Characterizing psychological dimensions in non-pathological subjects through autonomic nervous system dynamics

The objective assessment of psychological traits of healthy subjects and psychiatric patients has been growing interest in clinical and bioengineering research fields during the last decade. Several experimental evidences strongly suggest that a link between Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) dynamics and specific dimensions such as anxiety, social phobia, stress, and emotional regulation might exist. Nevertheless, an extensive investigation on a wide range of psycho-cognitive scales and ANS non-invasive markers gathered from standard and non-linear analysis still needs to be addressed. In this study, we analyzed the discerning and correlation capabilities of a comprehensive set of ANS features and psycho-cognitive scales in 29 non-pathological subjects monitored during resting conditions. In particular, the state of the art of standard and non-linear analysis was performed on Heart Rate Variability, InterBreath Interval series, and InterBeat Respiration series, which were considered as monovariate and multivariate measurements. Experimental results show that each ANS feature is linked to specific psychological traits. Moreover, non-linear analysis outperforms the psychological assessment with respect to standard analysis. Considering that the current clinical practice relies only on subjective scores from interviews and questionnaires, this study provides objective tools for the assessment of psychological dimensions

Preparation, Characterization and Gas Permeation Investigation of Resorcinol-Formaldehyde Polymer or Carbon Xerogels/Tubular Ceramic Composites

New very stable composites prepared by deposition of resorcinol-formaldehyde polymer (RF-) or carbon (C-) xerogels into walls of commercial porous tubular ceramics (TiO2-ZrO2 and αAl2O3-γAl2O3) were obtained by a sol-gel process followed by a drying and a pyrolytic (only for C-xerogel/ceramic composites) step. They were characterized by nitrogen adsorption-desorption, SEM and XRD, and tested for gas (H2, CH4, CO2 and CO) separation applications. Additional morpho-structural information about the open-interconnected ultramicropore structure of composites was found by gas permeation investigation. Interesting results for H2 permeance was obtained especially for RF-polymer/ceramic composites respecting Knudsen diffusion mechanism of gas permeance: H2 > CH4 > CO > CO2. The coexistence of Knudsen and surface diffusion mechanisms were confirmed.Postprint (published version

Assessment procedure for the soft skills requested by Industry 4.0

In the context of an increasingly more performant global and informational environment, as the one found in the virtual organization, the process of selecting and evaluating the human resources holds a particular important role. The premise behind this article is that of the need to adapt the human resource performance to the requests of the industry 4.0 being supported by the organizational culture. Following the analysis of the state of the art literature we concluded that there is no clear procedure for the assessment of the constellation of skills and personal qualities – soft skills requested by industry 4.0. These capabilities should complete professional technical hard-skills; the procedure should provide a map for the constellation of capabilities necessary to adapt and perform, in specific industry 4.0 activities. Current psychological evaluation systems consider only some of such requested capabilities not always the most relevant. To solve this problem, we tried to identify and evaluate what we considered as the core of the complex various skills required. Our research was centred on the use of a psychological instrument for evaluating transversal capabilities. The capabilities map needed for the evaluation and selection of the human resource fit to work in the industry 4.0 environment was designed after the application of this complex system of evaluation on successive series of students from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest

Carbon Aerogel as Electrode Material for Improved Direct Electron Transfer in Biosensors Incorporating Cellobiose Dehydrogenase

High mesoporous carbon aerogels (CA) were prepared by a sol-gel method, followed by supercritical drying with liquid CO2 and pyrolysis under inert atmosphere. The morphological and structural characteristics (surface area, pore size distribution and pore volume) of CA were examined by using N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms, TEM, SEM and AFM measurements. CA, dispersed in a chitosan (Chi) solution, was immobilized on the surface of a glassy carbon (GC) electrode aiming to prepare an amperometric transducer able to improve the direct electron transfer (DET) between Phanerochaete chrysosporium cellobiose dehydrogenase (PcCDH) and the electrode. The resulting GC/CA-Chi/PcCDH biosensor was optimized with regards to the loading of CA and PcCDH, as well as pH of the buffer solution. The electroanalytical parameters of the optimized biosensor (maximum current responses (Imax), apparent Michaelis-Menten constants (KM)) were estimated from amperometric calibration curves for lactose. The remarkably high sensitivity towards lactose (133.7±0.2 µA cm−2 mM−1) at the GC/CA-Chi/PcCDH electrode recommends the GC/CA-Chi electrode as an efficient transducer for PcCDH based biosensors, exploiting DET

Preparation, Characterization and Gas Permeation Investigation of Resorcinol-Formaldehyde Polymer or Carbon Xerogels/Tubular Ceramic Composites

