2,895 research outputs found
Use of a Neuropsychologically Based Performance Model to Account for Adult Variation in Cognitive Test-Retest Performance
The current study was designed to examine the appropriateness and effectiveness of a neuropsychologically based performance consistency model in comparison to traditional psychometric conceptualizations of reliability when examining test-retest performance on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Third Edition (WAIS–III). Regardless of whether the sample was grouped by total sample or in reference to subject performance to the mean, an overall progression effect rather than regression to the mean was noted. When grouping subjects in terms of their relation to the mean, a poor goodness of fit obtained via chi-square analysis was found between traditional psychometric reliability estimates and actual results obtained via the performance consistency model. These findings are discussed in terms of the clinical utility of viewing changes in test-retest performance as potentially meaningful indicators of changes in cognitive functioning. This calls into question the appropriateness of previous research, which has typically eschewed the practice of subtest level interpretation of cognitive processing
Pathways for Nutrient Loss to Water; Slurry and Fertilizer Spreading
End of project reportThere are almost 150,000 farms in Ireland and these contribute substantial quantities of N and P to inland and coastal waters. Some of these nutrients are carried from wet soils by overland flow and by leaching from dry soils. Farm practice can reduce the loss from farms by judicious management of nutrients. Improvements are required to diminish export of nutrients without impairing operations on the farm. Literature regarding nutrient loss from agriculture was reviewed in this project and maps were prepared to predict best slurry spreading times around Ireland. Two further maps were prepared to show slurry storage requirement on farms
Vacationing in Fairmount Park
Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2009.Includes bibliographical references (p. 69).The public perception of landscape is still primarily shaped by eighteenth-century English aesthetics, pastoral idealism disassociated with infrastructural reality. This idealism is on display in most cities, in the form of municipal parks which Koolhaas states can be read as both "an operation of preservation" and "a series of manipulations."' Further support of this assertion is the means by which municipal parks preserve an appearance of naturalness. Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, the site of this thesis, is continually constructed and managed by a staff of hundreds, assuring the right varieties of vegetation, constant fish stocks in a polluted river, purposeful insect infestations, etc. If this presentation of nature is wholly synthetic, can it be re-imagined as an architectural project? Modern architecture adopted the conditioned interior as a means of isolating the interior from exterior. Pushed to its logical end, could the conditioned interior become a new municipal park? The thesis proposes that the preservation programs of the park be recast as a new interior pleasure garden which makes visible Fairmount Park's necessarily synthetic construction.by Ryan M. Murphy.M.Arch
Toward a Platform-Independent Acoustic Communications and Navigation System for Underwater Vehicles
This paper presents a platform-independent
acoustic communication (Acomms) system that enables multiple
nodes (any combination of underwater vehicles, surface
ships, and fixed beacons) to simultaneously exchange data
and calculate inter-node ranges with O(1m) accuracy. The
Acomms system supports two types of communications: standard
asynchronous acoustic communication and synchronous
communication, which enables navigation based on inter-node
ranges derived from the one-way travel-times of acoustic
messages between nodes. The Acomms system hardware is
implemented with a dedicated software program, Linux host
computers, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
Micro-Modems, and precision reference clocks. The acoustic
communications software configures the modem, manages all
acoustic communication traffic, and acts as an interface between
the vehicle-specific software and the modems and clocks. The
software and related hardware have been installed on theWoods
Hole Oceanographic Institution vehicles Puma, Jaguar, and
Nereus, and deployed in sea trials in the North Pacific and
South Atlantic.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86048/1/swebster-8.pd
Recombinant Incretin-Secreting Microbe Improves Metabolic Dysfunction in High-Fat Diet Fed Rodents
