monoaminergic/cholinergic (wake-promoting) and gamma-aminobutyric acid-ergic (sleep-promoting) neuronal systems. Deficiency of HCRT/OX results in loss of sleep-wake control or stability with consequent unstable transitions between wakefulness to nonrapid eye movement and rapid eye movement sleep. This manifests clinically as abnormal daytime sleepiness with sleep attacks and cataplexy. Research on the development of HCRT/OX agonists and antagonists for the treatment of sleep disorders has dramatically increased with the US Food and Drug Administration approval of the first-in-class dual HCRT/OX receptor antagonist for the treatment of insomnia. This review focuses on the origin, mechanisms of HCRT/OX receptors, clinical progress, and applications for the treatment of sleep disorders.

Beauty: neglected, but alive and kicking.

Science.gov (United States)

Redies, Christoph

2014-11-01

This article is a commentary on 'Ten years of a model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments: The aesthetic episode - developments and challenges in empirical aesthetics' (Leder & Nadal, 2014, this issue). It focuses on the importance of beauty in aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments. Beauty is considered as a formal inherent property of visual stimuli that has the potential to elicit visual pleasure by direct sensory stimulation. It is argued that any comprehensive model of aesthetic experience must account fully for cognitive aspects of aesthetics (cultural, conceptual, psychological, and individual factors) as well as intrinsic properties of beautiful visual stimuli and how they relate to basic mechanisms of visual perception, which are universal among humans. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Brain correlates of aesthetic judgment of beauty.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobsen, Thomas; Schubotz, Ricarda I; Höfel, Lea; Cramon, D Yves V

2006-01-01

Functional MRI was used to investigate the neural correlates of aesthetic judgments of beauty of geometrical shapes. Participants performed evaluative aesthetic judgments (beautiful or not?) and descriptive symmetry judgments (symmetric or not?) on the same stimulus material. Symmetry was employed because aesthetic judgments are known to be often guided by criteria of symmetry. Novel, abstract graphic patterns were presented to minimize influences of attitudes or memory-related processes and to test effects of stimulus symmetry and complexity. Behavioral results confirmed the influence of stimulus symmetry and complexity on aesthetic judgments. Direct contrasts showed specific activations for aesthetic judgments in the frontomedian cortex (BA 9/10), bilateral prefrontal BA 45/47, and posterior cingulate, left temporal pole, and the temporoparietal junction. In contrast, symmetry judgments elicited specific activations in parietal and premotor areas subserving spatial processing. Interestingly, beautiful judgments enhanced BOLD signals not only in the frontomedian cortex, but also in the left intraparietal sulcus of the symmetry network. Moreover, stimulus complexity caused differential effects for each of the two judgment types. Findings indicate aesthetic judgments of beauty to rely on a network partially overlapping with that underlying evaluative judgments on social and moral cues and substantiate the significance of symmetry and complexity for our judgment of beauty.

Development of sleep monitoring system for observing the effect of the room ambient toward the quality of sleep

Science.gov (United States)

Saad, W. H. M.; Khoo, C. W.; Rahman, S. I. Ab; Ibrahim, M. M.; Saad, N. H. M.

2017-06-01

Getting enough sleep at the right times can help in improving quality of life and protect mental and physical health. This study proposes a portable sleep monitoring device to determine the relationship between the room ambient and quality of sleep. Body condition parameter such as heart rate, body temperature and body movement was used to determine quality of sleep and Audio/video-based monitoring system. The functionality test on all sensors is carried out to make sure that all sensors is working properly. The functionality of the overall system is designed for a better experience with a very minimal intervention to the user. The simple test on the body condition (body temperature and heart rate) while asleep with several different ambient parameters (humidity, brightness and temperature) are varied and the result shows that someone has a better sleep in a dark and colder ambient. This can prove by lower body temperature and lower heart rate.

Charm and beauty decays in the ALEPH experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boucrot, J.

1992-05-01

Results of the ALEPH experiment at LEP are presented on charm and beauty decays, from data taken in 1990 and 1991. Several exclusive channels of charm and beauty mesons are seen. Evidence is given for the production of beauty baryons from correlations between a high Pt lepton and a Λ 0 or a Λ c baryon. Finally, first evidence is given for the production of the strange B meson, from Ds-lepton correlations. (author) 7 refs., 7 figs

Charm and beauty decays in the ALEPH experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boucrot, J.

1992-01-01

Results of the ALEPH experiment at LEP are presented on charm and beauty decays, from data taken in 1990 and 1991. Several exclusive channels of charm and beauty mesons are seen. Evidence is given for the production of beauty baryons from correlations between a high Pt lepton and a Λ 0 or a Λ c baryon. Finally, first evidence is given for the production of the strange B meson, from Ds-lepton correlations. (author) 7 refs.; 7 figs

Beauty photoproduction using decays into muons at HERA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Samson, U.

2008-05-15

Inclusive cross-sections for the production of open beauty in ep collisions at HERA are measured. The data were recorded with the ZEUS detector between 1996 and 2000. The measurements are restricted to photoproduction processes, i.e. collision events with small four-momentum transfer squared, Q{sup 2}{approx}0. Two jets with transverse momentum p{sub T}>7(6) GeV and pseudo-rapidities vertical stroke {eta} vertical stroke <2.5 are required. The flavour is tagged by the identification of muons from semi-leptonic decays of the beauty quark. The variable used to discriminate between beauty and background is the transverse momentum of the muon with respect to the jet axis. The fraction of beauty is determined by a fit of Monte Carlo templates to the data. Cross-sections have been measured as a function of the muon and jet variables as well as a function of dijet correlation variables. Dijet correlations in beauty production have been measured for the first time in ZEUS and are found in agreement with QCD NLO predictions. (orig.)

Beauty photoproduction using decays into muons at HERA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Samson, U.

2008-05-01

Inclusive cross-sections for the production of open beauty in ep collisions at HERA are measured. The data were recorded with the ZEUS detector between 1996 and 2000. The measurements are restricted to photoproduction processes, i.e. collision events with small four-momentum transfer squared, Q 2 ∼0. Two jets with transverse momentum p T >7(6) GeV and pseudo-rapidities vertical stroke η vertical stroke <2.5 are required. The flavour is tagged by the identification of muons from semi-leptonic decays of the beauty quark. The variable used to discriminate between beauty and background is the transverse momentum of the muon with respect to the jet axis. The fraction of beauty is determined by a fit of Monte Carlo templates to the data. Cross-sections have been measured as a function of the muon and jet variables as well as a function of dijet correlation variables. Dijet correlations in beauty production have been measured for the first time in ZEUS and are found in agreement with QCD NLO predictions. (orig.)

Achieving Sound Beauty in Chinese Translations of English Songs

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

陶薪平

2017-01-01

Song is a kind of combination of language and music. Song achieves its aesthetic information and arouses feeling with its own sentiments and aesthetic effect. However, various kinds of present problems lead to much loss of beauty. Besides, the theoretical works concerning this area is much meager. Translation of English songs into Chinese has been studied from functional equivalence theory or the functionalism. The present thesis offers a new perspective―beauty in sound from Xu Yuanchong's"three beauties principle", aiming to seek possible ways to represent beauty in translation practice, and some typical examples are compared and analyzed.

The experience of mathematical beauty and its neural correlates

Science.gov (United States)

Zeki, Semir; Romaya, John Paul; Benincasa, Dionigi M. T.; Atiyah, Michael F.

2014-01-01

Many have written of the experience of mathematical beauty as being comparable to that derived from the greatest art. This makes it interesting to learn whether the experience of beauty derived from such a highly intellectual and abstract source as mathematics correlates with activity in the same part of the emotional brain as that derived from more sensory, perceptually based, sources. To determine this, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to image the activity in the brains of 15 mathematicians when they viewed mathematical formulae which they had individually rated as beautiful, indifferent or ugly. Results showed that the experience of mathematical beauty correlates parametrically with activity in the same part of the emotional brain, namely field A1 of the medial orbito-frontal cortex (mOFC), as the experience of beauty derived from other sources. PMID:24592230

Theoretical Framework and Model Design for Beautiful Countryside Construction in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZHENG Xiang-qun

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In the context of China today, the process of beautiful countryside construction mainly imitates the patterns of‘urbanization’construction. However, this approach leads to the loss of countryside characteristics and the separation of agricultural culture. Therefore, it's urgent to carry out research of the theoretical framework and model design for beautiful countryside construction. In this paper, based on the analysis of the beautiful countryside construction connotation, the basic theory of beautiful countryside construction was summarized in three aspects: rural complex ecosystem model, multi-functionality of rural model and sustainable development evaluation model. The basic idea of the beautiful countryside construction mode was studied. The design method of beautiful countryside construction mode was proposed in three levels: planning, scheming and evaluating. The research results might offer scientific reference for improving the scientific and operational nature of beautiful countryside construction.

ISLAMIC BEAUTY: Socio-Semiotic Analysis of Facial Foam and Body Lotion Advertisement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susi Herti Afriani

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This paper attempts to answer how Islamic Women define the concept of beauty in Ponds advertisement white beauty facial foam and body lotion on television. This study uses a socio-semiotic approach described through three aspects of social context, namely field, tenor, and mode. It argues that Ponds’ definition of a beauty only refers to physical standards, that is, women who have white skin and use both Ponds White Beauty Facial Foam and Foam Body Lotion. Further, television through Ponds advertising is considered as a commercial institution that supports the main idea of capitalism. However, Islamic women consider beautiful physically and spiritually. It suggests that the beautiful women are those who obey and surrender to Allah SWT. In short, Islamic women do not agree with the meaning of beauty resulted from Ponds White Beauty Facial Foam and Ponds Body Lotion advertisement. Rather, beauty consists of both body and, more importantly, soul.

Hadroproduction characteristics of charm and beauty

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reucroft, S.

1987-01-01

In this article the authors review the present status of their knowledge on the hadroproduction characteristics of charm and beauty. During a brief description of the properties of all charm and beauty particles reportedly observed in hadron-hadron experiments they discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the various experimental techniques. In particular they emphasise the quantitative problems associated with nuclear target experiments and show the progress that is being made in understanding the A-dependence problem. Focussing on charm cross sections the authors see that the data are becoming sufficiently good to give us a reliable and coherent picture which provides a serious test of the QCD fusion model. This same fusion model is then used with existing beauty cross section determinations to make some extrapolations. Finally, a few remaining puzzles and curiosities are underlined

Walking in Beauty: An American Indian Perspective on Social Justice

Science.gov (United States)

Eason, Evan Allen; Robbins, Rockey

2012-01-01

The purpose of this article is to introduce "walking in beauty," an American Indian spiritual perspective related to social justice that emphasizes beauty, harmony, connectedness/unity of experience, and imagination. Walking in beauty includes 3 processes: embodiment, creativity, and appreciation of the sublime. Recommendations are offered for…

THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD IN PLATO’S TIMAEUS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O’Meara, Dominic

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In the Timaeus Plato describes the world as the ‘most beautiful’ (kallistos, 29a5 of generated things. Perhaps indeed this is the first systematic description of the beauty of the world. It is, at any rate, one of the most influential statements of the theme. The Stoics were deeply convinced by it and later, in the third century A.D., at a time when contempt and hate for the world were propagated by Gnostic movements, Plotinus, interpreting the Timaeus, would write magnificent passages on the beauty and value of the world. But what does Plato mean by the ‘beauty’ of the world? What makes the world beautiful? In this paper these questions are approached first (1 by a brief discussion of the distinction which Plato appears to make in the Timaeus between beauty and the good. In one passage (Tim. 87c ‘measure’ seems to relate to this distinction. It is suitable then (2 to look at a section of another late work of Plato, the Philebus, where the themes of beauty, goodness and measure may be compared in more detail. The theme of measure then takes us back (3 to the Timaeus, in order to examine the role played by measure, in particular mathematical measure, in constituting the beauty of the world. I discuss in detail the way in which mathematical structures make for the beauty of soul and body in the living whole that is the world.

Sublimity and beauty: A view from nursing aesthetics.

Science.gov (United States)

Siles-González, José; Solano-Ruiz, Carmen

2016-03-01

Several authors have focused on the aesthetics of nursing care from diverse perspectives; however, there are few studies about the sublime and the beautiful in nursing. To identify beautiful and sublime moments in the context of the aesthetics of nursing care. A theoretical reflection has been contemplated about sublime and beautiful values in the context of the aesthetics of nursing care from the cultural history perspective. For that purpose, a revision of this issue has been completed. The terms 'beautiful' and 'sublime' have been analysed to identify the characteristics of both in the context of nursing care. We have followed all ethical requirements regarding the sources, conducting research and authorship. There is no conflict of interest in this paper. With aesthetic knowledge, the nurse expresses the artistic nature of nursing care by appreciating the act of caring for individuals. The sublime is a complex phenomenon, since apparently contrary feelings are interwoven. Nursing care is an art with an anthropological object-subject on which the 'artist' applies their prior knowledge and skills. Feelings and emotions that develop during the clinical nursing practice - especially at times sublime and beautiful, aesthetic - constitute experiences which are professionally significant. © The Author(s) 2015.

Surrounded by Beauty: Arts of Native America.

Science.gov (United States)

2002

Native American languages have no equivalent for the word "art." Yet the objects Native Americans have used and still use suggest that they are a highly spiritual people who create objects of extraordinary beauty. In Native American thought, there is no distinction between what is beautiful or functional, and what is sacred or secular.…

PSG-EXPERT. An expert system for the diagnosis of sleep disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Fred, A; Filipe, J; Partinen, M; Paiva, T

2000-01-01

This paper describes PSG-EXPERT, an expert system in the domain of sleep disorders exploring polysomnographic data. The developed software tool is addressed from two points of view: (1)--as an integrated environment for the development of diagnosis-oriented expert systems; (2)--as an auxiliary diagnosis tool in the particular domain of sleep disorders. Developed over a Windows platform, this software tool extends one of the most popular shells--CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System) with the following features: backward chaining engine; graph-based explanation facilities; knowledge editor including a fuzzy fact editor and a rules editor, with facts-rules integrity checking; belief revision mechanism; built-in case generator and validation module. It therefore provides graphical support for knowledge acquisition, edition, explanation and validation. From an application domain point of view, PSG-Expert is an auxiliary diagnosis system for sleep disorders based on polysomnographic data, that aims at assisting the medical expert in his diagnosis task by providing automatic analysis of polysomnographic data, summarising the results of this analysis in terms of a report of major findings and possible diagnosis consistent with the polysomnographic data. Sleep disorders classification follows the International Classification of Sleep Disorders. Major features of the system include: browsing on patients data records; structured navigation on Sleep Disorders descriptions according to ASDA definitions; internet links to related pages; diagnosis consistent with polysomnographic data; graphical user-interface including graph-based explanatory facilities; uncertainty modelling and belief revision; production of reports; connection to remote databases.

Hadronic couplings of open beauty states

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ram, S.N.; Singh, C.P.

1982-08-01

Strong interaction coupling parameters of particles with beauty quantum number are obtained using dispersion sum rules in various forms, e.g. current algebra sum rules, superconvergence sum rules and finite energy sum rules etc. These sum rules lead to a set of algebraic relations among masses and coupling constants. We compare the hadronic couplings of beautiful particles as obtained from various techniques and discuss their implications on the hadronic production of these states. (author)

Sleep characteristics as predictor variables of stress systems markers in insomnia disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Floam, Samantha; Simpson, Norah; Nemeth, Emese; Scott-Sutherland, Jennifer; Gautam, Shiva; Haack, Monika

2015-06-01

This study investigates the extent to which sleep characteristics serve as predictor variables for inflammatory, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and autonomic systems markers. Twenty-nine participants with a diagnosis of insomnia disorder based on the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (age 25.3 ± 1.6 years, insomnia duration 6.6 ± 0.8 years) and 19 healthy control sleepers (age 25.4 ± 1.4 years) underwent a 2-week at-home evaluation keeping a sleep diary and wearing an actigraph, followed by a visit to the Research Center to measure blood pressure, and collect blood and urine samples. The actigraphy- and diary-based variables of sleep duration, sleep-onset latency, wake after sleep onset and sleep fragmentation/number of night-time awakenings were averaged and entered as dependent variables in regression analyses. Composite scores were calculated for the autonomic (blood pressure, norepinephrine), inflammatory (monocyte counts, interleukin-6, C-reactive protein) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal systems (cortisol), and used as predictor variables in regression models. Compared with controls, individuals with insomnia had a shorter sleep duration (P insomnia disorder, cortisol is upregulated and associated with actigraphy- and diary-based wake after sleep onset, suggesting that wake after sleep onset may serve as a marker to identify individuals at increased risks for disorders associated with a hyperactive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system. The absence of autonomic and pro-inflammatory changes (interleukin-6, C-reactive protein), despite a substantial decrease in actigraphic sleep duration, may relate to a higher resilience to the adverse biological consequences of insomnia in this young age group. © 2014 European Sleep Research Society.

Upregulation of gene expression in reward-modulatory striatal opioid systems by sleep loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Baldo, Brian A; Hanlon, Erin C; Obermeyer, William; Bremer, Quentin; Paletz, Elliott; Benca, Ruth M

2013-12-01

Epidemiological studies have shown a link between sleep loss and the obesity 'epidemic,' and several observations indicate that sleep curtailment engenders positive energy balance via increased palatable-food 'snacking.' These effects suggest alterations in reward-modulatory brain systems. We explored the effects of 10 days of sleep deprivation in rats on the expression of striatal opioid peptide (OP) genes that subserve food motivation and hedonic reward, and compared effects with those seen in hypothalamic energy balance-regulatory systems. Sleep-deprived (Sleep-Dep) rats were compared with yoked forced-locomotion apparatus controls (App-Controls), food-restricted rats (Food-Restrict), and unmanipulated controls (Home-Cage). Detection of mRNA levels with in situ hybridization revealed a subregion-specific upregulation of striatal preproenkephalin and prodynorhin gene expression in the Sleep-Dep group relative to all other groups. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) gene expression in the hippocampal dentate gyrus and throughout neocortex was also robustly upregulated selectively in the Sleep-Dep group. In contrast, parallel gene expression changes were observed in the Sleep-Dep and Food-Restrict groups in hypothalamic energy-sensing systems (arcuate nucleus NPY was upregulated, and cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript was downregulated), in alignment with leptin suppression in both groups. Together, these results reveal a novel set of sleep deprivation-induced transcriptional changes in reward-modulatory peptide systems, which are dissociable from the energy-balance perturbations of sleep loss or the potentially stressful effects of the forced-locomotion procedure. The recruitment of telencephalic food-reward systems may provide a feeding drive highly resistant to feedback control, which could engender obesity through the enhancement of palatable feeding.

Self-relevant beauty evaluation: Evidence from an event-related potentials study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Fanchang; Zhang, Yan; Tian, Yuan; Fan, Cuiying; Zhou, Zongkui

2015-03-01

This study examines the electrophysiological correlates of beauty evaluation when participants performed the self-reference task. About 13 (7 men, 6 women) undergraduates participated in the experiment using event-related potentials. Results showed that the response to self-relevant information was faster compared to other-relevant information and no significant differences for self-relevant relative to mother-relevant information were observed. Both physical and interior beauty words for self-relevant information showed an enhanced late positive component as compared to other-relevant information. Physical beauty for self-relevant information yielded a larger late positive component in contrast to mother-relevant information but not for interior beauty. This study indicates that beauty is specific to the person who judges it though an individual and one's mother may hold similar views of interior beauty.

Fixed target beauty physics from Tevatron to SSC (E771)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lau, K.

1992-01-01

The E771 beauty experiment at Fermilab is described. The Super Fixed Target Beauty Facility (SFT) proposal to perform fixed target beauty physics at the SSC is a natural evolution. The unique features of SFT include crystal channeling extraction from the SSC main ring, which allows the experiment to operate concurrently with the collider experiments. The slow extraction rate (≅2x10 8 protons/s) does not limit the lifetime of the stored beams. The proposed beauty spectrometer and its capability in CP violation studies are described. (author) 19 refs.; 2 figs.; 2 tabs

Measurement of beauty and charm production in deep inelastic scattering at HERA and measurement of the beauty-quark mass

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abramowicz, H.; Abt, I.; Adamczyk, L.

2014-05-01

The production of beauty and charm quarks in ep interactions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for exchanged four-momentum squared 5 2 2 using an integrated luminosity of 354 pb -1 . The beauty and charm content in events with at least one jet have been extracted using the invariant mass of charged tracks associated with secondary vertices and the decay-length significance of these vertices. Differential cross sections as a function of Q 2 , Bjorken x, jet transverse energy and pseudorapidity were measured and compared with next-to-leading-order QCD calculations. The beauty and charm contributions to the proton structure functions were extracted from the double-differential cross section as a function of x and Q 2 . The running beauty-quark mass, m b at the scale m b , was determined from a QCD fit at next-to-leading order to HERA data for the first time and found to be m b (m b )=4.07±0.14(fit) +0.01 -0.07 (mod.) +0.05 -0.00 (param.) +0.08 -0.05 (theo) GeV.

Effect of Sleep Deprivation on the Male Reproductive System in Rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Ji Ho; Lee, Seung Hoon; Bae, Jae Hyun; Shim, Ji Sung; Park, Hong Seok; Kim, Young Sik; Shin, Chol

2016-10-01

There has been no study reporting on the influence of sleep deprivation on the male reproductive system including sperm quality. In this study, we hypothesized that sleep deprivation could lead to adverse effect on the male reproductive system. The rats were divided into three groups: 1) control (home-cage, n = 10); 2) SD4 (sleep deprivation for 4 days, n = 10); and 3) SD7 (sleep deprivation for 7 days, n = 10). Sleep deprivation was performed by a modified multiple platform method. Sperm quality (sperm motion parameters and counts), hormone levels (corticosterone and testosterone), and the histopathology of testis were evaluated and compared between the three groups. A statistically significant reduction (P = 0.018) was observed in sperm motility in the SD7 group compared to those of the control group. However, there were no significant differences in other sperm motion parameters, or in sperm counts of the testis and cauda epididymis between three groups. Compared with the control group, the SD4 (P = 0.033) and SD7 (P = 0.002) groups exhibited significant increases of corticosterone levels, but significant decreases of testosterone levels were found in the SD4 (P = 0.001) and SD7 (P Sleep deprivation may have an adverse effect on the male reproductive system in rats.

Charm, Beauty and Top at HERA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Behnke, O.; Geiser, A.; Lisovyi, M.

2015-06-01

Results on open charm and beauty production and on the search for top production in high-energy electron-proton collisions at HERA are reviewed. This includes a discussion of relevant theoretical aspects, a summary of the available measurements and measurement techniques, and their impact on improved understanding of QCD and its parameters, such as parton density functions and charm- and beauty-quark masses. The impact of these results on measurements at the LHC and elsewhere is also addressed.

The beauty of God in the numerical order

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bai, Jenny

2017-01-01

This present thesis interprets the beauty of God in Augustine’s historical situation and aims to argue that approached from a Pythagorean musical-cosmology, Augustine explains the beauty of God as an unchangeable numerical/harmonic order immanently pervading the realms of nature, logic and ethics.

Online Responses to a Multilingual Super Bowl Ad: Is "America the Beautiful" by Any Other Language Still America, the Beautiful?

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffman, Brooke Y.

2016-01-01

On 2 February 2014, an advertisement entitled "It's Beautiful" debuted during Super Bowl XLVIII, which was watched by 111.5 million people in the USA. The Coca-Cola advertisement portrayed people of various ethnicities and was accompanied by "America the Beautiful" sung in nine languages. Using critical discourse analysis, I…

Viewers Motivations for Watching Beauty Videos on You Tube

OpenAIRE

Jiroušková, Dominika

2016-01-01

The diploma thesis focuses on motivations for watching beauty videos on YouTube. The aim is to clarify why viewers watch amateur videos that communicate topics related to physical appearance. Assuming the audience as an active actor of media communication the thesis is based on uses and gratification theory. Viewers watch beauty videos consciously to meet their individual needs. Based on an analysis of eleven interviews with regular viewers of beauty videos this thesis reveals five categories...

Measurement of beauty quark production from dimuon events with the ZEUS detector at HERA II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bot, Danny

2011-10-01

In this thesis, a measurement of beauty quark production via the process ep→e'b anti bX→e'μμX in electron-proton collisions at HERA using a data sample recorded by the ZEUS detector in the years 2003-2007, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 376 pb -1 , is presented. A low transverse momentum threshold for muon identification in combination with the large rapidity coverage of the ZEUS muon-detection system gives access to essentially the full phase space for beauty quark production. Dimuon charge correlations as well as hadronic isolation and the mass of the dimuon system were used to separate the beauty signal from backgrounds. Visible, differential and total cross sections for beauty quark production were measured and compared to next-to-leading order QCD calculations and previous measurements. In addition, a first search for QCD instanton-induced processes containing both a charm- and beauty-quark pair in dimuon events was performed. In order to differentiate between beauty and instanton events, discriminating observables sensitive to the hadronic final state, so-called event shape variables, were used in combination with the dimuon requirement. As technical part of this thesis, the reconstruction algorithm for so-called energy flow objects (EFOs) was modified. EFOs contain the combined information of primary and secondary vertex-fitted tracks as well as CAL energy measurements. The modification considers additional tracks close to but not fitted to the primary vertex and which fulfill reasonable track and impact parameter requirements. As a result, the efficiency to reconstruct muon candidates with high impact parameter values as energy flow objects was increased. (orig.)

Measurement of beauty quark production from dimuon events with the ZEUS detector at HERA II

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bot, Danny

2011-10-15

In this thesis, a measurement of beauty quark production via the process ep{yields}e'b anti bX{yields}e'{mu}{mu}X in electron-proton collisions at HERA using a data sample recorded by the ZEUS detector in the years 2003-2007, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 376 pb{sup -1}, is presented. A low transverse momentum threshold for muon identification in combination with the large rapidity coverage of the ZEUS muon-detection system gives access to essentially the full phase space for beauty quark production. Dimuon charge correlations as well as hadronic isolation and the mass of the dimuon system were used to separate the beauty signal from backgrounds. Visible, differential and total cross sections for beauty quark production were measured and compared to next-to-leading order QCD calculations and previous measurements. In addition, a first search for QCD instanton-induced processes containing both a charm- and beauty-quark pair in dimuon events was performed. In order to differentiate between beauty and instanton events, discriminating observables sensitive to the hadronic final state, so-called event shape variables, were used in combination with the dimuon requirement. As technical part of this thesis, the reconstruction algorithm for so-called energy flow objects (EFOs) was modified. EFOs contain the combined information of primary and secondary vertex-fitted tracks as well as CAL energy measurements. The modification considers additional tracks close to but not fitted to the primary vertex and which fulfill reasonable track and impact parameter requirements. As a result, the efficiency to reconstruct muon candidates with high impact parameter values as energy flow objects was increased. (orig.)

Gangnam-Style Plastic Surgery: The Science of Westernized Beauty in South Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Leem, So Yeon

2017-10-01

New beauty ideals and particular types of plastic surgery beauty have emerged in South Korea from the early twenty-first century. By defining Gangnam-style plastic surgery as a hybrid of old Westernized beauty ideals and a new science of beauty with variations and contradictions, I intend to twist the simplistic understanding of non-Western plastic surgery as an effort to resemble the white westerner's body. I also draw political implications from a case of monstrous Gangnam-style beauty made by excessive plastic surgery.

Review of charm and beauty lifetimes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheung, Harry W. K.

1999-01-01

A review of the latest experimental results on charm and beauty particle lifetimes is presented together with a brief summary of measurement methods used for beauty particle lifetime measurements. There have been significant updates to the D s + /D 0 , B + /B d 0 and Λ b 0 /B d 0 lifetime ratios which have some theoretical implications. However more precise measurements are still needed before one can make conclusive statements about the theory used to calculate the particle lifetimes

Hyperons, charm and beauty hadrons: Conclusion and outlook

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bernabeu, Jose

2001-01-01

In this concluding talk, the advances in the Flavour Problem studies are discussed, following the structure of the presentations in the Conference. The subjects touched are organized as follows: Baryons, K-physics, Charm and Beauty production, Charm and Beauty decays, B-Mixing and CP-Violation, Heavy Quarkonium

Evolutionary Effect on the Embodied Beauty of Landscape Architectures.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wei; Tang, Xiaoxiang; He, Xianyou; Chen, Guangyao

2018-01-01

According to the framework of evolutionary aesthetics, a sense of beauty is related to environmental adaptation and plasticity of human beings, which has adaptive value and biological foundations. Prior studies have demonstrated that organisms derive benefits from the landscape. In this study, we investigated whether the benefits of landscape might elicit a stronger sense of beauty and what the nature of this sense of beauty is. In two experiments, when viewing classical landscape and nonlandscape architectures photographs, participants rated the aesthetic scores (Experiment 1) and had a two-alternative forced choice aesthetic judgment by pressing the reaction button located near to (15 cm) or far from (45 cm) the presenting stimuli (Experiment 2). The results showed that reaction of aesthetic ratings for classical landscape architectures was faster than those of classical nonlandscape architectures. Furthermore, only the reaction of beautiful judgment of classical landscape architecture photograph was significantly faster when the reaction button was in the near position to the presenting photograph than those in the position of far away from the presenting photograph. This finding suggests a facilitated effect for the aesthetic perception of classical landscape architectures due to their corresponding components including water and green plants with strong evolutionary implications. Furthermore, this sense of beauty for classical landscape architectures might be the embodied approach to beauty based on the viewpoint of evolutionary aesthetics and embodied cognition.

Beautiful mesons from QCD spectral sum rules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Narison, S.

1991-01-01

We discuss the beautiful meson from the point of view of the QCD spectral sum rules (QSSR). The bottom quark mass and the mixed light quark-gluon condensates are determined quite accurately. The decay constant f B is estimated and we present some arguments supporting this result. The decay constants and the masses of the other members of the beautiful meson family are predicted. (orig.)

Effects of a night-team system on resident sleep and work hours.

Science.gov (United States)

Chua, Kao-Ping; Gordon, Mary Beth; Sectish, Theodore; Landrigan, Christopher P

2011-12-01

In 2009, Children's Hospital Boston implemented a night-team system on general pediatric wards to reduce extended work shifts. Residents worked 5 consecutive nights for 1 week and worked day shifts for the remainder of the rotation. Of note, resident staffing at night decreased under this system. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of this system on resident sleep and work hours. We conducted a prospective cohort study in which residents on the night-team system logged their sleep and work hours on work days. These data were compared with similar data collected in 2004, when there was a traditional call system. In 2004 and 2009, mean shift length was 15.22 ± 6.86 and 12.92 ± 5.70 hours, respectively (P = .161). Daily work hours were 10.49 ± 6.85 and 8.79 ± 6.42 hours, respectively (P = .08). Nightly sleep time decreased from 6.72 ± 2.60 to 4.77 ± 2.46 hours (P team system was unexpectedly associated with decreased sleep hours. As residency programs create work schedules that are compliant with the 2011 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education duty-hour standards, resident sleep should be monitored carefully.

Beauty in use

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Overbeeke, C.J.; Wensveen, S.A.G.

2004-01-01

Comments on an article by Marc Hassenzahl (see record 2005-00463-002). The main merit of the article is that offers a guiding research model for empirical studies on beauty in the field of human computer interaction (HCI) and he presents it eloquently. From a product design point of view a few

Masses and couplings of open beauty states in QCD

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rubinstein, H.R.; Reinders, L.J.; Yazaki, S.

1981-05-01

Masses and couplings of open beauty states (strange and non-strange) with Jsup(PC) = 0 ++ , 0 -+ , 1 -- . and 1 ++ are calculated using the QCD sum rule formalism. Non-perturbative effects due to quark and gluon condensate operators are shown to be important, confirming earlier calculations for equal quark mass systems. (author)

Neural correlates of visual aesthetics--beauty as the coalescence of stimulus and internal state.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobs, Richard H A H; Renken, Remco; Cornelissen, Frans W

2012-01-01

How do external stimuli and our internal state coalesce to create the distinctive aesthetic pleasures that give vibrance to human experience? Neuroaesthetics has so far focused on the neural correlates of observing beautiful stimuli compared to neutral or ugly stimuli, or on neural correlates of judging for beauty as opposed to other judgments. Our group questioned whether this approach is sufficient. In our view, a brain region that assesses beauty should show beauty-level-dependent activation during the beauty judgment task, but not during other, unrelated tasks. We therefore performed an fMRI experiment in which subjects judged visual textures for beauty, naturalness and roughness. Our focus was on finding brain activation related to the rated beauty level of the stimuli, which would take place exclusively during the beauty judgment. An initial whole-brain analysis did not reveal such interactions, yet a number of the regions showing main effects of the judgment task or the beauty level of stimuli were selectively sensitive to beauty level during the beauty task. Of the regions that were more active during beauty judgments than roughness judgments, the frontomedian cortex and the amygdala demonstrated the hypothesized interaction effect, while the posterior cingulate cortex did not. The latter region, which only showed a task effect, may play a supporting role in beauty assessments, such as attending to one's internal state rather than the external world. Most of the regions showing interaction effects of judgment and beauty level correspond to regions that have previously been implicated in aesthetics using different stimulus classes, but based on either task or beauty effects alone. The fact that we have now shown that task-stimulus interactions are also present during the aesthetic judgment of visual textures implies that these areas form a network that is specifically devoted to aesthetic assessment, irrespective of the stimulus type.

Fixed Target Beauty Physics Experimental Programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garbincius, P.H.

1987-11-01

The current and near term future fixed target physics efforts in observing particles with open beauty are reviewed. This includes a compilation of the non-observation upper limits and the observation of both upsilon and b-states. A short discussion of the theoretical predictions for the hadro-produced beauty pairs is included. The major part of this review is devoted to the techniques and tricks employed, a survey of the current and proposed experiments. A personal summary of the experimental prospects concludes this report. 28 refs., 26 figs

Beauty production measurements in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions with the ALICE detector

Science.gov (United States)

2017-12-01

Beauty production has been measured in the ALICE experiment via its semi-electronic decays and non-prompt J/Ψ at mid-rapidity. A review of results on beauty production at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at √s = 7TeV and at √s = 2.76TeV. in p-Pb collisions at = 5.02 TeV and in Pb-Pb collisions at q= 2.76TeV are reported, along with the current status of b-jet tagging studies in ALICE. Prospects of beauty production measurements with RUN2 and RUN3-4 are outlined, focusing on the upgraded Inner Tracking System (ITS) and the new Muon Forward Tracker (MFT).

Charm and beauty measurements at Fermilab fixed target

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mishra, C.S.

1993-10-01

Eighteen months after a successful run of the Fermilab fixed target program, interesting results from several experiments are available. This is the first time that more than one Fermilab fixed target experiment has reported the observation of beauty mesons. In this paper we review recent results from charm and beauty fixed target experiments at Fermilab

First measurement of the charge asymmetry in beauty-quark pair production.

Science.gov (United States)

Aaij, R; Adeva, B; Adinolfi, M; Affolder, A; Ajaltouni, Z; Akar, S; Albrecht, J; Alessio, F; Alexander, M; Ali, S; Alkhazov, G; Alvarez Cartelle, P; Alves, A A; Amato, S; Amerio, S; Amhis, Y; An, L; Anderlini, L; Anderson, J; Andreassen, R; Andreotti, M; Andrews, J E; Appleby, R B; Aquines Gutierrez, O; Archilli, F; Artamonov, A; Artuso, M; Aslanides, E; Auriemma, G; Baalouch, M; Bachmann, S; Back, J J; Badalov, A; Balagura, V; Baldini, W; Barlow, R J; Barschel, C; Barsuk, S; Barter, W; Batozskaya, V; Battista, V; Bay, A; Beaucourt, L; Beddow, J; Bedeschi, F; Bediaga, I; Belogurov, S; Belous, K; Belyaev, I; Ben-Haim, E; Bencivenni, G; Benson, S; Benton, J; Berezhnoy, A; Bernet, R; Bettler, M-O; van Beuzekom, M; Bien, A; Bifani, S; Bird, T; Bizzeti, A; Bjørnstad, P M; Blake, T; Blanc, F; Blouw, J; Blusk, S; Bocci, V; Bondar, A; Bondar, N; Bonivento, W; Borghi, S; Borgia, A; Borsato, M; Bowcock, T J V; Bowen, E; Bozzi, C; Brambach, T; van den Brand, J; Bressieux, J; Brett, D; Britsch, M; Britton, T; Brodzicka, J; Brook, N H; Brown, H; Bursche, A; Busetto, G; Buytaert, J; Cadeddu, S; Calabrese, R; Calvi, M; Calvo Gomez, M; Camboni, A; Campana, P; Campora Perez, D; Carbone, A; Carboni, G; Cardinale, R; Cardini, A; Carranza-Mejia, H; Carson, L; Carvalho Akiba, K; Casse, G; Cassina, L; Castillo Garcia, L; Cattaneo, M; Cauet, Ch; Cenci, R; Charles, M; Charpentier, Ph; Chen, S; Cheung, S-F; Chiapolini, N; Chrzaszcz, M; Ciba, K; Cid Vidal, X; Ciezarek, G; Clarke, P E L; Clemencic, M; Cliff, H V; Closier, J; Coco, V; Cogan, J; Cogneras, E; Collins, P; Comerma-Montells, A; Contu, A; Cook, A; Coombes, M; Coquereau, S; Corti, G; Corvo, M; Counts, I; Couturier, B; Cowan, G A; Craik, D C; Cruz Torres, M; Cunliffe, S; Currie, R; D'Ambrosio, C; Dalseno, J; David, P; David, P N Y; Davis, A; De Bruyn, K; De Capua, S; De Cian, M; De Miranda, J M; De Paula, L; De Silva, W; De Simone, P; Decamp, D; Deckenhoff, M; Del Buono, L; Déléage, N; Derkach, D; Deschamps, O; Dettori, F; Di Canto, A; Dijkstra, H; Donleavy, S; Dordei, F; Dorigo, M; Dosil Suárez, A; Dossett, D; Dovbnya, A; Dreimanis, K; Dujany, G; Dupertuis, F; Durante, P; Dzhelyadin, R; Dziurda, A; Dzyuba, A; Easo, S; Egede, U; Egorychev, V; Eidelman, S; Eisenhardt, S; Eitschberger, U; Ekelhof, R; Eklund, L; El Rifai, I; Elsasser, Ch; Ely, S; Esen, S; Evans, H-M; Evans, T; Falabella, A; Färber, C; Farinelli, C; Farley, N; Farry, S; Fay, Rf; Ferguson, D; Fernandez Albor, V; Ferreira Rodrigues, F; Ferro-Luzzi, M; Filippov, S; Fiore, M; Fiorini, M; Firlej, M; Fitzpatrick, C; Fiutowski, T; Fontana, M; Fontanelli, F; Forty, R; Francisco, O; Frank, M; Frei, C; Frosini, M; Fu, J; Furfaro, E; Gallas Torreira, A; Galli, D; Gallorini, S; Gambetta, S; Gandelman, M; Gandini, P; Gao, Y; García Pardiñas, J; Garofoli, J; Garra Tico, J; Garrido, L; Gaspar, C; Gauld, R; Gavardi, L; Gavrilov, G; Gersabeck, E; Gersabeck, M; Gershon, T; Ghez, Ph; Gianelle, A; Giani', S; Gibson, V; Giubega, L; Gligorov, V V; Göbel, C; Golubkov, D; Golutvin, A; Gomes, A; Gordon, H; Gotti, C; Grabalosa Gándara, M; Graciani Diaz, R; Granado Cardoso, L A; Graugés, E; Graziani, G; Grecu, A; Greening, E; Gregson, S; Griffith, P; Grillo, L; Grünberg, O; Gui, B; Gushchin, E; Guz, Yu; Gys, T; Hadjivasiliou, C; Haefeli, G; Haen, C; Haines, S C; Hall, S; Hamilton, B; Hampson, T; Han, X; Hansmann-Menzemer, S; Harnew, N; Harnew, S T; Harrison, J; He, J; Head, T; Heijne, V; Hennessy, K; Henrard, P; Henry, L; Hernando Morata, J A; van Herwijnen, E; Heß, M; Hicheur, A; Hill, D; Hoballah, M; Hombach, C; Hulsbergen, W; Hunt, P; Hussain, N; Hutchcroft, D; Hynds, D; Idzik, M; Ilten, P; Jacobsson, R; Jaeger, A; Jalocha, J; Jans, E; Jaton, P; Jawahery, A; Jing, F; John, M; Johnson, D; Jones, C R; Joram, C; Jost, B; Jurik, N; Kaballo, M; Kandybei, S; Kanso, W; Karacson, M; Karbach, T M; Karodia, S; Kelsey, M; Kenyon, I R; Ketel, T; Khanji, B; Khurewathanakul, C; Klaver, S; Klimaszewski, K; Kochebina, O; Kolpin, M; Komarov, I; Koopman, R F; Koppenburg, P; Korolev, M; Kozlinskiy, A; Kravchuk, L; Kreplin, K; Kreps, M; Krocker, G; Krokovny, P; Kruse, F; Kucewicz, W; Kucharczyk, M; Kudryavtsev, V; Kurek, K; Kvaratskheliya, T; La Thi, V N; Lacarrere, D; Lafferty, G; Lai, A; Lambert, D; Lambert, R W; Lanciotti, E; Lanfranchi, G; Langenbruch, C; Langhans, B; Latham, T; Lazzeroni, C; Le Gac, R; van Leerdam, J; Lees, J-P; Lefèvre, R; Leflat, A; Lefrançois, J; Leo, S; Leroy, O; Lesiak, T; Leverington, B; Li, Y; Liles, M; Lindner, R; Linn, C; Lionetto, F; Liu, B; Liu, G; Lohn, S; Longstaff, I; Lopes, J H; Lopez-March, N; Lowdon, P; Lu, H; Lucchesi, D; Luo, H; Lupato, A; Luppi, E; Lupton, O; Machefert, F; Machikhiliyan, I V; Maciuc, F; Maev, O; Malde, S; Manca, G; Mancinelli, G; Maratas, J; Marchand, J F; Marconi, U; Marin Benito, C; Marino, P; Märki, R; Marks, J; Martellotti, G; Martens, A; Martín Sánchez, A; Martinelli, M; Martinez Santos, D; Martinez Vidal, F; Martins Tostes, D; Massafferri, A; Matev, R; Mathe, Z; Matteuzzi, C; Mazurov, A; McCann, M; McCarthy, J; 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2014-08-22

The difference in the angular distributions between beauty quarks and antiquarks, referred to as the charge asymmetry, is measured for the first time in bb pair production at a hadron collider. The data used correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb(-1) collected at 7 TeV center-of-mass energy in proton-proton collisions with the LHCb detector. The measurement is performed in three regions of the invariant mass of the bb system. The results obtained are A(C)(bb))(40 105 GeV/c(2)) = 1.6 ± 1.7 ± 0.6%, where A(C)(bb)) is defined as the asymmetry in the difference in rapidity between jets formed from the beauty quark and antiquark, where in each case the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The beauty jets are required to satisfy 2 20 GeV, and have an opening angle in the transverse plane Δ ϕ > 2.6 rad. These measurements are consistent with the predictions of the standard model.

