Bigger Improvement Research Articles

How do goal orientations and motivational climate interact to affect short-term performance and self-confidence in sport? A test of the matching hypothesis across three studies

Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) is an interactionist theory that predicts that motivation is determined by the interaction of dispositional goals and the motivational climate. The ‘matching hypothesis’ predicts that that motivation is optimal when there is congruency between dispositional goal orientation (DGO) and motivational climate (MC). The matching hypothesis is tacitly accepted as an important element in goal setting interventions by many practitioners, but few studies have tested the short-term motivational effects of matching on sport tasks. This issue was addressed by examining the interaction between DGO and MC on objective measures of performance of 138 advanced athletes (Experiment 1) and 139 recreational athletes (Experiment 2) on a 400 m run, and on 154 recreational athletes’ ability to shoot basketball free-throws (Experiment 3). Moderated hierarchical regression revealed that the ego MC improved performance of more advanced athletes by 2 seconds, irrespective of their DGO (Experiment 1) and improved performance of recreational athletes by 2.4 seconds, unless the athletes had both high task and low ego DGO (Experiment 2). The MC had no effect on free-throw performance, but the ego MC significantly reduced confidence (Experiment 3). The facilitatory effect of ego climate on performance was mediated by the value athletes attached to ego goals, such that bigger improvement was seen in athletes who most valued ego goals. The parsimonious interpretation of these data is that aligning MC with DGO does not optimize short-term motivation. However, an ego MC can elicit enhanced performance in short duration tasks that rely on cardiovascular effort.

Minimally Dissipative Information Erasure in a Quantum Dot via Thermodynamic Length.

In this Letter, we explore the use of thermodynamic length to improve the performance of experimental protocols. In particular, we implement Landauer erasure on a driven electron level in a semiconductor quantum dot, and compare the standard protocol in which the energy is increased linearly in time with the one coming from geometric optimization. The latter is obtained by choosing a suitable metric structure, whose geodesics correspond to optimal finite-time thermodynamic protocols in the slow driving regime. We show experimentally that geodesic drivings minimize dissipation for slow protocols, with a bigger improvement as one approaches perfect erasure. Moreover, the geometric approach also leads to smaller dissipation even when the time of the protocol becomes comparable with the equilibration timescale of the system, i.e., away from the slow driving regime. Our results also illustrate, in a single-electron device, a fundamental principle of thermodynamic geometry: optimal finite-time thermodynamic protocols are those with constant dissipation rate along the process.

Numerical analysis of a solar still with phase change material under the basin

The present paper is aimed to analyze the effect of energy storage by adding phase change material (PCM) on the bottom of a solar still, via a transient numerical study. A detailed validation was made by comparing the numerical results with experimental and numerical data reported in the literature, obtaining a <1 % relative difference. The simulations were made with the ambient conditions of the two solstices (Jun 21st and Dec 21st) in a city with a desert climate. Four different materials were used to analyze the effect of adding PCM with different phase change temperatures and latent heat. Also, three PCM thicknesses were analyzed for the case with RT70 HC (1, 0.5, and 0.25 cm). A reference case (without PCM) is proposed for the comparison. The hourly and cumulative productivity is presented for each case, and the temperature and water vapor mass fraction contours and velocity vectors for the case with the best performance. Besides, overall efficiency and the Stefan number were calculated as performance indicators. The material RT70 HC is the one with bigger improvement, despite it was not completely melted. Because of this, the mass of PCM was considered a parameter. In the best case, the cumulative productivity increases from 4.53 to 5.42 kg/m2, which increases the overall efficiency from 55.78 to 66.70 %. The RT70 HC could store up to 70.42 units of latent heat per unit of sensible heat.

Effectiveness and safety analysis of home-treatment models in child and adolescent psychiatric care

