Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
286
result(s) for
"Herman, Jessica"
Sort by:
DAVE Aquatic Virtual Environment: Toward a General Underwater Robotics Simulator
We present DAVE Aquatic Virtual Environment (DAVE), an open source simulation stack for underwater robots, sensors, and environments. Conventional robotics simulators are not designed to address unique challenges that come with the marine environment, including but not limited to environment conditions that vary spatially and temporally, impaired or challenging perception, and the unavailability of data in a generally unexplored environment. Given the variety of sensors and platforms, wheels are often reinvented for specific use cases that inevitably resist wider adoption. Building on existing simulators, we provide a framework to help speed up the development and evaluation of algorithms that would otherwise require expensive and time-consuming operations at sea. The framework includes basic building blocks (e.g., new vehicles, water-tracking Doppler Velocity Logger, physics-based multibeam sonar) as well as development tools (e.g., dynamic bathymetry spawning, ocean currents), which allows the user to focus on methodology rather than software infrastructure. We demonstrate usage through example scenarios, bathymetric data import, user interfaces for data inspection and motion planning for manipulation, and visualizations.
Paper
\I Woke Up Feeling So Bloated. Ugh.\
Activate Your Abs \"Rotating your core muscles helps force gas out of your intestines,\" says Lindsay Hallam, a Pilates instructor at The Studio (MDR), in Marina del Rey, California. Get into side-plank position, and bring your top arm across your abdomen and under your body to twist your torso. [...]from the so-crazy-it-might-work files: A recent study found people perceived a woman wearing a spicy-floral fragrance as 12 pounds thinner than when she went perfume-free or had on another scent. Eat a Snack Water-rich fruits and veggies -- think grapes, cukes -- will help flush out excess fluid, says Dawn Jackson Blatner, an RD in Chicago.
Magazine Article
Prevalence of anaemia and low intake of dietary nutrients in pregnant women living in rural and urban areas in the Ashanti region of Ghana
Anaemia remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality among women and children worldwide. Because deficiencies in essential micronutrients such as iron, folate and vitamin B12 prior to and during gestation increase a woman's risk of being anaemic, adequate dietary intake of such nutrients is vital during this important phase in life. However, information on the dietary micronutrient intakes of pregnant women in Ghana, particularly of those resident in rural areas is scanty. Thus, this study aimed to assess anaemia prevalence and dietary micronutrient intakes in pregnant women in urban and rural areas in Ghana.
A comparative cross sectional study design involving 379 pregnant women was used to assess the prevalence of anaemia and low intake of dietary nutrients in pregnant women living in rural and urban areas in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Anaemia status and mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) were used as proxy for maternal nutritional status. Haemoglobin measurements were used to determine anaemia prevalence and the dietary diversity of the women were determined with a 24-hour dietary recall and a food frequency questionnaire.
Overall, anaemia was present in 56.5% of the study population. Anaemia prevalence was higher among rural residents than urban dwellers. Majority of the respondents had inadequate intakes of iron, zinc, folate, calcium and vitamin A. The mean dietary diversity score (DDS) of the study population from the first 24-hour recall was 3.81 ± 0.7. Of the 379 women, 28.8% met the minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W). The independent predictors of haemoglobin concentration were, gestational age, maternal age and dietary diversity score. Such that respondents with low DDS were more likely to be anaemic than those with high DDS (OR = 1.795, p = 0.022, 95% CI: 1.086 to 2.967).
A large percentage of pregnant women still have insufficient dietary intakes of essential nutrients required to support the nutritional demands during pregnancy. Particularly, pregnant women resident in rural areas require interventions such as nutrition education on the selection and preparation of diversified meals to mitigate the effects of undernutrition.
Journal Article
Neuronal activity enhances tau propagation and tau pathology in vivo
The authors show that tau can be released by neurons and transferred to other neurons via the extracellular space. Moreover, they show that enhancing neuronal activity accelerates transneuronal tau propagation and exacerbates tau pathology.
Tau protein can transfer between neurons transneuronally and trans-synaptically, which is thought to explain the progressive spread of tauopathy observed in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Here we show that physiological tau released from donor cells can transfer to recipient cells via the medium, suggesting that at least one mechanism by which tau can transfer is via the extracellular space. Neuronal activity has been shown to regulate tau secretion, but its effect on tau pathology is unknown. Using optogenetic and chemogenetic approaches, we found that increased neuronal activity stimulates the release of tau
in vitro
and enhances tau pathology
in vivo
. These data have implications for disease pathogenesis and therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies.
