Memory Awareness Research Articles

Welfare Issues on Israeli Dairy Farms: Attitudes and Awareness of Farm Workers and Veterinary Practitioners.

Simple SummaryAnimal welfare science embraces all factors that might affect the physical and emotional state of the animal, its ability to cope, and its overall quality of life. In recent years, awareness of farm animal welfare has increased among veterinary practitioners—a major professional figure influencing a farm’s routine, farm workers, consumers, and the general public. In particular, the farm worker’s knowledge of animal welfare is an essential component of the rearing system. The aim of this study was to examine attitudes toward and awareness of select animal welfare issues among farm workers and practitioners. A survey was performed based on anonymous questionnaires filled out by dairy farm workers and veterinary practitioners. The results demonstrated that farm workers’ enjoyment of their work is of great importance, as is their cows’ welfare. The survey showed the farm workers’ awareness of their influence on the cow during milking, the effects of stress on milk production, and the possible effect of human behavior on heifers and cows. The main areas where animal welfare might be improved were farmers’ awareness of learning, memory, and pain masking in cattle, and knowledge transfer from veterinary practitioners to the farm workers. The survey answers further emphasized the crucial importance of communication and understanding between farm workers and their practitioners.Attitudes toward practical dairy cow welfare issues were evaluated based on a questionnaire answered by 500 dairy farm workers and 27 veterinary practitioners. Primarily, the effect of demographic characteristics on attitudes toward cattle welfare was tested. Professionally, five themes were identified: effect of welfare awareness on productivity, knowledge of cattle’s senses and social structure, effects of man–animal interactions on milk yield, pain perception and prevention, and knowledge transfer from veterinary practitioners to farm workers. Farms with a higher welfare awareness score also had higher annual milk yield, with an annual mean difference of 1000 L of milk per cow between farms with higher and lower awareness scores. Veterinary practitioners showed high awareness of cows’ social structure, senses, and pain perception. Farm workers were aware of the influence of man–animal interactions during milking and stress effects on milk yield, and the possible effect of man’s behavior on heifers and cows. Practitioners and farm workers had different views regarding pain perception, mostly involving mutilation procedures. All veterinary practitioners advocated the use of pain alleviation in painful procedures, but only some of them instructed the farm workers to administer it. The survey results emphasize the variation in welfare knowledge and practical applications across farms, and the interest of both the animals and their managers to improve applied knowledge of best practice.

White matter network disruption and cognitive correlates underlying impaired memory awareness in mild cognitive impairment

Decreased awareness of memory declines in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been linked to structural or functional changes in a wide gray matter network; however, the underlying white matter pathway correlations for the memory awareness deficits remain unknown. Moreover, consistent findings have not been obtained regarding the cognitive basis of disturbed awareness of memory declines in MCI. Due to the methodological drawbacks (e.g., correlational analysis without controlling confounders related to clinical status, a problem related to the representativeness of the control group) of previous studies on the aforementioned topic, further investigation is required. To addressed the research gaps, this study investigated white matter microstructural integrity and the cognitive correlates of memory awareness in 87 older adults with or without mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The patients with MCI and healthy controls (HCs) were divided into two subgroups, namely those with normal awareness (NA) and poor awareness (PA) for memory deficit, according to the discrepancy scores calculated from the differences between subjective and objective memory evaluations. Only the results for HCs with NA (HC-NA) were compared with those for the two MCI groups (i.e., MCI-NA and MCI-PA). The three groups were matched on demographic and clinical variables. An advanced diffusion imaging technique—diffusion spectrum imaging—was used to investigate the integrity of the white matter tract. The results revealed that although the HC-NA group outperformed the two MCI groups on several cognitive tests, the two MCI groups exhibited comparable performance across different neuropsychological tests, except for the test on reasoning ability. Compared with the other two groups, the MCI-PA group exhibited lower integrity in bilateral frontal-striatal fibers, left anterior thalamocortical radiations, and callosal fibers connecting bilateral inferior parietal regions. These results could not be explained by gray matter morphometric differences. Overall, the results indicated that mnemonic anosognosia was not sufficient to explain the memory awareness deficits observed in the patients with MCI. Our brain imaging findings also support the concept of anosognosia for memory deficit as a disconnection syndrome in MCI.

