Present Paradigm Research Articles

A comparative study of the attentional blink of facial expression in deaf and hearing children.

The rapid serial visual presentation paradigm was used to investigate differences in the attentional blink between deaf children and hearing children in response to facial expressions of fear and disgust. The results showed that: (1) deaf and hearing children had a higher accuracy rate for T1 with disgustful facial expression than T1 with fear facial expression, (2) There was no significant difference in attentional blink between deaf and hearing children, (3) When T2 appeared at Lag6, the response accuracy of T2 in the disgust T1 condition was lower than that in fear T1 condition. However, no significant difference in T2 at Lag2 was found between the two conditions. The results showed that deaf children and those with hearing were more sensitive to facial expressions of disgust, which captured more attentional resources, and the ability of visual attention of deaf children was not weaker than hearing children.

Novel Diagnostic Techniques in the Evaluation of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD).

In our present clinical paradigm, patient symptoms and presentation in the setting of traditional findings from endoscopy (erosive esophagitis, Barrett's esophagus, reflux-mediated stenosis), esophageal high-resolution manometry, and/or ambulatory reflux monitoring (distal esophageal acid exposure time, numbers of reflux events, reflux-symptom association) guide the care of patients with suspected GERD. However, novel metrics and techniques acquired from or performed at endoscopy, manometry, or pH-impedance monitoring, beyond conventional evaluation, are of great interest to the gastroenterology community given the frequent (and sometimes challenging) presentation of suspected GERD. These novel and evolving diagnostic approaches have the potential to enhance the evaluation of these patients and optimize their management. In this invited review, we discuss the present evidence and potential clinical utility of selected GERD metrics and techniques of interest at endoscopy (dilated intercellular spaces, mucosal impedance), manometry (contractile integral, impedance analysis, straight leg raise, multiple rapid swallow maneuvers), and reflux monitoring (mean nocturnal baseline impedance, post-reflux swallow-induced peristaltic wave indices), and how these tools may be most optimally adopted and utilized for clinical care (Fig.1).

Recognition of brief sounds in rapid serial auditory presentation.

Two experiments were conducted to test the role of participant factors (i.e., musical sophistication, working memory capacity) and stimulus factors (i.e., sound duration, timbre) on auditory recognition using a rapid serial auditory presentation paradigm. Participants listened to a rapid stream of very brief sounds ranging from 30 to 150 milliseconds and were tested on their ability to distinguish the presence from the absence of a target sound selected from various sound sources placed amongst the distracters. Experiment 1a established that brief exposure to stimuli (60 to 150 milliseconds) does not necessarily correspond to impaired recognition. In Experiment 1b we found evidence that 30 milliseconds of exposure to the stimuli significantly impairs recognition of single auditory targets, but the recognition for voice and sine tone targets impaired the least, suggesting that the lower limit required for successful recognition could be lower than 30 milliseconds for voice and sine tone targets. Critically, the effect of sound duration on recognition completely disappeared when differences in musical sophistication were controlled for. Participants' working memory capacities did not seem to predict their recognition performances. Our behavioral results extend the studies oriented to understand the processing of brief timbres under temporal constraint by suggesting that the musical sophistication may play a larger role than previously thought. These results can also provide a working hypothesis for future research, namely, that underlying neural mechanisms for the processing of various sound sources may have different temporal constraints.

A Novel Blockchain and Internet of Things-Based Food Traceability System for Smart Cities.

Rapid urbanization has recently caused serious problems for cities all around the world. Smart cities have drawn much interest from researchers in the present research paradigm to manage the expanding urban population. Frameworks for smart cities are planned and implemented using platforms based on blockchain and the Internet of Things (BIOT). Smart cities may use the BIoT platform to provide improved transportation, food traceability, and healthcare services. Food safety is one of the sectors where less research has been done than the others. The importance of food safety is now more widely recognized, making it essential to improve the traceability and transparency of the food supply chain. In this paper, a novel BIOT-based layered framework using EOSIO has been proposed for effective food traceability. The proposed system first identifies the suitable traceability units to provide better transparency and traceability and then defines and implements a layered architecture using Ethereum and EOSIO blockchain platforms. The performance of the proposed EOSIO-based model is evaluated using the practicality of the consensus algorithm, block production rate, throughput, and block confirmation time. The proposed traceability system attains a block production rate of 0.5s and a block confirmation time of 1s, which is much lower than the Ethereum-based traceability system. Hence, from the experimental evidence, the superiority of the proposed EOSIO-based food traceability can be observed.

