MAPGEN (Mixed-initiative Activity Plan GENerator) is a mixed-initiative system that employs automated constraint-based planning, scheduling, and temporal reasoning to assist the Mars Exploration Rover mission operations staff in generating the daily activity plans. This paper describes the mixed-initiative capabilities of MAPGEN, identifies shortcomings with the deployed system, and discusses o...

Functional and physical impairment are factors believed to lead to declined life satisfaction among older adults. This study aimed to examine life satisfaction among older adults and the influence of frailty. Baseline data from two studies addressing frail older adults aged 80+ in Gothenburg, Sweden, (n=577) were used. Frailty was measured through eight indicators. Life satisfaction was measure...

Address for correspondence: Dr. Abimbola Farinde, Clear Lake Regional Medical Center, Webster, Texas 77598, USA. E-mail: [email protected] The geriatric population can be viewed by the medical and scientific community as a particularly unique patient population given the age related changes that can occur over time which can contribute to mental, biologic deterioration, or psychological f...

Defining and describing health has traditionally been the role of medical experts. Although a rich literature has recently established the importance of lay accounts of health, one important gap relates to gay men's accounts of health. Data from 11 focus groups involving 45 gay men were thematically analyzed to investigate gay men's views of health. Two contrasting positions on a possible relat...

Induced and spontaneous wheel running can alter the phase and period (tau) of circadian rhythms in rodents. The relationship between spontaneous running and the phase angle (psi) of entrainment to 24-h light-dark (LD) cycles was evaluated in C57BL/6j mice. With a wheel freely available, psi was significantly correlated with the absolute (r = 0.32) and relative (r = 0.44) amount of activity duri...

We studied polymorphism in all species of birds that are presently known to show intraspecific variation in plumage colour. At least three main mechanisms have been put forward to explain the maintenance of polymorphism: apostatic, disruptive and sexual selection. All of them make partly different predictions. Our aims were to investigate evolutionary causes and adaptive functions of colour pol...

BACKGROUND Many approaches are used to evaluate fall risk. While their properties and performance vary, most reflect performance at a specific moment or are based on subjective self-report. OBJECTIVE To quantify fall risk in the home setting using an accelerometer. METHODS Seventy-one community-living older adults were studied. In the laboratory, fall risk was assessed using performance-bas...

The authors describe their experience in the ambulatory treatment of varicocele. Forty-four patients were treated through an infrapubic approach and only one recurrence was observed. The authors conclude that ambulatory treatment of varicoccle is safe, easy to perform and the patient can resume his daily activity within 48.-72 h.

Although many organisms show daily rhythms in their activity patterns, the mechanistic causes of these patterns are poorly understood. Here we show that host plant volatiles affect the nocturnal behavior of the caterpillar Mythimna separata. Irrespective of light status, the caterpillars behaved as if they were in the dark when exposed to volatiles emitted from host plants (either uninfested or...

Necessary and sufficient conditions for a GADL to become an ADL are obtained interms of congruence relations and proved that every associative GADL is an ADL.