First measurement of the charge asymmetry in beauty-quark pair production

CERN Document Server

Aaij, Roel; Adinolfi, Marco; Affolder, Anthony; Ajaltouni, Ziad; Akar, Simon; Albrecht, Johannes; Alessio, Federico; Alexander, Michael; Ali, Suvayu; Alkhazov, Georgy; Alvarez Cartelle, Paula; Alves Jr, Antonio; Amato, Sandra; Amerio, Silvia; Amhis, Yasmine; An, Liupan; Anderlini, Lucio; Anderson, Jonathan; Andreassen, Rolf; Andreotti, Mirco; Andrews, Jason; Appleby, Robert; Aquines Gutierrez, Osvaldo; Archilli, Flavio; Artamonov, Alexander; Artuso, Marina; Aslanides, Elie; Auriemma, Giulio; Baalouch, Marouen; Bachmann, Sebastian; Back, John; Badalov, Alexey; Balagura, Vladislav; Baldini, Wander; Barlow, Roger; Barschel, Colin; Barsuk, Sergey; Barter, William; Batozskaya, Varvara; Battista, Vincenzo; Bay, Aurelio; Beaucourt, Leo; Beddow, John; Bedeschi, Franco; Bediaga, Ignacio; Belogurov, Sergey; Belous, Konstantin; Belyaev, Ivan; Ben-Haim, Eli; Bencivenni, Giovanni; Benson, Sean; Benton, Jack; Berezhnoy, Alexander; Bernet, Roland; Bettler, Marc-Olivier; van Beuzekom, Martinus; Bien, Alexander; Bifani, Simone; Bird, Thomas; Bizzeti, Andrea; Bjørnstad, Pål Marius; Blake, Thomas; Blanc, Frédéric; Blouw, Johan; Blusk, Steven; Bocci, Valerio; Bondar, Alexander; Bondar, Nikolay; Bonivento, Walter; Borghi, Silvia; Borgia, Alessandra; Borsato, Martino; Bowcock, Themistocles; Bowen, Espen Eie; Bozzi, Concezio; Brambach, Tobias; van den Brand, Johannes; Bressieux, Joël; Brett, David; Britsch, Markward; Britton, Thomas; Brodzicka, Jolanta; Brook, Nicholas; Brown, Henry; Bursche, Albert; Busetto, Giovanni; Buytaert, Jan; Cadeddu, Sandro; Calabrese, Roberto; Calvi, Marta; Calvo Gomez, Miriam; Camboni, Alessandro; Campana, Pierluigi; Campora Perez, Daniel; Carbone, Angelo; Carboni, Giovanni; Cardinale, Roberta; Cardini, Alessandro; Carranza-Mejia, Hector; Carson, Laurence; Carvalho Akiba, Kazuyoshi; Casse, Gianluigi; Cassina, Lorenzo; Castillo Garcia, Lucia; Cattaneo, Marco; Cauet, Christophe; Cenci, Riccardo; Charles, Matthew; Charpentier, Philippe; Chen, Shanzhen; Cheung, Shu-Faye; Chiapolini, Nicola; 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Hulsbergen, Wouter; Hunt, Philip; Hussain, Nazim; Hutchcroft, David; Hynds, Daniel; Idzik, Marek; Ilten, Philip; Jacobsson, Richard; Jaeger, Andreas; Jalocha, Pawel; Jans, Eddy; Jaton, Pierre; Jawahery, Abolhassan; Jing, Fanfan; John, Malcolm; Johnson, Daniel; Jones, Christopher; Joram, Christian; Jost, Beat; Jurik, Nathan; Kaballo, Michael; Kandybei, Sergii; Kanso, Walaa; Karacson, Matthias; Karbach, Moritz; Karodia, Sarah; Kelsey, Matthew; Kenyon, Ian; Ketel, Tjeerd; Khanji, Basem; Khurewathanakul, Chitsanu; Klaver, Suzanne; Klimaszewski, Konrad; Kochebina, Olga; Kolpin, Michael; Komarov, Ilya; Koopman, Rose; Koppenburg, Patrick; Korolev, Mikhail; Kozlinskiy, Alexandr; Kravchuk, Leonid; Kreplin, Katharina; Kreps, Michal; Krocker, Georg; Krokovny, Pavel; Kruse, Florian; Kucewicz, Wojciech; Kucharczyk, Marcin; Kudryavtsev, Vasily; Kurek, Krzysztof; Kvaratskheliya, Tengiz; La Thi, Viet Nga; Lacarrere, Daniel; Lafferty, George; Lai, Adriano; Lambert, Dean; Lambert, Robert W; Lanciotti, Elisa; Lanfranchi, Gaia; Langenbruch, Christoph; Langhans, Benedikt; Latham, Thomas; Lazzeroni, Cristina; Le Gac, Renaud; van Leerdam, Jeroen; Lees, Jean-Pierre; Lefèvre, Regis; Leflat, Alexander; Lefrançois, Jacques; Leo, Sabato; Leroy, Olivier; Lesiak, Tadeusz; Leverington, Blake; Li, Yiming; Liles, Myfanwy; Lindner, Rolf; Linn, Christian; Lionetto, Federica; Liu, Bo; Liu, Guoming; Lohn, Stefan; Longstaff, Iain; Lopes, Jose; Lopez-March, Neus; Lowdon, Peter; Lu, Haiting; Lucchesi, Donatella; Luo, Haofei; Lupato, Anna; Luppi, Eleonora; Lupton, Oliver; Machefert, Frederic; Machikhiliyan, Irina V; Maciuc, Florin; Maev, Oleg; Malde, Sneha; Manca, Giulia; Mancinelli, Giampiero; Maratas, Jan; Marchand, Jean François; Marconi, Umberto; Marin Benito, Carla; Marino, Pietro; Märki, Raphael; Marks, Jörg; Martellotti, Giuseppe; Martens, Aurelien; Martín Sánchez, Alexandra; Martinelli, Maurizio; Martinez Santos, Diego; Martinez Vidal, Fernando; Martins Tostes, Danielle; Massafferri, André; Matev, Rosen; Mathe, Zoltan; Matteuzzi, Clara; Mazurov, Alexander; McCann, Michael; McCarthy, James; McNab, Andrew; McNulty, Ronan; McSkelly, Ben; Meadows, Brian; Meier, Frank; Meissner, Marco; Merk, Marcel; Milanes, Diego Alejandro; Minard, Marie-Noelle; Moggi, Niccolò; Molina Rodriguez, Josue; Monteil, Stephane; Morandin, Mauro; Morawski, Piotr; Mordà, Alessandro; Morello, Michael Joseph; Moron, Jakub; Morris, Adam Benjamin; Mountain, Raymond; Muheim, Franz; Müller, Katharina; Muresan, Raluca; Mussini, Manuel; Muster, Bastien; Naik, Paras; Nakada, Tatsuya; Nandakumar, Raja; Nasteva, Irina; Needham, Matthew; Neri, Nicola; Neubert, Sebastian; Neufeld, Niko; Neuner, Max; Nguyen, Anh Duc; Nguyen, Thi-Dung; Nguyen-Mau, Chung; Nicol, Michelle; Niess, Valentin; Niet, Ramon; Nikitin, Nikolay; Nikodem, Thomas; Novoselov, Alexey; O'Hanlon, Daniel Patrick; Oblakowska-Mucha, Agnieszka; Obraztsov, Vladimir; Oggero, Serena; Ogilvy, Stephen; Okhrimenko, Oleksandr; Oldeman, Rudolf; Onderwater, Gerco; Orlandea, Marius; Otalora Goicochea, Juan Martin; Owen, Patrick; Oyanguren, Maria Arantza; Pal, Bilas Kanti; Palano, Antimo; Palombo, Fernando; Palutan, Matteo; Panman, Jacob; Papanestis, Antonios; Pappagallo, Marco; Parkes, Christopher; Parkinson, Christopher John; Passaleva, Giovanni; Patel, Girish; Patel, Mitesh; Patrignani, Claudia; Pazos Alvarez, Antonio; Pearce, Alex; Pellegrino, Antonio; Pepe Altarelli, Monica; Perazzini, Stefano; Perez Trigo, Eliseo; Perret, Pascal; Perrin-Terrin, Mathieu; Pescatore, Luca; Pesen, Erhan; Petridis, Konstantin; Petrolini, Alessandro; Picatoste Olloqui, Eduardo; Pietrzyk, Boleslaw; Pilař, Tomas; Pinci, Davide; Pistone, Alessandro; Playfer, Stephen; Plo Casasus, Maximo; Polci, Francesco; Poluektov, Anton; Polycarpo, Erica; Popov, Alexander; Popov, Dmitry; Popovici, Bogdan; Potterat, Cédric; Price, Eugenia; Prisciandaro, Jessica; Pritchard, Adrian; Prouve, Claire; Pugatch, Valery; Puig Navarro, Albert; Punzi, Giovanni; Qian, Wenbin; Rachwal, Bartolomiej; Rademacker, Jonas; Rakotomiaramanana, Barinjaka; Rama, Matteo; Rangel, Murilo; Raniuk, Iurii; Rauschmayr, Nathalie; Raven, Gerhard; Reichert, Stefanie; Reid, Matthew; dos Reis, Alberto; Ricciardi, Stefania; Richards, Sophie; Rihl, Mariana; Rinnert, Kurt; Rives Molina, Vincente; Roa Romero, Diego; Robbe, Patrick; Rodrigues, Ana Barbara; Rodrigues, Eduardo; Rodriguez Perez, Pablo; Roiser, Stefan; Romanovsky, Vladimir; Romero Vidal, Antonio; Rotondo, Marcello; Rouvinet, Julien; Ruf, Thomas; Ruffini, Fabrizio; Ruiz, Hugo; Ruiz Valls, Pablo; Sabatino, Giovanni; Saborido Silva, Juan Jose; Sagidova, Naylya; Sail, Paul; Saitta, Biagio; Salustino Guimaraes, Valdir; Sanchez Mayordomo, Carlos; Sanmartin Sedes, Brais; Santacesaria, Roberta; Santamarina Rios, Cibran; Santovetti, Emanuele; Sapunov, Matvey; Sarti, Alessio; Satriano, Celestina; Satta, Alessia; Saunders, Daniel Martin; Savrie, Mauro; Savrina, Darya; Schiller, Manuel; Schindler, Heinrich; Schlupp, Maximilian; Schmelling, Michael; Schmidt, Burkhard; Schneider, Olivier; Schopper, Andreas; Schune, Marie Helene; Schwemmer, Rainer; Sciascia, Barbara; Sciubba, Adalberto; Seco, Marcos; Semennikov, Alexander; Sepp, Indrek; Serra, Nicola; Serrano, Justine; Sestini, Lorenzo; Seyfert, Paul; Shapkin, Mikhail; Shapoval, Illya; Shcheglov, Yury; Shears, Tara; Shekhtman, Lev; Shevchenko, Vladimir; Shires, Alexander; Silva Coutinho, Rafael; Simi, Gabriele; Sirendi, Marek; Skidmore, Nicola; Skwarnicki, Tomasz; Smith, Anthony; Smith, Edmund; Smith, Eluned; Smith, Jackson; Smith, Mark; Snoek, Hella; Sokoloff, Michael; Soler, Paul; Soomro, Fatima; Souza, Daniel; Souza De Paula, Bruno; Spaan, Bernhard; Sparkes, Ailsa; Spradlin, Patrick; Stagni, Federico; Stahl, Marian; Stahl, Sascha; Steinkamp, Olaf; Stenyakin, Oleg; Stevenson, Scott; Stoica, Sabin; Stone, Sheldon; Storaci, Barbara; Stracka, Simone; Straticiuc, Mihai; Straumann, Ulrich; Stroili, Roberto; Subbiah, Vijay Kartik; Sun, Liang; Sutcliffe, William; Swientek, Krzysztof; Swientek, Stefan; Syropoulos, Vasileios; Szczekowski, Marek; Szczypka, Paul; Szilard, Daniela; Szumlak, Tomasz; T'Jampens, Stephane; Teklishyn, Maksym; Tellarini, Giulia; Teubert, Frederic; Thomas, Christopher; Thomas, Eric; van Tilburg, Jeroen; Tisserand, Vincent; Tobin, Mark; Tolk, Siim; Tomassetti, Luca; Topp-Joergensen, Stig; Torr, Nicholas; Tournefier, Edwige; Tourneur, Stephane; Tran, Minh Tâm; Tresch, Marco; Tsaregorodtsev, Andrei; Tsopelas, Panagiotis; Tuning, Niels; Ubeda Garcia, Mario; Ukleja, Artur; Ustyuzhanin, Andrey; Uwer, Ulrich; Vagnoni, Vincenzo; Valenti, Giovanni; Vallier, Alexis; Vazquez Gomez, Ricardo; Vazquez Regueiro, Pablo; Vázquez Sierra, Carlos; Vecchi, Stefania; Velthuis, Jaap; Veltri, Michele; Veneziano, Giovanni; Vesterinen, Mika; Viaud, Benoit; Vieira, Daniel; Vieites Diaz, Maria; Vilasis-Cardona, Xavier; Vollhardt, Achim; Volyanskyy, Dmytro; Voong, David; Vorobyev, Alexey; Vorobyev, Vitaly; Voß, Christian; Voss, Helge; de Vries, Jacco; Waldi, Roland; Wallace, Charlotte; Wallace, Ronan; Walsh, John; Wandernoth, Sebastian; Wang, Jianchun; Ward, David; Watson, Nigel; Websdale, David; Whitehead, Mark; Wicht, Jean; Wiedner, Dirk; Wilkinson, Guy; Williams, Matthew; Williams, Mike; Wilson, Fergus; Wimberley, Jack; Wishahi, Julian; Wislicki, Wojciech; Witek, Mariusz; Wormser, Guy; Wotton, Stephen; Wright, Simon; Wu, Suzhi; Wyllie, Kenneth; Xie, Yuehong; Xing, Zhou; Xu, Zhirui; Yang, Zhenwei; Yuan, Xuhao; Yushchenko, Oleg; Zangoli, Maria; Zavertyaev, Mikhail; Zhang, Liming; Zhang, Wen Chao; Zhang, Yanxi; Zhelezov, Alexey; Zhokhov, Anatoly; Zhong, Liang; Zvyagin, Alexander

2014-01-01

The difference in the angular distributions between beauty quarks and antiquarks, referred to as the charge asymmetry, is measured for the first time in $b\\bar{b}$ pair production at a hadron collider. The data used correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.0fb$^{-1}$ collected at 7TeV center-of-mass energy in proton-proton collisions with the LHCb detector. The measurement is performed in three regions of the invariant mass of the $b\\bar{b}$ system. The results obtained are: \\begin{eqnarray} A_{C}^{b\\bar{b}}(40 105\\,\\rm{GeV/c^2}) &=&1.6 \\pm 1.7(\\rm{stat}) \\pm 0.6(\\rm{syst})\\% \\end{eqnarray} where $A_{C}^{b\\bar{b}}$ is defined as the asymmetry in the difference in rapidity between jets formed from the beauty quark and antiquark. The beauty jets are required to satisfy $2 20$GeV, and have an opening angle in the transverse plane $\\Delta\\phi>2.6$rad. These measurements are consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model.

The hypocretin/orexin system in sleep disorders: preclinical insights and clinical progress

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Chow M

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Matthew Chow, Michelle CaoDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Division of Sleep Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USAAbstract: Much of the understanding of the hypocretin/orexin (HCRT/OX system in sleep–wake regulation came from narcolepsy–cataplexy research. The neuropeptides hypocretin-1 and -2/orexin-A and -B (HCRT-1 and -2/OX-A and -B, respectively, as we know, are intimately involved in the regulation wakefulness. The HCRT/OX system regulates sleep–wake control through complex interactions between monoaminergic/cholinergic (wake-promoting and gamma-aminobutyric acid-ergic (sleep-promoting neuronal systems. Deficiency of HCRT/OX results in loss of sleep–wake control or stability with consequent unstable transitions between wakefulness to nonrapid eye movement and rapid eye movement sleep. This manifests clinically as abnormal daytime sleepiness with sleep attacks and cataplexy. Research on the development of HCRT/OX agonists and antagonists for the treatment of sleep disorders has dramatically increased with the US Food and Drug Administration approval of the first-in-class dual HCRT/OX receptor antagonist for the treatment of insomnia. This review focuses on the origin, mechanisms of HCRT/OX receptors, clinical progress, and applications for the treatment of sleep disorders.Keywords: hypocretin, orexin, narcolepsy, insomnia, orexin antagonist, orexin agonist

Effects of serotonergic system on the sleeping time and EEG in rats

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Alaei H

2001-08-01

Full Text Available The phenomenon of sleep is an active nervous and biologic rhythm, which is under influence of neurotransmitters of central nervous system. In this study, the influence of serotonergic system on sleeping time have been assessed by agonist-antagonist drugs using two methods of induction and non-induction behavioral and electrophysiology. The method used for measurement of total sleeing time was Angle method. For assessment of drugs impact on brain waves, after opening two holes in frontal and temporal regions, two non-polarized silvery electrodes were fixed in above regions and was connected to physiograph and computer by linkers for waves analysis. Injection intra-ventriculary is done by stereotax apparatus. Results indicate that diazepam (2.5 mg/kg increases sleeping time in two stages of induction and non-induction (P<0.01. 5-HTP (15, 45 mg/kg increases dose-dependence sleeping time. p-CPA (150, 300 mg/kg shows biphasic influence on sleeping time. The 300 mg/kg dose of p-CPA reduces sleeping time while 150 mg/kg dose inverts sleeping time (P<0.05. Interferential affects of drugs with (5-HTP 45 mg/kg and p-CPA (300 mg/kg doses are similar to control groups. Injection of 5-HTP inverts p-CPA affect. Intra-ventriculary Injection of 5-HTP in 150 µg/kg and 300 µg/kg doses, decreases frequency of delta waves and significantly increases the frequencies of other waves but conversely, 500 µg/kg decreases it. Due to findings of this study, interferential affects of agonist-antagonist of 5-HTP, can not invert p-CPA affect. Supported by GABA affects, diazepam induces its inhibitory affect in per-synaptic and post-synaptic membrane through ascending reticular both systems and blocking stimulation of brain cortical and limbic system. Affects of two other drugs on sleeping time and brain waves are probably caused by increment of released serotonin in pre-synaptic neurons. Although their interferential affects with other neurotransmitter system should be

Face Attractiveness versus Artistic Beauty in Art Portraits: A Behavioral Study

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Katharina Schulz

2017-12-01

Full Text Available From art portraits, the observer may derive at least two different hedonic values: The attractiveness of the depicted person and the artistic beauty of the image that relates to the way of presentation. We argue that attractiveness is a property that is predominantly driven by perceptual processes, while the perception of artistic beauty is based predominantly on cognitive processing. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two behavioral experiments. In a gist study (Experiment 1, we showed that ratings on attractiveness were higher after short-term presentation (50 ms than after long-term presentation (3000 ms, while the opposite pattern was found for artistic beauty. In an experiment on perceptual contrast (Experiment 2, we showed that the perceptual contrast effect was stronger for attractiveness than for artistic beauty. These results are compatible with our hypothesis that appreciation of artistic beauty is cognitively modulated at least in part, while processing of attractiveness is predominantly driven perceptually. This dichotomy between cognitive and perceptual processing of different kinds of beauty suggests the participation of different neuronal mechanisms.

Face Attractiveness versus Artistic Beauty in Art Portraits: A Behavioral Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Schulz, Katharina; Hayn-Leichsenring, Gregor U

2017-01-01

From art portraits, the observer may derive at least two different hedonic values: The attractiveness of the depicted person and the artistic beauty of the image that relates to the way of presentation. We argue that attractiveness is a property that is predominantly driven by perceptual processes, while the perception of artistic beauty is based predominantly on cognitive processing. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two behavioral experiments. In a gist study (Experiment 1), we showed that ratings on attractiveness were higher after short-term presentation (50 ms) than after long-term presentation (3000 ms), while the opposite pattern was found for artistic beauty . In an experiment on perceptual contrast (Experiment 2), we showed that the perceptual contrast effect was stronger for attractiveness than for artistic beauty. These results are compatible with our hypothesis that appreciation of artistic beauty is cognitively modulated at least in part, while processing of attractiveness is predominantly driven perceptually. This dichotomy between cognitive and perceptual processing of different kinds of beauty suggests the participation of different neuronal mechanisms.

Charm and beauty measurements at Fermilab fixed target

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mishra, C.S.

1993-01-01

Eighteen months after a successful run of the Fermilab fixed target program, interesting results from several experiments are available. This is the first time that more than one Fermilab fixed target experiment has reported the observation of beauty mesons. In this paper the author reviews recent results from charm and beauty fixed target experiments at Fermilab

Partial Sleep Deprivation Attenuates the Positive Affective System: Effects Across Multiple Measurement Modalities.

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Finan, Patrick H; Quartana, Phillip J; Remeniuk, Bethany; Garland, Eric L; Rhudy, Jamie L; Hand, Matthew; Irwin, Michael R; Smith, Michael T

2017-01-01

Ample behavioral and neurobiological evidence links sleep and affective functioning. Recent self-report evidence suggests that the affective problems associated with sleep loss may be stronger for positive versus negative affective state and that those effects may be mediated by changes in electroencepholographically measured slow wave sleep (SWS). In the present study, we extend those preliminary findings using multiple measures of affective functioning. In a within-subject randomized crossover experiment, we tested the effects of one night of sleep continuity disruption via forced awakenings (FA) compared to one night of uninterrupted sleep (US) on three measures of positive and negative affective functioning: self-reported affective state, affective pain modulation, and affect-biased attention. The study was set in an inpatient clinical research suite. Healthy, good sleeping adults (N = 45) were included. Results indicated that a single night of sleep continuity disruption attenuated positive affective state via FA-induced reductions in SWS. Additionally, sleep continuity disruption attenuated the inhibition of pain by positive affect as well as attention bias to positive affective stimuli. Negative affective state, negative affective pain facilitation, nor negative attention bias were altered by sleep continuity disruption. The present findings, observed across multiple measures of affective function, suggest that sleep continuity disruption has a stronger influence on the positive affective system relative to the negative affective affective system. © Sleep Research Society 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Sleep Research Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.

Sleep-Active Neurons: Conserved Motors of Sleep

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Bringmann, Henrik

2018-01-01

Sleep is crucial for survival and well-being. This behavioral and physiological state has been studied in all major genetically accessible model animals, including rodents, fish, flies, and worms. Genetic and optogenetic studies have identified several neurons that control sleep, making it now possible to compare circuit mechanisms across species. The “motor” of sleep across animal species is formed by neurons that depolarize at the onset of sleep to actively induce this state by directly inhibiting wakefulness. These sleep-inducing neurons are themselves controlled by inhibitory or activating upstream pathways, which act as the “drivers” of the sleep motor: arousal inhibits “sleep-active” neurons whereas various sleep-promoting “tiredness” pathways converge onto sleep-active neurons to depolarize them. This review provides the first overview of sleep-active neurons across the major model animals. The occurrence of sleep-active neurons and their regulation by upstream pathways in both vertebrate and invertebrate species suggests that these neurons are general and ancient components that evolved early in the history of nervous systems. PMID:29618588

Can We Model the Scenic Beauty of an Alpine Landscape?

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Erich Tasser

2013-03-01

Full Text Available During the last decade, agriculture has lost its importance in many European mountain regions and tourism, which benefits from attractive landscapes, has become a major source of income. Changes in landscape patterns and elements might affect scenic beauty and therefore the socio-economic welfare of a region. Our study aimed at modeling scenic beauty by quantifying the influence of landscape elements and patterns in relationship to distance. Focusing on Alpine landscapes in South and North Tyrol, we used a photographic questionnaire showing different landscape compositions. As mountain landscapes offer long vistas, we related scenic beauty to different distance zones. Our results indicate that the near zone contributes by 64% to the valuation of scenic beauty, the middle zone by 22%, and the far zone by 14%. In contrast to artificial elements, naturalness and diversity increased scenic beauty. Significant differences between different social groups (origin, age, gender, cultural background occurred only between the local population and tourists regarding great landscape changes. Changes towards more homogenous landscapes were perceived negatively, thus political decision makers should support the conservation of the cultural landscape.

An attempt to observe directly beauty particles in nuclear emulsions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Albanese, J.P.; Arnold, R.; Matteuzzi, C.; Musset, P.; Piuz, F.; Poulard, G.; Price, M.J.; Ramello, L.; Sletten, H.; Allasia, D.; Bisi, V.; Gamba, D.; Marzari-Chiesa, A.; Riccati, L.; Romero, A.; Armenise, N.; Calicchio, M.; Erriquez, O.; Lavopa, P.; Maggi, G.; Muciaccia, M.T.; Natali, S.; Nuzzo, S.; Romano, F.; Ruggieri, F.; Baroni, G.; Di Ciaccio, L.; Di Liberto, S.; Manfredini, A.; Meddi, F.; Petrera, S.; Romano, G.; Rosa, G.; Santonico, R.; Sebastiani, F.; Barth, M.; Bertrand, D.; Bertrand-Coremans, G.; Roosen, R.; Sacton, J.; Schorochoff, G.; Wickens, J.; Breslin, A.C.; Montwill, A.; O'Connor, A.; Davis, D.G.; Davis, D.H.; Downes, J.K.; Duff, B.G.; Esten, M.J.; Gjerpe, I.; Heymann, F.F.; Imrie, D.C.; Lush, G.J.; Tovee, D.N.; Hazama, M.; Isokane, Y.; Tsuneoka, Y.; Maeda, Y.; Tasaka, S.

1983-01-01

An attempt at the direct observation of the cascade decay of beauty particles, produced by π - of 350 GeV/c leading to 3 muons or 4 muons in the final state, has been made in an emulsion/counter hybrid experiment at CERN. Under the assumption that the lifetime of beauty particles is of the order of 10 - 13 s the non-observation of any candidates provides an upper limit for beauty production of approx.=90 nb at the 90% confidence level. (orig.)

Neural Correlates of Visual Aesthetics – Beauty as the Coalescence of Stimulus and Internal State

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Jacobs, Richard H. A. H.; Renken, Remco; Cornelissen, Frans W.

2012-01-01

How do external stimuli and our internal state coalesce to create the distinctive aesthetic pleasures that give vibrance to human experience? Neuroaesthetics has so far focused on the neural correlates of observing beautiful stimuli compared to neutral or ugly stimuli, or on neural correlates of judging for beauty as opposed to other judgments. Our group questioned whether this approach is sufficient. In our view, a brain region that assesses beauty should show beauty-level-dependent activation during the beauty judgment task, but not during other, unrelated tasks. We therefore performed an fMRI experiment in which subjects judged visual textures for beauty, naturalness and roughness. Our focus was on finding brain activation related to the rated beauty level of the stimuli, which would take place exclusively during the beauty judgment. An initial whole-brain analysis did not reveal such interactions, yet a number of the regions showing main effects of the judgment task or the beauty level of stimuli were selectively sensitive to beauty level during the beauty task. Of the regions that were more active during beauty judgments than roughness judgments, the frontomedian cortex and the amygdala demonstrated the hypothesized interaction effect, while the posterior cingulate cortex did not. The latter region, which only showed a task effect, may play a supporting role in beauty assessments, such as attending to one's internal state rather than the external world. Most of the regions showing interaction effects of judgment and beauty level correspond to regions that have previously been implicated in aesthetics using different stimulus classes, but based on either task or beauty effects alone. The fact that we have now shown that task-stimulus interactions are also present during the aesthetic judgment of visual textures implies that these areas form a network that is specifically devoted to aesthetic assessment, irrespective of the stimulus type. PMID:22384006

Determination of Some Heavy Metals in Selected Beauty and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Several epidemiologic studies have investigated the potential carcinogenicity of human exposure to heavy metals from diverse sources but few or none was on African black and beauty soaps. Hence, this study examines the presence of some heavy metals in selected African black and beauty soaps commonly used in ...

An Expert System for Diagnosis of Sleep Disorder Using Fuzzy Rule-Based Classification Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Septem Riza, Lala; Pradini, Mila; Fitrajaya Rahman, Eka; Rasim

2017-03-01

Sleep disorder is an anomaly that could cause problems for someone’ sleeping pattern. Nowadays, it becomes an issue since people are getting busy with their own business and have no time to visit the doctors. Therefore, this research aims to develop a system used for diagnosis of sleep disorder using Fuzzy Rule-Based Classification System (FRBCS). FRBCS is a method based on the fuzzy set concepts. It consists of two steps: (i) constructing a model/knowledge involving rulebase and database, and (ii) prediction over new data. In this case, the knowledge is obtained from experts whereas in the prediction stage, we perform fuzzification, inference, and classification. Then, a platform implementing the method is built with a combination between PHP and the R programming language using the “Shiny” package. To validate the system that has been made, some experiments have been done using data from a psychiatric hospital in West Java, Indonesia. Accuracy of the result and computation time are 84.85% and 0.0133 seconds, respectively.

BEAUTY'99 Conference Summary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eerola, Paula

2000-01-01

Investigations of B hadrons are expected to break new ground in measuring CP-violation effects. This series of BEAUTY conferences, originating from the 1993 conference in Liblice, has contributed significantly in developing ideas of CP-violation measurements using B hadrons and formulating and comparing critically the B-physics experiments. In the '99 conference in Bled we saw the ripening of the field and the first fruit emerging - Tevatron have produced beautiful B-physics results and more are expected to come with the next run, while the B-physics experiments at DESY, SLAC and KEK are starting their operation. The longer-term projects at LHC and Tevatron have taken their shape and detailed prototyping work is going on. Meanwhile, on the phenomenological side, there has been impressive theoretical progress in understanding deeper the 'standard' measurements and proposing new signatures. In this summary, I will highlight the status of the field as presented in the conference, concentrating on signatures, experiments and R and D programmes

The 2014 interferometric imaging beauty contest

Science.gov (United States)

Monnier, John D.; Berger, Jean-Philippe; Le Bouquin, Jean-Baptiste; Tuthill, Peter G.; Wittkowski, Markus; Grellmann, Rebekka; Müller, André; Renganswany, Sridhar; Hummel, Christian; Hofmann, Karl-Heinz; Schertl, Dieter; Weigelt, Gerd; Young, John; Buscher, David; Sanchez-Bermudez, Joel; Alberdi, Antxon; Schoedel, Rainer; Köhler, Rainer; Soulez, Ferréol; Thiébaut, Éric; Kluska, Jacques; Malbet, Fabien; Duvert, Gilles; Kraus, Stefan; Kloppenborg, Brian K.; Baron, Fabien; de Wit, Willem-Jan; Rivinius, Thomas; Merand, Antoine

2014-07-01

Here we present the results of the 6th biennial optical interferometry imaging beauty contest. Taking advantage of a unique opportunity, the red supergiant VY CMa and the Mira variable R Car were observed in the astronomical H-band with three 4-telescope configurations of the VLTI-AT array using the PIONIER instrument. The community was invited to participate in the subsequent image reconstruction and interpretation phases of the project. Ten groups submitted entries to the beauty contest, and we found reasonable consistency between images obtained from independent workers using quite different algorithms. We also found that significant differences existed between the submitted images, much greater than in past beauty contests that were all based on simulated data. A novel crowd-sourcing" method allowed consensus median images to be constructed, filtering likely artifacts and retaining real features." We definitively detect strong spots on the surfaces of both stars as well as distinct circumstellar shells of emission (likely water/CO) around R Car. In a close contest, Joel Sanchez (IAA-CSIC/Spain) was named the winner of the 2014 interferometric imaging beauty contest. This process has shown that new comers" can use publicly-available imaging software to interpret VLTI/PIONIER imaging data, as long as sufficient observations are taken to have complete uv coverage { a luxury that is often missing. We urge proposers to request adequate observing nights to collect sufficient data for imaging and for time allocation committees to recognise the importance of uv coverage for reliable interpretation of interferometric data. We believe that the result of the proposed broad international project will contribute to inspiring trust in the image reconstruction processes in optical interferometry.

Lifetimes of charm and beauty hadrons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bellini, G.; Dornan, P.J.

1997-01-01

Major breakthroughs have been achieved in the determination of the lifetimes of charm and beauty hadrons. Much larger data samples than previously have become available and new experimental devices and techniques have been developed and employed. The lifetimes of all weakly decaying singly charmed hadrons have been measured, some with an accuracy of a few percent. The difference in the shortest lifetime - τ(Ω c ) - and the longest one - τ(D + ) - is given by a factor of close to ten. The experimental status of beauty lifetimes, while less complete, has still reached a new level of quality and is now better than 5% for the commoner states. New theoretical tools, based mainly on heavy quark expansions, have been developed; they incorporate as well as transcend earlier phenomenological descriptions. The observed pattern in the charm lifetime ratios is reproduced in a semi-quantitative manner as well as could be expected; as far as the beauty lifetime ratios are concerned some problems may well be emerging. The maturity level achieved in the measurements bodes quite well for future challenges where reliable and efficient tracking of the decay vertices will be crucial. (orig.)

Self Representation Among Dark Skin People Concerning Discourse of Beauty

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Hasty Larasati

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This article aims to see how’s dark skin people perceive the color of their skin either it’s beautiful or ugly. Up until now, being beautiful categorized as those with fair skin, including Indonesian. This is important to be seen because how you represent yourself related to your identity− who you are or how do you want to be seen. Either they are confident with their skin or not, it is their way of self representation which they got from identity negotiation. But, among dark skin people there always be people who confidently represents their identity against the beauty discourse or counter-discourse. Previous literature reviews show there are two reason can cause counter-discourse: recognition and negotiation. Recognition is an act actor does to fight the mainstream discourse, meanwhile negotiation is about negotiating about what they have. My argument here is women can counter the discourse because of negotiation, they have free choice and body autonomy. Also, they have power to counter the discourse by bargaining power. This article uses qualitative research with in-depth interview towards nine female informants with spesific range of age: 16 – 24 because those ages are ages with huge internet usage. Skin tone classification for informant selection is based on Fitzpatrick skin type scale. Research findings show seven from nine informants have done counter the beauty discourse. Informants also explained how their personality or skills could be their bargaining power which made them easier to counter the beauty discourse. Beside that, informant also have done negotiate their identity from accepted the beauty discourse about desirable skin tones, into counter it. The process did not come out of the blue, but also it need both internal and external factors role. Internal factor is self-consciousness about beauty itself while external factors from family, peer or media socialization.

First look at beauty and beauty-jet tagging via secondary vertexing with ALICE in p+p collisions at √S = 7 TeV

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kweon, Minjung

2011-01-01

The heavy flavour single electron data from RHIC indicate strong coupling of heavy quarks to the medium. The LHC extends greatly the kinematic range to high transverse momentum which enables new tests of heavy quark jet dynamics. Jets containing beauty hadrons have distinctive properties from other types of jets, which enhance their clear identification. We first introduce a method to preferentially select electrons from beauty hadron decay by reconstructing secondary vertices and show the results of this approach on simulated data. A preliminary look at the heavy flavour electron analysis and the beauty analysis in p+p collisions at √S = 7 TeV is also presented. (author)

Gender Differences in the Motivational Processing of Facial Beauty

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, Boaz; Ariely, Dan; Mazar, Nina; Chi, Won; Lukas, Scott; Elman, Igor

2008-01-01

Gender may be involved in the motivational processing of facial beauty. This study applied a behavioral probe, known to activate brain motivational regions, to healthy heterosexual subjects. Matched samples of men and women were administered two tasks: (a) key pressing to change the viewing time of average or beautiful female or male facial…

The embodiment of beauty: Evidence from viewing Chinese concrete words and pictographs.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wei; He, Xianyou; Zhao, Xueru; Lai, Siyan; Lai, Shuxian; Situ, Suiyan

2018-02-01

How is beauty embodied? According to the viewpoint of embodied cognition, the aesthetic processing of words or pictographs has roots in their referential archetypes. Four experiments tested whether the beauty of referential archetypes was routinely activated during the explicit and implicit aesthetic evaluations of the font structures of concrete Chinese words and pictographs in congruent or incongruent font colour. Results showed font structures of simplified Chinese words and pictographs were judged to be more beautiful when they referred to beautiful archetypes; and this pattern was reversed when they referred to ugly archetypes. Moreover, judgement was facilitated when font colour was congruent for Chinese words and pictographs referred to beautiful archetypes. For those referred to ugly archetypes, judgement was inhibited in congruent font colour but facilitated in incongruent font colour, suggesting aesthetic perceptions of the font structures of Chinese words and pictographs were derived from their referential natural objects. The spontaneous generation hypothesis of beauty is proposed to account for these findings. © 2016 International Union of Psychological Science.

Hadroproduction and photoproduction of beauty and charm in fixed-target experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Slaughter, J.

1996-01-01

The authors summarize the current experimental situation for charm and beauty production in fixed-target experiments. Particular emphasis is placed on beauty cross-sections and charm pair correlations

Beauty pair production in 600 GeV/c π-emulsion interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lipton, R.

