Route learning and shortcut performance in adults with intellectual disability: a study with virtual environments

The ability to learn routes though a virtual environment (VE) and to make a novel shortcut between two locations was assessed in 18 adults with intellectual disability and 18 adults without intellectual disability matched on chronological age. Participants explored two routes (A ⇔ B and A ⇔ C) until they reached a learning criterion. Then, they were placed at B and were asked to find the shortest way to C (B ⇔ C, five trials). Participants in both groups could learn the routes, but most of the participants with intellectual disability could not find the shortest route between B and C. However, the results also revealed important individual differences within the intellectual disability group, with some participants exhibiting more efficient wayfinding behaviour than others. Individuals with intellectual disability may differ in the kind of spatial knowledge they extract from the environment and/or in the strategy they use to learn routes

Zeta measures and Thermodynamic Formalism for temperature zero

We address the analysis of the following problem: given a real H\"older potential $f$ defined on the Bernoulli space and $\mu_f$ its equilibrium state, it is known that this shift-invariant probability can be weakly approximated by probabilities in periodic orbits associated to certain zeta functions. Given a H\"older function $f>0$ and a value $s$ such that $0<s<1$, we can associate a shift-invariant probability $\nu_{s}$ such that for each continuous function $k$ we have $$\int k d\nu_{s}=\frac{\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\sum_{x\in Fix_{n}}e^{sf^{n}(x)-nP(f)}\frac{k^{n}(x)}{n}}{\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\sum_{x\in Fix_{n}}e^{sf^{n}(x)-nP(f)}},$$ where $P(f)$ is the pressure of $f$, $Fix_n$ is the set of solutions of $\sigma^n(x)=x$, for any $n\in \mathbb{N}$, and $f^{n}(x) = f(x) + f(\sigma(x)) + f(\sigma^2(x))+... + f(\sigma^{n-1} (x)).$ We call $\nu_{s}$ a zeta probability for $f$ and $s$. It is known that $\nu_s \to \mu_{f}$, when $s \to 1$. We consider for each value $c$ the potential $c f$ and the corresponding equilibrium state $\mu_{c f}$. What happens with $\nu_{s}$ when $c$ goes to infinity and $s$ goes to one? This question is related to the problem of how to approximate the maximizing probability for $f$ by probabilities on periodic orbits. We study this question and also present here the deviation function $I$ and Large Deviation Principle for this limit $c\to \infty, s\to 1$. We will make an assumption: $\lim_{c\to \infty, s\to 1} c(1-s)= L>0$. We do not assume here the maximizing probability for $f$ is unique

Prevalence and causes of blindness and visual impairment in Muyuka: a rural health district in South West Province, Cameroon.

AIM: To estimate the prevalence and causes of blindness and visual impairment in the population aged 40 years and over in Muyuka, a rural district in the South West Province of Cameroon. METHODS: A multistage cluster random sampling methodology was used to select 20 clusters of 100 people each. In each cluster households were randomly selected and all eligible people had their visual acuity (VA) measured by an ophthalmic nurse. Those with VA <6/18 were examined by an ophthalmologist. RESULTS: 1787 people were examined (response rate 89.3%). The prevalence of binocular blindness was 1.6% (95% CI: 0.8% to 2.4%), 2.2% (1.% to 3.1%) for binocular severe visual impairment, and 6.4% (5.0% to 7.8%) for binocular visual impairment. Cataract was the main cause of blindness (62.1%), severe visual impairment (65.0%), and visual impairment (40.0%). Refractive error was an important cause of severe visual impairment (15.0%) and visual impairment (22.5%). The cataract surgical coverage for people was 55% at the <3/60 level and 33% at the <6/60 level. 64.3% of eyes operated for cataract had poor visual outcome (presenting VA<6/60). CONCLUSIONS: Strategies should be developed to make cataract services affordable and accessible to the population in the rural areas. There is an urgent need to improve the outcome of cataract surgery. Refractive error services should be provided at the community level

Large deviations for equilibrium measures and selection of subaction

Given a Lipschitz function f : {1, . . . , d}N → R, for eachβ > 0 we denote by μβ the equilibrium measure of β f and by hβ the main eigenfunction of the Ruelle Operator Lβ f . Assuming that {μβ}β>0 satisfy a large deviation principle, we prove the existence of the uniform limit V = limβ→+∞ 1 β log(hβ). Furthermore, the expression of the deviation function is determined by its values at the points of the union of the supports of maximizing measures. We study a class of potentials having two ergodic maximizing measures and prove that a L.D.P. is satisfied. The deviation function is explicitly exhibited and does not coincide with the one that appears in the paper by Baraviera-Lopes-Thieullen which considers the case of potentials having a unique maximizing measure

Large deviations for equilibrium measures and selection of subaction

Given a Lipschitz function f : {1, . . . , d}N → R, for eachβ > 0 we denote by μβ the equilibrium measure of β f and by hβ the main eigenfunction of the Ruelle Operator Lβ f . Assuming that {μβ}β>0 satisfy a large deviation principle, we prove the existence of the uniform limit V = limβ→+∞ 1 β log(hβ). Furthermore, the expression of the deviation function is determined by its values at the points of the union of the supports of maximizing measures. We study a class of potentials having two ergodic maximizing measures and prove that a L.D.P. is satisfied. The deviation function is explicitly exhibited and does not coincide with the one that appears in the paper by Baraviera-Lopes-Thieullen which considers the case of potentials having a unique maximizing measure