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Standard Interpretation (standard + interpretation)
Selected AbstractsCLINICAL AND IMAGING STUDY: Glucocorticoid negative feedback in methadone-maintained former heroin addicts with ongoing cocaine dependence: dose,response to dexamethasone suppressionADDICTION BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2006Bruno Aouizerate ABSTRACT Combined cocaine and illicit opiate use is common. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that cocaine dependence in former heroin-addicted patients maintained on methadone treatment is associated with enhanced glucocorticoid negative feedback. Multiple dose dexamethasone suppression tests, using a conventional 2.0 mg dose, and two lower doses, 0.5 mg and 0.125 mg, were performed in 10 methadone-maintained former heroin addicts with ongoing cocaine dependence (C-MM), 10 stabilized methadone-maintained former heroin addicts with no ongoing drug or alcohol use (MM), and 22 normal volunteers (NV). At 9 hours, there was no difference in plasma adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) and/or cortisol levels among groups on the baseline day, as well as after the two lower doses of dexamethasone. At 17 hours, C-MM and MM had significantly lower plasma ACTH and/or cortisol levels than NV. However, C-MM did not significantly differ from MM in their hormonal levels. When the hormonal responses to dexamethasone are expressed as magnitude of lowering from baseline, there was no significant difference at any dose among groups. Therefore, C-MM exhibited a normal glucocorticoid negative feedback in the morning. Using the standard interpretation of dexamethasone suppression testing based on the examination of the actual hormonal levels rather than the difference from baseline condition, C-MM appear to have glucocorticoid effects similar to MM, yet were both greater than NV in the late afternoon. Thus, further studies are needed to know whether altered glucocorticoid negative feedback is related to chronic cocaine exposure, or is the result of former heroin addiction and/or its long-term treatment with methadone. [source] Distortions of EM transients in coincident loops at short time-delaysGEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 6 2000F. Kamenetsky Transient electromagnetic measurements with short time-delays of transients are used for solving different problems within the upper part of a geoelectric section. However, it is necessary to take into consideration distortions connected with self-transients within the transmitter,receiver system. From the practical point of view, it is important to estimate the minimum time-delay after which these distortions may be neglected. We present such an estimation which uses a simple approximation method for a single-loop (or coincident-loop) configuration. For common values of the loop size (10 m × 10 m to 40 m × 40 m) and of the resistivity of a homogeneous half-space (1,100 ,m), the minimum time-delay beyond which we can use a standard interpretation is in the range of 2,10 µs. This is equivalent to a minimum depth of investigation in the range of 1,30 m. [source] Residuated logics based on strict triangular norms with an involutive negationMLQ- MATHEMATICAL LOGIC QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2006Petr Cintula Abstract In general, there is only one fuzzy logic in which the standard interpretation of the strong conjunction is a strict triangular norm, namely, the product logic. We study several equations which are satisfied by some strict t-norms and their dual t-conorms. Adding an involutive negation, these equations allow us to generate countably many logics based on strict t-norms which are different from the product logic. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] The "writing on the cosmic wall": Is there a straightforward explanation of the cosmic microwave background?ANNALEN DER PHYSIK, Issue 10-11 2009H.J. Fahr Abstract The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is taken today as reflecting the thermodynamical state of the universe at these early cosmic times. Based on this assumption and standard cosmological principles meanwhile many fundamental cosmological facts have been deduced from the CMB state which, however, to some surprise reveal that the universe should be dominated by dark energy and dark matter, while for its energy content the usual baryonic matter is nearly negligible. Thus the question which we want to raise in this article is, whether this standard interpretation of the CMB phenomenon is solid and unequivocal enough to support the standard cosmological claims. We shall show, however, that in many details the standard explanation is not straightforward, but allows for important alternatives which seriously should be looked at. Especially arguments for a vanishing cosmic curvature (k = 0) are shown to be weak, and, contrary to the usual claim, the light distance to the recombination horizon is in fact strongly model-biassed. We also show that the CMB dipole which is generally understood as a consequence of a peculiar motion by about 680 km/s with respect to rest system of the CMB can as well, and perhaps even better, be understood as indication of differerent cosmological expansion dynamics seen in an anisotropically expanding universe