Computed microtomography visualization and quantification of mouse ischemic brain lesion by nonionic radio contrast agents.

AIM: To explore the possibility of brain imaging by microcomputed tomography (microCT) using x-ray contrasting methods to visualize mouse brain ischemic lesions after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). ----- METHODS: Isolated brains were immersed in ionic or nonionic radio contrast agent (RCA) for 5 days and subsequently scanned using microCT scanner. To verify whether ex-vivo microCT brain images can be used to characterize ischemic lesions, they were compared to Nissl stained serial histological sections of the same brains. To verify if brains immersed in RCA may be used afterwards for other methods, subsequent immunofluorescent labeling with anti-NeuN was performed. ----- RESULTS: Nonionic RCA showed better gray to white matter contrast in the brain, and therefore was selected for further studies. MicroCT measurement of ischemic lesion size and cerebral edema significantly correlated with the values determined by Nissl staining (ischemic lesion size: P=0.0005; cerebral edema: P=0.0002). Brain immersion in nonionic RCA did not affect subsequent immunofluorescent analysis and NeuN immunoreactivity. ----- CONCLUSION: MicroCT method was proven to be suitable for delineation of the ischemic lesion from the non-infarcted tissue, and quantification of lesion volume and cerebral edema

Algorithmic Verification of Asynchronous Programs

Asynchronous programming is a ubiquitous systems programming idiom to manage concurrent interactions with the environment. In this style, instead of waiting for time-consuming operations to complete, the programmer makes a non-blocking call to the operation and posts a callback task to a task buffer that is executed later when the time-consuming operation completes. A co-operative scheduler mediates the interaction by picking and executing callback tasks from the task buffer to completion (and these callbacks can post further callbacks to be executed later). Writing correct asynchronous programs is hard because the use of callbacks, while efficient, obscures program control flow. We provide a formal model underlying asynchronous programs and study verification problems for this model. We show that the safety verification problem for finite-data asynchronous programs is expspace-complete. We show that liveness verification for finite-data asynchronous programs is decidable and polynomial-time equivalent to Petri Net reachability. Decidability is not obvious, since even if the data is finite-state, asynchronous programs constitute infinite-state transition systems: both the program stack and the task buffer of pending asynchronous calls can be potentially unbounded. Our main technical construction is a polynomial-time semantics-preserving reduction from asynchronous programs to Petri Nets and conversely. The reduction allows the use of algorithmic techniques on Petri Nets to the verification of asynchronous programs. We also study several extensions to the basic models of asynchronous programs that are inspired by additional capabilities provided by implementations of asynchronous libraries, and classify the decidability and undecidability of verification questions on these extensions.Comment: 46 pages, 9 figure

Parikh Image of Pushdown Automata

We compare pushdown automata (PDAs for short) against other representations. First, we show that there is a family of PDAs over a unary alphabet with $n$ states and $p \geq 2n + 4$ stack symbols that accepts one single long word for which every equivalent context-free grammar needs $\Omega(n^2(p-2n-4))$ variables. This family shows that the classical algorithm for converting a PDA to an equivalent context-free grammar is optimal even when the alphabet is unary. Moreover, we observe that language equivalence and Parikh equivalence, which ignores the ordering between symbols, coincide for this family. We conclude that, when assuming this weaker equivalence, the conversion algorithm is also optimal. Second, Parikh's theorem motivates the comparison of PDAs against finite state automata. In particular, the same family of unary PDAs gives a lower bound on the number of states of every Parikh-equivalent finite state automaton. Finally, we look into the case of unary deterministic PDAs. We show a new construction converting a unary deterministic PDA into an equivalent context-free grammar that achieves best known bounds.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

Impact of Workplace Stress on Job Satisfaction Moderated by Religious Coping

Workplace stress has been associated with negative job satisfaction outcomes, therefore leading employees to engage in coping strategies to minimize the consequences of the stressors. Although much research has been conducted on workplace stressors and their consequences, a small amount of literature exists on how women and Hispanics cope with workplace stressors or how people cope with the stressors in religious ways. To investigate the relationships among these factors, data was collected via an online survey completed by 268 university employees at a southwestern university. Self-report data collected suggested that both women and Hispanics use religion to cope with workplace stress more than men and non-Hispanics; however religious coping did not buffer the relationship between stressors and job satisfaction

