fMRI Randomized Study of Mental and Motor Task Performance and Cortisol Levels to Potentiate Cortisol as a New Diagnostic Biomarker.

Cortisol is an important hormone in the protective stress response system, the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA axis). It becomes especially salient in immune suppression syndromes such as multiple sclerosis and Cushing’s disease. Fatigue is a common symptom and mental and motor tasks are difficult and labored. The role of cortisol is mental and motor tasks and the recruitment of key brain regions in completion of these tasks is explored together with functional magnetic resonance imaging in healthy participants. Cortisol levels were found to be higher and had greater reduction in levels during mental versus motor tasks. Recruitment of brain stem and hypothalamus regions, important in cortisol activity, was affected differently. At low cortisol levels, mental task participants had less activity in the regions than their physical task counterparts. When cortisol levels were higher, widerspread recruitment of these brain regions was seen in the mental task participants, and for the physical task participants, the spread was at comparative low levels of cortisol. It is concluded that cortisol is implicated in these brain regions supporting the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis and that brain region recruitment is likely to be dependent upon factors including cortisol levels as well as perception of stress in the task. It is suggested that mental tasks are perceived more stressful than physical but demand higher cortisol levels to promote wider spread brain region activity. Implication for neurological disease includes the use of cortisol in the proposed development of a potential new diagnostic biomarker for early detection of neurological sequelae

Do riparian forest fragments provide ecosystem services or disservices in surrounding oil palm plantations?

Agricultural expansion across tropical regions is causing declines in biodiversity and altering ecological processes. However, in some tropical agricultural systems, conserving natural habitat can simultaneously protect threatened species and support important ecosystem services. Oil palm cultivation is expanding rapidly throughout the tropics but the extent to which non-crop habitat supports biodiversity and ecosystem services in these landscapes is poorly documented. We investigated whether riparian forest fragments (riparian reserves) provide a pest control service or increase pest activity (disservice) within oil palm dominated landscapes in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. We assessed the activity of potential predators of pest herbivores using plasticine caterpillar mimics and quantified herbivory rates on oil palm fronds in areas with and without riparian reserves. We also manipulated the shape and colour of the mimics to assess the extent to which artificial pest mimics reflect a predatory response. The presence of riparian reserves increased the attack rate on mimics by arthropods, but not by birds. Our methodological study suggested attacks on artificial pest mimics provide a better indication of predatory activity for birds than for arthropod predators. Herbivory rates were also not significantly affected by the presence of a riparian reserve, but we found some evidence that herbivory rates may decrease as the size of riparian reserves increases. Overall, we conclude that riparian forest fragments of 30 – 50 m width on each side of the river are unlikely to provide a pest control service. Nevertheless, our results provide evidence that these riparian buffer strips do not increase the density of defoliating pests, which should reassure managers concerned about possible negative consequences of preserving riparian buffers

A single shot coherent Ising machine based on a network of injection-locked multicore fiber lasers

Combinatorial optimization problems over large and complex systems have many applications in social networks, image processing, artificial intelligence, computational biology and a variety of other areas. Finding the optimized solution for such problems in general are usually in non-deterministic polynomial time (NP)-hard complexity class. Some NP-hard problems can be easily mapped to minimizing an lsing energy function. Here, we present an analog all-optical implementation of a coherent lsing machine (CIM) based on a network of injection-locked multicore fiber (MCF) lasers. The Zeeman terms and the mutual couplings appearing in the Ising Hamiltonians are implemented using spatial light modulators (SLMs). As a proof-of-principle, we demonstrate the use of optics to solve several Ising Hamiltonians for up to thirteen nodes. Overall, the average accuracy of the CIM to find the ground state energy was similar to 90% for 120 trials. The fundamental bottlenecks for the scalability and programmability of the presented CIM are discussed as well.Office of Naval Research (ONR) MURI program on Optical Computing [N00014-14-1-0505]; NSF ERC CIAN [EEC-0812072]; State of Arizona TRIFOpen access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Estimation of spectral parameters of residual ECG signal during atrial fibrillation using autoregressive models

