127 research outputs found
Investigating the Role of Current Strength in tDCS Modulation of Working Memory Performance in Healthy Controls
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a brain stimulation technique that has the potential to improve working memory (WM) deficits in many clinical disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of current strength on the ability of anodal tDCS to improve WM, and secondly to investigate the time course of effects. Twelve healthy participants underwent three stimulation sessions consisting of 20 min of either 1 mA anodal tDCS, 2 mA anodal tDCS, or sham tDCS to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) localized via F3, all whilst completing a WM task. Intra-stimulation and post-stimulation WM performances were measured using the n-back and Sternberg tasks respectively. Results revealed no significant improvements in participants’ accuracy, but a significant interaction was found with respect to current strength and time for accurate reaction time. The finding provides partial support for the hypothesis, in that it appears current strength may affect aspects of WM performance. However, more research is needed, and a higher difficulty level of WM tasks is one of the suggestions discussed for future research
A physical application of Kerr-Schild groups
The present work deals with the search of useful physical applications of
some generalized groups of metric transformations. We put forward different
proposals and focus our attention on the implementation of one of them.
Particularly, the results show how one can control very efficiently the kind of
spacetimes related by a Generalized Kerr-Schild (GKS) Ansatz through
Kerr-Schild groups. Finally a preliminar study regarding other generalized
groups of metric transformations is undertaken which is aimed at giving some
hints in new Ans\"atze to finding useful solutions to Einstein's equations.Comment: 18 page
Tracking rates of ecotone migration due to salt-water encroachment using fossil mollusks in coastal South Florida
We determined the rate of migration of coastal vegetation zones in response to salt-water encroachment through paleoecological analysis of mollusks in 36 sediment cores taken along transects perpendicular to the coast in a 5.5 km2 band of coastal wetlands in southeast Florida. Five vegetation zones, separated by distinct ecotones, included freshwater swamp forest, freshwater marsh, and dwarf, transitional and fringing mangrove forest. Vegetation composition, soil depth and organic matter content, porewater salinity and the contemporary mollusk community were determined at 226 sites to establish the salinity preferences of the mollusk fauna. Calibration models allowed accurate inference of salinity and vegetation type from fossil mollusk assemblages in chronologically calibrated sediments. Most sediments were shallow (20–130 cm) permitting coarse-scale temporal inferences for three zones: an upper peat layer (zone 1) representing the last 30–70 years, a mixed peat-marl layer (zone 2) representing the previous ca. 150–250 years and a basal section (zone 3) of ranging from 310 to 2990 YBP. Modern peat accretion rates averaged 3.1 mm yr)1 while subsurface marl accreted more slowly at 0.8 mm yr)1. Salinity and vegetation type for zone 1 show a steep gradient with freshwater communities being confined west of a north–south drainage canal constructed in 1960. Inferences for zone 2 (pre-drainage) suggest that freshwater marshes and associated forest units covered 90% of the area, with mangrove forests only present along the peripheral coastline. During the entire pre-drainage history, salinity in the entire area was maintained below a mean of 2 ppt and only small pockets of mangroves were present; currently, salinity averages 13.2 ppt and mangroves occupy 95% of the wetland. Over 3 km2 of freshwater wetland vegetation type have been lost from this basin due to salt-water encroachment, estimated from the mollusk-inferred migration rate of freshwater vegetation of 3.1 m yr)1 for the last 70 years (compared to 0.14 m yr)1 for the pre-drainage period). This rapid rate of encroachment is driven by sea-level rise and freshwater diversion. Plans for rehydrating these basins with freshwater will require high-magnitude re-diversion to counteract locally high rates of sea-level rise
Damage analysis of pressure pipes under high temperature and variable pressure conditions
The problem of non-linear stress analysis of creeping reinforced pipes under
constant pressure has been treated in a recent work [1]. In the present work, a damage
accumulation analysis of the above problem is attempted taking into account the non-linear
distribution of the stresses as well as non-linear damage accumulation under variable pressure
and/or temperature conditions. For the stress analysis a non-linear differential equation is used
to derive the stress concentration in critical locations of power pipes reinforced by rigid rings
which are distributed along their axis. Due to step-wised temperature and internal pressure of
the pipe, the damage accumulation is predicted by using a damage function specified with
respect to damage parameter derived by the stress versus Larson-Miller coefficient curve.
