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The increasing density of cities poses a huge threat to public health, so pocket parks with high accessibility and flexibility have become potential resources to promote public health. In this context, the ways in which pocket parks can improve public health have become the focus and challenge of current research. This study selected 10 different types of pocket parks in Fuzhou, China, as the research subjects and collected real-time psychological and physiological data of participants by watching videos of the sample plots. The aim was to explore the impact of the environmental characteristics of pocket parks on the psychological and physiological responses of recreational users. The results of the study showed that: (1) the environmental characteristics of pocket parks significantly affect the psychological and physiological responses of recreationists. Different environmental characteristics can affect recreationists' emotional state, attention recovery, environmental preferences, and the indicators of IBI, HR, SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, SCL, and EMG to varying degrees. (2) The environment of pocket parks may encourage recreationists to generate positive psychological benefits when the site is larger and has a higher degree of scenic beauty, and when the space is not effectively confined. A pocket park environment with a low paving ratio, open view, cultural elements, topographic changes, special vegetation and distributing space can also have a positive effect on the psychological benefits of recreationists to a certain extent. Low canopy density and high green visibility can also play a role in suppressing negative emotions. (3) Pocket parks with high levels of depression and off-site disturbance are not conducive to positive physiological responses from recreationists, while pocket parks with high levels of green visibility and beauty and specialized vegetation are more likely to provide health benefits to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been an increase in the prevalence of mental disorders connected with affective dysregulation and insecure attachment. Therefore, it is even more important to understand the interplay between an individual's attachment representation and patterns of emotion regulation. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review to examine this association. PsycInfo, PsyArticles, and PubMed were searched for studies that examined attachment-related differences in emotion regulation in adults. To examine the unconscious attachment representation, only studies using the Adult Attachment Interview or the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System were included. Thirty-seven peer-reviewed studies (with a total of 2006 subjects) matched the PICO criteria. Emotion regulation was measured via four objective approaches: autonomic nervous system, brain activity, biochemistry, or nonverbal behavior. Across all measurements, results reveal a significant correlation between attachment representation and emotion regulation. Secure attachment correlates consistently with balanced emotion regulation, whereas it is impaired in insecure and dysfunctional in unresolved attachment. Specifically, unresolved individuals display counterintuitive responses and fail to use attachment as a resource. Insecure-dismissing attachment is associated with an emotionally deactivating strategy, while on a physiological, biochemical, and nonverbal level, emotional stress is still present. There is still a lack of studies examining preoccupied individuals. In addition to interpreting the results, we also discuss the risk of bias, implications for psychotherapy and coaching, and an outlook for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three waves of hematopoiesis occur in the mouse embryo. The primitive hematopoiesis appears as blood islands in the extra embryonic yolk sac at E7.5. The extra embryonic pro-definitive hematopoiesis launches in late E8 and the embryonic definitive one turns on at E10.5 indicated by the emergence of hemogenic endothelial cells on the inner wall of the extra embryonic arteries and the embryonic aorta. To study the roles of SCL protein isoforms in murine hematopoiesis, the SCL-large (SCL-L) isoform was selectively destroyed with the remaining SCL-small (SCL-S) isoform intact. It was demonstrated that SCL-S was specifically expressed in the hemogenic endothelial cells (HECs) and SCL-L was only detected in the dispersed cells after budding from HECs. The SCLΔ/Δ homozygous mutant embryos only survived to E10.5 with normal extra embryonic vessels and red blood cells. In wild-type mouse embryos, a layer of neatly aligned CD34+ and CD43+ cells appeared on the endothelial wall of the aorta of the E10.5 fetus. However, the cells at the same site expressed CD31 rather than CD34 and/or CD43 in the E10.5 SCLΔ/Δ embryo, indicating that only the endothelial lineage was developed. These results reveal that the SCL-S is sufficient to sustain the primitive hematopoiesis and SCL-L is necessary to launch the definitive hematopoiesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As psychotherapy involves at least two individuals, it is essential to include the interaction perspective research. During interaction, synchrony, i.e., the occurrence of simultaneous responses, can be observed at the physiological, neural, and behavioral level. Physiological responses include heart rate and electrodermal activity; neural markers can be measured using electroencephalogram. Emotionally arousing stimuli are allocated more attentional resources (motivated attention), which is reflected in physiological activation and brain potentials. Here we present a protocol for a pilot study implementing a new research methodology, and replication of the motivated attention to emotion effect in in dyads. There is evidence that higher synchrony is associated with more positive (therapeutic) relationships. Thus, the secondary outcome will be the association between physiological and neural synchrony and subjective ratings. Methods and design: Individuals (18-30 years) will participate in same-sex pairs in two experiments. In the first experiment (triadic interaction), both participants attentively watch unpleasant, neutral and pleasant pictures, and read/listen to standardized scripts (unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant, respectively) for the imagination task. In the second experiment, participants will read out three scripts (unpleasant, neutral, pleasant) to each other, followed by a joint imagination period. Stimuli will be presented in counterbalanced orders. After each picture and imagination, participants rate their subjective arousal and valence. In the beginning and in the end of the procedure, dyads rate their relationship, sympathy, and bonds (Working Alliance Inventory subscale). Heart rate, electrodermal activity and electroencephalogram will be continuously measured during both experiments using portable devices (EcgMove4 and EdaMove4, ninechannel B-Alert X-Series mobile-wireless EEG). Synchrony analyses will include the dual electroencephalography analysis pipeline, correlational analyses and Actor-Partner Interdependence Models. Discussion: The present study protocol provides an experimental approach to investigate interpersonal synchrony during emotion processing, allowing for the establishment of research methods in a pilot study, which can later be translated into real-life psychotherapy research. In the future, fundamental understanding of such mechanisms in dyadic interactions is essential in order to promote therapeutic relationships, and thus, treatment effectiveness and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large-scale access of distributed power puts forward higher requirements for the monitoring of the distribution networks, and the topology identification of low-voltage power lines can effectively promote the integration of monitoring data and the distribution network information, effectively realizing the rapid identification of faults and ensuring the safety of users. In this paper, the method of graph theory was used to simplify