Features of prognostic function in patients with ischemic stroke of frontal localization in the early recovery period

The article presents the results of the research of the features of the anticipation and prognostic function in patients with ischemic stroke of frontal localization in the early recovery period.Material and methods. The total sample group was represented by 60 patients who had suffered an ischemic stroke of frontal or parietal localization. The average age of the research subjects was 53.00 ± 5.44 years. The study was conducted with the use of functional neuropsychological tests (by A.R. Luria, L.S. Tsvetkova), methods of predictive function research (time estimation test, spatial anticipation test, Maze test, London Tower test, “incomplete images” test), as well as statistical methods of quantitative and qualitative data processing.Results. In patients with prefrontal localization of ischemic stroke a specific impairment of prognostic function and a non-specific decrease in anticipation were revealed. It is due to disorders of mental activity purposefulness and preliminary orientation in the conditions of the task. When the lesion was localized in the premotor areas, a less significant decrease in the rate and accuracy of the prognostic function due to the inertia of the mental processes was revealed. In the localization of ischemic stroke in the associative parietal cortex, a specific decrease in the rate and accuracy of sensorimotor, perceptual, and temporal anticipation was revealed, as well as a non-specific decrease in the rate of planning, while maintaining its accuracy of implementation.Conclusion. In terms of practical significance, taking into account the features of prognostic function that have arisen in a particular form of brain damage can serve as a basis for restoring other gnostic or motor impaired functions, increasing the effectiveness of correctional and rehabilitation measures.

Features of the Interaction of Cognitive Functions with the Work of the Magnocellular and Parvocellular Systems in Patients with Schizophrenia and Endogenous Depression.

The article presents a study devoted to the study of cognitive dysfunctions in patients with schizophrenia and endogenous depression in their relationship with the functioning of the magnocellular and parvocellular systems. Mismatch in the work of neural systems leads to violations of the integrity of visual perception and to a violation of the selectivity of thinking in endogenous patients, which makes it difficult to assess and select meaningful, essential information in the formation of judgments. 60 patients with schizophrenia (43 (75%) male and 17 (25%) female; mean age ― 34.0±12.0 years) and 25 patients with endogenous depression (11 (44%) male and 14 (56%) female, mean age ― 38.0±13.6 years) with the use of psychophysiological (the method of visocontrastometry with an assessment of the contrast sensitivity of the visual system, the method of assessing the noise immunity of the visual system) and experimental psychological methods (Trial-Making test by Reitan, Memorizing 10 words, Poppelreiter's figures, Incomplete images, Excluding the 4th superfluous). The established features of cognitive dysfunctions in endogenous depression and schizophrenia are associated with the features of the functional state of the magnocellular and parvocellular neuronal systems and the nature of the interaction of these systems. The specificity of impairments in cognitive functions in patients with endogenous depression is due to changes in the dynamic component of cognitive activity, while the specificity of impairments in cognitive functions in patients with schizophrenia is associated with changes in the selectivity of information and early sensory defects. The data obtained make it possible to develop an idea of the profiles of sensory-cognitive impairments in endogenous depression and schizophrenia, which is of particular importance for differential diagnosis.

Submarine-fan development revealed by integrated high-resolution datasets from La Jolla Fan, offshore California, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT New high-resolution datasets across La Jolla submarine fan, offshore California, illuminate low-relief, down-dip widening conduits emanating from a deep-sea channel that deposited a combination of laterally extensive sand strata seemingly crisscrossed by distributary patterns. Extensive coverage of this sector of the seafloor shows submarine-fan architecture and morphologies essentially different than distributary channelized patterns characteristic of subaerial systems and previous conceptual models of submarine fans. The main La Jolla channel, connected to La Jolla Canyon, loses confinement by widening, decreasing in relief, and developing scoured margins across kilometers-long down-slope and lateral distances. Two scales of distributary patterns are associated with sand-rich deposits down-system from, and outside of, fully formed channels. A larger-scale distributary pattern is identified in backscatter and bathymetry from trains of preferential erosion associated with laterally continuous repetitive steps that extend for kilometers outside channel confinement and may represent net erosional upper-flow-regime transitional bedforms. Smaller-scale distributary backscatter patterns in unconfined sand-rich deposits originate from the wide, low-relief channel. We suggest that the newly imaged La Jolla seascape displays sedimentary features that may be common on deep-sea fans but missed in previous lower resolution studies of submarine fans. Thus, La Jolla provides the basis for integrating previously enigmatic and (or) incomplete images of submarine fans. High-resolution seafloor, subsurface, and sample datasets highlight the importance of channel widening, headward erosion, and unconfined flows in La Jolla submarine-fan development, and may be relevant to other sandy submarine fan systems.