Journal Article
A microphysics guide to cirrus clouds – Part 1: Cirrus types
The microphysical and radiative properties of cirrus clouds continue to be beyond understanding and thus still represent one of the largest uncertainties in the prediction of the Earth's climate (IPCC, 2013). Our study aims to provide a guide to cirrus microphysics, which is compiled from an extensive set of model simulations, covering the broad range of atmospheric conditions for cirrus formation and evolution. The model results are portrayed in the same parameter space as field measurements, i.e., in the Ice Water Content-Temperature (IWC-T) parameter space. We validate this cirrus analysis approach by evaluating cirrus data sets from 17 aircraft campaigns, conducted in the last 15 years, spending about 94 h in cirrus over Europe, Australia, Brazil as well as South and North America. Altogether, the approach of this study is to track cirrus IWC development with temperature by means of model simulations, compare with observations and then assign, to a certain degree, cirrus microphysics to the observations. Indeed, the field observations show characteristics expected from the simulated Cirrus Guide. For example, high (low) IWCs are found together with high (low) ice crystal concentrations Nice. An important finding from our study is the classification of two types of cirrus with differing formation mechanisms and microphysical properties: the first cirrus type forms directly as ice (in situ origin cirrus) and splits in two subclasses, depending on the prevailing strength of the updraft: in slow updrafts these cirrus are rather thin with lower IWCs, while in fast updrafts thicker cirrus with higher IWCs can form. The second type consists predominantly of thick cirrus originating from mixed phase clouds (i.e., via freezing of liquid droplets – liquid origin cirrus), which are completely glaciated while lifting to the cirrus formation temperature region (< 235 K). In the European field campaigns, slow updraft in situ origin cirrus occur frequently in low- and high-pressure systems, while fast updraft in situ cirrus appear in conjunction with jet streams or gravity waves. Also, liquid origin cirrus mostly related to warm conveyor belts are found. In the US and tropical campaigns, thick liquid origin cirrus which are formed in large convective systems are detected more frequently.
Journal Article
Neural Regulation of the Stress Response: The Many Faces of Feedback
The mammalian stress response is an integrated physiological and psychological reaction to real or perceived adversity. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are an important component of this response, acting to redistribute energy resources to both optimize survival in the face of challenge and restore homeostasis after the immediate threat has subsided. Release of GCs is mediated by the hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenocortical (HPA) axis, driven by a neural signal originating in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN). Stress levels of GCs bind to glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) in multiple body compartments, including brain, and consequently have wide-reaching actions. For this reason, GCs serve a vital function in feedback inhibition of their own secretion. Fast, non-genomic feedback inhibition of the HPA axis is mediated at least in part by GC signaling in the PVN, acting by a cannabinoid-dependent mechanism to rapidly reduce both neural activity and GC release. Delayed feedback termination of the HPA axis response is mediated by forebrain GRs, presumably by genomic mechanisms. GCs also act in the brainstem to attenuate neuropeptidergic excitatory input to the PVN via acceleration of mRNA degradation, providing a mechanism to attenuate future responses to stressors. Thus, rather than having a single defined feedback switch, GCs work through multiple neurocircuits and signaling mechanisms to coordinate HPA axis activity to suit the overall needs of multiple body systems.
Journal Article
Increased reactivity of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and decreased threat responding in male rats following psilocin administration
Psychedelics have experienced renewed interest following positive clinical effects, however the neurobiological mechanisms underlying effects remain unclear. The paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) plays an integral role in stress response, autonomic function, social behavior, and other affective processes. We investigated the effect of psilocin, the psychoactive metabolite of psilocybin, on PVN reactivity in Sprague Dawley rats. Psilocin increased stimulus-independent PVN activity as measured by c-Fos expression in male and female rats. Psilocin increased PVN reactivity to an aversive air-puff stimulus in males but not females. Reactivity was restored at 2- and 7-days post-injection with no group differences. Additionally, prior psilocin injection did not affect PVN reactivity following acute restraint stress. Experimental groups sub-classified by baseline threat responding indicate that increased male PVN reactivity is driven by active threat responders. These findings identify the PVN as a significant site of psychedelic drug action with implications for threat responding behavior.
The neurobiological mechanisms underlying the fast acting and long-lasting effects of these drugs are not fully understood. Here authors show that the psychedelic psilocin increases reactivity in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) in male rats but does not change acute stress response. Male reactivity changes are driven by active threat responding, with clinical implications.
Journal Article