Benefits of listening to a recording of euphoric joint music making in polydrug abusers

Background and Aims: Listening to music can have powerful physiological and therapeutic effects. Some essential features of the mental mechanism underlying beneficial effects of music are probably strong physiological and emotional associations with music created during the act of music making. Here we tested this hypothesis in a clinical population of polydrug abusers in rehabilitation listening to a previously performed act of physiologically and emotionally intense music making. Methods: Psychological effects of listening to self-made music that was created in a previous musical feedback intervention were assessed. In this procedure, participants produced music with exercise machines (Jymmin) which modulate musical sounds. Results: The data showed a positive effect of listening to the recording of joint music making on self-efficacy, mood, and a readiness to engage socially. Furthermore, the data showed the powerful influence of context on how the recording evoked psychological benefits. The effects of listening to the self-made music were only observable when participants listened to their own performance first; listening to a control music piece first caused effects to deteriorate. We observed a positive correlation between participants' mood and their desire to engage in social activities with their former training partners after listening to the self-made music. This shows that the observed effects of listening to the recording of the single musical feedback intervention are influenced by participants recapitulating intense pleasant social interactions during the Jymmin intervention. Conclusions: Listening to music that was the outcome of a previous musical feedback (Jymmin) intervention has beneficial psychological and probably social effects in patients that had suffered from polydrug addiction, increasing self-efficacy, mood, and a readiness to engage socially. These intervention effects, however, depend on the context in which the music recordings are presented

Increasing divergent thinking capabilities with music-feedback exercise

Divergent thinking is an essential aspect of creativity and has been shown to be affected both by music and physical exercise. While it has been shown that making music and physical exercise can be beneficial for Divergent Thinking in isolation, it is unclear whether the effects can be combined. The present experiment investigated the relation of physical exertion and being in control of music on Divergent Thinking and the possibility of an interaction effect. Seventy-seven predominantly young, German participants were tested with measurements of Divergent Thinking collected after either (1) physical exercise with music listening, (2) making music with a knob setup without physical effort (music control only), or (3) making physical exercise with musical feedback (Jymmin (TM)). Results showed greater increases in Divergent Thinking scores following music-feedback exercise compared to conditions of physical exercise with music listening and music control only. The data thus demonstrate that making music part of a physical exercise routine more strongly leads to the benefit of increased creative capacities, which we argue will be beneficial for athletes to prepare for certain types of competition/performance and as part of regeneration training

fulgeo-Design of an Intuitive User Interface for a Multimedia Search Engine

Multimedia documents like PowerPoint presentations or Flash documents are widely adopted in the Internet and exist in context of lots of different topics. However, so far there is no user friendly way to explore and search for this content. The aim of this work is to address this issue by developing a new, easy-to-use user interface approach and prototype search engine. Our system is called fulgeo and specifically focuses on a suitable multimedia interface for visualizing the query results of Flash documents. The prototype is available online as live demo at: http://fulgeo.komsys.org

Bidens Idee einer "sole purpose"-Nukleardoktrin für die USA: Folgen für Verbündete in Asien, die NATO und Deutschland

US-Präsident Joseph Biden erwägt, die amerikanische Politik der nuklearen Ab­schreckung zu ändern. Seit Beginn des Atomzeitalters hat Washington stets erklärt, es könne nicht nur auf Angriffe mit Kernwaffen, sondern auch auf nichtnukleare Aggressionen mit nuklearer Vergeltung antworten. Diese deklaratorische Politik könnte bald enger gefasst werden: Biden würde die Rolle von Atomwaffen gern redu­zieren, und zwar durch eine "sole purpose"-Erklärung (SP). Danach wäre es alleiniger Zweck der US-Atomwaffen, nukleare Angriffe abzuschrecken und, falls nötig, auf diese zu reagie­ren. Gegen konventionelle Aggressionen würden die USA nie Kernwaffen einsetzen. Wider Er­warten würde das aber die heute bestehenden nuklearen Risi­ken für die USA kaum reduzieren. Zudem befürchten bereits jetzt die Verbündeten der USA in Europa und Asien, dass SP ihre Sicherheit beeinträchtigt. Auch für Deutsch­land stellt sich die Frage nach politischen und militärischen Folgen einer SP-Politik. (Autorenreferat

Fulgeo - towards an intuitive user interface for a semantics-enabled multimedia search engine

Multimedia documents like PowerPoint presentations or Flash documents are widely adopted in the Internet and exist in context of lots of different topics. However, so far there is no user friendly way to explore and search for this content. The aim of this work is to address this issue by developing a new, easy-to-use user interface approach and prototype search engine. Our system is called fulgeo and specifically focuses on a suitable multimedia interface for visualizing the query results of semantically-enriched Flash documents

Receptor-targeted lentiviral vectors are exceptionally sensitive toward the biophysical properties of the displayed single-chain Fv

