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Multimedia presentation has been popular by used in the field of education, especially in online learning. The most common practice is to conduct a presentation by utilizing media player on web or native applications. However, this mode of operation belongs to a heavyweight practice which incurs poor performance. Considering smooth operation on all types of smartphone or PC platforms, a lightweight framework must be utilized. HTML5 and WebSocket provide good opportunities or technologies for lightweight implementation. Although both have been discussed in some papers, not any work in the literature is able to integrate these two technologies to handle multiple data types and process multimedia stream efficiently. In this study, the authors develop and implement a real-time synchronous Interactive Presentation System (IPS) which fulfills the above goal. The experimental result shows that the required bandwidth for video streaming in web applications which servicing 30 clients is around six times lower than that of native applications. CPU usage is five times lower. Memory size is ten times lower. Overall, this study provides a system framework for efficient online presentation of web applications.

Aiming at the multi-level and multi-index problem of the quality evaluation index of mechatronic products, a comprehensive analysis method based on the improved AHP model is put forward. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) determines the relative importance of each factor by pairwise comparison, and then synthesizes the decision. In the actual operation process, the analytic hierarchy process uses "nine scale" method to determine the judgment matrix. The judgment process is complex that often cannot get consistent results and reduce reliability. In this paper, the improved analytic hierarchy process (IAHP) is used to quantify the influence of parameters on the quality evaluation index. The judgment matrix is determined by the "three scale" method. The operation is simpler and easier to keep the consistency of the matrix. The method should be applied to modeling and calculating the factors affecting the quality of electromechanical products in an enterprise, and the validity of the method is verified.

In the study of high energy physics, as subatomic particles are in different energy states, a suitable accelerator is needed to explore information inside the atom at deeper and deeper levels. Particularly, there are different neural energy patterns or neuro-quantum states within the brain associated with meditative practices; to find out certain information inside the body, it is necessary to reach a meditative state having increased energy levels. Here we report that Chinese Original Quiet Sitting (COQS)—one style of Chinese Daoist meditation— exhibits noticeable results about different neural energy levels or quantum types using functional magnetic resonance imaging technique. Two different states within COQS were examined. Firstly, a prolonged rest-like meditative state, maintaining a relatively low energy level and showing both activation and deactivation of certain brain regions, was observed. Secondly, a higher energy state was found, showing different pattern with only positive activation of certain brain regions. In particular, it appears that there is a correlation between pineal activation and this high energy meditation practice. Also, the pineal body seems concerning with the “upper elixir field” which is an important region in Daoist meditation. Our results provide new evidence for a seldom studied aspect of human physiological performance which has life science implications. Also, a multidimensional quantum model of brain activity is established to offer a scientific description more properly.

Meditation induces a distinct and reversible mental state that provides insights into brain correlates of consciousness. We explored brain network changes related to meditation by graph theoretical analysis of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. Eighteen Taoist meditators with varying levels of expertise were scanned using a within-subjects counterbalanced design during resting and meditation states. State-related differences in network topology were measured globally and at the level of individual nodes and edges. Although measures of global network topology, such as small-worldness, were unchanged, meditation was characterized by an extensive and expertise-dependent reorganization of the hubs (highly connected nodes) and edges (functional connections). Areas of sensory cortex, especially the bilateral primary visual and auditory cortices, and the bilateral temporopolar areas, which had the highest degree (or connectivity) during the resting state, showed the biggest decrease during meditation. Conversely, bilateral thalamus and components of the default mode network, mainly the bilateral precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex, had low degree in the resting state but increased degree during meditation. Additionally, these changes in nodal degree were accompanied by reorganization of anatomical orientation of the edges. During meditation, long-distance longitudinal (antero-posterior) edges increased proportionally, whereas orthogonal long-distance transverse (right-left) edges connecting bilaterally homologous cortices decreased. Our findings suggest that transient changes in consciousness associated with meditation introduce convergent changes in the topological and spatial properties of brain functional networks, and the anatomical pattern of integration might be as important as the global level of integration when considering the network basis for human consciousness.

BackgroundThe Internet has become a popular venue for facilitating sex networking for men who have sex with men (MSM). ObjectiveThe study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Internet popular opinion leaders (iPOL) in disseminating information about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), increasing the frequency of HIV testing, and reducing risky behaviors among MSM in Taiwan. MethodsA quasi-experimental study with a nonequivalent control website for comparison was used to estimate the effectiveness of iPOL. A community-level intervention, iPOL, was conducted at the Facebook social networking website and at top1069 as a control. The iPOLs actively disseminated HIV-related information via the platform of Internet opinion leaders and AIDS information center, and discussed and responded to questions or replied to Internet-using MSM. ResultsA total of 369 iPOLs posted 432 articles and 503 replies to others, influencing 959,088 persons on Facebook. A total of 1037 MSM, 552 (53.23%) from an intervention website and 485 (46.76%) from a control website, participated in the follow-up study survey (response rate 96%). At the 6-month follow-up after the intervention was conducted, MSM who visited the intervention website were more likely to receive HIV-related information (25.49% versus 10.47%, P

