Top-down venomics of the East African green mamba, Dendroaspis angusticeps , and the black mamba, Dendroaspis polylepis , highlight the complexity of their toxin arsenals

The existing environmental injustices in the world have often been linked to industrialisation and modernisation of nations. In a bid to develop and modernise their nations, East African governments have adopted neoclassical developmentalist ideals of 'modernization' and 'capital investments‘, which largely involve exploitation of natural and human resources. The consequence is rampant and severe environmental degradation and related impacts in the region. While environmental degradation impacts affect all people residing in the region, the poor are hit hardest since they do not have ways to deal with disasters; hence, it becomes an environmental and a social justice issue. Although mass media are viewed as change agents and key players in the development agenda, and are often tasked to communicate information as widely as possible, these have adopted hierarchical and top down approaches to environmental and social justice issues and, in the process, helped to deepen the existing inequalities in society. From perspectives of Development Communication, this article critiques modernization discourses to development including: 'Top-down experts of development‘, 'Blaming the victim‘ and 'Social Darwinism‘. The purpose is to demonstrate how the East African media deploy this framework to (mis)represent environmental issues leading to aggravated environmental and social injustices in these societies. The article argues for a 'solution journalism approach‘ to environmental communication, whereby media as advocates of development, focus more on the contextual factors within which environmental issues and problems transpire.

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Scanning electron microscopy of the integument of schistosoma rodhaini

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s042482010014230x ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 44 ◽

pp. 132-133

Author(s):

P. Evers ◽

C. Schutte ◽

C. D. Dettman

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽

Oral Sucker ◽

Adult Male ◽

Dorsal Surface ◽

Ventral Surface ◽

Sensory Receptors ◽

East African ◽

Dorsal Midline ◽

Scanning Electron

S.rodhaini (Brumpt 1931) is a parasite of East African rodents which may possibly hybridize with the human schistosome S. mansoni. The adult male at maturity measures approximately 3mm long and possesses both oral and ventral suckers and a marked gynaecophoric canal. The oral sucker is surrounded by a ring of sensory receptors with a large number of inwardly-pointing spines set into deep sockets occupying the bulk of the ventral surface of the sucker. Numbers of scattered sensory receptors are found on both dorsal and ventral surfaces of the head (Fig. 1) together with two conspicuous rows of receptors situated symmetrically on each side of the midline. One row extends along the dorsal surface of the head midway between the dorsal midline and the lateral margin.

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International Telesupervision: The Clinical Fellowship Experience

Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups ◽

10.1044/persp2.sig11.73 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (11) ◽

pp. 73-78

Author(s):

David W. Rule ◽

Lisa N. Kelchner

Keyword(s):

Graduate Students ◽

Clinical Supervision ◽

Rural Areas ◽

The United States ◽

Speech Language Pathology ◽

Access To Services ◽

East African ◽

The World ◽

Language Pathology ◽

National Certification

Telepractice technology allows greater access to speech-language pathology services around the world. These technologies extend beyond evaluation and treatment and are shown to be used effectively in clinical supervision including graduate students and clinical fellows. In fact, a clinical fellow from the United States completed the entire supervised clinical fellowship (CF) year internationally at a rural East African hospital, meeting all requirements for state and national certification by employing telesupervision technology. Thus, telesupervision has the potential to be successfully implemented to address a range of needs including supervisory shortages, health disparities worldwide, and access to services in rural areas where speech-language pathology services are not readily available. The telesupervision experience, potential advantages, implications, and possible limitations are discussed. A brief guide for clinical fellows pursuing telesupervision is also provided.

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Top-Down Processing and Visual Reorientation Illusions in a Virtual Reality Environment

Swiss Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1024/1421-0185.63.3.143 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 63 (3) ◽

pp. 143-149 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Fred W. Mast ◽

Charles M. Oman

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Line Length ◽

Perceptual Cues ◽

Virtual Reality Environment ◽

Top Down ◽

Test Conditions ◽

The Subject ◽

Processing Mechanisms

The role of top-down processing on the horizontal-vertical line length illusion was examined by means of an ambiguous room with dual visual verticals. In one of the test conditions, the subjects were cued to one of the two verticals and were instructed to cognitively reassign the apparent vertical to the cued orientation. When they have mentally adjusted their perception, two lines in a plus sign configuration appeared and the subjects had to evaluate which line was longer. The results showed that the line length appeared longer when it was aligned with the direction of the vertical currently perceived by the subject. This study provides a demonstration that top-down processing influences lower level visual processing mechanisms. In another test condition, the subjects had all perceptual cues available and the influence was even stronger.