in different directions of the sky. We also discuss that the power amplitude (i.e. effective Planck temperature) in the dipolar CMB structure depends on wavelength even inverting the dipole maximum orientation in the Wien's branch. In addition unexpected properties of the lowest CMB multipoles could mean that we are at least partly seeing an unquantifyable foreground in the background. Only after its removal the CMB interpretation could at all then, but then on a completely new basis, become a subject of cosmological terms. At the end of this article we shall briefly discuss an alternative explanation of the CMB radiation which helps to better understand the mysterious cosmic photon-to-baryon ratio of about 109. [source] The "writing on the cosmic wall": Is there a straightforward explanation of the cosmic microwave background?ANNALEN DER PHYSIK, Issue 10-11 2009H.J. Fahr Abstract The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is taken today as reflecting the thermodynamical state of the universe at these early cosmic times. Based on this assumption and standard cosmological principles meanwhile many fundamental cosmological facts have been deduced from the CMB state which, however, to some surprise reveal that the universe should be dominated by dark energy and dark matter, while for its energy content the usual baryonic matter is nearly negligible. Thus the question which we want to raise in this article is, whether this standard interpretation of the CMB phenomenon is solid and unequivocal enough to support the standard cosmological claims. We shall show, however, that in many details the standard explanation is not straightforward, but allows for important alternatives which seriously should be looked at. Especially arguments for a vanishing cosmic curvature (k = 0) are shown to be weak, and, contrary to the usual claim, the light distance to the recombination horizon is in fact strongly model-biassed. We also show that the CMB dipole which is generally understood as a consequence of a peculiar motion by about 680 km/s with respect to rest system of the CMB can as well, and perhaps even better, be understood as indication of differerent cosmological expansion dynamics seen in an anisotropically expanding universe in different directions of the sky. We also discuss that the power amplitude (i.e. effective Planck temperature) in the dipolar CMB structure depends on wavelength even inverting the dipole maximum orientation in the Wien's branch. In addition unexpected properties of the lowest CMB multipoles could mean that we are at least partly seeing an unquantifyable foreground in the background. Only after its removal the CMB interpretation could at all then, but then on a completely new basis, become a subject of cosmological terms. At the end of this article we shall briefly discuss an alternative explanation of the CMB radiation which helps to better understand the mysterious cosmic photon-to-baryon ratio of about 109. [source] Resolving the biodiversity paradoxECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 8 2007James S. Clark Abstract The paradox of biodiversity involves three elements, (i) mathematical models predict that species must differ in specific ways in order to coexist as stable ecological communities, (ii) such differences are difficult to identify, yet (iii) there is widespread evidence of stability in natural communities. Debate has centred on two views. The first explanation involves tradeoffs along a small number of axes, including ,colonization-competition', resource competition (light, water, nitrogen for plants, including the ,successional niche'), and life history (e.g. high-light growth vs. low-light survival and few large vs. many small seeds). The second view is neutrality, which assumes that species differences do not contribute to dynamics. Clark et al. (2004) presented a third explanation, that coexistence is inherently high dimensional, but still depends on species differences. We demonstrate that neither traditional low-dimensional tradeoffs nor neutrality can resolve the biodiversity paradox, in part by showing that they do not properly interpret stochasticity in statistical and in theoretical models. Unless sample sizes are small, traditional data modelling assures that species will appear different in a few dimensions, but those differences will rarely predict coexistence when parameter estimates are plugged into theoretical models. Contrary to standard interpretations, neutral models do not imply functional equivalence, but rather subsume species differences in stochastic terms. New hierarchical modelling techniques for inference reveal high-dimensional differences among species that can be quantified with random individual and temporal effects (RITES), i.e. process-level variation that results from many causes. We show that this variation is large, and that it stands in for species differences along unobserved dimensions that do contribute to diversity. High dimensional coexistence contrasts with the classical notions of tradeoffs along a few axes, which are often not found in data, and with ,neutral models', which mask, rather than eliminate, tradeoffs in stochastic terms. This mechanism can explain coexistence of species that would not occur with simple, low-dimensional tradeoff scenarios. [source] | ||||||||||