(Not so) dangerous liaisons: A framework for evaluating collaborative research projects

Cite as: Oztop, P., Loesche, F., Maranan, D. S., Francis, K. B., Tyagi, V., & Torre, I. (2017). (Not so) dangerous liaisons: A framework for evaluating collaborative research projects [Special Issue]. AVANT, 8, 167–179© 2017, Centre for Philosophical Research. With advances in research environments and the accompanying increase in the complexity of research projects, the range of skills required to carry out research calls for an increase in interdisciplinary and collaborative work. CogNovo, a doctoral training program for 25 PhD students, provided a unique opportunity to observe and analyze collaborative processes. We propose a process-oriented framework for understanding research collaborations along two dimensions: interpersonal and project-related. To illustrate the utility of this process-oriented framework, we apply the framework matrix to several collaborations that emerged within the CogNovo program. The framework that we introduce has several advantages over existing metrics. Firstly, we offer a process-oriented-as opposed to product-oriented-evaluation of interdisciplinary and collaborative endeavors. Secondly, we propose a means of assessment that preserves the distinctive profile (or "fingerprint") of a given collaborative project, thus capturing the uniqueness of each project and its environment

Text Line Segmentation of Historical Documents: a Survey

There is a huge amount of historical documents in libraries and in various National Archives that have not been exploited electronically. Although automatic reading of complete pages remains, in most cases, a long-term objective, tasks such as word spotting, text/image alignment, authentication and extraction of specific fields are in use today. For all these tasks, a major step is document segmentation into text lines. Because of the low quality and the complexity of these documents (background noise, artifacts due to aging, interfering lines),automatic text line segmentation remains an open research field. The objective of this paper is to present a survey of existing methods, developed during the last decade, and dedicated to documents of historical interest.Comment: 25 pages, submitted version, To appear in International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition, On line version available at http://www.springerlink.com/content/k2813176280456k3

Modeling the Development of Goal-Specificity in Mirror Neurons

Neurophysiological studies have shown that parietal mirror neurons encode not only actions but also the goal of these actions. Although some mirror neurons will fire whenever a certain action is perceived (goal-independently), most will only fire if the motion is perceived as part of an action with a specific goal. This result is important for the action-understanding hypothesis as it provides a potential neurological basis for such a cognitive ability. It is also relevant for the design of artificial cognitive systems, in particular robotic systems that rely on computational models of the mirror system in their interaction with other agents. Yet, to date, no computational model has explicitly addressed the mechanisms that give rise to both goal-specific and goal-independent parietal mirror neurons. In the present paper, we present a computational model based on a self-organizing map, which receives artificial inputs representing information about both the observed or executed actions and the context in which they were executed. We show that the map develops a biologically plausible organization in which goal-specific mirror neurons emerge. We further show that the fundamental cause for both the appearance and the number of goal-specific neurons can be found in geometric relationships between the different inputs to the map. The results are important to the action-understanding hypothesis as they provide a mechanism for the emergence of goal-specific parietal mirror neurons and lead to a number of predictions: (1) Learning of new goals may mostly reassign existing goal-specific neurons rather than recruit new ones; (2) input differences between executed and observed actions can explain observed corresponding differences in the number of goal-specific neurons; and (3) the percentage of goal-specific neurons may differ between motion primitives

Effect of Microwave Frying on Acrylamide Generation, Mass Transfer, Color, and Texture in French Fries

