Speech perception in MRI scanner noise by persons with aphasia

Purpose. To examine reductions in performance on auditory tasks by aphasic and neurologically-intact individuals as a result of concomitant MRI scanner noise. Methods. Four tasks together forming a continuum of linguistic complexity were developed. They included complex-tone pitch discrimination, same/different discrimination of minimal pair syllables, lexical decision, and sentence plausibility. Each task was performed by persons with aphasia (PWA) and by controls. The stimuli were presented in silence and also in the noise recorded from within the bore of a 3T MRI scanner at three signal-to-noise ratios (S/Ns). Results. Across the four tasks, the PWA scored lower than the controls and performance fell as a function of decreased S/N. However, the rate at which performance fell was not different across the two listener groups in any task. Conclusions. Depending upon the relative levels of the signals and noise, the intense noise accompanying MRI scanning has the potential to severely disrupt performance. However, PWA are no more susceptible to the disruptive influence of this noise than are unimpaired individuals usually employed as controls. Thus, fMRI data from aphasic and control individuals may be interpreted without complications associated with large interactions between scanner noise and performance reduction

Growth model with restricted surface relaxation

We simulate a growth model with restricted surface relaxation process in d=1 and d=2, where d is the dimensionality of a flat substrate. In this model, each particle can relax on the surface to a local minimum, as the Edwards-Wilkinson linear model, but only within a distance s. If the local minimum is out from this distance, the particle evaporates through a refuse mechanism similar to the Kim-Kosterlitz nonlinear model. In d=1, the growth exponent beta, measured from the temporal behavior of roughness, indicates that in the coarse-grained limit, the linear term of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation dominates in short times (low-roughness) and, in asymptotic times, the nonlinear term prevails. The crossover between linear and nonlinear behaviors occurs in a characteristic time t_c which only depends on the magnitude of the parameter s, related to the nonlinear term. In d=2, we find indications of a similar crossover, that is, logarithmic temporal behavior of roughness in short times and power law behavior in asymptotic times

From the Toda Lattice to the Volterra lattice and back

We discuss the relationship between the multiple Hamiltonian structures of the generalized Toda lattices and that of the generalized Volterra lattices. We use a symmtery approach for Poisson structures that generalizes the Poisson involution theorem.Comment: 15 pages; Final version to appear in Reports on Math. Phy

Improving response rates using a monetary incentive for patient completion of questionnaires: an observational study

Background: Poor response rates to postal questionnaires can introduce bias and reduce the statistical power of a study. To improve response rates in our trial in primary care we tested the effect of introducing an unconditional direct payment of 5 pound for the completion of postal questionnaires. Methods: We recruited patients in general practice with knee problems from sites across the United Kingdom. An evidence-based strategy was used to follow-up patients at twelve months with postal questionnaires. This included an unconditional direct payment of 5 pound to patients for the completion and return of questionnaires. The first 105 patients did not receive the 5 pound incentive, but the subsequent 442 patients did. We used logistic regression to analyse the effect of introducing a monetary incentive to increase the response to postal questionnaires. Results: The response rate following reminders for the historical controls was 78.1% ( 82 of 105) compared with 88.0% ( 389 of 442) for those patients who received the 5 pound payment (diff = 9.9%, 95% CI 2.3% to 19.1%). Direct payments significantly increased the odds of response ( adjusted odds ratio = 2.2, 95% CI 1.2 to 4.0, P = 0.009) with only 12 of 442 patients declining the payment. The incentive did not save costs to the trial - the extra cost per additional respondent was almost 50 pound. Conclusion: The direct payment of 5 pound significantly increased the completion of postal questionnaires at negligible increase in cost for an adequately powered study

Kullback-Leibler and Renormalized Entropy: Applications to EEGs of Epilepsy Patients

Recently, renormalized entropy was proposed as a novel measure of relative entropy (P. Saparin et al., Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 4, 1907 (1994)) and applied to several physiological time sequences, including EEGs of patients with epilepsy. We show here that this measure is just a modified Kullback-Leibler (K-L) relative entropy, and it gives similar numerical results to the standard K-L entropy. The latter better distinguishes frequency contents of e.g. seizure and background EEGs than renormalized entropy. We thus propose that renormalized entropy might not be as useful as claimed by its proponents. In passing we also make some critical remarks about the implementation of these methods.Comment: 15 pages, 4 Postscript figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. E, 199