Learning Emotion Concepts

This paper reveals the importance of learning emotion concepts due to the efficiency of emotional granularity during the categorization of emotions. There are two ways of learning emotion concepts that can contribute to emotional granularity. First, we can learn emotion words. Second, we can learn the implicit content of our emotion concepts, i.e. how emotions feel to us. In order to complete the second task, we need to acquire vivid awareness and vivid memory of the implicit content of our emotion concept. I claim that only after completing the second task can we learn emotion words in a way that is efficient for the categorization of emotions. The problem with that claim is that we do not know how to study the implicit content of our emotions, and how to obtain vivid awareness of it. In this article, I sketch a basic solution to this problem. The article has three parts. In the first part, I outline Lisa Barrett’s Conceptual Act View in order to reveal the functional role of emotion concepts in our brains. In the second part, I explain Anna Wierzbicka’s classical attempt to define emotion concepts. In the third part, I suggest how it is possible to study the fine-grained details of our emotional experience in a scientific way. The goal of developing the integrative model is to realize the learner's potential in personalized knowledge formation in an intelligent learning environment and to enhance the efficiency of learning.

Approximate Learning and Fault-Tolerant Mapping for Energy-Efficient Neuromorphic Systems

Brain-inspired deep neural networks such as Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) have shown great potential in solving difficult cognitive problems such as object recognition and classification. However, such architectures have high computational energy demand and sensitivity to variation effects, making them inapplicable for energy-constrained embedded learning platforms. To address this issue, we propose a learning and mapping approach that utilizes approximate computing during early design phases for a layer-wise pruning and fault tolerant weight mapping scheme of reliable and energy-efficient CNNs. In the proposed approach, approximate CNN is prepared first by layer-wise pruning of approximable neurons, which have high error tolerance margins using a two-level approximate learning methodology. Then, the pruned network is retrained to improve its accuracy by fine-tuning the weight values. Finally, a fault-tolerant layer-wise neural weight mapping scheme is adopted to aggressively reduce memory operating voltage when loading the weights of error resilient layers for energy-efficiency. Thus, the combination of approximate learning and fault tolerance aware memory operating voltage downscaling techniques enable us to implement robust and energy-efficient approximate inference engine for CNN applications. Simulation results show that the proposed fault tolerant and approximate learning approach can improve the energy-efficiency of CNN inference engines by more than 50% with less than 5% reduction in classification accuracy. Additionally, more than 26% energy-saving is achieved by using the proposed layer-wise mapping-based cache memory operating voltage down-scaling.

How Nature Walk Program Affects the Behavior of Children with Learning Disabilities

Experience with nature is particularly known to influence a person’s health and wellbeing. This case study identified behavioral changes in children with learning disabilities who underwent the Nature Walk Program. An intervention tool designed to let the participants experience nature activities. The study’s participants have cases of mild autism and down’s syndrome. Undergoing the Nature Walk Program resulted in the increased positive desire to participate in succeeding intervention sessions, improvement in their memory level, and awareness and sensitivity to the natural surroundings. All of these led to positive behavioral changes. Another important factor found in the success of the program as an intervention tool is the facilitators’ knowledge in handling the activities, which helps in the success of this endeavor. The study’s intervention tool hopes to be a model and instrument in affecting participants’ awareness of themselves with the aid of the natural environment through carefully selected outdoor activities. As a conclusion, utilizing the natural environment can also affect emotional behavior, social relationships, and the actual state of mind of children with learning disabilities.

