Naval researches, or, A candid inquiry into the conduct of Admirals Byron, Graves, Hood, and Rodney : in the action off Grenada, Chesapeak, St. Christopher's, and of the ninth and twelfth of April 1782 : being a refutation of the plans and statements of Mr. Clerk, Rear Admiral Ekins, and others : founded on authentic documents or actual observation /

Mode of access: Internet.

Mechanisms underlying the vasorelaxant action of the pimarane ent-8(14),15-pimaradien-3 beta-ol in the isolated rat aorta

Pimarane-type diterpenes were described to exert antispasmodic and relaxant activities. Based on this observation we hypothesized that the diterpene ent-8(14),15-pimaradien-3 beta-ol (PA-3 beta-ol) induced vascular relaxation. With this purpose, the present work investigates the mechanisms involved in the vasorelaxant effect of the pimarane-type diterpene PA-3 beta-ol. Vascular reactivity experiments, using standard muscle bath procedures, were performed in isolated aortic rings from male Wistar rats. Cytosolic calcium concentration ([Ca(2+)]c) was measured by confocal microscopy using the fluorescent probe Fluo-3AM. PA-3 beta-ol (10, 50 and 100 mu mol/l) inhibited phenylephrine and KCl-induced contraction in either endothelium-intact or denuded rat aortic rings. PA-3 beta-ol also reduced CaCl(2)-induced contraction in Ca(2+)-free solution containing KCl (30 mmol/l) or phenylephrine (0.1 mu mol/l). PA-3 beta-ol (1-300 mu mol/l) concentration dependently relaxed phenylephrine-pre-contracted rings with intact or denuded endothelium. The diterpene also relaxed KCl-pre-contracted rings with intact or denuded endothelium. Moreover, Ca(2+) mobilization study showed that PA-3 beta-ol (100 mu mol/l) and verapamil (1 mu mol/l) inhibited the increase in Ca(2+)-concentration in smooth muscle and endothelial cells induced by phenylephrine (10 mu mol/l) or KCl (60 mmol/l). Pre-incubation of intact or denuded aortic rings with N(G)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 100 mu mol/l) and 1H-[1,2,4] Oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ 1 mu mol/l) produced a rightward displacement of the PA-3 beta-ol concentration-response curves. On the other hand, 7-nitroindazole (100 mu mol/l), 1400 W (1 mu mol/l), indomethacin (10 mu mol/l) and tetraethylammonium (1 mmol/l) did not affect PA-3 beta-ol-induced relaxation. Collectively, our results provide evidence that the effects elicited by PA-3 beta-ol involve extracellular Ca(2+) influx blockade. Its effects are also partly mediated by the activation of NO-cGMP pathway. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Premovement activity of the pre-supplementary motor area and the readiness for action: Studies of time-resolved event-related functional MRI

The supplementary motor area (SMA) is thought to play in important role in the preparation and organisation of voluntary movement. It has long been known that cortical activity begins to increase up to 2 s prior to voluntary self-initiated movement. This increasing premovement activity measured in EEG is known as the Bereitschaftspotential or readiness potential. Modern functional brain imaging methods, using event-related and time-resolved functional MRI techniques, are beginning to reveal the role of the SMA, and in particular the more anterior pre-SMA, in premovement activity associated with the readiness for action. In this paper we review recent studies using event-related time-resolved fMRI methods to examine the time-course of activation changes within the SMA throughout the preparation, readiness and execution of action. These studies suggest that the preSMA plays a common role in encoding or representing actions prior to our own voluntary self-initiated movements, during motor imagery, and from the observation of others' actions. We suggest that the pre-SMA generates and encodes motor representations which are then maintained in readiness for action. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The selection of intended actions and the observation of others' actions: A time-resolved fMRI study