Abstract Background The Austrian child and adolescent psychiatric care landscape is characterised by substantial deficits on the intramural and extramural level. To overcome these supply shortfalls alternative outreach approaches, such as home-treatment (HT) can be introduced, which shall facilitate the reduction of hospitalisations. Thus, we aimed to systematically characterise international HT models considering their efficacy and safety in the area of child and adolescent psychiatry. Methods A systematic literature search in six databases, as well as an extended hand search, was conducted. Taking into account the predefined inclusion criteria, six HT studies were eligible for the qualitative synthesis; comprising two randomised controlled trials (RCTs), two non-randomised controlled trials (NRCTs) and two observational studies. Results The following four effectiveness measures were investigated: change in symptoms, hospitalisation, treatment satisfaction and need for further treatment. A benefit of HT models compared to stationary care could be identified considering patient symptoms, espeicially psychopathological symptoms; however, solely in the longer-term treatment. Studies have also shown that HT is associated with fewer days of hospitalisation, but with a higher need for further treatments. Inconclusive evidence was identified considering treatment satisfaction. Safety endpoints were not evaluated by any included study. Conclusions The results are limited by a moderate to high risk of bias due to several factors (e.g. small sample sizes, various assessment instruments). However, the evidence indicates that in long-term, HT can lead to an improvement in psychopathological symptoms and supports the transition from inpatient to outpatient care. Therefore, HT may be considered as an alternative or supplement to the stationary child and adolescent psychiatric care. However, further evidence is needed considering safety outcomes. Key messages In the long-term, home-treatment can lead to a bigger improvement in psychopathological symptoms for the children and adolescent compared to stationary care. Further evidence is needed especially regarding possible adverse events of home-treatment in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry.

The local employment effect of house prices: Evidence from U.S. States

We examine the local demand channel hypothesis of the housing market that predicts a larger response of employment in the non-tradable sector to house price shocks than employment in the tradable sector using state-level monthly data from 1990:M1-2019:M12. Our results from a panel VAR model and out-of-sample forecasting analysis confirm a larger response of non-tradable employment to house price changes. In addition, we also find that unlike short-lived responses to shocks to income and building permits, house price shocks have a very persistent effect on employment. Our findings suggest that states with inelastic housing supply and more volatile house prices tend to have a bigger improvement in forecasting performance for non-tradable employment than for tradable employment.

Educational Program Improved Senior Preparedness to Call 911 as a Response to Stroke

ObjectivesStroke predominantly affects the elderly. Universities of the Third Age (U3A) are presented with an opportunity to target them. The goal of our study was to improve older adults’ preparedness to call 911 as a response to symptoms of stroke. Materials and MethodsParticipants were recruited from U3A in Brno, Czech Republic in year 2018. The program included an educational movie about stroke and testing with pretest posttest design. Stroke awareness was measured by Stroke Action Test and video-clips portraying stroke and stroke mimicking symptoms. Respondents had to answer close-ended questions. Composite scores were compared using paired t-test. ResultsData were obtained from 206 attendees of the program, that is 2% of all students, from 4 of 5 U3A in Brno. The mean test score improved from 80% to 87% (paired p < 0.001). Participants with a lower baseline knowledge improved by 12% (95% CI 9% to 16%) and with a higher baseline knowledge by 0% (95% CI 3% to 4%). The score for calling 911 for stroke mimicking symptoms improved from 29% to 20% (paired p < 0.001). ConclusionsVideo-based educational program improved senior preparedness to call 911 as a response to stroke. The improvement was mild, which is at least partly due to a high baseline level of preparedness of seniors active in U3A. A lower baseline knowledge was however associated with a bigger improvement, which might be important for use in a less active/educated population. Educational intervention also decreased intention to call 911 for stroke mimicking symptoms, which could have important implications for decreasing unnecessary activation of pre-hospital services.

Conditional survival for high-risk early-stage cervical cancer patients with lymph node metastasis after hysterectomy

Background: To estimate conditional survival (CS) for high-risk early-stage cervical cancer patients with lymph node metastasis after hysterectomy. Methods: 1964 T1-2N1M0 cervical cancer patients who underwent primary hysterectomy from 2004 to 2015 were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result (SEER) Program. Univariate and multivariate cox regression analysis were used to identify independent risk factors. 5-year conditional disease-specific survival (CDS5) and 5-year conditional relative survival (CRS5) were estimated. CDS5 and CRS5 stratified by risk factors were further calculated. Results: CDS5 and CRS5 increased from 71.0% and 73.7% at 0-year to 89.2% and 91.7% at 5-year, respectively. Inversely, the actuarial disease-specific survival and RS dropped from 71.0% and 73.7% at 5-year to 63.3% and 67.6% at 10-year, respectively. Patients with unfavorable factors had a bigger gap between actuarial survival and CS. Both CDS5 and CRS5 curves across stratas of each prognostic factor had a tendency to level off with time elapsing. Notably, CRS5 couldn't exceed 95% even after 5-year follow-up except for patients with grade I disease (CRS5 at 5-year: 100%) or tumor size less than 2 cm (CRS5 at 5-year: 96%). Conclusion: CS increased over time while actuarial survival decreased as time passed. Patients with unfavorable factors had bigger improvement in CS than those with favorable factors. Excess mortality still existed in these patients after 5-year follow-up compared to the general population except for patients with grade I disease or tumor size <2 cm, who might gradually decrease follow-up times after 5-year.

