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The Man Who Mistook His Neuropsychologist For a Popstar: When Configural Processing Fails in Acquired Prosopagnosia
We report the case of an individual with acquired prosopagnosia who experiences extreme difficulties in recognizing familiar faces in everyday life despite excellent object recognition skills. Formal testing indicates that he is also severely impaired at remembering pre-experimentally unfamiliar faces and that he takes an extremely long time to identify famous faces and to match unfamiliar faces. Nevertheless, he performs as accurately and quickly as controls at identifying inverted familiar and unfamiliar faces and can recognize famous faces from their external features. He also performs as accurately as controls at recognizing famous faces when fracturing conceals the configural information in the face. He shows evidence of impaired global processing but normal local processing of Navon figures. This case appears to reflect the clearest example yet of an acquired prosopagnosic patient whose familiar face recognition deficit is caused by a severe configural processing deficit in the absence of any problems in featural processing. These preserved featural skills together with apparently intact visual imagery for faces allow him to identify a surprisingly large number of famous faces when unlimited time is available. The theoretical implications of this pattern of performance for understanding the nature of acquired prosopagnosia are discussed.DY, Avery Braun, Jacob Waite, and Nadine Wanke, Bruno Rossion, Thomas Busigny and the grant awarded by AJ by the Experimental Psychology Society (EPS
Tourist spaces and tourism policy in Spain and Portugal
Advances in Cultura, Tourism and Hospitality Research;10, 235-249This study analyses the relationship between the development of the tourism policy of Spain and Portugal and their effects on regional imbalances. Despite the proximity of the two countries and their specialisation in tourism, there are few comparative studies on tourism of the two Iberian countries. The study focuses on the two major phases of tourism policy: the period of mass tourism and post-Fordist stage. In the conclusions we refer the debate on the existence of a model of development based on tourism to the Latin countries of Southern Europe and we note the export process of the Spanish low-cost tourism model to other countries.Financiado por el Gobierno de España, Programa Fundamental de Investigación, Proyecto de I+D (CSO2012-30840) "Geografías de la crisis: análisis de los territorios urbanos y turísticos de las Islas Baleares, Costa del Sol y principales destinos del Caribe y América Central"
Transdermal blood sampling for C-peptide is a minimally invasive, reliable alternative to venous sampling in children and adults with type 1 diabetes
Objective: C-peptide and islet autoantibodies are key type 1 diabetes biomarkers, typically requiring venous sampling, which limit their utility. We assessed transdermal capillary blood (TCB) collection as a practical alternative.
Research Design and methods: Ninety-one individuals (71 type 1 diabetes, 20 controls; type 1 diabetes: aged median 14.8 years[interquartile range 9.1-17.1]; diabetes duration 4.0 years[1.5-7.7]; controls 42.2 years[38.0-52.1]) underwent contemporaneous venous and TCB sampling for measurement of plasma C-peptide. Type 1 diabetes participants also provided venous serum and plasma, and TCB plasma for measurement of autoantibodies to glutamate decarboxylase, islet antigen-2, and zinc transporter 8. The ability of TCB plasma to detect significant endogenous insulin secretion (venous C-peptide ≥200pmol/L) was compared along with agreement in levels using Bland-Altman. Venous serum was compared with venous and TCB plasma for detection of autoantibodies using established thresholds. Acceptability was assessed by age-appropriate questionnaire.Results: Transdermal sampling took a mean of 2.35minutes (SD 1.49). Median sample volume was 50 µl(IQR 40-50) with 3/91(3.3%) failures, and 13/88(14.7%) <35 µL). TCB C-peptide showed good agreement to venous plasma (mean venous ln(C-peptide) – TCB ln(C-peptide) = 0.008, 95% CI(-0.23, 0.29), with 100%(36/36) sensitivity/100%(50/50) specificity to detect venous C-peptide ≥ 200pmol/L. Where venous serum in multiple autoantibody positive TCB plasma agreed in 22/32 (sensitivity 69%), comparative specificity was 35/36 (97%). TCB was preferred to venous sampling (type 1 diabetes: 63% vs 7%; 30% undecided).
