Attentional effects on preattentive vision: Spatial precues affect the detection of simple features.

Most accounts of visual perception hold that the detection of primitive features occurs preattentively, in parallel across the visual field. Evidence that preattentive vision operates without attentional limitations comes from visual search tasks in which the detection of the presence or absence of a primitive feature is independent of the number of stimuli in a display. If the detection of primitive features occurs preattentively, in parallel and without capacity limitations, then it should not matter where attention is located in the visual field. The present study shows that even though the detection of a red element in an array of gray elements occurred in parallel without capacity limitations, the allocation of attention did have a large effect on search performance. If attention was directed to a particular region of the display and the target feature was presented elsewhere, response latencies increased. Results indicate that the classic view of preattentive vision requires revision. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antifungal activity of lauric acid derivatives against Aspergillus niger

The antifungal effects of lauric acid and four lauric acid derivatives (monolauroylglycerol, D-laurate A, T-laurate A, 6-O-lauroysucrose) were tested on the spore germination and the growth rate of Aspergillus niger DMF 0801. The results showed that the tested substances varied in their antifungal activity and they also confirmed the relation of the structure of tested substances and their antifungal effects. Monolauroylglycerol at concentration level between 0.2 and 1.8 mmol l^-1 caused the highest inhibition of spore outgrowths whereas 6-O-lauroysucrose at concentration between 0.05 and 1.8 mmol l^-1 did not exhibit inhibition of spore germination. The inhibition of colony growth rate was detected mainly at presence of 6-O-lauroysucrose.     

Incremental Dynamics

A new system of dynamic logic is introduced and motivated, witha novel approach to variable binding for incremental interpretation. Thesystem is shown to be equivalent to first order logic and complete.The new logic combines the dynamic binding idea from DynamicPredicate Logic with De Bruijn style variable free indexing. Quantifiersbind the next available variable register; the indexing mechanismguarantees that active registers are never overwritten by newquantifiers actions. Apart from its interest in its own right, theresulting system has certain advantages over Dynamic Predicate Logic orDiscourse Representation Theory. It comes with a more well behaved(i.e., transitive) consequence relation, it gives a more explicitaccount of how anaphoric context grows as text gets processed, and ityields new insight into the dynamics of anaphoric linking in reasoning.Incremental dynamics also points to a new way of handling contextdynamically in Montague grammar.     

Convexity Rule for Shape Decomposition Based on Discrete Contour Evolution

We concentrate here on decomposition of 2D objects into meaningfulparts of visual form, orvisual parts. It is a simple observation that convex parts of objects determine visual parts. However, the problem is that many significant visual parts are not convex, since a visual part may have concavities. We solve this problem by identifying convex parts at different stages of a proposed contour evolution method in which significant visual parts will become convex object parts at higher stages of the evolution. We obtain a novel rule for decomposition of 2D objects into visual parts, called the hierarchical convexity rule, which states that visual parts are enclosed by maximal convex (with respect to the object) boundary arcs at different stages of the contour evolution. This rule determines not only parts of boundary curves but directly the visual parts of objects. Moreover, the stages of the evolution hierarchy induce a hierarchical structure of the visual parts. The more advanced the stage of contour evolution, the more significant is the shape contribution of the obtained visual parts.     

Real-Time Fetal ECG Recording

We present a real-time abdominal recording method for the FECG based on a minimization procedure for the MECG interference, by weighted addition of four abdominal leads containing FECG with a large amount of MECG. The minimization of the MECG does not influence the FECG recording adversely. FECG complexes coinciding with MECG complexes are also recorded. Use is made of programmable amplifiers that multiply analog abdominal leads by digital coefficients. These coefficients are calculated at the beginning of the recording by a microcomputer system. Experimental results are shown that clarify the advantages of the measurement principle. The real-time recorded FECG is wide-banded, so that all generally known ECG signal processing techniques, such as complex averaging, can be performed.     

