The Display of Photographic-Quality Images on the Web: A Comparison of Two Technologies

Downloading Medical Images on the Web Creates Certain Compromises. the Tradeoff is between Higher Resolution and Faster Download Times. as Resolution Increases, Download Times Increase. High-resolution (Photographic Quality) Electronic Images Can Potentially Play a Key Role in Medical Education and Patient Care. on the Internet, Images Are Typically Formatted as Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) or the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) Flies. However, These Formats Are Associated with Considerable Data Loss in Both Color Depth and Image Resolution. Furthermore, These Images Are Available in a Single Resolution and Have No Capability of Allowing the User to Adjust Resolution as Needed. Images in the Photo Compact Disc (PCD) Format Have Higher Resolutions Than GIF or JPEG, But Suffer the Disadvantage of Large File Sizes Leading to Long Download Times on the Web. Furthermore, Native Web Browsers Are Not Currently Able to Read PCD Flies. the FlashPix Format (FPX) Offers Distinct Advantages over the PCD, GIF, and JPEG Formats for Display of High-Resolution Images on the Web. a Java Applet Can Be Easily Downloaded for Viewing FPX Images. FPX Images Are Higher Resolution Than JPEG and GIF Images. FPX Images Offer Rich Resolutions Comparable to PCD Images with Shorter Download Times. © 1999 IEEE

Using Clinical Decision Support to Maintain Medication and Problem Lists: A Pilot Study to Yield Higher Patient Safety

To Investigate Whether Clinical Decision Support that Automates the Matching of Ordered Drugs to Problems (Clinical Diagnoses) on the Problem List Can Enhance the Maintenance of Both Medication and Problem Lists in the Electronic Medical Record, We Designed a Clinical Decision Support System to Match Ordered Drugs on the Medication List and Ongoing Problems on the Problem List. We Evaluated the Capability and Performance of This Clinical Decision Support System in Medication-Problem Matching using Physician Expert Chart Audits to Match Ordered Drugs to Ongoing Clinical Problems. a Clinical Decision Support System Was Shown to Be Useful in Improving Medication-Problem Matches in 140 Randomly Selected Audited Patient Encounters in Three Inpatient Units. Enhanced Maintenance of Both the Medication and Problem Lists Can Permit the Exploitation of Advanced Decision Support Strategies that Yield Higher Patient Safety. © 2008 IEEE

A deficit of spatial remapping in constructional apraxia after right-hemisphere stroke

This Article is provided by the Brunel Open Access Publising Fund - Copyright @ 2010 Oxford University PressConstructional apraxia refers to the inability of patients to copy accurately drawings or three-dimensional constructions. It is a common disorder after right parietal stroke, often persisting after initial problems such as visuospatial neglect have resolved. However, there has been very little experimental investigation regarding mechanisms that might contribute to the syndrome. Here, we examined whether a key deficit might be failure to integrate visual information correctly from one fixation to the next. Specifically, we tested whether this deficit might concern remapping of spatial locations across saccades. Right-hemisphere stroke patients with constructional apraxia were compared to patients without constructional problems and neurologically healthy controls. Participants judged whether a pattern shifted position (spatial task) or changed in pattern (non-spatial task) across two saccades, compared to a control condition with an equivalent delay but without intervening eye movements. Patients with constructional apraxia were found to be significantly impaired in position judgements with intervening saccades, particularly when the first saccade of the sequence was to the right. The importance of these remapping deficits in constructional apraxia was confirmed through a highly significant correlation between saccade task performance and constructional impairment on standard neuropsychological tasks. A second study revealed that even single saccades to the right can impair constructional apraxia patients’ perception of location shifts. These data are consistent with the view that rightward eye movements result in loss of remembered spatial information from previous fixations, presumably due to constructional apraxia patients’ damage to the right-hemisphere regions involved in remapping locations across saccades. These findings provide the first evidence for a deficit in remapping visual information across saccades underlying right-hemisphere constructional apraxia.European Commission Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (011457 to C.R.) and a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship (to M.H.)

Evidence for melt leakage from the Hawaiian plume above the mantle transition zone

Dehydration reactions at the top of the mantle transition zone (MTZ) can stabilize partial melt in a seismic low-velocity layer (LVL), but the seismic effects of temperature, melt and volatile content are difficult to distinguish. We invert P-to-S receiver function phases converted at the top and bottom of a LVL above the MTZ beneath Hawaii. To separate the thermal and melting related seismic anomalies, we carry out over 10 million rock physics inversions. These inversions account for variations arising from the Clapeyron slope of phase transition, bulk solid composition, dihedral angle, and mantle potential temperature. We use two independent seismic constraints to evaluate the temperature and shear wave speed within the LVL. The thermal anomalies reveal the presence of a hot and seismically slow plume stem surrounded by a “halo” of cold and fast mantle material. In contrast to this temperature distribution, the plume stem contains less than 0.5 vol% melt, while the surrounding LVL—within the coverage area—contains up to 1.7 vol% melt, indicating possible lateral transport of the melt. When compared to the melting temperatures of mantle rocks, the temperature within the LVL, calculated from seismic observations of MTZ thickness, suggests that the observed small degrees of melting are sustained by the presence of volatiles such as CO2 and H2O. We estimate the Hawaiian plume loses up to 1.9 Mt/yr H2O and 10.7 Mt/yr CO2 to the LVL, providing a crucial missing flux for global volatile cycles

