Modulation of cognitive performance and mood by aromas of peppermint and ylang-ylang

This study provides further evidence for the impact of the aromas of plant essential oils on aspects of cognition and mood in healthy participants. One hundred and forty-four volunteers were randomly assigned to conditions of ylang-ylang aroma, peppermint aroma, or no aroma control. Cognitive performance was assessed using the Cognitive Drug Research computerized assessment battery, with mood scales completed before and after cognitive testing. The analysis of the data revealed significant differences between conditions on a number of the factors underpinning the tests that constitute the battery. Peppermint was found to enhance memory whereas ylang-ylang impaired it, and lengthened processing speed. In terms of subjective mood peppermint increased alertness and ylang-ylang decreased it, but significantly increased calmness. These results provide support for the contention that the aromas of essential oils can produce significant and idiosyncratic effects on both subjective and objective assessments of aspects of human behavior. They are discussed with reference to possible pharmacological and psychological modes of influence

Managing complex interoperability solutions using model-driven architecture

The increasing need to exchange information in joint operations has resulted in interoperability standards of significant complexity. For instance, the Joint Consultation, Command, and Control Information Exchange Data Model (JC3IEDM) that is part of the MIP interoperability solution has almost doubled in size since 2002. The configuration management of complex data models, especially in the context of international standardization activities, is a challenging task, because many different artifacts (examples, documentation, etc.) must be kept synchronized as the model evolves. Ideally, data models are expressed at several levels of abstraction in the form of computation-independent (business) models, platform-independent models (PIM), and platform-specific models (PSM). Efficient transformation tools are desirable to automate the generation of PSMs from a PIM. Another important aspect concerns the collaboration of different Communities of Interest (COIs). Diverging information exchange requirements call for a modular or even federated data model rather than a monolithic, indivisible one. In this paper, we demonstrate how the use of formal languages and the concepts of Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) can be applied to the JC3IEDM in order to improve the maintenance, consistency, and comprehension of the model and to provide implementers with products that allow them to build interoperability solutions for their C2 systems more easily

Plasma 1,8-cineole correlates with cognitive performance following exposure to rosemary essential oil aroma

Objective: The mode of influence of the aromas of plant essential oils on human behaviour is largely unclear. This study was designed to assess the potential pharmacological relationships between absorbed 1,8-cineole following exposure to rosemary aroma, cognitive performance and mood. Methods: Twenty healthy volunteers performed serial subtraction and visual information processing tasks in a cubicle diffused with the aroma of rosemary. Mood assessments were made pre and post testing, and venous blood was sampled at the end of the session. Pearson correlations were carried out between serum levels of 1,8-cineole, cognitive performance measures and change in mood scores. Results: Here we show for the first time that performance on cognitive tasks is significantly related to concentration of absorbed 1,8-cineole following exposure to rosemary aroma, with improved performance at higher concentrations. Furthermore, these effects were found for speed and accuracy outcomes, indicating that the relationship is not describing a speed–accuracy trade off. The relationships between 1,8-cineole levels and mood were less pronounced, but did reveal a significant negative correlation between change in contentment and plasma 1,8-cineole levels. Conclusion: These findings suggest that compounds absorbed from rosemary aroma affect cognition and subjective state independently through different neurochemical pathways

A heterosynaptic learning rule for neural networks

Software engineering utilizes selected knowledge sources from which the fundamental concepts for the software solution can be extracted. The quality of the adopted knowledge sources intrinsically defines the quality of the software solution. This quality of knowledge sources is, on the one hand, determined by its objectivity value, and on the other hand, by its relevance value for the given problem. Since the relevance and objectivity values may change due to newly generated knowledge or evolving requirements, crisp decisions in accepting or rejecting the knowledge sources will result in an inappropriate evaluation. We propose to apply fuzzy reasoning in which knowledge sources are assigned fuzzy linguistic quality values to express the quality degrees. This provides a more precise evaluation and can better cope with the evolution of the knowledge sources and the corresponding software requirements. We describe the validation of our proposal with an experimental case study on the evaluation of domain knowledge for the design of transaction systems