bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Constructing Planar C–N Bond-Linked Bi-Triazole High-Energy Explosives via the Formation of Salts
Authors: Wang Yu , Zheng Wanwan , Zhang Lingfeng , Ma Haixia , Zhang Yazhou , Guo Zhaoqi 
Published: April 2022

Abstract
Energy and safety are the two most concerning properties of energetic materials (EMs). Design and synthesis of planar molecules is considered to be an effective way to obtain high-energy low-sensitivity EMs. In this study, a new C–N bond-linked energetic bi-triazole compound, 3,4′,5-triamine-1,3′-bi(1,2,4-triazole) (1), and its nitrate (1a) and perchlorate salt (1b), as well as a nitrification product, 5-amino-3,4′-dinitramide-1,3′-bi(1,2,4-triazole) (2), and corresponding sodium (2a) and potassium salt (2b) were designed and synthesized. All compounds were fully characterized. The molecular structures of 1, 1a, 1b, 2a, and 2b were confirmed by single-crystal X-ray structure analyses. It was found that 1 exhibits non-planar loose molecular stacking, while 1a, 1b, and 2b exhibit compact face-to-face layered molecular packing structures, and salt 2a exhibits compact wave-like stacking. The physicochemical properties of all compounds, such as density, thermal stability, and mechanical sensitivity, were studied. 1, 1a, 1b, 2a, and 2b have low impact and friction sensitivity and good thermal stability. In addition, Hirshfeld surfaces (HS), independent gradient model (IGM) analyses combined with single-crystal analyses revealed intermolecular interactions in 1, 1a, 1b, 2a, and 2b and clarified the relationship between the structures and molecular properties. The sophisticated hydrogen bonds between the bi-triazole molecules and nitrate/perchlorate ions are the driving force of formation of planar structures. Detonation properties calculated with the professional software package EXPLO5 showed that nitrate 1a (D = 8872 m·s−1, P = 34.8 GPa) and perchlorate 1b (D = 8956 m·s−1, P = 35.1 GPa) exhibit good detonation performance.
Χρηματοδότηση των Ινστιτούτων Επαγγελματικής Κατάρτισης (Ι.Ε.Κ.). Η περίπτωση της Ελληνικής Βιοτεχνικής Εταιρείας - Διπλαρείου Σχολής.
Authors: Μπίτης Αθανάσιος Κωνσταντίνος 
Published: April 2022

Το παρόν άρθρο εντάσσεται στο πλαίσιο Χρηματοδότηση της Διά Βίου Μάθησης. Η Ελληνική Βιοτεχνική Εταιρεία - Διπλάρειος Σχολή από την ίδρυσή της το 1892, ως ιδιωτικός κοινωφελές μη κερδοσκοπικός οργανισμός που προσφέρει δωρεάν εκπαίδευση, εμφανίζει πολλές ιδιαιτερότητες, σε βαθμό που την καθιστούν μοναδική περίπτωση στον ελλαδικό χώρο. Εδώ και 126 χρόνια αποτελεί έναν σπουδαίο πυλώνα εκπαίδευσης και κατάρτισης με μεγάλη κοινωνική και οικονομική προσφορά. Με την παρούσα εργασία, «Χρηματοδότηση των Ινστιτούτων Επαγγελματικής Κατάρτισης (Ι.Ε.Κ.). Η περίπτωση της Ελληνικής Βιοτεχνικής Εταιρείας - Διπλαρείου Σχολής», εστιάζουμε την προσοχή μας στην χρηματοδότηση των Ινστιτούτων Επαγγελματικής Κατάρτισης (Ι.Ε.Κ.) για τη χώρα μας. Μεγάλη βαρύτητα δίνεται στην παρουσίαση και ανάλυση κόστους της εκπαίδευσης του Ι.Ε.Κ. της Ελληνικής Βιοτεχνικής Εταιρείας - Διπλαρείου Σχολής. Θέση του παρόντος άρθρου είναι ότι σε μια εποχή, με ιδιαίτερα κοινωνικοοικονομικά χαρακτηριστικά που αλλάζουν με γρήγορους ρυθμούς, καθίσταται αναγκαία η ανεύρεση νέων πόρων χρηματοδότησης για τη Δια βίου Μάθηση. Καλές πρακτικές όπως η περίπτωση της Ελληνικής Βιοτεχνικής Εταιρείας - Διπλαρείου Σχολής μπορούν να βοηθήσουν προς την κατεύθυνση αυτή.
Μετρώντας την Αποδοτικότητα των Δημόσιων Γυμνασίων των Περιφερειακών Ενοτήτων Φθιώτιδας, Ευρυτανίας & Φωκίδας, της Περιφέρειας Στερεάς Ελλάδας, κατά το Σχολικό Έτος 2015-16
Authors: Αργυρόπουλος Ηλίας , Αργυροπούλου Ευτυχία , Τσαμαδιάς Κωνσταντίνος 
Published: April 2022