New very stable composites prepared by deposition of resorcinol-formaldehyde polymer (RF-) or carbon (C-) xerogels into walls of commercial porous tubular ceramics (TiO2-ZrO2 and αAl2O3-γAl2O3) were obtained by a sol-gel process followed by a drying and a pyrolytic (only for C-xerogel/ceramic composites) step. They were characterized by nitrogen adsorption-desorption, SEM and XRD, and tested for gas (H2, CH4, CO2 and CO) separation applications. Additional morpho-structural information about the open-interconnected ultramicropore structure of composites was found by gas permeation investigation. Interesting results for H2 permeance was obtained especially for RF-polymer/ceramic composites respecting Knudsen diffusion mechanism of gas permeance: H2 > CH4 > CO > CO2. The coexistence of Knudsen and surface diffusion mechanisms were confirmed

Preparation, Characterization and Gas Permeation Investigation of Resorcinol-Formaldehyde Polymer or Carbon Xerogels/Tubular Ceramic Composites

New very stable composites prepared by deposition of resorcinol-formaldehyde polymer (RF-) or carbon (C-) xerogels into walls of commercial porous tubular ceramics (TiO2-ZrO2 and αAl2O3-γAl2O3) were obtained by a sol-gel process followed by a drying and a pyrolytic (only for C-xerogel/ceramic composites) step. They were characterized by nitrogen adsorption-desorption, SEM and XRD, and tested for gas (H2, CH4, CO2 and CO) separation applications. Additional morpho-structural information about the open-interconnected ultramicropore structure of composites was found by gas permeation investigation. Interesting results for H2 permeance was obtained especially for RF-polymer/ceramic composites respecting Knudsen diffusion mechanism of gas permeance: H2 > CH4 > CO > CO2. The coexistence of Knudsen and surface diffusion mechanisms were confirmed

Characterization of behavioral activation in non-pathological subjects through Heart Rate Variability monovariate and multivariate multiscale entropy analysis

The objective quantification of psychological traits through Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) biomarkers is of large interest for the clinical and bioengineering scientific communities. Standard procedures, in fact, rely only on subjective scores from interviews and questionnaires. Here we show that monovariate and multivariate multiscale entropy measures are able to characterize the dimension regulating the behavior towards something pleasant in subjects. Such a psychological dimension was quantified through the BIS/BAS scores and investigated with a complexity analysis of Heart Rate Variability and respiratory activity. Results gathered from 29 volunteers show a significant decrease of multiscale complexity in subjects with higher behavioral activation score during the resting condition, supporting the significant role of ANS nonlinear dynamics in cognitive regulation processes

Data for Fodor, L.A., Cotet, C.D., Cuijpers, P, Szamoskozi, David, D. & Cristea, I.A. (2018). Scientific Reports

Effect size data for the article <br>Fodor, L.A., Cotet, C.D., Cuijpers, P, Szamoskozi, David, D. & Cristea, I.A. (2018) "<b>The effectiveness of virtual reality based interventions for symptoms of anxiety and depression: A meta-analysis". </b><i>Scientific Reports</i><b><br></b

Carbon Xerogel Nanostructures with Integrated Bi and Fe Components for Hydrogen Peroxide and Heavy Metal Detection

Multifunctional Bi- and Fe-modified carbon xerogel composites (CXBiFe), with different Fe concentrations, were obtained by a resorcinol&ndash;formaldehyde sol&ndash;gel method, followed by drying in ambient conditions and pyrolysis treatment. The morphological and structural characterization performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, N2 adsorption/desorption porosimetry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning/transmission electron microscopy (STEM) analyses, indicates the formation of carbon-based nanocomposites with integrated Bi and Fe oxide nanoparticles. At higher Fe concentrations, Bi-Fe-O interactions lead to the formation of hybrid nanostructures and off-stoichiometric Bi2Fe4O9 mullite-like structures together with an excess of iron oxide nanoparticles. To examine the effect of the Fe content on the electrochemical performance of the CXBiFe composites, the obtained powders were initially dispersed in a chitosan solution and applied on the surface of glassy carbon electrodes. Then, the multifunctional character of the CXBiFe systems is assessed by involving the obtained modified electrodes for the detection of different analytes, such as biomarkers (hydrogen peroxide) and heavy metal ions (i.e., Pb2+). The achieved results indicate a drop in the detection limit for H2O2 as Fe content increases. Even though the current results suggest that the surface modifications of the Bi phase with Fe and O impurities lower Pb2+ detection efficiencies, Pb2+ sensing well below the admitted concentrations for drinkable water is also noticed