Metaphoric coherence: Distinguishing verbal metaphor from `anomaly\u27

Theories and computational models of metaphor comprehension generally circumvent the question of metaphor versus “anomaly” in favor of a treatment of metaphor versus literal language. Making the distinction between metaphoric and “anomalous” expressions is subject to wide variation in judgment, yet humans agree that some potentially metaphoric expressions are much more comprehensible than others. In the context of a program which interprets simple isolated sentences that are potential instances of cross‐modal and other verbal metaphor, I consider some possible coherence criteria which must be satisfied for an expression to be “conceivable” metaphorically. Metaphoric constraints on object nominals are represented as abstracted or extended along with the invariant structural components of the verb meaning in a metaphor. This approach distinguishes what is preserved in metaphoric extension from that which is “violated”, thus referring to both “similarity” and “dissimilarity” views of metaphor. The role and potential limits of represented abstracted properties and constraints is discussed as they relate to the recognition of incoherent semantic combinations and the rejection or adjustment of metaphoric interpretations

A Case for Open Mission Systems in DOD Aircraft Avionics

The DOD is adopting open mission systems (OMS) as the future in the military aviation environment. OMS proponents promise reduced costs and truncated schedules through increased competition in the marketplace and reduced coding efforts. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have examined the success of these open architectures in the DOD. Therefore, we investigate costs and schedule for a recent DOD avionics OMS demonstration platform in comparison to 13 historically analogous programs

Quantifying the Effects of Aircraft Engine Upgrades on Operating and Support Costs

For fixed wing aircraft within the U.S. Air Force, Operating and Support (O&S) costs encompass a large portion of total life cycle costs. O&S costs include fuel, maintenance, and engine upgrades. To the authors’ knowledge, no study to date has attempted to empirically quantify the realized effects of new aircraft engines on sustainment costs. Utilizing the Air Force Total Ownership Cost database, they focused on new engines appearing on the C-5s, C-130s, and C-135s. Although narrow in scope, results suggest newer engines have lower fuel costs. Maintenance costs for newer engines were not consistently higher or lower than the engines they replaced, although Contractor Logistics Support was not tracked by engine in this study. We found that savings from improved fuel efficiency tended to be greater than a potential increase in maintenance costs

Text Mining Analysis of Acquisition Reforms and Expert Views

Legislation, in the form of acquisition reforms, is historically enacted to address perceived cost, schedule, and performance problems in the defense acquisition system. Text mining is utilized to examine five major reforms and a compendium of views from 32 acquisition experts to identify commonalities and disconnects

Effect of metoprolol on myocardial function and energetics in patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

AbstractObjectives. This study examined the of metoprolol on left ventricular performance, efficiency, neurohormonal activation and myocardial respiratory quotient in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.Background.The mechanism by which beta-adrenergie blockade improves ejection fraction in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy remains an enigma. Thus, we undertook an extensive hemodynamic evaluation of this mechanism. In addition, because animal models have shown that catecholamine exposure may increase relative fatty acid utilization, we hypothesized that antagonism of sympathetic stimulation may result in increased carbohydrate utilization.Methods. This was a randomized, double-blind, prospective trial in which 24 men with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy underwent cardiac catheterization before and after 3 months of therapy with metoprolol (n = 15) or placebo (n = 9) in addition to standard therapy. Pressure-volume relations were examined using a micromanometer catheter and digital ventriculography.Results. At baseline, the placebo-treated patients had somewhat more advanced left ventricular dysfunction. Ejection fraction and left ventricular performance improved only in the metoprolol-treated patients. Stroke and minute work increased without an increase in myocardial oxgen consumption, suggesting increased myocardial efficiency. Further increases in ejection fraction were seen between 3 and 6 months in the metoprolol group. The placebo group had a significant increase in ejection fraction only after crossover to metoprolol. A significant relation the change in coronary sinus norepinephrine and myocardial respiratory quotient was seen, suggesting a possible effect of adrenergic deactivation on substrate utilization.Conclusions. These data demonstrate that in patients with cardiomyopthy, metoprolol treatment improves myocardial performance and energetics, and favorably alters substrate utilization. Beta-adrenergic blocking agents, such as metoprolol, are hemodynamically and energetically beneficial in the treatment of myocardial failure

