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The United States’ transition from an economy built on form contracts to an economy built on algorithmic contracts has been as subtle as it has been thorough. In the form contract economy, many firms used standard order forms to make and receive orders. Firms purchased products and services with lengthy terms of services. Even negotiated agreements between fairly sophisticated businesses involved heavy incorporation of standard form terms selected by lawyers.
In the chapter on Observing Reason in the Phenomenology, as well as in §368 of the Philosophy of Nature, Hegel deals with the life sciences of his time. There, he labels the methodology of its representatives, namely zoology and comparative anatomy, as external teleology. In this paper I want to show that by doing so he is actually discussing a general kind of functionalism. Thereby, I want to highlight a line of thought in Hegel's texts which represents a productive reading of external teleology contrary to a destructive reading on which scholars have mainly focussed.
Most theories on which behavior change interventions are based focus on individual self-regulation and neglect the influence of the social environment. This chapter highlights theoretical approaches and empirical research on effects of the social environment on behavior change with a focus on dyadic behavior change interventions. Dyadic behavior change comprises “parallel” techniques that can be any individual technique directed at both partners in the dyad; “cross-over” techniques that involve interaction between partners but not necessarily administered with both partners present; and “joint” techniques in which both partners are actively involved. A continuum of individual to dyadic behavior change techniques that address different degrees of involvement of dyad members is provided. Based on the continuum, the chapter reviews dyadic behavior change intervention research and the theories involved. The chapter highlights the need for systematic research in dyadic behavior change and more comprehensive reporting of intervention content and delivery. A step-by-step guide provides guidance on effective implementation of dyadic behavior change interventions based on existing theory and current evidence. Owing to the heterogeneity in content, theoretical background, and empirical results, however, the guide also defines the research gaps and required research on dyadic behavior change to address them.
Starting with the author's own experience of ghostliness in the archive, the article explores the political meaning of the postwar Volkswagen in West Germany as embodiment of the country's “economic miracle.” The investigation follows the uncanny in texts and images about the Volkswagen between 1945 and 1960 and argues that the car carried with it a “public secret” as a “debris” from the Nazi empire that silently transcended the 1945 divide. This reading of the Volkswagen as well as the methodological path toward it highlight a phenomenon that postcolonial scholars have described as “haunting”: a confusion about the relationship between past and present that also bears on those who study the past. Taking this analysis as an encouragement to revisit the powerful myths and “miracles” of postwar consumer cultures in the West from a new angle, the article calls for historical genealogies of these myths that conceive of the postwar West as a—not yet—postcolonial space and that cross the 1945 threshold.
New ideas for diagnostics in clinical parasitology are needed to overcome some of the difficulties experienced in the widespread adoption of detection methods for gastrointestinal parasites in livestock. Here we provide an initial evaluation of the performance of a newly developed automated device (Telenostic) to identify and quantify parasitic elements in fecal samples. This study compared the Telenostic device with the McMaster and Mini-FLOTAC for counting of strongyle eggs in a fecal sample. Three bovine fecal samples were examined, in triplicate, on each of the three fecal egg-counting devices. In addition, both manual (laboratory technician) and automated analysis (image analysis algorithm) were performed on the Telenostic device to calculate fecal egg counts (FEC). Overall, there were consistent egg counts reported across the three devices and calculation methods. The Telenostic device compared very favourably to the Mini-FLOTAC and McMaster. Only in sample C, a significant difference (P < 0.05) was observed between the egg counts obtained by Mini-FLOTAC and by the other methods. From this limited dataset it can be concluded that the Telenostic-automated test is comparable to currently used benchmark FEC methods, while improving the workflow, test turn-around time and not requiring trained laboratory personnel to operate or interpret the results.
In the Federal Republic of Germany about 3 million people suffer from tinnitus/are hit by tinnitus, numerous of them depend on intensive medical care. The repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is considered to be an innovative and promising therapy in tinnitus treatment. Low frequency stimulation is meant to reduce the abnormal neural activity in the auditory cortex. This study focuses on the efficacy of rTMS with tinnitus patients in the course of a multi disciplinary / an interdisciplinary therapy concept.
Methods
From November 2008 to June 2009 29 outpatients with chronic tinnitus were treated by low frequency rTMS (1 Hz frequency, 2000 impulses, intensity 110%) for 10 proceedings, stimulating the sinistral auditory cortex with a figure-of-eight-coil. Prior to and afterwards the proceedings questionnaires and assessments of a psychologist took place, afterwards statistical analyses were conducted, the data was explored and systematically discussed.
Results
The severity index of the tinnitus as well as the depression symptoms of the subjects improved significantly. The average reduction rate of the tinnitus score is set at 7 points. With a response criterion at the minimum of 5 points, 57% were declared as responder, 29% as non-responder and 4 patients (14%) described an increase of the tinnitus loudness/annoyance.