the analysis of low-voltage lines, and the full topology identification strategy was proposed. Based on IEC 61850 SCL topology configuration information, line topology identification within the region was realized, and the correlation between regions was determined by the injection method. According to the configuration information, regional association information, and user's collection information, the low-voltage station area line topology was divided into known regional topology and unknown regional topology. Aiming for the identification of line topology in the unknown region, according to the similarity of voltage fluctuations over short electrical distances, clustering analysis of user's voltage data in the unknown region was carried out based on the k-means clustering algorithm. The test results showed that this scheme can realize the identification of topology in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning methods have given ways of those aided by technological advances. The approach known as Student-Centered Learning (SCL) is the foundation of e-learning. Furthermore, SCL demands students to be self-motivated to complete courses and engage with the offered learning content. Programming is one of the most important subjects to study independently and with the aid of an instructor. The need for graduates with programming and computational skills in the field of web design continues to receive widespread attention from the industry. However, problems such as low student engagement are often encountered in learning about programming concepts and syntax. Gamification is an instructional approach to facilitate learning and boost motivation through game elements, mechanics, and thinking. Therefore, this research aims to discuss the development of Gamification-based e-learning to increase student engagement and motivation, especially in HTML and CSS web design. This system was tested using unit, system, and user testing. In user testing, this study involved 264 students from computer backgrounds in validating the system. The results show that the average level of user satisfaction is 4.3 out of a scale of 5.0, indicating that the proposed system gets a good response from users so that the system is ready to be used and integrated into learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroscience has identified that mindfulness meditation induces a state of relaxed alertness, characterised by changes in theta and alpha oscillations and reduced sympathetic arousal, although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aims to address this gap by examining changes in neural oscillations and arousal during mindfulness meditation using both traditional and data-driven methods. Fifty-two healthy young adults underwent electroencephalography (EEG) and skin conductance level (SCL) recordings during resting baseline and mindfulness meditation conditions, both conducted with eyes closed. The EEG data revealed a significant decrease in traditional alpha (8–13 Hz) amplitude during mindfulness meditation compared to rest. However, no significant differences were observed between conditions in traditional delta, theta, beta, or gamma amplitudes. Frequency Principal Components Analysis (fPCA) was employed as a data-driven approach, identifying six components consistent across conditions. A complex delta-theta-alpha component significantly increased during mindfulness meditation. In contrast, low alpha (~9.5 Hz) and low alpha-beta (~11 Hz) components decreased significantly during mindfulness meditation. No significant differences were observed between conditions in the delta, high alpha, and high alpha-beta components. Additionally, there were no significant differences in SCL between conditions, nor were there correlations between traditional alpha or fPCA components and SCL. These findings support the conceptualisation of mindfulness meditation as a state of relaxed alertness, characterised by changes in neural oscillations likely associated with attention and awareness. However, the observed changes do not appear to be driven by arousal. • Mindfulness meditation induces unique changes in neural oscillations. • Frequency Principal Components Analysis (fPCA) offers novel, data-driven insights. • Arousal appears to be unrelated to mindfulness meditation's effects. • Attention and awareness are likely mechanisms of meditation-induced changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mind-wandering is characterised as the emergence of thought and emotions which shift attention away from a primary task. It is thought to consume up to 50 % of our waking lives and has several negative implications. Breath-counting is one task that has been utilised in conjunction with electroencephalography (EEG) to examine the brain states associated with mind-wandering. Research has consistently found reductions in alpha oscillations during periods of mind-wandering relative to breath-focus. It is possible that such fluctuations reflect an arousal mechanism warranting further investigation. Thirty-seven participants completed a 15 min breath-counting task, with simultaneous recording of EEG and skin conductance level (SCL). During this task participants were required to self-identify periods of mind-wandering via button-press. Event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) analysis was used to quantify changes in global alpha power (8–13 Hz) relative to the button press. The −8 to −4 s period prior to button-press was assessed as mind-wandering , and the 4 to 8 s period following the button-press as breath-focus. Relative to breath-focus, mind-wandering was associated with a significant decrease in global alpha power and significant increase in SCL, consistent with perceptual decoupling theory. However, changes in global alpha power and SCL did not correlate. These results suggest arousal is not the primary mechanism underlying alpha changes observed during breath-counting, thus additional processes should be considered. • Mind-wandering was associated with a significant decrease in global alpha power • Mind-wandering was associated with a significant increase in skin conductance level • Global alpha power and skin conductance level changes did not correlate • Arousal is not the primary cause of alpha changes during breath counting [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

miR171 belongs to a highly conserved and ubiquitously expressed microRNA gene family across species that play a critical role in controlling plant growth and development through the regulation of the miR171-SCL (scarecrow-like proteins) module. There is limited research available on the evolutionary relationship and functional diversification of miR171 members. In this study, we identified eight miR171 genes in the mulberry genome by bioinformatics analysis that were subsequently used to compare the evolutionary levels and explore abiotic stress mechanisms mediated by mno-miR171s (Morus notabilis miR171s). The results of phylogenetic analysis showed that the mature mno-miR171 sequences have strong sequence conservation, but their critical sites also exhibit high variation leading to functional diversification. Through quantitative real-time PCR, the expression profile of each mno-miR171 was analyzed under different stress treatments. All mno-miR171s, apart from mno-miR171h, were found to be significantly up-regulated under salt and drought stress conditions. The target genes of mno-miR171a namely, Morus020885 and Morus011800, were predicted and verified using the plural RNA method. 5′-rapid amplification of complementary DNA ends assays further to reveal that the target genes could be degraded by mno-miR171a post-transcriptionally. Overexpression of mno-miR171a in Arabidopsis improved the percentage of seed germination when the seeds were grown in NaCl- and mannitol-containing media. Transgenic plants were observed to grow better under drought conditions. The expression of various stress genes was significantly higher in transgenic plants than in wild type, except ERF11. Taken together, our study confirmed that mno-miR171a enhanced plant resistance to adverse stress environments via the regulation of the SCL targets.

