Longer Response Times Research Articles

Mechanism of phosphorus mobility in sediments with larval (Propsilocerus akamusi) bioturbation.

The effects of chironomid larval (Propsilocerus akamusi) bioturbation on sediment phosphorus (P) mobility were studied over the course of 34days using the indoor larval cultivation method on in situ sediment cores. High-resolution dialysis (HR-Peeper) and diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) techniques were used to record fine-scale changes of soluble and DGT-labile P and iron (Fe) concentrations in the sediment. The larval-driven irrigation of the overlying water into their burrows significantly increased the oxygen penetration depth (OPD) and redox state (Eh) in sediments. In addition, the soluble and DGT-labile P and Fe decreased with the increase of OPD and Eh in larval-bioturbated sediments. The greatest decrease in the mean concentration of SRP, soluble Fe, and DGT-labile P in the Propsilocerus group was observed on Day 15 of the experiment, with a decrease by over half of the mean concentration of the control group. Furthermore, two-dimensional measurements of DGT-labile P concentration showed notable reductions of DGT-labile P around larval burrows. The DGT-induced fluxes in sediments (DIFS) model also exhibited a much longer response time (420s) and a much higher rate of P adsorption (0.002s-1) in the bioturbation sediments than those in the control sediments (116s and 0.009s-1, respectively). A significant correlation was shown for DGT-labile P and DGT-labile Fe. We conclude that Fe(II) oxidation and its enhanced adsorption were the major mechanisms responsible for the decrease of soluble and DGT-labile P in sediments.

Caudate Volume Mediates the Interaction between Total Sleep Time and Executive Function after Acute Exercise in Healthy Older Adults.

Although both exercise and sleep are significant lifestyle factors in cognitive aging, the interaction of these two factors with respect to cognition remains to be determined. Also, little is known regarding the role of the basal ganglia (BG) in cognitive aging despite its involvement in both sleep and executive function. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the interaction between sleep and acute exercise on executive function performance, and secondarily, to assess if BG volume mediates this interaction. Thirty healthy older adults (65.8±7.3 years) completed 30 minutes of seated rest or moderate-intensity cycling exercise on different days. Structural MRI was used to assess the volumes of BG components including caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus shortly after the experimental conditions. Approximately 90 minutes after each condition, the Stroop task was administered to measure executive function. To examine sleep, participants wore a wrist actigraph for 8.0±3.6 days prior to the first experimental session. Results revealed that while longer total sleep time (TST) was associated with shorter Stroop response time (RT), shorter TST was associated with longer RT after exercise, compared to rest, for both congruent (p = 0.029) and incongruent (p = 0.022) trials. Longer TST was correlated with greater caudate volume, and greater caudate volume was associated with exercise-related improvement in Stroop incongruent RT. Ultimately, we found that the association between longer sleep duration and faster processing speed after acute exercise was mediated by greater caudate volume. These findings suggest that TST is an important factor for acute exercise-induced cognitive improvements in older adults, and that our study is a first step in understanding the interactive effects of these important lifestyle factors in cognitive aging that might simultaneously be addressed to promote healthy cognitive aging. Future studies should examine the interactive effects of sleep and chronic exercise on cognitive function, and whether BG volume might also mediate this interaction.

Analysis and Optimization design of the column bus parasitic effects on large-array CMOS image sensor

This paper analyzes the impact of column bus parasitic parameters on the output noise and response speed of the pixel signal in large-array CMOS image sensor (CIS), and the optimized column bus design scheme has been obtained. By building the mathematical model of the column bus, the relationship between output noise, response speed and the size of the column bus is revealed, and the influence of the column bus size on the sensor is evaluated by system impact factor (SIF). In 110 ​nm CMOS process and a 12.45 ​cm ​(H) ​× ​12.45 ​cm ​(V) pixel array, the double-ended readout architecture is utilized for output noise and response time analysis. Average output noise (146 ​μV) and response time (6.35 ​μs) are attained at column bus width of 0.5 ​μm. The experimental results show that for a given pixel array, the increase of the column bus width will cause output noise reduction and a longer response time. In the chip design, the column bus size could be optimized according to the relationship between output noise, response speed and pixel array size given in the paper.