Conclusions
The results show that the rTMS works as a helpful treatment tool with tinnitus patients and should be considered as an option in the routine tinnitus treatment.
Patients with untreated obstructive sleep apnea often report depressive symptoms, such as low mood, loss of interest and reduction of drive. In this study we examined the frequency of significant depressive symptoms amongst patients with untreated obstructive sleep apnea over a one year period.
Methods
From January to December 2008 we screened 1260 consecutive patients with untreated obstructive sleep apnea (AHI > 9) seen at our Center for Sleep Medicine were screened for depression. Based on self-administered questionnaires, patients with significant depressive symptoms were defined as having either a BDI II score ≥ 14 or WHO-5 ≤ 13. Additionally, severity of depression was rated based on BDI II scores.
Results
Depressive symptoms were reported frequently. Based on BDI-II, 27.9% of patients report significant depressive symptoms. Of these, 46.2% were mild, 35.9% moderate and 17.9% severe. In addition, 52.6% of patients self-reported feeling unwell based on their WHO-5 scores.
Conclusions
Significant depressive symptoms measured by standardised self-rating scales were detected in over a quarter of our patients with untreated sleep apnea. It remains unknown whether treatment of OSA alone abolishes depressive symptoms, or whether depressive mood may reduce the compliance with treatment. Patients may need an interdisciplinary approach to initial treatment.
The Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of Nuremberg established rTMS as a standard tool in the treatment of patients with depressive disorder since 2001. The stimulation protocol was modified in October 2008 to match the current standard procedure reported in the literature. The pulse number was heightened form 800 to 2000 per proceeding. This study examines the effects of the modified stimulation protocol and contrasts the results with the former stimulation efficacy.
Methods
The authors compared patients suffering from depression, who were treated by rTMS with 800 pulses/day and with 2000 pulses/day. The results of psychological examinations (MADRS, HAMD, BDI, grading, cognitive screening) prior to and afterwards the three-weeks-rTMS-cycle were submitted. Variance analyses were used for statistical reason.
Results
The subsamples were comparable by sex, age, premorbid intellectual level as well as by self- and other-rated depression severity at treatment beginning. Statistical analyses showed a significant reduction of the depression symptoms in both stimulation protocol groups. Solely the HAMD score reduction in the 2000 pulse sample exceeded the decrease in the 800 pulse sample. Analogically the grading of human functions partly differed depending on the sample affiliation. Concerning the screening of cognitive functioning neither group was impaired.
Conclusions
rTMS still seems to be a well-functioning tool in the treatment of depressive disorders in the bounds of daily psychiatric health care. Although the modified stimulation protocol didn’t show many advantages in respect to improving depression symptoms, the results indicate the continual adjustment of the stimulation parameter to meet the current standards.
In personal and in political context, we often evaluate the risk of certain conditions. Therefore, two principal psychological approaches are suggested: the analytical consideration and the intuitive estimation, both with according discriminative brain activation. We investigated the neural basis on which non-experts evaluated high risk of different environmental hazards for the society compared with respective low risk.
Methods
Twenty healthy subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while evaluating the risk of fifty more or less risky conditions presented as written terms. We analyzed brain activations during the individual estimations of ‘high’ against ‘low’ risk. Further, the individual brain activations associated with ‘negative’ versus ‘not negative’ emotional valence of the terms were analyzed.
Results
Estimating hazards to be of high risk was associated with activation in medial thalamus, anterior insula, nucleus caudatus, posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus. These areas were not involved according to the analysis of the emotion ratings.
Conclusions
The results point to a substantial contribution of viscerosensitive areas to signal high risk and supports models of an intuitive “gut” feeling independent of the subjective emotional valence when estimating a high risk of environmental hazards.
The clinic of psychiatry and psychotherapy and the clinic of otolaryngology of the clinic of Nuremberg offer an interdisciplinary consultation for patients suffering from tinnitus aurium and comorbid major depression and/or insomnia.
Objectives
Prediction variables are needed regarding the treatment of subjective ear noises by low frequency rTMS.
The aim of the present study was to examine
a) if rTMS responders and non-responders differ in significant parameters prior to the rTMS treatment
b) and if improvement of tinnitus complaints is associated with mood change.
Methods
From June 2008 to July 2010 109 outpatients with chronic tinnitus were treated with rTMS (1 Hz, 2000 impulses, intensity 110% motor-treshold, 10 proceedings, stimulation of left auditory cortex). Prior to and afterwards the proceedings clinical assessment regarding the severity of tinnitus (TQ) and depressive symptoms (BDI II, MADRS) took place.