The article addresses the educational project activities implementation at universities as part of the student-centered learning and a means to raise the effectiveness of students’ professional training. The article provides a critical comparison of the basic elements and features of project activities and SCL. The author proposes a three-tier system of teacher – student – teacher and a methodology for project activities implementation, taking into account the basic principles of SCL. In accordance with the developed system, at the first stage, the teacher organizes the student’s activities on the project including his/her discussing the topic, problem, goal, determining their own requirements for the implementation of the project and individual tasks. At the second stage, the methodology determines the organization of students’ self-governing work on the project, taking into account their personal qualities and experience. An active management of self-governing work enables to build an individual educational trajectory of a student, guide his/her personal development. At the third stage, the methodology determines the teacher’s activities to foster mastering the competencies by the students. These activities are necessarily based on partnership interaction and exchange of views between the teacher and students, the student’s personal critical assessment of the project results and its comparison with the work of other students. The author suggests to positively evaluate incomplete or erroneous results in case the way and method to achieve the assigned tasks were correct and use transparent, objective and understandable for students criteria in assessing the results of his work.

BackgroundAs psychotherapy involves at least two individuals, it is essential to include the interaction perspective research. During interaction, synchrony, i.e., the occurrence of simultaneous responses, can be observed at the physiological, neural, and behavioral level. Physiological responses include heart rate and electrodermal activity; neural markers can be measured using electroencephalogram. Emotionally arousing stimuli are allocated more attentional resources (motivated attention), which is reflected in physiological activation and brain potentials. Here we present a protocol for a pilot study implementing a new research methodology, and replication of the motivated attention to emotion effect in in dyads. There is evidence that higher synchrony is associated with more positive (therapeutic) relationships. Thus, the secondary outcome will be the association between physiological and neural synchrony and subjective ratings.Methods and designIndividuals (18−30 years) will participate in same-sex pairs in two experiments. In the first experiment (triadic interaction), both participants attentively watch unpleasant, neutral and pleasant pictures, and read/listen to standardized scripts (unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant, respectively) for the imagination task. In the second experiment, participants will read out three scripts (unpleasant, neutral, pleasant) to each other, followed by a joint imagination period. Stimuli will be presented in counterbalanced orders. After each picture and imagination, participants rate their subjective arousal and valence. In the beginning and in the end of the procedure, dyads rate their relationship, sympathy, and bonds (Working Alliance Inventory subscale). Heart rate, electrodermal activity and electroencephalogram will be continuously measured during both experiments using portable devices (EcgMove4 and EdaMove4, nine-channel B-Alert X-Series mobile-wireless EEG). Synchrony analyses will include the dual electroencephalography analysis pipeline, correlational analyses and Actor–Partner Interdependence Models.DiscussionThe present study protocol provides an experimental approach to investigate interpersonal synchrony during emotion processing, allowing for the establishment of research methods in a pilot study, which can later be translated into real-life psychotherapy research. In the future, fundamental understanding of such mechanisms in dyadic interactions is essential in order to promote therapeutic relationships, and thus, treatment effectiveness and efficiency.