An increasing number of applications require the expression of single-chain variable fragments (scFv) fusion proteins in mammalian cells at the cell surface membrane. Here we assessed the CD30-specific scFv HRS3, which is used in immunotherapy, for its ability to retarget lentiviral vectors (LVs) to CD30 and to mediate selective gene transfer into CD30-positive cells. Fused to the C-terminus of the type-II transmembrane protein hemagglutinin (H) of measles virus and expressed in LV packaging cells, gene transfer mediated by the released LV particles was inefficient. A series of point mutations in the scFv framework regions addressing its biophysical properties, which substantially improved production and increased the melting temperature without impairing its kinetic binding behavior to CD30, also improved the performance of LV particles. Gene transfer into CD30-positive cells increased ∼100-fold due to improved transport of the H-scFv protein to the plasma membrane. Concomitantly, LV particle aggregation and syncytia formation in packaging cells were substantially reduced. The data suggest that syncytia formation can be triggered by trans-cellular dimerization of H-scFv proteins displayed on adjacent cells. Taken together, we show that the biophysical properties of the targeting ligand have a decisive role for the gene transfer efficiency of receptor-targeted LV

Observations of volcanic clouds in their first few days of atmospheric residence: The 1992 eruptions of crater peak, Mount Spurr volcano, Alaska

Satellite SO2 and ash measurements of Mount Spurr’s three 1992 volcanic clouds are compared with ground‐based observations to develop an understanding of the physical and chemical evolution of volcanic clouds. Each of the three eruptions with ratings of volcanic explosivity index three reached the lower stratosphere (14 km asl), but the clouds were mainly dispersed at the tropopause by moderate to strong (20–40 m/s) tropospheric winds. Three stages of cloud evolution were identified. First, heavy fallout of large (\u3e500 μm) pyroclasts occurred close to the volcano (vent) during and immediately after the eruptions, and the cloud resembled an advected gravity current. Second, a much larger, highly elongated region marked by a secondary‐mass maximum occurred 150–350 km downwind in at least two of the three events. This was the result of aggregate fallout of a bimodal size distribution including fine (\u3c25 \u3eμm) ash that quickly depleted the solid fraction of the volcanic cloud. For the first several hundred kilometers, the cloud spread laterally, first as an intrusive gravity current and then by wind shear and diffusion as downwind cloud transport occurred at the windspeed (during the first 18–24 h). Finally, the clouds continued to move through the upper troposphere but began decreasing in areal extent, eventually disappearing as ash and SO2 were removed by meteorological processes. Total SO2 in each eruption cloud increased by the second day of atmospheric residence, possibly because of oxidation of coerupted H2S or possibly because of the effects of sequestration by ice followed by subsequent SO2 release during fallout and desiccation of ashy hydrometeors. SO2 and volcanic ash travelled together in all the Spurr volcanic clouds. The initial (18–24 h) area expansion of the clouds and the subsequent several days of drifting were successfully mapped by both SO2 (ultraviolet) and ash (infrared) satellite imagery

Moderating or mediating effects of family characteristics on socioeconomic inequalities in child health in high-income countries – a scoping review

Background: By explaining the development of health inequalities, eco-social theories highlight the importance of social environments that children are embedded in. The most important environment during early childhood is the family, as it profoundly influences children’s health through various characteristics. These include family processes, family structure/size, and living conditions, and are closely linked to the socioeconomic position (SEP) of the family. Although it is known that the SEP contributes to health inequalities in early childhood, the effects of family characteristics on health inequalities remain unclear. The objective of this scoping review is to synthesise existing research on the mediating and moderating effects of family characteristics on socioeconomic health inequalities (HI) during early childhood in high-income countries. Methods: This review followed the methodology of “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews”. To identify German and English scientific peer-reviewed literature published from January 1st, 2000, to December 19th, 2019, the following search term blocks were linked with the logical operator “AND”: (1) family structure/size, processes, living conditions, (2) inequalities, disparities, diversities, (3) income, education, occupation, (4) health and (5) young children. The search covered the electronic databases PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus. Results: The search yielded 7,089 records. After title/abstract and full-text screening, only ten peer-reviewed articles were included in the synthesis, which analysed the effects of family characteristics on HI in early childhood. Family processes (i.e., rules /descriptive norms, stress, parental screen time, parent–child conflicts) are identified to have mediating or moderating effects. While families’ living conditions (i.e., TVs in children’s bedrooms) are suggested as mediating factors, family structure/size (i.e., single parenthood, number of children in the household) appear to moderate health inequalities. Conclusion: Family characteristics contribute to health inequalities in early childhood. The results provide overall support of models of family stress and family investment. However, knowledge gaps remain regarding the role of family health literacy, regarding a wide range of children’s health outcomes (e.g., oral health, inflammation parameters, weight, and height), and the development of health inequalities over the life course starting at birth.Peer Reviewe

A descriptive and broadly applicable model of therapeutic and stray absorbed dose from 6 MV to 25 MV photon beams

Purpose was to develop a simple model of therapeutic and stray absorbed dose for a variety of treatment machines and techniques without relying on proprietary machine-specific parameters. Dosimetry measurements conducted in this study and from the literature were used to develop an analytical model of absorbed dose from a variety of treatment machines and techniques in the 6 MV to 25 MV interval. A modified one-dimensional gamma-index analysis was performed to evaluate dosimetric accuracy of the model on an independent dataset consisting of measured dose profiles from seven treatment units spanning four manufacturers. The average difference between the calculated and measured absorbed dose values was 9.9% for those datasets on which the model was trained. Additionally, These results indicate that the model can provide accurate calculations of both therapeutic and stray radiation dose from a wide variety of radiotherapy units and techniques. We have developed a simple analytical model of absorbed dose from external beam radiotherapy treatments in the 6 MV to 25 MV beam energy range. The model has been tested on measured data from multiple treatment machines and techniques and is broadly applicable to contemporary external beam radiation therapy