Modal testing for model validation of structures with discrete nonlinearities.

Model validation using data from modal tests is now widely practiced in many industries for advanced structural dynamic design analysis, especially where structural integrity is a primary requirement. These industries tend to demand highly efficient designs for their critical structures which, as a result, are increasingly operating in regimes where traditional linearity assumptions are no longer adequate. In particular, many modern structures are found to contain localized areas, often around joints or boundaries, where the actual mechanical behaviour is far from linear. Such structures need to have appropriate representation of these nonlinear features incorporated into the otherwise largely linear models that are used for design and operation. This paper proposes an approach to this task which is an extension of existing linear techniques, especially in the testing phase, involving only just as much nonlinear analysis as is necessary to construct a model which is good enough, or 'valid': i.e. capable of predicting the nonlinear response behaviour of the structure under all in-service operating and test conditions with a prescribed accuracy. A short-list of methods described in the recent literature categorized using our framework is given, which identifies those areas in which further development is most urgently required.

Processing of visually presented sentences in Mandarin and English studied with fMRI.

Comprehension of visually presented sentences in fluent bilinguals was studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a set of conceptually similar sentences in two orthographically and phonologically distinct languages, Mandarin and English. Responses were monitored during scanning. Sentence comprehension in each language was compared to fixation in nine subjects and Tamil-like pseudo-word strings in five subjects. Spatially congruent activations in the prefrontal, temporal, and superior parietal regions and in the anterior supplementary motor area were observed for both languages and in both experiments at the individual and group levels of analysis. Proficient bilinguals exposed to both languages early in life utilize common neuroanatomical regions during the conceptual and syntactic processing of written language irrespective of their differences in surface features.

Neural networks for short-term memory for order differentiate high and low proficiency bilinguals.

Short-term memory (STM) for order information, as compared to STM for item information, has been shown to be a critical determinant of language learning capacity. The present fMRI study asked whether the neural substrates of order STM can serve as markers for bilingual language achievement. Two groups of German-French bilinguals differing in second language proficiency were presented STM tasks probing serial order or item information. During order STM but not item STM tasks, the high proficiency group showed increased activation in the lateral orbito-frontal and the superior frontal gyri associated with updating and grouped rehearsal of serial order information. Functional connectivity analyses for order encoding showed a functional network involving the left IPS, the right IPS and the right superior cerebellum in the high proficiency group while the low proficiency group showed enhanced connectivity between the left IPS and bilateral superior temporal and temporo-parietal areas involved in item processing. The present data suggest that low proficiency bilinguals activate STM networks for order in a less efficient and differentiated way, and this may explain their poorer storage and learning capacity for verbal sequences.

Preliminary validation study of the Russian Birmingham Cognitive Screen.

INTRODUCTION: The Birmingham Cognitive Screen (BCoS) is designed for use with individuals who have acquired language impairment following stroke. Our goal was to develop a Russian version of the BCoS (Rus-BCoS) by translating the battery following cultural and linguistic adaptations and establishing preliminary data on its psychometric properties. METHOD: Fifty patients with left-hemisphere stroke were recruited, of whom 98% were diagnosed with mild to moderate aphasia. To check whether the Rus-BCoS provides stable and consistent scores, internal consistency, test-retest, and interrater types of reliability were determined. Eight participants with stroke and 20 neurologically intact participants were assessed twice. To inspect the discriminative power of the battery, 63 participants without brain impairment were tested with the Rus-BCoS. Additionally, the Russian version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Quantitative Assessment of Speech in Aphasia, and Luria's Neuropsychological Assessment Battery were used to examine convergent validity, sensitivity, and specificity of the Rus-BCoS. RESULTS: The internal consistency as well as test-retest and interrater reliability of the Rus-BCoS satisfied criteria for the research use. Performance on a majority of tasks in the battery correlated significantly with independently validated tests that putatively measure similar cognitive processes. Critically, all patients with aphasia returned nonzero scores in at least one task in all the Rus-BCoS sections, with the exception of the Controlled Attention section where two patients with severe executive control deficits could not perform. CONCLUSIONS: The Rus-BCoS shows promise as a comprehensive cognitive screening tool that can be used by clinicians working with Russian-speaking persons experiencing poststroke aphasia after much further validation and development of reliable normative standards. Given a lack of quantitative neuropsychological assessment tools in Russia, however, we contend the Rus-BCoS offers potential benefits to clinicians and patients. However, data from research studies with a broader sample of Russian speakers are needed.

