Simultaneous Information Processing Research Articles

Impact of information consistency in online reviews on consumer behavior in the e-commerce industry: a text mining approach

PurposeThe current study investigates the impact on perceived review helpfulness of the simultaneous processing of information from multiple cues with various central and peripheral cue combinations based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). Thus, the current study develops and tests hypotheses by analyzing real-world review data with a text mining approach in e-commerce to investigate how information consistency (rating inconsistency, review consistency and text similarity) influences perceived helpfulness. Moreover, the role of product type is examined in online consumer reviews of perceived helpfulness.Design/methodology/approachThe current study collected 61,900 online reviews, including 600 products in six categories, from Amazon.com. Additionally, 51,927 reviews were filtered that received helpfulness votes, and then text mining and negative binomial regression were applied.FindingsThe current study found that rating inconsistency and text similarity negatively affect perceived helpfulness and that review consistency positively affects perceived helpfulness. Moreover, peripheral cues (rating inconsistency) positively affect perceived helpfulness in reviews of experience goods rather than search goods. However, there is a lack of evidence to demonstrate the hypothesis that product types moderate the effectiveness of central cues (review consistency and text similarity) on perceived helpfulness.Originality/valuePrevious studies have mainly focused on numerical and textual factors to investigate the effect on perceived helpfulness. Additionally, previous studies have independently confirmed the factors that affect perceived helpfulness. The current study investigated how information consistency affects perceived helpfulness and found that various combinations of cues significantly affect perceived helpfulness. This result contributes to the review helpfulness and ELM literature by identifying the impact on perceived helpfulness from a comprehensive perspective of consumer review and information consistency.

Improving Reading and Writing Literacy in I Cycle of Primary Education in Montenegro

The aim of this research is to examine didactic/pedagogical issues and teaching/learning strategies by determining the characteristics of pre-literary skills in the I grade, reading skills in the II grade and reading and writing skills in the III grade, as well as to which difficulties teachers are encountered in the literacy process itself. We observed primary public school pupils - 136 in I and 136 in II grades and 400 in III grades from Podgorica, Mojkovac, Budva and Nikšić. The number of examined teachers from the same schools is 83. It was noticed that a significant number of I grade pupils did not have functional linking of symbols, has difficulties in understanding the words structures. Pupils in the II grade do not make a distinction in hand written and hand printed letters and have difficulties with punctuation. There are difficulties in general understanding and the simultaneous processing of information; the existence of elements of dyslexia and dysgraphia was observed. Among pupils in III grades there is uncertainty in writing, insufficient knowledge of fine graphomotorics, each 10th child has a difficulty in reading and understand what was read, around 13% has a difficulty in writing down what was read, and about 22% of them has a reduced skill to write a story based on the picture. The study findings show a need to redefine teaching goals, increase the number of hours for acquiring pre-school skills, teaching languages and teaching literature, propose more clearly the activities of adopting pre and general literacy skills, earlier learning of the Latin letters, to modernize teaching, and have a team approach.

Superscalar Pipelined Matrix Multiplier in VHDL

Parallel processing is used by simultaneous information processing to boost the computing velocity of the computer system. Parallel processing is implemented by pipeline processing.. In this paper we presented design of a A[100][100] x B[100][100] Pipelined Matrix Multiplier and its results is stored in P[100][100] matrix. We present design and stimulate a functional Pipelined Matrix Multiplier Unit. By which we can learn about the working of Pipelined Matrix Multiplier and how pipelining works. We also get the knowledge of clock timing and learn to make a timing critical design. In this Pipelined Matrix Multiplier Unit design we use design compiler, which is a module of Synopsys tools that uses lsi_10k library and BCCOM method to synthesis the design and simulate the design through VCS compiler.