The Local Employment Effect of House Prices: Evidence from U.S. States

We examine the local demand channel hypothesis of the housing market that predicts a larger response of employment in the non-tradable sector to house price shocks than employment in the tradable sector using state-level monthly data from 1990:M1-2019:M12. Our results from a panel VAR model and out-of-sample forecasting analysis confirm a larger response of non-tradable employment to house price changes. In addition, we also find that unlike short-lived responses to shocks to income and building permits, house price shocks have a very persistent effect on employment. Our findings suggest that states with inelastic housing supply and more volatile house prices tend to have a bigger improvement in forecasting performance for non-tradable employment than for tradable employment.

Inference of Genetic Networks From Time-Series and Static Gene Expression Data: Combining a Random-Forest-Based Inference Method With Feature Selection Methods.

Several researchers have focused on random-forest-based inference methods because of their excellent performance. Some of these inference methods also have a useful ability to analyze both time-series and static gene expression data. However, they are only of use in ranking all of the candidate regulations by assigning them confidence values. None have been capable of detecting the regulations that actually affect a gene of interest. In this study, we propose a method to remove unpromising candidate regulations by combining the random-forest-based inference method with a series of feature selection methods. In addition to detecting unpromising regulations, our proposed method uses outputs from the feature selection methods to adjust the confidence values of all of the candidate regulations that have been computed by the random-forest-based inference method. Numerical experiments showed that the combined application with the feature selection methods improved the performance of the random-forest-based inference method on 99 of the 100 trials performed on the artificial problems. However, the improvement tends to be small, since our combined method succeeded in removing only 19% of the candidate regulations at most. The combined application with the feature selection methods moreover makes the computational cost higher. While a bigger improvement at a lower computational cost would be ideal, we see no impediments to our investigation, given that our aim is to extract as much useful information as possible from a limited amount of gene expression data.

Improving quality of life post left ventricular assist device surgery with CardioMEMS hemodynamic guided management

Abstract Background/Introduction Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) surgery improves quality of life (QoL) in chronic heart failure patients. Hemodynamic optimization of the LVAD therapy can improve patient outcomes, and potentially further improve QoL in these patients. Purpose In this analysis, we assessed the improvement of the QoL post-LVAD surgery in patients with hemodynamic guided management by the CardioMEMS. Methods Ten patients suffering from chronic heart failure, who underwent (semi-)elective LVAD surgery and participated in the HEMO-VAD pilot study, were included in this analysis. All patients received a CardioMEMS sensor pre-LVAD surgery. The daily hemodynamic readings were used to guide patient management, pre- and post LVAD surgery. The aim was to normalize and keep the mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) normalized (≤25 mmHg). For this analysis, patients were divided into those with a normal mPAP at all the scheduled follow-up moments at 3, 6, and 9 months post-LVAD surgery and those with an elevated mPAP during at least one of the follow-up moments. QoL was assessed by the EQ-5D-5L, KCCQ and PHQ-9 questionnaires at baseline (pre-LVAD surgery) and 3, 6 and 9 months post-LVAD surgery. Results The median age was 60 [52–63] years, and 70% of patients were men. In the hemodynamic normalized patients, QoL improved significantly between pre-LVAD surgery and the post-LVAD surgery follow-up moments, while no significant improvement was observed in the non-hemodynamic normalized patients. An increase of 37 points on the overall summary score of the KCCQ (p=0.046) was observed in the hemodynamic normalized patients, compared to a 22 points increase in the non-hemodynamic normalized patients (p=0.655), similar improvements were observed for the clinical summary score of the KCCQ, the visual analog scale of the EQ-5D and in the PHQ-9. Additionally, a trend towards a bigger improvement in the QoL was observed in the hemodynamic normalized patients, compared to the non-hemodynamic optimized patients (Figure). Conclusion(s) Successful hemodynamic management of LVAD patients, guided by CardioMEMS improves the QoL during the first year post-LVAD surgery. Patients who were hemodynamically normalized had a better QoL, and a bigger improvement in QoL from baseline, compared with non-hemodynamically optimized LVAD patients. Figure 1. Absolute and paired change in A EQ-5D-5L index value; B EQ-5D-5L visual analog scale, C KCCQ clinical summary score, D KCCQ overall summary score, E PHQ-9 score from baseline to 9 months of follow-up according to hemodynamically optimized status Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: Public hospital(s). Main funding source(s): This work was supported by Abbott with an independent research grant, partially covering personnel costs. This study was investigator-initiated and was designed, conducted, interpreted and reported independently of the funder.

