The use of airborne LiDAR data for the analysis of debris flow events in Switzerland

A methodology of magnitude estimates for debris flow events is described using airborne LiDAR data. Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) is a widely used technology to generate digital elevation information. LiDAR data in alpine regions can be obtained by several commercial companies where the automated filtering process is proprietary and varies from companies to companies. This study describes the analysis of geomorphologic changes using digital terrain models derived from commercial LiDAR data. The estimation of the deposition volumes is based on two digital terrain models covering the same area but differing in their time of survey. In this study two surveyed deposition areas of debris flows, located in the canton of Berne, Switzerland, were chosen as test cases. We discuss different grid interpolating techniques, other preliminary work and the accuracy of the used LiDAR data and volume estimates

A Model Checker for Operator Precedence Languages

The problem of extending model checking from finite state machines to procedural programs has fostered much research toward the definition of temporal logics for reasoning on context-free structures. The most notable of such results are temporal logics on Nested Words, such as CaRet and NWTL. Recently, Precedence Oriented Temporal Logic (POTL) has been introduced to specify and prove properties of programs coded trough an Operator Precedence Language (OPL). POTL is complete w.r.t. the FO restriction of the MSO logic previously defined as a logic fully equivalent to OPL. POTL increases NWTL's expressive power in a perfectly parallel way as OPLs are more powerful that nested words.In this article, we produce a model checker, named POMC, for OPL programs to prove properties expressed in POTL. To the best of our knowledge, POMC is the first implemented and openly available model checker for proving tree-structured properties of recursive procedural programs. We also report on the experimental evaluation we performed on POMC on a nontrivial benchmark

Prospeção de marcadores moleculares ligados à apomixia em Panicum maximum Jacq.

Trabalho

Variabilidade genética molecular entre acessos de Stylosanthes capitata e Stylosanthes macrocephala, resistentes e suscetíveis à antracnose.

Stylosanthes capitata e S. macrocephala são, atualmente, as leguminosas forrageiras mais importantes para incrementar a alimentação animal, como fonte de proteína para o gado, e para a recuperação de pastagens degradadas, por capacidade de fixação de nitrogênio no solo. Marcadores Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) foram utilizados com o objetivo de avaliar a variabilidade genética de 14 acessos, resistentes e suscetíveis à antracnose, dessas duas espécies. Um total de 154 bandas de DNA foi gerado usando-se 26 primers, e em S. capitata foram amplificadas 115 bandas e em S. macrocephala 105. Os índices de similaridade genética obtidos variaram de 0,741 a 0,913 em S. capitata e de 0,724 a 0,924 em S. macrocephala, revelando uma baixa variabilidade genética em cada espécie. Enquanto que, comparando-se os acessos das duas espécies, a média de similaridade foi 0,363, indicando uma alta variabilidade genética interespecífica. Um dendrograma foi construído conforme o método Unweighted Pair-group Method with Arithmetical Average (UPGMA) e dois grupos bem distintos foram formados, que corresponderam as duas espécies. Subgrupos puderam ser evidenciados em cada espécie, sem mostrar relação com a resistência ou suscetibilidade à antracnose. Resultado similar foi obtido com o método de Tocher, porém, nesse caso, em S. macrocephala os acessos resistentes ficaram agrupados separadamente dos suscetíveis. Esses resultados são relevantes na escolha de acessos resistentes à antracnose, visando ao desenvolvimento de novas cultivares a partir de misturas desses acessos ou seleção de genitores para cruzamentos.bitstream/item/29652/1/BP27.pd

Eliciting Implicit Awareness in Alzheimer’s Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Task-Based Functional MRI Study

Background: Recent models of anosognosia in dementia have suggested the existence of an implicit component of self-awareness about one’s cognitive impairment that may remain preserved and continue to regulate behavioral, affective, and cognitive responses even in people who do not show an explicit awareness of their difficulties. Behavioral studies have used different strategies to demonstrate implicit awareness in patients with anosognosia, but no neuroimaging studies have yet investigated its neural bases. Methods: Patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment and dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during the execution of a color-naming task in which they were presented with neutral, negative, and dementia-related words (Dementia-Related Emotional Stroop). Results: Twenty-one patients were recruited: 12 were classified as aware and 9 as unaware according to anosognosia scales (based on clinical judgment and patient-caregiver discrepancy). Behavioral results showed that aware patients took the longest time to process dementia-related words, although differences between word types were not significant, limiting interpretation of behavioral results. Imaging results showed that patients with preserved explicit awareness had a small positive differential activation of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) for the dementia-related words condition compared to the negative words, suggesting attribution of emotional valence to both conditions. PCC differential activation was instead negative in unaware patients, i.e., lower for dementia-related words relative to negative-words. In addition, the more negative the differential activation, the lower was the Stroop effect measuring implicit awareness. Conclusion: Posterior cingulate cortex preserved response to dementia-related stimuli may be a marker of preserved implicit self-awareness

