122,929 research outputs found
Neurologic Abnormalities in Workers of a 1-Bromopropane Factory
We reported recently that 1-bromopropane (1-BP; n-propylbromide, CAS Registry no. 106-94-5), an alternative to ozone-depleting solvents, is neurotoxic and exhibits reproductive toxicity in rats. The four most recent case reports suggested possible neurotoxicity of 1-BP in workers. The aim of the present study was to establish the neurologic effects of 1-BP in workers and examine the relationship with exposure levels. We surveyed 27 female workers in a 1-BP production factory and compared 23 of them with 23 age-matched workers in a beer factory as controls. The workers were interviewed and examined by neurologic, electrophysiologic, hematologic, biochemical, neurobehavioral, and postural sway tests. 1-BP exposure levels were estimated with passive samplers. Tests with a tuning fork showed diminished vibration sensation of the foot in 15 workers exposed to 1-BP but in none of the controls. 1-BP factory workers showed significantly longer distal latency in the tibial nerve than did the controls but no significant changes in motor nerve conduction velocity. Workers also displayed lower values in sensory nerve conduction velocity in the sural nerve, backward recalled digits, Benton visual memory test scores, pursuit aiming test scores, and five items of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) test (tension, depression, anxiety, fatigue, and confusion) compared with controls matched for age and education. Workers hired after May 1999, who were exposed to 1-BP only (workers hired before 1999 could have also been exposed to 2-BP), showed similar changes in vibration sense, distal latency, Benton test scores, and depression and fatigue in the POMS test. Time-weighted average exposure levels in the workers were 0.34–49.19 ppm. Exposure to 1-BP could adversely affect peripheral nerves or/and the central nervous system
Maximized Posteriori Attributes Selection from Facial Salient Landmarks for Face Recognition
This paper presents a robust and dynamic face recognition technique based on
the extraction and matching of devised probabilistic graphs drawn on SIFT
features related to independent face areas. The face matching strategy is based
on matching individual salient facial graph characterized by SIFT features as
connected to facial landmarks such as the eyes and the mouth. In order to
reduce the face matching errors, the Dempster-Shafer decision theory is applied
to fuse the individual matching scores obtained from each pair of salient
facial features. The proposed algorithm is evaluated with the ORL and the IITK
face databases. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and
potential of the proposed face recognition technique also in case of partially
occluded faces.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
Large Perceptual Distortions Of Locomotor Action Space Occur In Ground-Based Coordinates: Angular Expansion And The Large-Scale Horizontal-Vertical Illusion
What is the natural reference frame for seeing large-scale spatial scenes in locomotor action space? Prior studies indicate an asymmetric angular expansion in perceived direction in large-scale environments: Angular elevation relative to the horizon is perceptually exaggerated by a factor of 1.5, whereas azimuthal direction is exaggerated by a factor of about 1.25. Here participants made angular and spatial judgments when upright or on their sides to dissociate egocentric from allocentric reference frames. In Experiment 1, it was found that body orientation did not affect the magnitude of the up-down exaggeration of direction, suggesting that the relevant orientation reference frame for this directional bias is allocentric rather than egocentric. In Experiment 2, the comparison of large-scale horizontal and vertical extents was somewhat affected by viewer orientation, but only to the extent necessitated by the classic (5%) horizontal-vertical illusion (HVI) that is known to be retinotopic. Large-scale vertical extents continued to appear much larger than horizontal ground extents when observers lay sideways. When the visual world was reoriented in Experiment 3, the bias remained tied to the ground-based allocentric reference frame. The allocentric HVI is quantitatively consistent with differential angular exaggerations previously measured for elevation and azimuth in locomotor space. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved
In-ear EEG biometrics for feasible and readily collectable real-world person authentication
The use of EEG as a biometrics modality has been investigated for about a
decade, however its feasibility in real-world applications is not yet
conclusively established, mainly due to the issues with collectability and
reproducibility. To this end, we propose a readily deployable EEG biometrics
system based on a `one-fits-all' viscoelastic generic in-ear EEG sensor
(collectability), which does not require skilled assistance or cumbersome
preparation. Unlike most existing studies, we consider data recorded over
multiple recording days and for multiple subjects (reproducibility) while, for
rigour, the training and test segments are not taken from the same recording
days. A robust approach is considered based on the resting state with eyes
closed paradigm, the use of both parametric (autoregressive model) and
non-parametric (spectral) features, and supported by simple and fast cosine
distance, linear discriminant analysis and support vector machine classifiers.
Both the verification and identification forensics scenarios are considered and
the achieved results are on par with the studies based on impractical on-scalp
recordings. Comprehensive analysis over a number of subjects, setups, and
analysis features demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed ear-EEG
biometrics, and its potential in resolving the critical collectability,
robustness, and reproducibility issues associated with current EEG biometrics
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