•Care-robot gerontechnology in the homes of older adults is a novel test site.•Technology is used – domesticated – in different practical, symbolic and cognitive ways.•Domestication of technology ...theory should be expanded to include a social dimension.•Robot technology can have multiple effects on care networks and relationships.
In this article we look at the home as an arena for care by exploring how care robots and technological care-systems can become part of older adults’ lives. We investigate the domestication of robot technology in the context of what in Scandinavia is called “welfare technology” (relating to the terms “gerontechnology” and “Active Assisted Living,”) that especially aims to mitigate older adults´ challenges with living in their own homes. Through our case study, we investigate a system called eWare, where a flowerpot robot called “Tessa” works in symbiosis with a sensor technology “SensaraCare.” Together, they create a socio-technical ecosystem involving older adult end-users living at home, formal caregivers (e.g. healthcare workers), and informal caregivers (normally family members). We analyze our ethnographic fieldwork through the theoretical concept of “domestication of technology,” focusing on an established three-dimensional model that includes practical, symbolic, and cognitive levels of analysis. We found that social bonds and different ways of using the same technology ecosystem were crucial, and so we supplement this model by suggesting a fourth dimension, which we term the social dimension of the domestication of technology.
Mitochondria are known to play an essential role in the cell. These organelles contain their own DNA, which is divided in a coding and non-coding region (NCR). While much of the NCR's function is ...unknown, tandem repeats have been observed in several vertebrates, with extreme intra-individual, intraspecific and interspecific variation. Taking advantage of a new complete reference for the mitochondrial genome of the Afro-European Barn Owl (Tyto alba), as well as 172 whole genome-resequencing; we (i) describe the reference mitochondrial genome with a special focus on the repeats in the NCR, (ii) quantify the variation in number of copies between individuals, and (iii) explore the possible factors associated with the variation in the number of repetitions. The reference mitochondrial genome revealed a long (256bp) and a short (80bp) tandem repeat in the NCR region. The re-sequenced genomes showed a great variation in number of copies between individuals, with 4 to 38 copies of the Long and 6 to 135 copies of the short repeat. Among the factors associated with this variation between individuals, the tissue used for extraction was the most significant. The exact mechanisms of the formations of these repeats are still to be discovered and understanding them will help explain the maintenance of the polymorphism in the number of copies, as well as their interactions with the metabolism, the aging and health of the individuals.
Aims
To contrast functional connectivity on ventral and dorsal striatum networks in cocaine dependence relative to pathological gambling, via a resting‐state functional connectivity approach; and to ...determine the association between cocaine dependence‐related neuroadaptations indexed by functional connectivity and impulsivity, compulsivity and drug relapse.
Design
Cross‐sectional study of 20 individuals with cocaine dependence (CD), 19 individuals with pathological gambling (PG) and 21 healthy controls (HC), and a prospective cohort study of 20 CD followed‐up for 12 weeks to measure drug relapse.
Setting and Participants
CD and PG were recruited through consecutive admissions to a public clinic specialized in substance addiction treatment (Centro Provincial de Drogodependencias) and a public clinic specialized in gambling treatment (AGRAJER), respectively; HC were recruited through community advertisement in the same area in Granada (Spain).
Measurements
Seed‐based functional connectivity in the ventral striatum (ventral caudate and ventral putamen) and dorsal striatum (dorsal caudate and dorsal putamen), the Kirby delay‐discounting questionnaire, the reversal‐learning task and a dichotomous measure of cocaine relapse indicated with self‐report and urine tests.
Findings
CD relative to PG exhibit enhanced connectivity between the ventral caudate seed and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, the ventral putamen seed and dorsomedial pre‐frontal cortex and the dorsal putamen seed and insula (P ≤ 0.001, kE = 108). Connectivity between the ventral caudate seed and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex is associated with steeper delay discounting (P ≤ 0.001, kE = 108) and cocaine relapse (P ≤ 0.005, kE = 34).
Conclusions
Cocaine dependence‐related neuroadaptations in the ventral striatum of the brain network are associated with increased impulsivity and higher rate of cocaine relapse.
The Indian Ocean Guemas, Virginie; Corti, Susanna; García-Serrano, J. ...
