Genetic sources of covariation among P3(00) and online performance variables in a delayed-response working memory task

Genetic and environmental sources of covariation among the P3(00) and online performance elicited in a delayed-response working memory task, and psychometric IQ assessed by the multidimensional aptitude battery, were examined in an adolescent twin sample. An association between frontal P3 latency and task performance (phenotypic r = -0.33; genotypic r = -0.49) was indicated, with genes (i.e. twin status) accounting for a large part of the covariation ( > 70%). In contrast, genes influencing P3 amplitude mediated only a small part (2%) of the total genetic variation in task performance. While task performance mediated 15% of the total genetic variation in IQ (phenotypic r = 0.22; genotypic r = 0.39) there was no association between P3 latency and IQ or P3 amplitude with IQ. The findings provide some insight into the inter-relationships among psychophysiological, performance and psychometric measures of cognitive ability, and provide support for a levels-of-processing genetic model of cognition where genes act on specific sub-components of cognitive processes.

Adaptive multiscale principal components analysis for online monitoring of wastewater treatment

Fault detection and isolation (FDI) are important steps in the monitoring and supervision of industrial processes. Biological wastewater treatment (WWT) plants are difficult to model, and hence to monitor, because of the complexity of the biological reactions and because plant influent and disturbances are highly variable and/or unmeasured. Multivariate statistical models have been developed for a wide variety of situations over the past few decades, proving successful in many applications. In this paper we develop a new monitoring algorithm based on Principal Components Analysis (PCA). It can be seen equivalently as making Multiscale PCA (MSPCA) adaptive, or as a multiscale decomposition of adaptive PCA. Adaptive Multiscale PCA (AdMSPCA) exploits the changing multivariate relationships between variables at different time-scales. Adaptation of scale PCA models over time permits them to follow the evolution of the process, inputs or disturbances. Performance of AdMSPCA and adaptive PCA on a real WWT data set is compared and contrasted. The most significant difference observed was the ability of AdMSPCA to adapt to a much wider range of changes. This was mainly due to the flexibility afforded by allowing each scale model to adapt whenever it did not signal an abnormal event at that scale. Relative detection speeds were examined only summarily, but seemed to depend on the characteristics of the faults/disturbances. The results of the algorithms were similar for sudden changes, but AdMSPCA appeared more sensitive to slower changes.

Well-formedness judgment: A comparison of offline and online performance in Broca's aphasics

0na eg rcarmitimcaal tfieca tcuorem opfr ethhee nospieornat iodneafli cdietf i(nAitiCoDn )o ft hthaet frequently co-occurs with Broca’s aphasia is above-chance performance on well-formedness judgment tasks for many syntactic constructions, but impaired performance where syntactic binding of traces to their antecedents occurs. However, the methodologies used to establish this aspect of the performance profile of the ACD have been predominantly offline. Offline well-formedness tasks entail extralinguistic processing (e.g. perception, attention, short-term memory, conscious reflection) in varying amounts and the influence of such processes on parsing mechanisms is yet to be fully established. In order to (a) further understand the role of extra-linguistic processing on parsing, and (b) gain a more direct insight into the online nature of parsing in Broca’s aphasia, 8 subjects underwent a series of wellformedness judgment investigations using both offline and online test batteries. The sentence types and error types used were motivated by three current theories about the nature of the ACD, namely, the Trace-Based Account (Grodzinsky, 2000), the Mapping Hypothesis (Linebarger et al., 1983) and Capacity proposals (e.g. Frazier & Friederici, 1991). The results from the present investigation speak directly to the three aforementioned theories and also demonstrate the important role that extralinguistic processing plays during offline assessment. The clinical implications of the different outcomes from the offline vs. online tasks are also discussed.

'Vigilant Hospitality': The Online Imperative and Teaching Cultural Studies

Information technology (IT) sees information as a fluid, to be stored, regulated and exchanged. This is a profoundly economic model, whose dreams are those of the marketplace – and now, university managers. But no teacher, of course, holds that teaching can be reduced to the movement of information from one point to another. Teaching is never quite absorbed into the models of IT. Where they meet, we do not have the utopia of the virtual classroom, at last freed from the strictures of timetables and the face-to-face; we have, rather, the grinding of two radically irreducible models. This has nothing to do with Luddism; on the contrary, it is the value and necessity of IT for us at present, as teachers. At a time when the tertiary sector’s massive investment in IT is motivated in part by its own dream of the teacherless classroom, one of the pressing tasks for us may be simply to argue as rigorously as we can the structural necessity of our own position as teachers, without nostalgia or humanist sentimentality.

eMelanoBase: An online locus-specific variant database for familial melanoma

A proportion of melanoma,prone individuals in both familial and non,familial contexts has been shown to carry inactivating mutations in either CDKN2A or, rarely, CDK4. CDKN2A is a complex locus that encodes two unrelated proteins from alternately spliced transcripts that are read in different frames. The alpha transcript (exons 1a, 2, and 3) produces the p16INK4A cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, while the beta transcript (exons 1beta and 2) is translated as p14ARF, a stabilizing factor of p53 levels through binding to MDM2. Mutations in exon 2 can impair both polypeptides and insertions and deletions in exons 1alpha, 1beta, and 2, which can theoretically generate p16INK4A,p14ARF fusion proteins. No online database currently takes into account all the consequences of these genotypes, a situation compounded by some problematic previous annotations of CDKN2A related sequences and descriptions of their mutations. As an initiative of the international Melanoma Genetics Consortium, we have therefore established a database of germline variants observed in all loci implicated in familial melanoma susceptibility. Such a comprehensive, publicly accessible database is an essential foundation for research on melanoma susceptibility and its clinical application. Our database serves two types of data as defined by HUGO. The core dataset includes the nucleotide variants on the genomic and transcript levels, amino acid variants, and citation. The ancillary dataset includes keyword description of events at the transcription and translation levels and epidemiological data. The application that handles users' queries was designed in the model,view. controller architecture and was implemented in Java. The object-relational database schema was deduced using functional dependency analysis. We hereby present our first functional prototype of eMelanoBase. The service is accessible via the URL www.wmi.usyd.e, du.au:8080/melanoma.html.

