Responsibility modulates neural mechanisms of outcome processing : an ERP study

The role of personal responsibility in decision-making and its influence on the outcome evaluation process have been investigated relatively rarely in cognitive neuroscience. The present event-related brain potential (ERP) study manipulated the subjective sense of responsibility by modifying outcome controllability in a gambling task. Participants reported a higher sense of responsibility and produced a larger fERN when they were told that the game was 'controllable' compared with when they were told that the game was 'uncontrollable.' In addition, fERN amplitude was correlatedwith individual self-reports of personal responsibility over the outcomes. These results indicate that self-attribution of responsibility associated with different degrees of controllability affects the outcome evaluation process and fERN amplitude

Applying lyapunov's method for analyzing rhythms of night breathing of patients suffering from bronchial asthma

This article focuses on the method of analyzing experimental data of people's airflow, who have bronchial asthma, which is a serious global health problem. It presents the results of using the Lyapunov's method - features of people with different types of bronchial asthma

Technological schemes of the formation internal dumps and determination the parameters of excavator`s dumps by working off the deep open pits

Проаналізовані основні схеми внутрішнього відвалоутворення при відпрацюванні глибоких кар’єрів і запропонована класифікація цих схем. Отримана аналітична залежність площі призми зсуву гірської маси від параметрів обладнання і фізико-механічних властивостей скельних порід. Проанализированы основные схемы внутреннего отвалообразования при отработке глубоких карьеров и предложена классификация этих схем. Получена аналитическая зависимость площади призмы сдвижения горной массы от параметров оборудования и физико-механических свойств скальных пород

Control Strategy of Photovoltaic DC Microgrid Based on Fuzzy EEMD

In order to improve the accuracy of power time series regulation of DC microgrid photovoltaic power generation and its hybrid energy storage system, a set of empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) control strategy based on fuzzy algorithm optimization is proposed in this paper. Through EEMD decomposition of photovoltaic power data, a set of eigenmode component functions is obtained, the EEMD power decomposition method is designed, and the EEMD optimization fuzzy control strategy is established. Finally, the effectiveness and accuracy of the controller are verified by simulation experiments. The results show that compared with the ordinary EEMD power decomposition control method, the proposed method can achieve better control effect under different power fluctuation characteristics, improve the strong randomness and fluctuation of distributed generation fluctuation, and has strong applicability

Novel Combined Freeze-Drying and Instant Controlled Pressure Drop Drying for Restructured Carrot-Potato Chips: Optimized by Response Surface Method

Combined freeze-drying and instant controlled pressure drop process (FD-DIC) for restructured carrot-potato chips was developed and its processing conditions were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) with the purpose of improving the quality of products and reducing energy consumption. Three critical variables including the amount of carrot, the moisture content of the partially dried product before DIC treatment, and equilibrium temperature of DIC for the restructured chips were considered. Response parameters such as the final moisture content, color value (L, a, and b), and texture properties of restructured carrot-potato chips were investigated. The results showed that the graphical optimal ranges of FD-DIC drying process were as follows: the amount of carrot was 46–54% w/w, the moisture content of the partially dried product before DIC treatment was 0.20–0.35 g/g, and the equilibrium temperature of DIC was 85–95°C. Furthermore, the numerical optimization suggested that conditions were 47.43% w/w, 0.29 g/g, and 90.57°C, respectively. It could be concluded that the combined drying method of FD-DIC provided the restructured carrot-potato chips with higher quality, as compared to the freeze-dried chips. Considering the relatively high production cost of FD, this novel FD-DIC could be an alternative method for obtaining desirable restructured fruit and vegetable chips

Using patient-collected clinical samples and sera to detect and quantify the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)

BACKGROUND: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused a large outbreak of pneumonia in Beijing, China, in 2003. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect and quantify SARS-CoV in 934 sera and self-collected throat washes and fecal samples from 271 patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS managed at a single institution. RESULTS: SARS-CoV detection rates in sera were highest in the first 9 days of illness, whereas detection was highest in throat washes 5–14 days after onset of symptoms. The highest SARS-CoV RT-PCR rates (70.4–86.3%) and viral loads (log(10 )4.5–6.1) were seen in fecal samples collected 2–4 weeks after the onset of clinical illness. Fecal samples were frequently SARS-CoV RT-PCR positive beyond 40 days, and occasional sera still had SARS-CoV detected after 3 weeks of illness. CONCLUSION: In the context of an extensive outbreak with major pressure on hospital resources, patient self-collected samples are an alternative to nasopharyngeal aspirates for laboratory confirmation of SARS-CoV infection

