434 research outputs found
REMIND: Music – Movement – Mind. Ein Programm und Übungsmanual zur Gesundheitsförderung im Alter und Vorbeugung von Demenz
No full textTanzen in Verbindung mit anderen und kreativen Bewegungen führt zu einer einzigartigen Verknüpfung körperlicher, geistiger und sozialer Aktivitäten und kann bis ins hohe Alter viel Freude bereiten! Es ist zu vermuten, dass die Bewegung zur Musik, weil diese so vielfältig anregend ist, uns vor frühzeitigem Altern und Demenz schützen kann. Tanzen schafft einen direkten Zugang zum Gehirn mit all seiner Komplexität. Das REMIND-Programm nutzt diesen Zugang für ein neuartiges Übungsprogramm, das uns dabei unterstützen soll, Reserven für ein langes Leben in geistiger Gesundheit aufzubauen und zu erhalten.
REMIND wurde speziell von Wissenschaftlerinnen der Forschungsgruppe "Gehirn und Resilienz", geleitet von Dr. Miranka Wirth (Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen e.V.), in enger Zusammenarbeit mit der Tanz- und Bewegungstherapeutin Angela Nicotra (Nicadanza, Berlin) entwickelt. Das Trainingskonzept basiert auf aktuellen neurowissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen und nutzt Elemente der Bewegungslehre nach Laban/Bartenieff und des Tangos nach Sistema Dinzel. Dieses Manual ist der Leitfaden für das ganzheitliche Programm. Es veranschaulicht das Konzept, vermittelt die Übungsinhalte und gibt didaktische Empfehlungen für die Durchführung von REMIND. Unser Programm dient der aktiven Gesundheitsförderung und der Prävention von Demenz bis ins hohe Alter
Risk and Resilience: a Multimodal Neuroimaging Integration in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease
No full textDer Alterungsprozess ist mit einem breiten Spektrum von Veränderungen der Gehirnstruktur und -funktion, sowie altersbedingter kognitiver Verschlechterung und pathologischer Neurodegeneration verbunden. Jahrelange Forschungen haben gezeigt, dass Pathologien wie neurofibrilläre Bündel, Amyloid Ablagerungen (Aβ) und zerebrovaskuläre Störungen zur Abnahme der kognitiven Leistungsfähigkeit im Alter und bei der Alzheimer Demenz (AD) beitragen. Jüngste Forschungsergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass bestimmte Lebensstilfaktoren die Fähigkeit, mit Pathologien umzugehen, fördern. Hierbei handelt es sich um die sogenannten Resilienzfaktoren. Im Gegensatz dazu stehen die Risikofaktoren, welche die Vulnerabilität für kognitive Verschlechterung und Neurodegeneration erhöhen und diese Prozesse beschleunigen können. Diese Arbeit exploriert Risiko- und Resilienzfaktoren in einem breiten Spektrum von Probanden, von kognitiv normalen älteren Menschen über Personen mit leichter kognitiver Beeinträchtigung bis hin zu Personen mit klinischer AD mittels einer holistischen Integration behavioraler Messungen und Markern multimodaler Neurobildgebung. Basierend auf vier Studien untersucht diese Dissertation die Assoziation von AD und zerebrovaskulärer Störungen, funktioneller Konnektivitätsnetzwerke und Kognition in einem gepoolten Datensatz bestehend aus 645 Individuen. Zusammenfassend erweitern die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden Dissertation die Literatur zu Resilienz- und Risikofaktoren im Kontext gesunden Alterns und AD, indem sie eine holistische Integration der komplexen Mechanismen während des Alterungsprozesses liefert.Aging alone is associated with a wide range of alterations in brain structure and function as well as age-associated cognitive decline and pathological neurodegeneration. Years of research have shown that brain pathology such as neurofibrillary tangles, amyloid deposition (Aβ), and cerebrovascular pathology contribute to decline of cognitive functions in aging and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Recent research has pointed out that certain lifestyle factors contribute to the ability to cope with pathology, known as resilience factors, while in contrast, risk factors can accelerate and increase the vulnerability towards cognitive decline and neurodegeneration.
This work explores risk and resilience factors across a diverse spectrum of participants ranging from cognitively intact older adults, to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and clinical AD with a holistic integration of behavioral measures and multimodal neuroimaging markers. Based on four studies this dissertation investigates the association of AD and cerebrovascular pathology, functional connectivity networks and cognition in a pooled data set of 645 individuals.
In summary, our results shed light on the diverse mechanistic underpinning of functional brain networks, hinting at the complex interplay between the brain’s functionality at-rest and the multiple pathological processes. Overall, these findings extend the literature on the resilience and risk factors in the context of healthy aging and AD, while providing a holistic integration of the complex mechanisms at play during the aging process
Daily Reflections (Meditations) on the Scriptures from the Roman Catholic Lectionary.
