Search results for " Threshold"
showing 10 items of 497 documents
Longitudinal Study on Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART): Clustering Approach for Mobility and Cognitive Decline
2022
The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) is a computer-based go/no-go task to measure neurocognitive function in older adults. However, simplified average features of this complex dataset lead to loss of primary information and fail to express associations between test performance and clinically meaningful outcomes. Here, we combine a novel method to visualise individual trial (raw) information obtained from the SART test in a large population-based study of ageing in Ireland and an automatic clustering technique. We employed a thresholding method, based on the individual trial number of mistakes, to identify poorer SART performances and a fuzzy clusters algorithm to partition the da…
Genetic and environmental influences on hearing at different frequencies separately for the better and worse hearing ear in older women
2007
The purpose of the present study was to examine the relative contribution of genetic and environmental effects on the air-conducted hearing threshold levels at low (0.125-0.5 kHz), mid (1-2 kHz), and high (4-8 kHz) frequencies separately for the better and worse hearing ear in older women. We also examined the distribution of audiogram configurations. Data was analysed using quantitative genetic modelling. As part of the Finnish twin study on aging (FITSA), hearing was measured in 103 monozygotic and 114 dizygotic female twin pairs aged 63-76 years. Approximately every third subject had a flat type, and two-thirds a descending type of audiogram configuration. No significant difference was o…
Hearing as a Predictor of Falls and Postural Balance in Older Female Twins
2009
BACKGROUND: The purpose of the present study was to examine, first, whether hearing acuity predicts falls and whether the potential association is explained by postural balance and, second, to examine whether shared genetic or environmental effects underlie these associations. METHODS: Hearing was measured using a clinical audiometer as a part of the Finnish Twin Study on Aging in 103 monozygotic and 114 dizygotic female twin pairs aged 63-76 years. Postural balance was indicated as a center of pressure (COP) movement in semitandem stance, and participants filled in a fall-calendar daily for an average of 345 days after the baseline. RESULTS: Mean hearing acuity (better ear hearing threshol…
Genetic and environmental influences on hearing in older women.
2007
Background. This study examined the relative contribution of genetic and environmental effects on the air-conducted hearing threshold level (0.5‐4 kHz) and speech recognition threshold level of the better ear as well as self-reported hearing in older women. Methods. Hearing was measured as a part of the Finnish Twin Study on Aging in 103 monozygotic (MZ) and 114 dizygotic (DZ) female twin pairs aged 63‐76 years. Audiometric measured hearing was tested using standardized methods in soundproof conditions. Self-reported hearing was assessed by a structured question. Quantitative genetic modeling was used for data analyses. Results. No significant differences in age, exposure to noise, hearing-…
Animal Perception of Seasonal Thresholds: Changes in Elephant Movement in Relation to Rainfall Patterns
2012
Background The identification of temporal thresholds or shifts in animal movement informs ecologists of changes in an animal’s behaviour, which contributes to an understanding of species’ responses in different environments. In African savannas, rainfall, temperature and primary productivity influence the movements of large herbivores and drive changes at different scales. Here, we developed a novel approach to define seasonal shifts in movement behaviour by examining the movements of a highly mobile herbivore (elephant; Loxodonta africana), in relation to local and regional rainfall patterns. Methodology/Principal Findings We used speed to determine movement changes of between 8 and 14 GPS…
Exploiting historical rainfall and landslide data in a spatial database for the derivation of critical rainfall thresholds
2017
Critical rainfall thresholds for landslides are powerful tools for preventing landslide hazard. The thresholds are commonly estimated empirically starting from rainfall events that triggered landslides in the past. The creation of the appropriate rainfall–landslide database is one of the main efforts in this approach. In fact, an accurate agreement between the landslide and rainfall information, in terms of location and timing, is essential in order to correctly estimate the rainfall–landslide relationships. A further issue is taking into account the average moisture conditions prior the triggering event, which reasonably may be crucial in determining the sufficient amount of precipitation.…
Unsupervised Eye Blink Artifact Identification in Electroencephalogram
2018
International audience; The most prominent type of artifact contaminating electroencephalogram (EEG) signals is the eye blink (EB) artifact. Hence, EB artifact detection is one of the most crucial pre-processing step in EEG signal processing before this artifact can be removed. In this work, an approach that identifies EB artifacts without human supervision and automated varying threshold setting is proposed and evaluated. The algorithm functions on the basis of correlation between two EEG electrodes, Fp1 and Fp2, followed by EB artifact threshold determination utilizing the amplitude displacement from the mean. The proposed approach is validated and evaluated in terms of accuracy and error…
High performance composites containing perfluoropolyethers-functionalized carbon-based nanoparticles: Rheological behavior and wettability
2016
Abstract Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) based composites filled with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon black (CB) modified by perfluoropolyethers (PFPE) have been formulated. All composites show a segregated morphology with nanofillers selectively localized at the polymer particle–particle interface. The composites rheological properties have been deeply investigated: the PFPE functionalities linked on CNTs facilitate the semi-3D nanofillers network formation in the composites that show a solid-like behaviour even at lower investigated filler contents, reaching the rheological percolation threshold at lower nanofiller content than bare CNTs filled composites. For composi…
Experimental observations of upstream overdeepening
2005
The issue of morphodynamic influence in meandering streams is investigated through a series of laboratory experiments on curved and straight flumes. Both qualitative and quantitative observations confirm the suitability of the recent theoretical developments (Zolezzi & Seminara 2001) that indicate the occurrence of two distinct regimes of morphodynamic influence, depending on the value of the width ratio of the channel β. The threshold value βR separating the upstream from the downstream influence regimes coincides with the resonant value discovered by Blondeaux & Seminara (1985). Indeed it is observed that upstream influence may occur only in relatively wide channels, while narrower stream…
PSA and PSA Kinetics Thresholds for the Presence of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT-Detectable Lesions in Patients with Biochemical Recurrent Prostate Cancer
2020
68Ga-PSMA-11 positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is commonly used for restaging recurrent prostate cancer (PC) in European clinical practice. The goal of this study is to determine the optimum time for performing these PET/CT scans in a large cohort of patients by identifying the prostate-specific-antigen (PSA) and PSA kinetics thresholds for detecting and localizing recurrent PC. This retrospective analysis includes 581 patients with biochemical recurrence (BC) by definition. The performance of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in relation to the PSA value at the scan time as well as PSA kinetics was assessed by the receiver-operating-characteristic-curve (ROC) generated by plottin…