Electrodermal signals are commonly used outcome measures in research on arousal, emotion, and habituation. Recently, we reported on heterogeneity in skin conductance response quantification approaches and its impact on replicability. Here we provide complementary work focusing on within‐approach heterogeneity of specifications for skin conductance response quantification. We focus on heterogeneity within the baseline‐correction approach (BLC) which appeared as particularly heterogeneous—for instance with respect to the pre‐CS baseline window duration, the start, and end of the peak detection window. We systematically scrutinize the robustness of results when applying different BLC approach specifications to one representative pre‐existing data set (N = 118) in a (partly) pre‐registered study. We report high agreement between different BLC approaches for US and CS+ trials, but moderate to poor agreement for CS− trials. Furthermore, a specification curve of the main effect of CS discrimination during fear acquisition training from all potential and reasonable combinations of specifications (N = 150) and a prototypical trough‐to‐peak (TTP) approach indicates that resulting effect sizes are largely comparable. A second specification curve (N = 605 specific combinations) highlights a strong impact of different transformation types. Crucially, however, we show that BLC approaches often misclassify the peak value—particularly for CS− trials, leading to stimulus‐specific biases and challenges for post‐processing and replicability of CS discrimination across studies applying different approaches. Lastly, we investigate how negative skin conductance values in BLC, appearing most frequently for CS− (CS− > CS+ > US), correspond to values in TTP quantification. We discuss the results considering prospects and challenges of the multiverse approach and future directions. This study navigates through the robustness of different non‐model based skin conductance quantification approaches. Systematic multiverse perspectives on different ways to quantify the data highlight that even with overall high agreement and replicability of large effects between different quantification approaches, caution is warranted in light of systematic biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fatigue is a significant safety concern across various domains, and accurate detection is vital. However, the commonly employed fine-grained labels (seconds-based) frequently inherit coarse-grained labels (minutes-based or more), inevitably introducing noise due to fatigue states' dynamic and time-varying nature. Compared to noise in existing image tasks, fatigue noise is complex and diverse, with relatively ambiguous category boundaries. To address this issue, we propose a novel class-level fatigue noise-tolerant supervised comparative learning (cFNSCL) method that explores the data structure within each class, extracts trustworthy samples, and encourages the learning of distinguishable representations against noise. Specifically, supervised contrastive learning (SCL) is introduced to deal with complex and variable noise, and a dynamic noise-tolerant contrastive loss (DNCL) that incorporates a novel class-level confidence assessment mechanism (CCAM) is designed. CCAM selects high-confidence samples for DNCL learning, significantly alleviating SCL's sensitivity to noise and enhancing the model's tolerance to noise. Additionally, a novel class-level trustworthy sample extraction (cTSE) method from the perspective of inherited label categories to improve the model's representative ability is proposed. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of cFNSCL on both synthetic and real-world noisy datasets over some state-of-the-art methods. Specifically, it improves the accuracy by an average of 6.11% and 6.95% on the two real-world datasets, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been an increase in the prevalence of mental disorders connected with affective dysregulation and insecure attachment. Therefore, it is even more important to understand the interplay between an individual’s attachment representation and patterns of emotion regulation. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review to examine this association. PsycInfo, PsyArticles, and PubMed were searched for studies that examined attachment-related differences in emotion regulation in adults. To examine the unconscious attachment representation, only studies using the Adult Attachment Interview or the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System were included. Thirty-seven peer-reviewed studies (with a total of 2006 subjects) matched the PICO criteria. Emotion regulation was measured via four objective approaches: autonomic nervous system, brain activity, biochemistry, or nonverbal behavior. Across all measurements, results reveal a significant correlation between attachment representation and emotion regulation. Secure attachment correlates consistently with balanced emotion regulation, whereas it is impaired in insecure and dysfunctional in unresolved attachment. Specifically, unresolved individuals display counterintuitive responses and fail to use attachment as a resource. Insecure-dismissing attachment is associated with an emotionally deactivating strategy, while on a physiological, biochemical, and nonverbal level, emotional stress is still present. There is still a lack of studies examining preoccupied individuals. In addition to interpreting the results, we also discuss the risk of bias, implications for psychotherapy and coaching, and an outlook for future research.

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α is a proinflammatory cytokine that plays an important role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. The aim of the study was to establish an association between TNF-α promoter variability and systemic sclerosis (SSc). The study included 43 SSc patients and 74 controls. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs361525, rs1800629, rs1799724, and rs1799964) located at the promoter of the TNFA gene were genotyped using commercially available TaqMan allelic discrimination assays with real-time PCR. The rs1799724 allele was associated with an increased SSc susceptibility (p = 0.028). In turn, none of the polymorphisms studied were related to the clinical and laboratory parameters of SSc patients, except for a higher prevalence of anti-Ro52 antibodies in the AG rs1800629 genotype in comparison to GG carriers (p = 0.04). Three of four cancer patients had both CT rs1799964 and AG rs361525 genotypes; thus, both of them were related to the increased risk of cancer, as compared to the TT (p = 0.03) and GG carriers (p = 0.0003), respectively. The TNFA C rs1799724 variant is associated with an increased risk of SSc, while the CT rs1799964 and AG rs361525 genotypes might enhance cancer susceptibility in SSc patients, although large observational and experimental studies are needed to verify the above hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a country closely relates to how its national education system is enhanced to address current challenges. Despite an increasing interest in improving the quality of academic-oriented education in Malaysia, research on enhancing the learning quality of Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) remains lacking. Surveying the involvement of TVET students in Student-Centered Learning (SCL), this quantitative study identifies the level of students’ learning motivation and some contributing factors to their involvement in SCL activities. The methodology of the study was a quantitative survey design using questionnaires. Respondents were students of Diploma in Electrical Engineering Technology at Institut Kemahiran MARA (IKM) and Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi MARA (KKTM). A total of 296 responses were received and data analysis was performed using descriptive analysis and inferential statistics. In this study, students participated and were highly motivated while working and learning in an SCL environment. There is a strong positive relationship between students’ participation or involvement factors and students’ motivation. It can be concluded that the implementation of SCL among TVET students requires support from parents and classmates. Therefore, the study provides some