Towards Reversible Sessions

In this work, we incorporate reversibility into structured communication-based programming, to allow parties of a session to automatically undo, in a rollback fashion, the effect of previously executed interactions. This permits taking different computation paths along the same session, as well as reverting the whole session and starting a new one. Our aim is to define a theoretical basis for examining the interplay in concurrent systems between reversible computation and session-based interaction. We thus enrich a session-based variant of pi-calculus with memory devices, dedicated to keep track of the computation history of sessions in order to reverse it. We discuss our initial investigation concerning the definition of a session type discipline for the proposed reversible calculus, and its practical advantages for static verification of safe composition in communication-centric distributed software performing reversible computations.Comment: In Proceedings PLACES 2014, arXiv:1406.331

A gender synchronized family planning intervention for married couples in rural India: study protocol for the CHARM2 cluster randomized controlled trial evaluation.

BackgroundPrior research from India demonstrates a need for family planning counseling that engages both women and men, offers complete family planning method mix, and focuses on gender equity and reduces marital sexual violence (MSV) to promote modern contraceptive use. Effectiveness of the three-session (two male-only sessions and one couple session) Counseling Husbands to Achieve Reproductive Health and Marital Equity (CHARM) intervention, which used male health providers to engage and counsel husbands on gender equity and family planning (GE + FP), was demonstrated by increased pill and condom use and a reduction in MSV. However, the intervention had limited reach to women and was therefore unable to expand access to highly effective long acting reversible contraceptives such as the intrauterine device (IUD). We developed a second iteration of the intervention, CHARM2, which retains the three sessions from the original CHARM but adds female provider- delivered counseling to women and offers a broader array of contraceptives including IUDs. This protocol describes the evaluation of CHARM2 in rural Maharashtra.MethodsA two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial will evaluate CHARM2, a gender synchronized GE + FP intervention. Eligible married couples (n = 1200) will be enrolled across 20 clusters in rural Maharashtra, India. Health providers will be gender-matched to deliver two GE + FP sessions to the married couples in parallel, and then a final session will be delivered to the couple together. We will conduct surveys on demographics as well as GE and FP indicators at baseline, 9-month, and 18-month follow-ups with both men and women, and pregnancy tests at each time point from women. In-depth interviews will be conducted with a subsample of couples (n = 50) and providers (n = 20). We will conduct several implementation and monitoring activities for purposes of assuring fidelity to intervention design and quality of implementation, including recruitment and tracking logs, provider evaluation forms, session observation forms, and participant satisfaction surveys.DiscussionWe will complete the recruitment of participants and collection of baseline data by July 2019. Findings from this work will offer important insight for the expansion of the national family planning program and improving quality of care for India and family planning interventions globally.Trial registrationClinicalTrial.gov, NCT03514914

Retractable Contracts

In calculi for modelling communication protocols, internal and external choices play dual roles. Two external choices can be viewed naturally as dual too, as they represent an agreement between the communicating parties. If the interaction fails, the past agreements are good candidates as points where to roll back, in order to take a different agreement. We propose a variant of contracts with synchronous rollbacks to agreement points in case of deadlock. The new calculus is equipped with a compliance relation which is shown to be decidable.Comment: In Proceedings PLACES 2015, arXiv:1602.0325

Memory consolidation in the cerebellar cortex

Several forms of learning, including classical conditioning of the eyeblink, depend upon the cerebellum. In examining mechanisms of eyeblink conditioning in rabbits, reversible inactivations of the control circuitry have begun to dissociate aspects of cerebellar cortical and nuclear function in memory consolidation. It was previously shown that post-training cerebellar cortical, but not nuclear, inactivations with the GABA(A) agonist muscimol prevented consolidation but these findings left open the question as to how final memory storage was partitioned across cortical and nuclear levels. Memory consolidation might be essentially cortical and directly disturbed by actions of the muscimol, or it might be nuclear, and sensitive to the raised excitability of the nuclear neurons following the loss of cortical inhibition. To resolve this question, we simultaneously inactivated cerebellar cortical lobule HVI and the anterior interpositus nucleus of rabbits during the post-training period, so protecting the nuclei from disinhibitory effects of cortical inactivation. Consolidation was impaired by these simultaneous inactivations. Because direct application of muscimol to the nuclei alone has no impact upon consolidation, we can conclude that post-training, consolidation processes and memory storage for eyeblink conditioning have critical cerebellar cortical components. The findings are consistent with a recent model that suggests the distribution of learning-related plasticity across cortical and nuclear levels is task-dependent. There can be transfer to nuclear or brainstem levels for control of high-frequency responses but learning with lower frequency response components, such as in eyeblink conditioning, remains mainly dependent upon cortical memory storage

