Hinter den Kulissen der russischen Konterrevolution : die Bildung russischer nationaler Formationen an der baltischen Front

http://www.ester.ee/record=b4182821*es

Smart helmet: wearable multichannel ECG & EEG

Modern wearable technologies have enabled continuous recording of vital signs, however, for activities such as cycling, motor-racing, or military engagement, a helmet with embedded sensors would provide maximum convenience and the opportunity to monitor simultaneously both the vital signs and the electroencephalogram (EEG). To this end, we investigate the feasibility of recording the electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration, and EEG from face-lead locations, by embedding multiple electrodes within a standard helmet. The electrode positions are at the lower jaw, mastoids, and forehead, while for validation purposes a respiration belt around the thorax and a reference ECG from the chest serve as ground truth to assess the performance. The within-helmet EEG is verified by exposing the subjects to periodic visual and auditory stimuli and screening the recordings for the steady-state evoked potentials in response to these stimuli. Cycling and walking are chosen as real-world activities to illustrate how to deal with the so-induced irregular motion artifacts, which contaminate the recordings. We also propose a multivariate R-peak detection algorithm suitable for such noisy environments. Recordings in real-world scenarios support a proof of concept of the feasibility of recording vital signs and EEG from the proposed smart helmet

Kollektive Ver- und Bearbeitungsformen von Peergroups in der Schule

"Ausgehend von einer Theorie der Praxis und mit den methodologischen Mitteln der rekonstruktiven Sozialforschung untersucht der vorliegende Beitrag das Verhältnis von kollektiven Handlungspraxen jugendlicher Peergroups in ihrer Auseinandersetzung mit der Schule. Dabei konnten drei unterschiedliche Habitusformen rekonstruiert werden, deren Differenz sich vor allem durch eine unterschiedliche Distinktionspraxis gegenüber zwei sozialen Feldern innerhalb der Schule ergab." (Autorenreferat)"A theory of praxis and the methodological resources of reconstructive social research are employed to analyze the relation of the collective practices shown by adolescent peer groups in dealing with their experiences in school. Three types of habitus were reconstructed which primarily differ in the practices of distinction shown by these groups in response to two different social fields within school." (author's abstract

Pädagogik als Trumpf – die Karriere einer sozialistischen Professorin an der Humboldt-Universität

Für Gesellschaftsanalysen bietet die Universität einen interessanten Forschungsgegenstand. Gerade dort, wo Wahrheit gesucht wird, zeigt sich, wie es mit der Freiheit steht. Aus dieser Perspektive hatten die Universitäten in der SBZ und DDR von Beginn an einen schweren Stand. Nach dem Nationalsozialismus wurde eine zweite Diktatur in Deutschland etabliert. Für die Universitäten bedeutete dies zunächst eine „Atmosphäre der ideologischen Gängelung, Denunziation und Repression“ (Jessen 1999, 283). Viele der als bürgerlich empfundenen Professoren, wie beispielsweise Eduard Spranger, wurden aus der Universität gedrängt. Schlimmer noch, zwischen 1945 und 1962 zählten Marianne Müller und Egon Erwin Müller sowie der Verband Deutscher Studentenschaften (VDS) 47 Professoren, die aus politischen Gründen verhaftet und teilweise sogar verschleppt wurden. Die Suche nach Wahrheit stand in der DDR von Beginn an immer auch im Zeichen der politischen Repression. Was dies für die Universität bedeutete, wird im Folgenden anhand der DDR-Krippenforschung und der Karriere von Eva Schmidt-Kolmer (1913-1991) an der Berliner Humboldt-Universität untersucht. Im Fokus stehen dabei die 1950er und 1960er Jahre, insbesondere der Zeitraum zwischen 1958 und 1962, in dem deutlich wird, dass die Krippenforschung in ihrem Beharren auf Grundprinzipien der Wissenschaft in Konflikt mit den Reformbestrebungen der SED geriet, die Gesellschaft und auch die Wissenschaft im Sinne des Sozialismus umzugestalten. (DIPF/Orig.

