Active2010 and the Ontario School System: A Top-Down Policy Implementation Analysis

In 2004, the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport (MHPS) established Active2010: Ontario’s Sport and Physical Activity Strategy. Active2010 demonstrates a strong provincial government policy emphasis regarding sport participation and physical activity (PA), and identifies the school system as a primary vehicle for enhancing PA levels. This study examines the sport and PA initiatives MHPS is undertaking within the school system. Theoretical context regarding neo-liberalism in Canada and Canadian sport frames this study, while a revised version of Van Meter and Van Horn’s (1975) top-down model of policy implementation guides the research process. A case study of the school-based PA system is conducted which relies on the analysis of 11 semi-structured interviews and 47 official organizational documents. Four emergent categories of Jurisdictional Funding, Coercive Policy, Sector Silos, and Community Champions are identified. Additional insight is provided regarding neo-liberalism, provincial level government, interministerial collaboration, and government/non-profit sector partnership.

Blocking Top-down awareness of Kanizsa Figures: An ERP Investigation into Bottom-up Processing of Illusory Contours

Neural models of the processing of illusory contour (ICs) diverge from one another in terms of their emphasis on bottom-up versus top-down constituents. The current study uses a dichoptic fusion paradigm to block top-down awareness of ICs in order to examine possible bottom-up effects. Group results indicate that the N170 ERP component is particularly sensitive to ICs at central occipital sites when top-down awareness of the stimulus is permitted. Furthermore, single-subject statistics reveal that the IC N170 ERP effect is highly variable across individuals in terms of timing and topographical spread. The results suggest that the ubiquitous N170 effect to ICs found in the literature depends, at least in part, on participants’ awareness of the stimulus. Therefore a strong bottom-up model of IC processing at the time of the N170 is unlikely.

Integrating top down policies and bottom up practices in Urban and Periurban Agriculture: an Italian dilemma

The paper deals with some relevant and contradictory aspects of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Italy: the traditional exclusion of agricultural areas from the goals of territorial planning; the separation between top-down policies and bottom-up practices; the lack of agricultural policies at local scale. In the first part the paper summarises the weak relation between urban planning and agriculture, showing how in Italy this gap has been only partially overcome by new laws and plans. Moreover the paper focuses on how, due to the lack of suitable solutions coming from regional and local planning, a large number of vibrant initiatives were started by local stakeholders. In order to show the limitations and the potentialities of these various approaches, three peculiar experiences based on Milan, Turin and Pisa are presented. They give a cross-section of the variegated Italian situation, demonstrating that a major challenge in Italian context affects the fields of governance and inclusiveness.

Failure to regulate: counterproductive recruitment of top-down prefrontal-subcortical circuitry in major depression

Although depressed mood is a normal occurrence in response to adversity in all individuals, what distinguishes those who are vulnerable to major depressive disorder (MDD) is their inability to effectively regulate negative mood when it arises. Investigating the neural underpinnings of adaptive emotion regulation and the extent to which such processes are compromised in MDD may be helpful in understanding the pathophysiology of depression. We report results from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study demonstrating left-lateralized activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) when downregulating negative affect in nondepressed individuals, whereas depressed individuals showed bilateral PFC activation. Furthermore, during an effortful affective reappraisal task, nondepressed individuals showed an inverse relationship between activation in left ventrolateral PFC and the amygdala that is mediated by the ventromedial PFC (VMPFC). No such relationship was found for depressed individuals, who instead show a positive association between VMPFC and amygdala. Pupil dilation data suggest that those depressed patients who expend more effort to reappraise negative stimuli are characterized by accentuated activation in the amygdala, insula, and thalamus, whereas nondepressed individuals exhibit the opposite pattern. These findings indicate that a key feature underlying the pathophysiology of major depression is the counterproductive engagement of right prefrontal cortex and the lack of engagement of left lateral-ventromedial prefrontal circuitry important for the downregulation of amygdala responses to negative stimuli.

Top-down solar modulation of climate: evidence for centennial-scale change

During the descent into the recent ‘exceptionally’ low solar minimum, observations have revealed a larger change in solar UV emissions than seen at the same phase of previous solar cycles. This is particularly true at wavelengths responsible for stratospheric ozone production and heating. This implies that ‘top-down’ solar modulation could be a larger factor in long-term tropospheric change than previously believed, many climate models allowing only for the ‘bottom-up’ effect of the less-variable visible and infrared solar emissions. We present evidence for long-term drift in solar UV irradiance, which is not found in its commonly used proxies. In addition, we find that both stratospheric and tropospheric winds and temperatures show stronger regional variations with those solar indices that do show long-term trends. A top-down climate effect that shows long-term drift (and may also be out of phase with the bottom-up solar forcing) would change the spatial response patterns and would mean that climate-chemistry models that have sufficient resolution in the stratosphere would become very important for making accurate regional/seasonal climate predictions. Our results also provide a potential explanation of persistent palaeoclimate results showing solar influence on regional or local climate indicators.