The reconciliation of fraternal twins: Integrating the psychological and sociological approaches to ‘micro’ corporate social responsibility

Aguinis and Glavas’ (2012) call for a deeper understanding of the microfoundations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has spurred a growing number of empirical micro-CSR studies. Micro-CSR scholars share the common goal of developing a clear picture of the microfoundations of CSR—a holistic theoretical and empirical understanding of how individual actions and interactions drive CSR-related activity—but pursue this objective from a variety of angles. Our research suggests that although many scholars work under the same ‘micro-CSR’ banner, they approach their goal from a wide range of disciplines, use different methodologies, and study different phenomena. In this critical essay, we show that most micro-CSR research can be classified in one of two distinct sub-fields: ‘psychological micro-CSR’ and ‘sociological micro-CSR’. We compare the differences between these orientations (including their distinct empirical approaches, and contributions of both fields of micro-CSR) and explore possible opportunities for cross-fertilization between the psychological and sociological approaches. Finally, we suggest ways in which micro-CSR scholars could exploit the complementarities and eliminate the blind spots common to the two dominant micro-CSR approaches

Pregnant women with bronchial asthma benefit from progressive muscle relaxation: A randomized, prospective, controlled trial

Background: Asthma is a serious medical problem in pregnancy and is often associated with stress, anger and poor quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) on change in blood pressure, lung parameters, heart rate, anger and health-related quality of life in pregnant women with bronchial asthma. Methods: We treated a sample of 64 pregnant women with bronchial asthma from the local population in an 8-week randomized, prospective, controlled trial. Thirty-two were selected for PMR, and 32 received a placebo intervention. The systolic blood pressure, forced expiratory volume in the first second, peak expiratory flow and heart rate were tested, and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory and Health Survey (SF-36) were employed. Results: According to the intend-to-treat principle, a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure and a significant increase in both forced expiratory volume in the first second and peak expiratory flow were observed after PMR. The heart rate showed a significant increase in the coefficient of variation, root mean square of successive differences and high frequency ranges, in addition to a significant reduction in low and middle frequency ranges. A significant reduction on three of five State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory scales, and a significant increase on seven of eight SF-36 scales were observed. Conclusions: PMR appears to be an effective method to improve blood pressure, lung parameters and heart rate, and to decrease anger levels, thus enhancing health-related quality of life in pregnant women with bronchial asthma. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Multi-valued, singular stochastic evolution inclusions

We provide an abstract variational existence and uniqueness result for multi-valued, monotone, non-coercive stochastic evolution inclusions in Hilbert spaces with general additive and Wiener multiplicative noise. As examples we discuss certain singular diffusion equations such as the stochastic 1-Laplacian evolution (total variation flow) in all space dimensions and the stochastic singular fast diffusion equation. In case of additive Wiener noise we prove the existence of a unique weak-* mean ergodic invariant measure.Comment: 39 pages, in press: J. Math. Pures Appl. (2013

A política de habitação rural e o desenvolvimento da agricultura familiar.

Este artigo analisa a contribuição do Programa Nacional de Habitação Rural (PNHR) para o desenvolvimento de territórios predominantemente rurais. A partir do estudo de sua implementação na região Oeste Catarinense, ponder sobre os avanços e as restrições desta política social. Para as análises realizadas procedeu-se a uma revisão de literatura, à busca de documentação sobre a política e sua implementação na região estudada, bem como a entrevistas com lideranças e agricultores demandantes e beneficiados por uma casa nova ou reforma. Verificou-se que o PNHR cria uma oportunidade para as famílias rurais descapitalizadas construírem ou reformarem sua casa, apesar de ser ainda restrita a sua abrangência para o conjunto dessas famílias. A reformulação do programa, reduzindo exigências financeiras e para operação dos créditos, pode oportunizar que maior número de famílias dele se beneficie, com impacto social positivo no desenvolvimento regional