Electrochromic materials based on novel polymers containing triphenylamine units and benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole units

Six novel electrochromic (EC) polymers containing triphenylamine units and benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (BTD) units, coded as TPABTA, TPABTD, TPABTD-a, TPABTD-b, TPABTD-c and TPABTD-d, were successfully synthesized through polymer condensation reaction and their electrochromic properties were characterized in detail. The films of these polymers exhibited reversible color changes, high optical transparency, good solubility in many organic solvents and good coloration efficiency. Among them, the TPABTD-b film showed a set of reasonable electrochromic features, including high coloration efficiency (270 cm2·C-1), appropriate transmittance change (23 % at 849 nm) and a relatively longer response time in bleaching process (tb = 3.7 s).

Speech intelligibility and listening effort in university classrooms for native and non-native Italian listeners

Listening effort describes the allocation of attentional and cognitive resources for successful listening. In adverse conditions, the mental demands for listening increase, interfering with other cognitive functions. This is especially relevant in learning spaces, where complex tasks that recruit more cognitive resources (e.g. memorization of information and comprehension) are performed by the students. This study focuses on the case of university classrooms and investigates the effects of different types of masking noise on both speech intelligibility and listening effort. Speech-in-noise tests in the Italian language were presented to 25 young adults with normal hearing (13 native and 12 non-native listeners) within an existing university classroom located in Bozen-Bolzano (Italy). The tests were presented in three listening conditions (quiet, stationary noise, and fluctuating noise), grouping the listeners around two locations within the classroom. The task performance was assessed using both speech intelligibility and two proxy measures of listening effort: response time and subjective ratings of effort. Longer response times and higher subjective ratings were taken to reflect increased listening effort. Results in noisy conditions were compared to the quiet condition. A disadvantage in task accuracy performance was found for non-native compared to native listeners; concerning response time, it was found that when the target signal is masked by a fluctuating noise, additional processing time is requested to non-native listeners compared to their native peers. The interaction was not pointed out by subjective ratings, supporting the hypothesis of a different sensitivity to listening conditions of the two proxy measures of listening effort.

Comprehension of social-legal exchanges in adults with and without traumatic brain injury.

To characterize comprehension of conditional social-legal rules and broader social reasoning in adults with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI). Participants were 20 adults with moderate-to-severe TBI (11 women) and 21 adults without TBI (13 women), ages 24 to 64 years. Participants completed the Wason task, a test of logical reasoning of conditional rules comprising precautionary rules, social-exchange rules, and legal social-exchange rules. Dependent variables were response accuracy and response time. Across rule categories, TBI group participants were significantly less accurate, F(1, 39) = 9.03, p < .01, semipartial R2 = 0.18, and slower, F(1, 39) = 7.32, p < .01, semipartial R2 = 0.16, than comparison peers. Rule category had no effect on accuracy, but for both groups legal social-exchange rules were associated with longer response times, F(1, 78) = 9.82, p < .01, semipartial R2 = 0.11. Processing speed test scores correlated with accuracy, F(1, 37) = 4.62, p < .05, semipartial R2 = 0.11, and response times, F(1, 78) = 4.45, p < .05, semipartial R2 = 0.14, in both groups. Adults with TBI underperformed their uninjured peers in both accuracy and speed of comprehending on precautionary rules, social-exchange rules, and legal social-exchange rules. These differences were attributable in part to differences in processing speed both within and between groups. Results highlight the potential costs of TBI-related cognitive problems in social-legal contexts, suggest the need to better accommodate individuals with TBI who are already involved in legal systems, and identify cognitive mechanisms for future study of social-legal rule comprehension in TBI and other populations with cognitive impairments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

A surface-based code contributes to visual shape perception.

