Southern Illinois University Carbondale

About: Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a education organization based out in Carbondale, Illinois, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 13570 authors who have published 24819 publications receiving 667385 citations. The organization is also known as: SIU Carbondale & SIUC.

Prospective Long-Term Study of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for the Treatment of Refractory Seizures

Abstract: Summary: Purpose: To determine the long-term efficacy of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for refractory seizures. VNS is a new treatment for refractory epilepsy. Two short-term double-blind trials have demonstrated its safety and efficacy, and one long-term study in 114 patients has demonstrated a cumulative improvement in efficacy at 1 year. We report the largest prospective long-term study of VNS to date. Methods: Patients with six or more complex partial or generalized tonic-clonic seizures enrolled in the pivotal EOS study were prospectively evaluated for 12 months. The primary outcome variable was the percentage reduction in total seizure frequency at 3 and 12 months after completion of the acute EO5 trial, compared with the preimplantation baseline. Subjects originally randomized to low stimulation (active-control group) were crossed over to therapeutic stimulation settings for the first time. Subjects initially randomized to high settings were maintained on high settings throughout the 12-month study. Results: The median reduction at 12 months after completion of the initial double-blind study was 45%. At 12 months, 35% of 195 subjects had a >50% reduction in seizures, and 20% of 195 had a >75% reduction in seizures. Conclusions: The efficacy of VNS improves during 12 months, and many subjects sustain >75% reductions in seizures.

Content and Formal Schemata in ESL Reading

Abstract: This article reports the results of an experiment investigating the simultaneous effects on ESL reading comprehension of both culture-specific content schemata and formal schemata, as well as any potential interaction between them. In the study, high-intermediate ESL students read, recalled, and answered questions about each of two texts. For each of two groups of readers (students of Muslim and Catholic/Spanish backgrounds), one text had culturally familiar content, the other culturally unfamiliar content. Within each group, one half of the subjects read the texts in a familiar, well-organized rhetorical format, the other half read the texts in an unfamiliar, altered rhetorical format. Results showed the conditions expected to yield good reading comprehension (familiar content, familiar rhetorical form) did so. Similarly, the conditions expected to yield poor reading comprehension (unfamiliar content, unfamiliar rhetorical form) did so. More interestingly, the results for the “mixed” conditions (familiar content, unfamiliar rhetorical form; unfamiliar content, familiar rhetorical form) indicated that content schemata affected reading comprehension to a greater extent than formal schemata. Specific results are presented and discussed, as are limitations of the study and teaching implications.

SDMtoolbox 2.0: the next generation Python-based GIS toolkit for landscape genetic, biogeographic and species distribution model analyses.

Abstract: SDMtoolbox 2.0 is a software package for spatial studies of ecology, evolution, and genetics. The release of SDMtoolbox 2.0 allows researchers to use the most current ArcGIS software and MaxEnt software, and reduces the amount of time that would be spent developing common solutions. The central aim of this software is to automate complicated and repetitive spatial analyses in an intuitive graphical user interface. One core tenant facilitates careful parameterization of species distribution models (SDMs) to maximize each model's discriminatory ability and minimize overfitting. This includes carefully processing of occurrence data, environmental data, and model parameterization. This program directly interfaces with MaxEnt, one of the most powerful and widely used species distribution modeling software programs, although SDMtoolbox 2.0 is not limited to species distribution modeling or restricted to modeling in MaxEnt. Many of the SDM pre- and post-processing tools have 'universal' analogs for use with any modeling software. The current version contains a total of 79 scripts that harness the power of ArcGIS for macroecology, landscape genetics, and evolutionary studies. For example, these tools allow for biodiversity quantification (such as species richness or corrected weighted endemism), generation of least-cost paths and corridors among shared haplotypes, assessment of the significance of spatial randomizations, and enforcement of dispersal limitations of SDMs projected into future climates-to only name a few functions contained in SDMtoolbox 2.0. Lastly, dozens of generalized tools exists for batch processing and conversion of GIS data types or formats, which are broadly useful to any ArcMap user.