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Functional Anatomy of Intensity Aspects of Attention

Zeitschrift für Neuropsychologie ◽

10.1024/1016-264x.14.3.181 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 181-190 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Walter Sturm

Keyword(s):

Right Hemisphere ◽

Functional Anatomy ◽

Fmri Data ◽

Functional Networks ◽

Top Down ◽

Stimulus Modality ◽

Spatial Orienting ◽

Phasic Alertness ◽

Co Activation ◽

Attention System

Abstract: Behavioral and PET/fMRI-data are presented to delineate the functional networks subserving alertness, sustained attention, and vigilance as different aspects of attention intensity. The data suggest that a mostly right-hemisphere frontal, parietal, thalamic, and brainstem network plays an important role in the regulation of attention intensity, irrespective of stimulus modality. Under conditions of phasic alertness there is less right frontal activation reflecting a diminished need for top-down regulation with phasic extrinsic stimulation. Furthermore, a high overlap between the functional networks for alerting and spatial orienting of attention is demonstrated. These findings support the hypothesis of a co-activation of the posterior attention system involved in spatial orienting by the anterior alerting network. Possible implications of these findings for the therapy of neglect are proposed.

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Auswirkungen eines Aufmerksamkeitstrainings auf die aphasische Symptomatik bei Schlaganfallpatienten

Zeitschrift für Neuropsychologie ◽

10.1024/1016-264x/a000027 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 21-32 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Julia Graf ◽

Hartwig Kulke ◽

Christa Sous-Kulke ◽

Wilfried Schupp ◽

Stefan Lautenbacher

Keyword(s):

Top Down

Aufmerksamkeit kann als Kontrollsystem neuronaler Aktivität verstanden werden, welches Neuroplastizität top-down modulieren hilft. Bisher wurde selten versucht, durch deren gezielte Förderung Funktionswiederherstellungen nach Hirnschädigung zu begünstigen. In vorliegender Studie wurde dies am Beispiel der Aphasie erprobt. 15 Schlaganfallpatienten erhielten ein dreiwöchiges Training der selektiven Aufmerksamkeit mit den PC-Programmen CogniPlus und „Konzentration“ bei fünf Sitzungen pro Woche zusätzlich zur Standardtherapie, 13 weitere bildeten eine Kontrollgruppe ohne Aufmerksamkeitstraining. Zur Effektivitätskontrolle dienten zwei Versionen des Untertests Go/Nogo (Testbatterie zur Aufmerksamkeitsprüfung) und die Kurze Aphasieprüfung. Nach dem Training manifestierte sich zwischen den Untersuchungsgruppen kein Unterschied in Aufmerksamkeits- und Sprachfunktionen; das zusätzliche Aufmerksamkeitstraining war also wirkungslos. Allerdings zeigten Patienten mit deutlichen Aufmerksamkeitsverbesserungen tendenziell weniger Aphasie-Symptome, was die Hypothese aufmerksamkeitsvermittelter Plastizitätsmodulation nach Hirnschädigung partiell stützt.

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Aufmerksamkeitswechsel und Konzentration: Von den Funktionen zum Mechanismus

Zeitschrift für Psychologie / Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1026//0044-3409.209.1.34 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 209 (1) ◽

pp. 34-53 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rainer Bösel

Keyword(s):

Top Down ◽

Eeg Alpha

Zusammenfassung. Aufmerksamkeit wird sowohl als Selektivität in der bewußter Verarbeitung oder auch als selektive neuronale Aktivierung verstanden. Die neuronalen Strukturen, die Objektdiskrimination ermöglichen, erlauben eine Interaktion von datengetriebenen und endogenen top-down Prozessen, die zu einer selektiven Bereitstellung von Verarbeitungs-Ressourcen führen. Zielgerichtetes Verhalten erfordert manchmal einen Wechsel in der Ressourcen-Bereitstellung und eine Konzentration von mentaler Aktivität. Aufmerksamkeitswechsel kann als ein zweiphasiger Prozeß verstanden werden, der aus einer breiten Mobilisierung von Gedächtnis-Ressourcen besteht (angezeigt durch EEG-Theta), gefolgt von einer re-organisierenden Einengung neuronaler Aktivität (angezeigt durch langsames EEG-Alpha). Dieser Beitrag unterstützt die Annahme, daß die Analyse des gekoppelten Wechselspiels aus Mobilisierung und Konzentration in bestimmten Teilen der posterioren und anterioren Rindenregionen ein Schlüssel für das Verständnis von Aufmerksamkeitswechsel sein könnte.

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