4,617 research outputs found
The My Active and Healthy Aging ICT platform prevents quality of life decline in older adults: a randomised controlled study
No full textIntroduction: Prevention of frailty is paramount in older adults. We evaluated the efficacy of a tailored multidomain intervention, monitored with the My Active and Healthy Aging platform, in reducing conversion from a prefrail status to overt frailty and preventing decline in quality of life.Methods: We performed a multicentre, multicultural, randomised control study. The effects of multidomain interventions on frailty parameters, quality of life, physical, cognitive, psychosocial function, nutrition and sleep were evaluated in a group of 101 prefrail older subjects and compared with 100 prefrail controls, receiving general health advice.Results: At the 12-month assessment, controls showed a decline in quality of life that was absent in the active group. In addition, active participants showed an increase in mood and nutrition function. No effect on remaining parameter was observed.Discussion: Our study supports the use of personalised multidomain intervention, monitored with an information and communication technology platform, in preventing quality of life decline in older adults.Members of The My-AHA Consortium: A. E. Vercelli, I. Rainero, M. Caglio, C. Carbone, E. Rubino, A. Vacca and P. Provero (University of Torino,
Italy); M. J. Summers (University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia); M. Monter (Gestio Socio Sanitaria al Mediterrani, Spain); D. Burin
and R. Kawashima (Tohoku University, Japan); E. Giannouli and W. Zijlstra (German Sport University, Cologne, Germany); S. Alonso,
S. Schnieder, S. D. Roelen, L. Kachele and J. Krajewski (Institut fur Experimentelle Psychophysiologie GmbH, Germany); H. de Rosario,
J. Laparra, J. F. Serrano, E. Medina, A. Lopez, J. F. Pedrero and U. Martınez (Instituto de Biomecanica Valencia, Spain); M. Bazzani and A.
Frisello (LINKS Foundation, Torino, Italy); G. Aumayr, G. Ringler, S. Kirilova, G. Salomon, V. Simanko and N. Sturm (Johanniter
Osterreich Ausbildung und Forschung Gemeinnutzige, Austria); N. Kaartinen and A. Kern (KAASA Solution); S. Bandelow and N.
G. Niederstrasser (Loughborough University, UK); D. Vaziri, A. Tabatabaei and L. Ciferri (International University of Japan, Japan)
Psychophysical evidence for two routes to suppression before binocular summation of signals in human vision
No full textVisual mechanisms in primary visual cortex are suppressed by the superposition of gratings perpendicular to their preferred orientations. A clear picture of this process is needed to (i) inform functional architecture of image-processing models, (ii) identify the pathways available to support binocular rivalry, and (iii) generally advance our understanding of early vision. Here we use monoptic sine-wave gratings and cross-orientation masking (XOM) to reveal two cross-oriented suppressive pathways in humans, both of which occur before full binocular summation of signals. One is a within-eye (ipsiocular) pathway that is spatially broadband, immune to contrast adaptation and has a suppressive weight that tends to decrease with stimulus duration. The other pathway operates between the eyes (interocular), is spatially tuned, desensitizes with contrast adaptation and has a suppressive weight that increases with stimulus duration. When cross-oriented masks are presented to both eyes, masking is enhanced or diminished for conditions in which either ipsiocular or interocular pathways dominate masking, respectively. We propose that ipsiocular suppression precedes the influence of interocular suppression and tentatively associate the two effects with the lateral geniculate nucleus (or retina) and the visual cortex respectively. The interocular route is a good candidate for the initial pathway involved in binocular rivalry and predicts that interocular cross-orientation suppression should be found in cortical cells with predominantly ipsiocular drive
Self-compression of 4.9 µm pulses to sub-40 fs with 2 mJ energy in Zinc Sulfide
No full textNonlinear self-compression of few-cycle multi-mJ pulses at 4.9 µm in ZnS is presented. 80 fs input pulses are compressed to 37 fs with 2.1 mJ energy at a 1 kHz repetition rate. © 2024 The Author(s
The Effect of Non-Stroke Cardiovascular Disease States on Risk for Cognitive Decline and Dementia: A Systematic and Meta-Analytic Review
No full textCardiovascular disease is associated with increased risk for cognitive decline and dementia, but it is unclear whether this risk varies across disease states or occurs in the absence of symptomatic stroke. To examine the evidence of increased risk for cognitive decline and dementia following non-stroke cardiovascular disease we conducted two independent meta-analyses in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. The first review examined cardiovascular diagnoses (atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, periphery artery disease and myocardial infarction) while the second review assessed the impact of atherosclerotic burden (as indicated by degree of stenosis, calcification score, plaque morphology or number of plaques). Studies eligible for review longitudinally assessed risk for clinically significant cognitive decline and/or dementia and excluded stroke and