Η εργασία μετρά την αποδοτικότητα, τεχνική και κλίμακας, των Δημόσιων Γυμνασίων των Περιφερειακών Ενοτήτων (ΠΕ), Ευρυτανίας, Φθιώτιδας και Φωκίδας της Περιφέρειας Στερεάς Ελλάδας, κατά το Σχολικό έτος 2015-16. Χρησιμοποιεί τη μέθοδο της Περιβάλλουσας Ανάλυσης Δεδομένων (ΠΑΔ/DEA), με προσανατολισμό στις εισροές, με 1 εισροή και 2 εκροές. Τα ευρήματα της εμπειρικής ανάλυσης αποκαλύπτουν ότι, για το χρησιμοποιούμενο συνδυασμό εισροών-εκροών: α. οι μέσες τιμές της αποδοτικότητας, τεχνικής και κλίμακας, του συνόλου των Γυμνασίων είναι χαμηλές. Αποκαλύπτουν σημαντική σπατάλη πόρων. β. οι μέσες τιμές των τεχνικών αποδοτικοτήτων των σχολικών μονάδων με σχετικά μεγάλο αριθμό μαθητών είναι μεγαλύτερες συγκριτικά με τις αντίστοιχες των σχετικά μικρού αριθμού μαθητών. Αποκαλύπτουν ότι οι δεύτερες να σπαταλούν περισσότερους πόρους. γ. Οι μέσες τιμές των τεχνικών αποδοτικοτήτων των Γυμνασίων με έδρα στις πρωτεύουσες των ΠΕ είναι μεγαλύτερες συγκριτικά με τις αντίστοιχες των υπολοίπων που έχουν έδρα σε άλλες περιοχές, με συνέπεια οι δεύτερες να σπαταλούν περισσότερους πόρους. Οι ίδιες διατάξεις ισχύουν και για τις αποδοτικότητες κλίμακας. Η οικονομετρική ανάλυση βεβαιώνει ότι το μέγεθος και η έδρα της σχολικής μονάδας, έχουν θετική και στατιστικώς σημαντική επίδραση στην τιμή της τεχνικής αποδοτικότητας, υπό την υπόθεση των μεταβλητών αποδόσεων κλίμακας. Τα ευρήματα δύνανται να αποβούν ωφέλιμα στους σχεδιαστές της αρχιτεκτονικής του συστήματος της κατώτερης-υποχρεωτικής Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης και στους λήπτες των αποφάσεων σχετικά με την κατανομή των πόρων.
Οι Νέες Τεχνολογίες (ΤΠΕ) στην Πρωτοβάθμια Εκπαίδευση: Η Περίπτωση των Δημοτικών Σχολείων της Π.Ε. Ευβοίας, στην Περιφέρεια της Στερεάς Ελλάδας
Authors: Τσιλέμου Ελένη Χ. 
Published: April 2022