Considerable uncertainty remains regarding the types of features human vision uses for shape representation. Visual-search experiments are reported which assessed the hypothesis of a surface-based (i.e., edge-bounded polygons) code for shape representation in human vision. The results indicate slower search rates and/or longer response times when the target shape shares its constituent surfaces with distractors (conjunction condition) than when the target surfaces are unique in the display (nonconjunction condition). This demonstration is made using test conditions that strictly control any potential artifact pertaining to target-distractor similarity. The surface-based code suggested by this surface-conjunction effect is strictly 2-D, since the effect occurs even when the surfaces are shared between the target and distractors in the 2-D image but not in their 3-D instantiation. Congruently, this latter finding is unaltered by manipulations of the richness of the depth information offered by the stimuli. It is proposed that human vision uses a 2-D surface-based code for shape representation which, considering other key findings in the field, probably coexists with an alternative representation mode based on a type of structural description that can integrate information pertaining to the 3-D aspect of shapes.

Timestamp Representative of Weather Radar Images in the Cockpit

ABSTRACTObjective: The experiment reported here evaluated what a type of timestamp is an easy way for pilots to perceive and quickly assess the length of delay in NEXRAD mosaic radar images.Background: Data-linked mosaic NEXRAD images can be more than 14 min delayed by the time they reach the cockpit for use by pilots. The NTSB issued a safety alert to warn that the NEXRAD “age indicator” can be misleading. Unfortunately, research has indicated that pilots may not be fully aware of the delay and that it can adversely affect their decision-making and performance.Method: The three types of timestamps were “direct age”, “clock”, and “UTC” with three levels of time delay (short, medium, and long). Twenty-one participants read and compared two radar images, via timestamps, to determine the length of delay and which one was more recent.Results: The results indicated that the type of timestamp and the length of time delay significantly affected participants’ response time and accuracy. “UTC” timestamp with a long-time delay was associated with the longest response time and low accuracy. The “direct age” timestamp led to the highest accuracy and shortest response time for all manipulated levels of time delay.Conclusion: Although “UTC” format is commonly used in many weather products, we found the “direct age” format to be the superior method to support perceptions of time delay.

Anemias hemolíticas autoinmunes: estudio retrospectivo de 93 pacientes

IntroductionAutoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA) is an infrequent and heterogeneous disease in its pathophysiology and clinical behaviour, therefore it is generally managed empirically. Patients and methodsWe conducted an observational, retrospective and multicentre study of 93 patients diagnosed with AHAI in 9 Spanish hospitals between 1987 and 2017, with a median follow-up of 28 months. ResultsMedian age of 67 years; 85% AHAI for hot antibodies and 64% primary AHAI. The lowest haemoglobin values at diagnosis related to patients under 45 years of age and serological type IgG+C. Of the patients, 92% received first line treatment, 54% second line, and 27% third line. The warm AHAI were treated in first line with steroids, with overall responses of 83% and complete of 58%. Rituximab in monotherapy or in association with steroids was administered to 34 patients with overall responses close to 100% (complete responses 40-60%), relegating splenectomy to the third line. The immunosuppressive treatment was administered in patients with autoimmune diseases or in corticoid-dependent patients. DiscussionWe found high rates of response to steroids, with very prolonged treatments that cause side effects and corticoid dependence in a third of patients. The combination of steroids with rituximab in the first line, could be indicated in patients with low levels of haemoglobin and serological type IgG+C. The high relapse rates make necessary the development of randomised studies with new drugs or the combination with existing ones, which allow longer response times and with fewer side effects.

Lack of conflict during food choice is associated with the failure of restrained eating

Restrained eaters tend to sustain a restriction in caloric intake to lose or maintain body weight; however, only a few restrained eaters can achieve the goal of restricting their caloric intake to lose or maintain body weight. Those who are effective restrained eaters habitually adhere to their intentions to avoid eating certain palatable foods, whereas those who are ineffective restrained eaters are generally unable to translate their intentions into behavior. To restrain eating regardless of temptation, an individual must first identify potential conflicts between achieving restrained eating and temptation to eat. Regarding food selections, the association between a lack of conflict between temptation, eating enjoyment, and weight loss or maintenance goals and the failure of restriction of caloric intake remains unknown. The present study used an eye-tracking technique to assess the degree of conflict experienced by effective and ineffective restrained eaters during food choice. Participants were required to choose between pairs of high- and low-calorie foods. The results showed that choosing the low-calorie food was associated with the experience of more conflict, measured by longer response times and more gaze switches, than choosing the high-calorie food. Ineffective restrained eaters experienced less conflict, exhibiting shorter response times and fewer gaze switches, than did effective restrained eaters, which suggests that a failure to restrain eating might be associated with a lack of experience of conflict.