Results
Response to rTMS was defined as reduction in the TQ score of ≥ 5 points (54 responder, 18 female, 36 male; 55 non-responder, 16 female, 39 male). The samples did not differ in age (MR = 56,4, SDR = 13,3; MNR = 57,3, SDNR = 12,2). The subsamples differed significantly regarding depression symptoms before rTMS, as non-responder being more depressive than rTMS-responder (table 1; MADRS: p = 0.008 **; BDI II: p = 0.01**).
Furthermore there is a significant interaction between BDI and the response/non-response criterion indicating a higher decrease of depression symptoms in rTMS responders.
Apples are a rich source of polyphenols and fiber. Proanthocyanidins (PAs), the largest polyphenolic class in apples, can reach the colon almost intact where they interact with the gut microbiota producing simple phenolic acids. These metabolites have the potential to modulate gut microbiota composition and activity and impact on host physiology. A randomized, controlled, crossover, dietary intervention study was performed to determine the broad effects of whole apple intake on fecal gut microbiota composition and activity. Forty heathy mildly hypercholesterolemic volunteers (23 women, 17 men), with a mean BMI (± SD) 25.3 ± 3.7 kg/m2 and age 51 ± 11 years, consumed 2 apples/day (Renetta Canada, rich in PAs), or a sugar matched control apple beverage, for 8 weeks separated by a 4-week washout period in a random order. Fecal and 24-h urine samples were collected before and after each treatment. The broad effects of apple intake on fecal gut microbiota composition were explored by the high throughput sequencing (HTS) of 16S rRNA gene lllumina MiSeq sequencing (V3-V4 region). Sequencing data analysis was performed using the Quantitative Insight Into Microbial Ecology (QIIME) open-source pipeline version 1.9.1. Specific bacterial groups were also enumerated using the quantitative Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH). Furthermore, the potential formation of microbial polyphenol metabolites, after apple intake, was explored in urine using Liquid Chromatography (LC) High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HRMS) metabolomics. Preliminary analysis showed no changes in gut microbiota abundances measured by Illumina MiSeq, after correction for multiple testing. Apple intake significantly decreased Enterobacteriaceae population (P = 0.04) compared to the control beverage, as determined with FISH. Twenty-four polyphenol microbial metabolites were identified in higher concentrations in the apple group (P < 0.05) compared to the control, including valerolactones, valeric and phenolic acids. In conclusion, preliminary data suggest that the daily intake of 2 Renetta Canada apples significantly decreased Enterobacteriaceae population, a family known for its pathogenic members, in healthy mildly hypercholesterolemic subjects. Moreover, several polyphenol microbial metabolites were identified, suggesting that microbial activity is crucial and a prerequisite for the absorption of apple polyphenols, producing active metabolites with potential health benefits.
Knowledge of the parasite fauna of Australian freshwater fish is fragmentary and incomplete. An understanding of fish hosts and their associated parasites is vital for the successful management of aquatic ecosystems. In this study, we surveyed the parasite fauna of carp gudgeons (Hypseleotris spp.), a complex of species of Australian freshwater fishes, using morphology and molecular data for the 18S and 28S ribosomal RNA genes. We examined 137 individuals of three different taxa in the carp gudgeon species complex and found 16 parasitic taxa of the Digenea, Cestoda, Nematoda and Arthropoda (five adults and 11 larvae). Eleven parasites are reported for the first time from the carp gudgeons (Pseudodactylogyrus sp., Gyrodactylus sp., Clinostomum sp., Paradilepis patriciae, P. cf. kempi, two unidentified species of Paradilepis, Dendrouterina sp., Parvitaenia sp., two lineages of Cyclophyllidea gen. sp., Procamallanus sp., larvae of a spirurine nematode and Lernaea sp.), in addition to Apatemon cf. hypseleotris Negm-Eldin & Davies, 2001 and the invasive tapeworm Schyzocotyle acheilognathi (Yamaguti, 1934), which were previously reported from these fish hosts. Parasite species richness was double in Lake's and Midgley's carp gudgeons relative to western carp gudgeon. These findings highlight the key role of carp gudgeons as intermediate hosts for multiple parasites with complex life cycles using native birds as definitive hosts and the usefulness of DNA data for the identification of parasite larvae.
Introduction: The gut microbiome has attracted much attention in the last decade due to new studies and technologies revealing how gut microbes play a key role in human health and disease risk. However, we still know little about how diets, foods and nutrients shape the gut microbiome.