recommendations on how to improve the quality of TVET graduates by strengthening these involvement and motivational factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haploidy refers to the presence of only one set of chromosomes in a cell. In vertebrates, haploid cells can be cultivated in vitro and proliferate continuously, but artificially induced fish and amphibian haploid embryos show lethal "haploid syndrome", and its mechanisms remain incompletely understood. The developmental defect of the circulatory system is the common morphological features in haploid fish embryos. Gynogenetic haploid embryos were produced when eggs were fertilized by UV-irradiated sperm of common carp. Live analysis of embryonic development showed that the blood circulation of goldfish gynogenetic haploid embryos had different phenotypes at the 65% otic vesicle closure (OVC) stage. We sort embryos into three categories: A embryos have normal blood circulation; B embryos have poor blood circulation; and C embryos have no blood circulation. The proportion of B embryos was significantly higher than that of the other two categories. The results of o-dianisidine staining showed that all goldfish gynogenetic haploid embryos contained hemoglobin, but the staining area and intensity of hemoglobin were lower than those of diploid embryos in the same period. These results suggested that goldfish gynogenetic haploid embryos had different degrees of blood circulation distemperedness and erythropoiesis defects. In order to further study the molecular mechanism of developmental defects in circulatory system of goldfish gynogenetic haploid embryos, the expression patterns of scl (stem cell leukemia), gata-1 (gata binding protein-1) and flk-1 (fetal liver kinase-1) during goldfish embryogenesis were compared in gynogenetic haploid and inbred diploid embryos by antisense RNA whole-mount in situ hybridization. Like inbred diploid embryos, the expression of scl and gata-1, the key regulatory genes required for primitive hematopoiesis, could be detected in the posterior lateral-plate mesoderm (PLM) of gynogenetic haploid embryos during segmentation stages. However, at the 14-somite stage, scl and gata-1 expression in PLM shortened along the anterior-posterior axis of haploid embryos. From the 20-somite stage to the 25% OVC stage, scl and gata-1 expression in haploid embryos was reduced in the trunk domain and absent from the midline, which indicated that scl and gata-1 expressing PLM cells failed to migrate towards the midline and the formation of ICM was interfered. At 25% OVC stage, the expression pattern of vascular endothelial marker gene flk-1 was also different between gynogenetic haploid and inbred diploid embryos. In haploid embryos. expression of flk-1 was reduced in the trunk domain, the dorsal aorta and the posterior cardinal vein were structurally disordered and indistinguishable, the intersegmental vessels were arranged vertically with the primitive axis vessels and decreased in number, which could be lost on one side of the trunk domain or completely in the trunk domain. These results suggested that severe developmental defects of ICM and primitive trunk axial vessels caused by PLM abnormal migration to the midline, the decrease of erythrocyte differentiation and peripheral vascular dysplasia may be important reasons for poor blood circulation in goldfish gynogenetic haploid embryos. In addition, live analysis of embryonic development showed that haploid embryos had a range of gastrulation defects. Compared with diploid embryos, initiation and progression of epiboly were delayed in goldfish gynogenetic haploid embryos, which reached bud stage with a 30min-1h delay and had a comparatively shorter body axis. RNA in situ analysis showed that there were severe defects of convergence and extension movement in goldfish gynogenetic haploid embryos. Compared with diploid embryos, the expression region of prechordal plate marker gene gsc (Goosecoid) in haploid embryos was closer to the plant pole at 95%-epiboly stage, and the expression domains of N-cadherin (Neural cadherin) representing the neural plate and mesoderm on the dorsal of the haploid embryos was significantly wider at the 2-somite stage. These results showed that there were severe cell movement defects in gastrulation of goldfish gynogenetic haploid embryos. Combined with the aberrant migration of PLM cells to the midline during segmentation stages, we speculated that extensive abnormal cell movement and migration during embryogenesis may be an important reason for developmental malformations in goldfish gynogenesis haploid embryos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundSelf-reported pain levels, while easily measured, are often not reliable for quantifying pain. More objective methods are needed that supplement self-report without adding undue burden or cost to a study. Methods that integrate multiple measures, such as combining self-report with physiology in a structured and specific-to-pain protocol may improve measures.MethodWe propose and study a novel measure that combines the timing of the peak pain measured by an electronic visual-analog-scale (eVAS) with continuously-measured changes in electrodermal activity (EDA), a physiological measure quantifying sympathetic nervous system activity that is easily recorded with a skin-surface sensor. The new pain measure isolates and specifically quantifies three temporal regions of dynamic pain experience: I. Anticipation preceding the onset of a pain stimulus, II. Response rising to the level of peak pain, and III. Recovery from the peak pain level. We evaluate the measure across two pain models (cold pressor, capsaicin), and four types of treatments (none, A=pregabalin, B=oxycodone, C=placebo). Each of 24 patients made four visits within 8 weeks, for 96 visits total: A training visit (TV), followed by three visits double-blind presenting A, B, or C (randomized order). Within each visit, a participant experienced the cold pressor, followed by an hour of rest during which one of the four treatments was provided, followed by a repeat of the cold pressor, followed by capsaicin.ResultsThe novel method successfully discriminates the pain reduction effects of the four treatments across both pain models, confirming maximal pain for no-treatment, mild pain reduction for placebo, and the most pain reduction with analgesics. The new measure maintains significant discrimination across the test conditions both within a single-day's visit (for relative pain relief within a visit) and across repeated visits spanning weeks, reducing different-day-physiology affects, and providing better discriminability than using self-reported eVAS.ConclusionThe new method combines the subjectively-identified time of peak pain with capturing continuous physiological data to quantify the sympathetic nervous system response during a dynamic pain experience. The method accurately discriminates, for both pain models, the reduction of pain with clinically effective analgesics.

The large-scale access of distributed power puts forward higher requirements for the monitoring of the distribution networks, and the topology identification of low-voltage power lines can effectively promote the integration of monitoring data and the distribution network information, effectively realizing the rapid identification of faults and ensuring the safety of users. In this paper, the method of graph theory was used to simplify the analysis of low-voltage lines, and the full topology identification strategy was proposed. Based on IEC 61850 SCL topology configuration information, line topology identification within the region was realized, and the correlation between regions was determined by the injection method. According to the configuration information, regional association information, and user’s collection information, the low-voltage station area line topology was divided into known regional topology and unknown regional topology. Aiming for the identification of line topology in the unknown region, according to the similarity of voltage fluctuations over short electrical distances, clustering analysis of user’s voltage data in the unknown region was carried out based on the k-means clustering algorithm. The test results showed that this scheme can realize the identification of topology in the region.