The application of AutoRegressive (AR) models to extract spectral parameters from residual ECG (rECG) signals is exploited. In particular, a new method based on AR spectra is employed to estimate the dominant atrial cycle length (DACL) on ECG obtained from patients undergoing episodes of atrial fibrillation (AF). The traditional FFT-based spectral approach will be compared with the new method. Potentialities and possible superior performances of AR spectra are documented and discussed

Ursinus College Alumni Journal, March 1962

President\u27s page • Pennsylvania Female College • College souvenirs: Class of 1862 • Inside India • James E. Wagner elected Vice-President of Ursinus • New power plant begun • New offices • Bequests committee formed • Has America neglected her creative minority? • Announcing the second annual Alumni Seminar • Jessie Royer Greaves, \u2792, recipient of first alumni award • Nominees for Alumni Association offices • Mid-year report of 1962 Loyalty Fund campaign • From grey flannel to Alaskan seal • Ursinus homecoming in Alaska • Wrestling • Girls\u27 basketball • Basketball • Ursinus ambassadors abroad • Class notes • Weddings • Births • Necrology • Ursinus Women\u27s Club • Regionals • Alumni Dayhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/alumnijournal/1074/thumbnail.jp

Pi‐29

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110026/1/cptclpt200664.pd

Ursinus College Alumni Journal, August 1962

The President writes • Have gun will travel • The Loyalty Fund committee • Ursinus launches campaign for five million dollars • Alumni must think big • Samuel Bond, Ursinus\u27 architect • Faculty notes • 1962 commencement • Distinguished Teaching • Alumni in the news • \u2762 Loyalty Fund nets $52,942.84 • Results of the 1962 Loyalty Fund campaign • Contributors to the 1962 Loyalty Fund • Best track season in Ursinus history • Baseball • Women\u27s sports • Class notes • Weddings • Births • Necrology • Dr. Eugene H. Miller, \u2733, to speak at Forum • New UCC Church conference • The college sealhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/alumnijournal/1073/thumbnail.jp

Ursinus College Alumni Journal, August 1964

President\u27s page • The liberal arts curriculum • Commencement 1964 • Dining hall construction • Capital funds campaign contributions total $356,225 • American Alumni Council award • Campus round-up • Sturgis retires • Staiger heads Chem. Dept. • Track team undefeated • Results of 1964 Loyalty Fund campaign • The second mile • Alumni who have paid their pledges in full • Contributors to the 1964 Loyalty Fund • Alumni album: Irwin S. Leinbach, \u2729; Blanch Shirey Wentzel, \u2743; Clarence A. Paine, \u2722; Loretta Podolak Finnegan, \u2760; Jean Bonkoski, \u2768; Jean Ewen Trend, \u2743 • 1914-1964 • Class Notes • Valedictory • Weddings • Births • Necrology • Oldest alumnus dies • The face of the new alumnushttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/alumnijournal/1080/thumbnail.jp

Microcoil Spring Interconnects for Ceramic Grid Array Integrated Circuits

As integrated circuit miniaturization trends continue, they drive the need for smaller higher input/output (I/O) packages. Hermetically sealed ceramic area array parts are the package of choice by the space community for high reliability space flight electronic hardware. Unfortunately, the coefficient of thermal expansion mismatch between the ceramic area array package and the epoxy glass printed wiring board limits the life of the interconnecting solder joint. This work presents the results of an investigation by Marshall Space Flight Center into a method to increase the life of this second level interconnection by the use of compliant microcoil springs. The design of the spring and its attachment process are presented along with thermal cycling results of microcoil springs (MCS) compared with state-of-the-art ball and column interconnections. Vibration testing has been conducted on MCS and high lead column parts. Radio frequency simulation and measurements have been made and the MCS has been modeled and a stress analysis performed. Thermal cycling and vibration testing have shown MCS interconnects to be significantly more reliable than solder columns. Also, MCS interconnects are less prone to handling damage than solder columns. Future work that includes shock testing, incorporation into a digital signal processor board, and process evaluation of expansion from a 400 I/O device to a device with over 1,100 I/O is identified