Object motion influences feedforward motor responses during mechanical stopping of virtual projectiles: a preliminary study

An important window into sensorimotor function is how humans interact and stop moving projectiles, such as stopping a door from closing shut or catching a ball. Previous studies have suggested that humans time the initiation and modulate the amplitude of their muscle activity based on the momentum of the approaching object. However, real-world experiments are constrained by laws of mechanics, which cannot be manipulated experimentally to probe the mechanisms of sensorimotor control and learning. An augmented-reality variant of such tasks allows for experimental manipulation of the relationship between motion and force to obtain novel insights into how the nervous system prepares motor responses to interact with moving stimuli. Existing paradigms for studying interactions with moving projectiles use massless objects and are primarily focused on quantifying gaze and hand kinematics. Here, we developed a novel collision paradigm using a robotic manipulandum where participants mechanically stopped a virtual object moving in the horizontal plane. On each block of trials, we varied the virtual object's momentum by increasing either its velocity or mass. Participants stopped the object by applying a force impulse that matched the object momentum. We observed that hand force increased as a function of object momentum linked to changes in virtual mass or velocity, similar to results from studies involving catching free-falling objects. In addition, increasing object velocity resulted in later onset of hand force relative to the impending time-to-contact. These findings show that the present paradigm can be used to determine how humans process projectile motion for hand motor control.

Effect of Target Semantic Consistency in Different Sequence Positions and Processing Modes on T2 Recognition: Integration and Suppression Based on Cross-Modal Processing.

In the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm, sound affects participants' recognition of targets. Although many studies have shown that sound improves cross-modal processing, researchers have not yet explored the effects of sound semantic information with respect to different locations and processing modalities after removing sound saliency. In this study, the RSVP paradigm was used to investigate the difference between attention under conditions of consistent and inconsistent semantics with the target (Experiment 1), as well as the difference between top-down (Experiment 2) and bottom-up processing (Experiment 3) for sounds with consistent semantics with target 2 (T2) at different sequence locations after removing sound saliency. The results showed that cross-modal processing significantly improved attentional blink (AB). The early or lagged appearance of sounds consistent with T2 did not affect participants' judgments in the exogenous attentional modality. However, visual target judgments were improved with endogenous attention. The sequential location of sounds consistent with T2 influenced the judgment of auditory and visual congruency. The results illustrate the effects of sound semantic information in different locations and processing modalities.

A novel probabilistic and 3D column P300 stimulus presentation paradigm for EEG-based spelling systems

A novel probabilistic and 3D column P300 stimulus presentation paradigm for EEG-based spelling systems

MALEK BENNABI AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION

This article exhibits a discussion on human development that should necessarily be undertaken by the people of a country. This development requires a complete and solid combination from its spiritual-moral and material aspect. This article asserts that people with such combination is capable of shaping themselves and the society in building development of the nation and the country. This discussion is based on the thoughts of Malek Bennabi in relation to man and society. In addition, this paper aims to present Malek Bennabis human development paradigm that emphasizes a religious aspect in the context of current development. Content analysis approach is used in analyzing the themes of his thinking. This writing concluded that aspects of human development must take into account the internal aspects of the individual, as well as external factors such as environment and interaction.

Paradigm Shift in Design of Tongue Condoms for Genitals or Anal Foreplay and Oral Intercourse: The Game Changer ApproachPhase four Category

Paradigm Shift in Design of Tongue Condoms for Genitals or Anal Foreplay and Oral Intercourse: The Game Changer ApproachPhase four Category

ECCVideo: A Scalable Edge Cloud Collaborative Video Analysis System

Video analysis drives a wide range of applications in the fields of public safety, autonomous vehicles, etc., with the great potential to impact society. Traditional cloud-based approaches are not applicable because of prohibitive bandwidth consumption and high response latency, while simply edge-based video analysis suffers from large computation delay, considering the restricted computing capacity of edge servers. Therefore, in this article, we focus on low-latency edge-cloud collaborative video analytic applications (ECCVApps) by making full use of resources at both the edge and cloud. Particularly, we present an edge-cloud collaborative video analysis system called ECCVideo, to support the unified management of heterogeneous servers and facilitate the development and deployment of large-scale ECCVApps. Under ECCVideo, we design the application architecture of ECCVApps, including presentation paradigm, transparent communication services, and full lifecycle management. To validate the proposed system, a real-time object detection application is deployed on the ECCVideo prototype.