Στο πλαίσιο διαμόρφωσης εθνικής εκπαιδευτικής πολιτικής, η ένταξη των Τεχνολογιών της Πληροφορίας και Επικοινωνίας (ΤΠΕ) στην εκπαίδευση αποτελούν ζήτημα υψηλής προτεραιότητας για πολλές χώρες, καθώς η αξιοποίησή τους αποτελεί μια περίπτωση εκπαιδευτικής καινοτομίας που δύναται να συμβάλλει ουσιαστικά, μεταξύ άλλων, στην τεχνολογική και οικονομική ανάπτυξη της χώρας. Ανάλογες προσπάθειες έχουν παρατηρηθεί τα τελευταία χρόνια και στην Ελλάδα και ιδιαίτερα, στην Πρωτοβάθμια εκπαίδευση. Οι προσπάθειες αυτές βασίστηκαν κυρίως, στην ανάγκη για βελτίωση της εκπαιδευτικής διαδικασίας, χωρίς ωστόσο να φέρουν τα αναμενόμενα αποτελέσματα, παρά τις αυξημένες δαπάνες που κατά καιρούς, έχουν γίνει προς αυτή την κατεύθυνση.Σκοπός της εργασίας είναι η αποτύπωση της υφιστάμενης κατάστασης στα Δημόσια Δημοτικά Σχολεία της Π.Ε. Εύβοιας, σχετικά με την υλικοτεχνική υποδομή και τον εξοπλισμό ΤΠΕ (Η/Υ και Πολυμέσα) που διαθέτουν και την αξιοποίησή τους.Η έρευνα χρησιμοποιεί την απογραφική μέθοδο, καθώς αφορά στο σύνολο των σχολικών μονάδων της Π.Ε. Εύβοιας (126 Δημοτικά Σχολεία) για το σχολικό έτος 2017-2018. Η εμπειρική ανάλυση γίνεται με «εργαλεία» της Περιγραφικής Στατιστικής.Τα κυριότερα ευρήματα που προέκυψαν αποκαλύπτουν ότι οι υποδομές ΤΠΕ είναι σχεδόν, υποτυπώδεις για τα περισσότερα σχολεία της Π.Ε. Εύβοιας, ο εξοπλισμός που διαθέτουν είναι μάλλον, «πτωχός» και η αξιοποίηση των ΤΠΕ κρίνεται «αναιμική», καθώς περιορίζεται στις απαιτήσεις του Αναλυτικού Προγράμματος (ΑΠ).
Δημόσιες επενδύσεις και οικονομική μεγέθυνση: η περίπτωση της Ελλάδας
Authors: Καραΐσκου Ελισάβετ , Πρόντζας Παναγιώτης , Καμενάκη Ραφαηλία 
Published: April 2022

Η παρούσα εργασία επιχειρεί να διερευνήσει το ρόλο των δημοσίων επενδύσεων στη διαδικασία της οικονομικής μεγέθυνσης, εστιάζοντας στην περίπτωση της Ελλάδας. Ειδικότερα, θα εξεταστεί εμπειρικά η σχέση των δημοσίων επενδύσεων με την οικονομική μεγέθυνση και θα εκτιμηθεί το μέγεθος της επιρροής αυτής συγκριτικά με την αντίστοιχη επίδραση των ιδιωτικών επενδύσεων και της κατανάλωσης. Η έρευνα βασίζεται σε δεδομένα που αφορούν βασικά μακροοικονομικά μεγέθη για την Ελλάδα κατά την περίοδο 2002-2017, ενώ στηρίζεται στην ανάπτυξη κατάλληλου οικονομετρικού υποδείγματος. Τα αποτελέσματα της ανάλυσης φανερώνουν την ύπαρξη μιας θετικής, στατιστικά σημαντικής αλλά περιορισμένης σχέσης μεταξύ δημοσίων επενδύσεων και οικονομικής μεγέθυνσης στην Ελλάδα κατά την υπό εξέταση περίοδο.
Analyzing Active Fund Managers’ Commitment to ESG: Evidence from the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment
Authors: Kim Soohun , Yoon Aaron 
Published: April 2022

The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) is the largest global environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiative in the asset-management industry to date. We analyze what happens after active U.S. mutual funds sign the PRI to assess whether they exhibit ESG implementation. We find that PRI signatories attract a large fund inflow, but we do not observe improvements in fund-level ESG scores or fund returns. We consider a battery of ways to proxy for funds’ ESG incorporation (e.g., entry/exit, screening, engagement, voting for pro-ESG proposals), but fail to observe evidence of meaningful on average follow-through. Next, we explore cross-sectional fund characteristics and find that only quant funds exhibit small improvements in ESG performance versus other funds, mainly through buying high-ESG-performing stocks. Furthermore, we note that signatories are not superior performers in ESG issues prior to joining the PRI relative to non-PRI funds, but PRI affiliation tends to be widely advertised on company websites, marketing materials, and fund documents. Overall, a reasonable reader may perceive our findings as consistent with PRI funds’ greenwashing. We note, however, that what we uncover is based only on outcome-based measures and may miss some actual efforts of signatories. This paper was accepted by Brian Bushee, accounting. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4394 .
Máquinas de guerra e precariedade: saúde mental de prostitutas em meio à pandemia do Novo Coronavírus.
Authors: Clarindo Adriely De Oliveira , Arenari Rafaela Werneck 
Published: April 2022

