The time course of visuospatial processing deficits in schizophrenia: An event-related brain potential study.

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a dot enumeration task so as to investigate electrophysiologic correlates of early visuospatial processing in schizophrenia. Twenty-eight patients having a diagnosis of schizophrenia (n?=?19) or schizoaffective disorder (n?=?9) and 28 controls were tested. Patients showed poorer dot enumeration than did controls and also had markedly reduced early negative ERPs, which began about 150 ms after stimulus onset at the peak of the N1 potential and reached its maximum about 275 ms at the N2 peak. The N1 reduction in patients was greatest over left parietal sites for stimuli in the right visual field. The marked N1 and N2 reductions in patients are supportive of models postulating deficits in early visuospatial attention and allocation of conceptual resources in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in pacing lead impedance over time predict lead failure

It has been suggested that a decrease in lead impedance may predict pacing lead failure, but there is limited prospective data about the relation of changes in lead impedance over time to lead performance. We monitored changes in lead impedance through implantable pulse generators with real-time telemetry data capability in 105 patients with Medtronic 4012 leads (n = 38) and Medtronic 4004 leads (n = 67). Pacing lead failure was documented by serial ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring or intensified pacemaker clinic surveillance. A significant decrease in lead impedance was observed in patients with Medtronic 4012 and Medtronic 4004 leads with documented lead failure, whereas lead impedance remained stable over time in patients without documented lead failure. The sensitivity and specificity of a lead impedance decrease of > or =15% to predict lead failure were 69% and 70%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of a lead impedance decrease of > or =30% to predict lead failure were 36% and 90%, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values for a lead impedance decrease of > or =15% were 54% and 81%, respectively, and for a lead impedance decrease of > or = 30% were 65% and 73%, respectively. Thus, small decreases in lead impedance may identify failing leads. Serial measurement of pacing lead impedance over time is a useful tool to monitor pacing lead performance.     

Fractal analysis in the detection of colonic cancer images

The aim of this study was to investigate the value of fractal dimension in separating normal and cancerous images, and to examine the relationship between fractal dimension and traditional texture analysis features. Forty-four normal images and 58 cancer images from sections of the colon were analyzed. A "leave-one-out" analysis approach was used to classify the samples into each group. With fractal analysis there was a highly significant difference between groups (p<0.0001). Correlation and entropy features showed greater differences between the groups (p<0.0001). Nevertheless, the addition of fractal analysis to the feature analysis improved the sensitivity from 90% to 95% and specificity from 86% to 93%     

Characterization of a Mineral Synthesized by Availing Silica from Plant Source

Rice husk was used to prepare the silica of amorphous nature being several times more reactive than that obtained from the mineral kingdom. Number of rice husk batches were pyroprocessed under varying time-temperature parameters for this purpose. The ash resulting from a batch pyroprocessed at 500~C for 8 h contained 92.01% silica. It was upgraded to 98.50% by applying physicochemical purification procedures. The mineral, wollastonite (CaSiO3), was synthesized from thus prepared silica and limestone containing 55.91% CaO. Solid state reaction, between CaO and SiO2 was attempted at different temperatures in the presence of a mineralizer. The sintering temperature,for affecting the said synthesis, was ranged between 900℃ to 1300℃ with the steps of 100℃. Specific chemical analysis techniques were applied to determine the effectiveness of carried out reaction and promising batches were subsequently subjected to XRD investigations. The produced mineral was also characterized regarding its physical properties like: colour, hardness, melting point and specific gravity. Percent yield of the produced wollastonite was also estimated and compared with that of obtained by other researchers who synthesized it by using silica from mineral kingdom. Batches sintered at 1200℃ and 1300℃ for 1 h showed the overall best results.     