cognitive impairment at baseline. Summary statistics were computed via the inverse variance weighted method, utilising Cox Proportional Hazards data (Hazard Ratios, HR). Both atrial fibrillation (n = 5, HR = 1.26, 95% CI [1.12, 1.43]) and severe atherosclerosis (n = 4, HR = 1.59, 95% CI [1.12, 2.26]) emerged as significant risk factors for cognitive decline and/or dementia. A small set of studies reviewed, insufficient for meta-analysis, examining congestive heart failure, peripheral artery disease and myocardial infarction suggested that these conditions may also be associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline/dementia. In the absence of stroke, patients with atrial fibrillation or generalised atherosclerosis are at heightened risk for cognitive deterioration. Nonetheless, this paper highlights the need for methodologically rigorous and prospective investigation of the relationship between CVD and dementia.No Full Tex
Correction to: Chamoun et al., Bacterial pathogenesis and interleukin-17: interconnecting mechanisms of immune regulation, host genetics, and microbial virulence that influence severity of infection
No full textChamoun MN, Blumenthal A, Sullivan MJ, Schembri MA, Ulett GC. 2018. Bacterial pathogenesis and interleukin-17: interconnecting mechanisms of immune regulation, host genetics, and microbial virulence that influence severity of infection. Critical Reviews in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1080/1040841X.2018.1426556.
When the above article was first published online, the below three corrections were missed.
The author ‘Antje Blumenthal’ was wrongly affiliated to the affiliation “cSchool of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, and Australian Infectious Disease Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia”. Now this affiliation has been removed for this author.
The affiliation ‘bTranslational Research Institute, The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, Woolloongabba, Australia’ of the author ‘Antje Blumenthal’ should read ‘bThe University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, Translational Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia’.
In Table 3, the sentence ‘Benefit of manipulating IL-17 levels to improve immunization strategies M. tuberculosis’ should read “Benefit of manipulating IL-17 levels to improve immunization strategies against M. tuberculosis”.No Full Tex
Generation of 22-mJ, 2.0-ps Pulses from a 1-kHz Ho:YLF Regenerative Chirped Pulse Amplifier
No full textWe report a CW-pumped Ho:YLF regenerative amplifier (RA) delivering pulses with 22.5-mJ energy and 2.0-ps duration at 1 kHz. The RA emitting at 2051 nm is broadband-seeded and implemented in a chirped pulse amplification system. © 2024 The Author(s
Pure-rotational 1D-CARS spatiotemporal thermometry with a single regenerative amplifier system
No full textWe report spatiotemporal pure-rotational coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) in a one-dimensional imaging arrangement obtained with a single ultrafast regenerative amplifier system. The femtosecond pump/Stokes photon pairs, used for impulsive excitation, are delivered by an external compressor operating on a ∼35% beam split of the uncompressed amplifier output (2.5 mJ/pulse). The picosecond 1.2 mJ probe pulse is produced via the second-harmonic bandwidth compression (SHBC) of the ∼65% remainder of the amplifier output (4.5 mJ/pulse), which originates from the internal compressor. The two pump/Stokes and probe pulses are spatially, temporally, and repetition-wise correlated at the measurement, and the signal generation plane is relayed by a wide-field coherent imaging spectrometer onto the detector plane, which is refreshed at the same repetition rate as the ultrafast regenerative amplifier system. We demonstrate 1 kHz cinematographic 1D-CARS gas-phase thermometry across an unstable premixed methane/air flame-front, achieved with a single-shot precision <1% and accuracy <3%, 1.4 mm field of view, and an excellent <20 µm line-spread function.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Flight Performance and Propulsio
Parametric study of EEG sensitivity to phase noise during face processing
No full text<b>Background: </b>
The present paper examines the visual processing speed of complex objects, here faces, by mapping the relationship between object physical properties and single-trial brain responses. Measuring visual processing speed is challenging because uncontrolled physical differences that co-vary with object categories might affect brain measurements, thus biasing our speed estimates. Recently, we demonstrated that early event-related potential (ERP) differences between faces and objects are preserved even when images differ only in phase information, and amplitude spectra are equated across image categories. Here, we use a parametric design to study how early ERP to faces are shaped by phase information. Subjects performed a two-alternative force choice discrimination between two faces (Experiment 1) or textures (two control experiments). All stimuli had the same amplitude spectrum and were presented at 11 phase noise levels, varying from 0% to 100% in 10% increments, using a linear phase interpolation technique. Single-trial ERP data from each subject were analysed using a multiple linear regression model.
