Processing of unattended emotional visual scenes.

Prime pictures of emotional scenes appeared in parafoveal vision, followed by probe pictures either congruent or incongruent in affective valence. Participants responded whether the probe was pleasant or unpleasant (or whether it portrayed people or animals). Shorter latencies for congruent than for incongruent prime-probe pairs revealed affective priming. This occurred even when visual attention was focused on a concurrent verbal task and when foveal gaze-contingent masking prevented overt attention to the primes but only if these had been preexposed and appeared in the left visual field. The preexposure and laterality patterns were different for affective priming and semantic category priming. Affective priming was independent of the nature of the task (i.e., affective or category judgment), whereas semantic priming was not. The authors conclude that affective processing occurs without overt attention--although it is dependent on resources available for covert attention--and that prior experience of the stimulus is required and right-hemisphere dominance is involved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supported Pt-particles on multi-walled carbon nanotubes with controlled surface chemistry

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were functionalized by HNO₃ hydrothermal oxidation at 200 °C. The degree of surface functionalization was described by an exponential function in terms of HNO₃ concentration. Very small Pt particles, with mean particle size of 1.7 ± 0.3 nm, could be supported on the surface of pristine MWCNTs and also on MWCNTs treated with HNO₃ concentrations up to 0.20 mol L^− 1, while a broader range of particle sizes, and larger Pt particles (3.4 ± 1.3 nm) were obtained on the MWCNTs treated with a higher HNO₃ concentration (0.30 mol L^− 1). Therefore, the amounts of surface groups and Pt particle sizes can be selected by tuning the HNO₃ concentration used in the hydrothermal treatment.     

辅助胶凝材料玻璃体结构与胶凝活性的研究进展

大宗工业副产品或废弃物(如粒化高炉矿渣、粉煤灰等)作为辅助胶凝材料用于硅酸盐水泥及混凝土中已有不短的时间.利用辅助胶凝材料可有效缓解水泥生产所带来的制备能耗高、自然资源消耗大、二氧化碳排放等问题.在胶凝材料性能不大幅降低的前提下,要实现大比例取代(≥30％(质量分数))硅酸盐水泥,激发辅助胶凝材料的活性是关键.然而,从材料学观点出发,过往基于宏观性能的经验测试方法,对辅助胶凝材料活性的理解仍相当碎片化.除比表面积等物理性质外,多数辅助胶凝材料的水硬活性取决于其中玻璃相的溶解-沉淀反应.辅助胶凝材料中的玻璃体结构可简化为网络调整体(如Ca、Na等)和网络形成体(如Si、Al等)的物质的量比,如解聚度.近来对CaO-SiO2-Al2 O3体系玻璃体的研究,进一步增强了对玻璃体聚合度的理解.玻璃体的溶解与聚合程度及溶液组成(如溶液的饱和程度、阴阳离子类型及浓度、pH等)密切相关.同时,沉淀的生成也会显著改变玻璃体的溶解动力学.本文归纳了辅助胶凝材料玻璃体结构与水硬活性的研究进展,分别对表征辅助胶凝材料玻璃体结构的解聚度及玻璃体中Si(Qn(mAl))聚合程度进行了介绍,分析了玻璃体结构在不同激发条件下的反应活性,以期为制备性能稳定和耐久性优良的低碳建筑材料提供参考.     

Advanced and Intelligent Control Techniques Applied to the Drive Control and Path Tracking Systems on a Robotic Wheelchair

This paper presents the theoretical support and experimental results of the application of advanced and intelligent control techniques to the drive control and trajectory tracking systems on a robotic wheelchair. The adaptive optimal control of the differential drive helps to improve the automatic guidance system's safety and comfort taking into consideration operating conditions such as load and distribution changes or motion actuator limitations. Furthermore, the incorporation of an optimal controller to minimize location errors and a fuzzy controller to adapt the linear velocity to the characteristics of the trajectory, provide the vehicle with a high degree of intelligence and autonomy, even when faced with obstacles. The global control solution implemented increases the features of the wheelchair for handicapped people, especially for those with a high degree of disability.     

Norovirus Intestinal Infection and Lewy Body Disease in an Older Patient with Acute Cognitive Impairment

We present a case report on an older woman with unspecific symptoms and predominant long-term gastrointestinal disturbances, acute overall health deterioration with loss of autonomy for daily activities, and cognitive impairment. Autopsy revealed the presence of alpha-synuclein deposits spread into intestinal mucosa lesions, enteric plexuses, pelvic and retroperitoneal nerves and ganglia, and other organs as well as Lewy pathology in the central nervous system (CNS). Moreover, we isolated norovirus from the patient, indicating active infection in the colon and detected colocalization of norovirus and alpha-synuclein in different regions of the patient’s brain. In view of this, we report a concomitant norovirus infection with synthesis of alpha-synuclein in the gastrointestinal mucosa and Lewy pathology in the CNS, which might support Braak’s hypothesis about the pathogenic mechanisms underlying synucleinopathies.     

LncRNA H19 Impairs Chemo and Radiotherapy in Tumorigenesis

Various treatments based on drug administration and radiotherapy have been devoted to preventing, palliating, and defeating cancer, showing high efficiency against the progression of this disease. Recently, in this process, malignant cells have been found which are capable of triggering specific molecular mechanisms against current treatments, with negative consequences in the prognosis of the disease. It is therefore fundamental to understand the underlying mechanisms, including the genes—and their signaling pathway regulators—involved in the process, in order to fight tumor cells. Long non-coding RNAs, H19 in particular, have been revealed as powerful protective factors in various types of cancer. However, they have also evidenced their oncogenic role in multiple carcinomas, enhancing tumor cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. In this review, we analyze the role of lncRNA H19 impairing chemo and radiotherapy in tumorigenesis, including breast cancer, lung adenocarcinoma, glioma, and colorectal carcinoma.     

