125 research outputs found
Thermal Investigation of Stormwater Management Ponds
Abstract Stormwater management wet ponds increase runoff temperatures in discharge waters during summer months. These increases in temperatures adversely affect receiving urban stream ecosystems. Monitoring results for three summers (2009 to 2011) from four stormwater management ponds in the cities of Guelph and Kitchener, Ontario are employed to advance our knowledge of key design parameters that influence the thermal enrichment of stormwater discharges. An artificial neural network model was developed to predict the event mean temperature at the pond outlet. The artificial neural network model explains 99% of the variability in outlet event temperature. Sensitivity analyses show that increasing the permanent pond volume from 2 000 m³ to 4 000 m³ results in an average increase of 5 °C in outlet event mean temperature. Similarly, increasing the travel path ratio from 0.6 m to 1.2 m confirmed an average increase of 6 °C in outlet event mean temperature. In addition, ponds with average depths >1.0 m can result in significant decreases in pond outlet water temperature when using bottom draw structures. The results can lead to the promotion of the design of deeper ponds with bottom draw outlets and smaller travel path ratios. However, the implications of this approach on other performance criteria should be evaluated
Определение содержания тетрациклина в молоке методом капиллярного электрофореза
Mentalizing, i.e. the process of inferring another person's mental state, is thought to be primarily subserved by three brain regions, the VMPFC (ventromedial prefrontal cortex), precuneus and TPJ (temporo-parietal junction). However, it is still unclear what the exact roles of these regions in mentalizing are. Here, we compare activity within, and functional connectivity between, the VMPFC, precuneus and TPJ during two different mentalizing tasks. Specifically, we examine whether inferring another person's emotion (“emotion mentalizing”) and inferring another person's intention (“intention mentalizing”) activate similar or distinct subregions within the VMPFC, precuneus and TPJ, and whether these different kinds of mentalizing are associated with different patterns of functional connectivity between these regions. Our results indicate that emotion mentalizing and intention mentalizing activate partly distinct subregions of the right and left TPJ that can be spatially separated across participants. These subregions also showed different patterns of functional connectivity with the VMPFC: a more anterior region of the right and left TPJ, which was more strongly activated during emotion mentalizing, showed stronger functional connectivity with the VMPFC, particularly during emotion mentalizing, than a more posterior region that was more strongly activated during intention mentalizing. Critically, this double dissociation became evident only when the fine-scale distribution of activity within activated regions was analysed, and despite the fact that there was also a significant overlap of activity during the two tasks. Our findings provide first evidence that different neural modules might have evolved within the TPJ that show distinct patterns of functional connectivity and might subserve slightly different subfunctions of mentalizing
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Abstract. Brain-Computer Interfaces based on electrocorticography (ECoG) or electroencephalography (EEG), in combination with robot-assisted active physical therapy, may support traditional rehabilitation procedures for patients with severe motor impairment due to cerebrovascular brain damage caused by stroke. In this short report, we briefly review the state-of-the art in this exciting new field, give an overview of the work carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and the University of Tübingen, and discuss challenges that need to be addressed in order to move from basic research to clinical studies. Current rehabilitation methods for patients with severe motor impairment due to cerebrovascular brain damage are limited in providing significant long-term functional recovery. In stroke patients, functional recovery beyond one year post-stroke is rare (Johnston et al. [2004]), and functional independence often displays a long-term decline (Dhamoon et al. [2009]). As such, novel strategies in stroke rehabilitation are required. Robot-assisted physical therapy (Riener et al. [2005]) and motor imagery (Dijkerman et al. [2004], Page et al. [2007]) have been shown to be beneficial in stroke rehabilitation
International consensus based review and recommendations for minimum reporting standards in research on transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (Version 2020)
Stress and Psychopatholog
Transition from the locked in to the completely locked-in state: A physiological analysis
h i g h l i g h t s This represents the first documentation of transition of a patient with ALS from the Locked In State the to Completely Locked In State, and the first EMG documentation of loss of all muscle activities, including sphincter function, but with retained cognition as measured with ERPs. In this patient, any stimulation, communication or learning using visual and tactile stimuli was lost. Visual BCI was useless. The findings suggest ALS as a multisystem disorder, even affecting afferent sensory pathways. a b s t r a c t Objective: To clarify the physiological and behavioral boundaries between locked-in (LIS) and the completely locked-in state (CLIS) (no voluntary eye movements, no communication possible) through electrophysiological data and to secure brain-computer-interface (BCI) communication. Methods: Electromyography from facial muscles, external anal sphincter (EAS), electrooculography and electrocorticographic data during