Audio application as a mean of Chinese students’ e-learning

Presents an audio application for Chinese students taking preliminary mathematics courses taught in Russian and aspiring to get higher education in Russia. The audiovisual materials provided help to develop foreign students’ listening comprehension skills, deepening their knowledge both in the Russian language and mathematics. Audio application can be used without teachers’ guidance

Role of Basal Ganglia Circuits in Resisting Interference by Distracters: A swLORETA Study

BACKGROUND: The selection of task-relevant information requires both the focalization of attention on the task and resistance to interference from irrelevant stimuli. Both mechanisms rely on a dorsal frontoparietal network, while focalization additionally involves a ventral frontoparietal network. The role of subcortical structures in attention is less clear, despite the fact that the striatum interacts significantly with the frontal cortex via frontostriatal loops. One means of investigating the basal ganglia's contributions to attention is to examine the features of P300 components (i.e. amplitude, latency, and generators) in patients with basal ganglia damage (such as in Parkinson's disease (PD), in which attention is often impaired). Three-stimulus oddball paradigms can be used to study distracter-elicited and target-elicited P300 subcomponents. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In order to compare distracter- and target-elicited P300 components, high-density (128-channel) electroencephalograms were recorded during a three-stimulus visual oddball paradigm in 15 patients with early PD and 15 matched healthy controls. For each subject, the P300 sources were localized using standardized weighted low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (swLORETA). Comparative analyses (one-sample and two-sample t-tests) were performed using SPM5® software. The swLORETA analyses showed that PD patients displayed fewer dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPF) distracter-P300 generators but no significant differences in target-elicited P300 sources; this suggests dysfunction of the DLPF cortex when the executive frontostriatal loop is disrupted by basal ganglia damage. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that the cortical attention frontoparietal networks (mainly the dorsal one) are modulated by the basal ganglia. Disruption of this network in PD impairs resistance to distracters, which results in attention disorders

European clinical guidelines for Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders. Part II: pharmacological treatment

To develop a European guideline on pharmacologic treatment of Tourette syndrome (TS) the available literature was thoroughly screened and extensively discussed by a working group of the European Society for the Study of Tourette syndrome (ESSTS). Although there are many more studies on pharmacotherapy of TS than on behavioral treatment options, only a limited number of studies meets rigorous quality criteria. Therefore, we have devised a two-stage approach. First, we present the highest level of evidence by reporting the findings of existing Cochrane reviews in this field. Subsequently, we provide the first comprehensive overview of all reports on pharmacological treatment options for TS through a MEDLINE, PubMed, and EMBASE search for all studies that document the effect of pharmacological treatment of TS and other tic disorders between 1970 and November 2010. We present a summary of the current consensus on pharmacological treatment options for TS in Europe to guide the clinician in daily practice. This summary is, however, rather a status quo of a clinically helpful but merely low evidence guideline, mainly driven by expert experience and opinion, since rigorous experimental studies are scarce

GRAIN BOUNDARY DIFFUSION OF BULK INTERSTITIALS IN ALPHA-ZIRCONIUM

L'autodiffusion et la diffusion des solutés Co et Fe dont la diffusion s'effectue interstitiellement dans le volume ont été mesurées dans les joints de grains de α-Zr sur une large gamme de température au moyen de la technique de radiotraceurs. Le résultat principal obtenu consiste dans la différence extrêmement grande de huit ordres de magnitudes en P = sδDGB entre les solutés rapides et l'autodiffusion dans les joints. Cette différence peut seulement être expliquée par une forte ségrégation du soluté liée à des coefficients très élevés de la diffusion intergranulaire Dgb du soluté qui est au moins de quatre décades plus grande que l'autodiffusion intergranulaire en α-Zr. Un mécanisme de lacunes ne peut plus être à la base d'une telle différence. Il est donc supposé que la diffusion de Co et Fe se fait par interstices dans les joints de grains du α-Zr.Self diffusion and diffusion of Co and Fe solutes, which diffuse interstitially in the bulk were measured in grain boundaries of α-Zr within a wide temperature range by the radiotracer technique. The main result is the extremely large difference of eight orders in magnitude in P = sδDgb between fast solute and self diffusivity in the boundaries. This difference can only be explained by strong solute segregations together with very large solute grain boundary diffusion coefficients Dgb, which are at least four decades larger than grain boundary self diffusion coefficients in α-Zr. A vacancy mechanism cannot account any more for such a difference. It is therefore assumed that Co and Fe diffuse interstitially in α-Zr grain boundaries