Processing of temporal duration information in working memory after frontodorsal tumour excisions

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that impairments of temporal duration processing after frontal lobe lesions reflect deficits in executive monitoring functions rather than a domain-specific deficit in the maintenance of duration information in working memory. Patients with frontodorsal lesions, clinical controls with post-central lesions, and healthy controls performed recognition and classification tasks, which should allow for testing maintenance and monitoring functions, respectively. Results showed mild non-selective impairments of the frontal patients on both temporal and spatial recognition tasks, but a marked selective degradation on temporal classification while performance on spatial classification was unimpaired. This suggests that maintenance of duration information in working memory after frontal lesions is basically preserved but that, depending on executive task characteristics, there is a specific deficit in the strategic organization of this type of information

eXtended Color Cell Compression -- A Runtime-efficient Compression Scheme for Software Video

Multimedia applications require a compression and decompression scheme for digital video. The standardized and widely used techniques JPEG and MPEG provide very good compression ratios, but are computationally quite complex and demanding. We propose to use an extension to the much simpler Color Cell Compression scheme as an alternative. Our extension includes the use of variable block sizes, the reuse of color index values from previously encoded blocks, and Huffman encoding of the stream of blocks. We present experimental results showing that our scheme provides much better runtime performance than MPEG, at the cost of a slightly inferior compression ratio. It is thus especially suited for software videos in high-speed networks

The pion-nucleon scattering lengths from pionic deuterium

We use the framework of effective field theories to discuss the determination of the S-wave \pi N scattering lengths from the recent high-precision measurements of pionic deuterium observables. The theoretical analysis proceeds in several steps. Initially, the precise value of the pion-deuteron scattering length a_{\pi d} is extracted from the data. Next, a_{\pi d} is related to the S-wave \pi N scattering lengths a_+ and a_-. We discuss the use of this information for constraining the values of these scattering lengths in the full analysis, which also includes the input from the pionic hydrogen energy shift and width measurements, and throughly investigate the accuracy limits for this procedure. In this paper, we also give a detailed comparison to other effective field theory approaches, as well as with the earlier work on the subject, carried out within the potential model and multiple scattering framework.Comment: The replacement includes an erratum, which is published in Eur. Phys. J.

A comparative study of Type II-P and II-L supernova rise times as exemplified by the case of LSQ13cuw

We report on our findings based on the analysis of observations of the Type II-L supernova LSQ13cuw within the framework of currently accepted physical predictions of core-collapse supernova explosions. LSQ13cuw was discovered within a day of explosion, hitherto unprecedented for Type II-L supernovae. This motivated a comparative study of Type II-P and II-L supernovae with relatively well-constrained explosion epochs and rise times to maximum (optical) light. From our sample of twenty such events, we find evidence of a positive correlation between the duration of the rise and the peak brightness. On average, SNe II-L tend to have brighter peak magnitudes and longer rise times than SNe II-P. However, this difference is clearest only at the extreme ends of the rise time versus peak brightness relation. Using two different analytical models, we performed a parameter study to investigate the physical parameters that control the rise time behaviour. In general, the models qualitatively reproduce aspects of the observed trends. We find that the brightness of the optical peak increases for larger progenitor radii and explosion energies, and decreases for larger masses. The dependence of the rise time on mass and explosion energy is smaller than the dependence on the progenitor radius. We find no evidence that the progenitors of SNe II-L have significantly smaller radii than those of SNe II-P.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, accepted by A&

Bare vs effective pairing forces. A microscopic finite-range interaction for HFB calculations in coordinate space

We propose a microscopic effective interaction to treat pairing correlations in the $^{1}S_0$ channel. It is introduced by recasting the gap equation written in terms of the bare force into a fully equivalent pairing problem. Within this approach, the proposed interaction reproduces the pairing properties provided by the realistic $AV18$ force very accurately. Written in the canonical basis of the actual Bogolyubov transformation, the force takes the form of an off-shell in-medium two-body matrix in the superfluid phase multiplied by a BCS occupation number $2 \rho_{m}$. This interaction is finite ranged, non local, total-momentum dependent and density dependent. The factor $2 \rho_{m}$ emerging from the recast of the gap equation provides a natural cut-off and makes zero-range approximations of the effective vertex meaningful. Performing such an approximation, the roles of the range and of the density dependence of the interaction can be disentangled. The isoscalar and isovector density-dependences derived ab-initio provide the pairing force with a strong predictive power when extrapolated toward the drip-lines. Although finite ranged and non local, the proposed interaction makes HFB calculations of finite nuclei in coordinate space tractable. Through the two-basis method, its computational cost is of the same order as for a zero-range force.Comment: 43 pages, 13 figures. Published versio