1992-01-01

Nine beauty pairs have been observed by the E653 experiment in 600 GeV/c π-emulsion interactions. The experiment uses a combination of nuclear emulsion and silicon vertex detectors to unambiguously reconstruct decay vertices. A muon trigger was used to select semi-muonic beauty decays for scanning. Results on production characteristics and lifetimes of beauty pairs are presented, for charged and neutral B lifetimes. (R.P.) 2 figs.; 1 tab

The effects of sleep deprivation on dissociable prototype learning systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Maddox, W Todd; Glass, Brian D; Zeithamova, Dagmar; Savarie, Zachary R; Bowen, Christopher; Matthews, Michael D; Schnyer, David M

2011-03-01

The cognitive neural underpinnings of prototype learning are becoming clear. Evidence points to 2 different neural systems, depending on the learning parameters. A/not-A (AN) prototype learning is mediated by posterior brain regions that are involved in early perceptual learning, whereas A/B (AB) is mediated by frontal and medial temporal lobe regions. To investigate the effects of sleep deprivation on AN and AB prototype learning and to use established prototype models to provide insights into the cognitive-processing locus of sleep-deprivation deficits. Participants performed an AN and an AB prototype learning task twice, separated by a 24-hour period, with or without sleep between testing sessions. Eighteen West Point cadets participated in the sleep-deprivation group, and 17 West Point cadets participated in a control group. Sleep deprivation led to an AN, but not an AB, performance deficit. Prototype model analyses indicated that the AN deficit was due to changes in attentional focus and a decrease in confidence that is reflected in an increased bias to respond non-A. The findings suggest that AN, but not AB, prototype learning is affected by sleep deprivation. Prototype model analyses support the notion that the effect of sleep deprivation on AN is consistent with lapses in attentional focus that are more detrimental to AN than to AB. This finding adds to a growing body of work that suggests that different performance changes associated with sleep deprivation can be attributed to a common mechanism of changes in simple attention and vigilance.

On Disinterestedness and Beauty

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Kant, Immanuel

2005-01-01

This article discusses disinterestedness and beauty. To apprehend a regular and appropriate building with one's cognitive faculties, be the mode of representation clear or confused, is quite a different thing from being conscious of this representation with an accompanying sensation of delight. Here the representation is referred wholly to the…

The Beauty of Geometry

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, Barbara H.

2004-01-01

This article describes a geometry project that used the beauty of stained-glass-window designs to teach middle school students about geometric figures and concepts. Three honors prealgebra teachers and a middle school mathematics gifted intervention specialist created a geometry project that covered the curriculum and also assessed students'…

Quantifying the Beauty of Words: A Neurocognitive Poetics Perspective

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Arthur M. Jacobs

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper I would like to pave the ground for future studies in Computational Stylistics and (Neuro-Cognitive Poetics by describing procedures for predicting the subjective beauty of words. A set of eight tentative word features is computed via Quantitative Narrative Analysis (QNA and a novel metric for quantifying word beauty, the aesthetic potential is proposed. Application of machine learning algorithms fed with this QNA data shows that a classifier of the decision tree family excellently learns to split words into beautiful vs. ugly ones. The results shed light on surface and semantic features theoretically relevant for affective-aesthetic processes in literary reading and generate quantitative predictions for neuroaesthetic studies of verbal materials.

Quantifying the Beauty of Words: A Neurocognitive Poetics Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobs, Arthur M

2017-01-01

In this paper I would like to pave the ground for future studies in Computational Stylistics and (Neuro-)Cognitive Poetics by describing procedures for predicting the subjective beauty of words. A set of eight tentative word features is computed via Quantitative Narrative Analysis (QNA) and a novel metric for quantifying word beauty, the aesthetic potential is proposed. Application of machine learning algorithms fed with this QNA data shows that a classifier of the decision tree family excellently learns to split words into beautiful vs. ugly ones. The results shed light on surface and semantic features theoretically relevant for affective-aesthetic processes in literary reading and generate quantitative predictions for neuroaesthetic studies of verbal materials.

Beautiful geometry

CERN Document Server

Maor, Eli

2014-01-01

If you've ever thought that mathematics and art don't mix, this stunning visual history of geometry will change your mind. As much a work of art as a book about mathematics, Beautiful Geometry presents more than sixty exquisite color plates illustrating a wide range of geometric patterns and theorems, accompanied by brief accounts of the fascinating history and people behind each. With artwork by Swiss artist Eugen Jost and text by acclaimed math historian Eli Maor, this unique celebration of geometry covers numerous subjects, from straightedge-and-compass constructions to intriguing configur

Beauty: A Concept with Practical Implications for Teacher Researchers

Science.gov (United States)

Winston, Joe

2011-01-01

Hillman's (2001) simple affirmation that "an idea of beauty is useful, functional, practical" is one this article attempts to pursue with teacher researchers in mind, based on the belief that to move from the "re"pression of beauty to its "ex"pression--or, at the very least, to its articulation--will enlighten rather than distract individuals. The…

Using Actigraphy and mHealth Systems for an Objective Analysis of Sleep Quality on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Balderas-Díaz, Sara; Martínez, M Pilar; Guerrero-Contreras, Gabriel; Miró, Elena; Benghazi, Kawtar; Sánchez, Ana I; Garrido, José Luis; Prados, Germán

2017-03-23

Although sleep alterations can be an important factor contributing to the clinical state of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, there are no studies to adequately assess sleep quality in this type of disease. The aim of this work is to analyse the sleep quality of Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) patients based on more objective information provided by actigraphy and mobile systems. The idea is to carry out a comprehensive study by analysing how environmental conditions and factors can affect sleep quality. In traditional methods the information for assessing sleep quality is obtained through questionnaires. In this work, a novel method is proposed by combining these questionnaires that provide valuable but subjective information with actigraphy and a mobile system to collect more objective information about the patient and their environment. The method provides mechanisms to detect how sleep hygiene could be associated directly with the sleep quality of the subjects, in order to provide a custom intervention to SLE patients. Moreover, this alternative provides ease of use, and non-intrusive ICT (Information and Communication Technology) through a wristband and a mHealth system. The mHealth system has been developed for environmental conditions sensing. This consists of a mobile device with built-in sensors providing input data about the bedroom environment during sleep, and a set of services of the Environmental Monitoring System for properly managing the configuration, registration and fusion of those input data. In previous studies, this information has never been taken into account. However, the information could be relevant in the case of SLE patients. The sample is composed of 9 women with SLE and 11 matched controls with a mean age of 35.78 and 32.18, respectively. Demographic and clinical variables between SLE patients and healthy controls are compared using the Fisher exact test and the Mann-Whitney U test. Relationships between psychological variables

Charmed and beauty baryon in hyper central model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patel, Bhavin; Vinodkumar, P.C.; Rai, Ajay Kumar

2006-01-01

For the present study the hyper central description of the three-body problem has been employed for the baryons constituting one or more charm and beauty quarks. The confinement potential is assumed in the hyper central co-ordinates as hyper central coulomb plus power potential. The charm and beauty baryons under this potential has been studied for different power indices starting from 0.5 to 2.0. The methods and results are briefly described

Mating motives are neither necessary nor sufficient to create the beauty premium.

Science.gov (United States)

Hafenbrädl, Sebastian; Dana, Jason

2017-01-01

Mating motives lead decision makers to favor attractive people, but this favoritism is not sufficient to create a beauty premium in competitive settings. Further, economic approaches to discrimination, when correctly characterized, could neatly accommodate the experimental and field evidence of a beauty premium. Connecting labor economics and evolutionary psychology is laudable, but mating motives do not explain the beauty premium.

A Comparative Study between SVM and Fuzzy Inference System for the Automatic Prediction of Sleep Stages and the Assessment of Sleep Quality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Gialelis

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This paper compares two supervised learning algorithms for predicting the sleep stages based on the human brain activity. The first step of the presented work regards feature extraction from real human electroencephalography (EEG data together with its corresponding sleep stages that are utilized for training a support vector machine (SVM, and a fuzzy inference system (FIS algorithm. Then, the trained algorithms are used to predict the sleep stages of real human patients. Extended comparison results are demonstrated which indicate that both classifiers could be utilized as a basis for an unobtrusive sleep quality assessment.

Introducing a "Balance" in The BSC Through Beauty and Love

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ari Kamayanti

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Celebrating the seventeenth anniversary of the Balanced Score Card (BSC since it was born in 1992, this paper revisits its concept as one of the landmarks in performance measurement. The BSC turns out to be ‘not so balanced’ since it lacks certain beauty and love. It hinges on accountability for certain interests when measuring performance, negating or putting other interests as minority. Thus, it fits perfectly with the aim of management accounting that puts managers and customers as priorities. The imbalances comes from secularism and overemphasis in rationalism. Sustainability that becomes the current issue nowadays would not be supported by such performance measurement. In order to insert this balance, a methodology by taking a methapor of nurturing mother is applied in this research that encompasses gentle beauty and subtle love. Gentle beauty refers to a complete harmony of beauty : irrational and the rational; this means introducing those that have been left out in the name of rationality such as religions and spiritualism. Subtle love refers to love towards God that is expressed subtly without lust to overpower. The result is a more balanced set of performance measurements that are filled with beauty and love, insyaAllah.

Using deep learning to quantify the beauty of outdoor places.

Science.gov (United States)

Seresinhe, Chanuki Illushka; Preis, Tobias; Moat, Helen Susannah

2017-07-01

Beautiful outdoor locations are protected by governments and have recently been shown to be associated with better health. But what makes an outdoor space beautiful? Does a beautiful outdoor location differ from an outdoor location that is simply natural? Here, we explore whether ratings of over 200 000 images of Great Britain from the online game Scenic-Or-Not , combined with hundreds of image features extracted using the Places Convolutional Neural Network, might help us understand what beautiful outdoor spaces are composed of. We discover that, as well as natural features such as 'Coast', 'Mountain' and 'Canal Natural', man-made structures such as 'Tower', 'Castle' and 'Viaduct' lead to places being considered more scenic. Importantly, while scenes containing 'Trees' tend to rate highly, places containing more bland natural green features such as 'Grass' and 'Athletic Fields' are considered less scenic. We also find that a neural network can be trained to automatically identify scenic places, and that this network highlights both natural and built locations. Our findings demonstrate how online data combined with neural networks can provide a deeper understanding of what environments we might find beautiful and offer quantitative insights for policymakers charged with design and protection of our built and natural environments.

Wireless nanosensor system for diagnosis of sleep disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Ramasamy, Mouli; Varadan, Vijay K.

2016-04-01

A good night's sleep plays a vital role in physical and mental wellbeing by performing the recuperative function for the brain and the body. Notwithstanding the fact that, good sleep is an essential part of a person's life, an increasing number of people are experiencing sleep disorders and loss of sleep. According to the research by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders and sleep deprivation. Although sleep disorder is a highly prevalent condition like diabetes or asthma, 80 to 90 percent of the cases remain undiagnosed. The short-term effects of sleep disorder are morning headaches, excessive daytime sleepiness, shot-term memory loss and depression, but the cumulative long-term effects result in severe health consequences like heart attacks and strokes. In addition, people suffering from sleep disorders are 7.5 times more likely to have a higher body mass index and 2.5 times more likely to have diabetes. Further, undiagnosed and untreated sleep disorders have a significant direct and indirect economic impact. The costs associated with untreated sleep disorders are far higher than the costs for adequate treatment. According to the survey, approximately 16 billion of dollars are spent on medical expenses associated with repeated doctor visits, prescriptions and medications.

Reorganization of neuronal circuits of the central olfactory system during postprandial sleep

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Masahiro eYamaguchi

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Plastic changes in neuronal circuits often occur in association with specific behavioral states. In this review, we focus on an emerging view that neuronal circuits in the olfactory system are reorganized along the wake-sleep cycle. Olfaction is crucial to sustaining the animals’ life, and odor-guided behaviors have to be newly acquired or updated to successfully cope with a changing odor world. It is therefore likely that neuronal circuits in the olfactory system are highly plastic and undergo repeated reorganization in daily life. A remarkably plastic feature of the olfactory system is that newly generated neurons are continually integrated into neuronal circuits of the olfactory bulb (OB throughout life. New neurons in the OB undergo an extensive selection process, during which many are eliminated by apoptosis for the fine tuning of neuronal circuits. The life and death decision of new neurons occurs extensively during a short time window of sleep after food consumption (postprandial sleep, a typical daily olfactory behavior. We review recent studies that explain how olfactory information is transferred between the OB and the olfactory cortex (OC along the course of the wake-sleep cycle. Olfactory sensory input is effectively transferred from the OB to the OC during waking, while synchronized top-down inputs from the OC to the OB are promoted during the slow-wave sleep. We discuss possible neuronal circuit mechanisms for the selection of new neurons in the OB, which involves the encoding of olfactory sensory inputs and memory trace formation during waking and internally generated activities in the OC and OB during subsequent sleep. The plastic changes in the OB and OC are well coordinated along the course of olfactory behavior during wakefulness and postbehavioral rest and sleep. We therefore propose that the olfactory system provides an excellent model in which to understand behavioral state-dependent plastic mechanisms of the neuronal

The effect of bedding system selected by manual muscle testing on sleep-related cardiovascular functions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuo, Terry B J; Li, Jia-Yi; Lai, Chun-Ting; Huang, Yu-Chun; Hsu, Ya-Chuan; Yang, Cheryl C H

2013-01-01

Different types of mattresses affect sleep quality and waking muscle power. Whether manual muscle testing (MMT) predicts the cardiovascular effects of the bedding system was explored using ten healthy young men. For each participant, two bedding systems, one inducing the strongest limb muscle force (strong bedding system) and the other inducing the weakest limb force (weak bedding system), were identified using MMT. Each bedding system, in total five mattresses and eight pillows of different firmness, was used for two continuous weeks at the participant's home in a random and double-blind sequence. A sleep log, a questionnaire, and a polysomnography were used to differentiate the two bedding systems. Heart rate variability and arterial pressure variability analyses showed that the strong bedding system resulted in decreased cardiovascular sympathetic modulation, increased cardiac vagal activity, and increased baroreceptor reflex sensitivity during sleep as compared to the weak bedding system. Different bedding systems have distinct cardiovascular effects during sleep that can be predicted by MMT.

Instrumentation for the analysis of respiratory system disorders during sleep: Design and application

Science.gov (United States)

de Melo, Pedro Lopes; de Andrade Lemes, Lucas Neves

2002-11-01

Sleep breathing disorders are estimated to be present in 2%-4% of middle-aged adults. Serious adverse consequences, such as systemic arterial hypertension, myocardial infraction, and cerebrovascular disease, can be related to these conditions. Intellectual deficits associated with attention, memory, and problem-solving have also been associated with a poor quality of sleep. The main causes of these disorders are obstructions resulting from repetitive narrowing and closure of the pharyngeal airway, which have been monitored by indirect measurements of temperature, displacement, and other highly invasive procedures. The measurement of mechanical impedance of the respiratory system by the forced oscillation technique (FOT) has recently been suggested to quantify the respiratory obstruction during sleep. It is claimed that the noninvasive and dynamic characteristics of this technique would allow a noninvasive and accurate analysis of these events. In spite of this high scientific and clinical potential, there is no detailed description of a complete instrumentation system to implement this promising technique in sleep studies. In this context, the purpose of this study was twofold: (1) describe the development of a new computer-based system for identification of the mechanical impedance of the respiratory system during sleep by the FOT and (2) evaluate the performance of this device in the description of respiratory events in conditions including no, mild, serious disease, and therapeutic procedures. These evaluations confirmed the desirable features achieved in laboratory tests and the high scientific and clinical potential of this system.

Stress and strategic decision-making in the beauty contest game.

Science.gov (United States)

Leder, Johannes; Häusser, Jan Alexander; Mojzisch, Andreas

2013-09-01

Often, economic decisions do not only depend on one's own preferences, but also on the choices of others and therefore require strategizing (i.e., thinking about what others might think). In experimental economics, this has been modeled by the beauty contest game. Another typical feature of economic decisions is that they are often carried out under stress. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to examine the influence of stress on decision-making in the beauty contest game. Participants were randomly assigned to either the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G) or a placebo version of the TSST-G (control condition). Then, participants played four rounds of a standard beauty contest game. As a biomarker of stress, salivary cortisol was measured. As predicted, participants under stress chose higher numbers in the beauty contest game than non-stressed participants, indicating less strategizing. This effect was mediated by the stress-induced increase in cortisol. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Beautiful Math, Part 5: Colorful Archimedean Tilings from Dynamical Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Ouyang, Peichang; Zhao, Weiguo; Huang, Xuan

2015-01-01

The art of tiling originated very early in the history of civilization. Almost every known human society has made use of tilings in some form or another. In particular, tilings using only regular polygons have great visual appeal. Decorated regular tilings with continuous and symmetrical patterns were widely used in decoration field, such as mosaics, pavements, and brick walls. In science, these tilings provide inspiration for synthetic organic chemistry. Building on previous CG&A “Beautiful Math” articles, the authors propose an invariant mapping method to create colorful patterns on Archimedean tilings (1-uniform tilings). The resulting patterns simultaneously have global crystallographic symmetry and local cyclic or dihedral symmetry.

[Esthetic nutrition: body and beauty enhancement through nutritional care].

Science.gov (United States)

Witt, Juliana da Silveira Gonçalves Zanini; Schnider, Aline Petter

2011-09-01

Nowadays, there is an increasing quest for beauty and the models proposed by fashion goods and service segments, to achieve the perfect body. The standard of beauty corresponds to a thin body, without considering health aspects. The number of women who go on diets to control weight is increasing; and taking this into consideration the objective of this study is to conduct a bibliographical review and extract data on esthetics and body image to support the practice of nutritional care. Socio-cultural aspects, which motivate the quest for the perfect body, as well as body, beauty, esthetics, nutritional counseling and cognitive behavior therapy were examined in this survey. On the basis of this work, it is possible to conclude that the continuing obsession with the body may lead the person to go on diets and other drastic methods to control weight, such as surgical procedures. In this respect, nutritional care is far more than merely recommending a standard diet or giving information, as it represents providing an effective model for nutritional reeducation, prioritizing improvement in the style and quality of life. This article provides data about enhancing esthetics and beauty by means of appropriate nutrition.

The Oval Female Facial Shape--A Study in Beauty.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodman, Greg J

2015-12-01

Our understanding of who is beautiful seems to be innate but has been argued to conform to mathematical principles and proportions. One aspect of beauty is facial shape that is gender specific. In women, an oval facial shape is considered attractive. To study the facial shape of beautiful actors, pageant title winners, and performers across ethnicities and in different time periods and to construct an ideal oval shape based on the average of their facial shape dimensions. Twenty-one full-face photographs of purportedly beautiful female actors, performers, and pageant winners were analyzed and an oval constructed from their facial parameters. Only 3 of the 21 faces were totally symmetrical, with the most larger in the left upper and lower face. The average oval was subsequently constructed from an average bizygomatic distance (horizontal parameter) of 4.3 times their intercanthal distance (ICD) and a vertical dimension that averaged 6.3 times their ICD. This average oval could be fitted to many of the individual subjects showing a smooth flow from the forehead through temples, cheeks, jaw angle, jawline, and chin with all these facial aspects abutting the oval. Where they did not abut, treatment may have improved these subjects.

"Soccer": The Beautiful Game

Science.gov (United States)

Spires, Todd

2008-01-01

Soccer, or football as it is called in the rest of the world, is the most popular and fastest-growing global sport, with an estimated 240 million people regularly playing what Brazilian star Pele called "the beautiful game." Millions, worldwide, watch it on television. In 2006, the average viewership for each match of the month-long World Cup was…

Beauty in photoproduction at HERA II with the ZEUS detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boutle, Sarah

2010-02-01

The production of beauty quarks in ep collisions should be accurately calculable in perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) since the large mass of the b quark provides a hard scale. Therefore it is interesting to compare such predictions to results using photoproduction events where a low-virtuality photon, emitted by the incoming lepton, collides with a parton from the incoming proton. A measurement of beauty in photoproduction has been made at HERA with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 126 pb - 1. Beauty was identified in events with a muon in the final state by using the transverse momentum of the muon relative to the closest jet. Lifetime information from the silicon vertex detector was also used; the impact parameter of the muon with respect to the primary vertex was exploited to discriminate between signal and background. Cross sections for beauty production as a function of the muon and the jet variables were measured and compared to QCD predictions and to previous measurements. The data were found to be well described by the predictions from next-to-leading-order QCD. The dijet sample of beauty photoproduction events was also used to study higher-order QCD topologies. At leading order, the two jets in the event are produced back-to-back in azimuthal angle, such that Δφ jj =φ j1 -φ j2 =π. Additional soft radiation causes small azimuthal decorrelations, whilst Δφ jj significantly lower than π is evidence of additional hard radiation. In this thesis, the cross section versus Δφ jj for beauty photoproduction and the comparison to NLO QCD predictions and Monte Carlo models are presented. (orig.)

Computers, pattern, chaos and beauty

CERN Document Server

Pickover, Clifford A

1980-01-01

Combining fractal theory with computer art, this book introduces a creative use of computers. It describes graphic methods for detecting patterns in complicated data and illustrates simple techniques for visualizing chaotic behavior. ""Beautiful."" - Martin Gardner, Scientific American. Over 275 illustrations, 29 in color.

Sleep-monitoring, experiment M133. [electronic recording system for automatic analysis of human sleep patterns

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, J. D., Jr.; Salamy, J. G.

1973-01-01

The Skylab sleep-monitoring experiment simulated the timelines and environment expected during a 56-day Skylab mission. Two crewmembers utilized the data acquisition and analysis hardware, and their sleep characteristics were studied in an online fashion during a number of all night recording sessions. Comparison of the results of online automatic analysis with those of postmission visual data analysis was favorable, confirming the feasibility of obtaining reliable objective information concerning sleep characteristics during the Skylab missions. One crewmember exhibited definite changes in certain sleep characteristics (e.g., increased sleep latency, increased time Awake during first third of night, and decreased total sleep time) during the mission.

Betel Nut Beauty in Taiwan: Chinese Tourists- Perspective

OpenAIRE

Shwu-Huey Wang; Hsiu-Yuan Wang

2013-01-01

Tourists- eyes will often be attracted by the unique phenomenon of the roadsides: betel nut beauties (pronounced as binlang xishi in Mandarin), if they drive on the roads of Taiwan. Sitting in the neon-lit glass stalls with attractive dress on the roadsides, betel nut beauties usually sell betel nuts to the passing truckers or car drivers with much of their efforts. Moreover, in order to attract peoples- eyesight and increase the sales volume, the young girls are in skimp...

Beauty and charm production in fixed target experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kidonakis, Nikolaos; Vogt, Ramona

2004-01-01

We present calculations of NNLO threshold corrections for beauty and charm production in π - p and pp interactions at fixed-target experiments. Recent calculations for heavy quark hadroproduction have included next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) soft-gluon corrections [1] to the double differential cross section from threshold resummation techniques [2]. These corrections are important for near-threshold beauty and charm production at fixed-target experiments, including HERA-B and some of the current and future heavy ion experiments

SPA (Solus per Aqua) service industry: An entrepeneurship opportunity to beauty education department

Science.gov (United States)

Marwiyah, Apriyani, Delta

2018-03-01

Beauty industry grows vastly in the scope of regional, national, or international. Beauty industry includes Spa service. It becomes one of the choices where the urban citizen can use it to release their stress and relax their mind. This business grows as the development of technology. Spa industry should be able to provide the best service for physical and mental therapy, it will make the user of the service can be freed from their business and stress in the respective time to be healthies, more beautiful, and able to do their activity maximally. Spa treatment consists of hair creambath, facial treatment, manicure-pedicure, scrub treatment, foot spa, aromatherapy, and body treatment with traditional cosmetics which are easy to get in Indonesia. Beauty education is one of the programs in Home Economics Department of Engineering Faculty of UNNES. This program was established to produce graduates in beauty fields as Vocational High School teachers with bachelor (S1) qualification. The graduates suppose to be excellent, professional, skillful, and care to the environment, culture, and social condition around them. It prepares them as teachers of beauty (in formal and non- formal education). Besides, it also prepared them to have professional competence in production fields of beauty service with adaptive, creative, and innovative which can be entrepreneurs who are able to create job vacancies for others. Beauty education used KKNI- based curriculum, which is oriented to Industry and Working Fields with UNNES' Conservation basis. It provided the students a chance to practive their knowledge in working internship program, study field trip, and teaching practice program. The industry of Spa service provides a big chance to become an entrepreneur, create a working field, and help the government reduce unemployment number, whether from beauty education graduates or from vocational high school students

Study of charm and beauty production at HERA/H1 using dilepton events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goettlich, M.

2007-04-01

A measurement is presented which investigates the production of charm and beauty quarks in ep collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 318 GeV. Data taken by the H1 detector at the HERA collider in the years 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2005 are analysed. The collected data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 221.6 pb -1 . This is the rst measurement of charm and beauty cross sections using HERA II data. Events with two or more jets of transverse momentum p t >5(4) GeV in the polar angular range 20 t >2(1) GeV in the polar angular ranges 30 1 2 2 2 , and for inelasticities 0.1 t rel of the leptons with respect to the jet they are associated to and the charge and angle correlation of the leptons are exploited to extract the fractions of charm and beauty events on a statistical basis. For the first time at H1, visible charm and beauty cross sections for the production of dijet and dilepton events are determined: σ(ep→ec anti cX→ejjμeX ' )=4.6±1.0(stat.)±0.5(sys.) pb, σ(ep→ec anti cX→ejjμμX ' )=2.7 ±0.9(stat.)±0.3(sys.) pb, σ(ep→eb anti bX→ejjμeX ' )=9.4±1.2(stat.)±0.9(sys.) pb, and σ(ep →eb anti bX→ejjμμX ' )=10.4 ± 1.5(stat.) ± 1.0(sys.) pb. To gain a deeper understanding of dilepton correlations in beauty events, differential dilepton cross sections are determined using the observable p t rel alone. The invariant mass m(μl), the transverse momentum p t (μl), the polar angle θ(μl) and the charge and angle correlation vertical stroke Δφ(μ 1 ,l 2 ) vertical stroke x Q(μ 1 ) x Q(l 2 ) of the dilepton system are investigated. In addition, differential jet cross sections are determined. The measurements are compared with leading order QCD calculations, supplemented with parton showers. The charm cross sections are consistent with the predictions, while the predicted beauty cross sections are somewhat lower than the measurement. The predicted differential beauty cross sections describe the shape of the measurements. (orig.)

The effects of atmospheric optical conditions on perceived scenic beauty

Science.gov (United States)

Latimer, Douglas A.; Hogo, Henry; Daniel, Terry C.

This paper describes the results from the first year of a currently on-going study, the objective of which is to investigate the relationships between atmospheric optical conditions and human perceptions of scenic beauty. Color photographs and atmospheric optical measurements, using telephotometers and nephelometers, were taken in the western U.S.A. (Grand Canyon National Park and Mt. Lemmon near Tucson, Arizona) and in the eastern United States (Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah national parks). Over 1300 individual observers rated color slides for either visual air quality or scenic beauty using a 10-point rating scale. Ratings were transformed to indices using standard psychophysical techniques. Relationships between these perceptual indices and physical parameters characteristic of the given landscape represented in the color slides were investigated using scatter plots, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression. Physical parameters included visual range, horizon sky chromaticity and luminance, solar zenith and scattering angles, and cloud conditions. Results show that observers' ratings of visual air quality and scenic beauty are sensitive to visual range, sky color, and scattering angle. However, in some of the areas investigated, scenic beauty ratings were not affected by changes in visual range. The sensitivity of the scenic beauty of a vista to changes in the extinction coefficient may be useful for establishing visibility goals and priorities.

THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF SLEEP AND WAKEFULNESS

Science.gov (United States)

Schwartz, Michael D.; Kilduff, Thomas S.

2015-01-01

SYNOPSIS Since the discovery of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep in the late 1950s, identification of the neural circuitry underlying wakefulness, sleep onset and the alternation between REM and non-REM (NREM) sleep has been an active area of investigation. Synchronization and desynchronization of cortical activity as detected in the electroencephalogram (EEG) is due to a corticothalamocortical loop, intrinsic cortical oscillators, monoaminergic and cholinergic afferent input to the thalamus, and the basal forebrain cholinergic input directly to the cortex. The monoaminergic and cholinergic systems are largely wake-promoting; the brainstem cholinergic nuclei are also involved in REM sleep regulation. These wake-promoting systems receive excitatory input from the hypothalamic hypocretin/orexin system. Sleep-promoting nuclei are GABAergic in nature and found in the preoptic area, brainstem and lateral hypothalamus. Although the pons is critical for the expression of REM sleep, recent research has suggested that melanin-concentrating hormone/GABAergic cells in the lateral hypothalamus "gate" REM sleep. The temporal distribution of sleep and wakefulness is due to interaction between the circadian system and the sleep homeostatic system. Although the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei contain the circadian pacemaker, the neural circuitry underlying the sleep homeostat is less clear. Prolonged wakefulness results in the accumulation of extracellular adenosine, possibly from glial sources, which is an important feedback molecule for the sleep homeostatic system. Cortical neuronal nitric oxide (nNOS) neurons may also play a role in propagating slow waves through the cortex in NREM sleep. Several neuropeptides and other neurochemicals likely play important roles in sleep/wake control. Although the control of sleep and wakefulness seemingly involves multiple redundant systems, each of these systems provides a vulnerability that can result in sleep/wake dysfunction that may

Direct observation of the decay of beauty particles into charm particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Albanese, J.P.; Alpe, V.; Aoki, S.; Arnold, R.; Baroni, G.; Barth, M.; Bartley, J.H.; Bertrand, D.; Bertrand-Coremans, G.; Bisi, V.; Breslin, A.C.; Carboni, G.; Chesi, E.; Chiba, K.; Cook, G.S.; Coupland, M.; Crosetti, G.; Davis, D.H.; Dell'Uomo, S.; Di Liberto, S.; Bonnelly, W.; Duff, B.G.; Esten, M.J.; Gamba, D.; Gerke, C.; Hazama, M.; Heymann, F.F.; Hoshino, K.; Imrie, D.C.; Isokane, Y.; Kazuno, M.; Kodama, Y.; Lush, G.J.; Maeda, Y.; Marzari-Chiesa, A.; Mazzoni, M.A.; Meddi, F.; Miyanishi, M.; Montwill, A.; Muciaccia, M.T.; Musset, P.; Nakamura, M.; Nakazawa, K.; Natali, S.; Niu, K.; Niwa, K.; Nuzzo, S.; Ohashi, M.; Piuz, F.; Poulard, G.; Ramello, L.; Riccati, L.; Romano, G.; Roosen, R.; Rosa, G.; Ruggieri, F.; Sato, Y.; Sasaki, H.; Sgarbi, C.; Shibuya, H.; Simone, S.; Sletten, H.; Tasaka, S.; Tesuka, I.; Tomita, Y.; Tovee, D.N.; Trent, P.; Tsuneoka, Y.; Ushida, N.; Yamakawa, O.; Yanagisawa, Y.; Aichi Women's Coll., Nisshin-Cho; Bari Univ.; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Bari; Birkbeck Coll., London; Interuniversity Inst. for High Energies, Brussels; European Organization for Nuclear Research, Geneva; University Coll., Dublin; Gifu Univ.; University Coll., London; Nagoya Univ.; Nagoya Inst. of Tech.; Rome Univ.; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Rome; Toho Univ., Funabashi, Chiba; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Turin; Turin Univ.; Utsunomiya Univ.; Yokohama National Univ.

1985-01-01

The associated production of a pair of beauty particles B - and anti B 0 by a 350 GeV π - interaction has been observed in an emulsion target inserted in an array of silicon microstrip detectors. Both beauty particles decay into charm particles, both of which are also observed to decay in the emulsion. Two negative muons were identified and their momenta measured in a large muon spectrometer. One muon has a psub(T) of 1.9 GeV/c and is associated with a beauty particle decay. The other, with a psub(T) of 0.45 GeV/c is associated with a charm particle decay. The flight times of the two beauty particles are respectively (0.8+-0.1).10 -13 s and (5sub(-1) +2 ).10 -13 s. Alternative interpretations of this event have negligible probability. (orig.)

Presence, Mourning, and Beauty: Elements of Analytic Process.

Science.gov (United States)

Markman, Henry C

2017-12-01

Analyst and patient occasionally arrive at moments of heightened meaning and aliveness. These moments can be transformative and lead to psychic change in the patient. They give life and arouse hope, and feel "real" in a new way, though often entailing emotional turbulence. Specific internal work must be done by the analyst to allow for and foster these experiences. This involves a kind of mourning process in the analyst that allows for "presence" and "availability" as described by Gabriel Marcel, and for the "at-one-ment" described by Bion. These transforming moments can be viewed in an aesthetic realm, along the lines of Keats's "Beauty is truth, truth beauty." This embodies the analytic value of emotional truth. These moments are shared and their emergence is an intersubjective creation. Clinical illustrations show how the internal work of mourning by the analyst through directed introspection allows for presence and availability, and then for shared moments of beauty with the patient.

Ontological-epistemological views of the beautiful Byzantine aesthetics

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Vilić Nataša

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The paper approaches the ontological-epistemology aspects of the beauty of Byzantine art. Byzantine aesthetics and Byzantine art are unjustly neglected in the history of aesthetic thought. Christian aestheticians have an ambivalent attitude towards art. Because, Byzantine painting represents reality show based on the Christians view, where absolutizs a new dimension of spirituality and aesthetics deriving from the ontological-epistemological positions. The phenomenon of beauty in Byzantine art is primarily deposited in epistemological components, where everything is directed to the knowledge of the truth. In Byzantine art beauty has, above all, spiritual character; it does not have a classical aesthetic dimension, but primarily because the ontological character is recognized as one of the innumerable divine energies and of phenomena. The Byzantine painter makes an effort to realize the creative transformation of matter into a unique experience community and relationship with God, who volatility of the world beyond the ontological light that is converted from non-being into being.

Sleep Deprivation Impairs the Human Central and Peripheral Nervous System Discrimination of Social Threat.

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Goldstein-Piekarski, Andrea N; Greer, Stephanie M; Saletin, Jared M; Walker, Matthew P

2015-07-15

Facial expressions represent one of the most salient cues in our environment. They communicate the affective state and intent of an individual and, if interpreted correctly, adaptively influence the behavior of others in return. Processing of such affective stimuli is known to require reciprocal signaling between central viscerosensory brain regions and peripheral-autonomic body systems, culminating in accurate emotion discrimination. Despite emerging links between sleep and affective regulation, the impact of sleep loss on the discrimination of complex social emotions within and between the CNS and PNS remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate in humans that sleep deprivation impairs both viscerosensory brain (anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala) and autonomic-cardiac discrimination of threatening from affiliative facial cues. Moreover, sleep deprivation significantly degrades the normally reciprocal associations between these central and peripheral emotion-signaling systems, most prominent at the level of cardiac-amygdala coupling. In addition, REM sleep physiology across the sleep-rested night significantly predicts the next-day success of emotional discrimination within this viscerosensory network across individuals, suggesting a role for REM sleep in affective brain recalibration. Together, these findings establish that sleep deprivation compromises the faithful signaling of, and the "embodied" reciprocity between, viscerosensory brain and peripheral autonomic body processing of complex social signals. Such impairments hold ecological relevance in professional contexts in which the need for accurate interpretation of social cues is paramount yet insufficient sleep is pervasive. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/3510135-11$15.00/0.

Predicting beauty: fractal dimension and visual complexity in art.

Science.gov (United States)

Forsythe, A; Nadal, M; Sheehy, N; Cela-Conde, C J; Sawey, M

2011-02-01

Visual complexity has been known to be a significant predictor of preference for artistic works for some time. The first study reported here examines the extent to which perceived visual complexity in art can be successfully predicted using automated measures of complexity. Contrary to previous findings the most successful predictor of visual complexity was Gif compression. The second study examined the extent to which fractal dimension could account for judgments of perceived beauty. The fractal dimension measure accounts for more of the variance in judgments of perceived beauty in visual art than measures of visual complexity alone, particularly for abstract and natural images. Results also suggest that when colour is removed from an artistic image observers are unable to make meaningful judgments as to its beauty. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

Euler's pioneering equation the most beautiful theorem in mathematics

CERN Document Server

Wilson, Robin

2018-01-01

In 1988 The Mathematical Intelligencer, a quarterly mathematics journal, carried out a poll to find the most beautiful theorem in mathematics. Twenty-four theorems were listed and readers were invited to award each a 'score for beauty'. While there were many worthy competitors, the winner was 'Euler's equation'. In 2004 Physics World carried out a similar poll of 'greatest equations', and found that among physicists Euler's mathematical result came second only to Maxwell's equations. The Stanford mathematician Keith Devlin reflected the feelings of many in describing it as "like a Shakespearian sonnet that captures the very essence of love, or a painting which brings out the beauty of the human form that is far more than just skin deep, Euler's equation reaches down into the very depths of existence."

A Beautiful Spin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ji Xiangdong

2003-01-01

Spin is a beautiful concept that plays an ever important role in modern physics. In this talk, I start with a discussion of the origin of spin, and then turn to three themes in which spin has been crucial in subatomic physics: a lab to explore physics beyond the standard model, a tool to measure physical observables that are hard to obtain otherwise, a probe to unravel nonperturbative QCD. I conclude with some remarks on a world without spin

Small is beautiful

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schumacher, E.F.