Journal of climate,
02/2013, Letnik:
26, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The Indian Ocean stands out as the region where the state-of-the-art decadal climate predictions of sea surface temperature (SST) perform the best worldwide for forecast times ranging from the second ...to the ninth year, according to correlation and root-mean-square error (RMSE) scores. This paper investigates the reasons for this high skill by assessing the contributions from the initial conditions, greenhouse gases, solar activity, and volcanic aerosols. The comparison between the SST correlation skill in uninitialized historical simulations and hindcasts initialized fromestimates of the observed climate state shows that the high Indian Ocean skill is largely explained by the varying radiative forcings, the latter finding being supported by a set of additional sensitivity experiments. The long-term warming trend is the primary contributor to the high skill, though not the only one. Volcanic aerosols bring additional skill in this region as shown by the comparison between initialized hindcasts taking into account or not the effect of volcanic stratospheric aerosols and by the drop in skill when filtering out their effect in hindcasts that take them into account. Indeed, the Indian Ocean is shown to be the region where the ratio of the internally generated over the externally forced variability is the lowest, where the amplitude of the internal variability has been estimated by removing the effect of long-term warming trend and volcanic aerosols by a multiple least squares linear regression on observed SSTs.
This article reports world averages of measurements of
b
-hadron,
c
-hadron, and
τ
-lepton properties obtained by the Heavy Flavor Averaging Group using results available through summer 2016. For the ...averaging, common input parameters used in the various analyses are adjusted (rescaled) to common values, and known correlations are taken into account. The averages include branching fractions, lifetimes, neutral meson mixing parameters,
C
P
violation parameters, parameters of semileptonic decays, and Cabbibo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix elements.
Characterizing pharmacological response in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients may be a challenge in early stages but gives valuable clues for diagnosis. Neurotropic drugs may modulate ...Electroencephalography (EEG) microstates (MS). We investigated EEG-MS default-mode network changes in response to dopaminergic stimulation in PD.
Fourteen PD subjects in HY stage III or less were included, and twenty-one healthy controls. All patients were receiving dopaminergic stimulation with levodopa or dopaminergic agonists. Resting EEG activity was recorded before the first daily PD medication dose and 1 h after drug intake resting EEG activity was again recorded. Time and frequency variables for each MS were calculated.
Parkinson's disease subjects MS A duration decreases after levodopa intake, MS B appears more often than before levodopa intake. MS E was not present, but MS G was. There were no significant differences between control subjects and patients after medication intake.
Clinical response to dopaminergic drugs in PD is characterized by clear changes in MS profile.
This work demonstrates that there are clear EEG MS markers of PD dopaminergic stimulation state. The characterization of the disease and its response to dopaminergic medication may be of help for early therapeutic diagnosis.
Many marine organisms have developed adhesives that are able to bond under water, overcoming the challenges associated with wet adhesion. A key element in the processing of several natural underwater ...glues is complex coacervation, a liquid–liquid phase separation driven by complexation of oppositely charged macromolecules. Inspired by these examples, the development of a fully synthetic complex coacervate‐based adhesive is reported with an in situ setting mechanism, which can be triggered by a change in temperature and/or a change in ionic strength. The adhesive consists of a matrix of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes that are modified with thermoresponsive poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) grafts. The adhesive, which initially starts out as a fluid complex coacervate with limited adhesion at room temperature and high ionic strength, transitions into a viscoelastic solid upon an increase in temperature and/or a decrease in the salt concentration of the environment. Consequently, the thermoresponsive chains self‐associate into hydrophobic domains and/or the polyelectrolyte matrix contracts, without inducing any macroscopic shrinking. The presence of PNIPAM favors energy dissipation by softening the material and by allowing crack blunting. The high work of adhesion, the gelation kinetics, and the easy tunability of the system make it a potential candidate for soft tissue adhesion in physiological environments.
A complex coacervate‐based injectable adhesive, whose setting is exclusively triggered by a change in the environmental conditions (namely an increase in temperature and/or a decrease in ionic strength), is reported. High adhesive properties are measured in completely submerged conditions resembling a physiological environment, showing that the material is a potential candidate for soft tissue repair purposes.
