Psychogenic Foreign Accent Syndrome: A New Case

This paper presents the case of a 33-year-old, right-handed, French-speaking Belgian lady who was involved in a car accident as a pedestrian. Six months after the incident she developed a German/Flemish-like accent. The patient's medical history, the onset of the FAS and the possible psychological causes of the accent change are analyzed. Relevant neuropsychological, neurolinguistic, and psychodiagnostic test results are presented and discussed. The psychodiagnostic interview and testing will receive special attention, because these have been underreported in previous FAS case reports. Furthermore, an accent rating experiment was carried out in order to assess the foreign quality of the patient's speech. Pre- and post-morbid spontaneous speech samples were analyzed phonetically to identify the pronunciation characteristics associated with this type of FAS. Several findings were considered essential in the diagnosis of psychogenic FAS: the psychological assessments as well as the clinical interview confirmed the presence of psychological problems, while neurological damage was excluded by means of repeated neuroimaging and neurological examinations. The type and nature of the speech symptoms and the accent fluctuations associated with the patient's psychological state cannot be explained by a neurological disorder. Moreover, the indifference of the patient toward her condition may also suggest a psychogenic etiology, as the opposite is usually observed in neurogenic FAS patients

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Pareto-Optimierung eines Systems zur aktiven Schwingungsminderung mit Hilfe evolutionärer Algorithmen und Echtzeitsimulation am Beispiel eines semiaktiven Dämpfers

Digitalisierung ist ein anhaltender Trend im Produktdesign und Entwicklungsprozess. Numerische Simulationswerkzeuge beschleunigen den Entwicklungsprozess und minimieren den Bedarf an teurer experimenteller Validierung. Angesichts zunehmend detaillierter Multidomänenmodelle und der Möglichkeit, Ergebnisse diverser Softwaretools miteinander zu verknüpfen, entsteht ein Bedarf für automatisierte Multiparameteroptimierung. In den letzten Jahren wurde eine Vielzahl von evolutionären Ansätzen für die Parameteroptimierung veröffentlicht und auch in Open-Source-Bibliotheken wie „Distributed Evolutionary Algorithms in Python“ (DEAP) [1] implementiert. Allerdings sind die Werkzeuge der evolutionären Algorithmen, wie Mutation und Crossover, nicht spezifisch auf Parametervariation für die Pareto-Optimierung von mechatronischen Anwendungen angepasst. Dieses Paper stellt die Pareto-Optimierung eines semiaktiven Fahrwerks im Automobilbereich als Active-Vibration-Control-System (AVC) mit Fuzzy-Regler dar. Dazu wurden die Kernfunktionen des evolutionären Algorithmus angepasst, um die Anforderungen, die im jeweiligen Stadium des Entwicklungsprozesses verfügbar sind, zu berücksichtigen. Die Parameter der Simulationsinstanzen entsprechen dabei den Genen der Individuen und hängen so direkt mit den physikalisch-regelungstechnisch bedeutsamen Parametern zusammen. Um eine schnelle Evaluation des Gesamtsystemverhaltens zu ermöglichen, wurde ein strukturdynamisches Modell der Karosserie, des semiaktiven Fahrwerks und der Elastomerlagerelemente für die recheneffiziente Simulation auf einer Echtzeithardware angepasst. Dies ermöglicht die direkte Evaluation einer gegebenen Parameterkonfiguration auf der Echtzeithardware. Die dargestellten Arbeiten fokussieren die gleichzeitige Optimierung von Sicherheit und Komfort des Gesamtfahrzeugs, was durch eine Zielfunktion realisiert wird, die diese Kriterien im Sinne einer Pareto-Optimierung verbindet

Statistical Lagrangian evaporation rate of droplets released in a homogeneous quasi-isotropic turbulence

International audienceTurbulence has long been suspected to increase the evaporation rate of droplets via the convective effects it generates. The experimental data reported in this paper provide evidence of this increase and statistically quantify these effects. Measurements have been performed following the same Lagrangian approach as in Chareyron et al. [1], Marié et al. [2, 3]. Ether droplets have been released in a quasi isotropic homogeneous turbulence generated by synthetic jets and tracked using in-line digital holography. Their Schmidt number is typically of the order of 2 and their Reynolds number is moderate (≤ 3). Their instantaneous positions and diameters have been measured by processing the holograms with an inverse problem approach (IPA) that has been implemented in Python language for a high performance computer. This has allowed to drastically reduce the processing time and to reconstruct a high number of trajectories for various turbulence conditions. The Lagrangian statistics computed from these trajectories, totaling 1.3 million samples, show that the relative mean motion and turbulence seen by the droplets on average increases their evaporation rate. Within the parameter range investigated, we find that this increase is not well predicted when estimating the convective effect in the Sherwood number with the norm of the instantaneous relative velocity seen by the droplets. In contrast, this increase is very well predicted when the Sherwood number is calculated using a Reynolds number based on the norm of the mean relative velocity plus its RMS fluctuation