No full textWhen I began meditating on today's passage from Matthew, I got depressed thinking about dreadful photos from Iraq, scandals in the Church, etc. If such things are the "fruit" by which we will be judged, we are in sad shape. What could I offer besides an additional, unnecessary dose of depression?|The answer came on my morning walk: Bob Reilly, my recently deceased friend and role model. Bob was an Omaha public relations professional and professor, the author of more than a dozen books, a World War II veteran, a proud Catholic with 10 children, and an expert on Ireland. His lifetime of kindness culminated in caring for his beloved wife, Jean, a victim of Alzheimer's Disease. While few of us are blessed with Bob's talents, we can all emulate his concern for others.|Bob's legacy is less in his wonderful writing than in the numerous people he touched. I marveled at the way this nationally distinguished author donated precious time to local writers who might never publish a word. He helped numerous struggling authors including me through the difficult process of publishing a first book. He always seemed to have all the time in the world for whoever was intruding on his overbooked life. |When I became a professor, I consciously tried to emulate Bob. Numerous students frequently spoke with something akin to reverence of the impact of his attention and advice. He was a teacher who modeled what he taught. He exemplified the service to others that we see in the best Christians _ not people who make headlines but those who teach first graders to read, empty bedpans with a smile, wipe noses, do tax returns for the elderly, serve dinner at soup kitchens etc.|I read one time that the answer to choking on bad news is to become "good news" to others. This is how we can counteract the headlines that make us ashamed. We can all try to produce "good fruit" as Bob did
Long-term environmental enrichment is associated with better fornix microstructure in older adults
No full textBackground Sustained environmental enrichment (EE) through a variety of leisure activities may decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This cross-sectional cohort study investigated the association between long-term EE in young adulthood through middle life and microstructure of fiber tracts associated with the memory system in older adults. Methods N = 201 cognitively unimpaired participants (≥ 60 years of age) from the DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study (DELCODE) baseline cohort were included. Two groups of participants with higher ( n = 104) or lower ( n = 97) long-term EE were identified, using the self-reported frequency of diverse physical, intellectual, and social leisure activities between the ages 13 to 65. White matter (WM) microstructure was measured by fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) in the fornix, uncinate fasciculus, and parahippocampal cingulum using diffusion tensor imaging. Long-term EE groups (lower/higher) were compared with adjustment for potential confounders, such as education, crystallized intelligence, and socio-economic status. Results Reported participation in higher long-term EE was associated with greater fornix microstructure, as indicated by higher FA (standardized β = 0.117, p = 0.033) and lower MD (β = −0.147, p = 0.015). Greater fornix microstructure was indirectly associated (FA: unstandardized B = 0.619, p = 0.038; MD: B = −0.035, p = 0.026) with better memory function through higher long-term EE. No significant effects were found for the other WM tracts. Conclusion Our findings suggest that sustained participation in a greater variety of leisure activities relates to preserved WM microstructure in the memory system in older adults. This could be facilitated by the multimodal stimulation associated with the engagement in a physically, intellectually, and socially enriched lifestyle. Longitudinal studies will be needed to support this assumption
Electrophysiological and behavioral correlates of stable automatic semantic retrieval in aging
No full textPrevious studies have shown both declining and stable semantic-memory abilities during healthy aging. There is consistent evidence that semantic processes involving controlled mechanisms weaken with age. In contrast, results of aging studies on automatic semantic retrieval are often inconsistent, probably due to methodological limitations and differences. The present study therefore examines age-related alterations in automatic semantic retrieval and memory structure with a novel combination of critical methodological factors, i.e., the selection of subjects, a well-designed paradigm, and electrophysiological methods that result in unambiguous signal markers. Healthy young and elderly participants performed lexical decisions on visually presented word/non-word pairs with a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 150 ms. Behavioral and electrophysiological data were measured, and the N400-LPC complex, an event-related potential component sensitive to lexical-semantic retrieval, was analyzed by power and topographic distribution of electrical brain activity. Both age groups exhibited semantic priming (SP) and concreteness effects in behavioral reaction time and the electrophysiological N400-LPC complex. Importantly, elderly subjects did not differ significantly from the young in their lexical decision and SP performances as well as in the N400-LPC SP effect. The only difference was an age-related delay measured in the N400-LPC microstate. This could be attributed to existing age effects in controlled functions, as further supported by the replicated age difference in word fluency. The present results add new behavioral and neurophysiological evidence to earlier findings, by showing that automatic semantic retrieval remains stable in global signal strength and topographic distribution during healthy aging
Blue Window: Poems
