Experimental Environment (experimental + environment)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Reduced Impact of Migraine in Everyday Life: An Observational Study in the Dutch Society of Headache Patients

HEADACHE, Issue 6 2003
J. Vos MA
Objective.,To explore the percentage of patients who report a reduced impact of migraine on their life, and to which factors this improvement can be attributed. Methods.,Four hundred forty-eight members of the Dutch Society of Headache Patients answered a set of structured questionnaires, including the Migraine-Specific Quality of Life instrument (MSQOL). Results.,Of this group, 70% reported a reduced impact of migraine. The most frequently reported reason for this reduction was a change in medication (77%); in particular, change to a triptan. Other favorable factors included a change in life-style (56%): 42% of patients reported more relaxed coping with migraine, a reduction of stress in general (28%) and of stress related to work (24%), and leading a more regular life-style (21%). In addition, social support was frequently mentioned, particularly that offered by the Dutch Society of Headache Patients (58%), family (46%), and their general practitioner (28%). The patients who reported a reduced impact of migraine had less migraine attacks and a higher quality of life than those who did not report such a reduction. Conclusion.,The results confirm that factors that are proven effective in clinical trials on migraine also have these effects outside a formal experimental environment. [source]


Reactivation with a simple exposure to the experimental environment is sufficient to induce reconsolidation requiring protein synthesis in the hippocampal CA3 region in mice

HIPPOCAMPUS, Issue 3 2007
Julien Artinian
Abstract Our understanding of the memory reconsolidation process is at an earlier stage than that of consolidation. For example, it is unclear if, as for memory consolidation, reconsolidation of a memory trace necessitates protein synthesis. In fact, conflicting results appear in the literature and this discrepancy may be due to differences in the experimental reactivation procedure. Here, we addressed the question of whether protein synthesis in the CA3 hippocampal region is crucial in memory consolidation and reconsolidation of allocentric knowledge after reactivation in different experimental conditions in the Morris water maze. We showed (1) that an injection of the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin in the CA3 region during consolidation or after a single reactivation trial disrupted performance and (2) that protein synthesis is required even after a simple contextual reactivation without any learning trial and independently of the presence of the reinforcement. This work demonstrates that a simple exposure to the spatial environment is sufficient to reactivate the memory trace, to make it labile, and that reconsolidation of this trace requires de novo protein synthesis. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Control of Environmental Lighting and Its Effects on Behaviors of the Alzheimer's Type

JOURNAL OF INTERIOR DESIGN, Issue 2 2002
Melinda La Garce M.F.A.
ABSTRACT The study investigates environmental lighting interventions designed to control the natural daylight effects of the setting sun and resultant behavior change. The purpose of this study was to determine if the frequency of disruptive behaviors of the Alzheimer's type that are defined across the literature to include wandering, anxiousness, combativeness, negative verbalizations, pilfering/hoarding, inappropriate sexual behavior, inappropriate emotional behavior, attention seeking, repetitive statements, and behaviors that are apparently precipitated and/or intensified by the effects of the setting sun i.e., changes in color, angles, and intensity of daylight, can be altered by environmental lighting interventions designed to control the daylight effects of the setting sun. This learning/practice partnership brought together the diverse expertise of research team members and provided new ways of examining research questions. Subjects were evaluated by medical practitioners to determine the probable presence of Alzheimer's disease. Disruptive behaviors were identified by trained observers reviewing 100 hours of videotaped observation, and videotaped observations of the subjects continued as subjects rotated monthly for four months between two apparently identical environments,one controlled and one experimental using environmental lighting interventions. Trained observers made double blind observation of subjects and recorded the frequency of disruptive behaviors on behavior observation checksheets. Tabulations of the disruptive behaviors were made, and percentage of change was calculated. A drop of 41% in the disruptive behaviors of subjects, while in the experimental environment, was demonstrated in the first rotation cycle, and an 11 % drop in disruptive behaviors was found in a second cycle. Inter-rater reliability across all tapes was 70%. Individuals exhibiting the highest frequencies of disruptive behaviors also demonstrated the most dramatic decreases in these behaviors while in the experimental environment. Environmental lighting interventions designed for this study appear to lessen the detrimental behavioral| effects of the setting sun on the behaviors of individuals with Alzheimer's disease. [source]


Plasticity, its cost, and phenotypic selection under water and nutrient stress in two annual grasses

BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 3 2009
SERGEI VOLIS
A comparative approach can prove to be a useful tool for studying phenotypic plasticity, if applied to specific traits involved in adaptation to particular environment in more than one species across co-located populations. The present study tested whether two annual grasses, Hordeum spontaneum and Avena sterilis, belonging to the same guild, having similar stature, seed dispersal mechanism, breeding system, and genetic variation, and sampled in exactly the same environmentally specific locations, differed with respect to: (1) plasticity in traits involved in adaptation, namely the onset of reproduction and maternal investment involving the number of inflorescences, spikelets per inflorescence, the weight of individual spikelets, and abortion rate; (2) the cost of this plasticity, and (3) the pattern of phenotypic selection on the above traits. The two species exhibited highly differing amounts of phenotypic plasticity in the onset of flowering and several reproductive traits (number of inflorescences, spikelets per inflorescence, abortion rate), but no plasticity costs in any experimental environment. The two species demonstrated a decreasing similarity in the regulation of reproduction in four experimental environments: benign, water, nutrients and water × nutrient deficient. Correlational selection appears to contribute, although not solely, to the observed species differences with respect to the regulation of reproduction. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 97, 581,593. [source]


Investigating the performance of a middleware protocol architecture for tele-measurement

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, Issue 5 2008
Luca Berruti
Abstract The rapid growth of network infrastructures and the large availability of instrumentation supporting remote control have encouraged the deployment of complex and sophisticated laboratories and the design of software platforms for accessing the resources present there. Although the market offers several solutions to remotely manage equipment, little attention has been paid to the hardware and software architectures devoted to control distance learning experimental environments and to manage laboratories consisting of heterogeneous devices. The paper illustrates the architectural approach adopted within the LABNET project and describes in detail the main software components of the devised platform, which allows to exploit the instrumentation via a common Web user interface, thus making the system available independent of any specific (commercial) environment or application. Specifically, attention is focused on the LABNET server (LNS), which represents the supervising central unit and, therefore, a very critical element of the system. The paper mainly points out the architecture and protocols at the basis of the LNS and discusses a set of performance tests aimed at proving the effectiveness of the system and comparing it with a well-known commercial solution. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


High hybrid fitness at seed and seedling life history stages in Louisiana irises

JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2003
Jill A. Johnston
Summary 1,Relative fitness of hybrid genotypes will determine the role that hybrids can play in the evolution of a plant species complex. To realistically evaluate hybrid fitness and how environmental variation affects fitness in a long-lived species, all life stages must be considered. 2,We evaluated germination, seedling survival and growth of two Louisiana iris species and their early generation hybrids in several experimental environments created by manipulating light and water levels. 3,Species and hybrids all required similar moist conditions for germination. The proportion of germinated seeds was highest in shade and seedling survival highest in sun. 4,Iris brevicaulis exhibited the lowest germination and seedling survival overall, yet those individuals that survived grew vigorously. Iris fulva had high levels of germination and seedling survival, but yielded the smallest plants at the end of one season of growth. 5,Germination rates, seedling survival and seedling growth of hybrids equalled or exceeded one or both parent species, indicating that hybrids in this system have high relative fitness at seed and seedling stages in several environmental conditions. 6,We conclude that Iris fulva and I. brevicaulis share a common regeneration niche and similar early stage relative fitness with their hybrids. Thus, environment-dependent fitness in this system is due primarily to selection at adult stages. [source]


Plasticity, its cost, and phenotypic selection under water and nutrient stress in two annual grasses

BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 3 2009
SERGEI VOLIS
A comparative approach can prove to be a useful tool for studying phenotypic plasticity, if applied to specific traits involved in adaptation to particular environment in more than one species across co-located populations. The present study tested whether two annual grasses, Hordeum spontaneum and Avena sterilis, belonging to the same guild, having similar stature, seed dispersal mechanism, breeding system, and genetic variation, and sampled in exactly the same environmentally specific locations, differed with respect to: (1) plasticity in traits involved in adaptation, namely the onset of reproduction and maternal investment involving the number of inflorescences, spikelets per inflorescence, the weight of individual spikelets, and abortion rate; (2) the cost of this plasticity, and (3) the pattern of phenotypic selection on the above traits. The two species exhibited highly differing amounts of phenotypic plasticity in the onset of flowering and several reproductive traits (number of inflorescences, spikelets per inflorescence, abortion rate), but no plasticity costs in any experimental environment. The two species demonstrated a decreasing similarity in the regulation of reproduction in four experimental environments: benign, water, nutrients and water × nutrient deficient. Correlational selection appears to contribute, although not solely, to the observed species differences with respect to the regulation of reproduction. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 97, 581,593. [source]