Influence of collateral circulation on cerebral blood flow and frontal lobe cognitive function in patients with severe internal carotid artery stenosis

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the cerebral blood flow (CBF) and frontal lobe cognitive function in severe internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis patients with different types of collateral circulation.MethodsOne hundred twenty-six patients with severe unilateral ICA stenosis were enrolled. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) was performed to recruit patients with one of three common types of collateral circulation: anterior communicating artery (AcoA), posterior communicating artery (PcoA) and ophthalmic artery (OA). The hemodynamic parameters of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) were measured using transcranial Doppler (TCD), and the individual frontal lobe cognitive attention functions were evaluated using Word Fluency Test, Trail-Making Test (TMT), Digit Span, and Stroop Color Word Test (SCWT). The correlation between hemodynamic changes and the scores of all tasks was analyzed.ResultsOn the side of arterial stenosis, the CBF velocities were highest in AcoA group and lowest in the OA group. All patients performed worse in TMT and Digit Span than the matched normal controls. The AcoA group exhibited a lower pulsatility index (PI) and a longer response time in the Stroop task, but had a higher accuracy rate in the Stroop task and higher scores in Word Fluency Test than the PcoA and OA groups. In all the three groups, PI was positively correlated with the accuracy rate for Stroop interference effects.ConclusionsOur findings suggested that the frontal lobe cognitive function of patients with ICA was impaired, and AcoA collaterals may be beneficial for selective attention functions, whereas OA collaterals may be associated with impairment of selective attention functions. Additionally, a high PI may be an indicator for identifying impaired selective attention in patients with severe ICA stenosis.

Designing Animated Transitions to Convey Aggregate Operations

AbstractData can be aggregated in many ways before being visualized in charts, profoundly affecting what a chart conveys. Despite this importance, the type of aggregation is often communicated only via axis titles. In this paper, we investigate the use of animation to disambiguate different types of aggregation and communicate the meaning of aggregate operations. We present design rationales for animated transitions depicting aggregate operations and present the results of an experiment assessing the impact of these different transitions on identification tasks. We find that judiciously staged animated transitions can improve subjects' accuracy at identifying the aggregation performed, though sometimes with longer response times than with static transitions. Through an analysis of participants' rankings and qualitative responses, we find a consistent preference for animation over static transitions and highlight visual features subjects report relying on to make their judgments. We conclude by extending our animation designs to more complex charts of aggregated data such as box plots and bootstrapped confidence intervals.

Attention, response inhibition and brain event-related potential alterations in adults with beta-thalassaemia major.

We investigated neural correlates of cognitive function in adults with beta thalassaemia major (β-TM) compared to healthy controls using scalp-recorded event-related potentials (ERPs). Event-related potential studies in the field of β-TM are scarce and mostly limited to children. A stop-signal task was used to evaluate indices of attention and response inhibition function, considered to be the hallmark of executive control. Correlations between task performance, ERPs and haemoglobin were also examined. Results showed impaired cognitive performance in β-TM patients, as indicated by longer response times than controls. Haemoglobin was negatively correlated with response times to Go stimuli. Electrophysiological results indicated significant β-TM-related alterations in neuronal activity, reflected in greater peak amplitudes of several task-related ERP components. A possible interpretation of these ERP results is that β-TM patients need to recruit additional brain resources when dealing with cognitive challenge. Significant correlations were found between levels of haemoglobin and amplitude of all ERP components; the lower the haemoglobin, the more pronounced the ERPs amplitude. The present study represents a novel investigation of cognitive function and related brain dynamics in β-TM in adult. Integrating neuropsychological assessment and interventions into traditional disease management, may be imperative in achieving a better quality of life for these patients.