A survey on encoding and decoding technology of non-invasive brain-computer interface

A survey on encoding and decoding technology of non-invasive brain-computer interface

Seroprevalence of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and human immunodeficiency virus in hemophilia A patients: A descriptive study

Background: Hemophilia A (Factor VIII deficiency) is a X-linked coagulopathy that affects approximately 1/10,000 male live births. In the past, the treatment of hemophilia A consisted of cryoprecipitated plasma and purified factor preparations. As a result, they experienced unusually high incidence of hepatitis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seroconversion. Aims and Objectives: The aims of this study were to find out the seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and HIV infection, among hemophiliacs attending a tertiary care center in Kerala, southern India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on hemophilia A patients who attended the departments of medicine and pediatrics. Demographic details and treatment history were obtained by questionnaire. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect HBV surface antigen, HCV antibodies, and HIV. The statistical data analysis was performed using SPSS software version. Results: Out of 90 hemophilia A patients who underwent testing for the seroprevalence of transfusion-transmitted viral infections, one (1.1%) patient tested positive for HIV, two (2.2%) for HCV, and one (1.1%) for HBV. Among patients with hemophilia A, the prevalence of transfusion-transmitted infection was 4.4%. Patients with HIV- and HCV-positive tests belonged to the severe hemophilia A group. Moreover, the HBV-positive patient belonged to moderate hemophilia A. Conclusion: The present paradigm of management of hemophilia A patients is with plasma-derived or recombinant Factor VIII concentrates, cryoprecipitates, and fresh frozen plasma. Due to the risk, however remote, of transfusion-transmitted viral infections, all hemophiliacs should receive the hepatitis B vaccine and undergo routine testing for HIV, HCV, and HBV viruses.

Robust enhancement of motor sequence learning with 4 mA transcranial electric stimulation

Background and objectivesMotor learning experiments with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) at 2 mA have produced mixed results. We hypothesize that tDCS boosts motor learning provided sufficiently high field intensity on the motor cortex. MethodsIn a single-blinded design, 108 healthy participants received either anodal (N = 36) or cathodal (N = 36) tDCS at 4 mA total, or no stimulation (N = 36) while they practiced a 12-min sequence learning task. Anodal stimulation was delivered across four electrode pairs (1 mA each), with anodes above the right parietal lobe and cathodes above the right frontal lobe. Cathodal stimulation, with reversed polarities, served as an active control for sensation, while the no-stimulation condition established baseline performance. fMRI-localized targets on the primary motor cortex in 10 subjects were used in current flow models to optimize electrode placement for maximal field intensity. A single electrode montage was then selected for all participants. ResultsWe found a significant difference in performance with anodal vs. cathodal stimulation (Cohen's d = 0.71) and vs. no stimulation (d = 0.56). This effect persisted for at least 1 h, and subsequent learning for a new sequence and the opposite hand also improved. Sensation ratings were comparable in the active groups and did not exceed moderate levels. Current flow models suggest the new electrode montage can achieve stronger motor cortex polarization than alternative montages. ConclusionThe present paradigm shows a medium to large effect size and is well-tolerated. It may serve as a go-to experiment for future studies on motor learning and tDCS.

A microcosm of modern crust formation: Evidence from zircon ages, Hf[sbnd]O and Nd[sbnd]Sr isotopes and bulk geochemistry of the Menglian Batholith, SE Tibet