Resolving ambiguities in the LF/HF Ratio: LF-HF scatter plots for the categorization of mental and physical stress from HRV

It is generally accepted that the activities of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which consists of the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous systems (PNS), are reflected in the low- (LF) and high-frequency (HF) bands in heart rate variability (HRV)—while, not without some controversy, the ratio of the powers in those frequency bands, the so called LF-HF ratio (LF/HF), has been used to quantify the degree of sympathovagal balance. Indeed, recent studies demonstrate that, in general: (i) sympathovagal balance cannot be accurately measured via the ratio of the LF- and HF- power bands; and (ii) the correspondence between the LF/HF ratio and the psychological and physiological state of a person is not unique. Since the standard LF/HF ratio provides only a single degree of freedom for the analysis of this 2D phenomenon, we propose a joint treatment of the LF and HF powers in HRV within a two-dimensional representation framework, thus providing the required degrees of freedom. By virtue of the proposed 2D representation, the restrictive assumption of the linear dependence between the activity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the LF-HF frequency band powers is demonstrated to become unnecessary. The proposed analysis framework also opens up completely new possibilities for a more comprehensive and rigorous examination of HRV in relation to physical and mental states of an individual, and makes possible the categorization of different stress states based on HRV. In addition, based on instantaneous amplitudes of Hilbert-transformed LF- and HF-bands, a novel approach to estimate the markers of stress in HRV is proposed and is shown to improve the robustness to artifacts and irregularities, critical issues in real-world recordings. The proposed approach for resolving the ambiguities in the standard LF/HF-ratio analyses is verified over a number of real-world stress-invoking scenarios

Pain prediction from ECG in vascular surgery

Varicose vein surgeries are routine outpatient procedures, which are often performed under local anaesthesia. The use of local anaesthesia both minimises the risk to patients and is cost effective, however, a number of patients still experience pain during surgery. Surgical teams must therefore decide to administer either a general or local anaesthetic based on their subjective qualitative assessment of patient anxiety and sensitivity to pain, without any means to objectively validate their decision. To this end, we develop a 3-D polynomial surface fit, of physiological metrics and numerical pain ratings from patients, in order to model the link between the modulation of cardiovascular responses and pain in varicose vein surgeries. Spectral and structural complexity features found in heart rate variability signals, recorded immediately prior to 17 varicose vein surgeries, are used as pain metrics. The so obtained pain prediction model is validated through a leave-one-out validation, and achieved a Kappa coefficient of 0.72 (substantial agreement) and an area below a receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.97 (almost perfect accuracy). This proof-of-concept study conclusively demonstrates the feasibility of the accurate classification of pain sensitivity, and introduces a mathematical model to aid clinicians in the objective administration of the safest and most cost-effective anaesthetic to individual patients

Windows over a New Low Energy Axion

We outline some general features of possible extensions of the Standard Model that include anomalous U(1) gauge symmetries, a certain number of axions and their mixings with the CP-odd Higgs sector. As previously shown, after the mixing one of the axions becomes a physical pseudoscalar (the axi-Higgs) that can take the role of a modified QCD axion. It can be driven to be very light by the same non-perturbative effects that are held responsible for the solution of the strong CP-problem. At the same time the axi-Higgs has a sizeable gauge interaction, which is not allowed to the Peccei-Quinn axion, possibly explaining the PVLAS results. We point out that the Wess-Zumino term, typical of these models, can be both interpreted as an anomaly inflow from higher dimensional theories (second window) but also as a result of partial decoupling of an extra Higgs sector (and of a fermion) that leaves behind an effective anomalous abelian theory (first window) in a broken St\"{u}ckelberg phase. The possibility that the axi-Higgs can be heavy, of the order of the Higgs mass or larger, however, can't be excluded. The potentialities for the discovery of this particle and of anomaly effects in the neutral current sector at the LHC are briefly discussed in the context of a superstring inspired model (second window), but with results that remain valid also if any of the two possibilities is realized in Nature.Comment: 17 pages, 8 Figs, replaced with revised final version, to appear on Phys.Lett.

Compliance with focused antenatal care services: do health workers in rural Burkina Faso, Uganda and Tanzania perform all ANC procedures?

\ud \ud To assess health workers' compliance with the procedures set in the focused antenatal care (ANC) guidelines in rural Uganda, Tanzania and Burkina Faso; to compare the compliance within and among the three study sites; and to appraise the logistic and supply of the respective health facilities (HF). The cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural HF in three African countries. This descriptive observational study took place in HF in Nouna, Burkina Faso (5), Iganga, Uganda (6) and Rufiji, Tanzania (7). In total, 788 ANC sessions and service provisions were observed, the duration of each ANC service provision was calculated, and the infrastructures of the respective HF were assessed. Health workers in all HF performed most of the procedures but also omitted certain practices stipulated in the focused ANC guidelines. There was a substantial variation in provision of ANC services among HF within and among the country sites. The findings also revealed that the duration of first visits was <15 min and health workers spent even less time in subsequent visits in all three sites. Reagents for laboratory tests and drugs as outlined in the focus ANC guidelines were often out of stock in most facilities. Health workers in all three country sites failed to perform all procedures stipulated in the focused ANC guideline; this could not be always explained by the lack of supplies. It is crucial to point out the necessity of the core procedures of ANC repeatedly