Advantages of the proposed methodology are:
(a) the 2-D creep stress analysis incorporates mechanical behaviours of material derived by
uniaxial tests,
(b) the predicted damage accumulation due to the variable pressure takes into account the
previous damage history as well as the loading order effect
Covariant Perturbations of Schwarzschild Black Holes
We present a new covariant and gauge-invariant perturbation formalism for
dealing with spacetimes having spherical symmetry (or some preferred spatial
direction) in the background, and apply it to the case of gravitational wave
propagation in a Schwarzschild black hole spacetime. The 1+3 covariant approach
is extended to a `1+1+2 covariant sheet' formalism by introducing a radial unit
vector in addition to the timelike congruence, and decomposing all covariant
quantities with respect to this. The background Schwarzschild solution is
discussed and a covariant characterisation is given. We give the full
first-order system of linearised 1+1+2 covariant equations, and we show how, by
introducing (time and spherical) harmonic functions, these may be reduced to a
system of first-order ordinary differential equations and algebraic constraints
for the 1+1+2 variables which may be solved straightforwardly. We show how both
the odd and even parity perturbations may be unified by the discovery of a
covariant, frame- and gauge-invariant, transverse-traceless tensor describing
gravitational waves, which satisfies a covariant wave equation equivalent to
the Regge-Wheeler equation for both even and odd parity perturbations. We show
how the Zerilli equation may be derived from this tensor, and derive a similar
transverse traceless tensor equivalent to this equation. The so-called
`special' quasinormal modes with purely imaginary frequency emerge naturally.
The significance of the degrees of freedom in the choice of the two frame
vectors is discussed, and we demonstrate that, for a certain frame choice, the
underlying dynamics is governed purely by the Regge-Wheeler tensor. The two
transverse-traceless Weyl tensors which carry the curvature of gravitational
waves are discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, Revtex 4. Submitted to Classical and Quantum
Gravity. Revised version is significantly streamlined with an important error
corrected which simplifies the presentatio
Bi-conformal vector fields and their applications
We introduce the concept of bi-conformal transformation, as a generalization
of conformal ones, by allowing two orthogonal parts of a manifold with metric
\G to be scaled by different conformal factors. In particular, we study their
infinitesimal version, called bi-conformal vector fields. We show the
differential conditions characterizing them in terms of a "square root" of the
metric, or equivalently of two complementary orthogonal projectors. Keeping
these fixed, the set of bi-conformal vector fields is a Lie algebra which can
be finite or infinite dimensional according to the dimensionality of the
projectors. We determine (i) when an infinite-dimensional case is feasible and
its properties, and (ii) a normal system for the generators in the
finite-dimensional case. Its integrability conditions are also analyzed, which
in particular provides the maximum number of linearly independent solutions. We
identify the corresponding maximal spaces, and show a necessary geometric
condition for a metric tensor to be a double-twisted product. More general
``breakable'' spaces are briefly considered. Many known symmetries are
included, such as conformal Killing vectors, Kerr-Schild vector fields,
kinematic self-similarity, causal symmetries, and rigid motions.Comment: Replaced version with some changes in the terminology and a new
theorem. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Decoherent Histories Approach to the Arrival Time Problem
We use the decoherent histories approach to quantum theory to compute the
probability of a non-relativistic particle crossing during an interval of
time. For a system consisting of a single non-relativistic particle, histories
coarse-grained according to whether or not they pass through spacetime regions
are generally not decoherent, except for very special initial states, and thus
probabilities cannot be assigned. Decoherence may, however, be achieved by
coupling the particle to an environment consisting of a set of harmonic
oscillators in a thermal bath. Probabilities for spacetime coarse grainings are
thus calculated by considering restricted density operator propagators of the
quantum Brownian motion model. We also show how to achieve decoherence by
replicating the system times and then projecting onto the number density of