1973-01-01

The author feels that ''an almost universal idolatry of gigantism'' has caused the urgent crisis of today's society. The book expresses his philosophy of the beauty of thinking in less grandiose terms. He offers some smaller-scale yet highly feasible solutions to many of the problems created by bigness--the environmental crisis, the energy shortage, the dehumanization of industrial workers, the flight from rural areas, and the decay of cities. (MCW)

Measurement of charm and beauty photoproduction at HERA using Dμ correlations

Science.gov (United States)

H1 Collaboration; Aktas, A.; Andreev, V.; Anthonis, T.; Aplin, S.; Asmone, A.; Astvatsatourov, A.; Babaev, A.; Backovic, S.; Bähr, J.; Baghdasaryan, A.; Baranov, P.; Barrelet, E.; Bartel, W.; Baudrand, S.; Baumgartner, S.; Becker, J.; Beckingham, M.; Behnke, O.; Behrendt, O.; Belousov, A.; Berger, Ch.; Berger, N.; Bizot, J. C.; Boenig, M.-O.; Boudry, V.; Bracinik, J.; Brandt, G.; Brisson, V.; Brown, D. P.; Bruncko, D.; Büsser, F. W.; Bunyatyan, A.; Buschhorn, G.; Bystritskaya, L.; Campbell, A. J.; Caron, S.; Cassol-Brunner, F.; Cerny, K.; Cerny, V.; Chekelian, V.; Contreras, J. G.; Coughlan, J. A.; Cox, B. E.; Cozzika, G.; Cvach, J.; Dainton, J. B.; Dau, W. D.; Daum, K.; Delcourt, B.; Demirchyan, R.; de Roeck, A.; Desch, K.; de Wolf, E. A.; Diaconu, C.; Dodonov, V.; Dubak, A.; Eckerlin, G.; Efremenko, V.; Egli, S.; Eichler, R.; Eisele, F.; Ellerbrock, M.; Elsen, E.; Erdmann, W.; Essenov, S.; Falkewicz, A.; Faulkner, P. J. W.; Favart, L.; Fedotov, A.; Felst, R.; Ferencei, J.; Finke, L.; Fleischer, M.; Fleischmann, P.; Fleming, Y. H.; Flucke, G.; Fomenko, A.; Foresti, I.; Formánek, J.; Franke, G.; Frising, G.; Frisson, T.; Gabathuler, E.; Garutti, E.; Gayler, J.; Gerhards, R.; Gerlich, C.; Ghazaryan, S.; Ginzburgskaya, S.; Glazov, A.; Glushkov, I.; Goerlich, L.; Goettlich, M.; Gogitidze, N.; Gorbounov, S.; Goyon, C.; Grab, C.; Greenshaw, T.; Gregori, M.; Grindhammer, G.; Gwilliam, C.; Haidt, D.; Hajduk, L.; Haller, J.; Hansson, M.; Heinzelmann, G.; Henderson, R. C. W.; Henschel, H.; Henshaw, O.; Herrera, G.; Hildebrandt, M.; Hiller, K. H.; Hoffmann, D.; Horisberger, R.; Hovhannisyan, A.; Ibbotson, M.; Ismail, M.; Jacquet, M.; Janauschek, L.; Janssen, X.; Jemanov, V.; Jönsson, L.; Johnson, D. P.; Jung, H.; Kapichine, M.; Karlsson, M.; Katzy, J.; Keller, N.; Kenyon, I. R.; Kiesling, C.; Klein, M.; Kleinwort, C.; Klimkovich, T.; Kluge, T.; Knies, G.; Knutsson, A.; Korbel, V.; Kostka, P.; Koutouev, R.; Krastev, K.; Kretzschmar, J.; Kropivnitskaya, A.; Krüger, K.; Kückens, J.; Landon, M. P. J.; Lange, W.; Laštovička, T.; Laycock, P.; Lebedev, A.; Leißner, B.; Lendermann, V.; Levonian, S.; Lindfeld, L.; Lipka, K.; List, B.; Lobodzinska, E.; Loktionova, N.; Lopez-Fernandez, R.; Lubimov, V.; Lucaci-Timoce, A.-I.; Lueders, H.; Lüke, D.; Lux, T.; Lytkin, L.; Makankine, A.; Malden, N.; Malinovski, E.; Mangano, S.; Marage, P.; Marshall, R.; Martisikova, M.; Martyn, H.-U.; Maxfield, S. J.; Meer, D.; Mehta, A.; Meier, K.; Meyer, A. B.; Meyer, H.; Meyer, J.; Mikocki, S.; Milcewicz-Mika, I.; Milstead, D.; Mohamed, A.; Moreau, F.; Morozov, A.; Morris, J. V.; Mozer, M. U.; Müller, K.; Murín, P.; Nankov, K.; Naroska, B.; Naumann, J.; Naumann, Th.; Newman, P. R.; Niebuhr, C.; Nikiforov, A.; Nikitin, D.; Nowak, G.; Nozicka, M.; Oganezov, R.; Olivier, B.; Olsson, J. E.; Osman, S.; Ozerov, D.; Palichik, V.; Papadopoulou, T.; Pascaud, C.; Patel, G. D.; Peez, M.; Perez, E.; Perez-Astudillo, D.; Perieanu, A.; Petrukhin, A.; Pitzl, D.; Plačakytė, R.; Portheault, B.; Povh, B.; Prideaux, P.; Raicevic, N.; Reimer, P.; Rimmer, A.; Risler, C.; Rizvi, E.; Robmann, P.; Roland, B.; Roosen, R.; Rostovtsev, A.; Rurikova, Z.; Rusakov, S.; Salvaire, F.; Sankey, D. P. C.; Sauvan, E.; Schätzel, S.; Schilling, F.-P.; Schmidt, S.; Schmitt, S.; Schmitz, C.; Schoeffel, L.; Schöning, A.; Schröder, V.; Schultz-Coulon, H.-C.; Schwanenberger, C.; Sedlák, K.; Sefkow, F.; Sheviakov, I.; Shtarkov, L. N.; Sirois, Y.; Sloan, T.; Smirnov, P.; Soloviev, Y.; South, D.; Spaskov, V.; Specka, A.; Stella, B.; Stiewe, J.; Strauch, I.; Straumann, U.; Tchoulakov, V.; Thompson, G.; Thompson, P. D.; Tomasz, F.; Traynor, D.; Truöl, P.; Tsakov, I.; Tsipolitis, G.; Tsurin, I.; Turnau, J.; Tzamariudaki, E.; Urban, M.; Usik, A.; Utkin, D.; Valkár, S.; Valkárová, A.; Vallée, C.; van Mechelen, P.; van Remortel, N.; Vargas Trevino, A.; Vazdik, Y.; Veelken, C.; Vest, A.; Vinokurova, S.; Volchinski, V.; Vujicic, B.; Wacker, K.; Wagner, J.; Weber, G.; Weber, R.; Wegener, D.; Werner, C.; Werner, N.; Wessels, M.; Wessling, B.; Wigmore, C.; Winter, G.-G.; Wissing, Ch.; Wolf, R.; Wünsch, E.; Xella, S.; Yan, W.; Yeganov, V.; Žáček, J.; Zálešák, J.; Zhang, Z.; Zhelezov, A.; Zhokin, A.; Zimmermann, J.; Zohrabyan, H.; Zomer, F.

2005-08-01

A measurement of charm and beauty photoproduction at the electron proton collider HERA is presented based on the simultaneous detection of a D meson and a muon. The correlation between the D meson and the muon serves to separate the charm and beauty contributions and the analysis provides comparable sensitivity to both. The total and differential experimental cross sections are compared to LO and NLO QCD calculations. The measured charm cross section is in good agreement with QCD predictions including higher order effects while the beauty cross section is higher.

Restricted and disrupted sleep : Effects on autonomic function, neuroendocrine stress systems and stress responsivity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meerlo, Peter; Sgoifo, Andrea; Suchecki, Deborah

2008-01-01

Frequently disrupted and restricted sleep is a common problem for many people in our modern around-the-clock society. In this context, it is an important question how sleep loss affects the stress systems in our bodies since these systems enable us to deal with everyday challenges. Altered activity

[Work schedules in the Hungarian health care system and the sleep quality of nurses].

Science.gov (United States)

Fusz, Katalin; Pakai, Annamária; Kívés, Zsuzsanna; Szunomár, Szilvia; Regős, Annamária; Oláh, András

2016-03-06

One way of ensuring the continuity of health care is the shift work, which is burdensome and it can lead to sleep disturbances. The aim of the study was to measure the typical Hungarian nursing shift systems in hospitals, to analyse the causes of irregular work schedules, and to compare the sleep quality of nurses in different work schedules. 236 head nurses filled out the national online survey, and 217 nurses in clinics of the University of Pécs filled the Hungarian version of Bergen Shift Work Sleep Questionnaire. The head nurses provided data of 8697 nurses's schedules. 51.89% of nurses work in flexible shift system. 1944 employees work in regular shift system, most of them in the following order: 12-hour day shift and 12-hour night shift, followed by a one- or two-day rest. Where there is no system of shifts, the most frequent causes are the needs of nurses and the nurse shortage. Nurses who are working in irregular shift system had worse sleep quality than nurses who are working in flexible and regular shift system (p = 0.044). It would be helpful if the least burdensome shift system could be established.

Sleeping Beauty Transposition of Chimeric Antigen Receptors Targeting Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-Like Orphan Receptor-1 (ROR1 into Diverse Memory T-Cell Populations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Drew C Deniger

Full Text Available T cells modified with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs targeting CD19 demonstrated clinical activity against some B-cell malignancies. However, this is often accompanied by a loss of normal CD19+ B cells and humoral immunity. Receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor-1 (ROR1 is expressed on sub-populations of B-cell malignancies and solid tumors, but not by healthy B cells or normal post-partum tissues. Thus, adoptive transfer of T cells specific for ROR1 has potential to eliminate tumor cells and spare healthy tissues. To test this hypothesis, we developed CARs targeting ROR1 in order to generate T cells specific for malignant cells. Two Sleeping Beauty transposons were constructed with 2nd generation ROR1-specific CARs signaling through CD3ζ and either CD28 (designated ROR1RCD28 or CD137 (designated ROR1RCD137 and were introduced into T cells. We selected for T cells expressing CAR through co-culture with γ-irradiated activating and propagating cells (AaPC, which co-expressed ROR1 and co-stimulatory molecules. Numeric expansion over one month of co-culture on AaPC in presence of soluble interleukin (IL-2 and IL-21 occurred and resulted in a diverse memory phenotype of CAR+ T cells as measured by non-enzymatic digital array (NanoString and multi-panel flow cytometry. Such T cells produced interferon-γ and had specific cytotoxic activity against ROR1+ tumors. Moreover, such cells could eliminate ROR1+ tumor xenografts, especially T cells expressing ROR1RCD137. Clinical trials will investigate the ability of ROR1-specific CAR+ T cells to specifically eliminate tumor cells while maintaining normal B-cell repertoire.

Management of sleep disorders in Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy.

Science.gov (United States)

Videnovic, Aleksandar

2017-05-01

Parkinson's disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) are disorders associated with α synuclein-related neurodegeneration. Nonmotor symptoms are common hallmarks of these disorders, and disturbances of the sleep-wake cycle are among the most common nonmotor symptoms. It is only recently that sleep disturbances have received the attention of the medical and research community. Significant progress has been made in understanding the pathophysiology of sleep and wake disruption in alphasynucleinopathies during the past few decades. Despite these advancements, treatment options are limited and frequently associated with problematic side effects. Further studies that center on the development of novel treatment approaches are very much needed. In this article, the author discusses the current state of the management of disturbed sleep and alertness in PD and MSA. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

The Golden Beauty: Brain Response to Classical and Renaissance Sculptures

Science.gov (United States)

Di Dio, Cinzia; Macaluso, Emiliano; Rizzolatti, Giacomo

2007-01-01

Is there an objective, biological basis for the experience of beauty in art? Or is aesthetic experience entirely subjective? Using fMRI technique, we addressed this question by presenting viewers, naïve to art criticism, with images of masterpieces of Classical and Renaissance sculpture. Employing proportion as the independent variable, we produced two sets of stimuli: one composed of images of original sculptures; the other of a modified version of the same images. The stimuli were presented in three conditions: observation, aesthetic judgment, and proportion judgment. In the observation condition, the viewers were required to observe the images with the same mind-set as if they were in a museum. In the other two conditions they were required to give an aesthetic or proportion judgment on the same images. Two types of analyses were carried out: one which contrasted brain response to the canonical and the modified sculptures, and one which contrasted beautiful vs. ugly sculptures as judged by each volunteer. The most striking result was that the observation of original sculptures, relative to the modified ones, produced activation of the right insula as well as of some lateral and medial cortical areas (lateral occipital gyrus, precuneus and prefrontal areas). The activation of the insula was particularly strong during the observation condition. Most interestingly, when volunteers were required to give an overt aesthetic judgment, the images judged as beautiful selectively activated the right amygdala, relative to those judged as ugly. We conclude that, in observers naïve to art criticism, the sense of beauty is mediated by two non-mutually exclusive processes: one based on a joint activation of sets of cortical neurons, triggered by parameters intrinsic to the stimuli, and the insula (objective beauty); the other based on the activation of the amygdala, driven by one's own emotional experiences (subjective beauty). PMID:18030335

Beauty in photoproduction at HERA II with the ZEUS detector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boutle, Sarah

2010-02-15

The production of beauty quarks in ep collisions should be accurately calculable in perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) since the large mass of the b quark provides a hard scale. Therefore it is interesting to compare such predictions to results using photoproduction events where a low-virtuality photon, emitted by the incoming lepton, collides with a parton from the incoming proton. A measurement of beauty in photoproduction has been made at HERA with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 126 pb{sup -}1. Beauty was identified in events with a muon in the final state by using the transverse momentum of the muon relative to the closest jet. Lifetime information from the silicon vertex detector was also used; the impact parameter of the muon with respect to the primary vertex was exploited to discriminate between signal and background. Cross sections for beauty production as a function of the muon and the jet variables were measured and compared to QCD predictions and to previous measurements. The data were found to be well described by the predictions from next-to-leading-order QCD. The dijet sample of beauty photoproduction events was also used to study higher-order QCD topologies. At leading order, the two jets in the event are produced back-to-back in azimuthal angle, such that {delta}{phi}{sup jj}={phi}{sup j1}-{phi}{sup j2}={pi}. Additional soft radiation causes small azimuthal decorrelations, whilst {delta}{phi}{sup jj} significantly lower than {pi} is evidence of additional hard radiation. In this thesis, the cross section versus {delta}{phi}{sup jj} for beauty photoproduction and the comparison to NLO QCD predictions and Monte Carlo models are presented. (orig.)

The golden beauty: brain response to classical and renaissance sculptures.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cinzia Di Dio

Full Text Available Is there an objective, biological basis for the experience of beauty in art? Or is aesthetic experience entirely subjective? Using fMRI technique, we addressed this question by presenting viewers, naïve to art criticism, with images of masterpieces of Classical and Renaissance sculpture. Employing proportion as the independent variable, we produced two sets of stimuli: one composed of images of original sculptures; the other of a modified version of the same images. The stimuli were presented in three conditions: observation, aesthetic judgment, and proportion judgment. In the observation condition, the viewers were required to observe the images with the same mind-set as if they were in a museum. In the other two conditions they were required to give an aesthetic or proportion judgment on the same images. Two types of analyses were carried out: one which contrasted brain response to the canonical and the modified sculptures, and one which contrasted beautiful vs. ugly sculptures as judged by each volunteer. The most striking result was that the observation of original sculptures, relative to the modified ones, produced activation of the right insula as well as of some lateral and medial cortical areas (lateral occipital gyrus, precuneus and prefrontal areas. The activation of the insula was particularly strong during the observation condition. Most interestingly, when volunteers were required to give an overt aesthetic judgment, the images judged as beautiful selectively activated the right amygdala, relative to those judged as ugly. We conclude that, in observers naïve to art criticism, the sense of beauty is mediated by two non-mutually exclusive processes: one based on a joint activation of sets of cortical neurons, triggered by parameters intrinsic to the stimuli, and the insula (objective beauty; the other based on the activation of the amygdala, driven by one's own emotional experiences (subjective beauty.

Modulation of Sleep Homeostasis by Corticotropin Releasing Hormone in REM Sleep-Deprived Rats

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricardo Borges Machado

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Studies have shown that sleep recovery following different protocols of forced waking varies according to the level of stress inherent to each method. Sleep deprivation activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and increased corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH impairs sleep. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate how manipulations of the CRH system during the sleep deprivation period interferes with subsequent sleep rebound. Throughout 96 hours of sleep deprivation, separate groups of rats were treated i.c.v. with vehicle, CRH or with alphahelical CRH9−41, a CRH receptor blocker, twice/day, at 07:00 h and 19:00 h. Both treatments impaired sleep homeostasis, especially in regards to length of rapid eye movement sleep (REM and theta/delta ratio and induced a later decrease in NREM and REM sleep and increased waking bouts. These changes suggest that activation of the CRH system impact negatively on the homeostatic sleep response to prolonged forced waking. These results indicate that indeed, activation of the HPA axis—at least at the hypothalamic level—is capable to reduce the sleep rebound induced by sleep deprivation.

Measurement of beauty production at HERA using events with muons and jets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Behnke, Olaf

2005-01-01

Several new measurements of beauty production at HERA have been presented at this conference. In this talk we report about the H1 measurement using events with a muon associated to a jet. This is the first beauty analysis at HERA, where both the long lifetime and the large mass of b-flavoured hadrons are exploited to identify the beauty events, leading to an improved signal separation. Differential cross sections are measured both in photoproduction and in deep inelastic scattering. The measured data are found to be somewhat higher then perturbative QCD calculations to next-to-leading order. A significant excess is observed in certain corners of the kinematic phase space. At the end of this report new and recent beauty measurements are summarised

Beauty and health: anthropological perspectives

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Edmonds, A.

2008-01-01

This essay, written as a 'teaser' for an up-coming symposium, reflects on how human beauty can be understood from an anthropological and medical anthropological perspective. First, it considers how aesthetic and healing rationales can conflict or merge in a variety of medical technologies and health

Direct observation of the decay of beauty particles into charm particles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Albanese, J P; Alpe, V; Aoki, S; Arnold, R; Baroni, G; Barth, M; Bartley, J H; Bertrand, D; Bertrand-Coremans, G; Bisi, V [Aichi Univ. of Education, Kariya (Japan); Aichi Women' s Coll, Nisshin-Cho [Japan; Bari Univ. (Italy). Ist. di Fisica; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Bari (Italy); Birkbeck Coll, London [UK; Interuniversity Inst. for High Energies, Brussels (Belgium); European Organization for Nuclear Research, Geneva (Switzerland); University Coll., Dublin (Ireland); Gifu Univ. (Japan). Faculty of Education; University Coll., London (UK); Nagoya Univ. (Japan). Dept. of Physics; Nagoya Inst. of Tech. (Japan); Rome Univ. (Italy). Ist. di Fisica; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Rome (Italy); Toho Univ., Funabashi, Chiba (Japan). Faculty of Science; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Turin (Italy); Turin Univ. (Italy). Ist. di Fisica; Utsunomiya Univ. (Japan). Faculty of Education; Yokohama National Univ. (Japan). Faculty of Education

1985-08-08

The associated production of a pair of beauty particles B/sup -/ and anti B/sup 0/ by a 350 GeV ..pi../sup -/ interaction has been observed in an emulsion target inserted in an array of silicon microstrip detectors. Both beauty particles decay into charm particles, both of which are also observed to decay in the emulsion. Two negative muons were identified and their momenta measured in a large muon spectrometer. One muon has a psub(T) of 1.9 GeV/c and is associated with a beauty particle decay. The other, with a psub(T) of 0.45 GeV/c is associated with a charm particle decay. The flight times of the two beauty particles are respectively (0.8 +- 0.1).10/sup -13/s and (5sub(-1)/sup +2/).10/sup -13/s. Alternative interpretations of this event have negligible probability.

Charm and beauty production in experiment WA92

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barberis, D.; Gemme, C.; Malferrari, L.

1999-01-01

Using a sample of 1.4·10 8 triggered events, produced in π-Cu and π-W interactions at 350 GeV/c, we have studied charm and beauty production. J/ψ and ψ ' mesons are identified through their decays into muon pairs and are selected in the Feynman-x range x F >0. Inclusive J/ψ and ψ ' cross-sections and J/ψ differential cross-sections as functions of x F and p T are measured. A fit to the data for different targets gives α(J/ψ){Si,Cu,W}=0.87±0.05 (stat.)±0.04 (syst.), σ 0 (J/ψ)=(216.2±5.4 (stat.)±13.3 (syst.)) nb/nucleon and σ 0 (ψ ' )=(28.3±8.1(stat.)±11.3 (syst.)) nb/nucleon. For the study of beauty production, we have identified 26 beauty events. The estimated background in this sample is 0.6±0.6 events. From these data, assuming a linear A-dependence, we measure a beauty production cross-section integrated over all x F of 5.7 -1.1 +1.3 (stat.) -0.5 +0.6 (syst.) nb/N. Differential distributions with respect to x F and p T 2 have been determined as well as some two-particle kinematic variables. Our results are compared with previous experiments and with a next-to-leading-order QCD calculation

Asymmetry and Symmetry in the Beauty of Human Faces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marjan Hessamian

2010-02-01

Full Text Available The emphasis in the published literature has mostly been on symmetry as the critical source for beauty judgment. In fact, both symmetry and asymmetry serve as highly aesthetic sources of beauty, whether the context is perceptual or conceptual. The human brain is characterized by symbolic cognition and this type of cognition facilitates a range of aesthetic reactions. For example, both art and natural scenery contain asymmetrical elements, which nevertheless render the whole effect beautiful. A further good case in point is, in fact, human faces. Normally, faces are structurally left-right symmetrical content-wise but not size-wise or function-wise. Attractiveness has often been discussed in terms of content-wise full-face symmetry. To test whether or not attractiveness can be gleaned only from the presence of left-right full-faces we tested half faces. Three separate groups of participants viewed and rated the attractiveness of 56 full-faces (women’s and men’s, their 56 vertical left hemi-faces and 56 vertical right hemi-faces. We found no statistically significant differences in the attractiveness ratings of full- and hemi-faces (whether left or right. Instead, we found a strong and significant positive correlation between the ratings of the hemi- and full-faces. These results are consistent with the view that the underpinning of human facial beauty is complex and that bilateral symmetry does not constitute a principle factor in beauty assessment. We discuss that the highly evolved human brain, compared to other animals, as well as symbolic and abstract cognition in humans enable a wide variety of aesthetic reactions.

Measurement of beauty quark mass at HERA and impact on Higgs production in association with beauty quarks at LHC

CERN Document Server

Gizhko, Andrii; Foster, Brian

2016-01-01

Three different, but related topics are the subject of this thesis, performed in the contextof the ZEUS and CMS groups at DESY. The first measurement of the MS beauty-quarkmass mb (mb ) at an electron-proton collider is presented. The measurement is based ona QCD analysis of beauty production cross sections in deep inelastic (DIS) ep scatteringmeasured by ZEUS at HERA, together with inclusive DIS HERA data, using Next-toLeading-Order QCD predictions. The measured value of the running beauty-quark massin the MS scheme was found to bemb (mb ) = 4.07 ± 0.14 (fit)+0.01 (mod.)+0.05 (param.) +0.08 (theo.) GeV, which is in good−0.07−0.00−0.05agreement with the world average Particle Data Group value and previous measurementsat electron-positron colliders. It is also found to be consistent with the expected runningof mb (µ).A first measurement of the charm-quark mass mc (µ) running in the MS scheme ispresented. The measurement is based on a QCD analysis of the published H1 and ZEUScombination of charm cr...

"Sleeping Beauty Gets a Makeover": Using the Retelling of Fairytales to Create an Awareness of Hegemonic Norms and the Social Construction of Value

Science.gov (United States)

Brule, Nancy J.

2008-01-01

Media use gender imagery to define "the cultural representations of gender and embodiment of gender in symbolic language and artistic productions that reproduce and legitimate gender statuses." The heroines and heroes in fairytales present images of women being young, beautiful, passive, and helpless while men are portrayed as strong, powerful,…

Beauty and ugliness in the bodies and faces of others: an fMRI study of person esthetic judgement.

Science.gov (United States)

Martín-Loeches, M; Hernández-Tamames, J A; Martín, A; Urrutia, M

2014-09-26

Whether beauty and ugliness represent two independent judgement categories or, instead, opposite extremes of a single dimension is a matter of debate. In the present 3T-functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study, 20 participants were scanned while judging faces and nude bodies of people classified as extremely ugly, extremely beautiful, or indifferent. Certain areas, such as the caudate/nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), exhibited a linear relationship across esthetic judgments supporting ugliness as the lowest extreme of a beauty continuum. Other regions, such as basal occipital areas, displayed an inverse pattern, with the highest activations for ugly and the lowest for beautiful ones. Further, several areas were involved alike by both the very beautiful and the very ugly stimuli. Among these, the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC), as well as the posterior and medial portions of the cingulate gyrus. This is interpreted as the activation of neural circuits related to self- vs. other-assessment. Beauty and ugliness in the brain, at least in relation to natural and biologically and socially relevant stimuli (faces and bodies), appear tightly related and non-independent. Finally, neutral stimuli elicited strong and wide activations of the somatosensory and somatomotor systems together with longer reaction times and higher error rates, probably reflecting the difficulty of the human brain to classify someone as indifferent. Copyright © 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The realization of absolute beauty: an interpretation of the fairytale Snow White.

Science.gov (United States)

Takenaka, Nanae

2016-09-01

This paper interprets the fairytale Snow White (Bruder Grimm 1857) in terms of the realization of absolute beauty. Jung's understanding that 'in myths and fairytales, as in dreams, the soul speaks about itself' (Jung 1945, para. 400), underpins such an approach. From this perspective a fantasy image is not about us, not about our unconsciousness, but is essentially about itself. The idea of absolute beauty first arises in the Queen's mind as a wish. Despite the Queen's strong desire to be named as the most beautiful person in the world, her mirror reflects that it is actually her daughter Snow White who is the fairest. Snow White might be regarded in the language of Giegerich as her internal other. Effectively they are separated into the Real that conceives the idea of absolute beauty and the Ideal that embodies it. The exchange that takes place between the two - mediated by mirror and window - generates the corpse of surpassing beauty that never decays but lies inaccessible behind the glass coffin. However the loving and penetrating gaze of the Prince, representing masculinity, succeeds in reanimating Snow White. Thus the Prince as the Other that is completely external and unknown to both the Queen and Snow White, specifically to their femininity, facilitates the realization of absolute beauty as the Ideal in the Real. © 2016, The Society of Analytical Psychology.

Beauty photoproduction using decays into electrons at HERA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chekanov, S.; Derrick, M.; Magill, S. [Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL (US)] (and others)

2008-05-15

Photoproduction of beauty quarks in events with two jets and an electron associated with one of the jets has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 120 pb{sup -1}. The fractions of events containing b quarks, and also of events containing c quarks, were extracted from a likelihood fit using variables sensitive to electron identification as well as to semileptonic decays. Total and differential cross sections for beauty and charm production were measured and compared with next-to-leading-order QCD calculations and Monte Carlo models. (orig.)

Beauty photoproduction using decays into electrons at HERA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chekanov, S.; Derrick, M.; Magill, S.

2008-05-01

Photoproduction of beauty quarks in events with two jets and an electron associated with one of the jets has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 120 pb -1 . The fractions of events containing b quarks, and also of events containing c quarks, were extracted from a likelihood fit using variables sensitive to electron identification as well as to semileptonic decays. Total and differential cross sections for beauty and charm production were measured and compared with next-to-leading-order QCD calculations and Monte Carlo models. (orig.)

A hybrid experiment to search for beauty particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aoki, S.; Chiba, K.; Hoshino, K.; Kaway, T.; Kobayashi, M.; Kodama, K.; Miyanishi, M.; Nakamura, M.; Nakamura, Y.; Niu, K.; Niwa, K.; Ohashi, M.; Sasaki, H.; Tajima, H.; Tomita, Y.; Yamakawa, O.; Yanagisawa, Y.; Baroni, G.; Cecchetti, A.M.; Dell'Uomo, S.; De Vincenzi, M.; Di Liberto, S.; Frenkel, A.; Manfredini, A.; Marini, G.; Martellotti, G.; Mazzoni, M.A.; Meddi, F.; Nigro, A.; Penso, G.; Pistilli, P.; Sciubla, A.; Sgarbi, C.; Barth, M.; Bertrand, D.; Bertrand-Coremans, G.; Roosen, R.; Bartley, J.H.; Davis, D.H.; Duff, B.G.; Esten, M.J.; Heymann, F.F.; Imrie, D.C.; Lush, G.J.; Tovee, D.N.; Breslin, A.C.; Donnelly, W.; Montwill, A.; Coupland, M.; Trent, P.; Hazama, M.; Isokane, Y.; Tsuneoka, Y.; Kazuno, M.; Minakawa, F.; Shibuya, H.; Watanabe, S.

1989-01-01

We give here a detailed description of experiment WA75, which was performed at CERN to search for beauty particles. Events containing at least one muon with a high momentum transverse to the beam direction were selected; then the primary interactions and decay vertices, located in stacks of nuclear research emulsions, were examined and analysed. The various parts of the apparatus are described and the off-line analysis and search in emulsion are discussed. An estimate is made of the sensitivity of the experiment to beauty- and charmed-particle production. (orig.)

Effect of Daytime Exercise on Sleep Eeg and Subjective Sleep

Science.gov (United States)

Sasazawa, Y.; Kawada, T.; Kiryu, Y.

1997-08-01

This study was designed to assess the effects of daytime physical exercise on the quality of objective and subjective sleep by examining all-night sleep EEGs. The subjects were five male students, aged 19 to 20 years, who were in the habit of performing regular daytime exercise. The sleep polygraphic parameters in this study were sleep stage time as a percentage of total sleep time (%S1, %S2, %S(3+4), %SREM, %MT), time in bed (TIB), sleep time (ST), total sleep time (TST), sleep onset latency (SOL), waking from sleep, sleep efficiency, number of awakenings, number of stage shifts, number of spindles, and percentages of α and δ waves, all of which were determined by an automatic computer analysis system. The OSA questionnaire was used to investigate subjective sleep. The five scales of the OSA used were sleepiness, sleep maintenance, worry, integrated sleep feeling, and sleep initiation. Each sleep parameter was compared in the exercise and the non-exercise groups. Two-way analysis of variance was applied using subject factor and exercise factor. The main effect of the subject was significant in all parameters and the main effect of exercise in %S(3+4), SOL and sleep efficiency, among the objective sleep parameters. The main effects of the subject, except sleepiness, were significant, as was the main effect of exercise on sleep initiation, among the subjective sleep parameters. These findings suggest that daytime exercise shortened sleep latency and prolonged slow-wave sleep, and that the subjects fell asleep more easily on exercise days. There were also significant individual differences in both the objective and subjective sleep parameters.

Sleep in childhood and adolescence: age-specific sleep characteristics, common sleep disturbances and associated difficulties.

Science.gov (United States)

Barclay, Nicola L; Gregory, Alice M

2014-01-01

Sleep changes throughout the lifespan, with particularly salient alterations occurring during the first few years of life, as well as during the transition from childhood to adolescence. Such changes are partly the result of brain maturation; complex changes in the organisation of the circadian system; as well as changes in daily routine, environmental demands and responsibilities. Despite the automaticity of sleep, given that it is governed by a host of complex mechanisms, there are times when sleep becomes disturbed. Sleep disturbances in childhood are common and may stem from behavioural difficulties or abnormalities in physiological processes-and, in some cases manifest into diagnosable sleep disorders. As well as occurring exclusively, childhood sleep disturbances often co-occur with other difficulties. The purpose of this chapter is to outline the neurobiology of typical sleep/wake processes, and describe changes in sleep physiology and architecture from birth to adulthood. Furthermore, common childhood sleep disorders are described as are their associations with other traits, including all of the syndromes presented in this handbook: ASDs, ADHD, schizophrenia and emotional/behavioural difficulties. Throughout, we attempt to explain possible mechanisms underlying these disorders and their associations.

Hollywood’s Terror Industry: Idealized beauty and The Bluest Eye

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E C Koch

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye (1970 examines the effects of 1940s American white cultural hegemony on her black characters: Claudia, Pauline, and Pecola. The dominant influence of white society, specifically white ideals of beauty, are perpetuated through film, and exemplified by such actresses as Shirley Temple and Greta Garbo. The terrifying nature of the Hollywood ideal is borne from its influence and ubiquity, and is highlighted by Pecola’s deranged pursuit of this impossible standard of beauty. Ultimately by attempting to realize this paradigm, blacks are disenfranchised while the ideal is recharged with the power of those who continue to pursue it. Keywords:The Bluest Eye, Racial Hegemony, Film Studies, Terror, Ideals of Beauty.

Exercise Effects on Sleep Physiology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sunao eUchida

2012-04-01

Full Text Available This mini-review focuses on the effects of exercise on sleep. In its early days, sleep research largely focused on central nervous system (CNS physiology using standardized tabulations of several sleep-specific landmark electroencephalogram (EEG waveforms. Though coarse, this method has enabled the observation and inspection of numerous uninterrupted sleep phenomena. Thus, research on the effects of exercise on sleep began, in the 1960’s, with a focus primarily on sleep EEG (CNS sleep changes. Those early studies found only small effects of exercise on sleep. More recent sleep research has explored not only CNS functioning, but somatic physiology as well. As physical exercise mostly affects somatic functions, endocrine and autonomic nervous system (ANS changes that occur during sleep should be affected by daytime exercise. Since endocrinological, metabolic and autonomic changes can be measured during sleep, it should be possible to assess exercise effects on somatic physiology in addition to CNS sleep quality, building from standard polysomnographic (PSG techniques. Incorporating measures of somatic physiology in the quantitative assessment of sleep could further our understanding of sleep's function as an auto-regulatory, global phenomenon.

Beautiful Minds—For How Long.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lori Marino

2008-07-01

Full Text Available Lori Marino reviews the new bookBeautiful Minds, which investigates the "parallel lives" of primates and cetaceans and argues that despite the evolutionary distance of these large-brained mammals, they nevertheless share a capacity for complex communication and social behavior, representing a striking example of convergence in intelligence.

Repeated sleep restriction in rats leads to homeostatic and allostatic responses during recovery sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Youngsoo; Laposky, Aaron D; Bergmann, Bernard M; Turek, Fred W

2007-06-19

Recent studies indicate that chronic sleep restriction can have negative consequences for brain function and peripheral physiology and can contribute to the allostatic load throughout the body. Interestingly, few studies have examined how the sleep-wake system itself responds to repeated sleep restriction. In this study, rats were subjected to a sleep-restriction protocol consisting of 20 h of sleep deprivation (SD) followed by a 4-h sleep opportunity each day for 5 consecutive days. In response to the first 20-h SD block on day 1, animals responded during the 4-h sleep opportunity with enhanced sleep intensity [i.e., nonrapid eye movement (NREM) delta power] and increased rapid eye movement sleep time compared with baseline. This sleep pattern is indicative of a homeostatic response to acute sleep loss. Remarkably, after the 20-h SD blocks on days 2-5, animals failed to exhibit a compensatory NREM delta power response during the 4-h sleep opportunities and failed to increase NREM and rapid eye movement sleep times, despite accumulating a sleep debt each consecutive day. After losing approximately 35 h of sleep over 5 days of sleep restriction, animals regained virtually none of their lost sleep, even during a full 3-day recovery period. These data demonstrate that the compensatory/homeostatic sleep response to acute SD does not generalize to conditions of chronic partial sleep loss. We propose that the change in sleep-wake regulation in the context of repeated sleep restriction reflects an allostatic process, and that the allostatic load produced by SD has direct effects on the sleep-wake regulatory system.

Development of a continuous multisite accelerometry system for studying movements during sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Terrill, Philip I; Mason, David G; Wilson, Stephen J

2010-01-01

Actigraphy has proven to be a useful tool in the assessment of circadian rhythms, and more recently in the automatic staging of sleep and wake states. Whilst accuracy of commercial systems appears good over 24 hour periods, the sensitivity of detecting wake during time in bed is poor. One possible explanation for these poor results is the technical limitations of currently available commercial actigraphs. In particular, raw data is generally not available to the user. Instead, activity counts for each epoch (typically between 10-60 secs) are calculated using various algorithms, from which sleep state is identified. Consequently morphologically different movements observed during sleep and wake states may not be detected as such. In this paper, the development of a continuous multisite, accelerometry system (CMAS) is described. Initial results, comparing data collected using a commercial actigraph (Actiwatch- Mini Motionlogger), and the continuous multisite accelerometry system are presented. The CMAS is able to differentiate brief movement "twitches" from postural changes.

The Super Fixed Target beauty facility at the SSC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lau, Kwong

1991-01-01

The rationale for pursuing beauty physics at the SSC in a fixed target configuration is described. The increased beauty production cross section at the SSC, combined with high interaction rate capability of the proposed detector, results in 10 10-11 produced BB events per year. The long decay length of the B hadrons (≅ 10 cm) allows direct observation of B decays in the high resolution silicon microstrip vertex detector. To optimize the operation of the proposed beauty spectrometer and the SSC, parasitic extraction of attendant or artificially generated large amplitude protons using crystal channeling is proposed and explored. The large sample of fully reconstructed B events allows detailed studies of various CP violating decays with requisite statistics to confront the standard model. The CP physics potential of the proposed experiment is evaluated and compared with alternative approaches, such as symmetric e + e - B Factories and specialized hadron colliders

[Relationships between sleep and addiction].

Science.gov (United States)

Cañellas, Francesca; de Lecea, Luis

2012-01-01

While it is well known that there is an interaction between sleep disorders and substance abuse, it is certainly more complex than was previously thought. There is a positive relationship both between having a substance use disorder and suffering from a sleep disorder, and vice versa. The effects on sleep depend on the substance used, but it has been shown that both during use and in withdrawal periods consumers have various sleep problems, and basically more fragmented sleep. We know that sleep problems must be taken into account to prevent addiction relapses. Recent research shows that the hypocretinergic system defined by neuropeptide hypocretin / orexin (Hcrt / ox), located in the lateral hypothalamus and involved in, among other things, the regulation of the sleep-wake cycle, may play an important role in addictive behaviors. Different studies have demonstrated interactions between the hypocretinergic system, acute response to stress circuits and reward systems. We also know that selective optogenetic activation of the hypocretinergic system increases the probability of transition from sleep to wakefulness, and is sufficient for initiating an addictive compulsive behavior relapse. Hypocretinergic system activation could explain the hyperarousal associated with stress and addiction. Improved knowledge of this interaction would help us to understand better the mechanisms of addiction and find new strategies for the treatment of addictions.

Making beautiful deep-sky images astrophotography with affordable equipment and software

CERN Document Server

Parker, Greg

2017-01-01

In this updated version of his classic on deep-sky imaging, astrophotographer Greg Parker describes how the latest technology can help amateur astronomers process their own beautiful images. Whether you are taking your own images from a backyard system or processing data from space telescopes, this book shows you how to enhance the visuals in the "electronic darkroom" for maximum beauty and impact. The wealth of options in the astrophotography realm has exploded in the recent past, and Parker proves an able guide for the interested imager to improve his or her comfort level against this exciting new technological backdrop. From addressing the latest DSLR equipment to updating the usage of Hyperstar imaging telescopes and explaining the utility of parallel imaging arrays, this edition brings the book fully up-to-date, and includes clear tutorials, helpful references, and gorgeous color astrophotography by one of the experts in the field.

Competing motivational discourses for weight loss: means to ends and the nexus of beauty and health.

Science.gov (United States)

Kwan, Samantha

2009-09-01

Western cultural discourses generally deem fat unhealthy and unattractive, providing strong motivation for body nonconformists to lose weight. Semistructured interviews with 42 overweight and obese participants illuminate how individuals understand health and beauty weight-loss motivations and the relationship between the two. Interviews indicate that health and beauty motivate because they are seen as means to various ends. Specifically, participants aspire to health to fulfill various social roles and to live long, meaningful lives. Moreover, they aspire to conventional beauty ideals hoping that aesthetic conformity will elicit benefits, both psychological and social. Interviews also illustrate an intertwining of discourses in which participants conflate beauty and health in three ways: indicating that depictions of the beauty ideal are depictions of the health ideal; using beauty indicators as health indicators; and employing beauty as a motivator for health goals. This article concludes with a discussion of the health, social, and policy implications of these findings.

Health Issues on Beauty Treatment

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Alasia Datonye

known to have adverse effects on the skin. Some of the constituents of ... of the adverse effects these cosmetic and beauty products which can only ... surgery . The situation predisposes the subjects to poor wound healing, which may invariably lead to a burst abdomen (when the intestines surge out of the failed surgical ...

Can sleep deprivation studies explain why human adults sleep?

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Lee K

2012-11-01

This review will concentrate on the consequences of sleep deprivation in adult humans. These findings form a paradigm that serves to demonstrate many of the critical functions of the sleep states. The drive to obtain food, water, and sleep constitutes important vegetative appetites throughout the animal kingdom. Unlike nutrition and hydration, the reasons for sleep have largely remained speculative. When adult humans are nonspecifically sleep-deprived, systemic effects may include defects in cognition, vigilance, emotional stability, risk-taking, and, possibly, moral reasoning. Appetite (for foodstuffs) increases and glucose intolerance may ensue. Procedural, declarative, and emotional memory are affected. Widespread alterations of immune function and inflammatory regulators can be observed, and functional MRI reveals profound changes in regional cerebral activity related to attention and memory. Selective deprivation of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, on the contrary, appears to be more activating and to have lesser effects on immunity and inflammation. The findings support a critical need for sleep due to the widespread effects on the adult human that result from nonselective sleep deprivation. The effects of selective REM deprivation appear to be different and possibly less profound, and the functions of this sleep state remain enigmatic.