Despite the unfolding impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on psychological well‐being, there is a lack of prospective studies that target physiological markers of distress. There is a need to examine physiological predictors from the pre‐pandemic period to identify and treat individuals at‐risk. In this study, our aim was to use pre‐pandemic markers of autonomic nervous system (ANS) parasympathetic and sympathetic regulation to predict individuals' psychological well‐being during the crisis. We also assessed the role of mood regulation expectancies as a mediator of the association between pre‐pandemic physiological measures and COVID‐related well‐being. In May to June 2020, 185 Israeli adults completed online questionnaires assessing their mood regulation expectancies since COVID‐19 began, and their current well‐being. These individuals had participated in lab studies 1.5–3 years prior to this assessment, where their physiological measures were taken, including respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and skin conductance level (SCL). RSA was positively related to mood regulation expectancies during COVID‐19 (b = 3.46, 95% CI [0.84, 6.05]). Mood regulation expectancies, in turn, positively predicted well‐being during the crisis (b = 0.021, 95% CI [0.016, 0.027]). The mediation was significant and moderated by SCL (index = −0.09, 95% CI [−0.02, −0.0001]), such that it was strongest for individuals with low SCL. We point to pre‐pandemic physiological mechanisms underlying individuals' mental well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic. These findings have theoretical, diagnostic, and clinical implications that may refine our understanding of the physiological basis of resilience to the COVID‐19 pandemic and thus may be implemented to identify and assist individuals in these times. Our study offers a unique psychophysiological approach to predicting mood regulation and mental well‐being during COVID‐19 from pre‐pandemic resting physiological activity. We show that pre‐pandemic markers of the autonomic nervous system, which were collected during routine 2–3 years prior to the pandemic, allow us to prospectively understand emotion regulation and well‐being during COVID‐19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this paper, a new fundamental cell in positive feedback source coupled logic is presented, which is an improvement over the existing fundamental cell employed in digital circuit design in various high resolution mixed-signal integrated circuits. The operation of the existing fundamental cell relies on using large sized transistor in its centre branch, resulting in significantly larger implementation area. The proposed fundamental cell incorporates multi-threshold transistor in the center branch thereby allowing designer to use reduce its dimension and hence the area. The impact of the proposed modification is examined by configuring the cell as two input exclusive OR (XOR2) gate. The behaviour is analysed in terms of static and propagation delay parameters which are modelled and a design procedure is also elaborated. The theoretical prepositions are verified by designing and simulating for various operating conditions using model parameters of 180 nm CMOS technology node. A maximum error of 27% is observed between the simulated and predicted parameters. The process variation study through Monte Carlo analysis and PVT variations identifies the proposed fundamental cell based circuit as less prone to variations in comparison to existing fundamental cell based counterparts. A full adder, as an application of the proposed fundamental cell, shows a significant (66%) area reduction while delay, power and PDP are within 4% of their corresponding values for the existing one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mental fatigue elicited by working and studying consumed mental resources, thereby eliciting a declined performance and an increased mental stress. The long-term continuous work and study, which is typical for modern workers and students, can increase mental fatigue and health risks. Previous studies reported that the natural environment (i.e., forest and waterside) has a restorative of mental resources (i.e., attention) and reducing stress. However, it is difficult for urban workers and students to take sufficient breaks in real natural environment. We conducted an experiment to examine whether brief and indirect exposure to the natural environment elicits a restorative of attention and reducing stress. Twenty-five undergraduate and graduate students from the university of modern city participated in the experiment. The experiment involved measuring the changes in the task performance of the participants (i.e., sustained attention to response task) and the subjective mental workload (i.e., arousal, valence, and NASA-TLX), while the attention restoration was indexed from physiological response (i.e., skin conductance level, SCL) over time. The participants had two types of resting periods in the middle of the task, i.e., by looking at a blank display (simple break) or by watching a nature video having scenes of, e.g., a forest, small waterfall, and rustling leaves (nature break). The results indicate that the natural environment indirectly depicted through the nature videos does not affect the task performance and the subjective mental workload but decreases the SCL. The results of the physiological response suggest that having rest periods depicting the natural environment, even if indirectly and briefly, can restore the directed attention (i.e., mental resources) for the task. This experiment revealed a useful method of resting for urban workers and students to restore their attention to a task.

