Dopaminergic Medication Decreases Motor Impulsivity on the Go/No-go Task in Parkinson\u27s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by resting tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia. Dopaminergic medications treat motor symptoms, but have complex effects on cognition, including impulse control. Impulsivity is multifaceted in nature. Motor impulsivity involves inability to withhold prepotent, automatic responses whereas cognitive impulsivity refers to increased risk-taking and reward-seeking. We anticipated that dopaminergic therapy would decrease motor impulsivity. We employed the Go/No-go paradigm to assess motor impulsivity. PD patients were tested on and off their dopaminergic medication. PD patients on medication had a significantly higher proportion of Go Timeouts (i.e., Go responses not completed by the 750 millisecond deadline) compared to off medication (p=0.01). We interpret that dopaminergic therapy induces more conservative responding (i.e., decreased motor impulsivity) in PD patients. This contrasts with the widely-recognized notion of dopaminergic therapy increasing cognitive impulsivity and risk of impulse control disorders. Understanding the nuanced effects of dopaminergic treatment in PD will inform clinical decisions

A target guided subband filter for acoustic event detection in noisy environments using wavelet packets

This paper deals with acoustic event detection (AED), such as screams, gunshots, and explosions, in noisy environments. The main aim is to improve the detection performance under adverse conditions with a very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). A novel filtering method combined with an energy detector is presented. The wavelet packet transform (WPT) is first used for time-frequency representation of the acoustic signals. The proposed filter in the wavelet packet domain then uses a priori knowledge of the target event and an estimate of noise features to selectively suppress the background noise. It is in fact a content-aware band-pass filter which can automatically pass the frequency bands that are more significant in the target than in the noise. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed filtering method is capable of enhancing the target content while suppressing the background noise for signals with a low SNR. A condition to increase the probability of correct detection is also obtained. Experiments have been carried out on a large dataset of acoustic events that are contaminated by different types of environmental noise and white noise with varying SNRs. Results show that the proposed method is more robust and better adapted to noise than ordinary energy detectors, and it can work even with an SNR as low as -15 dB. A practical system for real time processing and multi-target detection is also proposed in this work

Anti-TNF-α Therapies in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α is not just a proinflammatory cytokine. It has also been proposed to be an immunoregulatory molecule that can alter the balance of T regulatory cells. Anti-TNF-α therapies have been provided clinical benefit to many patients and introduced for treating moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, and other chronic inflammatory disorders. However, their use also is accompanied by new or aggravated forms of autoimmunity, such as formation of autoantibodies, including antinuclear antibodies (ANAs), antidouble-stranded DNA (dsDNA) antibodies, and anticardiolipin antibodies (ACL). Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a disease with autoimmune disturbance and inflammatory damage. The role of TNF-α in human SLE is controversial. Here we review the role of TNF-α in the pathophysiological processes of SLE and the likely effects of blocking TNF-α in treatment of SLE

Spaceborne miniaturized UHF dual band helix antenna with a small frequency ratio

This study proposes a novel miniaturized circularly polarized (CP) ultrahigh frequency (UHF) quadrifilar helix antenna for spaceborne applications. The dual-band operation is realized using four inverted-U shaped helical strips (IUSHSs) that are rotated and alternately arranged on the four faces of a hollow polyimide cuboid in a sequential rotation manner, which effectively reduces the size of the antenna. Furthermore, the four IUSHSs are connected by a cross-shape strip at the top of the antenna to control the dual resonant frequencies, resulting in a small dual-band frequency ratio. The proposed antenna is both lightweight and robust when compared with the conventional miniaturized CP antennas operating at similar bands with similar performance. In particular, its compact radiator provides effective miniaturized spaceborne solution without the need of high-dielectric coefficient materials. A device for spaceborne application that operates at 402/505 MHz is designed, fabricated, measured, and in-orbit tested with a weight of 651 g and an effective size of 0.161 7 0.161 7 0.228 λ3402MHz (λ402MHz is the wavelength at 402 MHz). The measured gain and axial ratio of the proposed antenna are better than 5.32 dBi and 2.18 dB, respectively, within 2 and 12 MHz bandwidth for the two bands. The test results proved that the methods used to design the proposed antenna are effective

Axial Force Analysis and Roll Contour Configuration of Four-High CVC Mill

In order to analyze the influence of technical parameters on work roll axial force of four-high continuous variable crown (CVC) mill, the deformation analyzing model with top roll system and strip was established based on influence function method. Then a CVC work roll curve designing scheme was proposed and it was carried out on some cold rolling mill considering the requirement of comprehensive work roll axial force minimization. The status of comprehensive work roll axial force is improved considering the rolling schedule that is beneficial to the roller bearing. Corresponding to the newly designed work roll contour, the backup roll end chamfer was designed considering comprehensive performance of interroll stress concentration, comprehensive work roll axial force, and strip shape control ability. The distribution of roll wear with newly designed backup roll contour is more even according to the field application data. The newly established roll configuration scheme is beneficial to four-high CVC mill

Dual-band circularly-polarized shared-aperture array for C/X-Band satellite communications

A novel method of achieving a single-feed circularly-polarized (CP) microstrip antenna with both broad impedance bandwidth and axial ratio (AR) bandwidth is presented. The CP characteristics are generated by employing a resonator to excite the two orthogonal modes of the patch via two coupling paths and the required 90 o phase difference is achieved by using the different orders of the two paths. The presented method, instead of conventional methods that power dividers and phase delay lines are usually required, not only significantly enhances the bandwidths of the antenna, but also results in a compact feed, reduced loss and high gain. Based on this method, a dual-band shared-aperture CP array antenna is implemented for C/X-band satellite communications. The antenna aperture includes a 2 × 2 array at C-band and a 4 ×4 array at X-band. To accommodate the C/X-band elements into the same aperture while achieving a good isolation between them, the C-band circular patches are etched at the four corners. The measured results agree well with the simulations, showing a wide impedance bandwidth of 21% and 21.2% at C-and X-band, respectively. The C-and X-band 3-dB AR bandwidths are 13.2% and 12.8%. The array also exhibits a high aperture efficiency of over 55%, low side-lobe (C-band: −12.5 dB; X-band: −15 dB) and high gain (C-band: 14.5 dBic; X-band: 17.5 dBic)