Double Literacy Effects on Language and Reading Skills in Italian–English Primary School Children

Major concerns still surround literacy education in a foreign language during primary school. In this study, we aim to establish (1) whether bilinguals perform worse in Italian literacy tests than monolinguals; (2) whether literacy skills transfer from Italian to English. We tested 97 Italian–English bilingual first, third and fifth graders (attending two bilingual primary schools in Italy, with a simultaneous 50:50 immersion programme) and a control group of 40 monolingual Italian pupils in grades 1 and 3. All participants were tested in Italian, measuring the following skills: vocabulary, phonological awareness, reading proficiency and verbal short-term memory. Bilingual participants – who had been exposed to Italian since birth and to English within the first three years of their lives – were also tested on the same measures in English. The results showed that bilingual first graders outperformed their monolingual peers in verbal short-term memory, thus revealing a possible cognitive advantage in the early stage of literacy acquisition. Monolingual and bilingual firstand third graders did not differ in reading speed. The two groups made an almost similar number of errors, but the small difference turned out to be statistically significant. Bilingual subjects’ reading attainment was found to be within monolingual normal limits in both languages on all measures except for English reading comprehension, which, together with English vocabulary, was found to be below the English norm. Aside from reading comprehension, on all other measures bilingual children’s performance in Italian correlated with their performance in English, suggesting the presence of cross-linguistic transfer of language and reading skills.

Effectiveness of a therapeutic teaching protocol in the treatment of reading difficulties for students of the Arabic-speaking primary

This study is concerned with highlighting the effect of vocal processing skills of vocal awareness and vocal working memory on the development of reading mechanisms and difficulties. The study was conducted on a total sample of 280 male and female pupils in the third, fourth and fifth phases of primary school ages 8-11, among them 50 children with dyslexia who were diagnosed according to a battery of standards that the researcher prepared for this purpose and that respond to the standards Psychometrics to build tests. The study aims to: To ensure the effectiveness of a pedagogical treatment program in developing reading skills for students with dyslexia dependent on phonological awareness activities and phonological working memory and the transition from part to whole gradually. In general, children with dyslexia suffer from a great and persistent difficulty in phonemic representation, in addition to a deficiency in the lower linguistic units in the Arabic language and their use to reach the skills of recognizing the written word by linking between the linear phonemic compatibility of the voice. Our findings support the evolutionary hypothesis of general disability in vocal processing skills and concluded that rhyme awareness appears before vocal syllabic awareness. A child at this level finds difficulty in phonograms with moving sound. Additionally, multiple regression analysis shows that poor vocal memory is the best indication of poor vocal awareness in the Arabic language. Studies also focused on the effectiveness of the proposed program for the treatment of vocal dyslexia in improving the ability to read in general.

Evolution of unawareness of memory decline in individuals with autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease

AbstractBackgroundWhile loss of insight of cognitive deficits, anosognosia, is a common symptom in Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia, there is a lack of consensus regarding the presence of altered awareness of memory function in the pre‐dementia stages of the disease. Here, we investigated the evolution of memory awareness in the AD‐course in a large cohort of individuals who carry mutations for autosomal dominant AD (ADAD; a population that are genetically determined to develop early‐onset dementia, and have a well‐characterized disease trajectory from pre‐symptomatic to clinical stages) and compared it with family members who do not carry the mutation.MethodsPseudo‐longitudinal analyses using linear mixed‐effect models was used to predict self‐awareness (assessed using an awareness index based on the discrepancy score between participant and study‐partner report on the Memory Complaint Scale (Spanish version),in a total of 2,379 members of a Colombian kindred including 396 ADAD (14.9% impaired) and 1,983 non‐carrier family members (Table 1). Age was entered as a fixed and random factor in the models.ResultsThe mutation carriers complained significantly more than their study‐partner until the mean age of 35, and complained significantly less (unawareness/anosognosia) than their study‐partner around the age of 43 (Figure 1A), approximately 6 years prior to their estimated median age of dementia onset (49yo). Cognitively‐unimpaired non‐carriers complained significantly more than their study‐partners (heightened awareness/hypernosognosia) between ages 20‐60 (Figure 1B). Using the awareness index (Figure 2) we observed a decrease with age (est.=‐0.04 discrepant‐points/year,se=0.02,t=‐2.2,p=0.03) in the non‐carriers and an even steeper decline in the mutation carriers (est.=‐0.21 discrepant‐points/year,se=0.04,t=‐5.1,p=2.8*e‐7). The awareness index was significantly different between groups from age 22.5, indicating less awareness of memory in the mutation carriers as compared to the non‐carriers.ConclusionHypernosognosia was observed in both groups, indicating that heightened awareness of memory function is common and non‐specific in this cohort. In mutation‐carriers, awareness of memory decreased in the pre‐dementia stages, reaching anosognosia 6 years before dementia onset. These findings provide further support for the usefulness of informant‐reported cognitive decline and add to the sporadic AD literature suggesting that individuals who become unaware of cognitive change in preclinical stages may represent a specific risk group to develop AD dementia.