Experimental antitumour activity of S 16020-2 in a panel of human tumours

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of inhaled nitric oxide (NO) and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) on oxygenation, hemodynamics, and lymphatic drainage in an oleic acid lung injury model in sheep. DESIGN: Prospective, randomized study. SETTING: Animal research laboratory. ANIMALS: Thirty female sheep, weighing 35 to 40 kg. INTERVENTIONS: Acute lung injury was induced by central venous injection of oleic acid (0.5 mL/kg body weight). A chronic lymph fistula had been prepared through a right thoracotomy 3 days before the experiment. Animals were assigned randomly to the NO group (n = 14) or the ECMO group (n = 16). When a lung injury score of > 2.5 was achieved, the animals were given NO in dosage increments of 2, 5, 10, 20, and 40 parts per million (ppm), or placed on ECMO with an FIO2 of 0.21 (ECMO-21) and then 1.0 (ECMO-100) at the oxygenator. Mechanical ventilator parameters were kept constant to isolate the effects of NO and ECMO on systemic and pulmonary hemodynamics, cardiac output, oxygenation parameters, lymph/plasma protein ratio, and lymph flow. Measurements and calculations were performed after 1 hr at each individual step of NO concentration or FIO2. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: In the ECMO group, PVRI and MPAP did not change and were significantly different from the NO group. In the NO group, there was a dose-dependent decrease in venous admixture, maximal at 10 ppm NO and decreasing from 40 +/- 6% to 23 +/- 10% (p < .05). This decrease was significantly different from the ECMO group, where there was no change. There was a significant increase in PaO2/FIO2 in the NO group, maximal at 10 ppm NO (84 +/- 11 to 210 +/- 90, p < .05), but a greater increase in PaO2/FIO2 on ECMO-21 (81 +/- 14 to 265 +/- 63) and a further increase on ECMO-100 (398 +/- 100) (p < .05). The lymph/plasma protein ratio remained unchanged in both groups after induction of lung injury by oleic acid. However, lymph flow decreased by 11 +/- 6% in the NO group, whereas it increased by 14 +/- 17% in the ECMO group (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: In an oleic acid-induced sheep model of acute lung injury, there were significant differences between the effects of NO and ECMO on acute pulmonary hypertension, hypoxemia, hypercarbia, and lymph flow. NO significantly decreases pulmonary hypertension, whereas pulmonary hemodynamics were not substantially affected by ECMO. Both interventions reversed hypoxemia, but ECMO did so to a greater degree, and only ECMO improved hypercarbia. Only NO decreased lymph flow, possibly as an effect of decreased microvascular filtration pressure. This study did not attempt to evaluate the impact of these interventions on ventilatory requirements, barotrauma, or outcome. However, this model suggests that NO therapy may moderate pulmonary hypertension and improve lymph flow in acute lung injury. Clinical studies are needed to assess whether NO therapy might be beneficial in treatment of severe acute lung injury in older children and adults.     

Quantification of lycopene in tomato products: comparing the performances of a newly proposed direct photothermal method and high‐performance liquid chromatography

A new photothermal method suitable for direct, accurate and highly reproducible quantitative measurements of lycopene in tomato products has been introduced. The intrinsic precision of the method is typically better than 0.2%; the repeatability of determination is comparable to that of high‐performance liquid chromatography, with 0.86% least overall error. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Robust modeling of RC structures with an “event-by-event” strategy

The sequentially linear analysis is a robust alternative to nonlinear finite element analysis of structures when bifurcation, snap-back or divergence problems arise. The load–displacement response is captured by a series of linear analyses as a sequence of ‘events’. Every ‘event’ is a scaled critical state corresponding to the reaching of some peak of some saw-tooth for some softening element. Now, the approach is extended with a rippled saw-tooth curve which applies to any stress–strain diagram, including compression nonlinearity and yielding of reinforcement. Several RC structural examples demonstrate that both sharp snap-backs as well as ductile failures can be handled correctly.     

A domain-specific language for cryptographic protocols based on streams

Developing security-critical systems is difficult and there are many well-known examples of security weaknesses exploited in practice. Thus a sound methodology supporting secure systems development is urgently needed. In particular, an important missing link in the construction of secure systems is finding a practical way to create reliably secure crypto protocol implementations. We present an approach that aims to address this need by making use of a domain-specific language for crypto protocol implementations. One can use this language to construct a compact and precise yet executable representation of a cryptographic protocol. This high-level program can be verified against the security goals using automated theorem provers for first order logic. One can then use it to provide assurance for legacy implementations of crypto protocols by generating test-cases.     

Application of proteomic analysis to renal disease in the clinic

Chronic kidney disease accounts for a significant portion of many national health-care budgets. In this viewpoint, we highlight recent advances in urinary proteomic analyses that potentially may soon enhance the care of afflicted patients. To achieve this goal, cooperation of interdisciplinary teams from around the world will be vital, so as to standardize methodology for preparation urine samples and technical aspects of the analyses, and for better application of results. These collaborative activities will facilitate translational research in kidney diseases.