Synthesis of goodness and beauty of Petrikivsky decorative painting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. A. Harkava

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Petrykivsky decorative painting as a unique manifestation of Ukrainian national culture has been studied in the article. This painting is recognized all over the world as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in the context of its philosophical principles. Petrykivsky decorative painting by its basis — murals,  reaches Tripoli and puts the Ukrainian culture among the ancient cultures of the world. At various stages of ethnos’ existence, Ukrainian folk decorative art was an important part of the spiritual life and reflected its identity, ensuring the continuity of spiritual connection between generations. Motives of Petrykivka decorative painting describe the local flora and fauna and the local historical tradition. Folk artists get their inspiration from the mother nature, traditional for the Ukrainian people worship to Mother-land and all beautiful things, which are created by it. However, Petrykivsky decorative painting is not a direct reflection of natural motifs. World, created in paintings, is the product of the imagination of folk artist. Calocagathia (synthesis of beauty and goodness of Petrykivsky school is seen in high spiritual and moral culture of the Ukrainian people, in their pursuit to improve the space of their life, to perpetuate the generous beauty of the world by the love to beauty and goodness in all its forms using a variety of colors and patterns.

The elderly female face in beauty and fashion ads: Joan Didion for Céline

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jerslev, Anne

2018-01-01

The point of departure for this article is an astonishment at the recent increase in elderly women in fashion and beauty ads, and the question of what value this kind of photography may attribute to the ageing body and face in a visual culture whose association between youth and beauty forms one...... of the most influential constructions of ageism in Western culture. To attempt to answer this question, the article discusses the relationship between beauty, time and the ageing face, especially in beauty and fashion ads. The 2015 spring ad campaign for the luxury fashion brand Céline, which featured...

Charmed, beauty hadrons revisited

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chabab, M.

1998-01-01

Applying two different versions of QCD sum-rules, we reanalyze rigourously the rich spectroscopy of mesons and baryons built from charm and beauty quarks. An improved determination of the masses and the leptonic decay constants of B c (bc-bar), B c *(bc-bar), and Λ(bcu) is presented. Our optimal results, constrained by stability criteria, are consistent in both versions and support the general pattern common to potential models predictions

Measurement of Charm and Beauty Photoproduction at HERA using D* mu Correlations

CERN Document Server

Aktas, A.; Anthonis, T.; Aplin, S.; Asmone, A.; Astvatsatourov, A.; Babaev, A.; Backovic, S.; Bahr, J.; Baghdasaryan, A.; Baranov, P.; Barrelet, E.; Bartel, W.; Baudrand, S.; Baumgartner, S.; Becker, J.; Beckingham, M.; Behnke, O.; Behrendt, O.; Belousov, A.; Berger, Ch.; Berger, N.; Bizot, J.C.; Boenig, M.-O.; Boudry, V.; Bracinik, J.; Brandt, G.; Brisson, V.; Brown, D.P.; Bruncko, D.; Busser, F.W.; Bunyatyan, A.; Buschhorn, G.; Bystritskaya, L.; Campbell, A.J.; Caron, S.; Cassol-Brunner, F.; Cerny, K.; Cerny, V.; Chekelian, V.; Contreras, J.G.; Coughlan, J.A.; Cox, B.E.; Cozzika, G.; Cvach, J.; Dainton, J.B.; Dau, W.D.; Daum, K.; Delcourt, B.; Demirchyan, R.; De Roeck, A.; Desch, K.; De Wolf, E.A.; Diaconu, C.; Dodonov, V.; Dubak, A.; Eckerlin, Guenter; Efremenko, V.; Egli, S.; Eichler, R.; Eisele, F.; Ellerbrock, M.; Elsen, E.; Erdmann, W.; Essenov, S.; Falkewicz, A.; Faulkner, P.J.W.; Favart, L.; Fedotov, A.; Felst, R.; Ferencei, J.; Finke, L.; Fleischer, M.; Fleischmann, P.; Fleming, Y.H.; Flucke, G.; Fomenko, A.; Foresti, I.; Formanek, J.; Franke, G.; Frising, G.; Frisson, T.; Gabathuler, E.; Garutti, E.; Gayler, J.; Gerhards, R.; Gerlich, C.; Ghazaryan, Samvel; Ginzburgskaya, S.; Glazov, A.; Glushkov, I.; Goerlich, L.; Goettlich, M.; Gogitidze, N.; Gorbounov, S.; Goyon, C.; Grab, C.; Greenshaw, T.; Gregori, M.; Grindhammer, Guenter; Gwilliam, C.; Haidt, D.; Hajduk, L.; Haller, J.; Hansson, M.; Heinzelmann, G.; Henderson, R.C.W.; Henschel, H.; Henshaw, O.; Herrera, G.; Hildebrandt, M.; Hiller, K.H.; Hoffmann, D.; Horisberger, R.; Hovhannisyan, A.; Ibbotson, M.; Ismail, M.; Jacquet, M.; Janauschek, L.; Janssen, X.; Jemanov, V.; Jonsson, L.; Johnson, D.P.; Jung, H.; Kapichine, M.; Karlsson, M.; Katzy, J.; Keller, N.; Kenyon, I.R.; Kiesling, Christian M.; Klein, M.; Kleinwort, C.; Klimkovich, T.; Kluge, T.; Knies, G.; Knutsson, A.; Korbel, V.; Kostka, P.; Koutouev, R.; Krastev, K.; Kretzschmar, J.; Kropivnitskaya, A.; Kruger, K.; Kuckens, J.; Landon, M.P.J.; Lange, W.; Lastovicka, T.; Laycock, P.; Lebedev, A.; Leiner, B.; Lendermann, V.; Levonian, S.; Lindfeld, L.; Lipka, K.; List, B.; Lobodzinska, E.; Loktionova, N.; Lopez-Fernandez, R.; Lubimov, V.; Lucaci-Timoce, A.-I.; Lueders, H.; Luke, D.; Lux, T.; Lytkin, L.; Makankine, A.; Malden, N.; Malinovski, E.; Mangano, S.; Marage, P.; Marshall, R.; Martisikova, M.; Martyn, H.-U.; Maxfield, S.J.; Meer, D.; Mehta, A.; Meier, K.; Meyer, A.B.; Meyer, H.; Meyer, J.; Mikocki, S.; Milcewicz-Mika, I.; Milstead, D.; Mohamed, A.; Moreau, F.; Morozov, A.; Morris, J.V.; Mozer, Matthias Ulrich; Muller, K.; Murin, P.; Nankov, K.; Naroska, B.; Naumann, J.; Naumann, Th.; Newman, Paul R.; Niebuhr, C.; Nikiforov, A.; Nikitin, D.; Nowak, G.; Nozicka, M.; Oganezov, R.; Olivier, B.; Olsson, J.E.; Osman, S.; Ozerov, D.; Palichik, V.; Papadopoulou, T.; Pascaud, C.; Patel, G.D.; Peez, M.; Perez, E.; Perez-Astudillo, D.; Perieanu, A.; Petrukhin, A.; Pitzl, D.; Placakyte, R.; Portheault, B.; Povh, B.; Prideaux, P.; Raicevic, N.; Reimer, P.; Rimmer, A.; Risler, C.; Rizvi, E.; Robmann, P.; Roland, B.; Roosen, R.; Rostovtsev, A.; Rurikova, Z.; Rusakov, S.; Salvaire, F.; Sankey, D.P.C.; Sauvan, E.; Schatzel, S.; Schilling, F.-P.; Schmidt, S.; Schmitt, S.; Schmitz, C.; Schoeffel, L.; Schoning, A.; Schroder, V.; Schultz-Coulon, H.-C.; Schwanenberger, C.; Sedlak, K.; Sefkow, F.; Sheviakov, I.; Shtarkov, L.N.; Sirois, Y.; Sloan, T.; Smirnov, P.; Soloviev, Y.; South, D.; Spaskov, V.; Specka, Arnd E.; Stella, B.; Stiewe, J.; Strauch, I.; Straumann, U.; Tchoulakov, V.; Thompson, G.; Thompson, P.D.; Tomasz, F.; Traynor, D.; Truoel, Peter; Tsakov, I.; Tsipolitis, G.; Tsurin, I.; Turnau, J.; Tzamariudaki, E.; Urban, Marcel; Usik, A.; Utkin, D.; Valkar, S.; Valkarova, A.; Vallee, C.; Van Mechelen, P.; Van Remortel, N.; Vargas Trevino, A.; Vazdik, Y.; Veelken, C.; Vest, A.; Vinokurova, S.; Volchinski, V.; Vujicic, B.; Wacker, K.; Wagner, J.; Weber, G.; Weber, R.; Wegener, D.; Werner, C.; Werner, N.; Wessels, M.; Wessling, B.; Wigmore, C.; Winter, G.-G.; Wissing, Ch.; Wolf, R.; Wunsch, E.; Xella, S.; Yan, W.; Yeganov, V.; Zacek, J.; Zalesak, J.; Zhang, Z.; Zhelezov, A.; Zhokin, A.; Zimmermann, J.; Zohrabyan, H.; Zomer, F.

2005-01-01

A measurement of charm and beauty photoproduction at the electron proton collider HERA is presented based on the simultaneous detection of a D*^{\\pm} meson and a muon. The correlation between the D* meson and the muon serves to separate the charm and beauty contributions and the analysis provides comparable sensitivity to both. The total and differential experimental cross sections are compared to LO and NLO QCD calculations. The measured charm cross section is in good agreement with QCD predictions including higher order effects while the beauty cross section is higher.

Experimental shift work studies of permanent night, and rapidly rotating, shift systems. Pt. 1. Behaviour of various characteristics of sleep

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Knauth, P.; Rutenfranz, J.; Romberg, H.P.; Decoster, F.; Kiesswetter, E. (Dortmund Univ. (Germany, F.R.). Inst. fuer Arbeitsphysiologie); Schulz, H. (Max-Planck-Institut fuer Psychiatrie, Muenchen (Germany, F.R.). Klinisches Inst.)

1980-06-01

In connection with experimental shift work 20 volunteers were examined while working on different rapidly or slowly rotating shift systems. Sleep was analyzed over a total of 112 days. Sleep was disturbed by children's noise or traffic noise. Sleep duration and sleep quality were particularly badly affected by noise with a high information value (children's noise). The ultradian rhythmicity of sleep did not appear to be disrupted by the change from day to night work. There were no significant differences between morning sleep and afternoon sleep after night work. In the laboratory experiments with fixed sleep durations, no separate effects on sleep quality could be established for different shift systems.

Micro-arousals during nocturnal sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Halász, P; Kundra, O; Rajna, P; Pál, I; Vargha, M

1979-01-01

In 8 young adult human subjects EEG- and polygraphic characteristics of transient shifts towards arousal (micro-arousal, MA) have been studied during sleep under five different experimental conditions in 40 night sessions. Out of the five applied experimental situations, two (psychostimulant application and sensory stimulation) resulted in a shift of the balance between the systems of sleep and arousal towards an increased activity of the arousal system, while an other condition (rebound following partial sleep deprivation) led to an opposite change to a rise in "sleep pressure". An inverse correlation has been found between the frequency of MA and the depth of sleep, a finding consistently observed in every subject and in every experimental situation. During the process of sleep periodic changes in the dispersity of MA could be seen; the number of MA-s decreased and increased according to the descending and ascending slope of the sleep cycles. During the ascending slope of cycles there was a coupling between the occurence of MA-s and the changes of phases. Increases in the level of activation and in sleep pressure did not influence the occurrence of MA-s. Increasing the tone of the arousal system in chemical way, or by means of enhancing the phasic sensory input resulted in a reduction of the difference between the number of MA on the descending and ascending slopes of cycles. During the phases of sleep, the spontaneous occurrence of MA-s went parallel with the possibility to evoke MA-s by sensory stimuli. These data show that MA is a regular phenomenon of nocturnal sleep; MA manifests itself as a result of phasic functioning of the reticular arousal system and plays a role in the organization of those periods of the sleep cycle, which tend toward arousal. It is suggested that MA-phenomenon is considered a standard measure of sleep and that it could represent an indicator of the function of the arousal system controlled by external or internal mechanisms during

The improvement of movement and speech during rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder in multiple system atrophy.

Science.gov (United States)

De Cock, Valérie Cochen; Debs, Rachel; Oudiette, Delphine; Leu, Smaranda; Radji, Fatai; Tiberge, Michel; Yu, Huan; Bayard, Sophie; Roze, Emmanuel; Vidailhet, Marie; Dauvilliers, Yves; Rascol, Olivier; Arnulf, Isabelle

2011-03-01

Multiple system atrophy is an atypical parkinsonism characterized by severe motor disabilities that are poorly levodopa responsive. Most patients develop rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder. Because parkinsonism is absent during rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder in patients with Parkinson's disease, we studied the movements of patients with multiple system atrophy during rapid eye movement sleep. Forty-nine non-demented patients with multiple system atrophy and 49 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease were interviewed along with their 98 bed partners using a structured questionnaire. They rated the quality of movements, vocal and facial expressions during rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder as better than, equal to or worse than the same activities in an awake state. Sleep and movements were monitored using video-polysomnography in 22/49 patients with multiple system atrophy and in 19/49 patients with Parkinson's disease. These recordings were analysed for the presence of parkinsonism and cerebellar syndrome during rapid eye movement sleep movements. Clinical rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder was observed in 43/49 (88%) patients with multiple system atrophy. Reports from the 31/43 bed partners who were able to evaluate movements during sleep indicate that 81% of the patients showed some form of improvement during rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder. These included improved movement (73% of patients: faster, 67%; stronger, 52%; and smoother, 26%), improved speech (59% of patients: louder, 55%; more intelligible, 17%; and better articulated, 36%) and normalized facial expression (50% of patients). The rate of improvement was higher in Parkinson's disease than in multiple system atrophy, but no further difference was observed between the two forms of multiple system atrophy (predominant parkinsonism versus cerebellar syndrome). Video-monitored movements during rapid eye movement sleep in patients with multiple system

[What is beauty? : Manifest for an aesthetic character medicine].

Science.gov (United States)

Harth, W

2017-12-01

Aesthetic medicine has in recent decades attained a growing social significance and firm place in the medical profession image. In a short time, a variety of technical procedures and processes have been developed and applied by specialized physicians. A further leading medical discussion regarding the central question "What is beauty" is missing compared with the technologically innovative progress. Beauty is characterized by an individual and subjective pleasure. Social media and fashion trends exert a central influence on common beauty ideals and aesthetic medicine. In practice, the artificial intervention must accord to the individual personality. Therefore, the professional term Aesthetic Medicine is insufficient and should be replaced by "Aesthetic Character Medicine". The particular purpose is the aim of graceful aging and a sustained adequate result which outlasts the zeitgeist. This requires medical know how and clear aesthetic self-conception of the physician. "Aesthetic Character Medicine" can be realized in a discourse, with the 10-step plan presented in this article.

78 FR 25475 - Certain Sleep-Disordered Breathing Treatment Systems and Components Thereof: Institution of...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-01

... INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION [Investigation No. 337-TA-879] Certain Sleep-Disordered Breathing... States after importation of certain sleep-disordered breathing treatment systems and components thereof... (202) 205-1810. Persons with mobility impairments who will need special assistance in gaining access to...

Strong and weak production of beauty and charm at the CERN p anti p collider

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ransdell, J.T.

1987-01-01

Beauty and charm production has been studied in proton-antiproton collisions at √s = 630 GeV with the UA1 detector at the CERN collider. Clear evidence for strong production of b- and c-quarks has been obtained. The feasibility of observing hadronic decays of the W and Z intermediate vector bosons in the channels W → cs, Z → cc, bb was investigated. Beauty and charm was identified from their semileptonic decays by the presence of a muon in or near a jet. The analysis was performed on a sample of 20,000 muon trigger events containing jets in which the reconstructed muon has a transverse momentum greater than 6 GeV/c. The integrated luminosity of the sample was 573 nb -1 . The detailed kinematics of the muon-jet events are in excellent agreement with the predictions of QCD for beauty and charm strong production. The QCD expectations were calculated with the ISAJET Monte Carlo in conjunction with a full simulation of the UA1 detector. No evidence for W/Z → c/b was observed in the invariant mass distribution of the jet-jet-μ-υ system. The mass resolution achieved was ±20%. The measured strong beauty and charm cross sections imply a signal to noise ratio of 1/50 for standard model W and Z cross sections

Direct observation of beauty particles selected by muonic decay in emulsion

CERN Multimedia

2002-01-01

This experiment is a search for beauty particles produced in pairs by $\\pi$ mesons in emulsions. Beauty particles would be identified in emulsion by their characteristic cascade decay through charm particles. This sort of signature would have a completely negligible background. The experiment would have the unique feature of being able to be sensitive to lifetimes as small as those expected for beauty, i.e. $10^{-14}$s < $\\tau$ < $10^{-13}$s. \\\\ Interesting events would be selected by the identification of three muons in the final state, coming from three of the four possible semi-leptonic decays of beauty of charmed particles. Muons would be identified in a hadron absorber equipped with three x-y plane hodoscopes, and 11 x-y-z planes of MWPC. \\\\Although the final sample of events to scan would be the 3 $\\mu$-events resulting from off-line analysis, it is intended to record data for all two-muon events. \\\\ A total of 67 stacks with approximate dimensions 15 x 10 x 5 cm$^{3}$ would be aligned with ...

Ethno beauty: practices of beautification among urban muslim middle-class women in Surabaya

Science.gov (United States)

Listyani, RH; Sadewo, FX S.; Legowo, M.

2018-01-01

This research examines practices of beautification by urban middle-class Muslim women using an ethnomethodology approach. Several theories are employed in this research including the theory of consumption (leisure class), sociology of body, middle-class theory and the concept of modern Islam. Results indicate that the beautiful concept according to Muslim middle-class urban women is white skin without stains, face without wrinkles, nose sharp, eyelashes and thick eyebrows and red lips. To be said to be beautiful, they took various efforts through beauty treatment, diet, fashion and dress up. In this study also revealed that their goal to self-care is pride and recognition in front of other fellow female friends and to happy partner (husband). This shows that the consumption through the body (fashions, diets, make up) and consumption around the body (beauty treatments) represent symbolic and material ways of positioning themselves within contemporary society - thus becoming ‘visible’. The implications of this research are this study is expected to contribute information and enrich the repertoire of social science especially sociology also for the development of research on body and beauty.

[Study of hyperons and beauty particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

The proposed research program is to study the production and decay properties of the hyperons and the beauty hadrons at Fermilab. Since the project was approved in 1989, a lot of progress has been made. This report is a summary of the achievements

Progress in study on central nervous system injuries caused by obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZHAO Xiang-xiang

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Chronic and repetitive intermittent hypoxia and dysfunction of sleep architecture mainly contribute to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS. More and more evidences demonstrate it is a systemic disease, which is common encountered in clinic and strongly related to the systemic lesion of central nervous system. The central nervous system complications comprise cognitive impairment, brain atrophy and the growing risk of stroke and so on. Early treatment for OSAS has a positive significance on complications of central nervous system, and even the damage can be completely reversed.

A twentieth-century triangle trade: selling black beauty at home and abroad, 1945–1965.

Science.gov (United States)

McAndrew, Malia

2010-01-01

This study examines the careers of African American beauty culturists as they worked in the United States, Europe, and Africa between 1945 and 1965. Facing push back at home, African American beauty entrepreneurs frequently sought out international venues that were hospitable and receptive to black Americans in the years following World War II. By strategically using European sites that white Americans regarded as the birthplace of Western fashion and beauty, African American entrepreneurs in the fields of modeling, fashion design, and hair care were able to win accolades and advance their careers. In gaining support abroad, particularly in Europe, these beauty culturists capitalized on their international success to establish, legitimize, and promote their business ventures in the United States. After importing a positive reputation for themselves from Europe to the United States, African American beauty entrepreneurs then exported an image of themselves as the world's premier authorities on black beauty to people of color around the globe as they sold their products and marketed their expertise on the African continent itself. This essay demonstrates the important role that these black female beauty culturists played, both as businesspeople and as race leaders, in their generation's struggle to gain greater respect and opportunity for African Americans both at home and abroad. In doing so it places African American beauty culturists within the framework of transatlantic trade networks, the Black Freedom Movement, Pan-Africanism, and America's Cold War struggle.

Short-term sleep deprivation leads to decreased systemic redox metabolites and altered epigenetic status.

Science.gov (United States)

Trivedi, Malav S; Holger, Dana; Bui, Anh Tuyet; Craddock, Travis J A; Tartar, Jaime L

2017-01-01

Sleep is critical for repair as well as the rejuvenation processes in the body and many of these functions are regulated via underlying cellular metabolic homeostasis. Changes in sleep pattern are reported to alter such metabolic function resulting in altered disease susceptibility or behavior. Here, we measured the extent to which overnight total sleep deprivation (SD) in young adult humans can influence systemic (plasma-derived) redox-metabolism including the major antioxidant, glutathione as well as DNA methylation levels. Nineteen participants (n = 19, μ age = 21, SD = 3.09) underwent morning testing before and after overnight total SD. Biochemical measures before and after SD revealed that glutathione, ATP, cysteine, and homocysteine levels were significantly reduced following one night of sleep deprivation (all p's sleep deprivation (maintaining wakefulness) uses up metabolic reserves, we observed that morning cortisol levels were blunted after sleep deprivation. There were no significant correlations between self-reported or actigraphy-measured sleep and the biochemical measurements, strongly indicating that prior sleep behavior did not have any direct influence on the biochemical measures taken at baseline or after sleep deprivation. Results from the current investigation supports the previous literature implicating the induction of oxidative stress and ATP depletion with sleep deprivation. Furthermore, such altered antioxidant status can also induce downstream epigenetic changes. Although we did not measure the specific genes that were altered under the influence of such sleep deprivation, such epigenetic changes could potentially contribute towards disease predisposition.

The Circadian System Contributes to Apnea Lengthening across the Night in Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Science.gov (United States)

Butler, Matthew P; Smales, Carolina; Wu, Huijuan; Hussain, Mohammad V; Mohamed, Yusef A; Morimoto, Miki; Shea, Steven A

2015-11-01

To test the hypothesis that respiratory event duration exhibits an endogenous circadian rhythm. Within-subject and between-subjects. Inpatient intensive physiologic monitoring unit at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Seven subjects with moderate/severe sleep apnea and four controls, age 48 (SD = 12) years, 7 males. Subjects completed a 5-day inpatient protocol in dim light. Polysomnography was recorded during an initial control 8-h night scheduled at the usual sleep time, then through 10 recurrent cycles of 2 h 40 min sleep and 2 h 40 min wake evenly distributed across all circadian phases, and finally during another 8-h control sleep period. Event durations, desaturations, and apnea-hypopnea index for each sleep opportunity were assessed according to circadian phase (derived from salivary melatonin), time into sleep, and sleep stage. Average respiratory event durations in NREM sleep significantly lengthened across both control nights (21.9 to 28.2 sec and 23.7 to 30.2 sec, respectively). During the circadian protocol, event duration in NREM increased across the circadian phases that corresponded to the usual sleep period, accounting for > 50% of the increase across normal 8-h control nights. AHI and desaturations were also rhythmic: AHI was highest in the biological day while desaturations were greatest in the biological night. The endogenous circadian system plays an important role in the prolongation of respiratory events across the night, and might provide a novel therapeutic target for modulating sleep apnea. © 2015 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

Nennu and Shunu: gender, body politics, and the beauty economy in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jie

2011-01-01

This essay analyzes recent discourse on two emerging representations of women in China, "tender" women (nennu) and "ripe" women (shunu), in order to examine the relationships among gender, body politics, and consumerism. The discourse of nennu and shunu suggests that older, ripe women become younger and more tender by consuming fashions, cosmetic surgery technologies, and beauty and health care products and services because tender women represent the ideal active consumership that celebrates beauty, sexuality, and individuality. This discourse serves to enhance consumers' desire for beauty and health and to ensure the continued growth of China's beauty economy and consumer capitalism. Highlighting the role of the female body, feminine beauty, and feminine youth in developing consumerism, this discourse downplays the contributions of millions of beauty and health care providers (predominantly laid-off female workers and rural migrant women) and new forms of gender exploitation. Such an overemphasis on gender masks intensified class division. This essay suggests that women and their bodies become new terrains from which post-Mao China can draw its power and enact consumerism. Gender constitutes both an economic multiplier to boost China's consumer capitalism and a biopolitical strategy to regulate and remold women and their bodies into subjects that are identified with the state's political and economic objectives. Since consumerism has been incorporated into China's nation-building project, gender thus becomes a vital resource for both consumer capitalist development and nation building. This essay shows that both gender and the body are useful analytic categories for the study of postsocialism.

BRAND AND VISUAL IDENTITY DESIGN FOR A BEAUTY SALON

OpenAIRE

Borhani, Maryam

2015-01-01

The aim of this thesis is to create a brand and a visual identity for a beauty-salon called Narsissi. Narsissi offers a relaxing environment where both men and women can get lasting beauty treatment results. For a firm being branded is unavoidable. Everything from the look of the logo to the smoothness of service communicates something to the possible customer. In today's market, to be competitive means to be in control of the brand. A huge part of a brand's effectiveness is visual. T...

Beautiful Science: Worth a Visit

Science.gov (United States)

Bingham, Frederick M.

2013-01-01

For those in the profession of teaching physics who reside in or plan to visit the Los Angeles area, I would highly recommend a trip to the Huntington Library in San Marino, specifically to a permanent exhibit entitled "Beautiful Science: Ideas that Changed the World" in the Dibner Hall of the History of Science. The exhibit contains…

Quantum Beauty: Real and Ideal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilczek, F.

2011-01-01

Does the world embody beautiful ideas? Pythagoras and Plato intuited that it should; Newton and Maxwell demonstrated how it could. But modern physics, and especially the quantum physics at its foundation, answers with a much more resounding and definitive 'Yes' I'll bring in history and art, as well as science, to make the case.(author)

78 FR 52563 - Certain Sleep-Disordered Breathing Treatment Systems and Components Thereof; Notice of...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-23

... INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION [Investigation No. 337-TA-890] Certain Sleep-Disordered Breathing... certain sleep- disordered breathing treatment systems and components thereof by reason of infringement of... terminal on (202) 205-1810. Persons with mobility impairments who will need special assistance in gaining...

What is beautiful is good because what is beautiful is desired: physical attractiveness stereotyping as projection of interpersonal goals.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemay, Edward P; Clark, Margaret S; Greenberg, Aaron

2010-03-01

The authors posit that the attribution of desirable interpersonal qualities to physically attractive targets is a projection of interpersonal goals; people desire to form and maintain close social bonds with attractive targets and then project these motivations onto those targets. Three studies support this model. Tendencies to see attractive novel targets depicted in photographs (Study 1), attractive romantic partners (Study 2), and attractive friends (Study 3) as especially interpersonally receptive and responsive were explained by perceivers' heightened desires to bond with attractive individuals. Additional findings regarding response latencies (Study 1) also supported this model. Many instances of the "beautiful is good" effect may not reflect stereotyping as it is typically construed. Rather, they may reflect projection of heightened desires to bond with beautiful people.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obstructive sleep apnea: overlaps in pathophysiology, systemic inflammation, and cardiovascular disease.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

McNicholas, Walter T

2012-02-01

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome represent two of the most prevalent chronic respiratory disorders in clinical practice, and cardiovascular diseases represent a major comorbidity in each disorder. The two disorders coexist (overlap syndrome) in approximately 1% of adults but asymptomatic lower airway obstruction together with sleep-disordered breathing is more prevalent. Although obstructive sleep apnea syndrome has similar prevalence in COPD as the general population, and vice versa, factors such as body mass index and smoking influence relationships. Nocturnal oxygen desaturation develops in COPD, independent of apnea\\/hypopnea, and is more severe in the overlap syndrome, thus predisposing to pulmonary hypertension. Furthermore, upper airway flow limitation contributes to nocturnal desaturation in COPD without apnea\\/hypopnea. Evidence of systemic inflammation in COPD and sleep apnea, involving C-reactive protein and IL-6, in addition to nuclear factor-kappaB-dependent pathways involving tumor necrosis factor-alpha and IL-8, provides insight into potential basic interactions between both disorders. Furthermore, oxidative stress develops in each disorder, in addition to activation and\\/or dysfunction of circulating leukocytes. These findings are clinically relevant because systemic inflammation may contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases and the cell\\/molecular pathways involved are similar to those identified in COPD and sleep apnea. However, the pathophysiological and clinical significance of systemic inflammation in COPD and sleep apnea is not proven, and thus, studies of patients with the overlap syndrome should provide insight into the mechanisms of systemic inflammation in COPD and sleep apnea, in addition to potential relationships with cardiovascular disease.

Systemic exertion intolerance disease/chronic fatigue syndrome is common in sleep centre patients with hypersomnolence: A retrospective pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Maness, Caroline; Saini, Prabhjyot; Bliwise, Donald L; Olvera, Victoria; Rye, David B; Trotti, Lynn M

2018-04-06

Symptoms of the central disorders of hypersomnolence extend beyond excessive daytime sleepiness to include non-restorative sleep, fatigue and cognitive dysfunction. They share much in common with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, recently renamed systemic exertion intolerance disease, whose additional features include post-exertional malaise and orthostatic intolerance. We sought to determine the frequency and correlates of systemic exertion intolerance disease in a hypersomnolent population. One-hundred and eighty-seven hypersomnolent patients completed questionnaires regarding sleepiness and fatigue; questionnaires and clinical records were used to assess for systemic exertion intolerance disease. Sleep studies, hypocretin and cataplexy were additionally used to assign diagnoses of hypersomnolence disorders or sleep apnea. Included diagnoses were idiopathic hypersomnia (n = 63), narcolepsy type 2 (n = 25), persistent sleepiness after obstructive sleep apnea treatment (n = 25), short habitual sleep duration (n = 41), and sleepiness with normal sleep study (n = 33). Twenty-one percent met systemic exertion intolerance disease criteria, and the frequency of systemic exertion intolerance disease was not different across sleep diagnoses (p = .37). Patients with systemic exertion intolerance disease were no different from those without this diagnosis by gender, age, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, depressive symptoms, or sleep study parameters. The whole cohort reported substantial fatigue on questionnaires, but the systemic exertion intolerance disease group exhibited more profound fatigue and was less likely to respond to traditional wake-promoting agents (88.6% versus 67.7%, p = .01). Systemic exertion intolerance disease appears to be a common co-morbidity in patients with hypersomnolence, which is not specific to hypersomnolence subtype but may portend a poorer prognosis for treatment response. © 2018 European Sleep Research Society.

Descending projections of the hamster intergeniculate leaflet: relationship to the sleep/arousal and visuomotor systems

Science.gov (United States)

Morin, Lawrence P.; Blanchard, Jane H.

2005-01-01

The intergeniculate leaflet (IGL), homolog of the primate pregeniculate nucleus, modulates circadian rhythms. However, its extensive anatomical connections suggest that it may regulate other systems, particularly those for visuomotor function and sleep/arousal. Here, descending IGL-efferent pathways are identified with the anterograde tracer, Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin, with projections to over 50 brain stem nuclei. Projections of the ventral lateral geniculate are similar, but more limited. Many of the nuclei with IGL afferents contribute to circuitry governing visuomotor function. These include the oculomotor, trochlear, anterior pretectal, Edinger-Westphal, and the terminal nuclei; all layers of the superior colliculus, interstitial nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus, supraoculomotor periaqueductal gray, nucleus of the optic tract, the inferior olive, and raphe interpositus. Other target nuclei are known to be involved in the regulation of sleep, including the lateral dorsal and pedunculopontine tegmentum. The dorsal raphe also receives projections from the IGL and may contribute to both sleep/arousal and visuomotor function. However, the locus coeruleus and medial vestibular nucleus, which contribute to sleep and eye movement regulation and which send projections to the IGL, do not receive reciprocal projections from it. The potential involvement of the IGL with the sleep/arousal system is further buttressed by existing evidence showing IGL-efferent projections to the ventrolateral preoptic area, dorsomedial, and medial tuberal hypothalamus. In addition, the great majority of all regions receiving IGL projections also receive input from the orexin/hypocretin system, suggesting that this system contributes not only to the regulation of sleep, but to eye movement control as well.

Study of charm and beauty production at HERA/H1 using dilepton events

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goettlich, M.

2007-04-15

stroke {delta}{phi}({mu}{sub 1},l{sub 2}) vertical stroke x Q({mu}{sub 1}) x Q(l{sub 2}) of the dilepton system are investigated. In addition, differential jet cross sections are determined. The measurements are compared with leading order QCD calculations, supplemented with parton showers. The charm cross sections are consistent with the predictions, while the predicted beauty cross sections are somewhat lower than the measurement. The predicted differential beauty cross sections describe the shape of the measurements. (orig.)

Measurement of beauty production in deep inelastic scattering at HERA using decays into electrons

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shehzadi, Ramoona

2011-01-15

The production of beauty quarks in ep interactions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for exchanged four-momentum squared Q{sup 2}>10 GeV{sup 2}, using an integrated luminosity of 363 pb{sup -1}. The beauty events were identified using electrons from semileptonic b decays with a transverse momentum 0.9beauty production were measured and compared with next-to-leading-order QCD calculations. The beauty contribution to the proton structure function F{sub 2} was extracted from the double-differential cross section as a function of Bjorken-x and Q{sup 2}. (orig.)

Sleep deprivation: a mind-body approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Aguirre, Claudia C

2016-11-01

The purpose of this review is to summarize recent advances in our understanding of the impact sleep disturbances have on our health, with particular focus on the brain. The present review considers the influence of sleep disturbance on the neurovascular unit; the role of sleep disturbance in neurodegenerative diseases; and relevant strategies of neuro-immuno-endocrine interactions that likely contribute to the restorative power of sleep. Given the latest discoveries about the brain's waste clearance system and its relationship to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease, this review gives a brief overview on the molecular mechanisms behind sleep loss-related impairments. Recent evidence indicates that sleep plays a vital role in neuro-immuno-endocrine homeostasis. Sleep loss has been linked to elevated risks for cognitive and mood disorders, underscored by impaired synaptic transmission. The glymphatic system has been shown to be modulated by sleep and implicated in neurodegenerative disorders. Interactions between sleep quality, the immune system, and neurodegenerative disease are complex and a challenge to distil. These interactions are frequently bidirectional, because of sleep's characterization as an early symptom and as a potential factor contributing to the development and progression of mood and cognitive disorders. VIDEO ABSTRACT.

Short-term sleep deprivation leads to decreased systemic redox metabolites and altered epigenetic status.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Malav S Trivedi

Full Text Available Sleep is critical for repair as well as the rejuvenation processes in the body and many of these functions are regulated via underlying cellular metabolic homeostasis. Changes in sleep pattern are reported to alter such metabolic function resulting in altered disease susceptibility or behavior. Here, we measured the extent to which overnight total sleep deprivation (SD in young adult humans can influence systemic (plasma-derived redox-metabolism including the major antioxidant, glutathione as well as DNA methylation levels. Nineteen participants (n = 19, μ age = 21, SD = 3.09 underwent morning testing before and after overnight total SD. Biochemical measures before and after SD revealed that glutathione, ATP, cysteine, and homocysteine levels were significantly reduced following one night of sleep deprivation (all p's < 0.01. Parallel to the well-recognized fact that sleep deprivation (maintaining wakefulness uses up metabolic reserves, we observed that morning cortisol levels were blunted after sleep deprivation. There were no significant correlations between self-reported or actigraphy-measured sleep and the biochemical measurements, strongly indicating that prior sleep behavior did not have any direct influence on the biochemical measures taken at baseline or after sleep deprivation. Results from the current investigation supports the previous literature implicating the induction of oxidative stress and ATP depletion with sleep deprivation. Furthermore, such altered antioxidant status can also induce downstream epigenetic changes. Although we did not measure the specific genes that were altered under the influence of such sleep deprivation, such epigenetic changes could potentially contribute towards disease predisposition.

The Neuroprotective Aspects of Sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Eugene, Andy R; Masiak, Jolanta

2015-03-01

Sleep is an important component of human life, yet many people do not understand the relationship between the brain and the process of sleeping. Sleep has been proven to improve memory recall, regulate metabolism, and reduce mental fatigue. A minimum of 7 hours of daily sleep seems to be necessary for proper cognitive and behavioral function. The emotional and mental handicaps associated with chronic sleep loss as well as the highly hazardous situations which can be contributed to the lack of sleep is a serious concern that people need to be aware of. When one sleeps, the brain reorganizes and recharges itself, and removes toxic waste byproducts which have accumulated throughout the day. This evidence demonstrates that sleeping can clear the brain and help maintain its normal functioning. Multiple studies have been done to determine the effects of total sleep deprivation; more recently some have been conducted to show the effects of sleep restriction, which is a much more common occurrence, have the same effects as total sleep deprivation. Each phase of the sleep cycle restores and rejuvenates the brain for optimal function. When sleep is deprived, the active process of the glymphatic system does not have time to perform that function, so toxins can build up, and the effects will become apparent in cognitive abilities, behavior, and judgment. As a background for this paper we have reviewed literature and research of sleep phases, effects of sleep deprivation, and the glymphatic system of the brain and its restorative effect during the sleep cycle.

Sleep and Sedative States Induced by Targeting the Histamine and Noradrenergic Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiao Yu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Sedatives target just a handful of receptors and ion channels. But we have no satisfying explanation for how activating these receptors produces sedation. In particular, do sedatives act at restricted brain locations and circuitries or more widely? Two prominent sedative drugs in clinical use are zolpidem, a GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulator, and dexmedetomidine (DEX, a selective α2 adrenergic receptor agonist. By targeting hypothalamic neuromodulatory systems both drugs induce a sleep-like state, but in different ways: zolpidem primarily reduces the latency to NREM sleep, and is a controlled substance taken by many people to help them sleep; DEX produces prominent slow wave activity in the electroencephalogram (EEG resembling stage 2 NREM sleep, but with complications of hypothermia and lowered blood pressure—it is used for long term sedation in hospital intensive care units—under DEX-induced sedation patients are arousable and responsive, and this drug reduces the risk of delirium. DEX, and another α2 adrenergic agonist xylazine, are also widely used in veterinary clinics to sedate animals. Here we review how these two different classes of sedatives, zolpidem and dexmedetomideine, can selectively interact with some nodal points of the circuitry that promote wakefulness allowing the transition to NREM sleep. Zolpidem enhances GABAergic transmission onto histamine neurons in the hypothalamic tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN to hasten the transition to NREM sleep, and DEX interacts with neurons in the preoptic hypothalamic area that induce sleep and body cooling. This knowledge may aid the design of more precise acting sedatives, and at the same time, reveal more about the natural sleep-wake circuitry.

Positive effects of β-amyrin on pentobarbital-induced sleep in mice via GABAergic neurotransmitter system.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeon, Se Jin; Park, Ho Jae; Gao, Qingtao; Lee, Hyung Eun; Park, Se Jin; Hong, Eunyoung; Jang, Dae Sik; Shin, Chan Young; Cheong, Jae Hoon; Ryu, Jong Hoon

2015-09-15

Sleep loss, insomnia, is considered a sign of imbalance of physiological rhythm, which can be used as pre-clinic diagnosis of various neuropsychiatric disorders. The aim of the present study is to understand the pharmacological actions of α- or β-amyrin, natural triterpene compound, on the sleep in mice. To analyze the sleeping behavior, we used the well-known pentobarbital-induced sleeping model after single administration of either α- or β-amyrin. The sleeping onset time was remarkably decreased and duration was prolonged by β-amyrin (1, 3, or 10mg/kg) but not by α-amyrin (1, 3, or 10mg/kg). These effects were significantly blocked by GABAA receptor antagonist, bicuculline. Moreover, β-amyrin increased brain GABA level compared to the vehicle administration. Overall, the present study suggests that β-amyrin would enhance the total sleeping behavior in pentobarbital-induced sleeping model via the activation of GABAergic neurotransmitter system through GABA content in the brain. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sleep Characteristics, Sleep Problems, and Associations to Quality of Life among Psychotherapists

OpenAIRE

Schlarb, Angelika A.; Reis, Dorota; Schröder, Annette

2012-01-01

Sleep problems, especially insomnia, are a common complaint among adults. International studies have shown prevalence rates between 4.7 and 36.2% for sleep difficulties in general, whereas 13.1?28.1% report insomnia symptoms. Sleep problems are associated with lower social and academic performance and can have a severe impact on psychological and physical health. Psychotherapists are suppliers within the public health system. The goal of this study was to outline sleep characteristics, preval...

