...................................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION ...................................................................

BACKGROUND fMRI Resting State Networks (RSNs) have gained importance in the present fMRI literature. Although their functional role is unquestioned and their physiological origin is nowadays widely accepted, little is known about their relationship to neuronal activity. The combined recording of EEG and fMRI allows the temporal correlation between fluctuations of the RSNs and the dynamics of EE...

Extending the duration of the late reproductive phase in wheat has been proposed as a possible avenue to improve spike fertility. There is a positive correlation between the number of fertile florets and the duration of the stem elongation phase when this phase is varied by extended photoperiod. Photoperiod treatments imposed during the vegetative period also influence the duration of stem elon...

The paper deals with a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) as a reliable solution for capturing the kinematics of a fire front spreading over a fuel bed. To provide reliable information in fire studies and support fire fighting strategies, a Wireless Sensor Network must be able to perform three sequential actions: 1) sensing thermal data in the open as the gas temperature; 2) detecting a fire i.e., t...

Soil gravel content affects many soil physical properties, as well as crop yield. Little is known regarding the influence of soil gravel content on growth and nutrient uptake of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.). The accumulation of nitrogen and phosphorous during the vegetative and reproductive periods and the contribution of pre-anthesis assimilates to grain N and P content have been evaluat...

A Dialogue In Response to 'Reporting consciousness in coma: media framing of neuro-scientific research, hope, and the response of families with relatives in vegetative and minimally conscious states'

Biosemiotics and cybernetics are closely related, yet they are separated by the boundary between life and non-life: biosemiotics is focused on living organisms, whereas cybernetics is applied mostly to non-living artificial devices. However, both classes of systems are agents that perform functions necessary for reaching their goals. I propose to shift the focus of biosemiotics from living orga...

Potter, K. N., Williams, J. R., Larney, F. J. and Bullock, M. S. 1998. Evaluation of EPIC’s wind erosion submodel using data from southern Alberta. Can. J. Soil Sci. 78: 485–492. Wind erosion models have been used to assess policy impacts on soil erosion, but validation of models has been difficult until recently. We evaluated the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) wind erosion subm...

We present models and computational results which indicate that the spatial and temporal regularity seen in Proteus mirabilis swarm-colony development is largely an expression of a sharp age of dedifferentiation in the cell cycle from motile swarmer cells to immotile dividing cells (also called swimmer or vegetative cells.) This contrasts strongly with reaction-diffusion models of Proteus behav...

One hundred and ten patients with persistent vegetative state, were followed up for a period of five years from 1973 to 1978. Seventy-three per cent of the patients died during the period while about 10% of them recovered partially from the vegetative state. Among the recovered patients, only three became able to communicate, but two of these are not independent for their daily activites. React...