Statistical Analysis of Fire Department Response Times and Effects on Fire Outcomes in the United States

Understanding the relationship between fire department response times and fire outcomes is critical for understanding the impact of a fire department in a community . This paper outlines a statistical analysis of United States fire department response times to fires in 1–2 family residential dwellings between the years 2002–2017. Using data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), it is shown that a log-normal distribution provides a reasonable approximation of the empirical distribution of response times. Furthermore, this paper investigates the effect of increasing response times on several different measures of fire severity, including the reported fire spread category, the estimated monetary property and contents losses, and the reported flame damage. It was found that all averaged measures of fire severity increase over the interval of 3–13 min of response time, which is primarily due to the increased likelihood of very severe fire incidents at longer response times. An analysis was conducted to assess the effect of meeting the first unit response time benchmarks outlined in NFPA 1710 on the severity of fire outcomes in a community. It was found that department response times were most strongly correlated with the fraction of fires that do “extreme” damage to at least one story and the fraction of the property value lost. It has been proposed that a power law distribution is appropriate for modeling the distribution the burned areas in urban fires. In order to assess whether this proposition is supported by United States data, a Monte-Carlo methodology has been developed to estimate the burned area indirectly from NFIRS data. Finally, several methods are presented for evaluating data consistency and quality from the NFIRS reports. One of the major findings of this study is the quantification of the effect of response time on various measures of fire loss.

Reversible photochromic tetraphenylethene-based Schiff base: Design, synthesis, crystal structure and applications as visible light driven rewritable paper and UV sensor

“Paper” plays an important role in the development and spread of civilization. However, massive use of paper has led to nonnegligible negative influence on environment. Recently, great progresses have been made in the fields of rewritable paper that has enormous potential in alleviating the increasing demand for paper. Therefore, we report a new photochromic tetraphenylethene-based Schiff base derivative 2-ethoxy-6-(((4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl)imino)-methyl)phenol (TPENOEt). TPENOEt exhibits reversible photochromic behavior, fast response, simple synthetic step, lower cost and excellent fatigue resistance. The bleaching rate of TPENOEt is tunable by longer wavelength light, white light irradiation and elevated temperature. The fluorescence of TPENOEt is weak in solid state, which increases obviously after grinding with a pestle accompanied by reduced photochromic efficiency and longer response time. These results provide a new view to get insight into the relationship between packing style and fluorescence/photochromism property of Schiff base derivatives. TPENOEt is successfully applied as a visible light driven rewritable paper, 410 nm violet light can serve as a pen, while 420–590 nm visible light and white light is employed as the eraser. The recorded information will be erased in about 15 s after white light irradiation and will be self-erased in 20 min in daylight and in about 15 days in dark. Moreover, TPENOEt can also serve as a UV strength sensor for naked eye detection of UV radiation pollution.

Postnatal intervention for the treatment of FNAIT: a systematic review.

Fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (FNAIT) is associated with life-threatening bleeding. This systematic review of postnatal management of FNAIT examined transfusion of human platelet antigen (HPA) selected or unselected platelets, and/or IVIg on platelet increments, hemorrhage and mortality. MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane searches were conducted until 11 May 2018. Of 754 neonates, 382 received platelet transfusions (51%). HPA-selected platelets resulted in higher platelet increments and longer response times than HPA-unselected platelets. However, unselected platelets generally led to sufficient platelet increments to 30 × 109/L, a level above which intracranial hemorrhage or other life-threatening bleeding rarely occurred. Platelet increments were not improved with the addition of IVIg to platelet transfusion. Overall, HPA-selected platelet transfusions were more effective than HPA-unselected platelets but unselected platelets were often effective enough to achieve clinical goals. Available studies do not clearly demonstrate a benefit for addition of IVIg to platelet transfusion.