[Sleep quality of nurses working in shifts - Hungarian adaptation of the Bergen Shift Work Sleep Questionnaire].

Science.gov (United States)

Fusz, Katalin; Tóth, Ákos; Fullér, Noémi; Müller, Ágnes; Oláh, András

2015-12-06

Sleep disorders among shift workers are common problems due to the disturbed circadian rhythm. The Bergen Shift Work Sleep Questionnaire assesses discrete sleep problems related to work shifts (day, evening and night shifts) and rest days. The aim of the study was to develop the Hungarian version of this questionnaire and to compare the sleep quality of nurses in different work schedules. 326 nurses working in shifts filled in the questionnaire. The authors made convergent and discriminant validation of the questionnaire with the Athens Insomnia Scale and the Perceived Stress Questionnaire. The questionnaire based on psychometric characteristics was suitable to assess sleep disorders associated with shift work in a Hungarian sample. The frequency of discrete symptoms significantly (pshifts. Nurses experienced the worst sleep quality and daytime fatigue after the night shift. Nurses working in irregular shift system had worse sleep quality than nurses working in regular and flexible shift system (pworking in shifts should be assessed with the Hungarian version of the Bergen Shift Work Sleep Questionnaire on a nationally representative sample, and the least burdensome shift system could be established.

Kinematic parameters that influence the aesthetic perception of beauty in contemporary dance.

Science.gov (United States)

Torrents, Carlota; Castañer, Marta; Jofre, Toni; Morey, Gaspar; Reverter, Ferran

2013-01-01

Some experiments have stablished that certain kinematic parameters can influence the subjective aesthetic perception of the dance audience. Neave, McCarty, Freynik, Caplan, Hönekopp, and Fink (2010, Biology Letters 7 221-224) reported eleven movement parameters in non-expert male dancers, showing a significant positive correlation with perceived dance quality. We aim to identify some of the kinematic parameters of expert dancers' movements that influence the subjective aesthetic perception of observers in relation to specific skills of contemporary dance. Four experienced contemporary dancers performed three repetitions of four dance-related motor skills. Motion was captured by a VICON-MX system. The resulting 48 animations were viewed by 108 observers. The observers judged beauty using a semantic differential. The data were then subjected to multiple factor analysis. The results suggested that there were strong associations between higher beauty scores and certain kinematic parameters, especially those related to amplitude of movement.

Materialised Ideals Sizes and Beauty

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kirsi Laitala

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Today’s clothing industry is based on a system where clothes are made in ready-to-wear sizes and meant to fit most people. Studies have pointed out that consumers are discontent with the use of these systems: size designations are not accurate enough to find clothing that fits, and different sizes are poorly available. This article discusses in depth who these consumers are, and which consumer groups are the most dissatisfied with today’s sizing systems. Results are based on a web survey where 2834 Nordic consumers responded, complemented with eight in-depth interviews, market analysis on clothing sizes and in-store trouser size measurements. Results indicate that higher shares of the consumers who have a body out of touch with the existing beauty ideals express discontentment with the sizing systems and the poor selection available. In particular, large women, very large men, and thin, short men are those who experience less priority in clothing stores and have more difficulties in finding clothes that fit. Consumers tend to blame themselves when the clothes do not fit their bodies, while our study points out that the industry is to blame as they do not produce clothing for all customers.

"Man-some": A Review of Male Facial Aging and Beauty.

Science.gov (United States)

Keaney, Terrence Colin

2017-06-01

Gender plays a significant role in determining facial anatomy and behavior, both of which are key factors in the aging process. Understanding the pattern of male facial aging is critical when planning aesthetic treatments on men. Men develop more severe rhytides in a unique pattern, show increased periocular aging changes, and are more prone to hair loss. What also needs to be considered when planning a treatment is what makes men beautiful or "man-some". Male beauty strikes a balance between masculine and feminine facial features. A hypermasculine face can have negative associations. Men also exhibit different cosmetic concerns. Men tend to focus on three areas of the face - hairline, periocular area, and jawline. A comprehensive understanding of the male patient including anatomy, facial aging, cosmetic concerns, and beauty are needed for successful cosmetic outcomes. J Drugs Dermatol. 2017;16(6 Suppl):s91-93..

Sleep Disturbance, Sleep Duration, and Inflammation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies and Experimental Sleep Deprivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Irwin, Michael R; Olmstead, Richard; Carroll, Judith E

2016-07-01

Sleep disturbance is associated with inflammatory disease risk and all-cause mortality. Here, we assess global evidence linking sleep disturbance, sleep duration, and inflammation in adult humans. A systematic search of English language publications was performed, with inclusion of primary research articles that characterized sleep disturbance and/or sleep duration or performed experimental sleep deprivation and assessed inflammation by levels of circulating markers. Effect sizes (ES) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were extracted and pooled using a random effect model. A total of 72 studies (n > 50,000) were analyzed with assessment of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα). Sleep disturbance was associated with higher levels of CRP (ES .12; 95% CI = .05-.19) and IL-6 (ES .20; 95% CI = .08-.31). Shorter sleep duration, but not the extreme of short sleep, was associated with higher levels of CRP (ES .09; 95% CI = .01-.17) but not IL-6 (ES .03; 95% CI: -.09 to .14). The extreme of long sleep duration was associated with higher levels of CRP (ES .17; 95% CI = .01-.34) and IL-6 (ES .11; 95% CI = .02-20). Neither sleep disturbances nor sleep duration was associated with TNFα. Neither experimental sleep deprivation nor sleep restriction was associated with CRP, IL-6, or TNFα. Some heterogeneity among studies was found, but there was no evidence of publication bias. Sleep disturbance and long sleep duration, but not short sleep duration, are associated with increases in markers of systemic inflammation. Copyright © 2016 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Beauty, a road to the truth

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuipers, T.A.F.

In this article I give a naturalistic-cum-formal analysis of the relation between beauty, empirical success, and truth. The analysis is based on the one hand on a hypothetical variant of the so-called 'mere-exposure effect' which has been more or less established in experimental psychology regarding

Measurement of beauty production in deep inelastic scattering at HERA using decays into electrons

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abramowicz, H. [Tel Aviv Univ. (Israel). School of Physics; Max-Planck-Institut fuer Physik, Muenchen (Germany); Abt, I. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Physik, Muenchen (Germany); Adamczyk, L. [AGH-Univ. of Science and Technology, Cracow (PL). Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science] (and others)

2011-01-15

The production of beauty quarks in ep interactions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for exchanged four-momentum squared Q{sup 2}>10 GeV{sup 2}, using an integrated luminosity of 363 pb{sup -1}. The beauty events were identified using electrons from semileptonic b decays with a transverse momentum 0.9 beauty production were measured and compared with next-to-leading-order QCD calculations. The beauty contribution to the proton structure function F{sub 2} was extracted from the double-differential cross section as a function of Bjorken-x and Q{sup 2}. (orig.)

Topical review: sleep bruxism, headaches, and sleep-disordered breathing in children and adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Carra, Maria Clotilde; Bruni, Olivero; Huynh, Nelly

2012-01-01

Sleep bruxism, a well-known burden for dentists, is commonly observed in pediatric populations. Dentists are responsible for the detection and prevention of the detrimental consequences on the stomatognathic system that may occur in some patients with sleep bruxism. However, sleep bruxism is much more than tooth wear, since it is frequently associated with orofacial pain, headaches, and other more severe sleep disorders, such as sleep-disordered breathing. Although the mechanisms underlying the possible interactions among sleep bruxism, headaches, and sleep-disordered breathing need further research, these conditions are often concomitant. A literature search was performed to identify relevant publications related to the topic, which have been integrated in this topical review. The aim of this article was to provide a brief overview on sleep bruxism, headaches, and sleep-disordered breathing in pediatric patients and to promote a multispecialist approach (including dentists, sleep specialist physicians, and psychologists) in the diagnosis and management of these frequently associated disorders.

Physical attractiveness biases in ratings of employment suitability: tracking down the "beauty is beastly" effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Stefanie K; Podratz, Kenneth E; Dipboye, Robert L; Gibbons, Ellie

2010-01-01

The "what is beautiful is good" heuristic suggests that physically attractive persons benefit from their attractiveness in a large range of situations, including perceptions of employment suitability. Conversely, the "beauty is beastly" effect suggests that attractiveness can be detrimental to women in certain employment contexts, although these findings have been less consistent than those for the "what is beautiful is good" effect. The current research seeks to uncover situations in which beauty might be detrimental for female applicants. In two studies, we found that attractiveness can be detrimental for women applying for masculine sex-typed jobs for which physical appearance is perceived as unimportant.

The ratio of the beauty structure functions Rb=(FLb)/(F2b) at low x

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boroun, G.R.

2014-01-01

We study the structure functions F k b (x,Q 2 ) (k=2,L) and the reduced cross section σ r b (x,Q 2 ) for small values of Bjorken's x variable with respect to the hard (Lipatov) pomeron for the gluon distribution and provide a compact formula for the ratio R b that is useful to extract the beauty structure function from the beauty reduced cross section, in particular at DESY HERA. Also we show that the effects of the nonlinear corrections to the gluon distribution tame the behavior of the beauty structure function and the beauty reduced cross section at low x

Sleep deprivation as an experimental model system for psychosis: Effects on smooth pursuit, prosaccades, and antisaccades.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyhöfer, Inga; Kumari, Veena; Hill, Antje; Petrovsky, Nadine; Ettinger, Ulrich

2017-04-01

Current antipsychotic medications fail to satisfactorily reduce negative and cognitive symptoms and produce many unwanted side effects, necessitating the development of new compounds. Cross-species, experimental behavioural model systems can be valuable to inform the development of such drugs. The aim of the current study was to further test the hypothesis that controlled sleep deprivation is a safe and effective model system for psychosis when combined with oculomotor biomarkers of schizophrenia. Using a randomized counterbalanced within-subjects design, we investigated the effects of 1 night of total sleep deprivation in 32 healthy participants on smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM), prosaccades (PS), antisaccades (AS), and self-ratings of psychosis-like states. Compared with a normal sleep control night, sleep deprivation was associated with reduced SPEM velocity gain, higher saccadic frequency at 0.2 Hz, elevated PS spatial error, and an increase in AS direction errors. Sleep deprivation also increased intra-individual variability of SPEM, PS, and AS measures. In addition, sleep deprivation induced psychosis-like experiences mimicking hallucinations, cognitive disorganization, and negative symptoms, which in turn had moderate associations with AS direction errors. Taken together, sleep deprivation resulted in psychosis-like impairments in SPEM and AS performance. However, diverging somewhat from the schizophrenia literature, sleep deprivation additionally disrupted PS control. Sleep deprivation thus represents a promising but possibly unspecific experimental model that may be helpful to further improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms in the pathophysiology of psychosis and aid the development of antipsychotic and pro-cognitive drugs.

Isolated sleep paralysis

Science.gov (United States)

... T, Dement WC, eds. Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine. 6th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2017:chap 103. ... Blaivas, DO, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, VA New Jersey Health Care System, Clinical Assistant ...

Beautiful Testing Leading Professionals Reveal How They Improve Software

CERN Document Server

Goucher, Adam

2009-01-01

Successful software depends as much on scrupulous testing as it does on solid architecture or elegant code. But testing is not a routine process, it's a constant exploration of methods and an evolution of good ideas. Beautiful Testing offers 23 essays from 27 leading testers and developers that illustrate the qualities and techniques that make testing an art. Through personal anecdotes, you'll learn how each of these professionals developed beautiful ways of testing a wide range of products -- valuable knowledge that you can apply to your own projects. Here's a sample of what you'll find i

Repeated sleep restriction in rats leads to homeostatic and allostatic responses during recovery sleep

OpenAIRE

Kim, Youngsoo; Laposky, Aaron D.; Bergmann, Bernard M.; Turek, Fred W.

2007-01-01

Recent studies indicate that chronic sleep restriction can have negative consequences for brain function and peripheral physiology and can contribute to the allostatic load throughout the body. Interestingly, few studies have examined how the sleep–wake system itself responds to repeated sleep restriction. In this study, rats were subjected to a sleep-restriction protocol consisting of 20 h of sleep deprivation (SD) followed by a 4-h sleep opportunity each day for 5 consecutive days. In respo...

Sleep disturbances in systemic sclerosis: evidence for the role of gastrointestinal symptoms, pain and pruritus.

Science.gov (United States)

Milette, Katherine; Hudson, Marie; Körner, Annett; Baron, Murray; Thombs, Brett D

2013-09-01

SSc is a rare autoimmune CTD characterized by thickening and fibrosis of skin and internal organs. There is significant mortality and no cure. Sleep disturbance has been identified as an important contributor to poor quality of life. The objective was to investigate socio-demographic and medical factors potentially associated with sleep disturbance in SSc. The sample consisted of patients from the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group's (CSRG) 15-centre, pan-Canadian Registry assessed with the 8-item Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) sleep disturbance scale short form, version 1.0. Pearson's correlations were used to assess bivariate association of socio-demographic and medical variables with PROMIS sleep scores. The independent association of PROMIS sleep disturbance scores and factors previously identified as associated with sleep disturbance in the general population, in SSc and other rheumatic diseases, was assessed using multiple linear regression. Among 397 patients in the study (88% female, mean age 57.5 years), 25% (n = 98) had diffuse cutaneous SSc. Mean duration since onset of non-RP symptoms was 10.6 years. Number of gastrointestinal symptoms (standardized regression coefficient β = 0.19, P = 0.001), pain severity (β = 0.21, P sleep disturbance. Gastrointestinal symptoms, pain and pruritus were associated with sleep disturbance in SSc. Additional research is needed on sleep in SSc so that well-informed sleep interventions can be developed and tested.

PA01.75. Hidden beauty concepts in ayurveda w.r.t agada tantra

Science.gov (United States)

Kalyanimath, Gurusiddeshwar J.; Sharanesh, T.; Ashwinikumar; Anita, M.

2012-01-01

Purpose: Beauty is not in the face; Beauty is a light in the heart. In our Ayurveda it is stated that Physical, Mental and Spiritual beauty as a combined unit projects the cosmetic sense of Ayurveda (Ch.Su 1/41). According to Ayurveda healthy skin is the result of overall condition of individuals and prescribes numerous skin care treatments that need to be pursued at every stage of life. Ayurveda determines beauty by Prakruti(body constitution), Sara (structural predominance), Samhanana (compactness of body), Twak (skin complexion), Pramana (measurement) and Dirghayu lakshana (symptom of long life). Ayurveda cosmetology started with garbhini paricharya, Dinacharya, Ratricharya and Ritucharya with practice of medicinal herbs and minerals. In day-to-day life, knowingly or unknowingly we exposing lots of chemicals /toxins to our body, those spoiling our natural beauty silently, this same concept is explained in Agada tantra under concept of Dhooshivisha (Su.Ka 2/33) and Garaviasha. Method: 1. Literature review of concept related to cosmetology in relation to Agada Tantra.2. Analysis and Interpretation of mode of action of Agada yoga's in relieving the symptoms of Twak vikaras. Result: 1. Specific Agada yogas like Bilwadi Agada , Dhooshivishari Agada, Moorvadi choorna, Paarantyadi Keram shows best preventive and curative action in twak vikaras.2. Some of the Agadas like Moorvadi choona (A.hrudaya) lepas have enhansess the internal and external beauty. Conclusion: Agada tantra is not only a branch of Ayurveda it deals with management of acute and chronic diseases but also a added benefit of being used for cosmetology.

The large hadron collider beauty experiment calorimeters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martens, A.; LHCb Collaboration; Martens, A.

2010-01-01

The Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment (LHCb), one of the four largest experiments at the LHC at CERN, is dedicated to precision studies of CP violation and other rare effects, in particular in the b and c quark sectors. It aims at precisely measuring the Standard Model parameters and searching for effects inconsistent with this picture. The LHCb calorimeter system comprises a scintillating pad detector, a pre-shower (PS), electromagnetic (ECAL) and hadronic calorimeters, all of these employing the principle of transporting the light from scintillating layers with wavelength shifting fibers to photomultipliers. The fast response of the calorimeters ensures their key role in the LHCb trigger, which has to cope with the LHC collision rate of 40MHz. After discussing the design and expected performance of the LHCb calorimeter system, one addresses the time and energy calibration issues. The results obtained with the calorimeter system from the first LHC data will be shown.

Vascular compliance limits during sleep deprivation and recovery sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Derrick J; Schei, Jennifer L; Rector, David M

2013-10-01

Our previous studies showed that evoked hemodynamic responses are smaller during wake compared to sleep; suggesting neural activity is associated with vascular expansion and decreased compliance. We explored whether prolonged activity during sleep deprivation may exacerbate vascular expansion and blunt hemodynamic responses. Evoked auditory responses were generated with periodic 65 dB speaker clicks over a 72-h period and measured with cortical electrodes. Evoked hemodynamic responses were measured simultaneously with optical techniques using three light-emitting diodes, and a photodiode. Animals were housed in separate 30×30×80 cm enclosures, tethered to a commutator system and maintained on a 12-h light/dark cycle. Food and water were available ad libitum. Seven adult female Sprague-Dawley rats. Following a 24-h baseline recording, sleep deprivation was initiated for 0 to 10 h by gentle handling, followed by a 24-h recovery sleep recording. Evoked electrical and hemodynamic responses were measured before, during, and after sleep deprivation. Following deprivation, evoked hemodynamic amplitudes were blunted. Steady-state oxyhemoglobin concentration increased during deprivation and remained high during the initial recovery period before returning to baseline levels after approximately 9-h. Sleep deprivation resulted in blood vessel expansion and decreased compliance while lower basal neural activity during recovery sleep may allow blood vessel compliance to recover. Chronic sleep restriction or sleep deprivation could push the vasculature to critical levels, limiting blood delivery, and leading to metabolic deficits with the potential for neural trauma.

Association of sleep impairments and gastrointestinal disorders in the context of the visceral theory of sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Pigarev, Ivan N; Pigareva, Marina L

2017-01-01

It was noticed long ago that sleep disorders or interruptions to the normal sleep pattern were associated with various gastrointestinal disorders. We review the studies which established the causal link between these disorders and sleep impairment. However, the mechanism of interactions between the quality of sleep and gastrointestinal pathophysiology remained unclear. Recently, the visceral theory of sleep was formulated. This theory proposes that the same brain structures, and particularly the same cortical sensory areas, which in wakefulness are involved in processing of the exteroceptive information, switch during sleep to the processing of information coming from various visceral systems. We review the studies which demonstrated that neurons of the various cortical areas (occipital, parietal, frontal) during sleep began to fire in response to activation coming from the stomach and small intestine. These data demonstrate that, during sleep, the computational power of the central nervous system, including all cortical areas, is engaged in restoration of visceral systems. Thus, the general mechanism of the interaction between quality of sleep and health became clear.

Measruement of beauty production in DIS and F2bantib extraction at ZEUS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abramowicz, H.; Abt, I.; Adamczyk, L.

2010-04-01

Beauty production in deep inelastic scattering with events in which a muon and a jet are observed in the final state has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 114 pb -1 . The fraction of events with beauty quarks in the data was determined using the distribution of the transverse momentum of the muon relative to the jet. The cross section for beauty production was measured in the kinematic range of photon virtuality, Q 2 >2 GeV 2 , and inelasticity, 0.05 2 was extracted and is compared to theoretical predictions. (orig.)

Shaping the Female Student: An Analysis of Swedish Beauty School Recruitment Texts

Science.gov (United States)

Bredlöv, Eleonor

2016-01-01

This study focuses on the recruitment of adults to the beauty industry in Sweden. It is concerned with a move in (beauty) education away from state and towards private provision in a wider context where education is becoming more heavily marketised. Drawing on a poststructural approach inspired by the work of Foucault and feminist theory, the…

Male Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder? Guys, Guises and Disguise in Patrick White’s The Twyborn Affair

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jean-Francois Vernay

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Peer reviewed article. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, which first appeared in the 3rd century BC in Greek, quickly gained proverbial currency in the English language thanks to its wisdom. Admittedly, whenever beauty has been acknowledged, one should take it primarily as a comment on the beholder rather than on the model. In heterosexual relationships, male beauty would thus be informative of the female gaze and conception of aesthetics. But what of homosexual relationships? Logically, male beauty would inform as much on the aesthetics of the beholder as on the canons of male beauty through the representation of the perfect man. Now what if the male model appeals to both male and female beholders? Can gay men and straight women share the same aesthetics of the male body? Do they seek and value the same things in a partner? And then what if the male model switches to female beauty all the while sustaining an unflinching power of seduction? Would that prove that beauty is genderless or would that mean that desirability is unrelated to beauty? On a creative level, when White depicts an ambiguous protean protagonist, beauty essentially relies on his characterization skills. But is male beauty objectively inherent to the model or is it solely to be found in the novelist’s subjective representation of his central character?

Organization of the sleep-related neural systems in the brain of the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena).

Science.gov (United States)

Dell, Leigh-Anne; Patzke, Nina; Spocter, Muhammad A; Siegel, Jerome M; Manger, Paul R

2016-07-01

The present study provides the first systematic immunohistochemical neuroanatomical investigation of the systems involved in the control and regulation of sleep in an odontocete cetacean, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). The odontocete cetaceans show an unusual form of mammalian sleep, with unihemispheric slow waves, suppressed REM sleep, and continuous bodily movement. All the neural elements involved in sleep regulation and control found in bihemispheric sleeping mammals were present in the harbor porpoise, with no specific nuclei being absent, and no novel nuclei being present. This qualitative similarity of nuclear organization relates to the cholinergic, noradrenergic, serotonergic, and orexinergic systems and is extended to the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic elements involved with these nuclei. Quantitative analysis of the cholinergic and noradrenergic nuclei of the pontine region revealed that in comparison with other mammals, the numbers of pontine cholinergic (126,776) and noradrenergic (122,878) neurons are markedly higher than in other large-brained bihemispheric sleeping mammals. The diminutive telencephalic commissures (anterior commissure, corpus callosum, and hippocampal commissure) along with an enlarged posterior commissure and supernumerary pontine cholinergic and noradrenergic neurons indicate that the control of unihemispheric slow-wave sleep is likely to be a function of interpontine competition, facilitated through the posterior commissure, in response to unilateral telencephalic input related to the drive for sleep. In addition, an expanded peripheral division of the dorsal raphe nuclear complex appears likely to play a role in the suppression of REM sleep in odontocete cetaceans. Thus, the current study provides several clues to the understanding of the neural control of the unusual sleep phenomenology present in odontocete cetaceans. J. Comp. Neurol. 524:1999-2017, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals

Training of beauty salon professionals in disease prevention using interactive tele-education.

Science.gov (United States)

Vieira Júnior, Elso Elias; Wen, Chao Lung

2015-01-01

Infectious diseases can be acquired in places where invasive procedures are often performed without the proper care of hand washing and material sterilization. There are approximately 500,000 beauty and esthetics centers in Brazil, which are visited by thousands of people every day. Many diseases, including sexually transmitted infections, are still highly prevalent in Brazil, such as warts caused by human papillomavirus, hepatitis B and C, and human immunodeficiency virus infection, and can be transmitted in beauty salons. We have developed a tele-education course divided into four main themes: sexually transmitted infections, indoor health in beauty salon workplaces, hand washing, and material sterilization. The course was made available through a Web site, which included a face-to-face meeting, Web synchronous meetings (chats and Web conferences), and asynchronous resources (reading material, discussion lists, situations simulator, educational videos, and three-dimensional virtual human video animation on sexually transmitted infections and hand washing), mediated by professors and coordinators. Fifty-two beauty professionals and 33 other professionals were enrolled from different regions. Of the 61 who completed the course and received a certificate at the course's end, 100% considered good to excellent the course's applicability to everyday life and would recommend it to a fellow professional. The results demonstrate the feasibility of an interactive, tele-education model using low-cost tools as an educational resource to teach beauty professionals. In the future, this may become a branch of nationwide telehealth action.

SensibleSleep: A Bayesian Model for Learning Sleep Patterns from Smartphone Events

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cuttone, Andrea; Bækgaard, Per; Sekara, Vedran

2017-01-01

We propose a Bayesian model for extracting sleep patterns from smartphone events. Our method is able to identify individuals' daily sleep periods and their evolution over time, and provides an estimation of the probability of sleep and wake transitions. The model is fitted to more than 400...... to quantify uncertainty and encode prior knowledge about sleep patterns. Compared with existing smartphone-based systems, our method requires only screen on/off events, and is therefore much less intrusive in terms of privacy and more battery-efficient....

Sleep disorders in systemic lupus erythematosus. Does vitamin D play a role?

Science.gov (United States)

Gholamrezaei, A; Bonakdar, Z Sayed; Mirbagher, L; Hosseini, N

2014-09-01

Sleep disorders are common among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) with unclear underlying mechanisms. We assessed the role of vitamin D in sleep quality of patients with SLE. A retrospective study was conducted on women with SLE for whom the following data were available at the same time; sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)), disease activity, cumulative disease damage, psychological state (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)), and serum vitamin D level. Bivariate and regression analyses were computed to find contributors of sleep quality. In total, 63 women were studied. Serum vitamin D level was correlated with physical activity (r=0.310, p=0.015), season of assessment (r=-0.302, p=0.016), the PSQI global score (r=-0.262, p=0.043), anxiety score (r=-0.298, p=0.021), and non-significantly with depression score (r=-0.218, p=0.094). Including all variables into a linear regression model, vitamin D level was independently associated with the global PSQI score (beta=-0.364, p=0.042). Association of vitamin D level with psychological state disappeared after controlling for season of assessment (beta=-0.248, p=0.154). We found a role for vitamin D in sleep quality of SLE patients. Further studies are warranted to confirm these results and to find possible mechanisms of action. © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

The role of sleep and sleep disorders in the development, diagnosis, and management of neurocognitive disorders.

OpenAIRE

Michelle A Miller

2015-01-01

It is becoming increasingly apparent that sleep plays an important role in the maintenance, disease prevention, repair and restoration of both mind and body. The sleep and wake cycles are controlled by the pacemaker activity of the superchiasmic nucleus in the hypothalamus but can be disrupted by diseases of the nervous system causing disordered sleep. A lack of sleep has been associated with an increase in all–cause mortality. Likewise, sleep disturbances and sleep disorders may disrupt neu...

Beauty in a multicultural world.

Science.gov (United States)

Weeks, David M; Thomas, J Regan

2014-08-01

The increased demand for facial cosmetic surgery has come from a more diverse, informed, and selective patient population from all walks of life. Virtually no two patients have the same background or cosmetic objectives. However, the classic tenets of beauty including phi, symmetry, averageness, youthfulness, and sexual dimorphism can be applied to persons of all ethnicities to assist in objectifying the abstract concept. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

"You are so beautiful"*: behind women's attractiveness towards the biology of reproduction: a narrative review.

Science.gov (United States)

Buggio, Laura; Vercellini, Paolo; Somigliana, Edgardo; Viganò, Paola; Frattaruolo, Maria Pina; Fedele, Luigi

2012-10-01

Female beauty has always attracted human beings. In particular, beauty has been interpreted in terms of reproductive potential and advantage in selection of mates. We have reviewed the recent literature on female facial and physical beauty with the objective of defining which parameters could influence female attractiveness. Symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism with regards to facial beauty, as well as waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), breast size, and body mass index (BMI) for physical beauty, have been assessed. In current societies, it appears that facial attractiveness results from a mixture of symmetry and averageness of traits, high forehead and cheekbones, small nose and chin, full lips, thin eyebrows, and thick hair. A low WHR reliably characterized physical attractiveness, whereas inconsistencies have been observed in the evaluation of breast size and BMI. The importance of breast size appears to vary with time and sex of evaluators, whereas the impact of BMI is related to socio-economic conditions. The various hypotheses behind beauty and the role of attractiveness in mate choice and sexual selection are here described in terms of continuation of human species. Intriguing associations are emerging between features of attractiveness and some reproductive disorders, as both are substantially influenced by sex steroid hormones.

Organization of the sleep-related neural systems in the brain of the minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata).

Science.gov (United States)

Dell, Leigh-Anne; Karlsson, Karl Ae; Patzke, Nina; Spocter, Muhammad A; Siegel, Jerome M; Manger, Paul R

2016-07-01

The current study analyzed the nuclear organization of the neural systems related to the control and regulation of sleep and wake in the basal forebrain, diencephalon, midbrain, and pons of the minke whale, a mysticete cetacean. While odontocete cetaceans sleep in an unusual manner, with unihemispheric slow wave sleep (USWS) and suppressed REM sleep, it is unclear whether the mysticete whales show a similar sleep pattern. Previously, we detailed a range of features in the odontocete brain that appear to be related to odontocete-type sleep, and here present our analysis of these features in the minke whale brain. All neural elements involved in sleep regulation and control found in bihemispheric sleeping mammals and the harbor porpoise were present in the minke whale, with no specific nuclei being absent, and no novel nuclei being present. This qualitative similarity relates to the cholinergic, noradrenergic, serotonergic and orexinergic systems, and the GABAergic elements of these nuclei. Quantitative analysis revealed that the numbers of pontine cholinergic (274,242) and noradrenergic (203,686) neurons, and hypothalamic orexinergic neurons (277,604), are markedly higher than other large-brained bihemispheric sleeping mammals. Small telencephalic commissures (anterior, corpus callosum, and hippocampal), an enlarged posterior commissure, supernumerary pontine cholinergic and noradrenergic cells, and an enlarged peripheral division of the dorsal raphe nuclear complex of the minke whale, all indicate that the suite of neural characteristics thought to be involved in the control of USWS and the suppression of REM in the odontocete cetaceans are present in the minke whale. J. Comp. Neurol. 524:2018-2035, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Art of Media Manipulation – The Beauty of an Illusion is in the Mind of Observer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nenad Vertovšek

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The future of global society is increasingly dependent on the future of global media. In the future digitized reality, the art will reflect the mass media views about the meaning and significance of Beauty in virtual reality. Is virtual and media correcting of society and history at the same time correcting the history of art, even art itself? Virtual and Digital Beauty, born with a help of illusions - using techniques of George Orwell and Huxley's visions – contains more truth than the existing artistic beauty. Modern spectacle from advertising to mediaindustry of beauty and entertainment turn of the art in digital dystopia, which breaks the traditional and rational framework of society, creative expressions and value systems. The beauty and purity of the screen and the virtual images replace the tactile relationships with new redefinition of the concepts of truth and art. Can we really stand seduction in sense of Baudrillard or velvet bars of George Ritzer? New media are not just the addition of old classic ones, and a deeper understanding of media content is needed than ever before. Digitalization will not only mean the transfer of records into an electronic medium, but future technology will dent the words, images and sounds directly into the human brain. Man and his mind will surpass themselves, due to the need to process unimaginable amounts of information. Will the analysis and processing of data be the primary source of information and knowledge, or just juggling those data? Or will it turn into a juggling with the reality itself, where the borders will be –only an illusion?

[Beauty judgment: review of the literature].

Science.gov (United States)

Faure, Jacques; Bolender, Yves

2014-03-01

Esthetic judgments are surely subjective, but as surely, that does not preclude them being studied objectively through rigorous scientific methods. The factual basis of a science of esthetics is not to settle whether some person or image is "objectively beautiful" but rather to determine whether some representative set or sets of individuals judge or experience him/her/it as beautiful or unattractive. The aim of this paper is to review the definitional, theoretical and methodological aspects pertaining to the perception of facial/dental attractiveness by a group of representative individuals. The first part lays down the basic principles of the perception of facial/dental attractiveness: the perception involves a jury, a field of investigation and a test providing quantitative data; the following general determinants of beauty perception are reviewed: the average morphology, the judge's cultural background, the numerology, the judge's ethnical origin. Indirect determinants are the dentition, the osseous architecture and the muscular envelope. Some disruptive factors might alter the judges' facial perception. They might be qualified as either peripheral to the face or psycho-social factors. Peripheral factors include hair style and color, skin hue, wrinkles, lips color... Psycho-social factors cover the personality of the subject being evaluated, his/her intelligence or behavior. The second part deals specifically with the methodology used to determine facial attractiveness and to correlate this latter with a specific morphology. Typically such a study aims to determine average esthetic preferences for some set of visual displays among a particular jury, given a specific task to judge esthetic quality or qualities. The sample being studied, the displays, the jury or jurys, the rating procedure must all be specified prior to collecting data. A specific emphasis will be given to the rating process and the associated morphometrics, the ultimate goal being to

Contemporary Koreans’ Perceptions of Facial Beauty

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Seung Chul Rhee

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Background This article aims to investigate current perceptions of beauty of the general public and physicians without a specialization in plastic surgery performing aesthetic procedures. Methods A cross-sectional and interviewing questionnaire was administered to 290 people in Seoul, South Korea in September 2015. The questionnaire addressed three issues: general attitudes about plastic surgery (Q1, perception of and preferences regarding Korean female celebrities’ facial attractiveness (Q2, and the relative influence of each facial aesthetic subunit on overall facial attractiveness. The survey’s results were gathered by a professional research agency and classified according to a respondent’s gender, age, and job type (95%±5.75% confidence interval. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS ver. 10.1, calculating one-way analysis of variance with post hoc analysis and Tukey’s t-test. Results Among the respondents, 38.3% were in favor of aesthetic plastic surgery. The most common source of plastic surgery information was the internet (50.0%. The most powerful factor influencing hospital or clinic selection was the postoperative surgical results of acquaintances (74.9%. We created a composite face of an attractive Korean female, representing the current facial configuration considered appealing to the Koreans. Beauty perceptions differed to some degree based on gender and generational differences. We found that there were certain differences in beauty perceptions between general physicians who perform aesthetic procedures and the general public. Conclusions Our study results provide aesthetic plastic surgeons with detailed information about contemporary Korean people’s attitudes toward and perceptions of plastic surgery and the specific characteristics of female Korean faces currently considered attractive, plus trends in these perceptions, which should inform plastic surgeons within their specialized fields.

Beauty baryons produced in pp interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fridman, A.

1996-01-01

For pp interactions, we discuss the beauty-baryon (N b ), production and decay, using cross-section estimates at a c.m. energy corresponding to the LHC project (√s ≅ 14 TeV). The polarization measurement of N b as well as the search for CP violation effects in their decays is discussed. (orig.)

Sunflower Beauty Contest : tsvetõ zimoi / Marina Poltavtseva

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Poltavtseva, Marina

2001-01-01

Lillekleitide võistlusest Sunflower Beauty Contest Tallinna klubis Decolte. Konkursi idee on florist Tatjana Tridvornovalt. Esimese koha sai Viimsi lilleäri lilleseadjate Meri-Liis Kõivu ja Triinu Põlderi lillekleit "Talvepruut"

Sleep for cognitive enhancement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susanne eDiekelmann

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Sleep is essential for effective cognitive functioning. Loosing even a few hours of sleep can have detrimental effects on a wide variety of cognitive processes such as attention, language, reasoning, decision making, learning and memory. While sleep is necessary to ensure normal healthy cognitive functioning, it can also enhance performance beyond the boundaries of the normal condition. This article discusses the enhancing potential of sleep, mainly focusing on the domain of learning and memory. Sleep is known to facilitate the consolidation of memories learned before sleep as well as the acquisition of new memories to be learned after sleep. According to a widely held model this beneficial effect of sleep relies on the neuronal reactivation of memories during sleep that is associated with sleep-specific brain oscillations (slow oscillations, spindles, ripples as well as a characteristic neurotransmitter milieu. Recent research indicates that memory processing during sleep can be boosted by (i cueing memory reactivation during sleep, (ii stimulating sleep-specific brain oscillations, and (iii targeting specific neurotransmitter systems pharmacologically. Olfactory and auditory cues can be used, for example, to increase reactivation of associated memories during post-learning sleep. Intensifying neocortical slow oscillations (the hallmark of slow wave sleep by electrical or auditory stimulation and modulating specific neurotransmitters such as noradrenaline and glutamate likewise facilitates memory processing during sleep. With this evidence in mind, this article concludes by discussing different methodological caveats and ethical issues that should be considered when thinking about using sleep for cognitive enhancement in everyday applications.

The beauty of the physical world

CERN Multimedia

CERN Bulletin

2010-01-01

Graham Farmelo, author and former particle physicist, visited CERN on 25 March. To the CERNois gathered in the Main Auditorium, he talked about his new book The Strangest Man, a biography of Paul Dirac. Dirac was obsessed by the importance of mathematical beauty in fundamental physics, a belief that was “almost a religion” to him. Farmelo himself has no doubts: among all of the natural phenomena the LHC may unveil, supersymmetry is the most beautiful.   Talking about the life of a physicist to draw the attention of the public to the science: that was the idea behind Graham Farmelo decision to write a biography of Paul Dirac. The book won the 2009 Costa Biography Award. “I chose Paul Dirac because he was the first truly modern theoretical physicist but he is virtually unknown to the public”, explains Graham Farmelo. “Dirac had a fascinating life. He was not born in a wealthy or a particularly brilliant family but he ended up conceiving in his head ...

The challenges and beauty of peripheral nerve regrowth.

Science.gov (United States)

Zochodne, Douglas W

2012-03-01

This review provides an overview of selected aspects of peripheral nerve regeneration and potential avenues to explore therapeutically. The overall coordinated and orchestrated pattern of recovery from peripheral nerve injury has a beauty of execution and progress that rivals all other forms of neurobiology. It involves changes at the level of the perikaryon, coordination with important peripheral glial partners, the Schwann cells, a controlled inflammatory response, and growth that overcomes surprising intrinsic roadblocks. Both regenerative axon growth and collateral sprouting encompass fascinating aspects of this story. Better understanding of peripheral nerve regeneration may also lead to enhanced central nervous system recovery. © 2012 Peripheral Nerve Society.

Measurement of beauty baryons production and lifetime in Z0 hadronic decays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bianchi, F.

1994-01-01

A study of the production of beauty baryons in Z 0 decays is reported. The analysis is based on 1 Million Z 0 hadronic events collected by the DELPHI detector in the 1990-92 data taking. Beauty baryon signals are obtained with three complementary methods: search of Λ (Λ-bar) correlated to a high p T l - (l + ) in the same jet; the presence of a secondary vertex formed by a fast proton (p>5 GeV/c) and a lepton of opposite sign; the presence of Λ c baryon associated with a high p T lepton in the same jet. From these signals, the average lifetime of beauty baryons and inclusive branching fractions have been measured. (author). 5 refs., 4 figs

Informality wears uniform: Beauty salons’ workers in Santiago, Chile

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rosario Palacios Ruiz de Gamboa

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This article examines how flexible work economy has been affecting a group of beauty salons’ workers in Santiago, Chile. They do not have a work contract and receive their payment as if they were giving an independent service, but depend on the rules their bosses impose them. The kind of work described in the article appears to be a new arrangement within the context of urban informality, which has present and future implications regarding social security and uncertainty. Drawing on ethnographic observation in four beauty salons, I describe how the embodied belief of being an independent worker helps to enact many skills required by the flexible work economy.

chronic sleep deprevation and ventricular arrhythmias: effect of symphatic nervous system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samira Choopani

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Introduction: We assessed the effect of chronic sleep deprivation on incidence of ischemia/reperfusion-induced ventricular arrhythmias (ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation and the role of the sympathetic nervous system in this respect. Material and methods: Rats were randomly divided into four groups; 1 ischemia/reperfusion group (IR: 30 minutes ischemia followed by 60 minutes reperfusion was induced, 2 control group (CON: rats has been placed in large multiple platforms for 72h prior to ischemia and reperfusion, 3 Chronic sleep deprivation group( SD: 72h sleep deprivation was induced by using small  multiple platform prior to ischemia and reperfusion, 4 Sympathectomy group (SYM: chemical sympathectomy was done 24h before to chronic sleep deprivation and then underwent ischemia and reperfusion. The heart isolated and perfused by langendorff apparatus. After thoracotomy and aorta cannulation, the hearts perfused in the langendorff apparatus using krebs-Henseleit buffer. Hearts were allowed to recovery for 15 min. After recovery period, 15 minutes was considered as baseline prior to 30 minutes ischemia followed by 60 minutes reperfusion.Tow thin stainless stell electrodes fixed on the ventricular apex and right atrium for recording the lead II of electrocardiogram (ECG.Results: There were no significant differences between heart rates between groups, and ventricular tachycardia significantly increased in chronic sleep deprivation group As compared with IR group in ischemia period. Sympathectomy significantly reduced ventricular tachycardia incidence when compared with SD. There is no difference in incidence of ventricular tachycardia between control group and IR group. The incidence of ventricular fibrillation during early reperfusion was significantly augmented (P<0.05 in sleep deprivation group as compared with IR group and Sympathectomy significantly could reverse ventricular fibrillation incidence to IR group level as

Measurement of open beauty production at HERA in the D*μ final state

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chekanov, S.; Derrick, M.; Magill, S.