[EN] The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of microwave power on acrylamide generation, as well as moisture and oil fluxes and quality attributes of microwave-fried potatoes. Concretely, 25 g of potato strips, in 250 mL of fresh oil (at room temperature), were subjected to three different microwave powers (315, 430, and 600 W) in a conventional microwave oven. Microwave frying resulted in an acrylamide reduction ranged from 37 to 83% compared to deep-oil frying. Microwave-fried French fries presented lower moisture and higher fat content than deep-oil fried potatoes. Concretely, microwave-fried potatoes presented values of moisture and texture more similar to potato chips than French fries, nonetheless with lower fat levels (less than 20 g/100 g wb) and acrylamide content (lower than 100 ¿g/kg wb) at the reference time. This study presents an alternative way of frying to address the production of healthier potato chips.The authors would like to thank the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for the PhD scholarship given to Mariola Sansano Tomas.Sansano, M.; De Los Reyes Cánovas, R.; Andrés Grau, AM.; Heredia Gutiérrez, AB. (2018). Effect of Microwave Frying on Acrylamide Generation, Mass Transfer, Color, and Texture in French Fries. Food and Bioprocess Technology. 11(10):1934-1939. doi:10.1007/s11947-018-2144-zS193419391110AACC. (1995). Approved methods of the American association of cereal chemists (9th ed.). St. Paul: The Association.Adedeji, A. A., Ngadi, M. O., & Raghavan, G. S. V. (2009). Kinetics of mass transfer in microwave precooked and deep-fat fried chicken nuggets. Journal of Food Engineering, 91(1), 146–153.Ahrné, L., Andersson, C.-G., Floberg, P., Rosén, J., & Lingnert, H. (2007). Effect of crust temperature and water content on acrylamide formation during baking of white bread: steam and falling temperature baking. LWT-Food Science and Technology, 40(10), 1708–1715.Amrein, T. M., Limacher, A., Conde-Petit, B., Amadò, R., & Escher, F. (2006). Influence of thermal processing conditions on acrylamide generation and Browning in a potato model system. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 54(16), 5910–5916.Andrés, A., Arguelles, Á., Castelló, M. L., & Heredia, A. (2013). Mass transfer and volume changes in French fries during air frying. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 6(8), 1917–1924.Barutcu, I., Sahin, S., & Sumnu, G. (2009). Acrylamide formation in different batter formulations during microwave frying. LWT - Food Science and Technology, 42(1), 17–22.Belgin Erdoǧdu, S., Palazoǧlu, T. K., Gökmen, V., Şenyuva, H. Z., & Ekiz, H. İ. (2007). Reduction of acrylamide formation in French fries by microwave pre-cooking of potato strips. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 87(1), 133–137.Biedermann, M., Noti, A., Biedermann-Brem, S., Mozzetti, V., & GROB, K. (2002). Experiments on acrylamide formation and possibilities to decrease the potential of acrylamide formation in potatoes. Mitteilungen aus Lebensmitteluntersuchung und Hygiene, 93(6), 668–687.Bråthen, E., & Knutsen, S. H. (2005). Effect of temperature and time on the formation of acrylamide in starch-based and cereal model systems, flat breads and bread. Food Chemistry, 92(4), 693–700.Buffler, C. R. (1993). Microwave cooking and processing: Engineering fundamentals for the food scientist. (A. Books, Ed.). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.Datta, A. K. (1990). Heat and mass transfer in the microwave processing of food. Chemical Engineering Progress, 86(6), 47–53.Datta, A. K. (2001). Handbook of microwave technology for food application. CRC Press.De los Reyes, R., Heredia, A., Fito, P., De los Reyes, E., & Andrés, A. (2007). Dielectric spectroscopy of osmotic solutions and osmotically dehydrated tomato products. Journal of Food Engineering, 80(4), 1218–1225. 2.Granda, C., & Moreira, R. G. (2005). Kinetics of acrylamide formation during traditional and vacuum frying of potato chips. Journal of Food Process Engineering, 28(5), 478–493.Lizhi, H., Toyoda, K., & Ihara, I. (2008). Dielectric properties of edible oils and fatty acids as a function of frequency, temperature, moisture and composition. Journal of Food Engineering, 88(2), 151–158.Oztop, M. H., Sahin, S., & Sumnu, G. (2007). Optimization of microwave frying of potato slices by using Taguchi technique. Journal of Food Engineering, 79(1), 83–91.Parikh, A., & Takhar, P. S. (2016). Comparison of microwave and conventional frying on quality attributes and fat content of potatoes. Journal of Food Science, 81(11), E2743–E2755.Pedreschi, F., & Moyano, P. (2005). Oil uptake and texture development in fried potato slices. Journal of Food Engineering, 70(4), 557–563.Sahin, S., Sumnu, G., & Oztop, M. H. (2007). Effect of osmotic pretreatment and microwave frying on acrylamide formation in potato strips. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 87(15), 2830–2836. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.3034 .Sansano, M., Juan-Borrás, M., Escriche, I., Andrés, A., & Heredia, A. (2015). Effect of pretreatments and air-frying, a novel technology, on acrylamide generation in fried potatoes. Journal of Food Science, 80(5), 1120–1128.Sansano, M., Heredia, A., Peinado, I., & Andrés, A. (2017). Dietary acrylamide: What happens during digestion. Food Chemistry, 237, 58–64.Schiffmann, R. (2017). 7 - Microwave-assisted frying. In The microwave processing of foods (2nd edn, pp. 142–151). Sawston: Woodhead Publishing.Tang, J., Feng, H., & Lau, M. (2002). Microwave heating in food processing. In X.Young, J. Tang, C. Zhang, & W. Xin (Eds.), Advances in Agricultural Engineering (pp. 1–44). New York: Scientific Press.Tareke, E., Rydberg, P., Karlsson, P., Eriksson, S., & Törnqvist, M. (2002). Analysis of acrylamide, a carcinogen formed in heated foodstuffs. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 50(17), 4998–5006.Taubert, D., Harlfinger, S., Henkes, L., Berkels, R., & Schömig, E. (2004). Influence of processing parameters on acrylamide formation during frying of potatoes. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 52(9), 2735–2739.Venkatesh, M. S., & Raghavan, G. S. V. (2004). An overview of microwave processing and dielectric properties of agri-food materials. Biosystems Engineering, 88(1), 1–18