Whenever we plan, imagine, or observe an action, the motor systems that would be involved in preparing and executing that action are similarly engaged. The way in which such common motor activation is formed, however, is likely to differ depending on whether it arises from our own intentional selection of action or from the observation of another's action. In this study, we use time-resolved event-related functional MRI to tease apart neural processes specifically related to the processing of observed actions, the selection of our own intended actions, the preparation for movement, and motor response execution. Participants observed a finger gesture movement or a cue indicating they should select their own finger gesture to perform, followed by a 5-s delay period; participants then performed the observed or self-selected action. During the preparation and readiness for action, prior to initiation, we found activation in a common network of higher motor areas, including dorsal and ventral premotor areas and the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA); the more caudal SMA showed greater activation during movement execution. Importantly, the route to this common motor activation differed depending on whether participants freely selected the actions to perform or whether they observed the actions performed by another person. Observation of action specifically involved activation of inferior and superior parietal regions, reflecting involvement of the dorsal visual pathway in visuomotor processing required for planning the action. In contrast, the selection of action specifically involved the dorsal lateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex, reflecting the role of these prefrontal areas in attentional selection and guiding the selection of responses. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Melanonychia: the importance of dermatoscopic examination and of nail matrix/bed observation

Melanonychia, from the Greek melaina, means black and is the result of an increased deposition of melanin on the nail plate, originating in the nail matrix. It may have different causes, including subungueal melanoma, making early etiologic diagnosis very important.

Molluscicidal action of the latex of Euphorbia splendens var. hislopii N.E.B. ("Christ's Crown") (Euphorbiaceae) against Lymnaea columella (Say, 1817) (Pulmonata: Lymnaeidae), intermediate host of Fasciola hepatica Linnaeus, 1758 (Trematode: Fasciolidae): 1- test in laboratory

The latex action of Euphorbia splendens var. hislopii (Christ's Crown) against snails Lymnaea columella, intermediate host of Fasciola hepatica, derived from irrigation ditches of the Station of Pisciculture at Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, was studied in the laboratory. Lab bioassays, using aqueous solutions of the latex, varying between 0.1 and 10 mg/l, have proven molluscicidal activity of the product collected on the same day the tests were performed, during the four seasons of the year, finding the following lethal concentrations (LC90): 1.51 mg/l in the spring; 0.55 mg/l in the summer; 0.74 mg/l in the fall and 0.93 mg/l in winter, after 24 h exposure of the snails, showing significant differences among the seasons of the year (ANOVA test, F = 11.01, G.L.= 3/33, p < 0.05), as well as among the concentrations (ANOVA test, F = 27.38, G.L.= 11/33, p < 0.05). In the summer, mortality reached 100% from concentration at 0.6 mg/l, the same during fall and in winter as of 1 mg/l, while in spring it only reached 100% mortality as of 2 mg/l. Mortality in the controls was low, reaching 5% in the summer and winter and 10% in the fall and spring. None of the samples died. During the assay, with an aqueous solution of the latex at a concentration of 5 mg/l, in order to check the time of duration of the product effect, in the laboratory, it was observed that the molluscicidal activity remained stable up to the 15th day after the beginning of the test with 100% mortality of L. columella, gradually losing its effect until the 23rd day, when we no longer observed animal mortality. In the control group, there was a random daily variation in mortality rate ranging 0-50% after 48 h of observation for 30 days.

Enhancing teaching and learning speech acts: action research of Japanese as a foreign language /

This action research observes a second year Japanese class at a university where foreign language courses are elective for undergraduate students. In this study, using the six strategies to teach Japanese speech acts that Ishihara and Cohen (2006) suggested, I conducted three classes and analyzed my teaching practice with a critical friend. These strategies assist learners toward the development of their understanding of the following Japanese speech acts and also keep the learners to use them in a manner appropriate to the context: (I) invitation and refusal; (2) compliments; and (3) asking for a permission. The aim of this research is not only to improve my instruction in relation to second language (L2) pragmatic development, but also to raise further questions and to develop future research. The findings are analyzed and the data derived from my journals, artifacts, students' work, observation sheets, interviews with my critical friend, and pretests and posttests are coded and presented. The analysis shows that (I) after my critical friend encouraged my study and my students gave me some positive comments after each lesson, I gained confidence in teaching the suggested speech acts; (2) teaching involved explaining concepts and strategies, creating the visual material (a video) showing the strategies, and explaining the relationship between the strategy and grammatical forms and samples of misusing the forms; (3) students' background and learning styles influenced lessons; and (4) pretest and posttests showed that the students' Icvel of their L2 appropriate pragmatics dramatically improved after each instruction. However, after careful observation, it was noted that some factors prevented students from producing the correct output even though they understood the speech act differences.