Powdered xBaWO4/(1 − x)CaWO4 where (x = 0,0.25,0.5,0.75,1) nanocomposites were synthesized by the co-precipitation method at room temperature (RT). We are reporting DC and AC conductivity and dielectric properties of nanocomposites at room temperature (RT). Structural characterization and HRTEM image confirm interface formation of the nanocomposites. The current density–electric field (i.e., J–E) characteristics of the nanocomposites' studies reveal excellent varistor behavior. Dielectric properties were measured in the frequency 20 Hz–3 MHz at room temperature (RT). The dielectric constant was found to be higher for C2 (0.5BaWO4/0.5CaWO4) nanocomposites as compared to single phase and was maximum for atomic ratio (Ba/Ca) with optimal value of 'x'. DC conductivity (σdc), calculated from Jonscher's power law, of C2 (0.5BaWO4/0.5CaWO4) nanocomposites interfaced is higher than that of single phase, respectively. Enhanced AC conductivity is also observed for C2 (0.5BaWO4/0.5CaWO4) nanocomposites. These enhanced electrical properties of C2 (0.5BaWO4/0.5CaWO4) nanocomposites are due to the space charge layer (SCL) formation at the interface. In detail, conduction models for all the nanocomposites are explained. Thermopower investigations on the nanocomposites resulted in Seebeck coefficient (S) showing a transition from negative to positive values with confirmation n-type semiconductors at room temperature (RT). The enhanced power factor of C3 (0.75BaWO4/0.25CaWO4) nanocomposites is at higher temperature as compared to other nanocomposites. This C2 (0.5BaWO4/0.5CaWO4) nanocomposite can be considered as an efficient multifunctional nanocomposites due to its enhanced optical and electrical properties, and C3 (0.75BaWO4/ 0.25CaWO4) nanocomposite is very good efficient thermoelectric power devices at higher temperature application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will focus on the use of fibre reinforced concrete on the Crossrail project in the UK. Crossrail (now named The Elizabeth Line) is a new railway running from West to East under the centre of London. This railway runs for approximately 14 km underground and five of the new stations were constructed with permanent sprayed concrete linings. Fibre reinforced concrete played a prominent role in all of the tunnelling – both for the segmental linings and the sprayed concrete tunnel (SCL) linings. Having reviewed the context of the project and the state‐of‐the‐art in tunnel design at the time of the design, this paper will describe the design approach for both the TBM and mined tunnels and their fibre reinforced linings. While the segmental lining design followed a conventional approach, the SCL tunnels adopted an innovative design with the first major application of permanent sprayed concrete in the UK and featured the first use of a spray applied waterproofing membrane (SAWM) on a major project in Europe. Performance during construction will be reviewed and conclusions will be drawn on what can be learnt from the mega project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groups serve a variety of crucial functions, one of which is the provision of an identity and belief system that impart self‐referent information, thereby reducing self‐uncertainty. Entitative groups are more attractive for highly uncertain participants seeking groups for identification and self‐uncertainty reduction than less entitative groups. The purpose of the current study was to explore how self‐uncertainty impacts physiological arousal and stress responses. Using a mixed‐methods design (N = 123), we found that self‐uncertainty increased physiological arousal (measured via skin‐conductance level) and stress responses (measured via heart rate). Furthermore, we found that uncertainty‐activated physiological arousal and stress responses were decreased through identification with a high entitativity group. Our findings expand upon uncertainty identity theory by identifying physiological mechanisms that motivate uncertainty reduction. The purpose of this study was to explore how self‐uncertainty impacts arousal and stress. Our findings demonstrate how self‐uncertainty increased arousal and stress. Participants' arousal and stress decreased through identification with an entitative group. Results identify aversive mechanisms that motivate uncertainty reduction through identification. Our findings identify physiological mechanisms that motivate uncertainty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mental fatigue elicited by working and studying consumed mental resources, thereby eliciting a declined performance and an increased mental stress. The long-term continuous work and study, which is typical for modern workers and students, can increase mental fatigue and health risks. Previous studies reported that the natural environment (i.e., forest and waterside) has a restorative of mental resources (i.e., attention) and reducing stress. However, it is difficult for urban workers and students to take sufficient breaks in real natural environment. We conducted an experiment to examine whether brief and indirect exposure to the natural environment elicits a restorative of attention and reducing stress. Twenty-five undergraduate and graduate students from the university of modern city participated in the experiment. The experiment involved measuring the changes in the task performance of the participants (i.e., sustained attention to response task) and the subjective mental workload (i.e., arousal, valence, and NASA-TLX), while the attention restoration was indexed from physiological response (i.e., skin conductance level, SCL) over time. The participants had two types of resting periods in the middle of the task, i.e., by looking at a blank display (simple break) or by watching a nature video having scenes of, e.g., a forest, small waterfall, and rustling leaves (nature break). The results indicate that the natural environment indirectly depicted through the nature videos does not affect the task performance and the subjective mental workload but decreases the SCL. The results of the physiological response suggest that having rest periods depicting the natural environment, even if indirectly and briefly, can restore the directed attention (i.e., mental resources) for the task. This experiment revealed a useful method of resting for urban workers and students to restore their attention to a task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Slovak Journal for Educational Sciences / Pedagogika is the property of Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovak Educational Research Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This research is an action research, design in action research designed to looking fo solution to improve japanese teaching process. According to Karwono (2012). The Implementation of action research starting with awareness of the disturbing problem and cause prevent the achievment of education purpose an give dab impact from process and student grade when learning process aplied. Due to those problem then we set the focus of the problem more detail by collecting systematic data with relevan literature review. Things that must be considered is input, process, and output. If in learning process we find incomptability with education purpose or Curiculum then the process must be fixed for education goals, and especially vocational education system. Therefore I try to make a design in the form ofStudent centered learning based on multi media. For technology media using Flash MX, adobe premier, and adobe photoshop program

This paper provides a detailed tutorial on the Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)-aided logarithmic successive cancellation stack (Log-SCS) algorithm. We apply these algorithms for the ultrareliable decoding of polar codes, which has relevance for the control channels of the ultra-reliable low latency communication version of the third generation partnership project (3GPP) New Radio (NR). During the exploitation of the CRC codes to improve the error correction performance, we propose a novel technique which limits the number of CRC checks performed, in order to maintain a consistent error detection performance. In addition, we propose a pair of techniques for further improving the performance of the Log-SCS polar decoder. We demonstrate that the proposed S = 128 Improved Log-SCS decoder achieves a similar error correction capability as a logarithmic successive cancellation list (Log-SCL) decoder having a list size of L = 128 across the full range of block lengths supported by the 3GPP NR physical uplink control channel. This is achieved without increasing its memory requirement, while dramatically reducing its complexity, which becomes up to seven times lower than that of a L = 8 Log-SCL decoder.