ДО КОНЦЕПЦІЇ ЗАХИЩЕНОЇ ОПЕРАЦІЙНОЇ СИСТЕМИ

At the present stage of the use of information technologies in society, the issue of information protection becomes important. Operating systems play a major role in this. They are assigned the role of protectors of all user data and access rights. The authors of the article were tasked with proposing a classification of the use of operating systems and with the requirements for mechanisms of protection of information under this classification. In the article: - the existing security standards that are implemented in modern operating systems are analyzed. Existing security standards are outlined (Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria «Orange Book», TCSEC, ISO 17799). In the Orange Book, a trusted system is defined as "a system that uses sufficient hardware and software to provide simultaneous processing of information of varying secrecy by a group of users without violating access rights." Security mechanisms and security classes of modern operating systems and BS 7799 security management model are also considered; this standard contains a systematic, complete, universal list of safety regulators, useful for the organization of almost any size, structure and scope information security management system. The standard Information Security Management System (ISMS) refers to the proportion of the overall risk-based management system designed to design, implement, control, maintain and improve information security activities. This system consists of organizational structures, policies, planning actions, responsibilities, procedures, processes and resources; - the analysis of the mechanisms of the complex system of information security (CSIS) and security, which are implemented in modern operating systems; - classification of operating system usage variants in information and telecommunication systems is offered. Requirements for information security mechanisms for operating systems according to the proposed classification are defined; - requirements for operating system information security standard and requirements for OS security mechanisms within the usage class are proposed

Cognitive Impairment in Children and Adolescents With Migraine

INTRODUCTION The presence and characteristics of cognitive alterations in children and adolescents affected by migraine have been largely under-investigated. Childhood and adolescence are key periods for personal growth and academic achievements, and migraine-related cognitive deficits may interfere with functioning levels across several settings. A careful analysis of cognitive impairment in the context of migraine is pivotal for making informed decisions on the most appropriate care pathways. METHODS We therefore critically evaluated the results of research studies conducted to date on cognitive function in children and adolescents affected by migraine using the Pubmed database. The literature search was limited to original articles published in English language and focused on current research trends. We operationally defined cognitive processing as the range of individual cognitive functions assessed by neuropsychological studies. Our analysis, which did not include findings on cognitive processing assessed by neurophysiological measures for methodological consistency, led us to formulate the opinion that young patients affected by migraine may present with specific cognitive deficits. RESULTS An early neuropsychological study on young patients with migraine was conducted in 1989 on a group of 20 children affected by migraine without aura, aged between 7 and 11. The authors of this study did not identify clinically relevant impairment in cognitive performance, with the exception of impaired functioning in short and long-term memory tasks (1). A few years later, Haverkamp et al. (2) reported no significant differences between children with migraine aged 6–12 years and their healthy siblings on a measure of sequential and simultaneous information processing (2). Contrarily, Riva et al. (3) reported significant alterations in the information processing rate only. Patients with migraine showed delayed reaction times to visual stimuli compared to healthy controls; interestingly, reaction times were the only parameters showing a significant correlation with the pattern of headache episodes. The authors hypothesized the existence of reduced rates of information processing speed within the posterior cortical areas involved in detecting visual stimuli and within the premotor areas responsible for programming and implementing motor responses. The findings of this study were however limited by the absence of a matched control group (3).

Using stochastic language models (SLM) to map lexical, syntactic, and phonological information processing in the brain.

Language comprehension involves the simultaneous processing of information at the phonological, syntactic, and lexical level. We track these three distinct streams of information in the brain by using stochastic measures derived from computational language models to detect neural correlates of phoneme, part-of-speech, and word processing in an fMRI experiment. Probabilistic language models have proven to be useful tools for studying how language is processed as a sequence of symbols unfolding in time. Conditional probabilities between sequences of words are at the basis of probabilistic measures such as surprisal and perplexity which have been successfully used as predictors of several behavioural and neural correlates of sentence processing. Here we computed perplexity from sequences of words and their parts of speech, and their phonemic transcriptions. Brain activity time-locked to each word is regressed on the three model-derived measures. We observe that the brain keeps track of the statistical structure of lexical, syntactic and phonological information in distinct areas.