The Role of the Choroid in Stargardt Disease

Stargardt disease is the commonest juvenile macular dystrophy. It is caused by genetic mutations in the ABCA4 gene. Diagnosis is not always straightforward, and various phenocopies exist. Late-onset disease can be misdiagnosed with age-related macular disease. A correct diagnosis is particularly critical because of emergent gene therapies. Stargardt disease is known to affect retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptors. Many studies have also highlighted the importance of the choroid in the diagnosis, pathophysiology, and progression of the disease. The choroid is in an integral relationship with the retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptors, and its possible involvement during the disease should be considered. The purpose of this review is to analyze the current diagnostic tools for choroidal evaluation and the extrapolation of useful data for ophthalmologists and researchers studying the disease.     

Obesity and Bone Health: A Complex Relationship

Recent scientific evidence has shown an increased risk of fractures in patients with obesity, especially in those with a higher visceral adipose tissue content. This contradicts the old paradigm that obese patients were more protected than those with normal weight. Specifically, in older subjects in whom there is a redistribution of fat from subcutaneous adipose tissue to visceral adipose tissue and an infiltration of other tissues such as muscle with the consequent sarcopenia, obesity can accentuate the changes characteristic of this age group that predisposes to a greater risk of falls and fractures. Other factors that determine a greater risk in older subjects with obesity are chronic proinflammatory status, altered adipokine secretion, vitamin D deficiency, insulin resistance and reduced mobility. On the other hand, diagnostic tests may be influenced by obesity and its comorbidities as well as by body composition, and risk scales may underestimate the risk of fractures in these patients. Weight loss with physical activity programs and cessation of high-fat diets may reduce the risk. Finally, more research is needed on the efficacy of anti-osteoporotic treatments in obese patients.     

Evolution of Business Documents Based on UN/CEFACT's Core Components

Standardized business documents are a prerequisite for successful information exchange in electronic business transactions. The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and eBusiness (UN/CEFACT) provides a conceptual modeling approach, called Core Components, used by Business Partners (BPs) for defining business document models (BDMs). BDMs are essential for defining service interfaces in service-oriented systems. However, in such a highly dynamic environment with ever-changing market demands, BPs are confronted with the need to revise their BDMs resulting in a multitude of different versions. BPs may dictate the use of new versions of BDMs, but small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may not always adopt new BDM versions due to the cost and effort involved, inhibiting automated electronic information exchange. In this article, we propose a framework including (i) a classification of the impact of changes in BDMs, (ii) evolution templates for the automated transformation of business documents between different BDM versions, and (iii) mitigation strategies for evolutions where fully-automated and semantic-preserving transformations are not feasible. Having such a framework at hand provides SMEs with a low-cost and light-weight approach for dealing with evolving market requirements and hence evolving business documents. Finally, we analyze the evolution of UN/CEFACT''s Cross Industry Invoice which has been mandated to be used for electronic invoicing within the European Union as well as present a critical discussion of the evolution templates defined.     

Preface: Volume 66, Issue 5

This part of the volume contains the papers accepted for presentation at the workshop on Unification in Non-Classical Logics (UNCL), co-located with ICALP 2002, which took place on July 12, 2002 in M 'alaga, Spain.The workshop was concerned with one of the most promising areas of research on non-classical logics and its applications. Unification in non-classical logics, with various approaches to handling generalised terms, has drawn more and more attention in recent years. So far, most popular lines of research include fuzzy unification of (conventional) databases and the use of fuzzy concepts in information retrieval.This workshop was conceived as a forum for the exchange of ideas relevant for the concept of unification in non-classical logics, including, but not limited to, the topics of:

• Unification in multiple-valued and fuzzy logic programming.

• Unification based on similarities and fuzzy equivalence relations.

• Categorical unification.

• Practical use of non-classical unification, e.g. in expert systems and information retrieval.

The program committee selected six papers after a reviewing process in which each submitted paper received at least two reviews. Considerable effort was devoted for the evaluation of the submissions and to providing the authors with helpful feedback. The criteria for selection were originality, quality, and relevance to the topic of the workshop.Alsinet et al reviewed and compared two models which extend first order possibilistic logic in order to enable fuzzy unification. The extension considers mainly fuzzy constants, and in form of restrictions on existential quantifiers.Banerjee and Bujosa presented a non-classical interpretion of classical unification in terms of geometrical constructions over a suitable R-module M. The main result is that unification of two terms can be seen as the intersection of their corresponding affine varieties on M. This paves the way of using methods from computer algebra in the field of unification.In Eklund et al, substitutions and unifiers appear as constructs in Kleisli categories related to particular composed powerset term monads. It is shown that an often used similarity-based approach to fuzzy unification is compatible with the categorical approach, and can be adequately extended.Kutsia presented a unification procedure for a theory with individual and sequence variables, free fixed and flexible arity function symbols and patterns. These theories have been used in different contexts such as databases, rewriting, programming languages, or theorem proving.Medina et al introduced a formal model for similarity-based fuzzy unification in multi-adjoint logic programs. On this computational model, a similarity-based unification approach which provides a semantic framework for logic programming with different notions of similarity was constructed.Virtanen introduced unification in similarity-based logic programming. One of the crucial points is the definition of similarity degrees between sets, giving rise to [lambda]-interpretations. The selection of so called most significant terms again is one of the cornerstones of the paper.We would like to thank all those who submitted papers for consideration, the authors of accepted papers for their interesting discussions during the workshop, the additional referees for their careful work, and Inma Fortes from the local organising committee for her assistance.