Top-down systems biology modeling of host metabotype-microbiome associations in obese rodents

Covariation in the structural composition of the gut microbiome and the spectroscopically derived metabolic phenotype (metabotype) of a rodent model for obesity were investigated using a range of multivariate statistical tools. Urine and plasma samples from three strains of 10-week-old male Zucker rats (obese (fa/fa, n = 8), lean (fal-, n = 8) and lean (-/-, n = 8)) were characterized via high-resolution H-1 NMR spectroscopy, and in parallel, the fecal microbial composition was investigated using fluorescence in situ hydridization (FISH) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) methods. All three Zucker strains had different relative abundances of the dominant members of their intestinal microbiota (FISH), with the novel observation of a Halomonas and a Sphingomonas species being present in the (fa/fa) obese strain on the basis of DGGE data. The two functionally and phenotypically normal Zucker strains (fal- and -/-) were readily distinguished from the (fa/fa) obese rats on the basis of their metabotypes with relatively lower urinary hippurate and creatinine, relatively higher levels of urinary isoleucine, leucine and acetate and higher plasma LDL and VLDL levels typifying the (fa/fa) obese strain. Collectively, these data suggest a conditional host genetic involvement in selection of the microbial species in each host strain, and that both lean and obese animals could have specific metabolic phenotypes that are linked to their individual microbiomes.

Bottom-up, not top-down, modulation of imitation by human and robotic models

Visual observation of human actions provokes more motor activation than observation of robotic actions. We investigated the extent to which this visuomotor priming effect is mediated by bottom-up or top-down processing. The bottom-up hypothesis suggests that robotic movements are less effective in activating the ‘mirror system’ via pathways from visual areas via the superior temporal sulcus to parietal and premotor cortices. The top-down hypothesis postulates that beliefs about the animacy of a movement stimulus modulate mirror system activity via descending pathways from areas such as the temporal pole and prefrontal cortex. In an automatic imitation task, subjects performed a prespecified movement (e.g. hand opening) on presentation of a human or robotic hand making a compatible (opening) or incompatible (closing) movement. The speed of responding on compatible trials, compared with incompatible trials, indexed visuomotor priming. In the first experiment, robotic stimuli were constructed by adding a metal and wire ‘wrist’ to a human hand. Questionnaire data indicated that subjects believed these movements to be less animate than those of the human stimuli but the visuomotor priming effects of the human and robotic stimuli did not differ. In the second experiment, when the robotic stimuli were more angular and symmetrical than the human stimuli, human movements elicited more visuomotor priming than the robotic movements. However, the subjects’ beliefs about the animacy of the stimuli did not affect their performance. These results suggest that bottom-up processing is primarily responsible for the visuomotor priming advantage of human stimuli.

Bottom-up and top-down effects in a pre-dispersal seed predation system: are non-predated seeds damaged?

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A Top-Down Approach for Distribution Loss Evaluation

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Direct and indirect top-down effects of previous contact with an enemy on the feeding behavior of blowfly larvae

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Infliximabe no tratamento inicial da retocolite ulcerativa moderada e grave. Terapia top down: Relato preliminar

The first option for the treatment of UC is both: salicylates or corticoids. Recently, in late November of 2006, the Brazilian Ministry of Health has approved infliximab (Remicade c, Mantecorp, Brazil) to treat ulcerative colitis. We report the use of infliximab as a first option for the treatment of two patients with severe ulcerative colitis. Case report: Patient 1: AZF, 52 years-old, female, was first diagnosed with UC after history and clinical examination; colonoscopy showed pancolitis with positive biopsy (crypt microabscess). Her Mayo score was 10 (range: 0 to 12/asymptomatic to severe colitis). She received intra venous infusion of infliximab at a dose of 5mg/Kg of body weigh at week 0, 2, 6 and 14. Then, patient was given mesalazine 4.5 g/day for maintenance therapy. Clinical response was defined as a decreased from baseline in the total Mayo score of at least 3 points. At present, patient is asymptomatic with Mayo score of 3 one moth after the last dose of infliximab. Patient 2: MLA, 45 years-old, female was first diagnosed with bloody diarrhea; colonoscopy showed left colitis and the biopsy was positive for ulcerative colitis. Her Mayo score was 9. She was offered and accepted the step down treatment. She was given infliximab 5mg/Kg of body weight at week 0, 2, 6 and 14. After initial treatment with infliximab, she received mesalazine 4.2 g/day. At present, she is asymptomatic with Mayo score of 2 eighteen days after the last dose of infliximab. At our knowledge, this is the first Brazilian report of the use of infliximab as fist-line therapy in ulcerative colitis. Few days after the begging of the infusion, an impressive clinical and colonoscopy improvement was seen in these two patients. Recently, it has been reported the use of infliximab as first-line therapy in pediatric Crohn disease. Infliximab could be a good option in cases of moderate and severe UC to avoid the side effects of the use of high doses of corticoids in patients with moderate and severe UC. However, the question if step-down therapy in ulcerative colitis is better then conventional therapy with salicylates and corticoids needs to be answered by randomized trials.

Efeitos tipo bottom-up e top-down em um sistema tritrófico formado por Ricinus communis L. (Euphorbiaceae), Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) e seus inimigos naturais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Análisis, diseño y desarrollo de un videojuego en 2D con perspectiva top-down

[ES]En este proyecto la alumna ha desarrollado la demo jugable de un videojuego en 2D con perspectiva top-down. El juego transcurre en un zoológico, con un mono como protagonista, y el objetivo del mismo es lograr escapar al tiempo que se evita a los empleados del zoo. Para conseguir huir, el jugador tendrá que obtener algunos objetos y liberar a otros animales. En la propia demo se pueden consultar los controles y las distintas opciones disponibles. Para la creación del juego se ha utilizado el motor de juegos Unity 5 (edición personal) y recursos obtenidos de diversas fuentes de contenido gratuito.