Reporting of unintended events in an intensive care unit: comparison between staff and observer

BACKGROUND: In order to identify relevant targets for change, it is essential to know the reliability of incident staff reporting. The aim of this study is to compare the incidence and type of unintended events (UE) reported by facilitated Intensive Care Unit (ICU) staff with those recorded concurrently by an observer. METHODS: The study is a prospective data collection performed in two 4-bed multidisciplinary ICUs of a teaching hospital. The format of the UE reporting system was voluntary, facilitated and not necessarily anonymous, and used a structured form with a predetermined list of items. UEs were reported by ICU staff over a period of 4 weeks. The reporting incidence during the first fourteen days was compared with that during the second fourteen. During morning shifts in the second fourteen days, one observer in each ICU recorded any UE seen. The staff was not aware of the observers' study. The incidence of UEs reported by staff was compared with that recorded by the observers. RESULTS: The staff reported 36 UEs in the first fourteen days and 31 in the second.. The incidence of UE detection during morning shifts was significantly higher than during afternoon or night shifts (p < 0.001). Considering only working day morning shifts, the rate of UE reporting by the staff per 100 patient days was 26.9 (CI 95% 16.9–37.0) in the first fourteen day period and 20.3 (CI 95% 10.3–30.4) in the second. The rate of UE detection by the observers was 53.1 per 100 patient days (CI 95% 40.6–65.6), significantly higher (p < 0.001) than that reported concurrently by the staff. There was excellent agreement between staff and observers about the severity of the UEs recorded (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient 0.869). The observers recorded mainly UEs involving Airway/mechanical ventilation and Patient management, and the staff Catheter/Drain/Probe and Medication errors (p = 0.025). CONCLUSION: UE incidence is strongly underreported by staff in comparison with observers. Also the types of UEs reported are different. Invaluable information about incidents in ICU can be obtained in a few days by observer monitoring

Search for Fingerprints of Tetrahedral Symmetry in 156Gd^{156}Gd

Theoretical predictions suggest the presence of tetrahedral symmetry as an explanation for the vanishing intra-band E2-transitions at the bottom of the odd-spin negative parity band in $^{156}Gd$. The present study reports on experiment performed to address this phenomenon. It allowed to determine the intra-band E2 transitions and branching ratios B(E2)/B(E1) of two of the negative-parity bands in $^{156}Gd$.Comment: presented by Q.T. Doan at XLII Zakopane School of Physics: Breaking Frontiers: Submicron Structures in Physics and Biology, May 2008. 5 pages, minor corrections. To be published in the proceeding

The future of enterprise groupware applications

This paper provides a review of groupware technology and products. The purpose of this review is to investigate the appropriateness of current groupware technology as the basis for future enterprise systems and evaluate its role in realising, the currently emerging, Virtual Enterprise model for business organisation. It also identifies in which way current technological phenomena will transform groupware technology and will drive the development of the enterprise systems of the future

Evidence for a nuclear compartment of transcription and splicing located at chromosome domain boundaries

The nuclear topography of splicing snRNPs, mRNA transcripts and chromosome domains in various mammalian cell types are described. The visualization of splicing snRNPs, defined by the Sm antigen, and coiled bodies, revealed distinctly different distribution patterns in these cell types. Heat shock experiments confirmed that the distribution patterns also depend on physiological parameters. Using a combination of fluorescencein situ hybridization and immunodetection protocols, individual chromosome domains were visualized simultaneously with the Sm antigen or the transcript of an integrated human papilloma virus genome. Three-dimensional analysis of fluorescence-stained target regions was performed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. RNA transcripts and components of the splicing machinery were found to be generally excluded from the interior of the territories occupied by the individual chromosomes. Based on these findings we present a model for the functional compartmentalization of the cell nucleus. According to this model the space between chromosome domains, including the surface areas of these domains, defines a three-dimensional network-like compartment, termed the interchromosome domain (ICD) compartment, in which transcription and splicing of mRNA occurs

Gorenstein homological algebra and universal coefficient theorems

We study criteria for a ring—or more generally, for a small category—to be Gorenstein and for a module over it to be of finite projective dimension. The goal is to unify the universal coefficient theorems found in the literature and to develop machinery for proving new ones. Among the universal coefficient theorems covered by our methods we find, besides all the classic examples, several exotic examples arising from the KK-theory of C*-algebras and also Neeman’s Brown–Adams representability theorem for compactly generated categories