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Biomedical subjects

I Pundt

Publications and source records attributed to I Pundt.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

An indoor test campaign of the tomography long path differential optical absorption spectroscopy technique.

In this study we validate the two-dimensional long path DOAS tomography measurement technique by means of an indoor experiment with well-known concentration distributions. The experiment was conducted over an area of 10 m x 15 m using one and two cylindrical polycarbonate containers of diameter 2 m, respectively, filled with NO2. The setup was realized with three of the multibeam instruments recently developed by Pundt and Mettendorf (Appl. Opt., 2005, in press), which allow the simultaneous measurement along at least four light paths each. The configuration consisted of twelve simultaneous light beams, 39 horizontal light paths in total, and 18 different cylinder positions inside the field. It was found that for the discretization and inversion technique shown here reconstructions of the concentration distributions from experimental data agree well with simulated reconstructions. In order to draw conclusions for atmospheric applications, numerical studies including instrumental errors were carried out. It was found that with the presented measurement setup it is possible to measure and reconstruct one or two NO2 plumes of 600 m diameter and average concentrations above 4.2 ppbv each, on a scale of 13.5 km2. Theoretical investigations show that it should be possible to localize and quantify 600 m diameter plumes of SO2 > 1.5 ppbv, H2CO > 6.3 ppbv, HONO > 3.2 ppbv, and ozone > 46.2 ppbv. Larger plumes can be measured with higher precision.

Air Pollution, Indoor↗

Disgust implicated in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Psychiatric classificatory systems consider obsessions and compulsions as forms of anxiety disorder. However, the neurology of diseases associated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms suggests the involvement of fronto-striatal regions likely to be involved in the mediation of the emotion of disgust, suggesting that dysfunctions of disgust should be considered alongside anxiety in the pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive behaviours. We therefore tested recognition of facial expressions of basic emotions (including disgust) by groups of participants with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and with Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome (GTS) with an without co-present obsessive-compulsive behaviours (GTS with OCB; GTS without OCB). A group of people suffering from panic disorder and generalized anxiety were also included in the study. Both groups with obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCD; GTS with OCB) showed impaired recognition of facial expressions of disgust. Such problems were not evident in participants with panic disorder and generalized anxiety, or for participants with GTS without obsessions or compulsions, indicating that the deficit is closely related to the presence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Participants with OCD were able to assign words to emotion categories without difficulty, showing that their problem with disgust is linked to a failure to recognize this emotion in others and not a comprehension or response criterion effect. Impaired recognition of disgust is consistent with the neurology of OCD and with the idea that abnormal experience of disgust may be involved in the genesis of obsessions and compulsions.

Adult↗