Sleep and inflammation in resilient aging.

Sleep quality is important to health, and increasingly viewed as critical in promoting successful, resilient aging. In this review, the interplay between sleep and mental and physical health is considered with a focus on the role of inflammation as a biological pathway that translates the effects of sleep on risk of depression, pain and chronic disease risk in aging. Given that sleep regulates inflammatory biologic mechanisms with effects on mental and physical health outcomes, the potential of interventions that target sleep to reduce inflammation and promote health in aging is also discussed

Compensating springback in the automotive practice\ud using MASHAL

New materials are used in the automotive industry to reduce weight and to improve crash performance. These\ud materials feature a higher ratio of yield stress to elastic modulus leading to increased springback after tool release. The resulting\ud shape deviations and their efficient reduction is of major interest for the automotive industry nowadays. The usual strategies for\ud springback reduction can diminish springback to a certain amount only. In order to reduce the remaining shape deviation a\ud mathematical compensation algorithm is presented. The objective is to obtain the tool geometry such that the part springs back\ud into the right shape after releasing the tools.\ud In practice the process of compensation involves different tasks beginning with CAD construction of the part, planning the\ud drawing method and tool construction, FE-simulation, deep drawing at try-out stage and measurement of the manufactured part.\ud Thus the compensation can not be treated as an isolated task but as a process with various restrictions and requirements of\ud today’s automotive practice. For this reason a software prototype for compensation methods MASHAL – meaning program to\ud maintain accuracy (MASsHALtigkeit) – was developed. The basic idea of compensation with MASHAL is the transfer and\ud application of shape deviations between two different geometries on a third one. The developed algorithm allows for an effective\ud processing of these data, an approximation of springback and shape deviations and for a smooth extrapolation onto the tool\ud geometry.\ud Following topics are addressed: positioning of parts, global compensation and restriction of compensation to local areas,\ud damping of the compensation function in the blank holder domain, simulation and validation of springback and compensation of\ud CAD-data. The complete compensation procedure is illustrated on an industrial part

Novel metaphors comprehension in a child with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders. A study on assessment and treatment

Until the first decade of the current millennium, the literature on metaphor comprehension highlighted typical difficulties in children with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). More recently, some scholars have devised special programs for enhancing the capability of understanding metaphors in these children. This article presents a case study based on a treatment aiming at enhancing novel metaphor comprehension in a high-functioning child with ASD. M.M., a pseudoacronym for an 8;10 year-old boy, diagnosed with high-functioning ASD, was first assessed with a metaphor comprehension test. This testing (at time TO) highlighted a rigid refusal of metaphors and a marked tendency toward literal interpretation. A baseline treatment (8 sessions of 45-60 min each, twice a week) was implemented, based on a series of recognition, denomination and emotion comprehension activities. M. M.'s metaphor comprehension was assessed a second time (Ti), followed by the experimental treatment (same duration and frequency as the first one), specifically focused on metaphor comprehension. Finally, a third assessment of metaphor comprehension took place (T2), followed by a last assessment 4 months later (follow-up, T3). The comparison between the performances at the metaphor comprehension test across the four assessments, from TO to T3, showed that the baseline treatment produced no effect at all, whereas a significant improvement appeared at T2, just after the experimental treatment, later confirmed at the follow up. Both quantitative and qualitative results showed an evident improvement in the way M.M. handled the semantic issues posed by the metaphors of the test, in line with the strategies he was taught during the treatmen

Mixing Metaphors In The Cerebral Hemispheres: What Happens When Careers Collide?

Are processes of figurative comparison and figurative categorization different? An experiment combining alternative-sense and matched-sense metaphor priming with a divided visual field assessment technique sought to isolate processes of comparison and categorization in the 2 cerebral hemispheres. For target metaphors presented in the right visual field/left cerebral hemisphere (RVF/LH), only matched-sense primes were facilitative. Literal primes and alternative-sense primes had no effect on comprehension time compared to the unprimed baseline. The effects of matched-sense primes were additive with the rated conventionality of the targets. For target metaphors presented to the left visual field/right cerebral hemisphere (LVF/RH), matched-sense primes were again additively facilitative. However, alternative-sense primes, though facilitative overall, seemed to eliminate the preexisting advantages of conventional target metaphor senses in the LVF/RH in favor of metaphoric senses similar to those of the primes. These findings are consistent with tightly controlled categorical coding in the LH and coarse, flexible, context-dependent coding in the RH. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)(journal abstract

Nova V1425 Aquilae 1995 - The Early Appearance of Accretion Processes in An Intermediate Polar Candidate

Continuous CCD photometry of Nova Aquilae 1995 was performed through the standard B,V,R and I filters during three nights in 1995 and with the I filter during 18 nights in 1996. The power spectrum of the 1996 data reveals three periodicities in the light curve: 0.2558 d, 0.06005 d and 0.079 d, with peak-to-peak amplitudes of about 0.012, 0.014 and 0.007 mag. respectively. The two shorter periods are absent from the power spectrum of the 1995 light curve, while the long one is probably already present in the light curve of that year. We propose that V1425 Aql should be classified as an Intermediate - Polar CV. Accordingly the three periods are interpreted as the orbital period of the underlying binary system, the spin period of the magnetic white dwarf and the beat period between them. Our results suggest that no later than 15 months after the outburst of the nova, accretion processes are taking place in this stellar system. Matter is being transferred from the cool component, most likely through an accretion disc and via accretion columns on to the magnetic poles of the hot component.Comment: 7 pages, 4 eps. figures, Latex, accepted for publication in MNRA

Imitating the Genre of Parable in Today\u27s Pulpit

Sensing, Timothy R. (1991) Imitating the Genre of Parable in Today\u27s Pulpit, Restoration Quarterly: Vol. 33 : No. 4. This repository hosts selected Restoration Quarterly articles in downloadable PDF format. For the benefit of users who would like to browse the contents of RQ, we have included all issue covers even when full-text articles from that issue are unavailable. All Restoration Quarterly articles are available in full text in the ATLA Religion Database, available through most university and theological libraries or through your local library’s inter-library loan service

A Two-Colour CCD Survey of the North Celestial Cap: I. The Method

We describe technical aspects of an astrometric and photometric survey of the North Celestial Cap (NCC), from the Pole (DEC=90 deg) to DEC=80 deg, in support of the TAUVEX mission. This region, at galactic latitudes from ~ 17 deg to ~ 37 deg, has poor coverage in modern CCD-based surveys. The observations are performed with the Wise Observatory one-meter reflector and with a new mosaic CCD camera (LAIWO) that images in the Johnson-Cousins R and I bands a one-square-degree field with subarcsec pixels. The images are treated using IRAF and SExtractor to produce a final catalogue of sources. The astrometry, based on the USNO-A2.0 catalogue, is good to ~ 1 arcsec and the photometry is good to ~ 0.1 mag for point sources brighter than R=20.0 or I=19.1 mag. The limiting magnitudes of the survey, defined at photometric errors smaller than 0.15 mag, are 20.6 mag (R) and 19.6 (I). We separate stars from non-stellar objects based on the object shapes in the R and I bands, attempting to reproduce the SDSS star/galaxy dichotomy. The completeness test indicates that the catalogue is complete to the limiting magnitudes.Comment: 31 pages, 15 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc