Structural changes induced by daily music listening in the recovering brain after middle cerebral artery stroke: a voxel-based morphometry study

Music is a highly complex and versatile stimulus for the brain that engages many temporal, frontal, parietal, cerebellar, and subcortical areas involved in auditory, cognitive, emotional, and motor processing. Regular musical activities have been shown to effectively enhance the structure and function of many brain areas, making music a potential tool also in neurological rehabilitation. In our previous randomized controlled study, we found that listening to music on a daily basis can improve cognitive recovery and improve mood after an acute middle cerebral artery stroke. Extending this study, a voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis utilizing cost function masking was performed on the acute and 6-month post-stroke stage structural magnetic resonance imaging data of the patients (n = 49) who either listened to their favorite music [music group (MG), n = 16] or verbal material [audio book group (ABG), n = 18] or did not receive any listening material [control group (CG), n = 15] during the 6-month recovery period. Although all groups showed significant gray matter volume (GMV) increases from the acute to the 6-month stage, there was a specific network of frontal areas [left and right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), right medial SFG] and limbic areas [left ventral/subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (SACC) and right ventral striatum (VS)] in patients with left hemisphere damage in which the GMV increases were larger in the MG than in the ABG and in the CG. Moreover, the GM reorganization in the frontal areas correlated with enhanced recovery of verbal memory, focused attention, and language skills, whereas the GM reorganization in the SACC correlated with reduced negative mood. This study adds on previous results, showing that music listening after stroke not only enhances behavioral recovery, but also induces fine-grained neuroanatomical changes in the recovering brain.

Prevalence of overweight and underweight in public and private schools in the Seychelles.

Abstract Objective. We compared the prevalence of body weight categories between public and private schools in the Seychelles, a rapidly developing small island state in the African region. Methods. In 2004-2006, weight and height were measured and self-reported information on physical activity collected in children of three selected grades in all schools in the country. Overweight, obesity and thinness were defined according to standard criteria. Results. Based on 8 462 students (377 in private schools), the prevalence of overweight (including obesity) was markedly higher in private than public schools (boys: 37% [95% CI: 31-44] vs. 15% [14-16]; girls: 33% [26-41] vs. 20% [19-22]). The prevalence of thinness grade 1 was lower in private than public schools (boys: 9% [5-13] vs. 20% [19-21]; girls: 13% [8-18] vs. 19% [18-20]). Students in private schools reported more physical activity at leisure time while students in public schools reported larger weekly walking time. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that school type may be a useful indicator for assessing the association between socio-economic status and overweight in children, and that overweight affects wealthy children more often than others in developing countries.

Cluster-based active learning for compact image classification

In this paper, we consider active sampling to label pixels grouped with hierarchical clustering. The objective of the method is to match the data relationships discovered by the clustering algorithm with the user's desired class semantics. The first is represented as a complete tree to be pruned and the second is iteratively provided by the user. The active learning algorithm proposed searches the pruning of the tree that best matches the labels of the sampled points. By choosing the part of the tree to sample from according to current pruning's uncertainty, sampling is focused on most uncertain clusters. This way, large clusters for which the class membership is already fixed are no longer queried and sampling is focused on division of clusters showing mixed labels. The model is tested on a VHR image in a multiclass classification setting. The method clearly outperforms random sampling in a transductive setting, but cannot generalize to unseen data, since it aims at optimizing the classification of a given cluster structure.

The class basis of the cleavage between the New Left and the radical right: An analysis for Austria, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland

This chapter argues that the electoral competition between the New Left and the Radical Right is best understood as a cultural divide anchored in different class constituencies. Based on individual-level data from the European Social Survey, we analyze the links between voters' class position, their economic and cultural preferences and their party choice for four small and affluent European countries. We find a striking similarity in the class pattern across countries. Everywhere, the New Left attracts disproportionate support from socio-cultural professionals and presents a clear-cut middle-class profile, whereas the Radical Right is most successful among production and service workers and receives least support from professionals. In general, the Radical Right depends on the votes of lowereducated men and older citizens and has turned into a new type of working-class party. However, its success within the working-class is not due to economic, but to cultural issues. The voters of the Radical Right collide with those of the New Left over a cultural conflict of identity and community - and not over questions of redistribution. A full-grown cleavage has thus emerged in the four countries under study, separating a libertarian-universalistic pole from an authoritarian-communitarian pole and going along with a process of class realignment.

Image-Based Coral Reef Classification and Thematic Mapping

This paper presents a novel image classification scheme for benthic coral reef images that can be applied to both single image and composite mosaic datasets. The proposed method can be configured to the characteristics (e.g., the size of the dataset, number of classes, resolution of the samples, color information availability, class types, etc.) of individual datasets. The proposed method uses completed local binary pattern (CLBP), grey level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), Gabor filter response, and opponent angle and hue channel color histograms as feature descriptors. For classification, either k-nearest neighbor (KNN), neural network (NN), support vector machine (SVM) or probability density weighted mean distance (PDWMD) is used. The combination of features and classifiers that attains the best results is presented together with the guidelines for selection. The accuracy and efficiency of our proposed method are compared with other state-of-the-art techniques using three benthic and three texture datasets. The proposed method achieves the highest overall classification accuracy of any of the tested methods and has moderate execution time. Finally, the proposed classification scheme is applied to a large-scale image mosaic of the Red Sea to create a completely classified thematic map of the reef benthos

Isolation, structural assignment and total synthesis of Barmumycin

Barmumycin was isolated from an extract of the marine actinomycete Streptomyces sp. BOSC-022A and found to be cytotoxic against various human tumor cell lines. Based on preliminary one- and two-dimensional 1H- and 13C-NMR spectra, the natural compound was initially assigned the structure of macrolactone-type compound 1, which was later prepared by two different routes. However, major spectroscopic differences between isolated barmumycin and 1 led to revision of the proposed structure as E-16. Based on synthesis of this new compound, and subsequent spectroscopic comparison of it to an authentic sample of barmumycin, the structure of the natural compound was indeed confirmed as that of E-16.

Converter-flux-based current control of voltage source PWM rectifiers - analysis and implementation

Pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) rectifier technology is increasingly used in industrial applications like variable-speed motor drives, since it offers several desired features such as sinusoidal input currents, controllable power factor, bidirectional power flow and high quality DC output voltage. To achieve these features,however, an effective control system with fast and accurate current and DC voltage responses is required. From various control strategies proposed to meet these control objectives, in most cases the commonly known principle of the synchronous-frame current vector control along with some space-vector PWM scheme have been applied. Recently, however, new control approaches analogous to the well-established direct torque control (DTC) method for electrical machines have also emerged to implement a high-performance PWM rectifier. In this thesis the concepts of classical synchronous-frame current control and DTC-based PWM rectifier control are combined and a new converter-flux-based current control (CFCC) scheme is introduced. To achieve sufficient dynamic performance and to ensure a stable operation, the proposed control system is thoroughly analysed and simple rules for the controller design are suggested. Special attention is paid to the estimationof the converter flux, which is the key element of converter-flux-based control. Discrete-time implementation is also discussed. Line-voltage-sensorless reactive reactive power control methods for the L- and LCL-type line filters are presented. For the L-filter an open-loop control law for the d-axis current referenceis proposed. In the case of the LCL-filter the combined open-loop control and feedback control is proposed. The influence of the erroneous filter parameter estimates on the accuracy of the developed control schemes is also discussed. A newzero vector selection rule for suppressing the zero-sequence current in parallel-connected PWM rectifiers is proposed. With this method a truly standalone and independent control of the converter units is allowed and traditional transformer isolation and synchronised-control-based solutions are avoided. The implementation requires only one additional current sensor. The proposed schemes are evaluated by the simulations and laboratory experiments. A satisfactory performance and good agreement between the theory and practice are demonstrated.