Modern continental crust has evolved to a more potassic, granitic composition than early continental crust, which comprises largely sodic TTG-suite magmas. The present paradigm holds that the latter are largely “juvenile” (in the sense that the time from mantle extraction to felsic crust production is comparatively short, of the order 10–100 Ma) while the former represent recycled older crust of igneous or sedimentary composition. The data from high-Mg diorites, tonalites, granodiorites and potassic granites of the 125–115 Ma Menglian Batholith (SE Tibet) exemplify the modern situation and can therefore be used to constrain current crust formation processes. These rocks have higher concentrations of incompatible elements than magmatic rocks from typical continental arc settings, with a continuum of increasing K2O/Na2O ratios, SiO2, K2O, Rb, and Th concentrations juxtaposed with decreasing MgO, CaO, and Sr. They consistently record both higher zircon δ18O values than mantle values and decoupled NdHf isotope systems caused by the interaction of subducted sediments with the mantle wedge. Petrogenetic mechanisms that connect the suite include crystal fractionation within the diorites, melting of the lower crust induced by advection of heat and water by the diorites, and high-level fractionation of the tonalite-granodiorite suite to produce the high-silica granites. Therefore, this example of modern fertile continental crust had a five-stage evolution: (1) subduction-enrichment of the mantle source, (2) mantle melting to produce mafic magmas that pooled in or below the lower crust, (3) mafic magma differentiation to produce the tonalite-granodioritic magmas controlled by crystal-liquid equilibria, (4) crustal melting and admixture to the evolving felsic magmas and (5) final high-level fractionation and melt extraction to produce the silicic extreme, enriched in incompatible elements such as Rb, Th and K. This model could be a general mechanism for how modern mature continental crust evolves. Importantly, it indicates a significant role for mafic magmas and thence a more important role for juvenile additions than is generally accepted.

Effects of letter case on processing sequences of written words.

In four experiments, we investigated the impact of letter case (lower case vs. UPPER CASE) on the processing of sequences of written words. Experiment 1 used the rapid parallel visual presentation (RPVP) paradigm with postcued identification of one word in a five-word sequence. The sequence could be grammatically correct (e.g., "the boy likes his bike") or be an ungrammatical reordering of the same words (e.g., "his boy the bike likes the"). We replicated the standard sentence superiority effect (more accurate identification of target words when embedded in a grammatically correct sequence compared with ungrammatical sequences), and also found that lowercase presentation led to higher word identification accuracy, but equally so for the grammatical and ungrammatical sequences. This pattern suggests that the lowercase advantage was mostly operating at the level of individual word identification. The following three experiments used the grammatical decision task to provide an examination of letter case effects on more global sentence processing measures. All these experiments revealed a significant lowercase advantage in grammatical decisions, independently of the nature of the ungrammatical sequence (Experiments 2 and 3) and independently of whether or not the letter case manipulation was blocked (Experiment 4). The size of the effects observed in grammatical decisions again points to individual word identification as the primary locus of the lowercase advantage. We conclude that letter case mainly affects early visuo-orthographic processing and access to case-independent letter and word identities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of filters on the accommodation and colour discrimination

AbstractPurpose: To evaluate the effect of coloured filters on the accommodative response and colour discrimination in young subjects.Methods: Two long pass filters (LED light reduction and 511 nm filter), two selective absorption filters (ML41 and emerald filter), and no filter condition were evaluated. The photorefractor PowerRef3 (PlusOptix) was used to measure the objective refraction at 3 different distances (40, 100, and 400 cm). The measurement obtained at 400 cm was used as a reference to calculate the accommodative response. The fixation target consisted of five letter length words (size corresponding to 6/12 Snellen) that were presented in black font over white background. Words changed with a frequency of 2 Hz according to the rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. The Cambridge Colour Test (Metropsis) was used to measure the discrimination threshold in a 10‐vector ellipse at a 3 m viewing distance. The measurement was repeated twice, and it was performed monocularly. In total, 20 healthy volunteers with no accommodation problems or colour blindness were included.Results: On average, the accommodative response with no filter condition was larger compared to the measurements with filters for 40 and 100 cm. The differences were in all cases lower than 0.25D, and differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). For the colour discrimination thresholds, the ML41 and 511 filters showed statistically significant different values compared to the other two conditions for most of the vectors. The filter 511 had the highest impact on the colour vision, as the results resemble to a Tritan defect.Conclusions: The accommodative response in healthy young adults was not significantly different than the no filter condition. The colour discrimination thresholds with the filter ML41 and 511 were significantly different compared to the no filter condition.

The Timing of Semantic Processing in the Parafovea: Evidence from a Rapid Parallel Visual Presentation Study.