Everything of which I was once conscious but have now forgotten

This article addresses how art and spatial practise can increase the potential for knowledge transfer and celebrate diverse forms of embodied expertise. By examining the intersection of creative practise and psychological enquiry, I explore memory as embodied or sensory remembering, and ask how the encounter with material forms can engage with memory to generate meaning through the embodied associations of the materials used. Processing emotions and lived experiences through reflection, and then re-imagining and re-materialising them in a contemporary context, reveals trauma as an element of a fractured then re-forming identity. Integration in this context is a process where an awareness of painful memories of trauma is incorporated into a sense of self, and the trauma no longer constrains the individual. Through an analysis of my own multimedia practise, which references my traumatic memories, I propose that creative practise is a form of somatic experiencing. The embodied gestures involved in artmaking, together with reflection that is an intrinsic part of the process, lead to release of the unconscious pent energy embedded in trauma. I consider whether a material investigation and experimentation with the sensory aspects of memory, including affect, embodied perception, intuition and felt knowledge, is a means to transform past trauma. By releasing traumatic energy through an embodied engagement with an expanded spatial practise, I am increasing the potential for knowledge transfer, which is then expressed in the artwork. Trauma is exposed, moving from silence to testimony, and the witnessing by an audience further increases the potential for transfer of knowledge. Diverse embodiment emerges through the employment of a disparate range of materials and methods, including the creation of spatial encounters.

Everything of which I was once conscious but have now forgotten

This article addresses how art and spatial practise can increase the potential for knowledge transfer and celebrate diverse forms of embodied expertise. By examining the intersection of creative practise and psychological enquiry, I explore memory as embodied or sensory remembering, and ask how the encounter with material forms can engage with memory to generate meaning through the embodied associations of the materials used. Processing emotions and lived experiences through reflection, and then re-imagining and re-materialising them in a contemporary context, reveals trauma as an element of a fractured then re-forming identity. Integration in this context is a process where an awareness of painful memories of trauma is incorporated into a sense of self, and the trauma no longer constrains the individual. Through an analysis of my own multimedia practise, which references my traumatic memories, I propose that creative practise is a form of somatic experiencing. The embodied gestures involved in artmaking, together with reflection that is an intrinsic part of the process, lead to release of the unconscious pent energy embedded in trauma. I consider whether a material investigation and experimentation with the sensory aspects of memory, including affect, embodied perception, intuition and felt knowledge, is a means to transform past trauma. By releasing traumatic energy through an embodied engagement with an expanded spatial practise, I am increasing the potential for knowledge transfer, which is then expressed in the artwork. Trauma is exposed, moving from silence to testimony, and the witnessing by an audience further increases the potential for transfer of knowledge. Diverse embodiment emerges through the employment of a disparate range of materials and methods, including the creation of spatial encounters.

Self-awareness for financial decision-making abilities in healthy adults.

