The Effects of a Brief Mindfulness Intervention on Negativity Bias for Ambiguous Facial Expressions

This study investigated whether a brief mindfulness intervention influenced dysphoric participants’ appraisals of ambiguous facial expressions of emotion. Previous research suggests dysphoric individuals display a negativity bias, or a propensity to view ambiguous information as more negative, which may contribute to the development of clinical depressive disorders. Recent evidence suggests that mindfulness may mitigate this effect; however, the impact of mindfulness on socially relevant appraisals of ambiguous emotional expressions remains unknown. In the present study, 64 participants (36 without dysphoria, 28 with dysphoria) rated the relative emotional valence of six ambiguous facial expressions after listening to either a 19-minute mindfulness recording or a 19-minute excerpt from The Hobbit audiobook. The dysphoric participants who received the mindfulness meditation showed a marginally significant tendency to rate the ambiguous facial expressions as more positive than the dysphoric group in the control condition. The results provide tentative support for the hypothesis that a brief mindfulness intervention is capable of reducing dysphoric individuals’ negativity bias for ambiguous facial expressions. However, the effects of the brief mindfulness intervention were transient and had largely dissipated by the time participants had completed the study. Thus, brief mindfulness meditation interventions may be of limited practical benefit, although more enduring changes in negativity bias might result from longer term, therapeutic mindfulness interventions. Implications and directions for future research are discussed

Hardware-In-Loop Evaluation of Microgrid Protection Schemes

Distributed energy resources are becoming more common in distribution systems. Higher energy prices and increased interest in alternative energy sources are two of the driving forces behind this trend. Local utilities, however, anticipate very serious distribution system protection problems resulting from high penetration of these resources. The microgrid concept has been proposed as a possible solution to integrating distributed energy resources without adversely impacting the distribution system. Protection schemes have been proposed to work within this microgrid structure, but very little testing with real hardware is available. Without a practical solution for microgrid protection, backed by extensive studies, microgrids are unlikely to receive wide acceptance. This thesis outlines modeling of microgrids for protection testing using a real time digital simulator. In addition, the construction of a low voltage, low power, hardware-in-loop test bed using relays and an automation controller is detailed. The results of testing possible microgrid protection schemes using this apparatus are presented along with conclusions and suggestions for future work

Design of a walking robot

Carnegie Mellon University's Autonomous Planetary Exploration Program (APEX) is currently building the Daedalus robot; a system capable of performing extended autonomous planetary exploration missions. Extended autonomy is an important capability because the continued exploration of the Moon, Mars and other solid bodies within the solar system will probably be carried out by autonomous robotic systems. There are a number of reasons for this - the most important of which are the high cost of placing a man in space, the high risk associated with human exploration and communication delays that make teleoperation infeasible. The Daedalus robot represents an evolutionary approach to robot mechanism design and software system architecture. Daedalus incorporates key features from a number of predecessor systems. Using previously proven technologies, the Apex project endeavors to encompass all of the capabilities necessary for robust planetary exploration. The Ambler, a six-legged walking machine was developed by CMU for demonstration of technologies required for planetary exploration. In its five years of life, the Ambler project brought major breakthroughs in various areas of robotic technology. Significant progress was made in: mechanism and control, by introducing a novel gait pattern (circulating gait) and use of orthogonal legs; perception, by developing sophisticated algorithms for map building; and planning, by developing and implementing the Task Control Architecture to coordinate tasks and control complex system functions. The APEX project is the successor of the Ambler project

Pekeris waveguide comparisons of methods for predicting acoustic field amplitude uncertainty caused by a spatially uniform environmental uncertainty (L)

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98654/1/JAS000589.pd

Brain dystrophin-glycoprotein complex: Persistent expression of beta-dystroglycan, impaired oligomerization of Dp71 and up-regulation of utrophins in animal models of muscular dystrophy

BACKGROUND: Aside from muscle, brain is also a major expression site for dystrophin, the protein whose abnormal expression is responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Cognitive impairments are frequently associated with this genetic disease, we therefore studied the fate of brain and skeletal muscle dystrophins and dystroglycans in dystrophic animal models. RESULTS: All dystrophin-associated glycoproteins investigated were reduced in dystrophic muscle fibres. In Dp427-deficient mdx brain and Dp71-deficient mdx-3cv brain, the expression of α-dystroglycan and laminin was reduced, utrophin isoforms were up-regulated and β-dystroglycan was not affected. Immunofluorescence localization of β-dystroglycan in comparison with glial, endothelial and neuronal cell markers revealed co-localization of von Willebrand factor with β-dystroglycan. Its expression at the endothelial-glial interface was preserved in dystrophin isoform-deficient brain from mdx and mdx-3cv mice. In addition, chemical crosslinking revealed that the Dp71 isoform exists in mdx brain predominantly as a monomer. CONCLUSIONS: This suggests an association of β-dystroglycan with membranes at the vascular-glial interface in the forebrain. In contrast to dystrophic skeletal muscle fibres, dystrophin deficiency does not trigger a reduction of all dystroglycans in the brain, and utrophins may partially compensate for the lack of brain dystrophins. Abnormal oligomerization of the dystrophin isoform Dp71 might be involved in the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying abnormal brain functions