Policies regarding public availability of published research data in pediatrics journals

Scientometrics - Sharing research data is an increasingly necessary requirement for the advancement of science. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, to analyze the policies on openness in...     

C-HEAP: A Heterogeneous Multi-Processor Architecture Template and Scalable and Flexible Protocol for the Design of Embedded Signal Processing Systems

The key issue in the design of Systems-on-a-Chip (SoC) is to trade-off efficiency against flexibility, and time to market versus cost. Current deep submicron processing technologiesenable integration of multiple software programmable processors (e.g., CPUs,DSPs) and dedicated hardware components into a single cost-efficient IC. Ourtop-down design methodology with various abstraction levels helps designingthese ICs in a reasonable amount of time. This methodology starts with a high-levelexecutable specification, and converges towards a silicon implementation.A major task in the design process is to ensure that all components (hardwareand software) communicate with each other correctly. In this article, we tacklethis problem in the context of the signal processing domain in two ways: wepropose a modular, flexible, and scalable heterogeneous multi-processor architecturetemplate based on distributed shared memory, and we present an efficient andtransparent protocol for communication and (re)configuration. The protocolimplementations have been incorporated in libraries, which allows quick traversalof the various abstraction levels, so enabling incremental design. The designdecisions to be taken at each abstraction level are evaluated by means of(co-)simulation. Prototyping is used too, to verify the system's functionalcorrectness. The effectiveness of our approach is illustrated by a designcase of a multi-standard video and image codec.He currently works with Magma Design Automation. E-mail:     

An improved method for the analysis of xenon-133 washin and washout curves

A method is described for analysis of xenon-133 washin and washout curves, in the presence of a slowly varying background. The method uses least-squares fitting of a single exponential together with a quadratic function to correct for the background. The method has been applied both to simulated data and to data from 25 patients. The accuracy in the relevant lung parameters was 5% over a wide range of the specific ventilation. A comparison is made with other methods in use to measure regional lung-function parameters. Our method produces reliable results even when specific ventilation is low, which can occur in patients with chronic airflow obstruction, where other methods may incur errors of more than 45%.     

Self-defined information indices: application to the case of university rankings

Scientometrics - University rankings are now relevant decision-making tools for both institutional and private purposes in the management of higher education and research. However, they are often...     

Recognition by familiarity is preserved in Parkinson's without dementia and Lewy-Body disease.

Objective: The retrieval deficit hypothesis states that the lack of deficit in recognition often observed in patients with Parkinson's disease is because of the low retrieval requirements of the task, given that these patients have retrieval and not encoding deficits. To test this hypothesis we investigated recognition memory by familiarity in Parkinson's patients and in patients with Lewy Bodies disease and Parkinson with dementia. Method: We analyzed to what extent the experimental groups were able to recognize by familiarity in a typical yes/no recognition memory task. The experimental groups were patients with early nondemented Parkinson's disease, advanced nondemented Parkinson's disease, demented Parkinson's patients, and patients with dementia with Lewy Bodies. We compared their performance with a group of young and another group of old healthy participants. The estimation of familiarity was made by analyzing recognition of word targets and distractors consisting of combinations of different letters in comparison with a condition in which targets and distractors were composed of similar letters, even though subjects were unaware of the independent variable. Results: The results indicate that familiarity was used at the same level by controls, patients with early Parkinson's disease and patients with dementia with Lewy Bodies. Although late Parkinson patients also used familiarity, its effect was only marginally significant. Patients with Parkinson's disease and dementia were not capable of using familiarity in recognition memory. Conclusions: Our results support the retrieval deficit hypothesis as Parkinson's patients without dementia show no deficit in a situation in which the retrieval requirements are minimal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)