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One Characteristic (one + characteristic)
Selected AbstractsEndovenous laser therapy , application studies and latest investigationsJOURNAL OF BIOPHOTONICS, Issue 5-6 2010Ronald Sroka Abstract Endovenous laser therapy (ELT) was introduced in clinical practice as a therapy for incompetent veins about ten years ago. One characteristic of ELT is the broad spectrum of different treatment protocols by means of a variety of laser systems as well as manifold application forms and dosimetry concepts are under investigations. Clinical results with effective, relatively pain-free occlusion of incompetent varicosis veins have been observed, as well as undesired side effects such as ecchymosis, phlebitis and recanalization. In recent years systematic experimental investigations and the analysis of clinical results have increased the understanding of the interrelation between the clinical and physical aspects, followed to a continuous optimization of ELT. The use of IR wavelengths and radial irradiation concepts, together with continuous moving of the optical fiber seem to reduce possible side effects. This way ELT treatment becomes a more standardized effective method for the treatment of varicose veins. In future controlled randomized studies are required to compare optimized ELT treatment with other endoluminal modalities as well as conventional surgery. (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Impairments on "open-ended" executive function tests in autismAUTISM RESEARCH, Issue 3 2009Sarah J. White Abstract The executive function (EF) theory of autism has received much support recently from a growing number of studies. However, executive impairments have not always been easy to identify consistently and so novel "ecologically valid" tests have been designed which tap into real-life scenarios that are relevant to and representative of everyday behavior. One characteristic of many of these tasks is that they present the participant with an "ill-structured" or "open-ended" situation. Here, we investigated the possibility that tasks with greater degrees of open-endedness might prove more sensitive to detecting executive impairment in autism. Forty-five children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were compared to 27 age- and IQ-matched control children on a range of cognitive tests of EF. Group differences were found on half of the tasks, with the greatest degree of impairment detected on the more open-ended tasks. The ASD group also performed more poorly on a simple control condition of a task. Detailed consideration of task performance suggested that the ASD group tended to create fewer spontaneous strategies and exhibit more idiosyncratic behavior, which particularly disadvantaged them on the more open-ended tasks. These kinds of behaviors have been reported in studies of neurological patients with frontal lobe involvement, prima facie suggesting a link between the scientific fields. However, we suggest that this behavior might equally result from a poor understanding of the implicit demands made by the experimenter in open-ended test situations, due to the socio-communicative difficulties of these children. [source] Crustal versus asthenospheric relaxation and post-seismic deformation for shallow normal faulting earthquakes:the Umbria,Marche (central Italy) caseGEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2000R. Riva Summary Following a normal mode approach for a stratified viscoelastic earth, we investigate the effects induced by shallow normal faulting earthquakes, on surface post-seismic vertical displacement and velocity at the surface, when stress relaxation occurs in the crust or in the asthenosphere. The modelled earthquake is a moderate one characteristic of some slowly deforming plate boundaries in the central Mediterranean region. We focus on the Umbria,Marche (central Italy) region where deep seismic reflection studies (CROP03) and the 1997 earthquake sequence clearly show a seismogenic layer decoupled from the lower crust by a sizeable transition zone. Accordingly, the crust is subdivided into three layers: an elastic upper crust, a transition zone and a low-viscosity lower crust. The fault is embedded in the upper crust. The layered viscoelastic structure of the crust and mantle imposes a pattern and scale on the modelled coseismic and post-seismic deformation with a major contribution from the transition crustal zone and low-viscosity lower crust, stress relaxation in the mantle being negligible. We show that significant vertical deformation rates of the order of 1 mm yr, 1 could be expected for a shallow and moderate event such as the recent Umbria,Marche earthquake for viscosity values of 1019 and 1018 Pa s in the crustal transition zone and lower crust, respectively. [source] Passification-based adaptive control of linear systems: Robustness issuesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADAPTIVE CONTROL AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, Issue 6 2008Dimitri Peaucelle Abstract Passivity is a widely used concept in control theory having led to many significant results. This paper concentrates on one characteristic of passivity, namely passification-based adaptive control. This concept applies to multi-input multi-output systems for which exists a combination of outputs that renders the open-loop system hyper-minimum phase. Under such assumptions, the system may be passified by both high-gain static output feedback and by a particular adaptive control algorithm. This last control law is modified here to guarantee its coefficients to be bounded. The contribution of this paper is to investigate its robustness with respect to parametric uncertainty. Time response characteristics are illustrated on examples including realistic situations with noisy output and saturated input. Theoretical results are formulated as linear matrix inequalities and can hence be readily solved with semi-definite programming solvers. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||