O cenário pandêmico deflagrou a importância dos cuidados em saúde mental da população em geral. No entanto, grupos de trabalhadoras sexuais colocam sob nossas vistas que a perpetuação e o adensamento da precariedade a que estão sujeitos certos grupos podem implicar na exacerbação de sofrimentos psíquicos já existentes. Observando que os debates sobre saúde para esta população direcionaram suas preocupações majoritariamente às infecções sexualmente transmissíveis, neste trabalho objetivamos evidenciar os contornos da pandemia e sua incidência sobre a saúde mental das trabalhadoras sexuais. Para isso, trazemos à cena uma disparadora narrativa de trabalhadoras sexuais que, no cenário pandêmico, não puderam cessar suas atividades. Além disso, problematizamos como as falhas nos processos formativos em psicologia quanto às questões de gênero e sexualidade podem gerar consequências nas práticas em psicologia e na saúde mental destas populações; e concluímos sugerindo posicionamentos éticos nas práticas profissionais diante daqueles grupos considerados desviantes.
The Importance of Periodontal Screening in Paediatric Patients
Authors: Oliver Rachel , Adeyemi AA , Lee SMG , Gallichan N 
Published: April 2022

Detecting dental caries may often be at the forefront of the clinician's mind when examining paediatric patients. However, a range of periodontal abnormalities can also present in the paediatric population. It is essential that this cohort is appropriately assessed for periodontal disease during each clinical examination. Detecting such abnormalities early may enable timely access to the appropriate treatment, which could in turn improve clinical outcomes. This article highlights the importance of screening paediatric patients using the simplified Basic Periodontal Examination as per recommended guidelines. CPD/Clinical Relevance: Vigilance is required when screening paediatric patients for periodontal conditions to enable early detection and disease management, which may in turn improve clinical outcomes.
Performance Characterization of 450 nm Visible Light Based Photoacoustic Imaging for Phantom Imaging of Synthetic Dye Contrast Agents
Authors: Nugraha Mahendra Kusuma , Wasono Moh. Ali Joko , Mitrayana Mitrayana 
Published: April 2022

<p class="AbstractText">Performance characterization of 450 nm visible light photoacoustic imaging has been carried out through phantom imaging of methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO), and methyl red (MR) dye solutions. The phantom was made of a nylon tube with a diameter of 5.0 mm (outside) and 4.6 mm (inside) having a height of 2.0 mm along with a 6×6 cm black galvanized aluminum plate as the background medium. The nylon tube was filled with each type of solution with varying molecular concentrations of 10, 25, 50 and 100 ppm. Twelve (12) phantom objects were imaged in an area of 10×10 cm. The visible absorption peak known from UV-Visible spectroscopy for each type of solution is at 664 nm (methylene blue), 465 nm (methyl orange), and 522 nm (methyl red). It was also known that the amplitude of PA emissions would increase proportionally to the concentration of dye molecules. Overall, methyl orange solutions had the highest photoacoustic emission amplitude distribution. The analysis showed that the ratio of inner diameter (ID) and wall thickness (WT) between the MB and MO phantom images to the original object were 1:0.83 and 1:0.74 (ID) and 1:3 and 1:1.5 (WT), respectively. On the other hand, the ratio of the outer diameter (OD) of the MR phantom image to the original object is 1:1.28. </p>
The Simulation of Covid-19 Droplet Transmission with Hamiltonian Monte Carlo Method
Authors: Delina Mutia , Majid Irsyad Tio , Fauzan Ahmad 
Published: April 2022

<p class="AbstractText">Corona Virus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted every sector in the world. This virus spread through the droplet and infected healthy people. The typical of virus transmission is through droplets from coughing and sneezing. This study developed a simulation to model a virus spread just after the infected was coughed or sneezed. In the simulation, humidity, wind velocity, and temperature were considered. The simulation was conducted with Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, where was set a random initial velocity and angle for every 200 droplets with 500 iterations of each. The transmission data was derived from three groups: the age of 15 to 30 years old, 31 to 50 years old, 51 to 68 years old. At the age of 12 to 30 years, the droplet range and height were 3.13 meters and -0.77 meters. At the age of 31 to 50 years old, the droplet range and height were 3.22 meters and -0.83 meters. At the age of 51 to 68, the droplets range and height were 2.82 meters and -0.58 meters. The highest droplet range was from the age of 31 to 50 years old. Therefore, the age of 31 to 50 years old or the productive age was considerable with the highest risk in the droplet transmission and virus spread. This study can be adopted to consider the effective prevention in controlling the virus outbreaks.</p>
Performance of Doped Montmorillonite on Photosensitizer Based Natural Dyes Gardenia Jasminoides
Authors: Mulijani Sri , Sutriah Komar , Syahbirin Gustini , Shabrina Shabrina 
Published: April 2022