Études du remodelage vasculaire utérin durant la grossesse : caractérisation du rôle de l’œstrogène et de son action vasorelaxante

La grossesse est un état physiologique particulier où de nombreux changements fonctionnels et structuraux surviennent. Chez la rate, pour répondre aux besoins grandissants du fœtus, l’artère utérine se développe pour atteindre le double de son diamètre original avant parturition. Par conséquent, le débit sanguin utérin augmente d’environ vingt fois. Pour ce faire, les vaisseaux utérins sont l’objet d’un remodelage caractérisé par une hypertrophie et une hyperplasie des différentes composantes de la paroi. De plus, ce remodelage est complètement réversible après la parturition, par opposition au remodelage vasculaire « pathologique » qui affecte les artères systémiques, dans l’hypertension chronique, par exemple. La grossesse s’accompagne aussi de modifications hormonales importantes, comme les œstrogènes dont la concentration s’accroît progressivement au cours de cette période. Elle atteindra une concentration trois cents fois plus élevée avant terme que chez une femme non gravide. Cette hormone possède de multiples fonctions, ainsi qu’un mode d’action à la fois génomique et non génomique. Considérant l’ensemble de ces éléments, nous avons formulé l’hypothèse que l’œstradiol serait responsable de modifier la circulation utérine durant la grossesse, par son action vasorelaxante, mais aussi en influençant le remodelage de la vasculature utérine. Nous avons montré que le 17β-Estradiol (17β-E2) produit une relaxation due à un effet non génomique des artères utérines en agissant directement sur le muscle lisse par un mécanisme indépendant du monoxyde d’azote et des récepteurs classiques aux œstrogènes (ERα, ERβ). De plus, la relaxation induite par le 17β-E2 dans l’artère utérine durant la gestation est réduite par rapport à celle des artères des rates non gestantes. Ceci serait attribuable à une diminution de monoxyde d’azote provenant de la synthase de NO neuronale dans les muscles lisses des artères utérines. Nos résultats démontrent que le récepteur à l’œstrogène couplé aux protéines G (GPER), la protéine kinase A (PKA) et la protéine kinase G (PKG) ne sont pas impliqués dans la signalisation intracellulaire associée à l’effet vasorelaxant induit par le 17β-E2. Cependant, nous avons montré une implication probable des canaux potassiques sensibles au voltage, ainsi qu’un rôle possible des canaux potassiques de grande conductance activés par le potentiel et le calcium (BKCa). En effet, le penitrem A, un antagoniste présumé des canaux potassiques à grande conductance, réduit la réponse vasoralaxante du 17β-E2. Toutefois, une autre action du penitrem A n’est pas exclue, car l’ibériotoxine, reconnue pour inhiber les mêmes canaux, n’a pas d’effet sur cette relaxation. Quoi qu’il en soit, d’autres études sont nécessaires pour obtenir une meilleure compréhension des mécanismes impliqués dans la relaxation non génomique sur le muscle lisse des artères utérines. Quant à l’implication de l’œstrogène sur le remodelage des artères utérines durant la gestation, nous avons tenté d’inhiber la synthèse d’œstrogènes durant la gestation en utilisant un inhibiteur de l’aromatase. Plusieurs paramètres ont été évalués (paramètres sanguins, réactivité vasculaire, pression artérielle) sans changements significatifs entre le groupe contrôle et celui traité avec l’inhibiteur. Le même constat a été fait pour le dosage plasmatique de l’œstradiol, ce qui suggère l’inefficacité du blocage de l’aromatase dans ces expériences. Ainsi, notre protocole expérimental n’a pas réussi à inhiber la synthèse d’œstrogène durant la grossesse chez le rat et, ce faisant, nous n’avons pas pu vérifier notre hypothèse. En conclusion, nous avons démontré que le 17β-E2 agit de façon non génomique sur les muscles lisses des artères utérines qui implique une action sur les canaux potassiques de la membrane cellulaire. Toutefois, notre protocole expérimental n’a pas été en mesure d’évaluer les effets génomiques associés au remodelage vasculaire utérin durant la gestation et d’autres études devront être effectuées.

