Outcome of different treatment mixes in a multidimensional neuropsychological rehabilitation program.

Within a clinical demonstration program, 59 traumatically brain-injured patients were treated with 1 of 3 mixes of treatment. Mix 1 included cognitive remediation (CGR), small-group interpersonal (SGI) communication training, therapeutic community activities, and personal counseling. Mix 2 was similar to Mix 1 but stressed SGI exercises and eliminated CGR. Mix 3 emphasized CGR and eliminated SGI exercises. The efficacy of the treatment mixes was evaluated with performance on neuropsychological tests, improved independence in functional activities, measures of intra- and interpersonal functioning, and vocational outcome. Ss' participation in the program, irrespective of treatment mix, yielded improvements in (1) self-image, (2) quality of interpersonal relatedness and interaction, (3) involvement with others in naturalistic settings, and (4) vocational outcome. Overall, data point to the superiority of the balanced mix (Mix 1) over Mixes 2 and 3. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Secure Multi-Party Computation without Agreement

It has recently been shown that authenticated Byzantine agreement, in which more than a third of the parties are corrupted, cannot be securely realized under concurrent or parallel (stateless) composition. This result puts into question any usage of authenticated Byzantine agreement in a setting where many executions take place. In particular, this is true for the whole body of work of secure multi-party protocols in the case that a third or more of the parties are corrupted. This is because these protocols strongly rely on the extensive use of a broadcast channel, which is in turn realized using authenticated Byzantine agreement. We remark that it was accepted folklore that the use of a broadcast channel (or authenticated Byzantine agreement) is actually essential for achieving meaningful secure multi-party computation whenever a third or more of the parties are corrupted. In this paper we show that this folklore is false. We present a mild relaxation of the definition of secure computation allowing abort. Our new definition captures all the central security issues of secure computation, including privacy, correctness and independence of inputs. However, the novelty of the definition is in decoupling the issue of agreement from these issues. We then show that this relaxation suffices for achieving secure computation in a point-to-point network. That is, we show that secure multi-party computation for this definition can be achieved for any number of corrupted parties and without a broadcast channel (or trusted pre-processing phase as required for running authenticated Byzantine agreement). Furthermore, this is achieved by just replacing the broadcast channel in known protocols with a very simple and efficient echo-broadcast protocol. An important corollary of our result is the ability to obtain multi-party protocols that remain secure under composition, without assuming a broadcast channel.     

NADPH diaphorase activity in mammalian retinas is modulated by the state of visual adaptation

NADPH diaphorase histochemistry is commonly used to identify cells containing nitric oxide synthase (NOS), the enzyme catalyzing the production of nitric oxide from L-arginine. NADPH diaphorase activity and NOS immunostaining was demonstrated in different cells of the vertebrate retina; photoreceptors, horizontal cells, amacrine cells, ganglion cells, and Müller cells. However, the physiological role of nitric oxide (NO) in the retina has yet to be elucidated. In this study, we tested the assumption that NADPH diaphorase activity in the retinas of rabbits and rats depended on the state of visual adaptation. In the rabbit, light adaptation enhanced NADPH diaphorase activity in amacrine cells and practically eliminated it in horizontal cells. Dark adaptation induced the opposite effects; the NADPH diaphorase activity was reduced in amacrine cells and enhanced in horizontal cells. Retinas from eyes that were injected intravitreally with L-glutamate exhibited a pattern of NADPH diaphorase activity that was similar to that seen in dark-adapted retinas. In rats, the NADPH diaphorase activity of amacrine and horizontal cells exhibited adaptation dependency similar to that of the rabbit retina. But, the most pronounced effect of dark adaptation in the rat's retina was an enhancement of NADPH diaphorase activity in Müller cells, especially of the endfoot region. Assuming that NADPH diaphorase activity is a marker for NOS, these findings suggest that NO production in the mammalian retina is modulated by the level of ambient illumination and support the notion that NO plays a physiological role in the retina.     

Querying business processes with BP-QL

We present in this paper BP-QL, a novel query language for querying business processes. The BP-QL language is based on an intuitive model of business processes, an abstraction of the emerging BPEL (business process execution language) standard. It allows users to query business processes visually, in a manner very analogous to how such processes are typically specified, and can be employed in a distributed setting, where process components may be provided by distinct providers.     