Are Advances in Survival Among the Oldest Old Seen Across the Spectrum of Health and Functioning?

Mortality rates have been reduced by half over the last 60 years for nonagenarians, and the progress is continuing. The greater survival might be due to overtreatment of severely physically and cognitively disabled individuals, which is a big concern for societies and individuals. The study population comprised two Danish birth cohorts: the 1905 Cohort and the 1915 Cohort. At age 95, all from the two cohorts who were still alive and living in Denmark were invited to participate in a health survey that used the same assessment instrument. A total of 2,670 (56.8%) persons participated in the two surveys and survival was assessed through a 7.3-year follow-up period during which 2,497 (93.5%) had died, and with virtually no loss to follow-up. Despite the increasing chance of surviving to age 95, the 1915 Cohort had significantly better health and functioning than the 1905 Cohort. The survival advantage in the 1915 Cohort continued in the follow-up period after age 95: Median survival length was 2.4 months longer, p = .011. This advantage was not statistically associated with different levels of activities of daily living, physical performance, cognitive functioning, self-rated health and life satisfaction. However, the advantage tended to be more pronounced among people with better health. Life span and health increases among the oldest old. The improvement in survival for 95-year olds born in 1915 compared with 1905 was seen across the whole spectrum of health and functioning, with a tendency towards bigger improvement among those in good health.

Antibiotics versus topical antiseptics for chronic suppurative otitis media.

Antibiotics versus topical antiseptics for chronic suppurative otitis media.

Randomized SMILES strings improve the quality of molecular generative models

Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) trained with a set of molecules represented as unique (canonical) SMILES strings, have shown the capacity to create large chemical spaces of valid and meaningful structures. Herein we perform an extensive benchmark on models trained with subsets of GDB-13 of different sizes (1 million, 10,000 and 1000), with different SMILES variants (canonical, randomized and DeepSMILES), with two different recurrent cell types (LSTM and GRU) and with different hyperparameter combinations. To guide the benchmarks new metrics were developed that define how well a model has generalized the training set. The generated chemical space is evaluated with respect to its uniformity, closedness and completeness. Results show that models that use LSTM cells trained with 1 million randomized SMILES, a non-unique molecular string representation, are able to generalize to larger chemical spaces than the other approaches and they represent more accurately the target chemical space. Specifically, a model was trained with randomized SMILES that was able to generate almost all molecules from GDB-13 with a quasi-uniform probability. Models trained with smaller samples show an even bigger improvement when trained with randomized SMILES models. Additionally, models were trained on molecules obtained from ChEMBL and illustrate again that training with randomized SMILES lead to models having a better representation of the drug-like chemical space. Namely, the model trained with randomized SMILES was able to generate at least double the amount of unique molecules with the same distribution of properties comparing to one trained with canonical SMILES.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018 7:35 AM–9:00 AM ePosters

BACKGROUND CONTEXT Coccydynia caused by trauma or giving birth is mostly reported in females in the age 30-60years. Many treatment modalities have been suggested including special pillows, steroid injections, special physiotherapy and pain medication. Patients suffering from coccydynia reports severe pain and reduced Health related quality of life. Surgical treatment, can relieve persistent pain in patients suffering from coccydynia.This study reports the outcome, after surgical removal of coccyx in 138 consecutive patients. PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to report the outcome and rate of complications, 1 year after surgical treatment with partial or complete removal of the coccyx. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING A prospective cohort study. PATIENT SAMPLE Patients suffering from persistent coccydynia, for at least 12 months, after a blunt trauma. OUTCOME MEASURES Patient Reported Outcome Measures, SF- 36PCS/MCS, ODI, EQ5D, VAS Back/VAS Leg. METHODS Patients are evaluated by examination with bimanual palpation of the coccyx, and examination of the pelvic ligaments. If abnormal movement is present and the pain mechanism can be activated during examination of the coccyx, surgery with full or partially removal of the coccyx bone is suggested. All patients are treated with steroid injections prior to surgery, with only short term relief. RESULTS A total of 138 consecutive patients was treated at the Sector for Spine Surgery, Middelfart Hospital and evaluated 3 and 12 months after surgery. Three months after surgery, 40% of the patients are pain free in sitting position, 47% of the patients are experiencing some degree of discomfort in sitting position but are improved and 13% of the patients are still experiencing pain while sitting. A total of 99 patients are satisfied, 1 year after the surgery. A total of 22 patients have hoped to have a bigger improvement and 17 patients are not satisfied. A total of 32 patients developed infections after surgery and received antibiotics, 5 reoperations was performed, 3 due to infections and 2 due to rupture of the skin after return to normal daily living 3 months after surgery. CONCLUSIONS Pain in the coccyx after trauma or birth, are a quite common condition in women. Patients with severe symptoms and a history of pain duration of more than 12-18 months, should be referred for spine surgical evaluation. Partial or complete resection of the coccyx, is a safe procedure with in most patients will relieve the pain and restore the ability to sit.

