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Geochemical Engineering Reference Manual
Department of Energy, San Francisco Operations OfficeContract #DE-AC03-81SF1152
The Potential Role of fNIRS in Evaluating Levels of Consciousness
Over the last few decades, neuroimaging techniques have transformed our understanding of the brain and the effect of neurological conditions on brain function. More recently, light-based modalities such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy have gained popularity as tools to study brain function at the bedside. A recent application is to assess residual awareness in patients with disorders of consciousness, as some patients retain awareness albeit lacking all behavioural response to commands. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy can play a vital role in identifying these patients by assessing command-driven brain activity. The goal of this review is to summarise the studies reported on this topic, to discuss the technical and ethical challenges of working with patients with disorders of consciousness, and to outline promising future directions in this field
Open Space â a collaborative process for facilitating Tourism IT partnerships
The success of IT projects depends on the success of the partnerships on which they are based. However past research by the author has identified a significant rate of failure in these partnerships, predominantly due to an overly technical mindset, leading to the question: âhow do we ensure that, as technological solutions are implemented within tourism, due consideration is given to human-centred issues?â The tourism partnership literature is explored for additional insights revealing that issues connected with power, participation and normative positions play a major role. The method, Open Space, is investigated for its ability to engage stakeholders in free and open debate. This paper reports on a one-day Open Space event sponsored by two major intermediaries in the UK travel industry who wanted to consult their business partners. Both the running of the event and its results reveal how Open Space has the potential to address some of the weaknesses associated with tourism partnerships
Help or hinder: Bayesian models of social goal inference
Everyday social interactions are heavily influenced by our snap judgments about
othersâ goals. Even young infants can infer the goals of intentional agents from
observing how they interact with objects and other agents in their environment:
e.g., that one agent is âhelpingâ or âhinderingâ anotherâs attempt to get up a hill
or open a box. We propose a model for how people can infer these social goals
from actions, based on inverse planning in multiagent Markov decision problems
(MDPs). The model infers the goal most likely to be driving an agentâs behavior
by assuming the agent acts approximately rationally given environmental constraints
and its model of other agents present. We also present behavioral evidence
in support of this model over a simpler, perceptual cue-based alternative.United States. Army Research Office (ARO MURI grant W911NF-08-1-0242)United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (MURI grant FA9550-07-1-0075)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Graduate Research Fellowship)James S. McDonnell Foundation (Collaborative Interdisciplinary Grant on Causal Reasoning
Effects of Systemic Physiology on Mapping Resting-State Networks Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) has gained popularity mainly due to its simplicity and potential for providing insights into various brain disorders. In this vein, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an attractive choice due to its portability, flexibility, and low cost, allowing for bedside imaging of brain function. While promising, fNIRS suffers from non-neural signal contaminations (i.e., systemic physiological noise), which can increase correlation across fNIRS channels, leading to spurious rsFC networks. In the present work, we hypothesized that additional measurements with short channels, heart rate, mean arterial pressure, and end-tidal CO2 could provide a better understanding of the effects of systemic physiology on fNIRS-based resting-state networks. To test our hypothesis, we acquired 12 min of resting-state data from 10 healthy participants. Unlike previous studies, we investigated the efficacy of different pre-processing approaches in extracting resting-state networks. Our results are in agreement with previous studies and reinforce the fact that systemic physiology can overestimate rsFC. We expanded on previous work by showing that removal of systemic physiology decreases intra- and inter-subject variability, increasing the ability to detect neural changes in rsFC across groups and over longitudinal studies. Our results show that by removing systemic physiology, fNIRS can reproduce resting-state networks often reported with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Finally, the present work details the effects of systemic physiology and outlines how to remove (or at least ameliorate) their contributions to fNIRS signals acquired at rest
Witchcraft and the Somerset idyll : The depiction of folk belief in Walter Raymondâs novels
The work of Walter Raymond (1852-1931) is now largely forgotten. Yet his Somerset novels, complemented by his ethnographic writings, contain depictions of local witchcraft belief that are worthy of study in literary and historical contexts. They raise issues regarding the fictional depiction of rural life and tradition, and the value of fiction as a folkloric and historical sourcePeer reviewe
âEthnic groupâ, the state and the politics of representation
The assertion, even if only by implication, that âethnic groupâ categories represent ârealâ tangible entities, indeed identities, is commonplace not only in the realms of political and policy discourse but also amongst contemporary social scientists. This paper, following Brubaker (2002), questions this position in a number of key respects: of these three issues will dominate the discussion that follows.
First, there is an interrogation of the proposition that those to whom the categories/labels refer constitute sociologically meaningful âgroupsâ as distinct from (mere) human collectivities. Secondly, there is the question of how these categories emerge, i.e. exactly what series of events, negotiations and contestations lie behind their construction and social acceptance. Thirdly, and as a corollary to the latter point, we explore the process of reification that leads to these categories being seen to represent âreal things in the worldâ (ibid.)
The SPECFIND V2.0 catalogue of radio cross-identifications and spectra. SPECFIND meets the Virtual Observatory
The new release of the SPECFIND radio cross-identification catalogue,
SPECFIND V2.0, is presented. It contains 107488 cross-identified objects with
at least three radio sources observed at three independent frequencies.
Compared to the previous release the number of entry radio catalogues is
increased from 20 to 97 containing 115 tables. This large increase was only
made possible by the development of four tools at CDS which use the standards
and infrastructure of the Virtual Observatory (VO). This was done in the
framework of the VO-TECH European Design Study of the Sixth Framework Program.
We give an overview of the different classes of radio sources that a user can
encounter. Due to the increase of frequency coverage of the input radio
catalogues, this release demonstrates that the SPECFIND algorithm is able to
detect spectral breaks around a frequency of ~1 GHz.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Quotients of AdS_{p+1} x S^q: causally well-behaved spaces and black holes
Starting from the recent classification of quotients of Freund--Rubin
backgrounds in string theory of the type AdS_{p+1} x S^q by one-parameter
subgroups of isometries, we investigate the physical interpretation of the
associated quotients by discrete cyclic subgroups. We establish which quotients
have well-behaved causal structures, and of those containing closed timelike
curves, which have interpretations as black holes. We explain the relation to
previous investigations of quotients of asymptotically flat spacetimes and
plane waves, of black holes in AdS and of Godel-type universes.Comment: 48 pages; v2: minor typos correcte
Analysis of LIGO data for gravitational waves from binary neutron stars
We report on a search for gravitational waves from coalescing compact binary
systems in the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds. The analysis uses data
taken by two of the three LIGO interferometers during the first LIGO science
run and illustrates a method of setting upper limits on inspiral event rates
using interferometer data. The analysis pipeline is described with particular
attention to data selection and coincidence between the two interferometers. We
establish an observational upper limit of 1.7 \times 10^{2}M_\odot$.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure
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