2006-09-01

The production of beauty quarks with a D *± and a muon in the final state has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 114 pb -1 . Low transverse-momentum thresholds for the muon and D * meson allow a measurement of beauty production closer to the production threshold than previous measurements. The beauty signal was extracted using the charge correlations and angular distributions of the muon with respect to the D * meson. Cross sections for photoproduction and deep inelastic scattering are somewhat higher than, but compatible with, next-to-leading-order QCD predictions, and compatible with other measurements. (orig.)

Beauty Redeemed

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Braae, Ellen Marie

/PROAP’s Parque do Tejo e Trancão in Lisbon and Michel Desvigne’s Parc aux Angéliques in Bordeaux. Beauty Redeemed offers a systematic framework for the consideration and use of post-industrial sites. The author, Professor of Landscape Design at Copenhagen University, places these ‘leftovers’ in their broad......Coping with post-industrial sites is a pressing issue throughout Europe and North America. One point of departure for their general rediscovery was the revitalisation by Latz + Partner in the early 1990s of an abandoned steelworks as Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord; industrial relics were...... historical and aesthetic context, proceeding from the 19th-century Romantic fascination with ruins through present-day industrial decline as exemplified by Detroit to a renaissance of the transformed landscape. Transformation, understood as designing with the ‘as found’, forms the basis of this design theory...

Sleep and Physiological Dysregulation: A Closer Look at Sleep Intraindividual Variability.

Science.gov (United States)

Bei, Bei; Seeman, Teresa E; Carroll, Judith E; Wiley, Joshua F

2017-09-01

Variable daily sleep (ie, higher intraindividual variability; IIV) is associated with negative health consequences, but potential physiological mechanisms are poorly understood. This study examined how the IIV of sleep timing, duration, and quality is associated with physiological dysregulation, with diurnal cortisol trajectories as a proximal outcome and allostatic load (AL) as a multisystem distal outcome. Participants are 436 adults (Mage ± standard deviation = 54.1 ± 11.7, 60.3% women) from the Midlife in the United States study. Sleep was objectively assessed using 7-day actigraphy. Diurnal cortisol was measured via saliva samples (four/day for 4 consecutive days). AL was measured using 23 biomarkers from seven systems (inflammatory, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, metabolic glucose and lipid, cardiovascular, parasympathetic, sympathetic) using a validated bifactor model. Linear and quadratic effects of sleep IIV were estimated using a validated Bayesian model. Controlling for covariates, more variable sleep timing (p = .04 for risetime, p = .097 for bedtime) and total sleep time (TST; p = .02), but not mean sleep variables, were associated with flatter cortisol diurnal slope. More variable sleep onset latency and wake after sleep onset, later average bedtime, and shorter TST were associated with higher AL adjusting for age and sex (p-values sleep patterns were associated with blunted diurnal cortisol trajectories but not with higher multisystem physiological dysregulation. The associations between sleep IIV and overall health are likely complex, including multiple biopsychosocial determinants and require further investigation. © Sleep Research Society 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Sleep Research Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.

Genetic Dissociation of Daily Sleep and Sleep Following Thermogenetic Sleep Deprivation in Drosophila.

Science.gov (United States)

Dubowy, Christine; Moravcevic, Katarina; Yue, Zhifeng; Wan, Joy Y; Van Dongen, Hans P A; Sehgal, Amita

2016-05-01

Sleep rebound-the increase in sleep that follows sleep deprivation-is a hallmark of homeostatic sleep regulation that is conserved across the animal kingdom. However, both the mechanisms that underlie sleep rebound and its relationship to habitual daily sleep remain unclear. To address this, we developed an efficient thermogenetic method of inducing sleep deprivation in Drosophila that produces a substantial rebound, and applied the newly developed method to assess sleep rebound in a screen of 1,741 mutated lines. We used data generated by this screen to identify lines with reduced sleep rebound following thermogenetic sleep deprivation, and to probe the relationship between habitual sleep amount and sleep following thermogenetic sleep deprivation in Drosophila. To develop a thermogenetic method of sleep deprivation suitable for screening, we thermogenetically stimulated different populations of wake-promoting neurons labeled by Gal4 drivers. Sleep rebound following thermogenetically-induced wakefulness varies across the different sets of wake-promoting neurons that were stimulated, from very little to quite substantial. Thermogenetic activation of neurons marked by the c584-Gal4 driver produces both strong sleep loss and a substantial rebound that is more consistent within genotypes than rebound following mechanical or caffeine-induced sleep deprivation. We therefore used this driver to induce sleep deprivation in a screen of 1,741 mutagenized lines generated by the Drosophila Gene Disruption Project. Flies were subjected to 9 h of sleep deprivation during the dark period and released from sleep deprivation 3 h before lights-on. Recovery was measured over the 15 h following sleep deprivation. Following identification of lines with reduced sleep rebound, we characterized baseline sleep and sleep depth before and after sleep deprivation for these hits. We identified two lines that consistently exhibit a blunted increase in the duration and depth of sleep after

Comparisons of Portable Sleep Monitors of Different Modalities: Potential as Naturalistic Sleep Recorders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masahiro Matsuo

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Background: Humans spend more than a fourth of their life sleeping, and sleep quality has been significantly linked to health. However, the objective examination of ambulatory sleep quality remains a challenge, since sleep is a state of unconsciousness, which limits the reliability of self-reports. Therefore, a non-invasive, continuous, and objective method for the recording and analysis of naturalistic sleep is required.Objective: Portable sleep recording devices provide a suitable solution for the ambulatory analysis of sleep quality. In this study, the performance of two activity-based sleep monitors (Actiwatch and MTN-210 and a single-channel EEG-based sleep monitor (SleepScope were compared in order to examine their reliability for the assessment of sleep quality.Methods: Twenty healthy adults were recruited for this study. First, data from daily activity recorded by Actiwatch and MTN-210 were compared to determine whether MTN-210, a more affordable device, could yield data similar to Actiwatch, the de-facto standard. In addition, sleep detection ability was examined using data obtained by polysomnography as reference. One simple analysis included comparing the sleep/wake detection ability of Actiwatch, MTN-210, and SleepScope. Furthermore, the fidelity of sleep stage determination was examined using SleepScope in finer time resolution. Results: The results indicate that MTN-210 demonstrates an activity pattern comparable to that of Actiwatch, although their sensitivity preferences were not identical. Moreover, MTN-210 provides assessment of sleep duration comparable to that of the wrist-worn Actiwatch when MTN-210 was attached to the body. SleepScope featured superior overall sleep detection performance among the three methods tested. Furthermore, SleepScope was able to provide information regarding sleep architecture, although systemic bias was found. Conclusion: The present results suggest that single-channel EEG-based sleep monitors are

Impaired sleep and allostatic load

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clark, Alice Jessie; Dich, Nadya; Lange, Theis

2014-01-01

Objective: Understanding the mechanisms linking sleep impairment to morbidity and mortality is important for future prevention, but these mechanisms are far from elucidated. We aimed to determine the relation between impaired sleep, both in terms of duration and disturbed sleep, and allostatic load...... Biobank with comprehensive information on sleep duration, disturbed sleep, objective measures of an extensive range of biological risk markers, and physical conditions. Results: Long sleep (mean difference 0.23; 95% confidence interval, 0.13, 0.32) and disturbed sleep (0.14; 0.06, 0.22) were associated...... with higher AL as well as with high-risk levels of risk markers from the anthropometric, metabolic, and immune system. Sub-analyses suggested that the association between disturbed sleep and AL might be explained by underlying disorders. Whereas there was no association between short sleep and AL...

Sleep-Dependent Modulation of Metabolic Rate in Drosophila.

Science.gov (United States)

Stahl, Bethany A; Slocumb, Melissa E; Chaitin, Hersh; DiAngelo, Justin R; Keene, Alex C

2017-08-01

Dysregulation of sleep is associated with metabolic diseases, and metabolic rate (MR) is acutely regulated by sleep-wake behavior. In humans and rodent models, sleep loss is associated with obesity, reduced metabolic rate, and negative energy balance, yet little is known about the neural mechanisms governing interactions between sleep and metabolism. We have developed a system to simultaneously measure sleep and MR in individual Drosophila, allowing for interrogation of neural systems governing interactions between sleep and metabolic rate. Like mammals, MR in flies is reduced during sleep and increased during sleep deprivation suggesting sleep-dependent regulation of MR is conserved across phyla. The reduction of MR during sleep is not simply a consequence of inactivity because MR is reduced ~30 minutes following the onset of sleep, raising the possibility that CO2 production provides a metric to distinguish different sleep states in the fruit fly. To examine the relationship between sleep and metabolism, we determined basal and sleep-dependent changes in MR is reduced in starved flies, suggesting that starvation inhibits normal sleep-associated effects on metabolic rate. Further, translin mutant flies that fail to suppress sleep during starvation demonstrate a lower basal metabolic rate, but this rate was further reduced in response to starvation, revealing that regulation of starvation-induced changes in MR and sleep duration are genetically distinct. Therefore, this system provides the unique ability to simultaneously measure sleep and oxidative metabolism, providing novel insight into the physiological changes associated with sleep and wakefulness in the fruit fly. © Sleep Research Society 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Sleep Research Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.

Sleep and inflammatory bowel disease: exploring the relationship between sleep disturbances and inflammation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinnucan, Jami A; Rubin, David T; Ali, Tauseef

2013-11-01

Sleep disturbances are associated with a greater risk of serious adverse health events, economic consequences, and, most importantly, increased all-cause mortality. Several studies support the associations among sleep, immune function, and inflammation. The relationship between sleep disturbances and inflammatory conditions is complex and not completely understood. Sleep deprivation can lead to increased levels of inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-1β IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-α and C-reactive protein, which can lead to further activation of the inflammatory cascade. The relevance of sleep in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract, has recently received more attention. Several studies have shown that patients with both inactive and active IBD have self-reported sleep disturbances. Here, we present a concise review of sleep and its association with the immune system and the process of inflammation. We discuss the studies that have evaluated sleep in patients with IBD as well as possible treatment options for those patients with sleep disturbances. An algorithm for evaluating sleep disturbances in the IBD population is also proposed. Further research is still needed to better characterize sleep disturbances in the IBD population as well as to assess the effects of various therapeutic interventions to improve sleep quality. It is possible that the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disturbances in this population may provide an opportunity to alter disease outcomes.

Sick/Beautiful/Freak

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Morgen L. Thomas

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Nonmainstream body modification practitioners actively demonstrate a confounding agency that often results in the stigmatization of their physical characteristics, their moral constitution, and their behavior. By inscribing meaning and identity in visible ways rather than allowing society to project expectations onto them based on their gender, age, race, sexual orientation, and so on, nonmainstream body modifiers present a unique challenge to American conceptions of what is healthy, what is beautiful, and what is human. Using Patricia Hill Collins’ idea of controlling images, Erving Goffman’s conceptions of stigma, and Arthur W. Frank’s styles of body usage typology, this article examines constructions of deviance within the embodied framework of unconventional body modification practices.

Targeting the orexinergic system: Mainly but not only for sleep ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Orexin receptors belong to the big family of G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that constitute the main targets in the modern pharmacological approaches. Although the orexinergic system is involved in a variety of processes, treating sleep-wakefulness disorders such as narcolepsy and insomnia, remains the main ...

SensibleSleep: A Bayesian Model for Learning Sleep Patterns from Smartphone Events

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cuttone, Andrea; Bækgaard, Per; Sekara, Vedran

2017-01-01

We propose a Bayesian model for extracting sleep patterns from smartphone events. Our method is able to identify individuals' daily sleep periods and their evolution over time, and provides an estimation of the probability of sleep and wake transitions. The model is fitted to more than 400...... to quantify uncertainty and encode prior knowledge about sleep patterns. Compared with existing smartphone-based systems, our method requires only screen on/off events, and is therefore much less intrusive in terms of privacy and more battery-efficient....... participants from two different datasets, and we verify the results against ground truth from dedicated armband sleep trackers. We show that the model is able to produce reliable sleep estimates with an accuracy of 0.89, both at the individual and at the collective level. Moreover the Bayesian model is able...

SensibleSleep: A Bayesian Model for Learning Sleep Patterns from Smartphone Events.

Science.gov (United States)

Cuttone, Andrea; Bækgaard, Per; Sekara, Vedran; Jonsson, Håkan; Larsen, Jakob Eg; Lehmann, Sune

2017-01-01

We propose a Bayesian model for extracting sleep patterns from smartphone events. Our method is able to identify individuals' daily sleep periods and their evolution over time, and provides an estimation of the probability of sleep and wake transitions. The model is fitted to more than 400 participants from two different datasets, and we verify the results against ground truth from dedicated armband sleep trackers. We show that the model is able to produce reliable sleep estimates with an accuracy of 0.89, both at the individual and at the collective level. Moreover the Bayesian model is able to quantify uncertainty and encode prior knowledge about sleep patterns. Compared with existing smartphone-based systems, our method requires only screen on/off events, and is therefore much less intrusive in terms of privacy and more battery-efficient.

SensibleSleep: A Bayesian Model for Learning Sleep Patterns from Smartphone Events.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrea Cuttone

Full Text Available We propose a Bayesian model for extracting sleep patterns from smartphone events. Our method is able to identify individuals' daily sleep periods and their evolution over time, and provides an estimation of the probability of sleep and wake transitions. The model is fitted to more than 400 participants from two different datasets, and we verify the results against ground truth from dedicated armband sleep trackers. We show that the model is able to produce reliable sleep estimates with an accuracy of 0.89, both at the individual and at the collective level. Moreover the Bayesian model is able to quantify uncertainty and encode prior knowledge about sleep patterns. Compared with existing smartphone-based systems, our method requires only screen on/off events, and is therefore much less intrusive in terms of privacy and more battery-efficient.

Beauty and healing: examining sociocultural expectations of the embodied goddess.

Science.gov (United States)

Yeh, Jin-Tsann; Lin, Chyong-Ling

2013-03-01

Studies indicate mental health improvement can occur via religious communities offering social support and other resources. Many people from many cultures regard medicine as a supernatural or magical treatment that can somehow lead to a better state of living. In medical advertising, female role portrayal involves the blending of beauty, ritual and attractiveness in combination with the best product image. A Chinese saying suggests that, "A girl will doll herself up for him who loves her." Female role attraction is a very important ethical subject in gender issues. Moving forward in time, female role visualization and consumption in medical advertising reveal depictions that encouraged women to do some self-searching and find, or develop, inner strength. This study is designed to examine female role portrayals in a restricted patriarchal society. The results indicate that the ideology of motherhood is an accepted social orientation that the public readily identifies with. Results further indicate that beautification through medical products incorporates an emotional element of religious healing and that the objectification of beauty in the media reveals a possible neglect of women's internal beauty.

Symmetry, beauty and belief in high-energy physics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arianna Borrelli

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This paper engages with the aesthetics of knowl-edge, both in its sense as the connection between knowledge and ‘aesthetic’ judgements of beauty, or ugliness, and of the many ‘aesthetic’ – that is to say sensually perceivable – dimensions of knowledge, which are always to be seen to be constituting an epistemic factor in its production and consumption. On the one hand I analyse how in recent decades the connection between beauty and truth has been systematically employed to both inspire and guide research in high-energy physics; at the same time I also show how this use of aesthetic judgement only reveals its constitutive role in physics research when paying attention to the broad range of aesthetic strategies employed for expressing scientific knowledge.

Effects of intrauterine growth restriction on sleep and the cardiovascular system: The use of melatonin as a potential therapy?

Science.gov (United States)

Yiallourou, Stephanie R; Wallace, Euan M; Miller, Suzanne L; Horne, Rosemary S C

2016-04-01

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) complicates 5-10% of pregnancies and is associated with increased risk of preterm birth, mortality and neurodevelopmental delay. The development of sleep and cardiovascular control are closely coupled and IUGR is known to alter this development. In the long-term, IUGR is associated with altered sleep and an increased risk of hypertension in adulthood. Melatonin plays an important role in the sleep-wake cycle. Experimental animal studies have shown that melatonin therapy has neuroprotective and cardioprotective effects in the IUGR fetus. Consequently, clinical trials are currently underway to assess the short and long term effects of antenatal melatonin therapy in IUGR pregnancies. Given melatonin's role in sleep regulation, this hormone could affect the developing infants' sleep-wake cycle and cardiovascular function after birth. In this review, we will 1) examine the role of melatonin as a therapy for IUGR pregnancies and the potential implications on sleep and the cardiovascular system; 2) examine the development of sleep-wake cycle in fetal and neonatal life; 3) discuss the development of cardiovascular control during sleep; 4) discuss the effect of IUGR on sleep and the cardiovascular system and 5) discuss the future implications of melatonin therapy in IUGR pregnancies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sleep and Obesity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chenzhao Ding

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Rising global prevalence and incidence of obesity lead to increased cardiovascular-renal complications and cancers. Epidemiological studies reported a worldwide trend towards suboptimal sleep duration and poor sleep quality in parallel with this obesity epidemic. From rodents and human models, it is highly plausible that abnormalities in sleep, both quantity and quality, impact negatively on energy metabolism. While excess dietary intake and physical inactivity are the known drivers of the obesity epidemic, promotion of healthy sleep habits has emerged as a new target to combat obesity. In this light, present review focuses on the existing literature examining the relationship between sleep physiology and energy homeostasis. Notably, sleep dysregulation perturbs the metabolic milieu via alterations in hormones such as leptin and ghrelin, eating behavior, neuroendocrine and autonomic nervous systems. In addition, shift work and trans-meridian air travel may exert a negative influence on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and trigger circadian misalignment, leading to impaired glucose tolerance and increased fat accumulation. Amassing evidence has also suggested that uncoupling of the circadian clock can increase the risk of adverse metabolic health. Given the importance of sleep in maintaining energy homeostasis and that it is potentially modifiable, promoting good sleep hygiene may create new avenues for obesity prevention and treatment.

A systems approach identifies networks and genes linking sleep and stress: implications for neuropsychiatric disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Peng; Scarpa, Joseph R; Fitzpatrick, Karrie; Losic, Bojan; Gao, Vance D; Hao, Ke; Summa, Keith C; Yang, He S; Zhang, Bin; Allada, Ravi; Vitaterna, Martha H; Turek, Fred W; Kasarskis, Andrew

2015-05-05

Sleep dysfunction and stress susceptibility are comorbid complex traits that often precede and predispose patients to a variety of neuropsychiatric diseases. Here, we demonstrate multilevel organizations of genetic landscape, candidate genes, and molecular networks associated with 328 stress and sleep traits in a chronically stressed population of 338 (C57BL/6J × A/J) F2 mice. We constructed striatal gene co-expression networks, revealing functionally and cell-type-specific gene co-regulations important for stress and sleep. Using a composite ranking system, we identified network modules most relevant for 15 independent phenotypic categories, highlighting a mitochondria/synaptic module that links sleep and stress. The key network regulators of this module are overrepresented with genes implicated in neuropsychiatric diseases. Our work suggests that the interplay among sleep, stress, and neuropathology emerges from genetic influences on gene expression and their collective organization through complex molecular networks, providing a framework for interrogating the mechanisms underlying sleep, stress susceptibility, and related neuropsychiatric disorders. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Beauty Therapy, Vet Teaching and Bio-Power: A Tale of Two Training Packages

Science.gov (United States)

McKenzie, Mary; Harreveld, Roberta; Blayney, William

2018-01-01

This paper explores the teaching of beauty therapy in the Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector. It uses the theoretical concept of bio-power to examine how the body is compliant with intimate treatments in the name of beauty. Bio-power makes visible the anatomical and biological transformation and re-formation of the human…

Beautiful Models: 70 Years of Exactly Solved Quantum Many-Body Problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Batchelor, M T

2005-01-01

A key element of theoretical physics is the conceptualisation of physical phenomena in terms of models, which are then investigated by the tools at hand. For quantum many-body systems, some models can be exactly solved, i.e., their physical properties can be calculated in an exact fashion. There is often a deep underlying reason why this can be done-the theory of integrability-which manifests itself in many guises. In Beautiful models, Bill Sutherland looks at exactly solved models in quantum many-body systems, a well established field dating back to Bethe's 1931 exact solution of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain. This field is enjoying a renaissance due to the ongoing and striking experimental advances in low-dimensional quantum physics, which includes the manufacture of quasi one-dimensional quantum gases. Apart from the intrinsic beauty of the subject material, Beautiful Models is written by a pioneering master of the field. Sutherland has aimed to provide a broad textbook style introduction to the subject for graduate students and interested non-experts. An important point here is the 'language' of the book. In Sutherland's words, the subject of exactly solved models 'belongs to the realm of mathematical physics-too mathematical to be 'respectable' physics, yet not rigorous enough to be 'real' mathematics. ...there are perennial attempts to translate this body of work into either respectable physics or real mathematics; this is not that sort of book.' Rather, Sutherland discusses the models and their solutions in terms of their 'intrinisic' language, which is largely as found in the physics literature. The book begins with a helpful overview of the contents and then moves on to the foundation material, which is the chapter on integrability and non-diffraction. As is shown, these two concepts go hand in hand. The topics covered in later chapters include models with δ-function potentials, the Heisenberg spin chain, the Hubbard model, exchange models, the Calogero

Beautiful Models: 70 Years of Exactly Solved Quantum Many-Body Problems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Batchelor, M T [Department of Theoretical Physics, RSPSE and Department of Mathematics, MSI, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200 (Australia)

2005-04-08

A key element of theoretical physics is the conceptualisation of physical phenomena in terms of models, which are then investigated by the tools at hand. For quantum many-body systems, some models can be exactly solved, i.e., their physical properties can be calculated in an exact fashion. There is often a deep underlying reason why this can be done-the theory of integrability-which manifests itself in many guises. In Beautiful models, Bill Sutherland looks at exactly solved models in quantum many-body systems, a well established field dating back to Bethe's 1931 exact solution of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain. This field is enjoying a renaissance due to the ongoing and striking experimental advances in low-dimensional quantum physics, which includes the manufacture of quasi one-dimensional quantum gases. Apart from the intrinsic beauty of the subject material, Beautiful Models is written by a pioneering master of the field. Sutherland has aimed to provide a broad textbook style introduction to the subject for graduate students and interested non-experts. An important point here is the 'language' of the book. In Sutherland's words, the subject of exactly solved models 'belongs to the realm of mathematical physics-too mathematical to be 'respectable' physics, yet not rigorous enough to be 'real' mathematics. ...there are perennial attempts to translate this body of work into either respectable physics or real mathematics; this is not that sort of book.' Rather, Sutherland discusses the models and their solutions in terms of their 'intrinisic' language, which is largely as found in the physics literature. The book begins with a helpful overview of the contents and then moves on to the foundation material, which is the chapter on integrability and non-diffraction. As is shown, these two concepts go hand in hand. The topics covered in later chapters include models with {delta}-function potentials, the

76 FR 77582 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Beauty and Belief...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-13

... DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice: 7725] Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: ``Beauty and Belief: Crossing Bridges With the Arts of Islamic Culture'' SUMMARY: Notice is... objects to be included in the exhibition ``Beauty and Belief: Crossing Bridges with the Arts of Islamic...

Measurement of beauty photoproduction using decays into muons in dijet events at HERA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-01-01

Beauty photoproduction in dijet events has been measured at HERA with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 126 pb -1 . Beauty was identified in events with a muon in the final state by using the transverse momentum of the muon relative to the closest jet. Lifetime information from the silicon vertex detector was also used; the impact parameter of the muon with respect to the primary vertex was exploited to discriminate between signal and background. Cross sections for beauty production as a function of the muon and the jet variables as well as dijet correlations are compared to QCD predictions and to previous measurements. The data are well described by predictions from next-to-leading-order QCD.

Beauty hinders attention switch in change detection: the role of facial attractiveness and distinctiveness.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenfeng Chen

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Recent research has shown that the presence of a task-irrelevant attractive face can induce a transient diversion of attention from a perceptual task that requires covert deployment of attention to one of the two locations. However, it is not known whether this spontaneous appraisal for facial beauty also modulates attention in change detection among multiple locations, where a slower, and more controlled search process is simultaneously affected by the magnitude of a change and the facial distinctiveness. Using the flicker paradigm, this study examines how spontaneous appraisal for facial beauty affects the detection of identity change among multiple faces. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Participants viewed a display consisting of two alternating frames of four faces separated by a blank frame. In half of the trials, one of the faces (target face changed to a different person. The task of the participant was to indicate whether a change of face identity had occurred. The results showed that (1 observers were less efficient at detecting identity change among multiple attractive faces relative to unattractive faces when the target and distractor faces were not highly distinctive from one another; and (2 it is difficult to detect a change if the new face is similar to the old. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The findings suggest that attractive faces may interfere with the attention-switch process in change detection. The results also show that attention in change detection was strongly modulated by physical similarity between the alternating faces. Although facial beauty is a powerful stimulus that has well-demonstrated priority, its influence on change detection is easily superseded by low-level image similarity. The visual system appears to take a different approach to facial beauty when a task requires resource-demanding feature comparisons.

Beauty hinders attention switch in change detection: the role of facial attractiveness and distinctiveness.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Wenfeng; Liu, Chang Hong; Nakabayashi, Kazuyo

2012-01-01

Recent research has shown that the presence of a task-irrelevant attractive face can induce a transient diversion of attention from a perceptual task that requires covert deployment of attention to one of the two locations. However, it is not known whether this spontaneous appraisal for facial beauty also modulates attention in change detection among multiple locations, where a slower, and more controlled search process is simultaneously affected by the magnitude of a change and the facial distinctiveness. Using the flicker paradigm, this study examines how spontaneous appraisal for facial beauty affects the detection of identity change among multiple faces. Participants viewed a display consisting of two alternating frames of four faces separated by a blank frame. In half of the trials, one of the faces (target face) changed to a different person. The task of the participant was to indicate whether a change of face identity had occurred. The results showed that (1) observers were less efficient at detecting identity change among multiple attractive faces relative to unattractive faces when the target and distractor faces were not highly distinctive from one another; and (2) it is difficult to detect a change if the new face is similar to the old. The findings suggest that attractive faces may interfere with the attention-switch process in change detection. The results also show that attention in change detection was strongly modulated by physical similarity between the alternating faces. Although facial beauty is a powerful stimulus that has well-demonstrated priority, its influence on change detection is easily superseded by low-level image similarity. The visual system appears to take a different approach to facial beauty when a task requires resource-demanding feature comparisons.

Perspective on Sleep and Aging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew A Monjan

2010-09-01

Full Text Available There is a strong body of data directly interrelating sleep problems with mood disorders. There is a growing data base directly associating sleep disorders with attention and memory problems. Motor disorders, especially involving the dopaminergic system, may produce sleep problems, including a possible association between disordered sleep and nocturnal falls. Sleep disorders may be causal conditions for metabolic diseases and increased risk for morbidity and mortality. Sleep and health are directly interrelated. To further probe these issues, especially as related to the aging process, investigators need to utilize tools and concepts from genomics and epigenetics, proteomics, metabolomics, any future ...omics, molecular neuroimaging, and cognitive neuroscience.

"That's Not Just Beautiful-That's Incredibly Beautiful!" : The Adverse Impact of Inflated Praise on Children With Low Self-Esteem

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brummelman, Eddie; Thomaes, Sander; Orobio de Castro, Bram; Overbeek, Geertjan; Bushman, Brad J.

2014-01-01

In current Western society, children are often lavished with inflated praise (e.g., "You made an incredibly beautiful drawing!"). Inflated praise is often given in an attempt to raise children's self-esteem. An experiment (Study 1) and naturalistic study (Study 2) found that adults are especially

Shedding light to sleep studies

Science.gov (United States)

Dieffenderfer, James; Krystal, Andrew; Bozkurt, Alper

2017-08-01

This paper presents our efforts in the development of a small wireless, flexible bandage sized near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) system for sleep analysis. The current size of the system is 2.8 cm × 1.7 cm × 0.6 cm. It is capable of performing NIRS with 660nm, 940nm and 850nm wavelengths for up to 11 hours continuously. The device is placed on the forehead to measure from the prefrontal cortex and the raw data is continuously streamed over Bluetooth to a nearby data aggregator such as a smartphone for post processing and cloud connection. In this study, we performed traditional polysomnography simultaneously with NIRS to evaluate agreement with traditional measures of sleep and to provide labelled data for future work involving learning algorithms. Ultimately, we expect a machine learning algorithm to be able to generate characterization of sleep states comparable to traditional methods based on this biophotonics data. The system also includes an inertial measurement unit and the features that can be extracted from the presented system include sleep posture, heart rate, respiratory rate, relative change in oxy and deoxy hemoglobin concentrations and tissue oxygenation and cerebral arterial oxygen extracted from these. Preliminary proof of concept results are promising and demonstrate the capability to measure heart rate, respiratory rate and slow-wave-sleep stages. This system serves as a prototype to evaluate the potential of a small bandage-size continuous-wave NIRS device to be a useful means of studying sleep.

Cognitive control and unusual decisions about beauty: An fMRI study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Albert eFlexas

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Studies of visual aesthetic preference have shown that people without art training generally prefer representational paintings to abstract paintings. This, however, is not always the case: preferences can sometimes go against this usual tendency. We aimed to explore this issue, investigating the relationship between ‘unusual responses’ and reaction time in an aesthetic appreciation task. Results of a behavioural experiment confirmed the trend for laypeople to consider as beautiful mostly representational stimuli and as not beautiful mostly abstract ones (‘usual response’. Furthermore, when participants gave unusual responses, they needed longer time, especially when considering abstract stimuli as beautiful. We interpreted this longer time as greater involvement of the cognitive mastering and evaluation stages during the unusual responses. Results of an fMRI experiment indicated that the anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal cortex and insula were the main structures involved in this effect. We discuss the possible role of these areas in an aesthetic appreciation task.

77 FR 840 - Pricing for America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated CoinsTM

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-06

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY United States Mint Pricing for America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins TM AGENCY: United States Mint, Department of the Treasury. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The United States Mint is announcing the re-pricing of the America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver...

76 FR 65563 - Pricing for America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated CoinsTM

Science.gov (United States)

2011-10-21

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY United States Mint Pricing for America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins TM AGENCY: United States Mint, Department of the Treasury. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The United States Mint is announcing the re-pricing of the America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver...

Regulation of adolescent sleep: implications for behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Carskadon, Mary A; Acebo, Christine; Jenni, Oskar G

2004-06-01

Adolescent development is accompanied by profound changes in the timing and amounts of sleep and wakefulness. Many aspects of these changes result from altered psychosocial and life-style circumstances that accompany adolescence. The maturation of biological processes regulating sleep/wake systems, however, may be strongly related to the sleep timing and amount during adolescence-either as "compelling" or "permissive" factors. The two-process model of sleep regulation posits a fundamental sleep-wake homeostatic process (process S) working in concert with the circadian biological timing system (process C) as the primary intrinsic regulatory factors. How do these systems change during adolescence? We present data from adolescent participants examining EEG markers of sleep homeostasis to evaluate whether process S shows maturational changes permissive of altered sleep patterns across puberty. Our data indicate that certain aspects of the homeostatic system are unchanged from late childhood to young adulthood, while other features change in a manner that is permissive of later bedtimes in older adolescents. We also show alterations of the circadian timing system indicating a possible circadian substrate for later adolescent sleep timing. The circadian parameters we have assessed include phase, period, melatonin secretory pattern, light sensitivity, and phase relationships, all of which show evidence of changes during pubertal development with potential to alter sleep patterns substantially. However the changes are mediated-whether through process S, process C, or by a combination-many adolescents have too little sleep at the wrong circadian phase. This pattern is associated with increased risks for excessive sleepiness, difficulty with mood regulation, impaired academic performance, learning difficulties, school tardiness and absenteeism, and accidents and injuries.

Sleep Characteristics, Sleep Problems, and Associations to Quality of Life among Psychotherapists.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlarb, Angelika A; Reis, Dorota; Schröder, Annette

2012-01-01

Sleep problems, especially insomnia, are a common complaint among adults. International studies have shown prevalence rates between 4.7 and 36.2% for sleep difficulties in general, whereas 13.1-28.1% report insomnia symptoms. Sleep problems are associated with lower social and academic performance and can have a severe impact on psychological and physical health. Psychotherapists are suppliers within the public health system. The goal of this study was to outline sleep characteristics, prevalence of sleep problems, insomnia, and associations of quality of life among psychotherapists. A total of 774 psychotherapists (74.7% women; mean age 46 years) participated in the study. Sleep characteristics, sleep problems, well-being, life satisfaction and workload, as well as specific job demands, were assessed via a questionnaire. Analyses revealed that more than 4.2% of the surveyed psychotherapists have difficulties falling asleep, 12.7% often wake up in the night, and 26.6% feel tired, and 3.4% think that their interrupted sleep affects work performance. About 44.1% of them suffer from symptoms of insomnia. Path models showed that insomnia is significantly related to well-being and life satisfaction.

Sleep Characteristics, Sleep Problems, and Associations to Quality of Life among Psychotherapists

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Angelika A. Schlarb

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Sleep problems, especially insomnia, are a common complaint among adults. International studies have shown prevalence rates between 4.7 and 36.2% for sleep difficulties in general, whereas 13.1–28.1% report insomnia symptoms. Sleep problems are associated with lower social and academic performance and can have a severe impact on psychological and physical health. Psychotherapists are suppliers within the public health system. The goal of this study was to outline sleep characteristics, prevalence of sleep problems, insomnia, and associations of quality of life among psychotherapists. A total of 774 psychotherapists (74.7% women; mean age 46 years participated in the study. Sleep characteristics, sleep problems, well-being, life satisfaction and workload, as well as specific job demands, were assessed via a questionnaire. Analyses revealed that more than 4.2% of the surveyed psychotherapists have difficulties falling asleep, 12.7% often wake up in the night, and 26.6% feel tired, and 3.4% think that their interrupted sleep affects work performance. About 44.1% of them suffer from symptoms of insomnia. Path models showed that insomnia is significantly related to well-being and life satisfaction.

Anterior esthetics and the visual arts: beauty, elements of composition, and their clinical application to dentistry.

Science.gov (United States)

Valo, T S

1995-01-01

The challenge of developing a pleasing smile is an artistic venture. A study of how the visual arts have explored the nature of beauty and the elements of artistic composition will enhance our artistic abilities in cosmetic dentistry. This review discusses the perception of beauty and important features of that which we call beautiful. The discussion uses important works of art to demonstrate elements of composition, which are then made relevant in a dental application.

The neural correlates of beauty comparison.

Science.gov (United States)

Kedia, Gayannée; Mussweiler, Thomas; Mullins, Paul; Linden, David E J

2014-05-01

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. How attractive someone is perceived to be depends on the individual or cultural standards to which this person is compared. But although comparisons play a central role in the way people judge the appearance of others, the brain processes underlying attractiveness comparisons remain unknown. In the present experiment, we tested the hypothesis that attractiveness comparisons rely on the same cognitive and neural mechanisms as comparisons of simple nonsocial magnitudes such as size. We recorded brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participants compared the beauty or height of two women or two dogs. Our data support the hypothesis of a common process underlying these different types of comparisons. First, we demonstrate that the distance effect characteristic of nonsocial comparisons also holds for attractiveness comparisons. Behavioral results indicated, for all our comparisons, longer response times for near than far distances. Second, the neural correlates of these distance effects overlapped in a frontoparietal network known for its involvement in processing simple nonsocial quantities. These results provide evidence for overlapping processes in the comparison of physical attractiveness and nonsocial magnitudes.

Keep New Mexico Beautiful, Recycling Project Successful

Science.gov (United States)

Bickel, Victor R.

1975-01-01

Through the efforts of community groups, the support of local industries, and the state government, Keep New Mexico Beautiful, Inc. (KNMB) is now operating a large-scale recycling business. KNMB has been able to save tons of natural resources, provide local employment, and educate the public to this environmental concern. (MA)

Watching reality television beauty shows is associated with tanning lamp use and outdoor tanning among college students.

Science.gov (United States)

Fogel, Joshua; Krausz, Faye

2013-05-01

Ultraviolet radiation exposure through natural sunlight or tanning lamps is a risk factor for skin cancer. As the media can influence behavior, we studied whether watching reality television (TV) beauty shows is associated with tanning lamp use or outdoor tanning. College students (n = 576) were surveyed on their reality TV beauty show watching, their use of tanning lamps, and outdoor tanning behavior. We asked media attitude questions about connectivity with reality TV shows and Internet use of Facebook to discuss reality TV shows. Those who did versus did not watch reality TV beauty shows used tanning lamps (12.9% vs 3.7%, P < .001) and tanned outdoors (43.3% vs 28.7%, P < .001) at significantly greater percentages. Significant predictors of tanning lamp use included watching reality TV beauty shows (odds ratio [OR] 2.58, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11-6.00), increasing age (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.04-1.32), and female sex (OR 10.16, 95% CI 3.29-31.41). Significant predictors of outdoor tanning included watching reality TV beauty shows (OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.33-3.34). The specific names of the reality TV beauty shows watched were not obtained and therefore we cannot determine if particular shows were more or less associated with this behavior. Watching reality TV beauty shows is associated with both tanning lamp use and outdoor tanning. Dermatologists should consider discussing the potential harmful aspects of tanning beds and outdoor tanning, especially with their patients who watch reality TV beauty shows. Copyright © 2012 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

About sleep's role in memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Rasch, Björn; Born, Jan

2013-04-01

Over more than a century of research has established the fact that sleep benefits the retention of memory. In this review we aim to comprehensively cover the field of "sleep and memory" research by providing a historical perspective on concepts and a discussion of more recent key findings. Whereas initial theories posed a passive role for sleep enhancing memories by protecting them from interfering stimuli, current theories highlight an active role for sleep in which memories undergo a process of system consolidation during sleep. Whereas older research concentrated on the role of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, recent work has revealed the importance of slow-wave sleep (SWS) for memory consolidation and also enlightened some of the underlying electrophysiological, neurochemical, and genetic mechanisms, as well as developmental aspects in these processes. Specifically, newer findings characterize sleep as a brain state optimizing memory consolidation, in opposition to the waking brain being optimized for encoding of memories. Consolidation originates from reactivation of recently encoded neuronal memory representations, which occur during SWS and transform respective representations for integration into long-term memory. Ensuing REM sleep may stabilize transformed memories. While elaborated with respect to hippocampus-dependent memories, the concept of an active redistribution of memory representations from networks serving as temporary store into long-term stores might hold also for non-hippocampus-dependent memory, and even for nonneuronal, i.e., immunological memories, giving rise to the idea that the offline consolidation of memory during sleep represents a principle of long-term memory formation established in quite different physiological systems.