Online titrimetric and off-gas analysis for examining nitrification processes in wastewater treatment

The two steps of nitrification, namely the oxidation of ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate, often need to be considered separately in process studies. For a detailed examination, it is desirable to monitor the two-step sequence using online measurements. In this paper, the use of online titrimetric and off-gas analysis (TOGA) methods for the examination of the process is presented. Using the known reaction stoichiometry, combination of the measured signals (rates of hydrogen ion production, oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide transfer) allows the determination of the three key process rates, namely the ammonia consumption rate, the nitrite accumulation rate and the nitrate production rate. Individual reaction rates determined with the TOGA sensor under a number of operation conditions are presented. The rates calculated directly from the measured signals are compared with those obtained from offline liquid sample analysis. Statistical analysis confirms that the results from the two approaches match well. This result could not have been guaranteed using alternative online methods. As a case study, the influences of pH and dissolved oxygen (DO) on nitrite accumulation are tested using the proposed method. It is shown that nitrite accumulation decreased with increasing DO and pH. Possible reasons for these observations are discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aplicação da geotecnologia no estudo de cadastro técnico rural e no mapeamento de áreas de preservação permanente e reservas legais

Este trabalho teve como objetivo principal mapear as classes de cobertura e o uso da terra, bem como as áreas de preservação permanente (APPs) e de reservas legais de imóveis rurais. A área de estudo compreendeu parte dos municípios de Canaã, Araponga e Ervália, Estado de Minas Gerais. Foi utilizada uma imagem ortorretificada de alta resolução do sensor Ikonos II com 1 m de resolução espacial. A partir da interpretação visual da imagem, foram criadas sete classes temáticas, a saber: cobertura florestal, pasto sujo, pasto limpo, cafezal, edificações, área agrícola e reflorestamento. As APPs foram obtidas a partir de um modelo digital de elevação hidrologicamente consistente. Os resultados mostraram a predominância das classes de cafezal com 24,5% e de cobertura florestal com 28,8%, perfazendo mais de 50% da área de estudo. As áreas delimitadas como de preservação permanente totalizaram 55,1%.

A brief survey on online analysis of movement data

The increasing availability of mobility data and the awareness of its importance and value have been motivating many researchers to the development of models and tools for analyzing movement data. This paper presents a brief survey of significant research works about modeling, processing and visualization of data about moving objects. We identified some key research fields that will provide better features for online analysis of movement data. As result of the literature review, we suggest a generic multi-layer architecture for the development of an online analysis processing software tool, which will be used for the definition of the future work of our team.

Participatory Online Platforms and the Construction of Citizen’s Autonomy in Health Issues

The goal of the present study is mapping the nature of possible contributions of participatory online platforms in citizen actions that may contribute in the fight against cancer and its associated consequences. The research is based on the analysis of online solidarity networks, namely the ones residing on Facebook and the blogosphere, that citizens have been gradually resorting to. The research is also based on the development of newer and more efficient solutions that provide the individual (directly or indirectly affected by issues of oncology) with the means to overcome feelings of impotence and fatality. In this chapter, the authors summarize the processes of usage of these decentralized, freer participatory platforms by citizens and institutions, while attempting to unravel existing hype and stigma; the authors also provide a first survey of the importance and the role of institutions in this kind of endeavor; lastly, they present a prototype, developed in the context of the present study that is specifically dedicated to addressing oncology through social media.

Anuário Financeiro das Freguesias Portuguesas - 2014: Divulgação online da informação e sua análise preliminar

Desde 2003 que é publicado o Anuário Financeiros dos Municípios Portugueses que apresenta, de uma forma independente, a situação económica, financeira e patrimonial de todos os municípios portugueses (308) e também do setor empresarial local. Ao longo deste anos tem-se assistido ao aumento da disponibilização da informação financeira nos websites dos municípios e de uma forma menos presente nas entidades do sector empresarial local. Efetivamente, a preocupação com a accountability e a transparência das contas públicas tem crescido de forma significativa nos últimos 20 anos. Com o processo de descentralização de poderes e delegação de competências do governo central para o governo local, nomeadamente para as os municípios e por sua vez destes para as freguesias, aumentou a preocupação com a accountability e transparência ao nível das freguesias. Decorrente da reforma administrativa de 2011, Portugal conta com a existência, a nível nacional de 3091 freguesias distribuídas pelo território nacional, onde se identificam freguesias de diferentes dimensões, com diferentes modelos de organização. A freguesia representa a entidade pública com maior aproximação das comunidades locais, desempenhando por isso um papel fulcral na divulgação de informação relevante e no uso das novas tecnologias e dos meios digitais para melhor comunicar com a população. Assim, e considerando a sua representatividade ao nível da administração local, e o impacto que têm no seu conjunto, entendeu-se oportuno iniciar-se o projeto do Anuário Financeiro das Freguesias Portuguesas que, numa primeira fase e de forma preliminar, analisa a divulgação online da informação por parte das freguesias e, num segundo momento, analisa a informação financeira divulgada de forma agregada. É intenção do autores dar continuidade ao Anuário, apresentando resultados de uma forma sistemática, pelo menos de dois em dois anos, evidenciando as evoluções a nível da divulgação da informação. Para a realização deste projeto contamos com habitual apoio do Tribunal de Contas que se associou a este projeto através da disponibilização da informação aí depositada por parte das freguesias.