School accreditation scheme reduces childhood obesity in Hong Kong.

Childhood obesity is an increasing threat to the health of primary school students in Hong Kong. Obesity results from energy excess from food relative to energy expenditure through physical activity. In Hong Kong, a whole day primary schooling policy has been implemented since 1993 and today most primary school students have their lunch on campus and some also purchase snacks and drinks from school tuck shops or vending machines. The EatSmart School Accreditation Scheme (ESAS) aiming at combating childhood obesity was launched in 2009/2010. Professional (health promotion, dietary, programme, etc.) support is provided to help schools formulate policies, introduce structures and implement measures to help students develop the habit of healthy eating. The aim of this study is to investigate the change of childhood obesity (including overweight) rates over time among schools awarded with ESAS accreditation. Seven-year retrospective data on obesity status were obtained for the period 2007/2008-2013/2014 (number of students = 113,322, number of measurements = 314,746) from all 105 ESAS-accredited schools. Before schools were geared up for the accreditation scheme obesity rates were fairly stable (slope test p > 0.05) among their student population ranging from 23.2% to 21.9%, whereas the rates dropped significantly (slope test p < 0.05) from 21.9% to 19.3% after intervention. For ESAS-accredited schools, there was an average annual reduction of 0.49% point in obesity rate which was 0.18% point higher than that of 0.31% point among non-ESAS-accredited schools. These results show that schools achieving ESAS accreditation are associated with a bigger improvement in the student obesity problem.

Enhancement of motor learning by focal intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) of either the primary motor (M1) or somatosensory area (S1) in healthy human subjects.

Motor rehabilitation after brain damage relies on motor re-learning as induced by specific training. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) can alter cortical excitability and thereby has a potential to enhance subsequent training-induced learning. Knowledge about any priming effects of NIBS on motor learning in healthy subjects can help to design targeted therapeutic applications in brain-damaged subjects. To examine whether complex motor learning in healthy subjects can be enhanced by intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) to primary motor or sensory cortical areas. Eighteen young healthy subjects trained eight different arm motor tasks (arm ability training, AAT) once a day for 5 days using their left non-dominant arm. Except for day 1 (baseline), training was performed after applying an excitatory form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (iTBS) to either (I) right M1 or (II) S1, or (III) sham stimulation to the right M1. Subjects were randomly assigned to conditions I, II, or III. A principal component analysis of the motor behaviour data suggested eight independent motor abilities corresponding to the 8 trained tasks. AAT induced substantial motor learning across abilities with generalisation to a non-trained test of finger dexterity (Nine-Hole-Peg-Test, NHPT). Participants receiving iTBS (to either M1 or S1) showed better performance with the AAT tasks over the period of training compared to sham stimulation as well as a bigger improvement with the generalisation task (NHPT) for the trained left hand after training completion. Priming with an excitatory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation as iTBS of either M1 or S1 can enhance motor learning across different sensorimotor abilities.

Exploring the Cross-Domain Action Recognition Problem by Deep Feature Learning and Cross-Domain Learning

