Centaur 1939

Digitised by the Faculty of the Veterinary Scienc

Securing Important Strigolactone Key Structures: Orobanchol and 5-Deoxystrigol

Contains fulltext : 158677.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Approaches and Challenges for Cognitive Vision Systems

Abstract. A cognitive visual system is generally intended to work robustly under varying environmental conditions, adapt to a broad range of unforeseen changes, and even exhibit prospective behavior like systematically anticipating possible visual events. These properties are unquestionably out of reach of currently available solutions. To analyze the reasons underlying this failure, in this paper we develop the idea of a vision system that flexibly controls the order and the accessibility of visual processes during operation. Vision is hereby understood as the dynamic process of selective adaptation of visual parameters and modules as a function of underlying goals or intentions. This perspective requires a specific architectural organization, since vision is then a continuous balance between the sensory stimulation and internally generated information. Furthermore, the consideration of intrinsic resource limitations and their organization by means of an appropriate control substrate become a centerpiece for the creation of truly cognitive vision systems. We outline the main concepts that are required for the development of such systems, and discuss modern approaches to a few selected vision subproblems like image segmentation, item tracking and visual object classification from the perspective of their integration and recruitment into a cognitive vision system

iAnn: an event sharing platform for the life sciences

Item does not contain fulltextSUMMARY: We present iAnn, an open source community-driven platform for dissemination of life science events, such as courses, conferences and workshops. iAnn allows automatic visualisation and integration of customised event reports. A central repository lies at the core of the platform: curators add submitted events, and these are subsequently accessed via web services. Thus, once an iAnn widget is incorporated into a website, it permanently shows timely relevant information as if it were native to the remote site. At the same time, announcements submitted to the repository are automatically disseminated to all portals that query the system. To facilitate the visualization of announcements, iAnn provides powerful filtering options and views, integrated in Google Maps and Google Calendar. All iAnn widgets are freely available. AVAILABILITY: http://iann.pro/iannviewer CONTACT: [email protected]

Walking stabilizes cognitive functioning in Alzheimer's disease (AD) across one year

AD is a public health epidemic, which seriously impacts cognition, mood and daily activities; however, one type of activity, exercise, has been shown to alter these states. Accordingly, we sought to investigate the relationship between exercise and mood, in early-stage AD patients (N = 104) from California, over a 1-year period. Patients completed the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and Blessed-Roth Dementia Rating Scale (BRDRS), while their caregivers completed the Yale Physical Activity Survey (YALE), Profile of Mood States (POMS), the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and Functional Abilities Questionnaire (FAQ). Approximately half of the participants were female, from a variety of ethnic groups (Caucasian = 69.8%; Latino/Hispanic Americans = 20.1%). Our results demonstrated that the patients spent little time engaged in physical activity in general, their overall activity levels decreased over time, and this was paired with a change in global cognition (e.g., MMSE total score) and affect/mood (e.g., POMS score). Patients were parsed into Active and Sedentary groups based on their Yale profiles, with Active participants engaged in walking activities, weekly, over 1 year. Here, Sedentary patients had a significant decline in MMSE scores, while the Active patients had an attenuation in global cognitive decline. Importantly, among the Active AD patients, those individuals who engaged in walking for more than 2 h/week had a significant improvement in MMSE scores. Structured clinical trials which seek to increase the amount of time AD patients were engaged in walking activities and evaluate the nature and scope of beneficial effects in the brain are warranted