The impact of restricted diet on brain function using BOLD-fMRI

We investigated the effect of a restricted diet model on activity in the human motor cortex using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Two series of blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD)-fMRI measurements were made in healthy subjects performing simple motor tasks using their right hands. The first series was done 5-10days prior to the restricted diet schedule (controls), and the second series was performed after 25-28days of restricted diet, in the form of a religious fast (Ramadan). The size and intensity of the activated area in the motor cortex increased during the time of restricted diet versus the controls. We conclude that restricted diet has a significant effect on cerebral activity, as shown by BOLD-fMRI, although the exact relationship between the images and neuronal activity due to the restricted diet is still to be determine

Shear strength properties of wet granular materials

We investigate shear strength properties of wet granular materials in the pendular state (i.e. the state where the liquid phase is discontinuous) as a function of water content. Sand and glass beads were wetted and tested in a direct shear cell and under various confining pressures. In parallel, we carried out three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations by using an explicit equation expressing capillary force as a function of interparticle distance, water bridge volume and surface tension. We show that, due to the peculiar features of capillary interactions, the major influence of water content over the shear strength stems from the distribution of liquid bonds. This property results in shear strength saturation as a function of water content. We arrive at the same conclusion by a microscopic analysis of the shear strength. We propose a model that accounts for the capillary force, the granular texture and particle size polydispersity. We find fairly good agreement of the theoretical estimate of the shear strength with both experimental data and simulations. From numerical data, we analyze the connectivity and anisotropy of different classes of liquid bonds according to the sign and level of the normal force as well as the bond direction. We find that weak compressive bonds are almost isotropically distributed whereas strong compressive and tensile bonds have a pronounced anisotropy. The probability distribution function of normal forces is exponentially decreasing for strong compressive bonds, a decreasing power-law function over nearly one decade for weak compressive bonds and an increasing linear function in the range of tensile bonds. These features suggest that different bond classes do not play the same role with respect to the shear strength.Comment: 12 page

Message from the EDOC 2020 Workshop, Demo, and Doctoral Consortium Chairs

International audienceFor over twenty years the EDOC conference has been the primary annual event for disseminating and discussing the latest developments in the area of enterprise computing. The workshop program is an important satellite event of the EDOC conference. Workshops cover more focused topics and allow for the presentation and discussion of work that is in the earlier development stages. As such, the workshops provide an excellent forum for discussing topics from the area of enterprise computing that have the potential to become important research streams within the next few years, and for discussing topics that are already important in a smaller and more focused setting. In addition to the workshop program, the EDOC Demonstration track offers an exciting and highly interactive outlet for researchers and practitioners to present prototypes and applications in the context of enterprise computing. Four demonstrations are presented this year. 2020 is the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a strong impact on research and social life. Despite the challenges of new organization (the conference and the workshops will be held on-line), we are proud to present an interesting program and the four workshops that will be held in conjunction with EDOC this year:• The workshop on Trends in Enterprise Architecture Research, (TEAR)• The workshop on Service-oriented Enterprise Architecture for Enterprise Engineering (SoEA4EE)• The workshop on Privacy and Security in Enterprise Modeling (PriSEM)• The workshop on Frontiers of Process Aware Systems (FoPAS).[...

News discourses on distant suffering: A critical discourse analysis of the 2003 SARS outbreak

News carries a unique signifying power, a power to represent events in particular ways (Fairclough, 1995). Applying Critical Discourse Analysis and Chouliaraki's theory on the mediation of suffering (2006), this article explores the news representation of the 2003 global SARS outbreak. Following a case-based methodology, we investigate how two Belgian television stations have covered the international outbreak of SARS. By looking into the mediation of four selected discursive moments, underlying discourses of power, hierarchy and compassion were unraveled. The analysis further identified the key role of proximity in international news reporting and supports the claim that Western news media mainly reproduce a Euro-American centered world order. This article argues that news coverage of international crises such as SARS constructs and maintains the socio-cultural difference between 'us' and 'them' as well as articulating global power hierarchies and a division of the world in zones of poverty and prosperity, danger and safety

Influence de la polydispersité sur la texture des milieux granulaires

La texture des matériaux granulaires est fortement influencée par le degré de polydispersité des tailles de particules. Dans cet article on présente un modèle de distribution granulométrique associé à un protocole de dépôt géométrique. Ce modèle est suffisamment efficace sur le plan numérique pour permettre une étude systématique des propriétés d'arrangement du milieu (compacité, connectivité, anisotropie) en fonction de la forme et de l'étalement de la courbe granulométrique. Un résultat remarquable de cette étude est la variation non linéaire de la compacité avec l'étalement. On observe notamment un palier où la compacité n'évolue pas avec l'étalement. Une transition a lieu vers les compacités plus élevées lorsque l'étalement permet l'insertion des plus petites particules dans les pores formés par les plus grosses. Cette transition se retrouve au niveau de l'arrangement granulaire qui est relativement régulier sur le pallier et désordonné ensuite

Spindle cell oncocytoma of the adenohypophysis in a woman: a case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Spindle cell oncocytoma of the adenohypophysis is a rare tumour recently reported by Roncaroli <it>et al. </it>in 2002. This tumour is considered a grade I tumour by the World Health Organization.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We describe what is, to the best of our knowledge, the 14th case of its kind in the literature. A 45-year-old African woman presented clinical and radiological findings related to a nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma. The diagnosis was made on the basis of histological and immunohistochemical findings.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The purpose of this work is to report a rare pituitary tumour and to describe its histological and immunohistochemical features, which were characterized by the expression of thyroid transcription factor 1 antigen by tumour cells. This fact could support the theory of a possible common origin of these tumours in pituicytomas. In fact, thyroid transcription factor 1 is considered to be a specific marker of pituicytes.</p

Brezin-Gross-Witten model as "pure gauge" limit of Selberg integrals

The AGT relation identifies the Nekrasov functions for various N=2 SUSY gauge theories with the 2d conformal blocks, which possess explicit Dotsenko-Fateev matrix model (beta-ensemble) representations the latter being polylinear combinations of Selberg integrals. The "pure gauge" limit of these matrix models is, however, a non-trivial multiscaling large-N limit, which requires a separate investigation. We show that in this pure gauge limit the Selberg integrals turn into averages in a Brezin-Gross-Witten (BGW) model. Thus, the Nekrasov function for pure SU(2) theory acquires a form very much reminiscent of the AMM decomposition formula for some model X into a pair of the BGW models. At the same time, X, which still has to be found, is the pure gauge limit of the elliptic Selberg integral. Presumably, it is again a BGW model, only in the Dijkgraaf-Vafa double cut phase.Comment: 21 page

Out of the Panopticon and into Exile:Visibility and Control in Distributed New Culture Organizations

This paper builds a theoretical argument for exile as an alternative metaphor to the panopticon, for conceptualizing visibility and control in the context of distributed “new culture” organizations. Such organizations emphasize team relationships between employees who use digital technologies to stay connected with each other and the organization. I propose that in this context, a fear of exile – that is a fear of being left out, overlooked, ignored or banished – can act as a regulating force that inverts the radial spatial dynamic of the panopticon and shifts the responsibility for visibility, understood both in terms of competitive exposure and existential recognition, onto workers. As a consequence these workers enlist digital technologies to become visible at the real or imagined organizational centre. A conceptual appreciation of exile, as discussed in existential philosophy and postcolonial theory, is shown to offer productive grounds for future research on how a need for visibility in distributed, digitised, and increasingly precarious work environments regulates employee subjectivity, in a manner that is not captured under traditional theories of ICT-enabled surveillance in organizations