Retrieval practice improves memory in patients with schizophrenia: new perspectives for cognitive remediation.

Schizophrenia is associated with severe cognitive deficits, particularly episodic memory deficits, that interfere with patients' socio-professional functioning. Retrieval practice (also known as testing effect) is a well-established episodic memory strategy that involves taking an initial memory test on a previously learned material. Testing later produces robust long-term memory improvements in comparison to the restudy of the same material both in healthy subjects and in some clinical populations with memory deficits. While retrieval practice might represent a relevant cognitive remediation strategy in patients with schizophrenia, studies using optimal procedures to explore the benefits of retrieval practice in this population are still lacking. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to investigate the benefits of retrieval practice in patients with schizophrenia. Nineteen stabilised outpatients with schizophrenia (DSM-5 criteria) and 20 healthy controls first studied a list of 60 word-pairs (30 pairs with weak semantic association and 30 non associated pairs). Half the pairs were studied again (restudy condition), while only the first word of the pair was presented and the subject had to recall the second word for the other half (retrieval practice condition). The final memory test consisted in a cued-recall which took place 2 days later. Statistical analyses were performed using Bayesian methods. Cognitive performances were globally altered in patients. However, in both groups, memory performances for word-pairs were significantly better after retrieval practice than after restudy (56.1% vs 35.7%, respectively, Pr(RP > RS) > 0.999), and when a weak semantic association was present (64.7% vs 27.1%, respectively; Pr(weak > no) > 0.999). Moreover, the positive effect of RP was observed in all patients but one. Our study is the first to demonstrate that retrieval practice efficiently improves episodic memory in comparison to restudy in patients with schizophrenia. This learning strategy should therefore be considered as a useful tool for cognitive remediation programs. In this perspective, future studies might explore retrieval practice using more ecological material

A high-frequency, long-term data set of hydrology and sediment yield: the alpine badland catchments of Draix-Bléone Observatory

Draix-Bléone critical zone observatory was created in 1983 to study erosion processes in a mountainous badland region of the French Southern Alps. Six catchments of varying size (0.001 to 22 km2) and vegetation cover are equipped to measure water and sediment fluxes, both as bedload and suspended load. This paper presents the core dataset of the observatory, including rainfall and meteorology, high-frequency discharge and suspended-sediment concentration, and event-scale bedload volumes. The longest records span almost 40 years. Measurement and data-processing methods are presented, as well as data quality assessment procedures and examples of results. All the data presented in this paper are available on the open repository https://doi.org/10.17180/obs.draix (Draix-Bleone Observatory, 2015), and a 5-year snapshot is available for review at https://doi.org/10.57745/BEYQFQ (Klotz et al., 2023).</p

Comparison between laser induced plasmas in gas and in liquid

In this work, the main peculiarities of Laser Induced Plasma (LIP) in liquid have been investigated by comparing the evolution of the LIP in water and in air. To this end, fast shadowgraphy and temporally resolved emission spectroscopy were used. The experimental results reveal a scenario where plasma under water remains in a high-density state, characterized by the condensation of electronic levels as a consequence of the confinement effect of the surrounding water. In this case, the plasma emission spectrum consists of continuum radiation. In contrast, LIP in air expands, reaching an ideal plasma state in a few hundred nanoseconds. In this condition, excited electronic levels are enabled and the spectrum is characterized by discrete emission lines, according to the Boltzmann statistics. These differences allow LIP in liquid and gas to be used in a wide variety of applications, ranging from analytical chemistry to nanomaterial production

Sample treatment and preparation for laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

One of the most widely cited advantages of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is that it does not require sample preparation, but this may also be the biggest factor holding it back from becoming a mature analytical technique like LA-ICP-MS, ICP-OES, or XRF. While there are certain specimen types that have enjoyed excellent LIBS results without any sample treatment (mostly homogeneous solids such as metals, glass, and polymers), the possible applications of LIBS have been greatly expanded through the use of sample preparation techniques that have resulted in analytical performance (i.e., limits of detection, accuracy, and repeatability) on par with XRF, ICP-OES, and often ICP-MS. This review highlights the work of many LIBS researchers who have developed, adapted, and improved upon sample preparation techniques for various specimen types in order to improve the quality of the analytical data that LIBS can produce in a large number of research domains. Strategies, not only for solids, but also liquids, gases, and aerosols are discussed, including newly developed nanoparticle enhancement and biological imaging and tagging techniques

Nonlinear programming approach for design of high performance sigma-delta modulators

\u3cp\u3eIn this chapter we present a nonlinear programming approach to the design of third-order sigma–delta modulators with respect to maximization of the signal-to-noise ratio, taking into account the modulator’s stability. The proposed approach uses an analytic formula for calculation of the signal-to-noise ratio and an analytic formula for stability of the modulator. Thus the goal function becomes maximization of the signal-to-noise ratio and constraints come from stability issues and bounds of the modulator noise transfer function coefficients. The results are compared with the optimal third-order modulator design provided by DStoolbox. The proposed procedure has low computation requirements. It is described for third-order modulators with one real pole of the loop filter transfer function and can be extended easily and generalized to higher-order modulators.\u3c/p\u3