<b>Results: </b>
Our results show that sensitivity to phase noise in faces emerges progressively in a short time window between the P1 and the N170 ERP visual components. The sensitivity to phase noise starts at about 120–130 ms after stimulus onset and continues for another 25–40 ms. This result was robust both within and across subjects. A control experiment using pink noise textures, which had the same second-order statistics as the faces used in Experiment 1, demonstrated that the sensitivity to phase noise observed for faces cannot be explained by the presence of global image structure alone. A second control experiment used wavelet textures that were matched to the face stimuli in terms of second- and higher-order image statistics. Results from this experiment suggest that higher-order statistics of faces are necessary but not sufficient to obtain the sensitivity to phase noise function observed in response to faces.
<b>Conclusion: </b>
Our results constitute the first quantitative assessment of the time course of phase information processing by the human visual brain. We interpret our results in a framework that focuses on image statistics and single-trial analyses
Project: Establishing an accounting outsourcing company "MJ Grāmatvedība" Ltd
No full textProjekta ideja ir izveidot grāmatvedības ārpakalpojumu uzņēmumu SIA „MJ Grāmatvedība”, kurš sniegtu pilna vai daļēja cikla grāmatvedības pakalpojumus, sākot ar pirmreizējo dokumentu apstrādi un beidzot ar visu nepieciešamo atskaišu sagatavošanu, kā arī konsultāciju sniegšanu. Projekta mērķis ir ne tikai sniegt grāmatvedības pakalpojumus, bet arī analizēt uzņēmumu darbību un izstrādāt ieteikumus darbības uzlabošanai. Darba autore uzskata, ka nozares pārstāvjiem ir būtiski jāpierāda sava nozīme un to kādam jābūt mūsdienu grāmatvedim. Grāmatvedis nav tikai persona, kura izdara konkrētus darbus, nodos atskaites, tas ir cilvēks, kuram labi jāpārzina nodokļu sistēma, finanšu vadīšana, jāspēj sniegt padomus uzņēmuma finanšu vadības uzlabošanai, kā arī jāspēj pielāgoties tehnoloģiju radītajām izmaiņām. Maģistra darbs apjoms ir uz 105 lappusēm, kas sastāv no 7 nodaļām, 17 pielikumiem, 22 tabulām un 7 attēliem. Darba izstrādē izmantoti 70 informācijas avoti.The general project idea is to establish the accountancy firm MJ Accountancy Ltd., which would provide full or half-cycle accountancy services including the processing of primary documentation, reports’ preparation, and providing of the accountancy consultations. The aim of the project is not only to provide accountancy consultations but also to deal with firms activity analysis and developing suggestions on their activity improvement. The author of the project supports the idea that the field representatives must constantly sustain the status of the accountant’s profession in current times. The accountant is not only the person who executes one’s regular duties and submits reports, but also the person who is competent in the field of taxes, financial management, able to advise on improvements in financial management, and above all able to adapt to the technological changes. The volume of the project is 105 pages, which includes 7 chapters, 17 appendices, 22 tables, 7 figures. 70 sources of information were used in master’s thesis
- …