Developing customer-based e-solutions

Logistiikkapalveluiden markkinat ovat viime vuosina muuttuneet. Kilpailtu toimiala ja asiakasvaatimusten muuttuminen ovat pakottaneet yritykset pyrkimään entistä tehokkaampaan jakeluketjuun. Työn tarkoituksena oli tutkia sähköisten asiakasliittymien toimivuutta asiakkaan näkökulmasta Euro Express tuotannossa ja prosessissa. Tarkoituksena oli selvittää eri sidosryhmien vaatimukset prosessille huomioiden sähköisen liiketoiminnan tuomat edut ja ominaispiirteet. Tavoitteena oli kuvata olemassa oleva prosessi ja tutkia prosessin rajapinnat –asiakas, tuotanto ja ulkoiset sidosryhmät. Tutkielmassa sähköisten ratkaisujen ominaispiirteet on käyty läpi ja tulevaisuuden kehitysnäkökulmista keskusteltu. Kehittyneiden tietoteknisten ratkaisujen avulla jatkuva prosessien uudistaminen (Business Process Reengineering) on mahdollista. Yleisesti epäolennaisuudet asiakasrajapinnassa, informaation kulussa ja yhteyksissä eri järjestelmien välillä aiheuttavat ongelmia sähköisten ratkaisujen toteuttamisessa. Tulevaisuudessa logistiikka yritykset ottavat entistä enemmän käyttöönsä uudenaikaisia teknologisia ratkaisuja tilaukseen, tuotantoon ja asiakaspalveluun. Näiden uudenlaisten ratkaisujen kehittämisestä on hyötyä sekä käyttäjälle että tarjoajalle, mutta ne ovat myös pakollisia palveluntarjoajalle kehittyäkseen markkinoilla. Tulevaisuudessa kilpailun tiivistyessä ja asiakkaiden vaatimusten kasvaessa on kiinnitettävä entistä suurempaa huomiota koko prosessiketjun toimivuuteen. Uudet teknologiset ratkaisut ja niiden käyttäminen tehokkaasti tuovat yrityksille kilpailuetuja, joita ei muuten olisi saavutettavissa.

Single breath-hold 3D measurement of left atrial volume using compressed sensing cardiovascular magnetic resonance and a non-model-based reconstruction approach.

BACKGROUND: Left atrial (LA) dilatation is associated with a large variety of cardiac diseases. Current cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) strategies to measure LA volumes are based on multi-breath-hold multi-slice acquisitions, which are time-consuming and susceptible to misregistration. AIM: To develop a time-efficient single breath-hold 3D CMR acquisition and reconstruction method to precisely measure LA volumes and function. METHODS: A highly accelerated compressed-sensing multi-slice cine sequence (CS-cineCMR) was combined with a non-model-based 3D reconstruction method to measure LA volumes with high temporal and spatial resolution during a single breath-hold. This approach was validated in LA phantoms of different shapes and applied in 3 patients. In addition, the influence of slice orientations on accuracy was evaluated in the LA phantoms for the new approach in comparison with a conventional model-based biplane area-length reconstruction. As a reference in patients, a self-navigated high-resolution whole-heart 3D dataset (3D-HR-CMR) was acquired during mid-diastole to yield accurate LA volumes. RESULTS: Phantom studies. LA volumes were accurately measured by CS-cineCMR with a mean difference of -4.73 ± 1.75 ml (-8.67 ± 3.54%, r2 = 0.94). For the new method the calculated volumes were not significantly different when different orientations of the CS-cineCMR slices were applied to cover the LA phantoms. Long-axis "aligned" vs "not aligned" with the phantom long-axis yielded similar differences vs the reference volume (-4.87 ± 1.73 ml vs. -4.45 ± 1.97 ml, p = 0.67) and short-axis "perpendicular" vs. "not-perpendicular" with the LA long-axis (-4.72 ± 1.66 ml vs. -4.75 ± 2.13 ml; p = 0.98). The conventional bi-plane area-length method was susceptible for slice orientations (p = 0.0085 for the interaction of "slice orientation" and "reconstruction technique", 2-way ANOVA for repeated measures). To use the 3D-HR-CMR as the reference for LA volumes in patients, it was validated in the LA phantoms (mean difference: -1.37 ± 1.35 ml, -2.38 ± 2.44%, r2 = 0.97). Patient study: The CS-cineCMR LA volumes of the mid-diastolic frame matched closely with the reference LA volume (measured by 3D-HR-CMR) with a difference of -2.66 ± 6.5 ml (3.0% underestimation; true LA volumes: 63 ml, 62 ml, and 395 ml). Finally, a high intra- and inter-observer agreement for maximal and minimal LA volume measurement is also shown. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method combines a highly accelerated single-breathhold compressed-sensing multi-slice CMR technique with a non-model-based 3D reconstruction to accurately and reproducibly measure LA volumes and function.