Community Structure of Bacteria Associated With Drifting Sargassum horneri, the Causative Species of Golden Tide in the Yellow Sea

Golden tides dominated by Sargassum spp. are occurring at an accelerated rate worldwide. In China, Sargassum has started to bloom in the Yellow Sea and led to tremendous economic losses, but the underlying biological causes and mechanisms are still unclear. Although algae-associated bacteria were suggested to play crucial roles in algal blooms, the profiles of bacteria associated with drifting Sargassum remain unexplored. In this study, the community structures and functions of Sargassum-associated bacteria were analyzed using the high-throughput sequencing data of the V5–V7 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene. Molecular identification revealed that the golden tide analyzed in the Yellow Sea was dominated by a single species, Sargassum horneri. They were a healthy brown color nearshore but were yellow offshore with significantly decreased chlorophyll contents (P < 0.01), which indicates that yellow S. horneri was under physiological stress. The structural and functional analyses of bacterial communities indicated that the drifting S. horneri had an obvious selectivity on their associated bacteria against surrounding seawater. Although the bacterial communities phylogenetically differed between brown and yellow S. horneri (P < 0.01), their dominant functions were all nitrogen and iron transporters, which strongly indicates microbial contribution to blooming of the algal host. For the first time, potential epiphytic and endophytic bacteria associated with Sargassum were independently analyzed by a modified co-vortex method with silica sand. We showed that the composition of dominant endophytes, mainly Bacillus and Propionibacterium, was relatively consistent regardless of host status, whereas the epiphytic operational taxonomic units (OTUs) greatly varied in response to weakness of host status; however, dominant functions were consistent at elevated intensities, which might protect the host from stress related to nitrogen or iron deficiency. Thus, we propose that host physiological status at different intensities of functional demands, which were related to variable environmental conditions, may be a critical factor that influences the assembly of epiphytic bacterial communities. This study provided new insight into the structure and potential functions of associated bacteria with golden tide blooms

The drying effect on xanthan gum biopolymer treated sandy soil shear strength

Biopolymers are environmentally friendly materials which have shown their competitiveness in civil engineering. Researchers mentioned that drying is the crucial factor in the behaviour of biopolymer treated soil, but how it influences soil strength is still unclear. This study explains how drying influences biopolymer treated soil strength, especially for the behaviour of xanthan gum biopolymer and sand interaction during the drying. The xanthan gum biopolymer presented limited effect in the sand when water content was in a high level. With the continuous evaporation of water, bonding property from the biopolymer gradually showed up which lead to the increase of the soil shear strength (40 °C oven). However, when sample dried at the 20 °C room temperature condition, the outer surface of the sample was cemented and crystallised by the xanthan gum biopolymer while the inner part was still moist and weak cross-linked, which lead to the weak shear strength. When the water became completely evaporated, samples under those two different drying conditions presented a significant increase in shear strength. But these results were inconsistent as the biopolymers shrank and became brittle which lead to a variability of cohesion of soil strength. The measured biopolymer bonding property presented consistent results to the findings in the direct shear tests. The schematic diagram of sand motion was proposed to illustrate the biopolymer treated sand shear performance and gave the further explanation of variability of biopolymer treated sand strength

Upwelling velocity and ventilation in the western South China Sea deduced from CFC-12 and SF6 observations

This study presents observations of the transient tracers CFC-12 and SF6 in the western South China Sea during the fall of 2015. A CFC-12 maximum was discovered in the western South China Sea at the subsurface layer (150–200 m), which could be traced back to the North Pacific Tropical Water. The transit time distribution approach was used to estimate the ventilation time in this area. The constrained Δ /Γ ratio of 0.5 was obtained using CFC-12/SF6 tracer pair. This ratio is lower than the empirical unit ratio of one as used for previous estimates. Waters in the northern region of the western South China Sea appear younger than waters in the southern region. The water mass corresponding to the salinity minimum has a mean age of ∼67 ± 16 years along the 15º N line (marked by the red dashed rectangle in Fig. 1), which increases to ∼76 ± 18 years along the 10º N line (blue dashed rectangle, Fig. 1). The higher mean ages indicate that the intermediate water was ventilated from the North Pacific, which is far distant from the South China Sea. The column inventory of Cant is ∼31.3 mol C m–2. Upwelling velocities of up to ∼55 × 10–5 m s–1 was computed using the tracer data, indicating that tracer-free water as yet not influenced by human perturbation could be carried to the upper layer by upwelling. Using the transit time distribution derived mean age with transient tracers provides a possible way to determine the ventilation time scale for the study area