Materials and Methods: To expand our knowledge about the complex relationship between nutrient intake and intestinal bacteria, we performed a broad dietary study covering diverse foods and nutrient intakes of nearly 100 adults. We analyzed metataxonomic data from 16S rRNA sequencing and correlated the microbial abundances of the top 55 dominant taxonomic groups with collected intakes of 40 food groups and 44 nutritional parameters, as well as degree of adherence to healthy eating patterns. Based on Spearman correlation profiles and hierarchical clustering, we also identified food groups and nutritional parameters that modulate in a similar manner microbial community structure.
Results: We will present preliminary results showing direct effects of specific dietary patterns (e.g. adherence to the Mediterranean style diet), food groups (e.g., fruits, nuts, dairy) and nutrients (e.g. iron, magnesium, zinc) on specific genera of the gut microbiota. We found significant associations between alcohol and the bacterial genus Holdemania. We will show that food groups supposed to belong to the same higher-level food category do not always show the expected effect on the gut microbes, which supports the need for a detailed food classification scheme to investigate dietary effects. Similarly, we found that correlations at dietary and higher food group levels more consistently reflect existing diet:microbe associations from the literature while correlations at the nutrient level are prone to confounding factors only apparent at higher alimentary ontology.
Discussion: Our study aims at a more complete understanding of the complex relations between human diet and gut microbiome community structure. Initial results confirm that both the quantity of a nutrient and the dietary source of a nutrient can both influence associations with gut bacteria. Our results may help to define new strategies for modelling diet:microbe interactions in the gut providing a new valuable tool to assist the nutrition and gut microbiome communities.
Chapter 14 defines the term algorithmic contract, distinguishing it from the term smart contract, and justifying the need for the term. Then, it argues that business-to-consumer algorithmic contracts present distinct issues from business-to-business algorithmic contracts. In particular, Chapter 14 argues that privacy is the canary in the coalmine with respect to the potential threat to civil liberties presented by personalized law by way of pseudo-contract regime. Without any deliberate choice on the part of consumers or change in attitudes, contracts and practices have severely eroded consumer privacy over the past two decades. Thus, privacy terms provide an ideal case study to examine what limits on the ability of consumers to contract with businesses using algorithms to determine customized terms might look like. Personalized law, in the absence of proper fiduciary incentives or default rules, could be a major threat to the civil liberties necessary for a liberal society.
Acanthogyrus (Acanthosentis) maroccanus (Dollfus, 1951), an insufficiently described quadrigyrid acanthocephalan of cyprinid fishes from Northwest Africa, is redescribed based on recently collected specimens from the Algerian barb Luciobarbus callensis (Valenciennes) in Algeria. Newly observed morphological features for A. (A.) maroccanus include the arrangement of proboscis hooks (not in regular circles), the male reproductive structures extending into the copulatory bursa and the presence of a para-receptacle structure and vaginal sleeve. The mechanism of copulation of this acanthocephalan is described based on several copulating pairs. The phylogenetic position of A. (A.) maroccanus within Eoacanthocephala was assessed based on partial 28S rDNA sequences. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses placed A. (A.) maroccanus in a clade with Palliolisentis (Demidueterospinus) ophiocephalus (Thapar, 1931), both species included in the Quadrigyridae, the only family within the Gyracanthocephala.
The Late Pennsylvanian (Kasimovian, early Stephanian) sub- to perimontaneous Souss basin, situated in the present-day southwestern High Atlas mountains of Morocco, contains the hitherto only known late Paleozoic entomofauna from North Africa, which is simultaneously also the southernmost Euramerican entomofauna. The present study provides descriptions, identifications, and revisions of several species belonging to the genera Phyloblatta and Anthracoblattina (family Phyloblattidae) and of the genus Compsoblatta (family Compsoblattidae). A relatively large number of well-preserved Phyloblatta forewings, compared with congeneric species from several insect localities in Europe and North America, permits insights into the individual, intraspecific, and interspecific variability of the venation pattern as indispensable base for the description of the new specimens and the revision of several older species. The Souss insect beds cover a wide range of potential habitats. They are situated in different paleogeographical positions within the Souss basin and scattered across a 900 m thick succession of sediments. The single insect beds represent different sedimentary and biotic subenvironments from swamps and mires to shallow and deep lakes within a fluvial-dominated megaenvironment.
In this paper, the possibility of using neural networks for fast tomographic reconstructions of tokamak plasma soft X-ray (SXR) emissivity is investigated. Indeed, the radiative cooling of heavy impurities like tungsten could be detrimental for the plasma core performances of ITER, thus developing robust and fast SXR diagnostic tools is a crucial issue to monitor the impurities and to mitigate in real-time their central accumulation. As preliminary work, a database of emissivity phantoms with associated synthetic measurements is used to train the neural network to solve the inversion problem. The inversion method, training process, and first tomographic reconstructions are presented with the perspectives about our future work.