Simulation-based multi-objective optimization of a fuzzy controller for semi-active suspension

This paper presents a simulation-based design process for a fuzzy-controlled semi-active suspension system applied to a real-time vehicle simulation. Firstly a control architecture for the fuzzy-logic controller is defined. Secondly different Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are configured for the optimization of the control parameters. A multi-objective optimization is performed in order to simultaneously improve safety and comfort of the driving vehicle, defined using two independent cost functions. The contact forces at the wheels estimate the driving safety and the vibration in the car body indicates driving comfort. The performance of the controller is com-pared for each set of parameters obtained by the different GAs adopted. A reduced order real-time simulation environment has been set up for a holistic vehicle simulation, which includes a Finite Element Model (FEM) of the chassis, non-linear suspensions, multi-body physics and the designed digital controller. Finally, the real-time environment is integrated into an overall optimization process and is used for fitness evaluation. The semi-active system under test allows shifting the Pareto front beyond the limit of passive systems, achieving simultaneously better safety and comfort. The different GAs come up with various near-optimal solutions, which are compared using their Pareto fronts

74As-arsenate metabolism in Flemish Giant rabbits with renal insufficiency

The metabolic management of carrier-free As-74-arsenate (As(V)) by uremic rabbits of the strain Flemish Giant was studied. Renal insufficiency was induced by nephrectomy of respectively 1 kidney (3/6 nephrectomy) and 1 kidney + 2/3 remaining kidney (5/6 nephrectomy). Marginal renal insufficiency developed in the 3/6 nephrectomized group, while animals of the 5/6 group became severely uremic. Renal excretion of As-74 was reduced by 90% in 5/6 nephrectomized animals 4 h after intraperitoneal injection (i.p) of the animals. The associated uremic syndrome caused a strong decrease in methylation capacity of inorganic arsenic (As-i). The second methylation step from monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) to dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) was more strongly affected than the first one, from arsenite (As(III)) to MMA. The increased availability of As-i led to more extensive binding to insoluble tissue constituents after 5/6 nephrectomy. The decreased renal reduction of As(V) led to a decrease in As(III) and an increase of As(V) and the associated As(V)-transferrin binding in plasma. Uptake of As-74-transferrin by the bone marrow might contribute to uremic anemia

Suivi Lagrangien de gouttelettes et de leur évaporation dans un écoulement turbulent : de l’observation à la statistique

National audienc

Accumulation of arsenic species in serum of patients with chronic renal disease

Speciation of arsenic was determined in serum of 19 non-hemodialysis (non-HD) and 18 HD patients. The respective mean values of serum creatinine in these groups were 410 ± 250 and 914 ± 173 gLmol/L (reference range for healthy subjects: females 50-80; males 57-93 tmoUL). The mean total arsenic concentrations were 5.12 ± 5.58 and 6.47 ± 4.28 gxg/L, respectively (reference value: 0.958 ± 1.52.ig/L). Dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) and arsenobetaine (AsB) were the major As species in serum of the non-LID and HD patients, with mean values of 0.82 ± 1.05 and 1.93 ± 1.51 pg/L for DMA and 3.55 ± 4.58 and 3.47 ± 2.89 tg/L for AsB, respectively. Serum concentrations of inorganic As and monomethylarsonic acid in both groups were below the detection limits for these compounds. Measurement of As concentration before vs after 4 h of HD treatment indicated that 68 % of total As in serum was removed, as was 16 % of the total As in packed cells. The efficiency of DMA and MB removal during dialysis corresponded to that of total As. INDEXING m1Is: dimethybarsinic acid #{149}arsenobetaine #{149}toxicol-ogy #{149}hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry HPLC The presence of high As concentrations in serum, plasma, and packed cells of patients with chronic renal disease has been known for many years [1-5]. Earlier studies, however, were based on the determination of total As concentrations. The differences in As concentrations between patients and healthy subjects can be explained by the reduced renal excretion of As or insufficientdialysisof the As species[6,7]. Still unclear, how-ever, is whether the accumulation of As species in the blood of those patientsisselectiveor nonselectiveforparticularspecies. In recentyears,the acutetoxicityof As has been determine