STUDIES UPON THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATE SYSTEM FOR PRODUCTION AND USE OF CAMELINA SATIVA IN THE TRANSYLVANIAN PLAIN CONDITIONS (I)

The present paper is the first part of a series dedicated to the development of an integrate system for production and use of Camelina Sativa. There will be studied during a five years research programme the optimum crop technologies for the Transylvanian Plain conditions, together with the best use of the crop. The agricultural year 2011-2012 was characterized by being very dry. The first experimental results were encouraging, demonstrating that Camelina sativa is not claiming special cropping conditions, being suitable for the Transylvanian Plain area. The best results (1,95 t/ha) were achieved using a 176 plants/m2 density and a ration N/P/K of 100/66,8/40 (25 cm between the rows). Harvesting one of the most important parts of the technological chain, as it could lead to high yield losses without and accurate adjustment of the combine.

Modelling the cascade of biomarker changes in GRN-related frontotemporal dementia

OBJECTIVE: Progranulin-related frontotemporal dementia (FTD-GRN) is a fast progressive disease. Modelling the cascade of multimodal biomarker changes aids in understanding the aetiology of this disease and enables monitoring of individual mutation carriers. In this cross-sectional study, we estimated the temporal cascade of biomarker changes for FTD-GRN, in a data-driven way. METHODS: We included 56 presymptomatic and 35 symptomatic GRN mutation carriers, and 35 healthy non-carriers. Selected biomarkers were neurofilament light chain (NfL), grey matter volume, white matter microstructure and cognitive domains. We used discriminative event-based modelling to infer the cascade of biomarker changes in FTD-GRN and estimated individual disease severity through cross-validation. We derived the biomarker cascades in non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA) and behavioural variant FTD (bvFTD) to understand the differences between these phenotypes. RESULTS: Language functioning and NfL were the earliest abnormal biomarkers in FTD-GRN. White matter tracts were affected before grey matter volume, and the left hemisphere degenerated before the right. Based on individual disease severities, presymptomatic carriers could be delineated from symptomatic carriers with a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 96.1%. The estimated disease severity strongly correlated with functional severity in nfvPPA, but not in bvFTD. In addition, the biomarker cascade in bvFTD showed more uncertainty than nfvPPA. CONCLUSION: Degeneration of axons and language deficits are indicated to be the earliest biomarkers in FTD-GRN, with bvFTD being more heterogeneous in disease progression than nfvPPA. Our data-driven model could help identify presymptomatic GRN mutation carriers at risk of conversion to the clinical stage

The cognitive neuroscience of design creativity

Design cognition is a human cognitive ability that is characterized by multi-faceted skills and competencies. This skill requires finding solutions for a vague problem, where the end point is not specified and the transformations from the problem state to the solution state are also flexible. Designers solve such tasks regularly, but the mental processes involved in such a skill are not known completely. Design research has involved empirical studies and theoretical modeling to understand the cognitive processes underlying this skill. In lab-based studies, a sub-class of problem-solving tasks called “ill-structured” tasks has been used to study the design process. However, the use of a cognitive neuroscience perspective has only been nascent. In this review, some defining features of design creativity will be elucidated and a few cognitive neuroscience studies of design creativity that shows the underlying brain networks will be highlighted. Results from these experiments using ill-structured tasks along with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) show that the brain networks underlying design creativity only partially overlap with brain networks underlying other kinds of creativity. This argues for studying design creativity as a unique subset of creativity using experiments that mimic the real-world design creative processes.by Leslee Laza