Predictors of Zimbabwean children’s neuro-cognitive performance on the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude fourth edition (DTLA-4): Implications for policy, practice and research

ABSTRACTNeuro-cognitive performance is important for academic and general achievement in day-to-day life. In settings where children under the age of 18 years constitute close to half the population, yet with no routine child development assessment and intervention in place, it becomes important that factors predicting neuro-cognitive performance among them are identified and the affected aspects specified. This paper provides evidence on Zimbabwean children’s neuro-cognitive performance and the factors predicting it using a locally adapted, validated and normed Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude fourth edition (DTLA-4). Four hundred and seventy-five school children (6–13 years) participated in the study. School type, grade, attending an urban school and age were independent predictors of overall neuro-cognitive performance. Performance did not differ with gender. Children from disadvantaged communities as depicted by school type were worst affected on items that require crystallised intelligence, cognitive level problem solving and simultaneous processing of information. These findings are important in developing targeted interventions that facilitate neuro-cognitive development and support children in low resource settings. The implications of these findings for policy, practice and research are discussed.

Achievable rate maximization for decode-and-forward MIMO-OFDM networks with an energy harvesting relay.

This paper investigates the system achievable rate for the multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO–OFDM) system with an energy harvesting (EH) relay. Firstly we propose two protocols, time switching-based decode-and-forward relaying (TSDFR) and a flexible power splitting-based DF relaying (PSDFR) protocol by considering two practical receiver architectures, to enable the simultaneous information processing and energy harvesting at the relay. In PSDFR protocol, we introduce a temporal parameter to describe the time division pattern between the two phases which makes the protocol more flexible and general. In order to explore the system performance limit, we discuss the system achievable rate theoretically and formulate two optimization problems for the proposed protocols to maximize the system achievable rate. Since the problems are non-convex and difficult to solve, we first analyze them theoretically and get some explicit results, then design an augmented Lagrangian penalty function (ALPF) based algorithm for them. Numerical results are provided to validate the accuracy of our analytical results and the effectiveness of the proposed ALPF algorithm. It is shown that, PSDFR outperforms TSDFR to achieve higher achievable rate in such a MIMO–OFDM relaying system. Besides, we also investigate the impacts of the relay location, the number of antennas and the number of subcarriers on the system performance. Specifically, it is shown that, the relay position greatly affects the system performance of both protocols, and relatively worse achievable rate is achieved when the relay is placed in the middle of the source and the destination. This is different from the MIMO–OFDM DF relaying system without EH. Moreover, the optimal factor which indicates the time division pattern between the two phases in the PSDFR protocol is always above 0.8, which means that, the common division of the total transmission time into two equal phases in previous work applying PS-based receiver is not optimal.

The wheelchair as a full-body tool extending the peripersonal space

Dedicated multisensory mechanisms in the brain represent peripersonal space (PPS), a limited portion of space immediately surrounding the body. Previous studies have illustrated the malleability of PPS representation through hand-object interaction, showing that tool use extends the limits of the hand-centered PPS. In the present study we investigated the effects of a special tool, the wheelchair, in extending the action possibilities of the whole body. We used a behavioral measure to quantify the extension of the PPS around the body before and after Active (Experiment 1) and Passive (Experiment 2) training with a wheelchair and when participants were blindfolded (Experiment 3). Results suggest that a wheelchair-mediated passive exploration of far space extended PPS representation. This effect was specifically related to the possibility of receiving information from the environment through vision, since no extension effect was found when participants were blindfolded. Surprisingly, the active motor training did not induce any modification in PPS representation, probably because the wheelchair maneuver was demanding for non-expert users and thus they may have prioritized processing of information from close to the wheelchair rather than at far spatial locations. Our results suggest that plasticity in PPS representation after tool use seems not to strictly depend on active use of the tool itself, but is triggered by simultaneous processing of information from the body and the space where the body acts in the environment, which is more extended in the case of wheelchair use. These results contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying body–environment interaction for developing and improving applications of assistive technological devices in different clinical populations.

Outage Analysis of Cooperative Transmission with Energy Harvesting Relay: Time Switching versus Power Splitting

This paper investigates the multiuser transmission network with an energy harvesting (EH) cooperative relay, where a source transmits independent information to multiple destinations with the help of an energy constrained relay. The relay can harvest energy from the radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted from the source, and it helps the multiuser transmission only by consuming the harvested energy. By adopting the time switching and the power splitting relay receiver architectures, we firstly propose two protocols, the time switching cooperative multiuser transmission (TSCMT) protocol and the power splitting cooperative multiuser transmission (PSCMT) protocol, to enable the simultaneous information processing and EH at the relay for the system. To evaluate the system performance, we theoretically analyze the system outage probability for the two proposed protocols and then derive explicit expressions for each of them, respectively. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the accuracy of our analytical results and reveal that compared with traditional noncooperative scheme our proposed protocols are green solutions to offer reliable communication and lower system outage probability without consuming additional energy. In particular, for the same transmit power at the source, the PSCMT protocol is superior to the TSCMT protocol to obtain lower system outage probability.

