Normative Values for 18-30 Age Group of Benton Visual Retention Test Scores and Pre-morbid Intelligence Quotients: New Data Comparisons for Diagnosing Memory and Visual Spatial Deficits in Alzheimer's Disease and Stroke

The Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) is a well known test used to assess visual memory deficits and visual spatial abilities in patients. Normative data for the 18-30 age group is not presently covered thoroughly; hence, this study continues the work of previous series that examined data comprising BVRT scores, intelligence quotients (IQ), anxiety and depression levels, and gender effects. Correlations between pre-morbid estimates of IQ across different BVRT administrations were examined and discussed in order to compile a database of new data comparisons for this age group

Are Mock Jurors Influenced by the Defendants Gender, Socio-Economic Status and Emotional State in Forensic Medicine?

The aim of this study was to investigate whether mock jurors’ decisions were affected by the defendant’s gender, socio-economic status and emotional state in mock cases. The implications are far reaching, especially in trials that involve forensic medicine. An experimental design was used where a total of 24 participants from Bournemouth University took part, and were assigned to one of four groups. In these groups, the three independent variables were manipulated. Participants were presented with two murder/manslaughter cases. The results suggest male defendants received harsher judgements than female defendants. More female defendants were found not guilty than male defendants. Male defendants from a high socio-economic background received harsher judgements than male defendants from a low socio-economic background. Female defendants from a low socio-economic background received harsher judgements than female defendants from a high socio-economic background. Female defendants were found to be more trustworthy than male defendants. These findings are discussed are discussed in the context of the jury’s verdict, sentence length and personal opinion of the defendant

Search for Contact Interactions in the Dimuon Final State at ATLAS

The Standard Model has been successful in describing many fundamental aspects of particle physics. However, there are some remaining puzzles that are not explained within the context of its present framework. We discuss the possibility to discover new physics in the ATLAS Detector via a four-fermion contact interaction, much in the same way Fermi first described Weak interactions. Using a simple ratio method on dimuon events, we can set a 95% C.L. lower limit on the effective scale Lambda = 7.5 TeV (8.7 TeV) for the constructive Left-left Isoscalar Model of quark compositeness with 100 pb^-1 (200 pb^-1) of data at sqrt{s} = 10 TeV.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of DPF-2009, Detroit, MI, July 2009, eConf C09072

Normative Values for 18-30 Ages of Benton Visual Retention Test Correct Scores and Intelligence Quotients: A Short Report for Clinical Comparison

The Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) is a well known test used to assess visual memory deficits and visual spatial abilities in patients. There is normative data available for the 18-30 age range though it is not comprehensive and does not cover the higher intelligence quotient ranges. Findings from two studies are presented in combination for use as normative correct score values

Technological change and productivity growth in the air transport industry

The progress of the civil air transport industry in the United States was examined in the light of a proposal of Enos who, after examining the growth of the petroleum industry, divided that phenomenon into two phases, the alpha and the beta; that is, the invention, first development and production, and the improvement phase. The civil air transport industry developed along similar lines with the technological progress coming in waves; each wave encompassing several new technological advances while retaining the best of the old ones. At the same time the productivity of the transport aircraft as expressed by the product of the aircraft velocity and the passenger capacity increased sufficiently to allow the direct operating cost in cents per passenger mile to continually decrease with each successive aircraft development

Design of optimized three-dimensional thrust nozzle contours

Design of optimized three-dimensional thrust nozzle contour

The importance of incorporating technological advancements into the artificial eye process: a perspective commentary

Application of technology into healthcare has typically been targeted to high demand illnesses and treatments. However, with an increasing need to meet patient’s expectations combined with increased accessibility and reduced costs, smaller healthcare fields are starting to investigate its function and usability. Services have historically been led by skills and expertise, and recent developments are being seen by ocularists in the field of prosthetic eyes who acknowledge the potential benefit from technological advancement. Utilising the technologies recently investigated in maxillofacial prosthesis can start the evolutionary process where products are continually re-designed and re-developed to achieve excellent patient outcome and satisfaction levels

Establishing normative values for 18-35 years age in neuropsychological tests used with head and brain injury patients during cognitive rehabilitation: Benton Visual Retention Test and National Adult Reading Test

The Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) is a neuropsychological assessment of visuo-spatial and visuo-memory ability. Claims of high reliability and validity are based on solitary samples representative of a wide age range. This study validated theBVRTagainst the National Adult Reading Test (NART), a highly validated and reliable test of estimated pre-morbid IQ in an age-specific group of participants (18-35 years). Using Between-subjects factorial design, fifty-three participants (24 female, 29 male) aged 18-35 years (inclusive) were administered the NART and 3 administrations of the BVRT. Significant positive correlations were found betweenBVRTError scores and NART Error scores for administrations B and C of theBVRTwhich is when presented stimuli are followed by a short time delay before allowing respondents to recall. Significant negative correlations were found over these administrations forBVRTCorrect scores and NART Error scores. No significant relationship was found between depression and performance on theBVRT. However, a weak, non-significant relationship was found between anxiety andBVRTperformance. The BVRTis a well-validated and highly reliable neuropsychological test of visuo-spatial and visuo-memory abilities. Findings provide new data for the 18-35 years age group as well as providing a cautionary note on the possible influence of anxiety on performance levels in light of the frequent occurrence of anxiety post-neurological injury

An Update on the 0Z Project

We give an update on our 0Z Survey to find more extremely metal poor (EMP) stars with [Fe/H] < -3 dex through mining the database of the Hamburg/ESO Survey. We present the most extreme such stars we have found from ~1550 moderate resolution follow up spectra. One of these, HE1424-0241, has highly anomalous abundance ratios not seen in any previously known halo giant, with very deficient Si, moderately deficient Ca and Ti, highly enhanced Mn and Co, and low C, all with respect to Fe. We suggest a SNII where the nucleosynthetic yield for explosive alpha-burning nuclei was very low compared to that for the hydrostatic alpha-burning element Mg, which is normal in this star relative to Fe. A second, less extreme, outlier star with high [Sc/Fe] has also been found. We examine the extremely metal-poor tail of the HES metallicity distribution function (MDF). We suggest on the basis of comparison of our high resolution detailed abundance analyses with [Fe/H](HES) for stars in our sample that the MDF inferred from follow up spectra of the HES sample of candidate EMP stars is heavily contaminated for [Fe/H](HES) < -3 dex; many of the supposed EMP stars below that metallicity are of substantially higher Fe-metallicity, including most of the very C-rich stars, or are spurious objects.Comment: to appear in conference proceedings "First Stars III", ed. B. O'Shea, A. Heger & T.Abel, 4 pages, 2 figure

zCOSMOS: A large VLT/VIMOS redshift survey covering 0 < z < 3 in the COSMOS field

zCOSMOS is a large-redshift survey that is being undertaken in the COSMOS field using 600 hr of observation with the VIMOS spectrograph on the 8 m VLT. The survey is designed to characterize the environments of COSMOS galaxies from the 100 kpc scales of galaxy groups up to the 100 Mpc scale of the cosmic web and to produce diagnostic information on galaxies and active galactic nuclei. The zCOSMOS survey consists of two parts: (1) zCOSMOSbright, a magnitude-limited I-band I_(AB) < 22.5 sample of about 20,000 galaxies with 0.1 < z < 1.2 covering the whole 1.7 deg^2 COSMOS ACS field, for which the survey parameters at z ~ 0.7 are designed to be directly comparable to those of the 2dFGRS at z ~ 0.1; and (2) zCOSMOS-deep, a survey of approximately 10,000 galaxies selected through color-selection criteria to have 1.4 < z < 3.0, within the central 1 deg^2. This paper describes the survey design and the construction of the target catalogs and briefly outlines the observational program and the data pipeline. In the first observing season, spectra of 1303 zCOSMOS-bright targets and 977 zCOSMOS-deep targets have been obtained. These are briefly analyzed to demonstrate the characteristics that may be expected from zCOSMOS, and particularly zCOSMOS-bright, when it is finally completed between 2008 and 2009. The power of combining spectroscopic and photometric redshifts is demonstrated, especially in correctly identifying the emission line in single-line spectra and in determining which of the less reliable spectroscopic redshifts are correct and which are incorrect. These techniques bring the overall success rate in the zCOSMOS-bright so far to almost 90% and to above 97% in the 0.5 < z < 0.8 redshift range. Our zCOSMOS-deep spectra demonstrate the power of our selection techniques to isolate high-redshift galaxies at 1.4 < z < 3.0 and of VIMOS to measure their redshifts using ultraviolet absorption lines