Activity-dependent translation dynamically alters the proteome of the perisynaptic astrocyte process

Within eukaryotic cells, translation is regulated independent of transcription, enabling nuanced, localized, and rapid responses to stimuli. Neurons respond transcriptionally and translationally to synaptic activity. Although transcriptional responses are documented in astrocytes, here we test whether astrocytes have programmed translational responses. We show that seizure activity rapidly changes the transcripts on astrocyte ribosomes, some predicted to be downstream of BDNF signaling. In acute slices, we quantify the extent to which cues of neuronal activity activate translation in astrocytes and show that this translational response requires the presence of neurons, indicating that the response is non-cell autonomous. We also show that this induction of new translation extends into the periphery of astrocytes. Finally, synaptic proteomics show that new translation is required for changes that occur in perisynaptic astrocyte protein composition after fear conditioning. Regulation of translation in astrocytes by neuronal activity suggests an additional mechanism by which astrocytes may dynamically modulate nervous system functioning

Differences in cerebral response to esophageal acid stimuli and psychological anticipation in GERD subtypes - An fMRI study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To evaluate whether there are differences in the cerebral response to intraesophageal acid and psychological anticipation stimuli among subtypes of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirty nine patients with GERD and 11 healthy controls were enrolled in this study after gastroscopy and 24 hr pH monitoring. GERD subjects were divided into four subgroups: RE (reflux esophagitis), NERD+ (non-erosive reflux disease with excessive acid reflux), NERD-SI+ (normal acid exposure and positive symptom index) and NERD-SI+ (normal acid exposure and negative symptom index, but responded to proton pump inhibitor trial). Cerebral responses to intraesophageal acid and psychological anticipation were evaluated with fMRI.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During intraesophageal acid stimulation, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) region was significantly activated in all subgroups of GERD; the insular cortex (IC) region was also activated in RE, NERD+ and NERD-SI- groups; the anterior cingulated cortex (ACC) region was activated only in RE and NERD-SI- groups. The RE subgroup had the shortest peak time in the PFC region after acid was infused, and presented the greatest change in fMRI signals in the PFC and ACC region (<it>P </it>= 0.008 and <it>P </it>= 0.001, respectively). During psychological anticipation, the PFC was significantly activated in both the control and GERD groups. Activation of the IC region was found in the RE, NERD-SI+ and NERD-SI- subgroups. The ACC was activated only in the NERD-SI+ and NERD-SI- subgroups. In the PFC region, the NERD-SI- subgroup had the shortest onset time (<it>P </it>= 0.008) and peak time (<it>P </it>< 0.001). Compared with actual acid infusion, ACC in RE and IC in NERD+ were deactivated while additional areas including the IC and ACC were activated in the NERD-SI+ group; and in NERD-SI- group, onset-time and peak time in the PFC and IC areas were obviously shorter in induced anticipation than in actual acid infusion.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The four subgroups of GERD patients and controls showed distinctly different activation patterns and we therefore conclude GERD patients have different patterns of visceral perception and psychological anticipation. Psychological factors play a more important role in NERD-SI+ and NERD-SI- groups than in RE and NERD+ groups.</p

Diagnosis of Esophagitis Based on Face Recognition Techniques

Face recognition technology has evolved over years with the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method being the benchmark for recognition efficiency. The face recognition techniques take care of variation of illumination, pose and other features of the face in the image. We envisage an application of these face recognition techniques for classification of medical images. The motivating factor being, given a condition of an organ it is represented by some typical features. In this paper we report the use of the face recognition techniques to classify the type of Esophagitis, a condition of inflammation of the esophagus. The image of the esophagus is captured in the process of endoscopy. We test PCA, Fisher Face method and Independent Component Analysis techniques to classify the images of the esophagus. Esophagitis is classified into four categories. The results of classification for each method are reported and the results are compared