peer-reviewedThe gut hormone glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 and its analogues represent a new generation of anti-diabetic drugs, which have also demonstrated propensity to modulate host lipid metabolism. Despite this, drugs of this nature are currently limited to intramuscular administration routes due to intestinal degradation. The aim of this study was to design a recombinant microbial delivery vector for a GLP-1 analogue and assess the efficacy of the therapeutic in improving host glucose, lipid and cholesterol metabolism in diet induced obese rodents. Diet-induced obese animals received either Lactobacillus paracasei NFBC 338 transformed to express a long-acting analogue of GLP-1 or the isogenic control microbe which solely harbored the pNZ44 plasmid. Short-term GLP-1 microbe intervention in rats reduced serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides and triglyceride-rich lipoprotein cholesterol substantially. Conversely, extended GLP-1 microbe intervention improved glucose-dependent insulin secretion, glucose metabolism and cholesterol metabolism, compared to the high-fat control group. Interestingly, the microbe significantly attenuated the adiposity associated with the model and altered the serum lipidome, independently of GLP-1 secretion. These data indicate that recombinant incretin-secreting microbes may offer a novel and safe means of managing cholesterol metabolism and diet induced dyslipidaemia, as well as insulin sensitivity in metabolic dysfunction
Decision for reconstructive interventions of the upper limb in individuals with tetraplegia: the effect of treatment characteristics
Objective: To determine the effect of treatment characteristics on the\ud
decision for reconstructive interventions for the upper extremities (UE) in\ud
subjects with tetraplegia. - \ud
Setting: Seven specialized spinal cord injury centres in the Netherlands. - \ud
Method: Treatment characteristics for UE reconstructive interventions were\ud
determined. Conjoint analysis (CA) was used to determine the contribution\ud
and the relative importance of the treatment characteristics on the decision\ud
for therapy. Therefore, a number of different treatment scenarios using these\ud
characteristics were established. Different pairs of scenarios were presented\ud
to subjects who were asked to choose the preferred scenario of each set. - \ud
Results: forty nine subjects with tetraplegia with a stable C5, C6 or C7\ud
lesion were selected. All treatment characteristics significantly influenced\ud
the choice for treatment. Relative importance of treatment characteristics\ud
were: intervention type (surgery or surgery with FES implant) 13%, number\ud
of operations 15%, in patient rehabilitation period 22%, ambulant\ud
rehabilitation period 9%, complication rate 15%, improvement of elbow\ud
function 10%, improvement of hand function 15%. In deciding for therapy\ud
40% of the subjects focused on one characteristic. - \ud
Conclusion: CA is applicable in Spinal Cord Injury medicine to study the\ud
effect of health outcomes and non-health outcomes on the decision for\ud
treatment. Non-health outcomes which relate to the intensity of treatment\ud
are equally important or even more important than functional outcome in the\ud
decision for reconstructive UE surgery in subjects with tetraplegia
Distinct immune signatures in directly treated and distant tumors result from TLR adjuvants and focal ablation.
Both adjuvants and focal ablation can alter the local innate immune system and trigger a highly effective systemic response. Our goal is to determine the impact of these treatments on directly treated and distant disease and the mechanisms for the enhanced response obtained by combinatorial treatments. Methods: We combined RNA-sequencing, flow cytometry and TCR-sequencing to dissect the impact of immunotherapy and of immunotherapy combined with ablation on local and systemic immune components. Results: With administration of a toll-like receptor agonist agonist (CpG) alone or CpG combined with same-site ablation, we found dramatic differences between the local and distant tumor environments, where the directly treated tumors were skewed to high expression of F4/80, Cd11b and Tnf and the distant tumors to enhanced Cd11c, Cd3 and Ifng. When ablation was added to immunotherapy, 100% (n=20/20) of directly treated tumors and 90% (n=18/20) of distant tumors were responsive. Comparing the combined ablation-immunotherapy treatment to immunotherapy alone, we find three major mechanistic differences. First, while ablation alone enhanced intratumoral antigen cross-presentation (up to ~8% of CD45+ cells), systemic cross-presentation of tumor antigen remained low. Combining same-site ablation with CpG amplified cross-presentation in the draining lymph node (~16% of CD45+ cells) compared to the ablation-only (~0.1% of CD45+ cells) and immunotherapy-only cohorts (~10% of CD45+ cells). Macrophages and DCs process and present this antigen to CD8+ T-cells, increasing the number of unique T-cell receptor rearrangements in distant tumors. Second, type I interferon (IFN) release from tumor cells increased with the ablation-immunotherapy treatment as compared with ablation or immunotherapy alone. Type I IFN release is synergistic with toll-like receptor activation in enhancing cytokine and chemokine expression. Expression of genes associated with T-cell activation and stimulation (Eomes, Prf1 and Icos) was 27, 56 and 89-fold higher with ablation-immunotherapy treatment as compared to the no-treatment controls (and 12, 32 and 60-fold higher for immunotherapy-only treatment as compared to the no-treatment controls). Third, we found that the ablation-immunotherapy treatment polarized macrophages and dendritic cells towards a CD169 subset systemically, where CD169+ macrophages are an IFN-enhanced subpopulation associated with dead-cell antigen presentation. Conclusion: While the local and distant responses are distinct, CpG combined with ablative focal therapy drives a highly effective systemic immune response
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