Réorganiser les services de réadaptation destinés aux enfants : utilisation d'une recherche-action participative pour documenter un nouveau modèle de services

Cette thèse a pour but de documenter la réorganisation des services effectuée au programme Enfants et adolescents (PEA) du Centre de réadaptation Estrie, Sherbrooke. Une démarche de recherche-action participative (RAP) est utilisée afin de collaborer au développement, à l’implantation et à l’évaluation d’un nouveau modèle de services visant à accroître l’accessibilité et la qualité des services de réadaptation offerts aux enfants ayant une déficience physique. Spécifiquement, les objectifs sont : 1) de documenter les retombées de la réorganisation des services; 2) de réaliser une analyse critique du processus de changement. Des méthodes quantitatives et qualitatives sont utilisées afin d’atteindre ces objectifs. Tout d’abord, la Mesure des processus de soins (MPOC) documente la perception de la qualité avant (2007), pendant (2008) et après (2009) l’implantation du nouveau modèle de services. Au total, cet outil est employé auprès de 222 familles et 129 intervenants. À quatre reprises, les intervenants et les gestionnaires répondent également à un questionnaire sur leurs perceptions des forces, des faiblesses, des opportunités et des menaces au PEA. En 2008 et en 2009, des focus groups et des entrevues téléphoniques sont réalisées auprès des familles (n=5), des intervenants (n=19) et des gestionnaires (n=13) afin de documenter leurs perceptions sur le processus de changement et sur les retombées de la réorganisation des services. Quant à l’observation participante, elle permet de recueillir de l’information sur le processus de réorganisation des services tout au long de ces trois années. Enfin, les informations recueillies sont analysées à l’aide de différentes approches, dont des tests statistiques et des analyses de contenu utilisant une grille de codification inspirée de la théorie des systèmes d’actions organisées. Les résultats indiquent que davantage d’enfants reçoivent des services en 2009 en comparaison à 2007. De plus, la qualité des services s’est maintenue selon les perceptions évaluées par la MPOC (article 1). L’utilisation d’interventions de groupe contribue fort probablement à augmenter le nombre d’enfants qui reçoivent des services, mais plusieurs défis doivent être adressés afin que cette modalité d’intervention soit réellement efficiente (article 2). Les résultats font ressortir que le processus de réorganisation des services est complexe. L’évaluation des forces, des faiblesses, des opportunités et des menaces d’un programme, de même que l’implication des acteurs dans le processus de développement d’un nouveau modèle de services, favorisent l’amélioration continue de la qualité (article 3). Or, les facilitateurs et les obstacles à l’implantation du nouveau modèle de services évoluent durant la réorganisation des services. Considérant cela, il est important de poser les actions nécessaires afin de soutenir le changement tout au long du processus (article 4). En résumé, cette thèse contribue à l’avancement des connaissances en réadaptation en comblant une lacune dans les écrits scientifiques. En effet, peu de projets visant le développement et l’implantation de nouveaux modèles de services sont évalués et documentés. Pourtant, des modèles tels que celui développé par le PEA semblent prometteurs afin d’améliorer l’accessibilité, et éventuellement, la qualité des services de réadaptation chez l’enfant.

Practices of Local Social Forums: The Building of Tactical and Cultural Collective Action Repertoires

Since the first edition of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2001, similar initiatives have flourished at the local scales. In the existing literature, local social forums are generally considered to be a natural replication of the world social forums. Beyond the label “social forums,” what do the practices of local social forums specifically entail and what is the meaning of these practices for local activists?I propose a comparison of eight cases situated in two distinct societies (Quebec and France). I use a multi-approach methodology, combining direct observation, focus groups, interviews, and documentary analysis.I show that despite strong national differences, a highly decentralized process, and the strong autonomy of local actors, local social forums share structural characteristics, and the expression “social forum” is associated with ways of doing things that limit the variety of local social forum initiatives: organizers share a common intentionality; the mode of operation of local social forum process and event belong to the same political culture and translate into the same practices; and the outputs of these gatherings are similar in terms of the building of ties. Overall, local social forums are used as tactical and cultural collective action repertoires by actors, redefining the boundaries of social resistance and its practices.