<div><p>Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) is an electrochemical cell that is able to convert solar energy from light to electrical energy. This technology is needed by the world as a renewable and environment friendly energy. In this study, we evaluate the consideration of modification montmorillonite and <em>Gardenia jasminoides</em> dyes may achieve better performance of DSSC by manufactured DSSC with modified TiO<sub>2</sub> semiconductors using montmorillonite (MMT) and Nafion. Performance of DSSC was determined by potentiometer. Atomic force microscope was used to evaluate the characteristic of DSSC. The UV-vis results revealed that the dyes which is extracted from the <em>Gardenia jasminoides </em>content crocin and quercetin compounds. Modification DSSC contains ratio of MMT: nafion (50:50) exhibited highest power conversion efficiency value of 0.8316%. Topography of surface ensured the dyes have occupied surface area and able to promote electron to higher energy. However, MMT and nafion capable to enhance potential of dyes as photosensitizer in DSSC. </p></div>
Sintesis dan Karakterisasi Nanofiber Komposit PVA/SiO2 dari Silika Sekam Padi Menggunakan Metode Electrospinning
Authors: Firdaus Iqbal , Sembiring Simon , Junaidi Junaidi , Johandra Andrean , Rifansyah TB Ikhwan , Rahmadi Rizky Ponco , Putra Oki Ade 
Published: April 2022

<p class="AbstractText">Telah berhasil dibuat membrane separator yang berpotensi diaplikasikan untuk baterai lihitum-ion, membrane separator digunakan untuk proses transfer ion dan mencegah terjadinya arus pendek. Dalam penelitian ini membrane separator PVA/SiO<sub>2</sub> disintesis memggunakan metode <em>electrospinning</em> dengan variasi berat SiO<sub>2</sub> (0, 0.6, 1.2, 2) wt%. SiO<sub>2</sub> yang digunakan adalah hasil ekstraksi silika sekam padi. Pengaruh penambahan SiO<sub>2</sub> pada PVA untuk meningkatkan karakteristik membrane diantaranya porositas, dan stabilitas pada suhu tinggi. Hasil membrane yang berhasil dibuat PVA, dan PVA/SiO<sub>2</sub> membentuk serat nano dengan ukuran diameter serat semakin kecil ketika ditambahkan SiO<sub>2</sub> yaitu ~ 220 nm, ukuran diameter semakin kecil meningkatkan porositas membrane dan meningkatkan kinerja membrane dengan stabilitas suhu 165 <sup>o</sup>C</p>
Cascaded nanobeam spectrometer with high resolution and scalability
Authors: Zhang Jiahui , Cheng Ziwei , Dong Jianji , Zhang Xinliang 
Published: April 2022

An on-chip reconstruction spectrometer provides a powerful approach for miniaturized and portable applications. Owing to the cross-correlation and line shape of broadband responses, the reconstruction spectrometer exhibits limited resolution and a fixed bandwidth. Here we demonstrate a cascaded nanobeam spectrometer with assistance of a reconstruction algorithm. The transmissions of tunable Fano-enhanced nanobeams (FENs) are of good orthogonality and have improved quality factors. We retrieved a narrowband signal of 0.16 nm linewidth and a dual peak at 0.32 nm distance for resolution characterization. This result breaks the limit of the full width at half maximum for narrowband filter spectrometers. An expanded bandwidth is realized by a three-channel cascaded device, and signal spectra in the 16 nm range are reconstructed successfully. Each FEN unit has an ultra-compact footprint of

18

×

18

µ

m

2

. In view of the improved performance and flexibility, our concept is an ideal candidate for precise and miniaturized applications.
CHAPAO: Likelihood and hierarchical reference-based representation of biomolecular sequences and applications to compressing multiple sequence alignments
Authors: Rahman Md Ashiqur , Tutul Abdullah Aman , Abdullah Sifat Muhammad , Bayzid Md. Shamsuzzoha 
Published: April 2022