Effects of musical meditation training on auditory mismatch negativity and P300 in normal children.

The auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) and P300 of event-related potentials were compared in normal children either with or without musical meditation training. The experimental group consisted of 11 subjects who had been trained with musical meditation for six months and the control group consisted of 12 subjects (matched for age, sex and grade) who had not received musical meditation. MMN amplitudes in the trained children were larger than those in the control group. In addition, the MMN amplitudes were identical in attend and ignore conditions for both groups. This evidence suggests that auditory brain function has been affected by musical meditation training. It thus suggests that the MMN is capable of assessing changes to the brain function in normal subjects. There were no significant differences in the P300 latencies and amplitudes between the two groups. This result suggests that MMN and P300 may reflect different aspects of the brain function.

A test of episodic visual memory.

This study investigated the relationship between episodic visual memory and word recognition using a novel test of episodic visual memory. 40 subjects learned a set of pseudo-orthographic stimuli which were processed in terms of visual form and structure information during study. Subsequent recognition was better for more frequently and elaboratively processed stimuli, indicating performance was dependent on episodic visual memory. Recognition-test performance was also associated with visual lexical decision but not auditory lexical decision. It was concluded that recognition-test performance was associated with operation of episodic visual memory but independent of lexical access and thereby provides a useful diagnostic tool for the neuropsychological investigation of surface dyslexia.

Oral reading in Chinese: evidence from dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

The traditional view of oral reading ability in patients with dementia holds that it is a preserved skill even if there is a general impairment to lexico-semantic processing ability. Recently, this view has been challenged by studies showing that the oral reading ability of patients with dementia can deteriorate over the course of the disease. These studies have found that the oral reading of irregular English words is more prone to error than the oral reading of regular words by patients with dementia suggesting that the oral reading of irregular words depends upon support from semantic memory. Relatively little is known about the oral reading abilities of Chinese-speaking dementia patients. This paper reports on the results of a study of the language processing and the oral reading ability of Chinese speakers with probable dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT). DAT patients displayed impairment on tests of oral reading as well as impairment on tests of semantic memory, confrontation naming and word comprehension. The results also show significant effects of regularity, frequency and imageability on the oral reading of DAT patients. It is argued that Chinese-speaking DAT patients display a pattern of language impairment similar to their English-speaking counterparts and, moreover, that normal oral reading of Chinese characters may depend critically upon the integrity of semantic memory.

Action naming in dementia.

Recent studies of action naming in dementia report contradictory results. Some studies have shown that naming of pictured actions is impaired and indeed worse than naming of pictured objects, whereas other studies report the opposite result, i.e. action naming is better preserved than object naming. One reason for these conflicting results may be that actions vary in their relationships with object knowledge. Instrumental actions, e.g. hammering, require access to knowledge about a specific object (a tool), whereas non-instrumental actions can be named correctly without access to knowledge about a specific object, e.g. running. Moreover, many instrumental action names share a name relationship with the instrument used to perform the action (homophony), whereas other action names do not, e.g. digging. In this case report, we describe an anomic patient RS with dementia affecting his access to knowledge about objects from visual, verbal and tactile input. By contrast, RS displays relatively well-preserved knowledge and naming of actions. We found an effect of instrumentality on pictured action naming, i.e. actions that depict an actor using a tool are named less accurately than actions that depict an actor performing an action without a tool. We argue that the instrumentality effect is independent of the name relationship between the action and the object and also the visual complexity of the action. We consider several explanations of the instrumentality effect and conclude that an impairment to the areas underpinning sensory feature and sensorimotor information (specific to manipulation) can account for an effect of instrumentality on action naming in dementia.