Thermal feedback control techniques for transistor-transistor logic triggered CO(2) laser used for irradiation of biological tissue utilizing infrared fiber-optic radiometry

A fiber-optic radiometer is used to monitor and control, in real time, the temperature of samples of biological tissue irradiated with a CO(2) laser. Several control algorithms are investigated and the optimal control mode is obtained. A silver halide infrared fiber is used both to deliver the CO(2) laser radiation needed to irradiate the target and to deliver the thermal radiation emitted from the target back to the radiometer. Such a system can be useful in medical applications of CO(2) lasers.     

Study of DNA Origami Dimerization and Dimer Dissociation Dynamics and of the Factors that Limit Dimerization

Organizing DNA origami building blocks into higher order structures is essential for fabrication of large structurally and functionally diverse devices and molecular machines. Unfortunately, the yields of origami building block attachment reactions are typically not sufficient to allow programed assembly of DNA devices made from more than a few origami building blocks. To investigate possible reasons for these low yields, a detailed single‐molecule fluorescence study of the dynamics of rectangular origami dimerization and origami dimer dissociation reactions is conducted. Reactions kinetics and yields are investigated at different origami and ion concentrations, for different ion types, for different lengths of bridging strands, and for the “sticky end” and “weaving welding” attachment techniques. Dimerization yields are never higher than 86%, which is typical for such systems. Analysis of the dynamic data shows that the low yield cannot be explained by thermodynamic instability or structural imperfections of the origami constructs. Atomic force microscopy and gel electrophoresis evidence reveal self‐dimerization of the origami monomers, likely via blunt‐end interactions made possible by the presence of bridging strands. It is suggested that this mechanism is the major factor that inhibits correct dimerization and means to overcome it are discussed.     

Single Nanoparticle Magnetic Spin Memristor

There is an increasing demand for the development of a simple Si‐based universal memory device at the nanoscale that operates at high frequencies. Spin‐electronics (spintronics) can, in principle, increase the efficiency of devices and allow them to operate at high frequencies. A primary challenge for reducing the dimensions of spintronic devices is the requirement for high spin currents. To overcome this problem, a new approach is presented that uses helical chiral molecules exhibiting spin‐selective electron transport, which is called the chiral‐induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect. Using the CISS effect, the active memory device is miniaturized for the first time from the micrometer scale to 30 nm in size, and this device presents memristor‐like nonlinear logic operation at low voltages under ambient conditions and room temperature. A single nanoparticle, along with Au contacts and chiral molecules, is sufficient to function as a memory device. A single ferromagnetic nanoplatelet is used as a fixed hard magnet combined with Au contacts in which the gold contacts act as soft magnets due to the adsorbed chiral molecules.     

以可编程DSP架构应对TD-SCDMA以及TD-LTE带来的设计挑战

中国作为目前世界上最大的移动市场,对于移动标准的发展,希望制定不同于西方的自己的标准。这就是目前的3G标准TD-SCDMA以及未来的4G标准TD-LTE。在2006年初,中国政府宣布TD-SCDMA正式成为中国的3G移动通信的标准。在2009年,世界最大的移动运营商中国移动宣布将提供基于TD-SCDMA为标准的3G服务;同时,中国联通以及中国电信分别将以WCDMA以及CDMA-2000标准推出3G服务。这就意味着,中国在接下来的时间将会同时存在3种不同的3G网络。显而易见的是,中国的3G服务的启动要远远晚于西方世界。中国移动明白不可能只是依靠TD-SCDMA来确保其目前领先的地位。因此,中国移     

The k-simultaneous consensus problem

This paper introduces and investigates the k-simultaneous consensus task: each process participates at the same time in k independent consensus instances until it decides in any one of them. It is shown that the k-simultaneous consensus task is equivalent to the k-set agreement task in the wait-free read/write shared memory model, and furthermore k-simultaneous consensus possesses properties that k-set does not. In particular we show that the multivalued version and the binary version of the k-simultaneous consensus task are wait-free equivalent. These equivalences are independent of the number of processes. Interestingly, this provides us with a new characterization of the k-set agreement task that is based on the fundamental binary consensus problem.