BackgroundHigh-throughput experimental technologies are generating tremendous amounts of genomic data, offering valuable resources to answer important questions and extract biological insights. Storing this sheer amount of genomic data has become a major concern in bioinformatics. General purpose compression techniques (e.g. gzip, bzip2, 7-zip) are being widely used due to their pervasiveness and relatively good speed. However, they are not customized for genomic data and may fail to leverage special characteristics and redundancy of the biomolecular sequences.ResultsWe present a new lossless compression method CHAPAO (COmpressingAlignments usingHierarchical andProbabilisticApproach), which is especially designed for multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) of biomolecular data and offers very good compression gain. We have introduced a novel hierarchical referencing technique to represent biomolecular sequences which combines likelihood based analyses of the sequence similarities and graph theoretic algorithms. We performed an extensive evaluation study using a collection of real biological data from the avian phylogenomics project, 1000 plants project (1KP), and 16S and 23S rRNA datasets. We report the performance of CHAPAO in comparison with general purpose compression techniques as well as with MFCompress and Nucleotide Archival Format (NAF)—two of the best known methods especially designed for FASTA files. Experimental results suggest that CHAPAO offers significant improvements in compression gain over most other alternative methods. CHAPAO is freely available as an open source software athttps://github.com/ashiq24/CHAPAO.ConclusionCHAPAO advances the state-of-the-art in compression algorithms and represents a potential alternative to the general purpose compression techniques as well as to the existing specialized compression techniques for biomolecular sequences.
Elevated baseline circulating platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and survival in initial stage Ⅳ gastric cancer patients: A meta-analysis
Authors: Hu Guoming , Wang Shimin , Wang Songxiang , Huang Liming 
Published: April 2022

Background
Systemic inflammatory response (SIR) plays important roles in initiation, promotion and progression of tumor. However, the prognostic role of baseline circulating platelet–to–lymphocyte ratio (PLR) (known as a marker of SIR) in human initial stage Ⅳ gastric cancer (GC) remains controversial. Hence, we performed this meta-analysis to assess the value of it in prognosis prediction for these patients.

Materials and methods
We searched PubMed, Embase and EBSCO to identify the studies and computed extracted data with STATA 12.0.

Results
A total of 3025 patients with initial stage Ⅳ GC from 13 published studies were incorporated into this meta-analysis. We found that elevated baseline circulating PLR was significantly associated with decreased overall survival (OS), but not with progression–free survival (PFS) in stage Ⅳ GC patients. However, in stratified analyses, high PLR was only associated with worse 1-year and 2-year OS, but not with 3-year or 4-year OS; In addition, it was considerably related with reduced 6-month PFS, but not with 1-year or 2-year PFS. Moreover, high PLR markedly correlated with peritoneal metastasis of GC.

Conclusion
Elevated baseline circulating PLR decreased 1-year OS and 6-month PFS in initial stage Ⅳ GC patients, implicating that it is a valuable prognostic index for these patients and modifying the inflammatory responses may have a potential for effective treatment.
Prominent gamma band activity during visual motion perception in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease
Authors: Naito Nobushige , Hirosawa Tetsu , Tsubomoto Makoto , Miyagishi Yoshiaki , Kikuchi Mitsuru 
Published: April 2022

Introduction
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects multiple neural pathways and regions, resulting in various visual impairments such as motion perception. Generally, gamma-band activities during visual motion perception have been thought to reflect ongoing cognitive processes. Nevertheless, few studies have specifically examined induced gamma band activity during visual motion perception in AD patients. Therefore, after performing magnetoencephalography (MEG) recording during apparent motion (AM) stimulation for the left hemi-visual field in patients diagnosed as having AD in the early stage, we compared the results with findings of cognitive performance.

Methods
Seventeen AD patients in the early stage and 17 controls matched for age, sex, and educational attainment participated in this study. For each participant, memory performance was assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R). For MEG analysis, we examined power changes induced in a higher frequency range (20–100 Hz) after AM stimuli.

Results
The power of induced gamma band activities was significantly higher in AD patients. The power of induced gamma band activities was associated with higher performance on both MMSE and WMS-R tests for attention and concentration in AD patients.

Conclusions
Given that neuronal dysfunction in AD is associated with excitotoxic neurodegeneration, and given that subsequent development of compensatory inhibitory mechanisms also contributes to pathology in AD patients, elevated gamma band oscillations might reflect an imbalance of inhibitory and excitatory activity in AD patients. Moreover, positive correlation between induced gamma activity and cognitive performance might signify a compensating mechanism of inhibitory neurons which preserve the pyramidal neuron from excitotoxicity in a posterior association area.