different psychophysiological tests were acquired to define electrophysiological differences in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patient with an intracranially implanted grid of 112 electrodes for nine months while the patient passed from the LIS to the CLIS. Results: At the very end of the LIS there was no facial muscle activity, nor external anal sphincter but eye control. Eye movements were slow and lasted for short periods only. During CLIS event related brain potentials (ERP) to passive limb movements and auditory stimuli were recorded, vibrotactile stimulation of different body parts resulted in no ERP response. Conclusions: The results presented contradict the commonly accepted assumption that the EAS is the last remaining muscle under voluntary control and demonstrate complete loss of eye movements in CLIS. The eye muscle was shown to be the last muscle group under voluntary control. The findings suggest ALS as a multisystem disorder, even affecting afferent sensory pathways. Significance: Auditory and proprioceptive brain-computer-interface (BCI) systems are the only remaining communication channels in CLIS
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A review of high impact weather for aviation meteorology
This review paper summarizes current knowledge available for aviation operations related to meteorology and provides suggestions for necessary improvements in the measurement and prediction of weather-related parameters, new physical methods for numerical weather predictions (NWP), and next-generation integrated systems. Severe weather can disrupt aviation operations on the ground or in-flight. The most important parameters related to aviation meteorology are wind and turbulence, fog visibility, aerosol/ash loading, ceiling, rain and snow amount and rates, icing, ice microphysical parameters, convection and precipitation intensity, microbursts, hail, and lightning. Measurements of these parameters are functions of sensor response times and measurement thresholds in extreme weather conditions. In addition to these, airport environments can also play an important role leading to intensification of extreme weather conditions or high impact weather events, e.g., anthropogenic ice fog. To observe meteorological parameters, new remote sensing platforms, namely wind LIDAR, sodars, radars, and geostationary satellites, and in situ instruments at the surface and in the atmosphere, as well as aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles mounted sensors, are becoming more common. At smaller time and space scales (e.g., < 1 km), meteorological forecasts from NWP models need to be continuously improved for accurate physical parameterizations. Aviation weather forecasts also need to be developed to provide detailed information that represents both deterministic and statistical approaches. In this review, we present available resources and issues for aviation meteorology and evaluate them for required improvements related to measurements, nowcasting, forecasting, and climate change, and emphasize future challenges
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Encoder-Decoder Networks for Retinal Vessel Segmentation
We propose an encoder-decoder framework for the segmentation of blood vessels
in retinal images that relies on the extraction of large-scale patches at
multiple image-scales during training. Experiments on three fundus image
datasets demonstrate that this approach achieves state-of-the-art results and
can be implemented using a simple and efficient fully-convolutional network
with a parameter count of less than 0.8M. Furthermore, we show that this
framework - called VLight - avoids overfitting to specific training images and
generalizes well across different datasets, which makes it highly suitable for
real-world applications where robustness, accuracy as well as low inference
time on high-resolution fundus images is required
International Consensus Based Review and Recommendations for Minimum Reporting Standards in Research on Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (Version 2020).
Given its non-invasive nature, there is increasing interest in the use of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) across basic, translational and clinical research. Contemporaneously, tVNS can be achieved by stimulating either the auricular branch or the cervical bundle of the vagus nerve, referred to as transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation(VNS) and transcutaneous cervical VNS, respectively. In order to advance the field in a systematic manner, studies using these technologies need to adequately report sufficient methodological detail to enable comparison of results between studies, replication of studies, as well as enhancing study participant safety. We systematically reviewed the existing tVNS literature to evaluate current reporting practices. Based on this review, and consensus among participating authors, we propose a set of minimal reporting items to guide future tVNS studies. The suggested items address specific technical aspects of the device and stimulation parameters. We also cover general recommendations including inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants, outcome parameters and the detailed reporting of side effects. Furthermore, we review strategies used to identify the optimal stimulation parameters for a given research setting and summarize ongoing developments in animal research with potential implications for the application of tVNS in humans. Finally, we discuss the potential of tVNS in future research as well as the associated challenges across several disciplines in research and clinical practice
Data for: Estimating 2-year flood flows using the generalized structure of the Group Method of Data Handling
River Dat
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