Breast cancer health disparities are linked to clinical-pathological determinants, socioeconomic inequities, and biological factors such as genetic ancestry. These factors collectively interact in ...complex ways, influencing disease behavior, especially among highly admixed populations like Colombians. In this study, we assessed contributing factors to breast cancer health disparities according to genetic ancestry in Colombian patients from a national cancer reference center. We collected non-tumoral paraffin embedded (FFPE) blocks from 361 women diagnosed with breast cancer at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to estimate genetic ancestry using a 106-ancestry informative marker (AIM) panel. Differences in European, Indigenous American (IA) and African ancestry fractions were analyzed according to potential sources of breast cancer health disparities, like etiology, tumor-biology, treatment administration, and socioeconomic-related factors using a Kruskal–Wallis test. Our analysis revealed a significantly higher IA ancestry among overweight patients with larger tumors and those covered by a subsidized health insurance. Conversely, we found a significantly higher European ancestry among patients with smaller tumors, residing in middle-income households, and affiliated to the contributory health regime, whereas a higher median of African ancestry was observed among patients with either a clinical, pathological, or stable response to neoadjuvant treatment. Altogether, our results suggest that the genetic legacy among Colombian patients, measured as genetic ancestry fractions, may be reflected in many of the clinical-pathological variables and socioeconomic factors that end up contributing to health disparities for this disease.
The construction industry has traditionally been characterised by the high diversity of its agents and processes, high resistance to change and low incorporation of technology compared to ...manufacturing industries. However, the construction sector is experiencing now a strong renovation process in methodology and tools due to the incorporation of the Building Information Modelling, Lean Construction and Integrated Project Delivery. Meanwhile, in production systems, “Industry 4.0” is a new paradigm that proposes automation, monitoring, sensorisation, robotisation, and digitalisation to improve production and distribution processes. In this context, some authors have proposed the concept of “Construction 4.0” as the counterpart of Industry 4.0 for the construction sector, although the methodological-technological implications are not clear. This research shows a methodological-technological framework adapted to the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations industry. This papers includes a detailed proposal for a reference frameworks and related technologies that could impact on this sector, responding to its complexities and specific challenges, such as the unique spaces for each work, which are difficult to standardise, arbitrary cost overruns and a productivity far below the average for other industries, increasing competitiveness and globalisation, as opposed to its traditionally local deployment, and an increasing demand to reduce the carbon footprint for all its activities.
Ambient sound can mask acoustic signals. The current study addressed how echolocation in people is affected by masking sound, and the role played by type of sound and spatial (i.e. binaural) ...similarity. We also investigated the role played by blindness and long-term experience with echolocation, by testing echolocation experts, as well as blind and sighted people new to echolocation. Results were obtained in two echolocation tasks where participants listened to binaural recordings of echolocation and masking sounds, and either localized echoes in azimuth or discriminated echo audibility. Echolocation and masking sounds could be either clicks or broad band noise. An adaptive staircase method was used to adjust signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) based on participants’ responses. When target and masker had the same binaural cues (i.e. both were monoaural sounds), people performed better (i.e. had lower SNRs) when target and masker used different types of sound (e.g. clicks in noise-masker or noise in clicks-masker), as compared to when target and masker used the same type of sound (e.g. clicks in click-, or noise in noise-masker). A very different pattern of results was observed when masker and target differed in their binaural cues, in which case people always performed better when clicks were the masker, regardless of type of emission used. Further, direct comparison between conditions with and without binaural difference revealed binaural release from masking only when clicks were used as emissions and masker, but not otherwise (i.e. when noise was used as masker or emission). This suggests that echolocation with clicks or noise may differ in their sensitivity to binaural cues. We observed the same pattern of results for echolocation experts, and blind and sighted people new to echolocation, suggesting a limited role played by long-term experience or blindness. In addition to generating novel predictions for future work, the findings also inform instruction in echolocation for people who are blind or sighted.
•People can echolocate in the presence of masking noise.•No binaural cues: Better performance when emission and masker are different sound type.•Binaural cues: Better performance when masker is click, regardless of emission.•Binaural release from masking for echolocation with clicks, but not broadband noise.•Echolocation expertise or blindness have no effect on performance in our study.
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