Classification-Based compression of Multispectral Images

The purpose of this thesis is to present a new approach to the lossy compression of multispectral images. Proposed algorithm is based on combination of quantization and clustering. Clustering was investigated for compression of the spatial dimension and the vector quantization was applied for spectral dimension compression. Presenting algo¬rithms proposes to compress multispectral images in two stages. During the first stage we define the classes' etalons, another words to each uniform areas are located inside the image the number of class is given. And if there are the pixels are not yet assigned to some of the clusters then it doing during the second; pass and assign to the closest eta¬lons. Finally a compressed image is represented with a flat index image pointing to a codebook with etalons. The decompression stage is instant too. The proposed method described in this paper has been tested on different satellite multispectral images from different resources. The numerical results and illustrative examples of the method are represented too.

Information Sharing in Drives Alliance Partner Concept

Työssä oli selkeästi kaksi tavoitetta. Ensimmäisenä tavoitteena oli tutkia, millaisesta kumppanuudesta Drives Alliance Partner -konsepti (DAP) muodostuu. Työn toisena tavoitteena oli selvittää ja analysoida DAP-konseptin informaation jakamiseen liittyvät tietotyypit, ja tehdä esitys siitä, mitä tietoa ABB:nja kumppaneiden välillä tulisi vaihtaa. Jotta kumppanuuden tila saatiin selville, tehtiin ABB:n sisäisiä haastatteluja sekä käytettiin hyväksi DAP-konseptista tehtyä dokumentaatiota. Informaation jakamiseen liittyvä tietotarpeiden kartoitus toteutettiin web-pohjaisen kyselyn avulla. Kysely toimitettiin osalle ABB:n nykyisistä kumppaneista sekä sellaisille ABB:n työntekijöille, jotka liittyvät DAP- konseptiin. Työssä luotiin malli kuvaamaan informaation vaihtoa partnereiden j a ABB :n välillä. Malliin otettiin mukaan ne tietotarpeet, jotka tehdyn kyselyn mukaan osoittautuivat tarpeellisiksi. Kumppanuuksiin syventymisen myötä tiedonvaihdon merkitys tulee entisestään korostumaan, mikä asettaa uusia haasteita ABB:lle.

Status epilepticus: impact of therapeutic coma on outcome.

OBJECTIVES: Therapeutic coma is advocated in guidelines for management of refractory status epilepticus; this is, however, based on weak evidence. We here address the specific impact of therapeutic coma on status epilepticus outcome. DESIGN: Retrospective assessment of a prospectively collected cohort. SETTING: Academic hospital. PATIENTS: Consecutive adults with incident status epilepticus lasting greater than or equal to 30 minutes, admitted between 2006 and 2013. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We recorded prospectively demographics, clinical status epilepticus features, treatment, and outcome at discharge and retrospectively medical comorbidities, hospital stay, and infectious complications. Associations between potential predictors and clinical outcome were analyzed using multinomial logistic regressions. Of 467 patients with incident status epilepticus, 238 returned to baseline (51.1%), 162 had new disability (34.6%), and 67 died (14.3%); 50 subjects (10.7%) were managed with therapeutic coma. Therapeutic coma was associated with poorer outcome in the whole cohort (relative risk ratio for new disability, 6.86; 95% CI, 2.84-16.56; for mortality, 9.10; 95% CI, 3.17-26.16); the effect was more important in patients with complex partial compared with generalized convulsive or nonconvulsive status epilepticus in coma. Prevalence of infections was higher (odds ratio, 3.81; 95% CI, 1.66-8.75), and median hospital stay in patients discharged alive was longer (16 d [range, 2-240 d] vs 9 d [range, 1-57 d]; p < 0.001) in subjects managed with therapeutic coma. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides class III evidence that therapeutic coma is associated with poorer outcome after status epilepticus; furthermore, it portends higher infection rates and longer hospitalizations. These data suggest caution in the straightforward use of this approach, especially in patients with complex partial status epilepticus.