Conclusions: Transdermal capillary testing for C-peptide is a sensitive, specific, and acceptable alternative to venous sampling, TCB sampling for islet autoantibodies needs further assessment
Dynamic Regulation of T Cell Immunity by CD43
During a viral response, Ag-specific effector T cells show dramatically increased binding by the mAb 1B11 and the lectin peanut agglutinin (PNA). We investigated the contribution of CD43 expression to 1B11 and PNA binding as well as its role in generation and maintenance of a CD8 T cell response. Analysis of CD43(-/-) mice revealed no increased 1B11 binding and reduced PNA binding on virus-specific CD8 T cells from -/- mice compared with +/+ mice. Furthermore, we examined the role of CD43 in the kinetics of an immune response. We show that CD43 expression modestly effects generation of a primary virus-specific CD8 T cell response in vivo but plays a more significant role in trafficking of CD8 T cells to tissues such as the brain. More interestingly, CD43 plays a role in the contraction of the immune response, with CD43(-/-) mice showing increased numbers of Ag-specific CD8 T cells following initial expansion. Following the peak of expansion, Ag-specific CD8 T cells from -/- mice show similar proliferation but demonstrate increased Bcl-2 levels and decreased apoptosis of Ag-specific effector CD8 T cells in vitro. Consistent with a delay in the down-modulation of the immune response, following chronic viral infection CD43(-/-) mice show increased morbidity. These data suggest a dynamic role of CD43 during an immune response: a positive regulatory role in costimulation and trafficking of T cells to the CNS and a negative regulatory role in the down-modulation of an immune response
Transdermal Blood Sampling for C-peptide Is a Minimally Invasive, Reliable Alternative to Venous Sampling in Children and Adults With Type 1 Diabetes
OBJECTIVE:C-peptide and islet autoantibodies are key type 1 diabetes biomarkers, typically requiring venous sampling, which limits their utility. We assessed transdermal capillary blood (TCB) collection as a practical alternative.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS:Ninety-one individuals (71 with type 1 diabetes, 20 controls; individuals with type 1 diabetes: aged median 14.8 years [interquartile range (IQR) 9.1–17.1], diabetes duration 4.0 years [1.5–7.7]; controls: 42.2 years [38.0–52.1]) underwent contemporaneous venous and TCB sampling for measurement of plasma C-peptide. Participants with type 1 diabetes also provided venous serum and plasma, and TCB plasma for measurement of autoantibodies to glutamate decarboxylase, islet antigen-2, and zinc transporter 8. The ability of TCB plasma to detect significant endogenous insulin secretion (venous C-peptide ≥200 pmol/L) was compared along with agreement in levels, using Bland-Altman. Venous serum was compared with venous and TCB plasma for detection of autoantibodies, using established thresholds. Acceptability was assessed by age-appropriate questionnaire.RESULTS:Transdermal sampling took a mean of 2.35 min (SD 1.49). Median sample volume was 50 µL (IQR 40–50) with 3 of 91 (3.3%) failures, and 13 of 88 (14.7%) <35 µL. TCB C-peptide showed good agreement with venous plasma (mean venous ln[C-peptide] – TCB ln[C-peptide] = 0.008, 95% CI [−0.23, 0.29], with 100% [36 of 36] sensitivity/100% [50 of 50] specificity to detect venous C-peptide ≥200 pmol/L). Where venous serum in multiple autoantibody positive TCB plasma agreed in 22 of 32 (sensitivity 69%), comparative specificity was 35 of 36 (97%). TCB was preferred to venous sampling (type 1 diabetes: 63% vs. 7%; 30% undecided).CONCLUSIONS:Transdermal capillary testing for C-peptide is a sensitive, specific, and acceptable alternative to venous sampling; TCB sampling for islet autoantibodies needs further assessment
Gauge-invariant tree-level photoproduction amplitudes with form factors
We show how the gauge-invariance formulation given by Haberzettl is
implemented in practice for photoproduction amplitudes at the tree level with
form factors describing composite nucleons. We demonstrate that, in contrast to
Ohta's gauge-invariance prescription, this formalism allows electric current
contributions to be multiplied by a form factor, i.e., it does not require that
they be treated like bare currents. While different in detail, this
nevertheless lends support to previous ad hoc approaches which multiply the
Born amplitudes by an overall form factor. Numerical results for kaon
photoproduction off the nucleon are given. They show that the gauge procedure
by Haberzettl leads to much improved values as compared to Ohta's
prescription.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX, two eps figure
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