Topical formulations of novel angiostatic steroids inhibit rabbit corneal neovascularization

PURPOSE: To evaluate the antiangiogenic potential of topical ophthalmic formulations of the novel angiostatic steroids AL-3789 and AL-4940, using a rabbit model of corneal neovascularization. METHODS: Neovascularization was induced in the rabbit cornea by surgical implantation of a standard ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (Elvax-40) pellet containing 1 microg lipopolysaccharide. Coded formulations of the control vehicle or the following test agents were administered in prevention and intervention treatment protocols: 1% formulations of AL-3789, AL-4940, and cortisol acetate as a positive drug control. Three doses of AL-3789 (0.01%, 0.1%, and 1%) were also evaluated in a prevention treatment protocol. Corneal responses were monitored throughout a 2-week treatment period, and 1 week after the last treatment dose. Observations included quantitative measurement of the area of new blood vessel growth and qualitative assessment of cellular infiltrate and edema. All treatments and observations were performed in a double-masked manner. RESULTS: All tested formulations, except the vehicle and the 0.01% AL-3789 preparation, significantly inhibited corneal neovascularization and other lipopolysaccharide-induced responses in the various treatment protocols employed. AL-4940, the free alcohol form of AL-3789, was slightly less effective than cortisol acetate or AL-3789. The extent of inhibition of the angiogenic response by the 1% and 0.1% AL-3789 suspensions ranged from 76% to 100% 1 week after the last treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The antiangiogenic steroid AL-3789 may be a therapeutically useful angiostatic agent for corneal neovascularization and potentially could be effective in other ocular neovascular diseases.     

Investigation of small Sn–3.5Ag–0.5Cu additions on the microstructure and properties of Sn–8Zn–3Bi solder on Au/Ni/Cu pads

The formation of intermetallic compounds and the shear strength of Sn–Zn–Bi solder alloys with various (0, 1, 3, 5 and 7 wt%) weight percentages of Sn–Ag–Cu were investigated on Au/Ni metallized Cu pads depending on the number of reflow cycles. In Sn–Zn–Bi solder joints, scallop-shaped AuZn₃ intermetallic compound (IMC) particles were found at the interfaces and in the solder ball regions, fine Bi- and needle-shaped Zn-rich phase were observed in the Sn matrix. After Sn–Ag–Cu additions, an additional Ag–Zn intermetallic compound layer was adhered to the top surface of the AuZn₃ layer at the interface and fine spherical-shaped AgZn₃ intermetallic compound particles were detected in the solder ball regions together with Bi- and Zn-rich phase volumes. After the addition of Sn–Ag–Cu, the shear strength of Sn–Zn–Bi solder joints increased due to the formation of the fine AgZn₃ intermetallic compound particles. The shear strengths of Sn–Zn–Bi and Sn–Zn–Bi/7 wt% Sn–Ag–Cu solder joints after one reflow cycle were about 44.5 and 53.1 MPa, respectively and their shear strengths after eight reflow cycles were about 43.4 and 51.6 MPa, respectively.     

A Grid-Enabled Gateway for Biomedical Data Analysis

Biomedical researchers can leverage Grid computing technology to address their increasing demands for data- and compute-intensive data analysis. However, usage of existing Grid infrastructures remains difficult for them. The e-infrastructure for biomedical science (e-BioInfra) is a platform with services that shield middleware complexities, in particular workflow management and monitoring. These services can be invoked from a web-based interface, called e-BioInfra Gateway, to perform large scale data analysis experiments, such that the biomedical researchers can focus on their own research problems. The gateway was designed to simplify usage both by biomedical researchers and e-BioInfra administrators, and to support straightforward extensions with new data analysis methods. In this paper we present the architecture and implementation of the gateway, also showing statistics for its usage. We also share lessons learned during the gateway development and operation. The gateway is currently used in several biomedical research projects and in teaching medical students the principles of data analysis.     

J-LDFR: joint low-level and deep neural network feature representations for pedestrian gender classification

Neural Computing and Applications - Appearance-based gender classification is one of the key areas in pedestrian analysis, and it has many useful applications such as visual surveillance, predict...     

A novel ensemble statistical topic extraction method for scientific publications based on optimization clustering

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The automatic topic extraction (TE) from scientific publications provides a very compact summary of the clusters’ contents. This often helps in locating...