Visual Perceptions

The most perplexing aspect of the ‘war through terror’ or the ‘war against terror’ is the imperceptibility of the enemy, the lack of a defined combat zone and a clear-cut border between ‘them’ and ‘us’ that creates a social anxiety interface in the interactive multicultural nature of the Australian ethos. The notion of terror as a strategy with the aim of affecting public opinion is aided by popular media, the nefarious images that metamorphose into the privacy of our home: scenes of torture, brutality and death, acts of willful profanity that undermine basic human and moral principles

Intelligent Decision Support Systems in Ventilation Management

Introduction: Intensive Care Unit (ICU) medical personnel, in an ongoing process termed ventilation management, utilize patient physiology and pathology data to define ventilator apparatus settings. Aims: The aim of the research is to develop and evaluate in comparison hybrid ventilation advisor systems, that could support ventilation management process, specific to lung pathology for patients ventilated in control mode. Methodology: A questionnaire was designed and circulated to Intensivists. Patient data, as defined by the questionnaire analysis, were collected and categorized into three lung pathologies. Three ICU doctors evaluated correlation analysis of the recorded data. Evaluation results were used for identifying models basic architecture. Two custom software toolboxes were developed for developing hybrid systems; namely the EVolution Of Fuzzy INference Engines (EVOFINE) and the FUzzy Neural (FUN) toolbox. Eight hybrid systems developed with EVOFINE, FUN, ANFIS and ANN techniques were evaluated against applied clinical decisions and patient scenarios. Results: Seventeen (17) models were designed for each of the eight (8) modeling techniques. The modelled process consisted of twelve physiology variables and six ventilator settings. The number of models’ inputs ranged from single to six based on correlation and evaluation findings. Evaluation against clinical recommendations has shown that ANNs performed better; mean average error as percentage for four of the applied techniques was 0.16%, 1.29% & 0.62 for ANN empirical, 0.05%, 2.23% & 2.30% for ANFIS, 0.93%, 2.33% & 1.89% for EVOFINE and 0.73%, 2.63% & 6.56 for FUN NM, in Normal, COPD and ALI-ARDS categories respectively. Additionally evaluation against clinical disagreement SD has shown that 70.6% of the NN empirical models were performing in 90% of their suggestions within clinical SD, while the percentages were 53%, 53% and 59% for the EVOFINE, ANFIS and NN Normalized models respectively. The EVOFINE and ANFIS produced Fuzzy Systems whose architecture is transparent for the user. Visual observation of ANFIS architectures revealed possibly hazardous advices. Evaluation against clinical disagreement has shown that the NN empirical was not producing hazardous advices, while EVOFINE, ANFIS and NN Normalized were shown to produce potentially hazardous advice in 17.6%, 23% and 5.8% of the developed models

Relative entropy and the stability of shocks and contact discontinuities for systems of conservation laws with non BV perturbations

We develop a theory based on relative entropy to show the uniqueness and L^2 stability (up to a translation) of extremal entropic Rankine-Hugoniot discontinuities for systems of conservation laws (typically 1-shocks, n-shocks, 1-contact discontinuities and n-contact discontinuities of large amplitude) among bounded entropic weak solutions having an additional trace property. The existence of a convex entropy is needed. No BV estimate is needed on the weak solutions considered. The theory holds without smallness condition. The assumptions are quite general. For instance, strict hyperbolicity is not needed globally. For fluid mechanics, the theory handles solutions with vacuum.Comment: 29 page

Weak-strong uniqueness of dissipative measure-valued solutions for polyconvex elastodynamics

For the equations of elastodynamics with polyconvex stored energy, and some related simpler systems, we define a notion of dissipative measure-valued solution and show that such a solution agrees with a classical solution with the same initial data when such a classical solution exists. As an application of the method we give a short proof of strong convergence in the continuum limit of a lattice approximation of one dimensional elastodynamics in the presence of a classical solution. Also, for a system of conservation laws endowed with a positive and convex entropy, we show that dissipative measure-valued solutions attain their initial data in a strong sense after time averaging

An overview on the approximation of boundary Riemann problems through physical viscosity

This note aims at providing an overview of some recent results concerning the viscous approximation of so-called boundary Riemann problems for nonlinear systems of conservation laws in small total variation regimes. \ua9 2016, Sociedade Brasileira de Matem\ue1tica

Receptor Heteromerization Expands the Repertoire of Cannabinoid Signaling in Rodent Neurons

A fundamental question in G protein coupled receptor biology is how a single ligand acting at a specific receptor is able to induce a range of signaling that results in a variety of physiological responses. We focused on Type 1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1R) as a model GPCR involved in a variety of processes spanning from analgesia and euphoria to neuronal development, survival and differentiation. We examined receptor dimerization as a possible mechanism underlying expanded signaling responses by a single ligand and focused on interactions between CB1R and delta opioid receptor (DOR). Using co-immunoprecipitation assays as well as analysis of changes in receptor subcellular localization upon co-expression, we show that CB1R and DOR form receptor heteromers. We find that heteromerization affects receptor signaling since the potency of the CB1R ligand to stimulate G-protein activity is increased in the absence of DOR, suggesting that the decrease in CB1R activity in the presence of DOR could, at least in part, be due to heteromerization. We also find that the decrease in activity is associated with enhanced PLC-dependent recruitment of arrestin3 to the CB1R-DOR complex, suggesting that interaction with DOR enhances arrestin-mediated CB1R desensitization. Additionally, presence of DOR facilitates signaling via a new CB1R-mediated anti-apoptotic pathway leading to enhanced neuronal survival. Taken together, these results support a role for CB1R-DOR heteromerization in diversification of endocannabinoid signaling and highlight the importance of heteromer-directed signal trafficking in enhancing the repertoire of GPCR signaling