Visual cortical plasticity after the termination of the critical period: A review and experimental test

A literature review is presented in which stimulus deprivation amblyopia is discussed. Additionally, the review of literature covers aspects of attentional and motivational effects on stimulus deprivation amblyopia. Although the experimental design originally intended to induce amblyopia in six kittens born June 14, 1992, only two survived to become subjects in the study. The two kittens were monocularly deprived of light stimulation by wearing an opaque contact lens on the right eye during six hours of light exposure per day, five days per week, beginning at four weeks of age. At all other times, including the first four weeks of life, they were kept in the dark. Beginning at eleven weeks of age, the kittens were motivationally trained to recognize grating acuity patterns, and then acuity testing in the non-deprived eye began at twenty-two weeks of age. Reverse occlusion and acuity testing after the critical period, for the purpose of exploring any motivational visual function recovery, began at thirty-seven weeks of age

Fast regridding of large, complex geospatial datasets

In the earth sciences, data are commonly cast on complex grids in order to model irregular domains such as coastlines, or to evenly distribute grid points over the globe. It is common for a scientist to wish to re-cast such data onto a grid that is more amenable to manipulation, visualization, or comparison with other data sources. The complexity of the grids presents a significant technical difficulty to the regridding process. In particular, the regridding of complex grids may suffer from severe performance issues, in the worst case scaling with the product of the sizes of the source and destination grids. We present a mechanism for the fast regridding of such datasets, based upon the construction of a spatial index that allows fast searching of the source grid. We discover that the most efficient spatial index under test (in terms of memory usage and query time) is a simple look-up table. A kd-tree implementation was found to be faster to build and to give similar query performance at the expense of a larger memory footprint. Using our approach, we demonstrate that regridding of complex data may proceed at speeds sufficient to permit regridding on-the-fly in an interactive visualization application, or in a Web Map Service implementation. For large datasets with complex grids the new mechanism is shown to significantly outperform algorithms used in many scientific visualization packages

Fathers report experiencing negative feelings and psychological difficulties during the perinatal period

The perinatal period is the time from the start of pregnancy to 1 year after the child has been born.1 During the perinatal period, an estimated 5%–10% of fathers will develop above-threshold symptoms of paternal depression.2 During this period, fathers can experience a high level of stress which can have negative effects on themselves and their families.3 This review aims to explore the needs and experiences associated with the mental health of fathers during this perinatal period.

Spectrum Sharing Dynamic Protection Area Neighborhoods for Radio Astronomy

To enforce incumbent protection through a spectrum access system (SAS) or future centralized shared spectrum system, dynamic protection area (DPA) neighborhood distances are employed. These distances are distance radii, in which citizen broadband radio service devices (CBSDs) are considered as potential interferers for the incumbent spectrum users. The goal of this paper is to create an algorithm to define DPA neighborhood distances for radio astronomy (RA) facilities with the intent to incorporate those distances into existing SASs and to adopt for future frameworks to increase national spectrum sharing. This paper first describes an algorithm to calculate sufficient neighborhood distances. Verifying this algorithm by recalculating previously calculated and currently used neighborhood distances for existing DPAs then proves its viability for extension to radio astronomy facilities. Applying the algorithm to the Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO) with customized parameters results in distance recommendations, 112 kilometers for category A (devices with 30 dBm/10 MHz max EIRP) and 144 kilometers for category B (devices with 47 dBm/10MHz max EIRP), for HCRO's inclusion into a SAS and shows that the algorithm can be applied to RA facilities in general. Calculating these distances identifies currently used but likely out-of-date metrics and assumptions that should be revisited for the benefit of spectrum sharing.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables, published to WCNC 202

The effectiveness of continuous quality improvement for developing professional practice and improving health care outcomes: a systematic review

Efforts to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care provision have often focused on changing approaches to the way services are organized and delivered. Continuous quality improvement (CQI), an approach used extensively in industrial and manufacturing sectors, has been used in the health sector. Despite the attention given to CQI, uncertainties remain as to its effectiveness given the complex and diverse nature of health systems. This review assesses the effectiveness of CQI across different health care settings, investigating the importance of different components of the approach. We searched 11 electronic databases: MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, AMED, Academic Search Complete, HMIC, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, LISTA, and NHS EED to February 2019. Also, we searched reference lists of included studies and systematic reviews, as well as checking published protocols for linked papers. We selected randomized controlled trials (RCTs) within health care settings involving teams of health professionals, evaluating the effectiveness of CQI. Comparators included current usual practice or different strategies to manage organizational change. Outcomes were health care professional performance or patient outcomes. Studies were published in English. Twenty-eight RCTs assessed the effectiveness of different approaches to CQI with a non-CQI comparator in various settings, with interventions differing in terms of the approaches used, their duration, meetings held, people involved, and training provided. All RCTs were considered at risk of bias, undermining their results. Findings suggested that the benefits of CQI compared to a non-CQI comparator on clinical process, patient, and other outcomes were limited, with less than half of RCTs showing any effect. Where benefits were evident, it was usually on clinical process measures, with the model used (i.e., Plan-Do-Study-Act, Model of Improvement), the meeting type (i.e., involving leaders discussing implementation) and their frequency (i.e., weekly) having an effect. None considered socio-economic health inequalities. Current evidence suggests the benefits of CQI in improving health care are uncertain, reflecting both the poor quality of evaluations and the complexities of health services themselves. Further mixed-methods evaluations are needed to understand how the health service can use this proven approach. Protocol registered on PROSPERO (CRD42018088309)