Here where it lives … bioscleave

This essay introduces the work of Arakaw and Gins to interdisciplinary specialists and scholars and practitioners who are concerned with issues of art-science convergence. The co-authors discuss several points of view to the work of these artist-turned-architects and address the difficulties and challenges that their work represents in terms of the convergence and complexity of multiple dicourse and the practical challenges to embodied experience, technlogy-based approaches ot knowledge acquisition and perceptually-based learning environments

Modulation of laser-evoked pain perception and event-related potentials with non-invasive stimulation of the motor cortex

In the last two decades new techniques of non-invasive brain stimulation have been introduced that enable relatively long-lasting and reversible facilitation or inhibition of distinct cortical areas by modulating the excitability of underlying neurons. Among these methods, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are the most widespread ones. To date, both have been successfully used to modulate various perceptual, cognitive and motor functions in healthy subjects and several diseases, including chronic pain. Their efficacy regarding acute pain perception in healthy subjects, however, is still not well-established. The aims of our studies were to investigate the effects of a novel rTMS paradigm, called continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS), and tDCS on laser-induced acute pain perception and laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) when applied to the motor cortex of healthy adult volunteers. In two psychophysical and two electrophysiological experiments, we have compared the effects of real cTBS and two tDCS protocols (anodal and cathodal) to those of sham stimulations. We have shown for the first time that cTBS over the motor cortex significantly alleviated laser-induced pain on both hands, accentuating on the con tralateral limb. The effect of cTBS was accompanied by reduced N2-P2 LEP amplitudes in the case of medium intensity pain. In the tDCS experiments, cathodal stimulation of the motor cortex reduced mild pain contralateral to the side of stimulation. Moreover, cathodal tDCS attenuated N2-P2 LEP components, without modulating thresholds of medium intensity pain. On the contrary, anodal tDCS facilitated laser-induced warm sensation contralateral to the side of tDCS, without affecting either pain sensation or LEPs. Our results indicate that non-invasive stimulation of the motor cortex causes antinociceptive effects that depend on the parameters of stimulation and are probably due to excitability changes in remote pain-related areas such as the operculoinsular region and the anterior cingulate cortex. These findings further strengthen the application of cTBS and tDCS in pain research, which might contribute to a more efficient manipulation of brain plasticity for therapeutic purposes

Multiple sessions of transcranial direct current stimulation to the intact hemisphere improves visual function after unilateral ablation of visual cortex

Damage to cerebral systems is frequently followed by the emergence of compensatory mechanisms, which serve to reduce the effects of brain damage and allow recovery of function. Intrinsic recovery, however, is rarely complete. Non-invasive brain stimulation technologies have the potential to actively shape neural circuits and enhance recovery from brain damage. In this study, a stable deficit for detecting and orienting to visual stimuli presented in the contralesional visual hemifield was generated by producing unilateral brain damage of the right posterior parietal and contiguous visual cortical areas. A long regimen of inhibitory non-invasive transcranial directcurrent stimulation (cathodal 2mA, 20 min) was applied to the contralateral (intact) posterior parietal cortex over 14 weeks (total of 70 sessions, one per day, five days per week) and behavioral outcomes were periodically assessed. In three out of four stimulated cats, lasting recovery of visuospatial function was observed. Recovery started after 2-3 weeks of stimulation, and recovered targets were located first in the periphery, and moved to more central visual field locations with the accrual of stimulation sessions. Recovery for moving tasks followed a biphasic pattern before reaching plateau levels. Recovery did not occur for more difficult visual tasks. These findings highlight the ability of multiple sessions of transcranial direct-current stimulation to produce recovery of visuospatial function after unilateral brain damage

Ageism within occupational therapy?

Despite the arrival of the National Service Framework for Older people in 2001, age discrimination continues to exist in both popular society and health and social care settings. Within this context, the number of older people who are likely to come into contact with occupational therapy services is set to rise due to an increase in the population of older people. The aim of this opinion piece is to provide an overview of ageism towards older people in relation to occupational therapy and to suggest basic steps that can be taken by those working in practice to guard against ageist practice