In the present investigation we adopted the Rapid Parallel Visual Presentation Paradigm with the aim of studying the timing of parafoveal semantic processing. The paradigm consisted in the simultaneous presentation of couple of words, one in fovea (W1) and one in parafovea (W2). In three experiments, we manipulated word frequency, semantic relatedness between the two words and the effect of stimulus duration (150, 100, 50 ms). Accuracy on W2 was higher when W1 and W2 were both of high-frequency and when they were semantically related. W1 reading times were faster when both words were highly-frequent but only when the two words were semantically related (150 ms); when W2 was highly frequent and semantically related to the foveal word (100 ms). When the stimuli were presented for 50 ms, the reading times were reduced when W1 was highly frequent and, crucially, in case of a semantic relation between the two words. Our results suggest that it is possible to extract semantic information from the parafovea very fast (within 100 ms) and in parallel to the processing of the foveal word, especially when the cognitive load required for the latter is reduced, as is the case for high-frequency words. We discuss the resulting data in terms of word recognition and eye movements' models.

Both low and high spatial frequencies drive the early posterior negativity in response to snake stimuli

Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies have shown that snake pictures elicit greater early posterior negativity (EPN) compared to other animal pictures. The EPN reflects early selective visual processing of emotionally significant stimuli. Evidence for the role that high and low spatial frequencies play in the early detection of snakes is still inconsistent. The current study aims to clarify this by studying the effect of high and low spatial frequencies on the elevated EPN for snakes separately. Using a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm, participants viewed images of snakes, spiders and birds in three different conditions of filtered spatial frequencies: high spatial frequency, low spatial frequency, and full spatial frequency (the original image). P1 and mean EPN activity in a time window of 225–300 ms after stimulus onset were measured at the occipital cluster (O1, O2, Oz). The results show smaller P1 amplitudes and shorter P1 latencies in response to full-spectrum snake pictures compared to full-spectrum spider and bird pictures, and an increased EPN in response to snake pictures compared to spider and bird pictures in all three filtering conditions. The EPN in response to full-spectrum snake pictures was larger than the EPN in response to filtered snake images. No difference in EPN was found between the snake pictures in the high and low spatial frequency conditions. The results suggest that the roles of high and low spatial frequencies in early automatic attention to snakes are equally important.

Working hard to avoid: Fixed-ratio response effort and maladaptive avoidance in humans.

Maladaptive avoidance of safe stimuli is a defining feature of anxiety and related disorders. Avoidance may involve physical effort or the completion of a fixed series of responses to prevent occurrence of, or cues associated with, the aversive event. Understanding the role of response effort in the acquisition and extinction of avoidance may facilitate the development of new clinical treatments for maladaptive avoidance. Despite this, little is known about the impact of response effort on extinction-resistant avoidance in humans. Here, we describe findings from two laboratory-based treatment studies designed to investigate the impact of high and low response effort on the extinction (Experiment 1) and return (Experiment 2) of avoidance. Response effort was operationalised as completion of fixed-ratio (FR) reinforcement schedules for both danger and safety cues in a multi-cue avoidance paradigm with behavioural, self-report, and physiology measures. Completion of the FR response requirements cancelled upcoming shock presentations following danger cues and had no impact on the consequences that followed safety cues. Both experiments found persistence of high response-effort avoidance across danger and safety cues and sustained (Experiment 1) and reinstated (Experiment 2) levels of fear and threat expectancy. Skin conductance responses evoked by all cues were similar across experiments. The present findings and paradigm have implications for translational research on maladaptive anxious coping and treatment development.

Seeking truth in personality science: reconciling trait theory and psychological type

ABSTRACT Two rival paradigms compete for acceptance as representing objective reality concerning the structure of the human personality: the Five-Factor (Trait) model and the Myers-Briggs (Type) model. In this review, the common features of the two schemes are identified and the points of difference examined. It is concluded that a harmonised scheme could be achieved if both sides gave some ground. The Type community could relinquish its contention that every individual has a clear either-or preference for (for example) Extraversion or Introversion. It could also acknowledge the speculative nature of Type Dynamics. The Trait community could relinquish the value-judgements inherent in its current scheme and accept that (for example) introversion is not merely a deficit of extraversion but a distinct quality with positive potential. Given the many similarities of the two present paradigms, a unified approach would have a good claim to be the best current portrayal of personality.