Joint-action coordination in transferring objects

Here we report a study of joint-action coordination in transferring objects. Fourteen dyads were asked to repeatedly reposition a cylinder in a shared workspace without using dialogue. Variations in task constraints concerned the size of the two target regions in which the cylinder had to be (re)positioned and the size and weight of the transferred cylinder. Movements of the wrist, index finger and thumb of both actors were recorded by means of a 3D motion-tracking system. Data analyses focused on the interpersonal transfer of lifting-height and movement-speed variations. Whereas the analyses of variance did not reveal any interpersonal transfer effects targeted data comparisons demonstrated that the actor who fetched the cylinder from where the other actor had put it was systematically less surprised by cylinder-weight changes than the actor who was first confronted with such changes. In addition, a moderate, accuracy-constraint independent adaptation to each other’s movement speed was found. The current findings suggest that motor resonance plays only a moderate role in collaborative motor control and confirm the independency between sensorimotor and cognitive processing of action-related information

Relevance of genetic testing in the gene-targeted trial era: the Rostock Parkinson\u27s disease study

\ua9 The Author(s) 2024. Estimates of the spectrum and frequency of pathogenic variants in Parkinson’s disease (PD) in different populations are currently limited and biased. Furthermore, although therapeutic modification of several genetic targets has reached the clinical trial stage, a major obstacle in conducting these trials is that PD patients are largely unaware of their genetic status and, therefore, cannot be recruited. Expanding the number of investigated PD-related genes and including genes related to disorders with overlapping clinical features in large, well-phenotyped PD patient groups is a prerequisite for capturing the full variant spectrum underlying PD and for stratifying and prioritizing patients for gene-targeted clinical trials. The Rostock Parkinson’s disease (ROPAD) study is an observational clinical study aiming to determine the frequency and spectrum of genetic variants contributing to PD in a large international cohort. We investigated variants in 50 genes with either an established relevance for PD or possible phenotypic overlap in a group of 12 580 PD patients from 16 countries [62.3% male; 92.0% White; 27.0% positive family history (FH+), median age at onset (AAO) 59 years] using a next-generation sequencing panel. Altogether, in 1864 (14.8%) ROPAD participants (58.1% male; 91.0% White, 35.5% FH+, median AAO 55 years), a PD-relevant genetic test (PDGT) was positive based on GBA1 risk variants (10.4%) or pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants in LRRK2 (2.9%), PRKN (0.9%), SNCA (0.2%) or PINK1 (0.1%) or a combination of two genetic findings in two genes (∼0.2%). Of note, the adjusted positive PDGT fraction, i.e. the fraction of positive PDGTs per country weighted by the fraction of the population of the world that they represent, was 14.5%. Positive PDGTs were identified in 19.9% of patients with an AAO ≤ 50 years, in 19.5% of patients with FH+ and in 26.9% with an AAO ≤ 50 years and FH+. In comparison to the idiopathic PD group (6846 patients with benign variants), the positive PDGT group had a significantly lower AAO (4 years, P = 9 7 10−34). The probability of a positive PDGT decreased by 3% with every additional AAO year (P = 1 7 10−35). Female patients were 22% more likely to have a positive PDGT (P = 3 7 10−4), and for individuals with FH+ this likelihood was 55% higher (P = 1 7 10−14). About 0.8% of the ROPAD participants had positive genetic testing findings in parkinsonism-, dystonia/dyskinesia- or dementia-related genes. In the emerging era of gene-targeted PD clinical trials, our finding that ∼15% of patients harbour potentially actionable genetic variants offers an important prospect to affected individuals and their families and underlines the need for genetic testing in PD patients. Thus, the insights from the ROPAD study allow for data-driven, differential genetic counselling across the spectrum of different AAOs and family histories and promote a possible policy change in the application of genetic testing as a routine part of patient evaluation and care in PD

Experimental investigation on semicircular, triangular and rectangular shaped absorber of solar still with nano-based PCM

This paper shows the results of a novel research conducted with the overall aim of developing a system that can provide continuous desalination. Productivity enhancement of solar stills is regarded as the main purpose of the investigators in desalination field. This paper represents the experimental results in a new approach of paraffin + graphene oxide nanoparticles mixture. The paraffin mixture in a semicircular, triangular and rectangular absorber with paraffin +graphene oxide of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 wt% has been investigated. The finding indicated that for all absorbers, the use of paraffin + graphene oxide in higher weight fractions enhances daily freshwater production. The results showed that the thermal performances are greater applying graphene oxide + paraffin of 0.5%wt with semicircular absorber compared to triangular and rectangular absorber. The achievement of the present paper can be implemented to design more efficient absorbers for solar still parts