Effects of valence and arousal on affective priming vary with the degree of affective experience denoted by words

We investigated whether the effect of the valence and arousal of less or more affective experiential words on affective priming using event-related potentials (ERPs). The stimuli included less affective experiential (LE) words (Experiment 1) and more affective experiential (ME) words (Experiment 2) that were organized in an orthogonal design, with valence (positive and negative) and arousal (low and high) as factors in a lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, the results revealed no obvious effect of affective priming on response times (RTs) or ERPs for LE words. In Experiment 2, affective priming effects of ME words were influenced interactively by valence and arousal. Specifically, for positive ME words with high- and low-arousal, affectively incongruent trials were associated with longer RTs and enhanced late positive components (LPCs, 430–700 ms) compared with congruent trials (a positive effect). For negative ME words with low-arousal, no significant differences in RTs or LPC amplitudes were found between affectively congruent and incongruent trials (a null effect), whereas for negative ME words with high-arousal, the processing of congruent trials was associated with longer RTs and enhanced LPC amplitudes over that of incongruent trials (a reversal effect). On the one hand, our findings suggest that LE and ME words as primes produce different effects on the processing of subsequently presented targets. On the other hand, our findings further indicate that there seems to have a continuous transition from the spreading activation of ME words to an inhibition process in semantic memory along with their valence and arousal, which is involved in decision-making processes and memory-related stages.

Who can spot an online romance scam?

Purpose This paper aims to examine predictors (personality, belief systems, expertise and response time) of detecting online romance scams. Design/methodology/approach The online study asked 261 participants to rate whether a profile was a scam or a genuine profile. Participants were also asked to complete a personality inventory, belief scales and demographic, descriptive questions. The online study was also designed to measure response time. Findings It was found that those who scored low in romantic beliefs, high in impulsivity, high in consideration of future consequences, had previously spotted a romance scam and took longer response times were more likely to accurately distinguish scams from genuine profiles. Notably, the research also found that it was difficult to detect scams. The research also found that it was important to adapt Whitty’s (2013) “Scammers Persuasive Techniques Model” to include a stage named: “human detection of scam versus genuine profiles”. Originality/value This is the first study, to the author’s knowledge, that examines predictors of human accuracy in detecting romance scams. Dating sites and government e-safety sites might draw upon these findings to help improve human detection and protect users from this financial and psychologically harmful cyberscam.

Trajectory Tracking and Control Algorithm for Precision Parallel Robot

When the state of the robot reaches the smooth sliding plane, the current algorithm will generate high-frequency chattering, resulting in larger tracking error and longer response time. To solve these problems, we have proposed a trajectory tracking and control algorithm based on exponential reaching rate. The coordinate system of parallel robot system is established, and the kinetic energy and potential energy of the system are calculated. The results are brought into the Lagarnge equation to find the dynamic model of the system. The power amplifier, electro-hydraulic servo valve, hydraulic cylinder and its load are taken as generalized controlled objects, and the hydraulic servo system model is established. The exponential approaching rate is introduced to design the dynamics model and the trajectory tracking sliding controller of the hydraulic servo system model. By adjusting the upper and lower bounds of the external disturbance of the controller, the control rate is changed, the buffeting occurrence is reduced, and the response time is shortened, to realize the low error tracking of any trajectory of the robot. The experimental results show that the trajectory of the robot can be adjusted quickly and the desired trajectory is better tracked by the end.

Smart hospital emergency system

In recent years, the UK’s emergency call and response has shown elements of great strain as of today. The strain on emergency call systems estimated by a 9 million calls (including both landline and mobile) made in 2014 alone. Coupled with an increasing population and cuts in government funding, this has resulted in lower percentages of emergency response vehicles at hand and longer response times. In this paper, we highlight the main challenges of emergency services and overview of previous solutions. In addition, we propose a new system call Smart Hospital Emergency System (SHES). The main aim of SHES is to save lives through improving communications between patient and emergency services. Utilising the latest of technologies and algorithms within SHES is aiming to increase emergency communication throughput, while reducing emergency call systems issues and making the process of emergency response more efficient. Utilising health data held within a personal smartphone, and internal tracked data (GPU, Accelerometer, Gyroscope etc.), SHES aims to process the mentioned data efficiently, and securely, through automatic communications with emergency services, ultimately reducing communication bottlenecks. Live video-streaming through real-time video communication protocols is also a focus of SHES to improve initial communications between emergency services and patients. A prototype of this system has been developed. The system has been evaluated by a preliminary usability, reliability, and communication performance study.