particles that cross during a given time interval, and this gives an
alternative expression for the crossing probability. The latter approach shows
that the relative frequency for histories is approximately decoherent for
sufficiently large , a result related to the Finkelstein-Graham-Hartle
theorem.Comment: 42 pages, plain Te
Paired-Associative Stimulation-Induced Long-term Potentiation-Like Motor Cortex Plasticity in Healthy Adolescents
ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using paired-associative stimulation (PAS) to study excitatory and inhibitory plasticity in adolescents while examining variables that may moderate plasticity (such as sex and environment).MethodsWe recruited 34 healthy adolescents (aged 13–19, 13 males, 21 females). To evaluate excitatory plasticity, we compared mean motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited by single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) before and after PAS at 0, 15, and 30 min. To evaluate inhibitory plasticity, we evaluated the cortical silent period (CSP) elicited by single-pulse TMS in the contracted hand before and after PAS at 0, 15, and 30 min.ResultsAll participants completed PAS procedures. No adverse events occurred. PAS was well tolerated. PAS-induced significant increases in the ratio of post-PAS MEP to pre-PAS MEP amplitudes (p < 0.01) at all post-PAS intervals. Neither socioeconomic status nor sex was associated with post-PAS MEP changes. PAS induced significant CSP lengthening in males but not females.ConclusionPAS is a feasible, safe, and well-tolerated index of adolescent motor cortical plasticity. Gender may influence PAS-induced changes in cortical inhibition. PAS is safe and well tolerated by healthy adolescents and may be a novel tool with which to study adolescent neuroplasticity
The Raychaudhuri equations: a brief review
We present a brief review on the Raychaudhuri equations. Beginning with a
summary of the essential features of the original article by Raychaudhuri and
subsequent work of numerous authors, we move on to a discussion of the
equations in the context of alternate non--Riemannian spacetimes as well as
other theories of gravity, with a special mention on the equations in
spacetimes with torsion (Einstein--Cartan--Sciama--Kibble theory). Finally, we
give an overview of some recent applications of these equations in General
Relativity, Quantum Field Theory, String Theory and the theory of relativisitic
membranes. We conclude with a summary and provide our own perspectives on
directions of future research.Comment: 35 pages, two figures, to appear in the special issue of Pramana
dedicated to the memory of A. K. Raychaudhur
Clinical utility of combinatorial pharmacogenomic testing in depression: A Canadian patient- and rater-blinded, randomized, controlled trial
The pharmacological treatment of depression consists of stages of trial and error, with less than 40% of patients achieving remission during first medication trial. However, in a large, randomized-controlled trial (RCT) in the U.S. (“GUIDED”), significant improvements in response and remission rates were observed in patients who received treatment guided by combinatorial pharmacogenomic testing, compared to treatment-as-usual (TAU). Here we present results from the Canadian “GAPP-MDD” RCT. This 52-week, 3-arm, multi-center, participant- and rater-blinded RCT evaluated clinical outcomes among patients with depression whose treatment was guided by combinatorial pharmacogenomic testing compared to TAU. The primary outcome was symptom improvement (change in 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, HAM-D17) at week 8. Secondary outcomes included response (≥50% decrease in HAM-D17) and remission (HAM-D17 ≤ 7) at week 8. Numerically, patients in the guided-care arm had greater symptom improvement (27.6% versus 22.7%), response (30.3% versus 22.7%), and remission rates (15.7% versus 8.3%) compared to TAU, although these differences were not statistically significant. Given that the GAPP-MDD trial was ultimately underpowered to detect statistically significant differences in patient outcomes, it was assessed in parallel with the larger GUIDED RCT. We observed that relative improvements in response and remission rates were consistent between the GAPP-MDD (33.0% response, 89.0% remission) and GUIDED (31.0% response, 51.0% remission) trials. Together with GUIDED, the results from the GAPP-MDD trial indicate that combinatorial pharmacogenomic testing can be an effective tool to help guide depression treatment in the context of the Canadian healthcare setting (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02466477)
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