No full textBy Ann Fisher-Wirth Archer Books (Paperback, $14.00, ISBN: 1931122156, 8/2003) “In that shadowy time before sorrow…” the title poem of Ann Fisher-Wirth’s Blue Window begins, invoking a young girl’s world of befores: before sexual and political awareness; before loss, grief, and guilt; before deaths in the neighborhood and the family. Fisher-Wirth continues tracing a series of journeys begun at that time. An Army brat and lifelong traveler who grew up in California and now lives in Mississippi; daughter, lover, wife, and mother; environmentalist, literature professor, and student of yoga and Reiki, Ann Fisher-Wirth writes out of the full range of her experience. Grounded in the body and the earth, Blue Window mourns and celebrates what it is to be alive. “Many American poets have written what gets called ‘the autobiographical lyric.’ Very few poets have written it with such fierce and stinging accuracy. [Ann Fisher-Wirth] is, stylistically, a realist and a modernist. Like William Carlos Williams … she can be a little headlong, perhaps a little ruthless, and that quality gives this book, which also has the virtues of tenderness and attentiveness, its steel and its nerve.” —Robert Hass, former U.S. poet laureate, author, most recently, of the collection Sun Under Wood “Sweet, rank, precise, unafraid of either deep pain or deep joy, these poems remind me of horses in a pasture, always aware of their power and grace, even in repose, and always, completely natural. It is not just the poet who is acutely alive, in this work, but, somehow, the poems themselves.” —Rick Bass, Author, The Hermit’s Story: Stories, The Roadless Yaak, and others. Ann Fisher-Wirth lives in Oxford, Mississippi, where she teaches poetry and environmental literature at the University of Mississippi. She is the author of William Carlos Williams and Autobiography: The Woods of His Own Nature and of numerous essays on American literature, and a Fulbright Scholar who in 2002-2003 held the Chair of American Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. She and her husband Peter Wirth have five children.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/mwp_books/1048/thumbnail.jp
Matlab codes for "Convex relaxation of discrete vector-valued optimization problems"
No full textvectormultibang
===============
This repository contains Matlab codes accompanying the paper [Convex relaxation of discrete vector-valued optimization problems](https://doi.org/10.1137/21M1426237) ([arXiv preprint](http://arxiv.org/abs/2108.10077)) by [Christian Clason](https://homepage.uni-graz.at/c.clason), Carla Tameling, and [Benedikt Wirth](https://www.uni-muenster.de/AMM/num/wirth/people/Wirth/index.html).
Contents
--------
##### directory `bloch`
contains the test scripts for the example concerning optimal control of the Bloch equation using discrete control vectors (run `test_bloch.m`)
##### directory `elasticity`
contains the test scripts for the example concerning optimal control of the equations of linearized elasticity (run `test_elasticity.m`)
##### directory `mbtransport`
contains the test scripts for the example concerning multimaterial branched transport (run `test_branchedTransport.m`)
If you find this approach useful, you can cite the paper as
@article{vectormultibang,
author = {Clason, Christian and Tameling, Carla and Wirth, Benedikt},
title = {Convex relaxation of discrete vector-valued optimization problems},
journal = {SIAM Review},
volume = {63},
number = {4},
year = {2021},
doi = {10.1137/21M1426237
Semantic memory involvement in the default mode network: a functional neuroimaging study using independent component analysis
No full textThe Default Mode Network (DMN) is a higher order functional neural network that displays activation during passive rest and deactivation during many types of cognitive tasks. Accordingly, the DMN is viewed to represent the neural correlate of internally-generated self-referential cognition. This hypothesis implies that the DMN requires the involvement of cognitive processes, like declarative memory. The present study thus examines the spatial and functional convergence of the DMN and the semantic memory system. Using an active block-design functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) paradigm and Independent Component Analysis (ICA), we trace the DMN and fMRI signal changes evoked by semantic, phonological and perceptual decision tasks upon visually-presented words. Our findings show less deactivation during semantic compared to the two non-semantic tasks for the entire DMN unit and within left-hemispheric DMN regions, i.e., the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, the retrosplenial cortex, the angular gyrus, the middle temporal gyrus and the anterior temporal region, as well as the right cerebellum. These results demonstrate that well-known semantic regions are spatially and functionally involved in the DMN. The present study further supports the hypothesis of the DMN as an internal mentation system that involves declarative memory functions
Daily Reflections (Meditations) on the Scriptures from the Roman Catholic Lectionary.
No full text"For a thousand years in your sight are as yesterday, now that it is past, or as a watch of the night."||Last spring my husband and I spent several days marveling at the ruins of ancient Greece. From our Athens hotel room, we had a perfect view of the Parthenon lighted up at night just like the shots during the Olympics. Awesome!||Today's readings, especially the psalm, speak to this experience. They remind us of how small and transitory even the most astonishing works of man are compared with the work of God and eternity.||Before going to Greece, I read up on its history, geography and mythology because I had only dim memories from high school history, especially about Delphi, once the region's spiritual center. Today its impressive piles of stones and fragments of buildings are reminders of long-gone power and influence. Tourists listen to lectures to understand Delphi's significance. Then they head back to the souvenir shops and the street life of Athens.||In God's eyes, what happened in ancient Greece is "as yesterday" just like the achievements of our own time will soon be. Human power and glory are as mythical in the long term as the advice the Oracle at Delphi dispensed!||So what's important? What kind of legacy counts? I think of my friend, the late Bob Reilly , an outstanding author of many books, but an even more outstanding teacher and human being. At his packed wake, people spoke of his books but that wasn't why they came. Bob had touched every one of us with his kindness, mentoring and warmth. He patiently guided me through writing my first book. His wisdom and encouragement were invaluable.||I'll take a legacy of kindness like Bob's over a pile of stones any day. So, I think, will the Lord
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