Kinetic analysis using square-wave stimulation in modulation excitation spectroscopy: Mixing property of a flow-through PM-IRRAS cell

Abstract Square-wave stimulation used in modulation excitation spectroscopy [D. Baurecht, U.P. Fringeli, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 72 (2001) 3782] can have significant advantages over a simple sinusoidal-wave due to the high odd-frequency terms contained in square-wave, particularly when a system response is close to linear. Phase-sensitive detection (PSD) affords separating the signals of the different frequency terms with a high signal-to-noise ratio by averaging a number of modulation cycles. A modulation excitation experiment applying square-wave stimulation provides the same information as several experiments applying sinusoidal-wave stimulations at the same frequency as the square-wave stimulation and at higher frequencies. The amplitude and the phase lag of a response obtained by PSD at fundamental and higher frequencies using square-wave stimulation are related to the ones obtained by sinusoidal-wave stimulation using transfer function of a general system. Mixing property of a PM-IRRAS (polarization-modulation infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy) flow-through cell was studied by a simple mixing tank model using square-wave concentration stimulation. The advantages of square-wave stimulation are shown by the characterization of the mixing property

Effects of Pubertal Timing on Communication Behaviors and Stress Reactivity in Young Women During Conflict Discussions with their Mothers

Abstract Individuation, a process whereby adolescents gain autonomy from their parents while maintaining emotional relatedness, is displayed by characteristic styles of verbal exchanges. Negotiating this developmental transition is often stressful for adolescents and their parents. This study deals with the association between pubertal timing, communication behaviors, and stress reactivity assessed during young females' conflict discussions with their mothers. A sample of N = 32 girls (age 9-13, T1) was grouped by pubertal timing. Years later (age 17-22, T2) they were followed up and videotapes of daughter-mother conflict discussions were evaluated. Salivary alpha-amylase was used to assess the stress reactivity. Results revealed that young women who had entered puberty early were higher in striving for control and separation in interactions with their mothers, and displayed higher stress levels. These results pointed to less successful individuation in late adolescence/young adulthood compared to ontime and late maturing age mates

Diagnostic Accuracy of Loopamp Trypanosoma brucei Detection Kit for Diagnosis of Human African Trypanosomiasis in Clinical Samples

Abstract Background: Molecular methods have great potential for sensitive parasite detection in the diagnosis of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), but the requirements in terms of laboratory infrastructure limit their use to reference centres. A recently developed assay detects the Trypanozoon repetitive insertion mobile element (RIME) DNA under isothermal amplification conditions and has been transformed into a ready-to-use kit format, the Loopamp Trypanosoma brucei. In this study, we have evaluated the diagnostic performance of the Loopamp Trypanosoma brucei assay (hereafter called LAMP) in confirmed T.b. gambiense HAT patients, HAT suspects and healthy endemic controls from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

CrypTFlow2: Practical 2-Party Secure Inference

We present CrypTFlow2, a cryptographic framework for secure inference over realistic Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) using secure 2-party computation. CrypTFlow2 protocols are both correct -- i.e., their outputs are bitwise equivalent to the cleartext execution -- and efficient -- they outperform the state-of-the-art protocols in both latency and scale. At the core of CrypTFlow2, we have new 2PC protocols for secure comparison and division, designed carefully to balance round and communication complexity for secure inference tasks. Using CrypTFlow2, we present the first secure inference over ImageNet-scale DNNs like ResNet50 and DenseNet121. These DNNs are at least an order of magnitude larger than those considered in the prior work of 2-party DNN inference. Even on the benchmarks considered by prior work, CrypTFlow2 requires an order of magnitude less communication and 20x-30x less time than the state-of-the-art

A High-End Virtual Reality Setup for the Study of Mental Rotations

International audienceMental rotation is the capacity to predict the orientation of an object or the layout of a scene after a change in viewpoint. Previous studies have shown that the cogni-tive cost of mental rotations is reduced when the viewpoint change results from the observer's motion rather than the object or spatial layout's rotation. The classical interpretation for these findings involves the use of automatic updating mechanisms triggered during self-motion. Nevertheless, little is known about how this process is triggered and particularly how sensory cues combine in order to facilitate mental rotations. The previously existing setups, either real or virtual, did not allow disentangling the different sensory contributions, which motivated the development of a new high-end virtual reality platform overcoming these technical limitations. In the present paper we will start by a didactic review of the literature on mental rotations and expose the current technical limitations. Then we will fully describe the experimental platform that was developed at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen. The setup consisted of a cabin mounted on the top of a six degree-of-freedom Stewart platform inside of which was an adjustable seat, a physical table with a screen embedded, and a large projection screen. A 5-PC cluster running Virtools was used to drive the platform and render the two passive stereovision scenes that were displayed on the table and background screens. Finally, we will present the experiment using this setup that allowed repli-cating the classical advantage found for a moving observer, which validates our setup. We will conclude by discussing the experimental validation and the advantages of such a setup