High serum immunoglobulin g and m levels predict freedom from adverse cardiovascular events in hypertension: a nested case-control substudy of the Anglo-Scandinavian cardiac outcomes trial

Aims: We aimed to determine whether the levels of total serum IgM and IgG, together with specific antibodies against malondialdehyde-conjugated low-density lipoprotein (MDA-LDL), can improve cardiovascular risk discrimination. Methods and Results: The Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (ASCOT) randomized 9098 patients in the UK and Ireland into the Blood Pressure-Lowering Arm. 485 patients that had cardiovascular (CV) events over 5.5 years were age and sex matched with 1367 controls. Higher baseline total serum IgG, and to a lesser extent IgM, were associated with decreased risk of CV events (IgG odds ratio (OR) per one standard deviation (SD) 0.80 [95% confidence interval, CI 0.72,0.89], p < 0.0001; IgM 0.83[0.75,0.93], p = 0.001), and particularly events due to coronary heart disease (CHD) (IgG OR 0.66 (0.57,0.76); p < 0.0001, IgM OR 0.81 (0.71,0.93); p = 0.002). The association persisted after adjustment for a basic model with variables in the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) as well as following inclusion of C-reactive protein (CRP) and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NtProBNP). IgG and IgM antibodies against MDA-LDL were also associated with CV events but their significance was lost following adjustment for total serum IgG and IgM respectively. The area under the receiver operator curve for CV events was improved from the basic risk model when adding in total serum IgG, and there was improvement in continuous and categorical net reclassification (17.6% and 7.5% respectively) as well as in the integrated discrimination index. Conclusion: High total serum IgG levels are an independent predictor of freedom from adverse cardiovascular events, particularly those attributed to CHD, in patients with hypertension

Aquatic Therapy after Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: Gait Initiation Analysis Using Inertial Sensors

: Populations with potential damage to somatosensory, vestibular, and visual systems or poor motor control are often studied during gait initiation. Aquatic activity has shown to benefit the functional capacity of incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI) patients. The present study aimed to evaluate gait initiation in iSCI patients using an easy-to-use protocol employing four wearable inertial sensors. Temporal and acceleration-based anticipatory postural adjustment measures were computed and compared between dry-land and water immersion conditions in 10 iSCI patients. In the aquatic condition, an increased first step duration (median value of 1.44 s vs. 0.70 s in dry-land conditions) and decreased root mean squared accelerations for the upper trunk (0.39 m/s2 vs. 0.72 m/s2 in dry-land conditions) and lower trunk (0.41 m/s2 vs. 0.85 m/s2 in dry-land conditions) were found in the medio-lateral and antero-posterior direction, respectively. The estimation of these parameters, routinely during a therapy session, can provide important information regarding different control strategies adopted in different environments

Capillary zone elactrophoresis of hydroxynitrile lyase and b-glucosidase from sweet almond

The extract from defatted almond meal, called emulsin, contains b-glucosidases and oxynitrilases. Oxinitrilase catalyzes the formation of chemical equilibrium between a-hydroxynitriles and their corresponding aldehydes and HCN. In the presence of an excess of HCN this enzyme catalyzes the stereospecific addition of HCN to a nuber of aldehydes to form optically active a-hydroxynitriles which are building blocks for asimetric organic synthesis. Glycosylhydrolases usually catalyze the stereospecific hydrolysis of glycosidic bonds but they can also be used for the formation of glycosidic bonds by means of two process: reverse hydrolysis and transglycosilation. Both enzynes are currently used in our laboratory for synthetic applications. In particular we use the b-glucosidase from almond to glycosylate various alcohol bearing allyl functionalities with the aim of producing glycosyl monomers which produce hydrophilic polymer coatings and DNA separation matrices. The isolation of the enzymes from sweet almonds requires a fractional ammonium sulphate precipitation followed by ion exchange chromatography on a DEAE cellulose. Capillary zone electrophoresis provided an excellent tool for the analysis of enzymes in the different purification steps. The separation of the enzyme isoformes was achieved in capillary columns coated with polyacryolylaminoetoxyethanol (polyAAEE) at different pH values