Identifying and understanding factors influencing the uptake of new technologies on dairy farms in SW England using the theory of reasoned action

Whilst much is known of new technology adopters, little research has addressed the role of their attitudes in adoption decisions; particularly, for technologies with evident economic potential that have not been taken up by farmers. This paper presents recent research that has used a new approach which examines the role that adopters' attitudes play in identifying the drivers of and barriers to adoption. The study was concerned with technologies for livestock farming systems in SW England, specifically oestrus detection, nitrogen supply management, and, inclusion of white clover. The adoption behaviour is analysed using the social-psychology theory of reasoned action to identify factors that affect the adoption of technologies, which are confirmed using principal components analysis. The results presented here relate to the specific adoption behaviour regarding the Milk Development Council's recommended observation times for heat detection. The factors that affect the adoption of this technology are: cost effectiveness, improved detection and conception rates as the main drivers, whilst the threat to demean the personal knowledge and skills of a farmer in 'knowing' their cows is a barrier. This research shows clearly that promotion of a technology and transfer of knowledge for a farming system need to take account of the beliefs and attitudes of potential adopters. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Action following the discovery of a global association between the whole genome and adverse event risk in a clinical drug-development programme

Observation of adverse drug reactions during drug development can cause closure of the whole programme. However, if association between the genotype and the risk of an adverse event is discovered, then it might suffice to exclude patients of certain genotypes from future recruitment. Various sequential and non-sequential procedures are available to identify an association between the whole genome, or at least a portion of it, and the incidence of adverse events. In this paper we start with a suspected association between the genotype and the risk of an adverse event and suppose that the genetic subgroups with elevated risk can be identified. Our focus is determination of whether the patients identified as being at risk should be excluded from further studies of the drug. We propose using a utility function to? determine the appropriate action, taking into account the relative costs of suffering an adverse reaction and of failing to alleviate the patient's disease. Two illustrative examples are presented, one comparing patients who suffer from an adverse event with contemporary patients who do not, and the other making use of a reference control group. We also illustrate two classification methods, LASSO and CART, for identifying patients at risk, but we stress that any appropriate classification method could be used in conjunction with the proposed utility function. Our emphasis is on determining the action to take rather than on providing definitive evidence of an association. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sensorimotor experience enhances automatic imitation of robotic action

Recent research in cognitive neuroscience has found that observation of human actions activates the ‘mirror system’ and provokes automatic imitation to a greater extent than observation of non-biological movements. The present study investigated whether this human bias depends primarily on phylogenetic or ontogenetic factors by examining the effects of sensorimotor experience on automatic imitation of non-biological robotic, stimuli. Automatic imitation of human and robotic action stimuli was assessed before and after training. During these test sessions, participants were required to execute a pre-specified response (e.g. to open their hand) while observing a human or robotic hand making a compatible (opening) or incompatible (closing) movement. During training, participants executed opening and closing hand actions while observing compatible (group CT) or incompatible movements (group IT) of a robotic hand. Compatible, but not incompatible, training increased automatic imitation of robotic stimuli (speed of responding on compatible trials, compared with incompatible trials) and abolished the human bias observed at pre-test. These findings suggest that the development of the mirror system depends on sensorimotor experience, and that, in our species, it is biased in favour of human action stimuli because these are more abundant than non-biological action stimuli in typical developmental environments.

Measures of observation impact in non-Gaussian data assimilation

ABSTRACT Non-Gaussian/non-linear data assimilation is becoming an increasingly important area of research in the Geosciences as the resolution and non-linearity of models are increased and more and more non-linear observation operators are being used. In this study, we look at the effect of relaxing the assumption of a Gaussian prior on the impact of observations within the data assimilation system. Three different measures of observation impact are studied: the sensitivity of the posterior mean to the observations, mutual information and relative entropy. The sensitivity of the posterior mean is derived analytically when the prior is modelled by a simplified Gaussian mixture and the observation errors are Gaussian. It is found that the sensitivity is a strong function of the value of the observation and proportional to the posterior variance. Similarly, relative entropy is found to be a strong function of the value of the observation. However, the errors in estimating these two measures using a Gaussian approximation to the prior can differ significantly. This hampers conclusions about the effect of the non-Gaussian prior on observation impact. Mutual information does not depend on the value of the observation and is seen to be close to its Gaussian approximation. These findings are illustrated with the particle filter applied to the Lorenz ’63 system. This article is concluded with a discussion of the appropriateness of these measures of observation impact for different situations.

Adjuvant chemotherapy in older women (ACTION) study - what did we learn from the pilot phase?

Despite widespread support at several public meetings, input from patient groups including representation on the Trial Management Group, the trial failed to recruit due to the inability to convince patients to accept randomisation. It would therefore seem that randomising the patients to receive chemotherapy vs observation is not a viable design in the current era for this patient population.