Extraction and quantification of left ventricular deformation modes

We have developed a method that decomposes the deformation of the left ventricle (LV) between end diastole (ED) and end systole (ES) into separate deformation modes such as longitudinal shortening, wall thickening, and twisting. The deformation was initially found from the motion of an LV finite-element mesh that was fitted to clinically obtained magnetic resonance (MR) tagged images. A mode coefficient was calculated for each deformation mode to quantify the different modes and, thus allowing for discrimination of normal and abnormal deformation patterns. We applied the method to 13 normal subjects and 13 diabetes patients. By using the ED mesh as reference and adding the extracted deformation modes multiplied by their mode coefficients, an approximate ES mesh was calculated and compared with the "true" ES mesh found from the MR images. For the 26 subjects the average Euclidean distance was less than 1.7+/-0.9 mm between the nodes of the approximated and true ES meshes. The coefficient values for the patient group showed significantly less longitudinal shortening, less wall thickening, more longitudinal twisting and also more bulging of the septum into the LV when compared with the normal subjects. We conclude that the developed method successfully quantifies the deformation into several modes of deformation and is capable of distinguishing the deformation of a group of patients from a group of normal subjects.     

Energy,industry and politics: Energy,vested interests,and long-term economic growth and development

The article seeks to explicate a link between energy and long-term economic growth and development. While in many ways intuitive, attempts at sketching theoretical frameworks explicating this link have been few and simplistic, typically limited to technology and economics. This article emphasizes the importance of politics as well, fostering a symbiosis between the dominant industries of a historical epoch and the energy system that enabled them to flourish. The framework combines Joseph Schumpeter and Mancur Olson, emphasizing 1) the importance of structural economic change for long-term growth and development and 2) vested interests. The framework yields one theoretical proposition: In order to rise, states must prevent vested interests from blocking structural change. States that are unable to do this will get locked into yesterday's technologies, industries and energy systems, effectively consigning themselves to stagnation and decline. A brief empirical section provides historical data from 6 historical epochs (including present-day renewables) over a period of 250 years to demonstrate the usefulness of the approach. While no exhaustive test, the data suggests that countries that have prevented vested interests from blocking change have been far more successful in fostering a symbiosis between energy and industry than those countries that have not.     

Translocation and re-translocation of selenium taken up from nutrient solution during vegetative growth in spring wheat

BACKGROUND: Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for humans, but the Se level in food plants in northern Europe is generally inadequate to meet human nutritional requirements. Commonly, food plant Se fortification is achieved by selenate fertilisation, but the effect of nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) supply on the translocation and re‐translocation of Se is unknown. Therefore the effect of N and S supply on ⁷⁵selenate/⁷⁵Se translocation and re‐translocation during vegetative growth in spring wheat (Triticum aestivum) was studied. RESULTS: The ⁷⁵Se activity in wheat varied from 148 to 549, from 277 to 1815 and from 171 to 1343 Bq ⁷⁵Se in plants exposed at Zadoks growth stages Z1.4, Z1.5 and Z1.6 respectively. Approximately 85% of the plant ⁷⁵Se was translocated into young leaves. High N supply enhanced the re‐translocation of ⁷⁵Se from the stem to maturing leaves, while S inhibited this process. The relative proportion of ⁷⁵Se in L4, L5 and L6 increased with increasing N supply at low sulfate concentrations. CONCLUSION: Selenium in the stem is more re‐transportable than Se in the leaves, and the re‐translocation is dependent on sulfate supply. When the sulfate supply is sufficient for plant development, less ⁷⁵Se is re‐translocated from older to growing leaves. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Cracking of vacuum residue from Athabasca bitumen in a thin film

A novel apparatus for cracking experiments based on very rapid induction heating is described. Oil and catalyst is deposited in a thin film on a metal strip made from a Curie-point alloy and heated rapidly by induction in an induction furnace. The setup offers several advantages, such as rapid heating and quenching, precise control of reaction times and temperatures, and minimization of heat and mass transfer effects. The apparatus is used in a study of the catalytic activity of calcium-modified chabazite for heavy oil cracking. The catalyst was also tested in a conventional setup in cracking of hexadecane to verify its catalytic activity. A clear catalytic effect can be seen for the hexadecane cracking, but the effect is absent for thin film cracking of the vacuum residue.     