Background/PurposeSome research has shown that melatonin levels increase after meditation practices, but other research has shown that they do not. In our previous functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we found positive activation of the pineal body during Chinese Original Quiet Sitting (COQS). To find other supporting evidence for pineal activation, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of COQS on nighttime melatonin levels.MethodsTwenty subjects (11 women and 9 men, aged 29-64 years) who had regularly practiced daily meditation for 5-24 years participated in this study. All subjects served alternately as participants in the mediation and control groups. COQS was adopted in this study. Tests were performed during two nighttime sessions. Saliva was sampled at 0, 10, 20, 30, 45, 60 and 90 minutes after COQS and tested for level of melantonin. Time period effect analysis and mixed effect model analysis were preceded by paired t test analysis.ResultsIn the meditation group (n = 20), the mean level of melatonin was significantly higher than the baseline level at various times post-meditation (p < 0.001). Within the control group (n = 20), the mean level of melatonin at various times was not significantly different compared with baseline (p>0.05). These results suggested that the melatonin level was statistically elevated in the meditation group and almost unchanged in the control group after nighttime meditation. The urine serotonin levels detected by measuring 5-hydroxy-indole-3-acetic acid levels were also studied, but no detectable difference between the groups was found.ConclusionOur results support the hypothesis that meditation might elevate the nighttime salivary melatonin levels. It suggests that COQS can be used as a psychophysiological stimulus to increase endogenous secretion of melatonin, which in turn, might contribute to an improved sense of well-being.

The human brain possesses plenty of functions but little is known about its scientific relationship with mind and spirit. Conferences^1,2^ focused on the connection between science and religion were held very recently in which neuroscientists, Buddhist scholars and Dalai Lama discussed attention, mental imagery, emotion, mind, brain functions and meditation, suggesting religious meditation offers an effective means to investigate the mystery of mind and spirit. In the past decade, scientists struggled to obtain brain mappings for various meditation styles using different brain imaging techniques and stimulating results have been observed^3-17^. In this letter we report that, together with other brain regions, pineal body exhibit significant activation during meditation process, supporting the long lasting speculation that pineal plays an important role in the intrinsic awareness which might concern spirit or soul. Pineal is known as an endocrine organ which produces substrates including melatonin and has been ascribed numerous even mysterious functions but its activation during meditation has never been observed by brain imaging technique. In seventeenth century, based on anatomic observation, Descartes ventured to suggest that pineal serves as the principal seat of the soul^18-20^. Inspired by its geometric center in the brain, physiologists, psychologists, philosophers and religionists have been speculating for centuries about pineal's function relevant to spirit and soul. In this study, we chose Chinese Original Quiet Sitting, one style of meditation, to explore this long lasting speculation by functional magnetic resonance imaging technique. Our results demonstrate a correlation between pineal activation and religious meditation which might have profound implications in physiological understanding of the intrinsic awareness.

Since different meditation methods may activate different regions in brain. In this study we chose a basic meditation type that just practiced the breath with the phrase that contained nine words, and the first word was matched with inhaling and following the next with exhaling alternately during the meditation period. Blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) based fMRI were used to examine the brain functions. Experiments showed brain activation areas on the region of thalamus, anterior cingulate, posterior cingulate, middle temporal gyrus, as well as putamen and other activations. It displayed that meditation practice concerned with cognitive functions, however, hypothalamus could be activated during meditation practice, and that might be related with endocrine secretion. But it requires further researches combined BOLD-and CBF-based fMRI technique and physiological signal detection simultaneously to explore the mechanism of meditation.

There exist many different types of meditation. The mechanism why meditation improves people’s health remains unclear. Since different meditations may activate different regions in brain, we can use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate it. We may simply divide meditation into two different types, which is forced meditation (FM) and non-forced meditation (NFM). The FM type may keep a phrase in mind, observe breathing, proceed mind imaging or any other actions to keep people’s attention focused. Chinese original quiet sitting (COQS) is mainly one kind of traditional Chinese meditation. It contains two different parts: a short period of keeping phrase and receiving spiritual energy, and a long period of relaxation with no further action. The second part of it is really what we called “non-forced” type, whereas the first part is normally a forced one. In this paper, we want to find out the brain activation area precisely during FM and NFM. We studied the observing breathing meditation (OBM) and the first part of COQS as the FM type, and also studied the second part of COQS as NFM type. Our experimental results showed very different activation patterns among the brain between FM and NFM. The BOLD (Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent) signal changes had also been found. The posterior cingulated gyrus showed strong activation in OBM, the pineal gland and hypothalamus showed positive activation in the first and second stage of COQS separately. From our results, we found the basic meaning of the mechanism why meditation improves people’s health.