Action recognition has received increasing attention from the computer vision and machine learning communities in the last decade. Although many related action recognition algorithms have been proposed, similar environments conditions are often required in the training and testing stages, which limits the application of the related technologies. In order to accelerate the generalization of action recognition, in this paper, the cross-domain action recognition problem are explored by three different kinds of aspects: 1) feature learning , hand-crafted feature and deep learning feature are extracted, respectively, and then the generalization ability of them are assessed and discussed on controlled and uncontrolled environments, respectively; 2) unsupervised cross-domain learning, since it is difficult for us to obtain the labeled samples in the target domain, thus, unsupervised cross-domain learning methods can be borrowed. In order to discuss which one is suitable for open domain action recognition problem, thus, three kind of unsupervised cross-domain learning methods are assessed on open domain action recognition dataset, respectively; 3) supervised cross-domain learning, if there are some labeled samples in the target domain, but the number of them is very limited, thus, supervised cross-domain learning method should be a good choice, but, how do we make the decision for them? Therefore, these methods are also appraised on the same dataset. Moreover, we contribute a novel multi-view and multi-modality human action recognition dataset (abbreviated as ” $MMA$ ”). It consists of 7,080 action samples from 25 action categories, including 15 single-subject actions and 10 double-subject interactive actions in three views of two different scenarios, which can be utilized to simultaneously explore single-view learning, multi-view learning, multi-modality learning, and cross-domain learning problems. We further explore the same learning problems on the MMA dataset. The extensive experimental results on two different datasets show that the deep feature learning method has much better generalization ability than the hand-crafted feature, such as improved dense trajectory if there are enough labeled samples in the training dataset to be used to fine-tune the network, and both unsupervised cross-domain learning method and supervised cross-domain learning method can improve the performance, but the latter can obtain much bigger improvement, in other words, the labeled samples in the target domain are very helpful. Finally, we also attended the open domain action recognition challenge which was held in CVPR 2017 workshop, and our supervised cross-domain learning scheme obtained the best performance in all teams.

Optimal control and optimality condition of the Camassa–Holm equation

This paper is devoted to the optimal distributed control problem described by Camassa–Holm equation. We firstly investigate the existence and uniqueness of weak solution for the controlled system with appropriate initial value and boundary condition. By contrast with our previous result, the proof without considering viscous coefficient is a bigger improvement. Secondly, based on the well-posedness result, we find a unique optimal control for the controlled system with the quadratic cost functional. Moreover, by means of the optimal control theory, we establish the sufficient and necessary optimality condition of an optimal control, which is another major novelty of this paper. Finally, we also present the optimality conditions corresponding to two physical meaningful distributive observation cases and give an illustration about how to numerically apply the obtained results.

Abstract 12557: The Impact of Spinal Cord Injury and Exercise Training on Cerebrovascular Function: Preliminary Results

Background: Spinal cord injured (SCI) individuals are at higher risk of cerebrovascular disease, including stroke, suggesting that they cannot maintain steady cerebral perfusion. This may be due to disruption of nervous vascular control and/or prolonged inactivity and consequent deconditioning. If inactivity plays a significant role, appropriate exercise may reverse this decline. However, the relation between SCI and cerebrovascular function, and the impact of exercise is not well established. Methods: We studied cerebral blood flow responses to progressive increases in arterial CO 2 (via rebreathing) in 9 individuals with SCI (C5 - T10, &gt;7 months post-injury). Vasoreactivity was derived from the relation between end-tidal CO 2 and cerebrovascular conductance. Five of the individuals were enrolled in 3-months hybrid-functional electrical stimulation-rowing exercise training program. Results: Vasoreactivity was somewhat lower in individuals with SCI compared to able-bodied controls (0.021±0.003 vs 0.030+0.009, p =0.28), and was related to the level of injury (R 2 =0.51, p =0.03), such that individuals with higher level injuries had lower vasoreactivity. Exercise training improved vasoreactivity (by ~25% overall), and the extent of improvement was strongly related to injury duration (R 2 =0.70, p =0.07) but not level (R 2 =0.06), such that longer injury duration was associated with a bigger improvement. Conclusions: Given that individuals with higher injuries are more inactive compared to those with lower injuries, these preliminary data suggest that the decline in cerebrovascular function after SCI may primarily be due to prolonged inactivity and may be reversed by appropriate exercise. These results may have implications for sustained physical inactivity and cumulative cerebrovascular risk in general population.

An Adaptive Interacting Multiple Model for Vehicle Target Tracking Method

In the field of traffic safety vehicle target tracking prediction as the background, this paper proposes an adaptive interacting multiple model tracking algorithm. According to the field of transportation vehicle movement state characteristics, based on the uniform (CV) and uniformly accelerated motion (CA) model, based on new information structure model of motion of the likelihood function, online adaptive adjustment model of the noise variance and the Markov matrix, realization of maneuvering target movement model and model set adaptation, not only improved IMM algorithm for tracking accuracy, and enhances the real-time performance of system, the simulation results show that, the algorithm for tracking precision compared to the traditional IMM method has bigger improvement.