Outage Analysis and Optimization for Four-Phase Two-Way Transmission with Energy Harvesting Relay

This paper investigates the outage performance and optimization for the four-phase two-way transmission network with an energy harvesting (EH) relay. To enable the simultaneous information processing and energy harvesting at the relay, we firstly propose a power splitting-based two-way relaying protocol (PSTWR). Then, we discuss its outage performance theoretically and derive an explicit expression for the system outage probability. In order to find the optimal system configuration parameters such as the optimal power splitting ratio and the optimal transmit power redistribution factor, we formulate an outage-minimized optimization problem. As the problem is difficult to solve, we design a genetic algorithm (GA) based algorithm for it. Besides, we also investigate the effects of the power splitting ratio, the power redistribution factor at the relay, and the source to relay distance on the system outage performance. Finally, extensive simulation results are provided to demonstrate the accuracy of the analytical results and the effectiveness of the GA-based algorithm. Moreover, it is also shown that, the relay position greatly affects the system performance, where relatively worse outage performance is achieved when the EH relay is placed in the middle of the two sources.

Illusory flashes and perception

Information from the environment can be based on a single or several modalities. The simultaneous processing of information separated in space and/or time depends on multiple factors. Visual illusions serve as a good tool with which to investigate the parallel processing of information and their interactions. This study was designed to gain information about a unimodal illusion: a target that flashes once seems to flash more as a result of a simultaneously presented inducer flashing several times nearby. The first aim of this work was to understand whether the number of perceived flashes is merely a result of a bias in the criterion level or whether it is based on a real percept. We then clarified how the illusion finds its way into the percept. The final step was designed to establish the logic of the processing in the background by determining whether the modality appropriateness hypothesis, the information reliability hypothesis, or the discontinuity theory best explains the predominant role of the inducer.

129 The Preterm Phenotype - A Cognitive Model Explains the Prospective Relationship Between Prematurity and Mathematical Performance Deficits

Background and aimsThe human brain is highly susceptible to the consequences of preterm birth. Cognitive tasks vary in complexity and resource requirements, thus performance on tasks with different demands may...

The hands shield attention from visual interference

Recent investigations have revealed enhanced processing of information that is presented within hand space. A potential consequence of such enhancement could be that simultaneous processing of information outside of hand space is diminished, but this possibility has yet to be tested. Here, we considered the possibility that the hands can serve as a natural remedy for unwanted interference, by acting as a physical manifestation of the attentional window. Participants performed a flanker task in which they identified a central target letter in the presence of flanking letters that varied in their degrees of compatibility with the target. Participants either held their hands around the target, such that the flankers appeared outside of the hands (but in clear view), or held their hands away from the display, and thus not around any of the stimuli. Flanker interference was markedly reduced when the hands were around the target, and these effects were not attributable to visual differences across the conditions. Collectively, these results indicate that the hands effectively shield attention from visual interference.

Observation of dual magnonic and phononic bandgaps in bi-component nanostructured crystals

We report on the experimental observation of dual magnonic and phononic bandgaps in bi-component nanostructured crystals. The dispersion relations of linear periodic arrays of alternating Fe (or Ni) and Ni80Fe20 nanostripes on a SiO2/Si substrate, mapped by Brillouin spectroscopy, feature distinct bandgaps. Calculations of the magnon and phonon dispersions yield good agreement with experiments. No magnon-phonon interaction is detected for the modes observed, making the structures studied a potential platform for the separate and simultaneous processing of information carried by hypersonic magnons and phonons, with no undesirable cross-talk between them.