Effect of the MC1R gene on sexual dimorphism in melanin-based colorations.

Variants of the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene result in abrupt, naturally selected colour morphs. These genetic variants may differentially affect sexual dimorphism if one morph is naturally selected in the two sexes but another morph is naturally or sexually selected only in one of the two sexes (e.g. to confer camouflage in reproductive females or confer mating advantage in males). Therefore, the balance between natural and sexual selections can differ between MC1R variants, as suggest studies showing interspecific correlations between sexual dimorphism and the rate of nonsynonymous vs. synonymous amino acid substitutions at the MC1R. Surprisingly, how MC1R is related to within-species sexual dimorphism, and thereby to sex-specific selection, has not yet been investigated. We tackled this issue in the barn owl (Tyto alba), a species showing pronounced variation in the degree of reddish pheomelanin-based coloration and in the number and size of black feather spots. We found that a valine (V)-to-isoleucine (I) substitution at position 126 explains up to 30% of the variation in the three melanin-based colour traits and in feather melanin content. Interestingly, MC1R genotypes also differed in the degree of sexual colour dimorphism, with individuals homozygous for the II MC1R variant being 2 times redder and 2.5 times less sexually dimorphic than homozygous individuals for the VV MC1R variant. These findings support that MC1R interacts with the expression of sexual dimorphism and suggest that a gene with major phenotypic effects and weakly influenced by variation in body condition can participate in sex-specific selection processes.

The relative salience of facial features when differentiating faces based on an interference paradigm

Research on face recognition and social judgment usually addresses the manipulation of facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.). Using a procedure based on a Stroop-like task, Montepare and Opeyo (J Nonverbal Behav 26(1):43-59, 2002) established a hierarchy of the relative salience of cues based on facial attributes when differentiating faces. Using the same perceptual interference task, we established a hierarchy of facial features. Twenty-three participants (13 men and 10 women) volunteered for the experiment to compare pairs of frontal faces. The participants had to judge if the eyes, nose, mouth and chin in the pair of images were the same or different. The factors manipulated were the target-distractive factor (4 face components 9 3 distractive factors), interference (absent vs. present) and correct answer (the same vs. different). The analysis of reaction times and errors showed that the eyes and mouth were processed before the chin and nose, thus highlighting the critical importance of the eyes and mouth, as shown by previous research.

Quantifying the time for accurate EEG decoding of single value-based decisions.

BACKGROUND: Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that value-based decision-making may rely on mechanisms of evidence accumulation. However no studies have explicitly investigated the time when single decisions are taken based on such an accumulation process. NEW METHOD: Here, we outline a novel electroencephalography (EEG) decoding technique which is based on accumulating the probability of appearance of prototypical voltage topographies and can be used for predicting subjects' decisions. We use this approach for studying the time-course of single decisions, during a task where subjects were asked to compare reward vs. loss points for accepting or rejecting offers. RESULTS: We show that based on this new method, we can accurately decode decisions for the majority of the subjects. The typical time-period for accurate decoding was modulated by task difficulty on a trial-by-trial basis. Typical latencies of when decisions are made were detected at ∼500ms for 'easy' vs. ∼700ms for 'hard' decisions, well before subjects' response (∼340ms). Importantly, this decision time correlated with the drift rates of a diffusion model, evaluated independently at the behavioral level. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHOD(S): We compare the performance of our algorithm with logistic regression and support vector machine and show that we obtain significant results for a higher number of subjects than with these two approaches. We also carry out analyses at the average event-related potential level, for comparison with previous studies on decision-making. CONCLUSIONS: We present a novel approach for studying the timing of value-based decision-making, by accumulating patterns of topographic EEG activity at single-trial level.