Happiness and Health: Environmental and Genetic Contributions to the Relationship Between Subjective Well-Being, Perceived Health, and Somatic Illness.

The aim was to identify genetic and environmental influences on the covariances between subjective well-being (SWB), perceived health, and somatic illness. Analyses were based on 6,576 Norwegian twins aged 18-31. Heritabilities ranged from .24 to .66. SWB correlated .50 with perceived health, -.25 with musculoskeletal pain, and -.07 with allergy. Common genetic factors accounted for 45%-60% of associations. SWB and perceived health was to a high extent influenced by the same genes (rg=.72 and .82 for males and females, respectively). For SWB and musculoskeletal pain, rg =-.29 and -.42 for males and females, respectively. Effects were partly sex specific. Environmental factors shared by twins did not affect the covariances. Results support a differentiated view of SWB-health relations, and imply that both genes and environment play important roles in the associations between well-being and health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

渔业在陆地上的印记——北极景观中的聚落结构与空间逻辑

“海岸测绘”是针对挪威北极沿海景观中的聚落结构与空间逻辑的研究项目,目的是研究渔业在陆地上的印记。挪威北部的滨海景观在资源利用方面展示出历史的连续性,这一地域依存于欧洲干鱼市场已有1 000年的时间。今天,不同类别的沿海资源——渔业、海鲜生产、石油、天然气和矿产——比以往任何时候都更具吸引力,成为国家内部和全球范围不同经济利益集团的竞争对象。陆地和海洋的景观生产都遭遇挑战。聚落组织（由众多拥有优越的天然港口条件、在本地从事捕捞作业的渔村组成）在陆地上标记出渔业的印记,它们以不同的方式应对当今的挑战。基于案例研究及调查,从景观的深层结构、资源、社会文化生态位建设和地域的社会物质层等方面,研究讨论了聚落和地域组织所面临的文脉挑战,并梳理了未来渔村的样式类型：具有游憩功能的废墟空间、衰落的渔村、劳工营地、创造性的小村庄和当代的稳定性村落。通过一般性讨论和案例研究探讨乡村未来的可能性。     

Dynamic pricing of wind futures

Daily average wind speeds are dynamically modelled by a continuous-time autoregressive model with seasonal mean and volatility. Futures prices based on an index of aggregated wind speeds are derived, and it is shown that the Samuelson effect breaks down. The volatility of these futures will decrease when approaching maturity, an effect which is explained by the memory in higher-order autoregressive models.     

Correction to Killeen et al. (2009).

Reports an error in "Progressive ratio schedules of reinforcement" by Peter R. Killeen, Diana Posadas-Sanchez, Espen Borg? Johansen and Eric A. Thrailkill (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 2009[Jan], Vol 35[1], 35-50). The URL provided for the supplemental material was incomplete. The complete URL is http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0012497.supp (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2009-00257-007.) Pigeons' pecks produced grain under progressive ratio (PR) schedules, whose response requirements increased systematically within sessions. Experiment 1 compared arithmetic (AP) and geometric (GP) progressions. Response rates increased as a function of the component ratio requirement, then decreased linearly (AP) or asymptotically (GP). Experiment 2 found the linear decrease in AP rates to be relatively independent of step size. Experiment 3 showed pausing to be controlled by the prior component length, which predicted the differences between PR and regressive ratio schedules found in Experiment 4. When the longest component ratios were signaled by different key colors, rates at moderate ratios increased, demonstrating control by forthcoming context. Models for response rate and pause duration based on Bizo and Killeen (1997) described performance on AP schedules; GP schedules required an additional parameter representing the contextual reinforcement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Elastodynamic full waveform inversion on GPUs with time-space tiling and wavefield reconstruction

The Journal of Supercomputing - Full waveform inversion (FWI) is a procedure used to determine the elastic parameters of the Earth by reducing the misfit between observed elastodynamic wavefields...