ObjectiveDecades of research have established how to measure metacognition (i.e., awareness of one’s cognitive abilities), whereas relatively little is known about how to assess the integrity of financial awareness (FA; awareness of one’s financial abilities), a related construct with practical implications for vulnerable older adults. The current study’s goal was to apply established metacognitive frameworks to identify an objective measure of FA.MethodsMetacognitive ratings were integrated into two financial decision making (FDM) assessments in order to derive two types of FA metrics: absolute accuracy (calibration) and relative accuracy (resolution) in each FDM task. Associations between each FA metric, demographic variables, FDM performances, and metamemory were examined.Design & settingCross-sectional, community-based, prospective study.Participants93 individuals with mean age = 59 years (SD = 15.12); mean education = 15.70 (SD = 2.39); 60% females.MeasuresFA was calculated using the Financial Competency Assessment Inventory (FCAI) and Decision Making Competence Assessment Tool, Finance Module (DMC-F), and memory awareness was calculated using an objective metamemory test.ResultsNone of the FA metrics was associated with age, education or gender. FCAI calibration was inversely associated with FDM, and positively correlated with DMC-F calibration and metamemory calibration. None of the FA metrics for DMC-F was associated with metamemory.ConclusionsMirroring findings from metamemory studies, overconfidence in FDM was associated with lower FDM accuracy in healthy adults. Moreover, calibration scores on the FCAI and metamemory were related, suggesting that FA taps into metacognitive abilities. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for how to measure FA in both clinical and research contexts.

Do lemurs know when they could be wrong? An investigation of information seeking in three species of lemur (Lemur catta, Eulemur rubriventer, and Varecia variegata).

A total of 16 lemurs, including representatives from three species (Lemur catta, Eulemur rubriventer, and Varecia variegata), were presented with a food-seeking task in which information about the rewards location, in one of two plastic tubes, was either known or not known. We evaluated whether lemurs would first look into the tube before making a choice. This information-seeking task aimed to assess whether subjects would display memory awareness, seeking additional information when they became aware they lacked knowledge of the rewards location. We predicted lemurs would be more likely to look into the tube when they had insufficient knowledge about the rewards position. Lemurs successfully gained the reward on most trials. However, they looked on the majority of trials regardless of whether they had all the necessary information to make a correct choice. The minimal cost to looking may have resulted in checking behavior to both confirm what they already knew and gain knowledge they did not have. When the cost of looking increased (elevating the end of tube, requiring additional energy expenditure to look inside-Experiment 2), lemurs still looked into tubes on both seen and unseen trials; however, the frequency of looking increased when opaque tubes were used (where they could not see the rewards location after baiting). This could suggest they checked more when they were less sure of their knowledge state. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Evolution of anosognosia in alzheimer's disease and its relationship to amyloid.

Unawareness, or anosognosia, of memory deficits is a challenging manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) that adversely affects a patient's safety and decision-making. However, there is a lack of consensus regarding the presence, as well as the evolution, of altered awareness of memory function across the preclinical and prodromal stages of AD. Here, we aimed to characterize change in awareness of memory abilities and its relationship to beta-amyloid (Aβ) burden in a large cohort (N = 1,070) of individuals across the disease spectrum. Memory awareness was longitudinally assessed (average number of visits = 4.3) and operationalized using the discrepancy between mean participant and partner report on the Everyday Cognition scale (memory domain). Aβ deposition was measured at baseline using [18F]florbetapir positron emission tomographic imaging. Aβ predicted longitudinal changes in memory awareness, such that awareness decreased faster in participants with increased Aβ burden. Aβ and clinical group interacted to predict change in memory awareness, demonstrating the strongest effect in dementia participants, but could also be found in the cognitively normal (CN) participants. In a subset of CN participants who progressed to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), heightened memory awareness was observed up to 1.6 years before MCI diagnosis, with memory awareness declining until the time of progression to MCI (-0.08 discrepant-points/yr). In a subset of MCI participants who progressed to dementia, awareness was low initially and continued to decline (-0.23 discrepant-points/yr), reaching anosognosia 3.2 years before dementia onset. Aβ burden is associated with a progressive decrease in self-awareness of memory deficits, reaching anosognosia approximately 3 years before dementia diagnosis. ANN NEUROL 2020;87:267-280.