Are World Heritage concepts of integrity and authenticity lacking in dynamism? A critical approach to Mediterranean autotopic landscapes

This paper examines how contemporary on-going and lively debate on Critical Heritage Studies merges with previous discourses on World Heritage Cultural Landscapes and rural societies. The scholarly approach to authenticity and integrity, and the critical point of static and dynamic approaches to these terms allow the author to challenge previous World Heritage (WH) discourses with a view to obtaining innovative insight into abandoned vernacular landscapes. Two main arguments are thus developed in this study. The first of these is an overview of the dynamics of abandoned cultural landscapes on an international scale. The second is an inside view aiming to provide an accurate interpretation of how these landscapes should be scrutinised and understood. To do this, autotopias and heterotopias broach the fundamental issue of how the Outstanding Universal Value of attributes in abandoned cultural landscapes needs to be understood, enhanced, experienced, and managed in an innovative WH approach. In conclusion, complex proposals for these heritage landscapes should rely on understanding the dynamics of the material and the social construct of the habitats they contain in order to assess them effectively from the standpoint of a World Heritage Cultural process Assemblage rather than that of Outstanding Material Stratification

La valorización de la arquitectura vernácula. Claves históricas para el discurso actual

The article analyzes how vernacular architecture was valorized depending on the place, the cultural background and the external influences in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The discourse relates Spain with Central European countries, those who were pioneers in encouraging culture, traditions and pedagogy through a new way of observing and feeling the beauty of certain objects. As it will see, eclectic views took place, from those who defended tradition, to those who viewed the weight of history as a burden detrimental to the evolution and progress. In that sense, the intended approach on the modern perception of the traces of vernacular architecture is novel because the topic is focused from the cultural and societal divergences from the different temporalities. The paper concludes the analysis of the place and their traces by noticing their topicality with contemporary assessments on the vernacular architecture and society of the different Cultural Environments.El artículo analiza cómo la arquitectura vernácula fue valorizada en función del lugar, el contexto cultural y las influencias externas a finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX. El discurso relaciona España con países de la Europa Central, pioneros en alentar la cultura, las tradiciones y la pedagogía a través de una nueva forma de observar y sentir la belleza de ciertos objetos. El discurso analizará diferentes visiones eclécticas que tuvieron lugar, desde los que defendían la tradición a los que consideraban el peso de la historia como una carga perjudicial para la evolución y el progreso. En ese sentido, el enfoque pretendido hacia la percepción moderna de las trazas de la arquitectura vernácula es novedoso porque se centra en las diferencias culturales y sociales de las distintas temporalidades. El documento concluye el análisis del lugar y sus trazas al denotar su actualidad referida a los estudios contemporáneos sobre la arquitectura vernácula y la sociedad de los diferentes entornos culturales

Beyond the intangible/tangible binary: an analysis of historic built environments in Valencia

This paper is a theoretical reflection aiming to understand how specific assets of intangible heritage are affected by contemporary discourse. This approach focuses on understanding the protection, preservation and reenactment of the intangible heritage found in Spanish rural landscapes. By an analysis of the global, national and regional laws, the paper addresses the need to approach the intangible, understanding the peculiarities of places that shape the scenery. The places and ‘Assets of Cultural Interest’ analysed in this paper are defined as geographic areas associated with a historic event, activity, or people, which exhibit cultural and aesthetic values. Following this definition, these landscapes are experiential cultural spaces, involving a complex set of elements, fixed, semi-fixed and unfixed. The way in which these traditions are viewed and experienced by locals and foreigners plays a central role in many intangible heritage studies, as does the way in which it reflects integrity, authenticity, attachment and a sense of identity, and how it anchors collective memory. It is the intention of this paper to emphasise the need to transfer the phenomenon of intangible heritage from the realm of a lived experience to the world of living places. In doing so some questions arise: Is the intangible cultural heritage contained in rural landscapes authentic? Is it simply the materiality, the past act or the past cultural process, or is it the way the intangible cultural heritage has been managed until today? Are we applying critical considerations to inner and outer perceptions, appropriations and transmigrations when managing cultural heritage