About Sleep's Role in Memory

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Over more than a century of research has established the fact that sleep benefits the retention of memory. In this review we aim to comprehensively cover the field of “sleep and memory” research by providing a historical perspective on concepts and a discussion of more recent key findings. Whereas initial theories posed a passive role for sleep enhancing memories by protecting them from interfering stimuli, current theories highlight an active role for sleep in which memories undergo a process of system consolidation during sleep. Whereas older research concentrated on the role of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, recent work has revealed the importance of slow-wave sleep (SWS) for memory consolidation and also enlightened some of the underlying electrophysiological, neurochemical, and genetic mechanisms, as well as developmental aspects in these processes. Specifically, newer findings characterize sleep as a brain state optimizing memory consolidation, in opposition to the waking brain being optimized for encoding of memories. Consolidation originates from reactivation of recently encoded neuronal memory representations, which occur during SWS and transform respective representations for integration into long-term memory. Ensuing REM sleep may stabilize transformed memories. While elaborated with respect to hippocampus-dependent memories, the concept of an active redistribution of memory representations from networks serving as temporary store into long-term stores might hold also for non-hippocampus-dependent memory, and even for nonneuronal, i.e., immunological memories, giving rise to the idea that the offline consolidation of memory during sleep represents a principle of long-term memory formation established in quite different physiological systems. PMID:23589831

Sleep-waking states and the endogenous opioid system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

O.E. Ukponmwan (Otas)

1986-01-01

textabstractIn the general introductory part of this thesis (Chapters and 2) a review of some pertinent literature related to sleep-waking states and opioid peptides is offered. A global view of the neurochemical mechanisms and theories of functions of sleep, as well as the physiological and

The role of sleep in bipolar disorder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gold AK

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Alexandra K Gold,1 Louisa G Sylvia,1,2 1Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, 2Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA Abstract: Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness characterized by alternating periods of elevated and depressed mood. Sleep disturbances in bipolar disorder are present during all stages of the condition and exert a negative impact on overall course, quality of life, and treatment outcomes. We examine the partnership between circadian system (process C functioning and sleep–wake homeostasis (process S on optimal sleep functioning and explore the role of disruptions in both systems on sleep disturbances in bipolar disorder. A convergence of evidence suggests that sleep problems in bipolar disorder result from dysregulation across both process C and process S systems. Biomarkers of depressive episodes include heightened fragmentation of rapid eye movement (REM sleep, reduced REM latency, increased REM density, and a greater percentage of awakenings, while biomarkers of manic episodes include reduced REM latency, greater percentage of stage I sleep, increased REM density, discontinuous sleep patterns, shortened total sleep time, and a greater time awake in bed. These findings highlight the importance of targeting novel treatments for sleep disturbance in bipolar disorder. Keywords: bipolar disorder, circadian rhythms, sleep–wake homeostasis

The Digital media phenomenon of Youtube beauty gurus : the case of Bubzbeaty

OpenAIRE

García-Rapp, Florencia

2018-01-01

This thesis is submitted as a compilation of five publications. With the aim of contributing to the theorizing of digital media culture and practices, I explore the current phenomenon of online popularity as exemplified by influential personalities like YouTube beauty gurus. The study focuses on a popular beauty content producer, Bubz, and her channel Bubzbeauty. Looking at content, meaning, and interactions through qualitative, ethnographically-oriented research, the thesis sheds light into ...

Prediction of super-heavy N⁎ and Λ⁎ resonances with hidden beauty

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu Jiajun; Zhao Lu; Zou, B.S.

2012-01-01

The meson-baryon coupled channel unitary approach with the local hidden gauge formalism is extended to the hidden beauty sector. A few narrow N ⁎ and Λ ⁎ resonances around 11 GeV are predicted as dynamically generated states from the interactions of heavy beauty mesons and baryons. Production cross sections of these predicted resonances in pp and ep collisions are estimated as a guide for the possible experimental search at relevant facilities.

Sleep loss and structural plasticity.

Science.gov (United States)

Areal, Cassandra C; Warby, Simon C; Mongrain, Valérie

2017-06-01

Wakefulness and sleep are dynamic states during which brain functioning is modified and shaped. Sleep loss is detrimental to many brain functions and results in structural changes localized at synapses in the nervous system. In this review, we present and discuss some of the latest observations of structural changes following sleep loss in some vertebrates and insects. We also emphasize that these changes are region-specific and cell type-specific and that, most importantly, these structural modifications have functional roles in sleep regulation and brain functions. Selected mechanisms driving structural modifications occurring with sleep loss are also discussed. Overall, recent research highlights that extending wakefulness impacts synapse number and shape, which in turn regulate sleep need and sleep-dependent learning/memory. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Alcohol and the sleeping brain.

Science.gov (United States)

Colrain, Ian M; Nicholas, Christian L; Baker, Fiona C

2014-01-01

Alcohol acts as a sedative that interacts with several neurotransmitter systems important in the regulation of sleep. Acute administration of large amounts of alcohol prior to sleep leads to decreased sleep-onset latency and changes in sleep architecture early in the night, when blood alcohol levels are high, with subsequent disrupted, poor-quality sleep later in the night. Alcohol abuse and dependence are associated with chronic sleep disturbance, lower slow-wave sleep, and more rapid-eye-movement sleep than normal, that last long into periods of abstinence and may play a role in relapse. This chapter outlines the evidence for acute and chronic alcohol effects on sleep architecture and sleep electroencephalogram, evidence for tolerance with repeated administration, and possible underlying neurochemical mechanisms for alcohol's effects on sleep. Also discussed are sex differences as well as effects of alcohol on sleep homeostasis and circadian regulation. Evidence for the role of sleep disruption as a risk factor for developing alcohol dependence is discussed in the context of research conducted in adolescents. The utility of sleep-evoked potentials in the assessment of the effects of alcoholism on sleep and the brain and in abstinence-mediated recovery is also outlined. The chapter concludes with a series of questions that need to be answered to determine the role of sleep and sleep disturbance in the development and maintenance of problem drinking and the potential beneficial effects of the treatment of sleep disorders for maintenance of abstinence in alcoholism. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Measurement of beauty photoproduction using decays into muons in dijet events at HERA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chekanov, S.; Derrick, M.; Magill, S. [Argonne National Lab., Argonne, IL (US)] (and others)

2008-12-15

Beauty photoproduction in dijet events has been measured at HERA with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 126 pb{sup -1}. Beauty was identified in events with a muon in the final state by using the transverse momentum of the muon relative to the closest jet. Lifetime information from the silicon vertex detector was also used; the impact parameter of the muon with respect to the primary vertex was exploited to discriminate between signal and background. Cross sections for beauty production as a function of the muon and the jet variables as well as dijet correlations are compared to QCD predictions and to previous measurements. The data are well described by predictions from next-to-leading-order QCD. (orig.)

Measurement of beauty photoproduction using decays into muons in dijet events at HERA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chekanov, S.; Derrick, M.; Magill, S.

2008-12-01

Beauty photoproduction in dijet events has been measured at HERA with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 126 pb -1 . Beauty was identified in events with a muon in the final state by using the transverse momentum of the muon relative to the closest jet. Lifetime information from the silicon vertex detector was also used; the impact parameter of the muon with respect to the primary vertex was exploited to discriminate between signal and background. Cross sections for beauty production as a function of the muon and the jet variables as well as dijet correlations are compared to QCD predictions and to previous measurements. The data are well described by predictions from next-to-leading-order QCD. (orig.)

Trace element determination in beauty products by k0-instrumental neutron activation analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sneyers, L.; Verheyen, L.; Vermaercke, P.; Bruggeman, M.

2009-01-01

A recent study on trace elements in beauty products and cosmetics sold on the Asian market has shown the presence of high levels of U, Th and rare earth elements in so called 'Hormesis cosmetics'. For the purpose of comparison, some more information about trace elements in European cosmetics would be useful. In this paper the results obtained using k 0 -standardised Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (k 0 -INAA) for more than 20 trace elements in 20 different beauty products collected from the European market are presented. We found traces of Ba, As and Sb which is in breach with European legislation. For some of the other elements like Cr and Co further speciation is needed in order to evaluate their presence in beauty products. (author)

Measurement of open beauty production at HERA in the D{sup *}{mu} final state

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chekanov, S.; Derrick, M.; Magill, S. [Argonne National Laboratory, IL (US)] (and others)

2006-09-15

The production of beauty quarks with a D{sup *{+-}} and a muon in the final state has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 114 pb{sup -1}. Low transverse-momentum thresholds for the muon and D{sup *} meson allow a measurement of beauty production closer to the production threshold than previous measurements. The beauty signal was extracted using the charge correlations and angular distributions of the muon with respect to the D{sup *} meson. Cross sections for photoproduction and deep inelastic scattering are somewhat higher than, but compatible with, next-to-leading-order QCD predictions, and compatible with other measurements. (orig.)

Sleep disorders in cerebellar ataxias

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José L. Pedroso

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Cerebellar ataxias comprise a wide range of etiologies leading to central nervous system-related motor and non-motor symptoms. Recently, a large body of evidence has demonstrated a high frequency of non-motor manifestations in cerebellar ataxias, specially in autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxias (SCA. Among these non-motor dysfunctions, sleep disorders have been recognized, although still under or even misdiagnosed. In this review, we highlight the main sleep disorders related to cerebellar ataxias focusing on REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD, restless legs syndrome (RLS, periodic limb movement in sleep (PLMS, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS, insomnia and sleep apnea.

Combining two model systems of psychosis: The effects of schizotypy and sleep deprivation on oculomotor control and psychotomimetic states.

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Meyhöfer, Inga; Steffens, Maria; Faiola, Eliana; Kasparbauer, Anna-Maria; Kumari, Veena; Ettinger, Ulrich

2017-11-01

Model systems of psychosis, such as schizotypy or sleep deprivation, are valuable in informing our understanding of the etiology of the disorder and aiding the development of new treatments. Schizophrenia patients, high schizotypes, and sleep-deprived subjects are known to share deficits in oculomotor biomarkers. Here, we aimed to further validate the schizotypy and sleep deprivation models and investigated, for the first time, their interactive effects on smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM), prosaccades, antisaccades, predictive saccades, and measures of psychotomimetic states, anxiety, depression, and stress. To do so, n = 19 controls and n = 17 high positive schizotypes were examined after both a normal sleep night and 24 h of sleep deprivation. Schizotypes displayed higher SPEM global position error, catch-up saccade amplitude, and increased psychotomimetic states. Sleep deprivation impaired SPEM, prosaccade, antisaccade, and predictive saccade performance and increased levels of psychotomimetic experiences. Additionally, sleep deprivation reduced SPEM gain in schizotypes but not controls. We conclude that oculomotor impairments are observed in relation to schizotypy and following sleep deprivation, supporting their utility as biomarkers in model systems of psychosis. The combination of these models with oculomotor biomarkers may be particularly fruitful in assisting the development of new antipsychotic or pro-cognitive drugs. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

The Function of Sleep

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Daniel A. Barone

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The importance of sleep can be ascertained by noting the effects of its loss, which tends to be chronic and partial, on cognition, mood, alertness, and overall health. Many theories have been put forth to explain the function of sleep in humans, including proposals based on energy conservation, ecological adaptations, neurocognitive function, neural plasticity, nervous system and physical health, and performance. Most account for only a portion of sleep behavior and few are based on strong experimental support. In this review, we present theories proposing why sleep is necessary and supporting data demonstrating the effects of inadequate sleep, with the intention of gleaning further information as to its necessity, which remains one of the most perplexing mysteries in biology.

The Beauty of the Psyche and Eros Myth: Integrating Aesthetics into Introduction to Psychology

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Diessner, Rhett; Burke, Kayla

2011-01-01

Beginning in the late 1990s the authors became convinced that their undergraduate psychology students needed classroom experiences that set the conditions for them to become more engaged with beauty. They recognized the intrinsic importance of beauty to human psychological development, beyond any utilitarian concerns. But they also believed that…

The paradox of impossible beauty: body changes and beauty practices in aging women.

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Macia, Enguerran; Duboz, Priscilla; Chevé, Dominique

2015-01-01

The aim of this article is to describe and understand the experience of aesthetic body changes in women between 65 and 75 years old. To approach the issue, 29 in-depth interviews were conducted in Marseille in 2011. Following a brief review of contemporary Western aesthetics, we will examine the marks of time women perceive as stigmatizing and analyze beauty practices that aim to conceal or repair them. The last part of this article will be devoted to the experience of the aesthetic body and in particular show how aging can paradoxically have a beneficial effect on some women.

Filtering the reality: functional dissociation of lateral and medial pain systems during sleep in humans.

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Bastuji, Hélène; Mazza, Stéphanie; Perchet, Caroline; Frot, Maud; Mauguière, François; Magnin, Michel; Garcia-Larrea, Luis

2012-11-01

Behavioral reactions to sensory stimuli during sleep are scarce despite preservation of sizeable cortical responses. To further understand such dissociation, we recorded intracortical field potentials to painful laser pulses in humans during waking and all-night sleep. Recordings were obtained from the three cortical structures receiving 95% of the spinothalamic cortical input in primates, namely the parietal operculum, posterior insula, and mid-anterior cingulate cortex. The dynamics of responses during sleep differed among cortical sites. In sleep Stage 2, evoked potential amplitudes were similarly attenuated relative to waking in all three cortical regions. During paradoxical, or rapid eye movements (REM), sleep, opercular and insular potentials remained stable in comparison with Stage 2, whereas the responses from mid-anterior cingulate abated drastically, and decreasing below background noise in half of the subjects. Thus, while the lateral operculo-insular system subserving sensory analysis of somatic stimuli remained active during paradoxical-REM sleep, mid-anterior cingulate processes related to orienting and avoidance behavior were suppressed. Dissociation between sensory and orienting-motor networks might explain why nociceptive stimuli can be either neglected or incorporated into dreams without awakening the subject. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Longing for Clouds - Does Beautiful Weather have to be Fine?

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Mădălina Diaconu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Any attempt to outline a meteorological aesthetics centered on so-called beautiful weather has to overcome several difficulties: In everyday life, the appreciation of the weather is mostly related to practical interests or reduced to the ideal of stereotypical fine weather that is conceived according to blue-sky thinking irrespective of climate diversity. Also, an aesthetics of fine weather seems, strictly speaking, to be impossible given that such weather conditions usually allow humans to focus on aspects other than weather, which contradicts the autotelic character of beauty. The unreflective equation of beautiful weather with moderately sunny weather and a cloudless sky also collides with the psychological need for variation: even living in a “paradisal” climate would be condemned to end in monotony. Finally, whereas fine weather is related in modern realistic literature to cosmic harmony and a universal natural order, contemporary literary examples show that in the age of the climate change, fine weather may be deceitful and its passive contemplation, irresponsible. This implies the necessity of a reflective aesthetic attitude on weather, as influenced by art, literature, and science, which discovers the poetics of bad weather and the wonder that underlies average weather conditions.

REM Sleep Phase Preference in the Crepuscular Octodon degus Assessed by Selective REM Sleep Deprivation

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Ocampo-Garcés, Adrián; Hernández, Felipe; Palacios, Adrian G.

2013-01-01

Study Objectives: To determine rapid eye movement (REM) sleep phase preference in a crepuscular mammal (Octodon degus) by challenging the specific REM sleep homeostatic response during the diurnal and nocturnal anticrepuscular rest phases. Design: We have investigated REM sleep rebound, recovery, and documented REM sleep propensity measures during and after diurnal and nocturnal selective REM sleep deprivations. Subjects: Nine male wild-captured O. degus prepared for polysomnographic recordings Interventions: Animals were recorded during four consecutive baseline and two separate diurnal or nocturnal deprivation days, under a 12:12 light-dark schedule. Three-h selective REM sleep deprivations were performed, starting at midday (zeitgeber time 6) or midnight (zeitgeber time 18). Measurements and Results: Diurnal and nocturnal REM sleep deprivations provoked equivalent amounts of REM sleep debt, but a consistent REM sleep rebound was found only after nocturnal deprivation. The nocturnal rebound was characterized by a complete recovery of REM sleep associated with an augment in REM/total sleep time ratio and enhancement in REM sleep episode consolidation. Conclusions: Our results support the notion that the circadian system actively promotes REM sleep. We propose that the sleep-wake cycle of O. degus is modulated by a chorus of circadian oscillators with a bimodal crepuscular modulation of arousal and a unimodal promotion of nocturnal REM sleep. Citation: Ocampo-Garcés A; Hernández F; Palacios AG. REM sleep phase preference in the crepuscular Octodon degus assessed by selective REM sleep deprivation. SLEEP 2013;36(8):1247-1256. PMID:23904685

Sleep Applications to Assess Sleep Quality.

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Fietze, Ingo

2016-12-01

This article highlights the potential uses that smartphone applications may have for helping those with sleep problems. Applications in smartphones offer the promised possibility of detection of sleep. From the author's own experience, one can also conclude that sleep applications are approximately as good as polysomnography in detection of sleep time, similar to the conventional wearable actimeters. In the future, sleep applications will help to further enhance awareness of sleep health and to distinguish those who actually poorly and only briefly sleep from those who suffer more likely from paradox insomnia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Beauty hadroproduction at fixed target in the WA92 experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gemme, C.

1999-01-01

Using a sample of 10 8 triggered events, produced in π-Cu interactions at 350 GeV/c, we have identified 26 beauty events. The estimated background in this sample is 0.6 ± 0.6 events. From these data, assuming a linear A-dependence, we measure a beauty production cross-section integrated over all x F of 5.7 +1.3 -1.1 (stat.) +0.6 -0.5 (syst.) nb/N. Differential distributions with respect to x F and p 2 T have been determined as well as some two-particle kinematic variables. Our results are compared with previous experiments and with a next-to-leading-order QCD calculation

Interfering with theories of sleep and memory: sleep, declarative memory, and associative interference.

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Ellenbogen, Jeffrey M; Hulbert, Justin C; Stickgold, Robert; Dinges, David F; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L

2006-07-11

Mounting behavioral evidence in humans supports the claim that sleep leads to improvements in recently acquired, nondeclarative memories. Examples include motor-sequence learning; visual-discrimination learning; and perceptual learning of a synthetic language. In contrast, there are limited human data supporting a benefit of sleep for declarative (hippocampus-mediated) memory in humans (for review, see). This is particularly surprising given that animal models (e.g.,) and neuroimaging studies (e.g.,) predict that sleep facilitates hippocampus-based memory consolidation. We hypothesized that we could unmask the benefits of sleep by challenging the declarative memory system with competing information (interference). This is the first study to demonstrate that sleep protects declarative memories from subsequent associative interference, and it has important implications for understanding the neurobiology of memory consolidation.

Brain mechanisms that control sleep and waking

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Siegel, Jerome

This review paper presents a brief historical survey of the technological and early research that laid the groundwork for recent advances in sleep-waking research. A major advance in this field occurred shortly after the end of World War II with the discovery of the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) as the neural source in the brain stem of the waking state. Subsequent research showed that the brain stem activating system produced cortical arousal via two pathways: a dorsal route through the thalamus and a ventral route through the hypothalamus and basal forebrain. The nuclei, pathways, and neurotransmitters that comprise the multiple components of these arousal systems are described. Sleep is now recognized as being composed of two very different states: rapid eye movements (REMs) sleep and non-REM sleep. The major findings on the neural mechanisms that control these two sleep states are presented. This review ends with a discussion of two current views on the function of sleep: to maintain the integrity of the immune system and to enhance memory consolidation.

Humour, beauty, and culture as personal health resources: experiences of elderly Swedish women.

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Forssén, Annika S K

2007-01-01

This paper explores how a group of elderly women used humour, beauty, and cultural activities to maintain physical and mental well-being. The paper reports on one aspect of a qualitative study on women's work and health in a lifetime perspective. Interviews with 20 strategically selected Swedish women, aged 63 to 83 years, were audiotaped and analysed according to a phenomenological approach. During the interview process, the researchers became increasingly aware that the women had clear ideas about what enabled them to feel well and healthy - even when actually quite diseased. Creating and enjoying humour, beauty, and culture formed part of such strategies. Joking with workmates made hard, low-status jobs easier, helped them endure pain, and helped balance marital difficulties. Creating a nice and comfortable home gave pleasure and a little luxury in a life filled with necessities. Making articles for everyday use more beautiful was regarded as worthwhile, because it gave delight to them and their families. Gains from cultural activities were social, aesthetic, and existential - the latter through a feeling of self-recognition and being heard. Humour, beauty, and culture formed a greater part of these women's survival strategies than expected. Making everyday life more aesthetic is an undervalued aspect of women's health-creating work in the family. Through their lifelong experience as carers and homemakers, elderly women possess special knowledge regarding what may promote health, a knowledge that should be tapped. When supplying elderly women with social care, their needs for humour, beauty, and culture should be respected.

Trappings of femininity: A test of the "beauty as currency" hypothesis in shaping college women's gender activism.

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Calogero, Rachel M; Tylka, Tracy L; Donnelly, Lois C; McGetrick, Amber; Leger, Andrea Medrano

2017-06-01

This study investigated whether believing beauty is a primary currency for women operates as an antecedent force in the relation between self-objectification and gender activism. Ninety-four ethnically diverse women attending a small liberal arts college in the southeastern United States completed the study questionnaires online for course credit. Preliminary results demonstrated beauty as currency belief, self-objectification, and support for the gender status quo were negatively associated with gender activism. A serial mediation analysis revealed support for the proposed model: Beauty as currency belief was indirectly and inversely linked to gender activism through self-objectification and support for the gender status quo, offering initial evidence for our beauty as currency hypothesis. These findings suggest belief in the notion women will reap more benefits from their bodies than other attributes or pursuits may be an important legitimizing feature of feminine beauty ideology that works through self-objectification against gender social change. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sleep quality, the neglected outcome variable in clinical studies focusing on locomotor system; a construct validation study

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Röder Christoph

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In addition to general health and pain, sleep is highly relevant to judging the well-being of an individual. Of these three important outcome variables, however, sleep is neglected in most outcome studies. Sleep is a very important resource for recovery from daily stresses and strains, and any alteration of sleep will likely affect mental and physical health, especially during disease. Sleep assessment therefore should be standard in all population-based or clinical studies focusing on the locomotor system. Yet current sleep assessment tools are either too long or too specific for general use. Methods Based on a literature review and subsequent patient-based rating of items, an expert panel designed a four-item questionnaire about sleep. Construct validation of the questionnaire in a random sample of the German-speaking Swiss population was performed in 2003. Reliability, correlation, and tests for internal consistency and validity were analyzed. Results Overall, 16,634 (70% out of 23,763 eligible individuals participated in the study. Test-retest reliability coefficients ranged from 0.72 to 0.87, and a Cronbach's alpha of 0.83 indicates good internal consistency. Results show a moderate to good correlation between sleep disturbances and health perception, and between sleep disturbances and overall pain. Conclusions The Sleep Standard Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ-Sleep is a reliable and short tool with confirmed construct validity for sleep assessment in population-based observational studies. It is easy to administer and therefore suitable for postal surveys of the general population. Criterion validity remains to be determined.

Perception of men's beauty and attractiveness by women with low sexual desire.

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Ferdenzi, Camille; Delplanque, Sylvain; Vorontsova-Wenger, Olga; Pool, Eva; Bianchi-Demicheli, Francesco; Sander, David

2015-04-01

Despite the high prevalence of hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), especially among women, this sexual disorder remains poorly understood. Among the multiple factors possibly involved in HSDD, particularities in the cognitive evaluations of social stimuli need to be better characterized. Especially, beauty and attractiveness judgments, two dimensions of interpersonal perception that are related but differ on their underlying motivational aspects, may vary according to the level of sexual desire. The main goal of this study was to investigate whether women with and without HSDD differ in their evaluations of beauty and attractiveness of men's faces and voices. Young women from the general population (controls, n = 16) and with HSDD (patients, n = 16) took part in the study. They were presented with a series of neutral/nonerotic voices and faces of young men from the GEneva Faces And Voices database. Ratings of beauty (i.e., assessments of aesthetic pleasure) and of attractiveness (i.e., assessments of the personal propensity to feel attracted to someone) and the frequency to which the participants pressed a key to see or listen to each stimulus again were the main outcome measures. Ratings of attractiveness were lower than ratings of beauty in both groups of women. The dissociation between beauty and attractiveness was larger in women with HSDD than in control participants. Patients gave lower attractiveness ratings than the controls and replayed the stimuli significantly less often. These results suggest that women with HSDD are characterized by specific alterations of the motivational component of men's perception, very early in the process of interpersonal relationships. Our findings have significant implications, both in better understanding the specific cognitive processes underlying hypoactive sexual desire and more largely the evaluative processes involved in human mate choice. © 2014 International Society for Sexual Medicine.

Evaluating beauty care provided by the hospital to women suffering from breast cancer: qualitative aspects.

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Amiel, Philippe; Dauchy, Sarah; Bodin, Julie; Cerf, Céline; Zenasni, Franck; Pezant, Elisabeth; Teller, Anne-Marie; André, Fabrice; DiPalma, Mario

2009-07-01

Cancer patients are offered more and more access to beauty care during their stay in the hospital. This kind of intervention has not been evaluated yet. Primary objective of our research was to determine what type of evaluation strategy to be implemented (as a supportive care with quality of life and/or medical benefits; as a service providing immediate comfort); intermediate objective was to investigate in scientific terms (psychological, sociological) the experience of beauty care by patients. Sixty patients (all users of beauty care provided by hospital, 58 female, most of them treated for breast cancer, two male, mean age 53 years) and 11 nurses and physicians, from four French cancer centres were included. We used direct observation and semi-structured interviews, conducted by a sociologist and a psychologist; different types of beauty care were concerned. All the interviewed patients were satisfied. Patients appreciated acquiring savoir-faire on how to use make-up and on personal image enhancement. Psychological and social well-being benefits were mentioned. The beauty care was not alleged to be reducing the side effects of the treatments, but it had helped patients to accept or bear the burden of them. Providing care beyond that which is directly curative was appreciated by the patients as a sign that they were treated as a "whole" person. The survey brings valuable clues concerning beauty care experience by cancer patients; it suggests the relevance of quantitative evaluation of the immediate and long-term effects on the quality of life.

Impact of Sleep Telemedicine Protocol in Management of Sleep Apnea: A 5-Year VA Experience.

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Baig, Mirza M; Antonescu-Turcu, Andrea; Ratarasarn, Kavita

2016-05-01

There is growing evidence that demonstrates an important role for telemedicine technologies in enhancing healthcare delivery. A comprehensive sleep telemedicine protocol was implemented at the Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC), Milwaukee, WI, in 2008 in an effort to improve access to sleep specialty care. The telemedicine protocol relied heavily on sleep specialist interventions based on chart review (electronic consult [e-consult]). This was done in response to long wait time for sleep clinic visits as well as delayed sleep study appointments. Since 2008 all consults are screened by sleep service to determine the next step in intervention. Based on chart review, the following steps are undertaken: (1) eligibility for portable versus in-lab sleep study is determined, and a sleep study order is placed accordingly, (2) positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy is prescribed for confirmed sleep apnea, and (3) need for in-person evaluation in the sleep clinic is determined, and the visit is scheduled. This study summarizes the 5-year trend in various aspects of access to sleep care after implementation of sleep telemedicine protocol at the Milwaukee VAMC. This is a retrospective system efficiency study. The electronic medical record was interrogated 5 years after starting the sleep telemedicine protocol to study annual trends in the following outcomes: (1) interval between sleep consult and prescription of PAP equipment, (2) total sleep consults, and (3) sleep clinic wait time. Two part-time sleep physicians provided sleep-related care at the Milwaukee VAMC between 2008 and 2012. During this period, the interval between sleep consult and PAP prescription decreased from ≥60 days to ≤7 days. This occurred in spite of an increase in total sleep consults and sleep studies. There was also a significant increase in data downloads, indicating overall improved follow-up. There was no change in clinic wait time of ≥60 days. Implementation of a sleep telemedicine

Spontaneous hemodynamic oscillations during human sleep and sleep stage transitions characterized with near-infrared spectroscopy.

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Tiina Näsi

Full Text Available Understanding the interaction between the nervous system and cerebral vasculature is fundamental to forming a complete picture of the neurophysiology of sleep and its role in maintaining physiological homeostasis. However, the intrinsic hemodynamics of slow-wave sleep (SWS are still poorly known. We carried out 30 all-night sleep measurements with combined near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS and polysomnography to investigate spontaneous hemodynamic behavior in SWS compared to light (LS and rapid-eye-movement sleep (REM. In particular, we concentrated on slow oscillations (3-150 mHz in oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin concentrations, heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation, and the pulsation amplitude of the photoplethysmographic signal. We also analyzed the behavior of these variables during sleep stage transitions. The results indicate that slow spontaneous cortical and systemic hemodynamic activity is reduced in SWS compared to LS, REM, and wakefulness. This behavior may be explained by neuronal synchronization observed in electrophysiological studies of SWS and a reduction in autonomic nervous system activity. Also, sleep stage transitions are asymmetric, so that the SWS-to-LS and LS-to-REM transitions, which are associated with an increase in the complexity of cortical electrophysiological activity, are characterized by more dramatic hemodynamic changes than the opposite transitions. Thus, it appears that while the onset of SWS and termination of REM occur only as gradual processes over time, the termination of SWS and onset of REM may be triggered more abruptly by a particular physiological event or condition. The results suggest that scalp hemodynamic changes should be considered alongside cortical hemodynamic changes in NIRS sleep studies to assess the interaction between the autonomic and central nervous systems.

Measurement of charm and beauty dijet cross sections in photoproduction at HERA using the H1 vertex detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Finke, L.

2007-01-01

A measurement of charm and beauty dijet photoproduction cross sections at the ep collider HERA is presented. The lifetime signature of c- and b-flavoured hadrons is exploited to determine the fractions of events in the sample containing charm or beauty. Differential dijet cross sections for charm and beauty, and their relative contributions to the flavour inclusive dijet photoproduction cross section, are measured. Taking into account the theoretical uncertainties, the charm cross sections are consistent with a QCD calculation in next-to-leading order, the predicted cross sections for beauty production being somewhat lower than the measurement. (author)

Beauty as Fit: A Metaphor in Mathematics?

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Raman, Manya; Öhman, Lars-Daniel

2013-01-01

Beauty, which plays a central role in the practice of mathematics (Sinclair 2002), is almost absent in discussions of school mathematics (Dreyfus and Eisenberg 1986). This is problematic, because students will decide whether or not to continue their studies in mathematics without having an accurate picture of what the subject is about. In order to…

Combining universal beauty and cultural context in a unifying model of visual aesthetic experience.

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Redies, Christoph

2015-01-01

In this work, I propose a model of visual aesthetic experience that combines formalist and contextual aspects of aesthetics. The model distinguishes between two modes of processing. First, perceptual processing is based on the intrinsic form of an artwork, which may or may not be beautiful. If it is beautiful, a beauty-responsive mechanism is activated in the brain. This bottom-up mechanism is universal amongst humans; it is widespread in the visual brain and responsive across visual modalities. Second, cognitive processing is based on contextual information, such as the depicted content, the intentions of the artist or the circumstances of the presentation of the artwork. Cognitive processing is partially top-down and varies between individuals according to their cultural experience. Processing in the two channels is parallel and largely independent. In the general case, an aesthetic experience is induced if processing in both channels is favorable, i.e., if there is resonance in the perceptual processing channel ("aesthetics of perception"), and successful mastering in the cognitive processing channel ("aesthetics of cognition"). I speculate that this combinatorial mechanism has evolved to mediate social bonding between members of a (cultural) group of people. Primary emotions can be elicited via both channels and modulate the degree of the aesthetic experience. Two special cases are discussed. First, in a subset of (post-)modern art, beauty no longer plays a prominent role. Second, in some forms of abstract art, beautiful form can be enjoyed with minimal cognitive processing. The model is applied to examples of Western art. Finally, implications of the model are discussed. In summary, the proposed model resolves the seeming contradiction between formalist perceptual approaches to aesthetic experience, which are based on the intrinsic beauty of artworks, and contextual approaches, which account for highly individual and culturally dependent aspects of aesthetics.

Combining universal beauty and cultural context in a unifying model of visual aesthetic experience

Science.gov (United States)

Redies, Christoph

2015-01-01

In this work, I propose a model of visual aesthetic experience that combines formalist and contextual aspects of aesthetics. The model distinguishes between two modes of processing. First, perceptual processing is based on the intrinsic form of an artwork, which may or may not be beautiful. If it is beautiful, a beauty-responsive mechanism is activated in the brain. This bottom–up mechanism is universal amongst humans; it is widespread in the visual brain and responsive across visual modalities. Second, cognitive processing is based on contextual information, such as the depicted content, the intentions of the artist or the circumstances of the presentation of the artwork. Cognitive processing is partially top–down and varies between individuals according to their cultural experience. Processing in the two channels is parallel and largely independent. In the general case, an aesthetic experience is induced if processing in both channels is favorable, i.e., if there is resonance in the perceptual processing channel (“aesthetics of perception”), and successful mastering in the cognitive processing channel (“aesthetics of cognition”). I speculate that this combinatorial mechanism has evolved to mediate social bonding between members of a (cultural) group of people. Primary emotions can be elicited via both channels and modulate the degree of the aesthetic experience. Two special cases are discussed. First, in a subset of (post-)modern art, beauty no longer plays a prominent role. Second, in some forms of abstract art, beautiful form can be enjoyed with minimal cognitive processing. The model is applied to examples of Western art. Finally, implications of the model are discussed. In summary, the proposed model resolves the seeming contradiction between formalist perceptual approaches to aesthetic experience, which are based on the intrinsic beauty of artworks, and contextual approaches, which account for highly individual and culturally dependent aspects of

78 FR 5245 - Pricing for New Product-America the Beautiful Quarters® Three-Roll Set

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-24

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY United States Mint Pricing for New Product--America the Beautiful Quarters[supreg] Three-Roll Set AGENCY: United States Mint, Department of the Treasury. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The United States Mint is announcing pricing for a new product, the America the Beautiful...

Esthetics, eroticism and sex parity: Umberto Eco’s History of Beauty and History of Ugliness

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Krzysztof Obremski

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The topic of comparative analysis which is presented in this article is The Story of Beauty and The Story of Ugliness edited by Umberto Eco. Even the covers of these books show the contrast between men and women. How esthetic values build a feedback with sexual parity? Ugly men look at beautiful women – this patriarchal discrimination can’t be cancelled either by the parity of sex in The Story of Beauty, nor men who twice outnumber them in The Story of Ugliness. Also as the unfair sex they are prior sex: they humiliate themselves and elevate women

The culture of complexion: the impacts of society's role in shaping the definition of beauty.

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Carlock, Sarah; Russell, Brian

2015-05-01

The definition of beauty has evolved as the trends valued by the top of society change. For centuries, fair skin was a requirement of the Western definition of beauty; however, a shift in the 1920s made tanned skin the new standard. In this article, smoking and tanning are presented as risky behaviors that are perpetuated through industry advertising and exploitation of the authority of health professionals. The article further explores the culture of complexion in Western society before and after the 1920s as well as the consequences of tanning and efforts to rewrite society's definition of beauty.

Parasite resistance and the adaptive significance of sleep

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Barton Robert A

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Sleep is a biological enigma. Despite occupying much of an animal's life, and having been scrutinized by numerous experimental studies, there is still no consensus on its function. Similarly, no hypothesis has yet explained why species have evolved such marked variation in their sleep requirements (from 3 to 20 hours a day in mammals. One intriguing but untested idea is that sleep has evolved by playing an important role in protecting animals from parasitic infection. This theory stems, in part, from clinical observations of intimate physiological links between sleep and the immune system. Here, we test this hypothesis by conducting comparative analyses of mammalian sleep, immune system parameters, and parasitism. Results We found that evolutionary increases in mammalian sleep durations are strongly associated with an enhancement of immune defences as measured by the number of immune cells circulating in peripheral blood. This appeared to be a generalized relationship that could be independently detected in 4 of the 5 immune cell types and in both of the main sleep phases. Importantly, no comparable relationships occur in related physiological systems that do not serve an immune function. Consistent with an influence of sleep on immune investment, mammalian species that sleep for longer periods also had substantially reduced levels of parasitic infection. Conclusion These relationships suggest that parasite resistance has played an important role in the evolution of mammalian sleep. Species that have evolved longer sleep durations appear to be able to increase investment in their immune systems and be better protected from parasites. These results are neither predicted nor explained by conventional theories of sleep evolution, and suggest that sleep has a much wider role in disease resistance than is currently appreciated.

Losing ground, losing sleep: Local economic conditions, economic vulnerability, and sleep.

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Perales, Francisco; Plage, Stefanie

2017-02-01

Medical research shows that healthy sleep has benefits for human wellbeing. We contribute to the emerging social-epidemiological literature on the social determinants of sleep by considering how living in an area with poor economic circumstances can result in sleep loss through financial worry, uncertainty and stress. We use multilevel regression models and nationally-representative data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (n = 9181) and find that individuals who live in areas with high unemployment rates or experience individual-level economic vulnerability sleep less than comparable individuals in areas with low unemployment rates, or who do not experience financial hardships. The negative association between local economic conditions and sleep duration is substantially stronger amongst economically vulnerable individuals. This highlights the importance of considering multiple levels in the analysis of health inequalities, as status and location can intersect to produce and reproduce disadvantage systems. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Recreationists’ Perceptions of Scenic Beauty and Satisfaction at a Public Forest Managed for Endangered Wildlife

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Ramesh Paudyal

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Prescribed burning and other active forest management treatments have been proven essential for maintaining suitable habitat conditions for many wildlife species, including the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW. This study examines the perception of forest management treatments of recreation users participating in various activities (hunting, hiking/backpacking, camping, off-highway vehicle riding, and canoeing/kayaking in terms of scenic beauty and recreation satisfaction. We used photographic images to capture various forest management treatments of different intensity levels and times after treatments, and assessed users’ perception of scenic beauty and recreation satisfaction. Results indicated variation among users participating in different recreation activities, but that good quality RCW habitats offered both higher scenic beauty and higher recreation satisfaction than poor quality habitats for most activity user groups. Finally, recreation satisfaction was statistically equal to perceived scenic beauty from both good and poor-quality RCW habitats for most of the activity user groups, thus suggesting the importance of scenic beauty of forest sites in determining recreation users’ attainment of visit satisfaction. Findings conclude that forest sites developed as good quality RCW habitats in the present state also offer quality experience to recreation users, thus supporting multi-objective forestry practices in public forests.

Strength, functionality and beauty of university buildings in earthquake-prone countries

Science.gov (United States)

WADA, Akira

2018-01-01

Strength, functionality and beauty are the three qualities identifying well-designed architecture. For buildings in earthquake-prone countries such as Japan, emphasis on seismic safety frequently leads to the sacrifice of functionality and beauty. Therefore, it is important to develop new structural technologies that can ensure the seismic performance of a building without hampering the pursuit of functionality and beauty. The moment-resisting frame structures widely used for buildings in Japan are likely to experience weak-story collapse. Pin-supported walls, which can effectively enhance the structural story-by-story integrity of a building, were introduced to prevent such an unfavorable failure pattern in the seismic retrofit of an eleven-story building on a university campus in Tokyo, while also greatly aesthetically enhancing the façade of the building. The slight damage observed and monitoring records of the retrofitted building during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan demonstrate that the pin-supported walls worked as intended, protecting the building and guaranteeing the safety of its occupants during the earthquake. PMID:29434079

The "beauty arch: " a new aesthetic analysis for malar augmentation planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Marianetti, Tito Matteo; Cozzolino, Salvatore; Torroni, Andrea; Gasparini, Giulio; Pelo, Sandro

2015-05-01

Midface is a critical area for the aesthetics of the face. Despite malar hypoplasia is often combined with a class III malocclusion, there are few studies focusing on the results of a combined approach of malar implants and Le Fort I. We describe a new aesthetic analysis, named "beauty arch" analysis, for the assessment of sagittal projection of the malar region. We took a reference group of 74 Italian women participating in a national beauty contest in 2011 on which we performed our analysis. We used the ideal values to elaborate the surgical treatment planning of a second group of 45 consecutive female patients affected by skeletal class III malocclusion.Twenty-three patients undergo simultaneous Le Fort I osteotomy and malar implants. From the descriptive statistical comparison of the patients' values before and after orthognathic surgery and malar implants with the reference values, we observed how all parameters considered got closer to the ideal population. We consider our beauty arch a useful help for surgeon in the treatment planning of patients with skeletal malocclusions and malar implants.