SOCIAL COGNITION AND AWARENESS IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Social cognition is the capacity to interpret and predict another’s behavior according to beliefs, intentions, and emotions, and the ability to decode environmental stimuli in order to be better able to adapt to new situations. A key question is the relationship between social cognition and awareness in dementia. This study aimed to investigate the relation between social and emotional functioning (SEF) and awareness in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In a cross-sectional design, a consecutive series of 50 people with mild to moderate AD and their 50 family caregivers were assessed. The study variables were awareness, SEF, neuropsychiatric symptoms, cognition, working memory, quality of life, functional activities, presence of depressive symptoms, and caregivers’ burden and cognition. We found a significant difference between self-rated SEF and informant-rated SEF. In 56% of the cases, self-rated SEF was lower than the informant-rated SEF. People with AD mostly (56%) had mildly impaired awareness of disease, 20% had moderate impaired awareness of disease, and 6% were unaware of the disease. A multivariate linear regression examined the association between informant-rated SEF score and the variables. The social functioning and relationship domain of awareness and informant-rated QoL of people with AD were significantly associated with informant-rated SEF. Conclusion: The relationship between informant-rated SEF and awareness of social functioning and relationship supports the multidimensional nature of awareness. SEF and awareness of social functioning shows that they are comprised of judgments related to perceptions about oneself and values qualitatively different from awareness of memory or functionality, which can be directly observed.

Modification of everyday activities and its association with self-awareness in cognitively diverse older adults.

Cognitive impairment (CI) in older adults is frequently accompanied by difficulty performing complex everyday activities (e.g., managing finances). However, it is unclear if and how older adults with CI modify their activities (i.e., Do individuals continue, monitor, seek help with, change their approach to, or stop different activities?). In the current study, we examined if older adults with CI are concerned about their ability to carry out complex activities, if and how they modify activities based on their concern, and the factors associated with activity modification. We hypothesized that older adults with CI will more frequently be concerned about, and modify, everyday activities than cognitively healthy (HE) older adults, and that higher awareness of memory loss in the CI group would relate to more frequent modification. The sample included 81 older adults (51 HEs; mean age 70.02 (7.34) and 30 CI; mean age 75.97 (8.12)). Compared to HEs, the CI group reported having more concern about, F(3,77) = 5.50, p = 0.02, and modifying a greater number of activities, F(3,77) = 5.02, p = 0.03. Medication management (30%) and completing taxes (33.3%) were among the most frequently modified activities for the CI and HE groups, respectively. In the CI group, higher memory awareness was associated with more concern (r = .53, p = .005) and activity modification (r = 0.55, p = .003). Findings provide novel information about how cognitively diverse older adults navigate complex activities in daily life. We propose a preliminary theoretical model by which self-awareness may influence navigation of everyday activities in the context of CI.

English as a foreign language writers’ metacognitive strategy knowledge of writing and their writing performance in multimedia environments

Writing is a complex, recursive, and strategic process that requires metacognitive competencies. Skillful writers have a high level of metacognitive strategy knowledge (MSK) and use strategies effectively. MSK about writing describes a person’s verbalizable knowledge and awareness of memory, comprehension, and higher order processes that underlie skillful writing. Measurement instruments assessing students’ MSK about academic writing in higher education that can be used for group settings and large samples are lacking. The aim of this article is to describe the development of a new MSK test instrument. The MSK test consists of three different writing scenarios related to the three self-regulated writing phases: planning prior to composing full text, monitoring the writing during composition, and subsequent revision. The findings of a pre-study (N = 51) and two studies (N = 23; N = 113) showed that the new MSK test is economical in use, is reliable and has high content validity. Further, the findings demonstrated external validity of the new instrument in terms of relationships with students’ metacognitive strategy use and writing performance. Implications for future research and educational practice are discussed.

Anosognosia and default mode subnetwork dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease.