Visual and phonological pathways to the lexicon: evidence from Chinese readers.

In this study, we investigated the role of visual and phonological information in lexical access of Chinese characters. Homophonic English words have been the main source of stimuli for word recognition research. However, since these stimuli also often look alike, visual and phonological information may be confounded in reported experiments. In contrast, many homophonic Chinese characters are visually distinct. In addition, visually similar characters often have very different pronunciations. These characteristics allow a more controlled investigation of the roles of visual and phonological information in activation of meaning. In the present study, two types of Chinese characters were used in a semantic categorization paradigm: integrated characters, which contain strokes that are not separable; and compound characters, which contain at least two clearly identifiable components. The results show that the recognition of a Chinese integrated character depends primarily on visual information, whereas the recognition of a Chinese compound character relies on visual, phonological, and semantic information. It is concluded that visual information plays a greater role in Chinese character recognition than has previously been documented.

Overlap and dissociation of semantic processing of Chinese characters, English words, and pictures: evidence from fMRI.

The functional anatomy of Chinese character processing was investigated using fMRI. Right-handed Mandarin-English bilingual participants made either semantic or perceptual size judgements with characters and pictures. Areas jointly activated by character and picture semantic tasks compared to size judgement tasks included the left prefrontal region (BA 9, 44, 45), left posterior temporal, left fusiform, and left parietal regions. Character processing produced greater activation than picture processing in the left mid and posterior temporal as well as left prefrontal regions. The lateral occipital regions were more active during picture semantic processing than character semantic processing. A similar pattern of activation and contrasts was observed when English words and pictures were compared in another set of bilingual participants. However, there was less contrast between word and picture semantic processing than between character and picture processing in the left prefrontal region. When character and word semantic processing were compared directly in a third group, the loci of activation peaks was similar in both languages but Chinese character semantic processing was associated with a larger MR signal change. The semantic processing of Chinese characters, English words, and pictures activates a common semantic system within which there are modality-specific differences. The semantic processing of Chinese characters more closely resembles English words than pictures.

Evaluation report of the family planning community based rural development project in Koeyer and Bumbuna

The concept of Community Based Rural Development (CBRD) through family planning practices was concretized in Sierra Leone in 1982. In 1988; the idea was later extended to two villages in the Eastern and Northern Provinces in the country. Specifically; the project was started in Koeyer village in Kono district and Bumbuna in the Tonkolili district. Both villages received their first injection of the idea of introducing family planning and rural development as a single package. The project in these villages was designed to assist in improving the economic status of rural women with three or more children but more who were still in their reproductive span 15-49 years. The basic aim of the project was to encourage the target population to acquire some income generating skills; become family planning acceptors and recruit acceptors in their communities. Implicitly; the project was to grow by person-person contact. Various income generating activities are introduced in the projects

Report of the feasibility study for the replication of the family planning/community based rural development in Kamabai and Fadugu

Family planning strategies have entered a new phase even in developing countries. The introduction of Family Planning/Community Based Rural Development (FPCBRD) in Sierra Leone in the recent past has opened another avenue for increasing the awareness; knowledge and practice of family planning. But apart from family planning; these projects are gradually leading to the improvement of the status of women by providing them with an opportunity to participate in various income-generating activities. In all; about eight such projects have been carried out in the operational areas of Planned Parenthood Association Sierra Leone (PPASL). However; not all regions of the country have benefitted from these projects. In those areas; such as Bumbuna in the Tonkolili Districts; and Bonkobana in the Kono District where the project has been going on there are convincing indications that some impact has been made on the lives of the rural women. In the evaluation report of the project in the Tonkolili and Kono Districts it was noted that the women have become skilled in such income-generating activities as: tie and dye; soap making; crocheting; sewing and gardening