Tau Kinetics in Alzheimer\u27s Disease

The Cytoskeletal Protein Tau is Implicated in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer\u27s Disease Which is Characterized by Intra-Neuronal Neurofibrillary Tangles Containing Abnormally Phosphorylated Insoluble Tau. Levels of Soluble Tau Are Elevated in the Brain, the CSF, and the Plasma of Patients with Alzheimer\u27s Disease. to Better Understand the Causes of These Elevated Levels of Tau, We Propose a Three-Compartment Kinetic Model (Brain, CSF, and Plasma). the Model Assumes that the Synthesis of Tau Follows Zero-Order Kinetics (Uncorrelated with Compartmental Tau Levels) and that the Release, Absorption, and Clearance of Tau is Governed by First-Order Kinetics (Linearly Related to Compartmental Tau Levels). Tau that is Synthesized in the Brain Compartment Can Be Released into the Interstitial Fluid, Catabolized, or Retained in Neurofibrillary Tangles. Tau Released into the Interstitial Fluid Can Mix with the CSF and Eventually Drain to the Plasma Compartment. However, Losses of Tau in the Drainage Pathways May Be Significant. the Kinetic Model Estimates Half-Life of Tau in Each Compartment (552 H in the Brain, 9.9 H in the CSF, and 10 H in the Plasma). the Kinetic Model Predicts that an Increase in the Neuronal Tau Synthesis Rate or a Decrease in Tau Catabolism Rate Best Accounts for Observed Increases in Tau Levels in the Brain, CSF, and Plasma Found in Alzheimer\u27s Disease. Furthermore, the Model Predicts that Increases in Brain Half-Life of Tau in Alzheimer\u27s Disease Should Be Attributed to Decreased Tau Catabolism and Not to Increased Tau Synthesis. Most Clearance of Tau in the Neuron Occurs through Catabolism Rather Than Release to the CSF Compartment. Additional Experimental Data Would Make Ascertainment of the Model Parameters More Precise

Mass-Radius Relationships for Solid Exoplanets

We use new interior models of cold planets to investigate the mass-radius relationships of solid exoplanets, considering planets made primarily of iron, silicates, water, and carbon compounds. We find that the mass-radius relationships for cold terrestrial-mass planets of all compositions we considered follow a generic functional form that is not a simple power law: $\log_{10} R_s = k_1 + 1/3 \log_{10}(M_s) - k_2 M_s^{k_3}$ for up to $M_p \approx 20 M_{\oplus}$, where $M_s$ and $R_s$ are scaled mass and radius values. This functional form arises because the common building blocks of solid planets all have equations of state that are well approximated by a modified polytrope of the form $\rho = \rho_0 + c P^n$. We find that highly detailed planet interior models, including temperature structure and phase changes, are not necessary to derive solid exoplanet bulk composition from mass and radius measurements. For solid exoplanets with no substantial atmosphere we have also found that: with 5% fractional uncertainty in planet mass and radius it is possible to distinguish among planets composed predominantly of iron or silicates or water ice but not more detailed compositions; with $\sim$~5% uncertainty water ice planets with $\gtrsim 25$ water by mass may be identified; the minimum plausible planet size for a given mass is that of a pure iron planet; and carbon planet mass-radius relationships overlap with those of silicate and water planets due to similar zero-pressure densities and equations of state. We propose a definition of "super Earths'' based on the clear distinction in radii between planets with significant gas envelopes and those without.Comment: ApJ, in press, 33 pages including 16 figure

Fluency Training in Phoneme Blending: A Preliminary Study of Generalized Effects

We examined the generalized effects of training children to fluently blend phonemes of words containing target vowel teams on their reading of trained and untrained words in lists and passages. Three second-grade students participated. A subset of words containing each of 3 target vowel teams (aw, oi, and au) was trained in lists, and generalization was assessed to untrained words in lists, trained and untrained words in target passages, and novel words in generalization passages. A multiple probe design across vowel teams revealed generalized increases in oral reading accuracy for target words presented in both lists and passages for all 3 students on 2 vowel teams and for 1 student on all 3 vowel teams. Generalized increases in oral reading fluency in both lists and passages were found for all 3 students on the vowel team that was trained to a fluency criterion, with two students showing increases prior to training on the other two vowel teams. Implications of these results for building fluency in prerequisite phonemic awareness skills as an intervention for promoting generalized oral reading fluency are discussed

Evidence of Volatile-Induced Melting in the Northeast Asian Upper Mantle

A seismic low velocity layer (LVL) above the mantle transition zone (MTZ), often thought to be caused by volatile-induced melting, can significantly modulate planetary volatile cycles. In this work, we show that an LVL observed beneath northeast Asia is characterized by small, 0.8 (Formula presented.) 0.5 vol%, average degrees of partial melting. Seismically derived P-T conditions of the LVL indicate that slab-derived (Formula presented.), possibly combined with small amounts of (Formula presented.) O, is necessary to induce melting. Modeling the reactive infiltration instability of the melt in a stationary mantle above a stalled slab, we demonstrate that the volatile-rich melt slowly rises above the stalled slab in the MTZ, with percolation velocities of 200–500 (Formula presented.) m/yr. The melt remains stable within the LVL for this geologically significant period of time, potentially transferring up to 52 Mt/yr of (Formula presented.) from the subducting slab to the mantle for an LVL similar in areal extent ((Formula presented.)) to the northeast Asian LVL. Reaction between the melt channels and the LVL mantle precipitates up to 200 ppmw solid C in localized zones. Using the inferred small melt volume fraction to model trace element abundances and isotopic signatures, we show that interaction between this melt and the surrounding mantle can over the long-term produce rocks bearing a HIMU like geochemical signature