Research on the neural correlates of anosognosia in Alzheimer's disease varied according to methods and objectives: they compared different measures, used diverse neuroimaging modalities, explored connectivity between brain networks, addressed the role of specific brain regions or tried to give support to theoretical models of unawareness. We used resting‐state fMRI connectivity with two different seed regions and two measures of anosognosia in different patient samples to investigate consistent modifications of default mode subnetworks and we aligned the results with the Cognitive Awareness Model. In a first study, patients and their relatives were presented with the Memory Awareness Rating Scale. Anosognosia was measured as a patient‐relative discrepancy score and connectivity was investigated with a parahippocampal seed. In a second study, anosognosia was measured in patients with brain amyloid (taken as a disease biomarker) by comparing self‐reported rating with memory performance, and connectivity was examined with a hippocampal seed. In both studies, anosognosia was consistently related to disconnection within the medial temporal subsystem of the default mode network, subserving episodic memory processes. Importantly, scores were also related to disconnection between the medial temporal and both the core subsystem (participating to self‐reflection) and the dorsomedial subsystem of the default mode network (the middle temporal gyrus that might subserve a personal database in the second study). We suggest that disparity in connectivity within and between subsystems of the default mode network may reflect impaired functioning of pathways in cognitive models of awareness.

MH-CACA: multi-objective harmony search-based coverage aware clustering algorithm in WSNs

ABSTRACT In this paper, multi-objective tournament harmony search-based coverage aware load balanced clustering algorithm (MH-CACA) is presented. The coverage aware memory consideration, random selection and tournament selection-based pitch adjustment to remove clumps and filling voids is imposed while harmony improvisation by altering the status of the on-duty sensors to off-duty and off-duty sensors to on-duty respectively. To show the effectiveness a large sample network is considered and the results are demonstrated for different parameters including coverage rate, dead gateways, dead sensors, energy consumption and network lifetime in comparison to the other existing techniques and found significantly improved in the proposed approach.

Hemisphere-specific effects of prefrontal theta-burst stimulation on visual recognition memory accuracy and awareness.

BackgroundThe prefrontal cortex has been implicated in episodic memory and the awareness of memory. Few studies have probed the nature and necessity of its role via brain stimulation. There are uncertainties regarding whether the hemisphere of stimulation predicts effects on memory and whether effects of stimulation are format‐specific, with most previous studies utilizing verbal/semantic stimuli.ObjectiveOur primary objective was to determine if theta‐burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TBS) to prefrontal cortex modulates visual memory accuracy, visual memory awareness, or both, and whether these effects depend on brain hemisphere.MethodsWe administered TBS to 12 individuals in either left prefrontal, right prefrontal, or a sham location on three separate days. We then administered a visual associative‐memory task incorporating global‐level awareness judgments and feeling‐of‐knowing (FOK) judgments on test trials for which retrieval failed.ResultsOverall memory accuracy significantly improved after right hemisphere TBS compared to sham. Simultaneously, subjects were relatively underconfident after right TBS, suggesting minimal awareness of memory accuracy improvements. The correspondence between FOKs and later recognition accuracy suggested a pattern of disruption in prospective memory monitoring accuracy after left TBS.ConclusionsOur findings provide unique evidence for improved visual memory accuracy after right prefrontal TBS. These results also suggest right prefrontal lateralization for visual memory and left‐hemisphere specialization for item‐level prospective memory awareness judgments. Taken together, these results provided continued support for noninvasive stimulation to prefrontal cortex as a means of potentially improving memory and causally influencing prospective memory awareness.

Fault Awareness for Memory BIST Architecture Shaped by Multidimensional Prediction Mechanism

This paper introduces a novel solution for building fault aware memory built-in self-test infrastructure based on rules of fault periodicity and regularity in memories and test algorithms. These periodicity and regularity rules are described via special internal structures named fault periodicity table (FPT) and test algorithm template (TAT). Three dimensions of evolution are considered as inputs for forming the mentioned structures: memory cells, multidimensional memory circuits, and memory systems for systems-on-chip where memories are distributed in different subchips. Each column of FPT corresponds to a fault nature which can be associated with a variety of different test mechanisms while each row of FPT corresponds to a fault family determined by the complexity of fault sensitization. FPT allows considering any large number of faults in one table while TAT allows constructing test algorithms without using test algorithm generation tools. Experimental results of the solution applied to both Planar-based (90/65/45/28 nm) and FinFET-based (16/10/7 nm) memory technologies are adduced also in this paper.