A Multisensory Approach to Rock Art: Exploring Tactile and Visual Dimensions in the Southern Scandinavian Rock Art Tradition

This paper discusses rock art in southern Scandinavia as a multisensory format, where both sight and touch would have contributed to the comprehension of the images. From a structural semiotic point of view, we suggest that rock art can be construed as an organised set of features, such as visual and tactile elements, organised into heterogeneous unities with dynamic relations between elements that can change over time with respect to how they are experienced. We argue that in order to understand the rock art medium, it is crucial to take into consideration the multisensory interaction between the perceiver and the qualities of the rock art surface. The reason for including tactile elements in our interpretation of the conception of rock art is the way it was created: by hands interacting with tools and rock surfaces, as well as the spontaneous human tendency to explore the physical world through touch. One can identify key features in the images that would arguably facilitate tactile recognition, as well as be better explained from a multisensorial perspective. This includes the position of the images on horizontal outcrops, the moderate size of the images, the application of an orthographic perspective, the use of ‘tactile markers’ (ie crucial features having a strategic function for understanding images by touch), and the occurrence of incomplete images. A multisensorial perspective on rock art furthermore has semiotic implications. Incomplete images, for example, can be understood as indexical stand-ins for the whole imagined picture, ie as iconic indices. A multisensorial approach to Scandinavian rock art thus allows for new explanations for certain design choices, as well as a new understanding of how the images could relay meaning to a perceiver.

Image Completion with Hybrid Interpolation in Tensor Representation

The issue of image completion has been developed considerably over the last two decades, and many computational strategies have been proposed to fill-in missing regions in an incomplete image. When the incomplete image contains many small-sized irregular missing areas, a good alternative seems to be the matrix or tensor decomposition algorithms that yield low-rank approximations. However, this approach uses heuristic rank adaptation techniques, especially for images with many details. To tackle the obstacles of low-rank completion methods, we propose to model the incomplete images with overlapping blocks of Tucker decomposition representations where the factor matrices are determined by a hybrid version of the Gaussian radial basis function and polynomial interpolation. The experiments, carried out for various image completion and resolution up-scaling problems, demonstrate that our approach considerably outperforms the baseline and state-of-the-art low-rank completion methods.

Evolution of the image-symbol in the discourse of fables from a systemic point of view

The article investigates the image-symbol nature of the discourse of fables and other small genres, characterizes its evolution. It has been described the essence of the image-symbol, its appearance as a generalization of the features of the characters in the fable. The depth of generalization can vary; depending on this fact, images-symbols are divided into complete (found mainly in fables of previous centuries) and incomplete ones, which create for the addressee only the direction in which he generalizes himself them. Incomplete images-symbols are formed in such constructions of fables, in which symbolization occurs in stages, by constructing several plots; each subsequent plot is more and more abstract and related to the previous ones not by characters, but only by analogies and associations. Fables with an incomplete image-symbol are based on implicit elements that are not expressed in the text, but are implied. It is clarified that the image-symbol of the fable is a complex system with oppositional characteristics, and the unfinished image-symbol is the pinnacle of the evolution of the image-symbols in the fable, the ideal end result (IFR). The object disappears (the image-symbol turns into a virtual state), but its function is fully fulfilled. To concretize the conclusions of the study, the article provides examples of fables with a completed and incomplete image-symbol, in which possible ways of generalization (completion) of these images become clear. Further functioning and development of the image-symbol is possible in intertexts, as part of other artistic genres. The prospect of this work is the study of the evolution of artistic images in other small satirical genres, the study of their dual purpose: to generalize and designate negative features, characteristics of people, society.

Forced Labour in the “Gorgulho Years”: Understanding Reform and Repression in Rural São Tomé e Príncipe, 1945–1953

The crossroads of nationalist historiographies in sub-Saharan Africa and of the history of developmentalist attempts that characterise the European late colonial states, have left us with very incomplete images of important trajectories. In the seemingly more “liberal” large colonial empires—notably the French and British—sails were set by 1945 towards a policy of investment and economic change. Some of the scholarly debates question whether this investment was genuine or just a last resort to avoid (rapid) decolonisation; others put the emphasis on inadequate routines of development implemented in these territories, many of which have apparently been continued since decolonisation.In this context, we encounter a clear lack of understanding about how decisions made by individual actors on the administrative level interacted with the larger panorama of social conditions in colonial territories, and of the consequences that these interactions had for the paths towards decolonisation. For a smaller empire such as the Belgian colony of Congo-Léopoldville, these processes are still more obscure; and for the colonies ruled by authoritarian metropoles, as in the cases of territories under Spanish and Portuguese rule, stagnation and absence of change are often taken for granted. In other words, these territories, which were under the rule of metropoles regarded as rather weak in economic terms, are treated as unrepresentative of the broader, European movement towards change in colonial policies. However, the conditions of change towards economic and social modernisation in this latter group of empires, even when inhibited by lack of funding and weak professionalisation of the administration, are frequently very telling for the broader range of challenges that the late colonial states faced.