Effects of violent and non-violent computer game content on memory performance in adolescents

The present study focuses on the short-term effects of electronic entertainment media on memory and learning processes. It compares the effects of violent versus non-violent computer game content in a condition of playing and in another condition of watching the same game. The participants consisted of 83 female and 94 male adolescents with a mean age of 17.6 years. The dependent variables are memory for previously learnt verbal and visual material, memory for media-related content and physiological measures of stress (heart rate, cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase). Besides the group comparisons, potential mediation effects and gender differences were examined. The results show that violent content leads to a poorer memory performance for verbal material and to an increased heart rate. The heart rate, however, does not mediate the effect on memory performance. Genders differ regarding their abilities to memorise verbal and visual material, with females showing a better performance (independent of the experimental condition), and for memorising media-contents, where the males outperform females (also independent of experimental condition). The study supports the assumption that violent and arousing media content has a negative short-term effect on simultaneous information processing and learning and that there are gender-specific media effects.

Cognitive and behavioural outcomes following very preterm birth

This paper provides a review of the cognitive and behavioural outcomes of very preterm children in middle childhood. Case-controlled studies have shown that very preterm children have intelligence quotient (IQ) scores significantly lower than term peers, even for those who are free of severe disability. Authors have noted a gestational age-related gradient in IQ for those born before 33 weeks and studies have revealed particular problems in non-verbal reasoning and simultaneous information processing. Very preterm children are also at risk for behavioural problems. There is little consensus regarding the presence of internalising or externalising behaviours, but most studies show an increased risk of attentional and social problems. Studies have also shown a greater prevalence of psychiatric disorders and, specifically, an increased risk for ADHD. Methodological issues are discussed and suggestions are made for improving the reporting of outcomes to facilitate cross-study comparisons.

Do nonword repetition errors in children with specific language impairment reflect a weakness in an unidentified skill specific to nonword repetition or a deficit in simultaneous processing

Do nonword repetition errors in children with specific language impairment reflect a weakness in an unidentified skill specific to nonword repetition or a deficit in simultaneous processing

Do nonword repetition errors in children with specific language impairment reflect a weakness in an unidentified skill specific to nonword repetition or a deficit in simultaneous processing?

This Commentary supports Gathercole's (2006) proposal on a double deficit in children with specific language impairment (SLI). The author suggests that these children have a limited phonological storage combined with a particular problem of processing novel speech stimuli. According to Gathercole, there are three areas of skill contributing to memory for nonwords: general cognitive abilities, phonological storage, and an unidentified skill specific to nonword repetition. The focus of this Commentary is to examine whether these children's nonword repetition performance is influenced by an unidentified skill or some other processes. An alternative hypothesis is that the nonword repetition errors observed in children with SLI are related to one of their main weaknesses, to their difficulties in simultaneous processing of information. Evidence for this argument comes from our recent studies: from error analyses data and from findings on nonword repetition with stimuli that included meaningful parts (monosyllabic real words).

Benign Partial Epilepsy in Childhood: Selective Cognitive Deficits Are Related to the Location of Focal Spikes Determined by Combined EEG/MEG

Benign partial epilepsy (BPE) in childhood is characterized by the occurrence of interictal stereotyped focal spikes with variable localization in the EEG. Children with BPE often exhibit neuropsychological deficits. It is unclear whether a correlation exists between these deficits and the localization of spikes, several EEG studies giving inconsistent results. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) improves the accuracy of spike localization. Therefore by using combined MEG/EEG, we investigated the topographic relation between focal spikes and neuropsychological findings in children with BPE. Twenty-seven children diagnosed consecutively with BPE were enrolled in the study. All were examined by combined MEG/EEG and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Location of spikes was determined by dipole source estimation. A standardized neuropsychological assessment was conducted, including Kaufman ABC battery, language tests, and motor performance series. All children with sufficient MEG data were included in the correlation analysis (N = 20). Focal spikes were located in the perisylvian region in 13 children, in the occipital region in seven, and in the frontal region in one. Five children had bilateral or multiple foci. Children with left perisylvian spikes did not differ from the others in global IQ, but performed significantly lower in language tests (p = 0.01). Children with occipital spikes performed significantly lower in simultaneous information processing (p = 0.01), especially in visual transformation tasks. Combined MEG/EEG investigation is a useful tool to examine interictal focal spikes. Our results show a correlation between the location of spikes and selective cognitive deficits in children with BPE. These findings indicate that focal interictal spikes may interfere with complex cognitive functions.