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α is a proinflammatory cytokine that plays an important role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. The aim of the study was to establish an association between TNF-α promoter variability and systemic sclerosis (SSc). The study included 43 SSc patients and 74 controls. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs361525, rs1800629, rs1799724, and rs1799964) located at the promoter of the TNFA gene were genotyped using commercially available TaqMan allelic discrimination assays with real-time PCR. The rs1799724 allele was associated with an increased SSc susceptibility (p = 0.028). In turn, none of the polymorphisms studied were related to the clinical and laboratory parameters of SSc patients, except for a higher prevalence of anti-Ro52 antibodies in the AG rs1800629 genotype in comparison to GG carriers (p = 0.04). Three of four cancer patients had both CT rs1799964 and AG rs361525 genotypes; thus, both of them were related to the increased risk of cancer, as compared to the TT (p = 0.03) and GG carriers (p = 0.0003), respectively. The TNFA C rs1799724 variant is associated with an increased risk of SSc, while the CT rs1799964 and AG rs361525 genotypes might enhance cancer susceptibility in SSc patients, although large observational and experimental studies are needed to verify the above hypothesis.

One proposed function of imagery is to make thoughts more emotionally evocative through sensory simulation, which can be helpful both in planning for future events and in remembering the past, but also a hindrance when thoughts become overwhelming and maladaptive, such as in anxiety disorders. Here, we report a novel test of this theory using a special population with no visual imagery: aphantasia. After using multi-method verification of aphantasia, we show that this condition, but not the general population, is associated with a flat-line physiological response (skin conductance levels) to reading and imagining frightening stories. Importantly, we show in a second experiment that this difference in physiological responses to fear-inducing stimuli is not found when perceptually viewing fearful images. These data demonstrate that the aphantasic individuals' lack of a physiological response when imaging scenarios is likely to be driven by their inability to visualize and is not due to a general emotional or physiological dampening. This work provides evidence that a lack of visual imagery results in a dampened emotional response when reading fearful scenarios, providing evidence for the emotional amplification theory of visual imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polar codes have already been adopted in 5G systems to improve error performance. Successive cancellation list (SCL) decoding is usually used at the decoder and involves lengthy processing. Therefore, different methods have been developed to reduce an SCL decoder's complexity. In this paper, a reduced path successive cancellation list (RP-SCL) decoder is presented to reduce this complexity, where some decoding paths are pruned. The pruning is achieved by using three different thresholds: two for the path metric and one for the pruning depth in the decoding tree. An optimization procedure is considered to determine the optimum settings for these thresholds. The simulation tests are carried out over models of an additive white Gaussian noise channel and a fading channel by using 5G environments. The results reveal that the proposed RP-SCL decoder provides the complexity reduction in terms of the average number of processed paths at high SNR. Additionally, the computational complexity and the memory requirements decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youths at high risk for depression have been shown to have problems in repairing their own sad mood. Given that sympathetic arousal has been implicated both in the experience and regulation of affect, an atypical pattern of arousal may be one of the factors that contribute to mood repair problems. In the current study, we measured sympathetic arousal of never‐depressed youths at high (n = 56) and low (n = 67) familial risk for depression during sad mood induction and instructed mood repair. Sympathetic arousal was indexed by skin conductance level (SCL) and cardiac pre‐ejection period (PEP); mood repair outcome was indexed by self‐rated affect. High‐risk youths demonstrated increased SCL during sadness induction, which persisted during mood repair; low‐risk youths evidenced increased SCL only during mood repair. Shortened PEP was evident only among high‐risk youths and only during mood repair. Furthermore, shortened PEP during mood induction predicted less successful mood repair in the low‐risk but not in the high‐risk group. The findings suggest that: (a) depression‐prone youths differ from control peers in patterns of sympathetic responses to emotional stimuli, which may impair their ability to relieve sadness, and (b) activation patterns differ across subsystems (SCL vs. PEP) of sympathetic activity, in conjunction with depression risk status. Difficulties in attenuating sadness (i.e., mood repair deficits) appear to be risk factors for depression. It is, therefore, important to understand better how physiological processes facilitate or hinder successful mood repair. In the present study, never‐depressed youths at high familial risk for depression and low‐risk control youths differed in sympathetic activation during sadness processing; sympathetic activation may, therefore, play a role in mood repair deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrodermal activity (EDA) is an electrical property of the human skin dependent on changes in the sympathetic part of a human autonomic nervous system. EDA varies as a result of changes in human psychological state. Nowadays it is used at an increasing rate, because the industry and research institutions are interested in acquiring an objective information about the human emotional state or perception of products, services and tasks. The main reason for the growing EDA popularity is the relatively low cost of the measuring instruments, simplicity of their manufacturing and use combined with relatively fast response time. The paper is a collection of the most important issues regarding EDA monitoring (i.e. electrodes, their placement, acquisition devices and signal analysis) a researcher has to take into account to perform a reliable, accurate and robust electrodermal activity measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 4-bit flash ADC utilizing the advantage of digital-based differential voltage comparator is presented in this paper. This circuit has an advantage of digital circuit concept and can be easily migrated to lower technologies. Also, the digital circuits are less sensitive to the noise and device mismatches can be synthesized and auto place and route (P&R) using EDA tools. The design of the proposed comparator is based on the standard cells implementation. As the proof of concept this comparator is implemented on Xilinx Basys-3 Artix-7 FPGA kit. The prototype of complete 4-bit Flash ADC is designed in 180 nm CMOS technology with 1.8 V supply voltage. The measured values of ENOB, SNDR, SNR and SFDR are 3.6, 23.43 dB, 25.2 dB and 30.1 dB, respectively at 33.20 MHz input frequency and 200 MHz clock frequency. The total power consumed by the 4-bit flash ADC is 2.14 mW. The calculated value of DNL and INL is < 0. 4 LSB and < 0. 5 LSB respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]