Gender Difference of Unconscious Attentional Bias in High Trait Anxiety Individuals

By combining binocular suppression technique and a probe detection paradigm, we investigated attentional bias to invisible stimuli and its gender difference in both high trait anxiety (HTA) and low trait anxiety (LTA) individuals. As an attentional cue, happy or fearful face pictures were presented to HTAs and LTAs for 800 ms either consciously or unconsciously (through binocular suppression). Participants were asked to judge the orientation of a gabor patch following the face pictures. Their performance was used to measure attentional effect induced by the cue. We found gender differences of attentional effect only in the unconscious condition with HTAs. Female HTAs exhibited difficulty in disengaging attention from the location where fearful faces were presented, while male HTAs showed attentional avoidance of it. Our results suggested that the failure to find attentional avoidance of threatening stimuli in many previous studies might be attributed to consciously presented stimuli and data analysis regardless of participants' gender. These findings also contributed to our understanding of gender difference in anxiety disorder

Multi-objective optimisation of thermal and hydraulic performance with various concentrations of hybrid Fe3O4/graphene nanofluids in a microchannel heat sink

An accurate thermal resistance network and an objective function of pressure drop were established for a microchannel heat sink (MCHS) to evaluate the heat transfer and hydraulic performance of hybrid Fe3O4/graphene nanofluids with different concentrations in the MCHS. An optimised geometry of the MCHS with nanofluids at 40 °C under mass concentrations of 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 wt% was obtained through multi-objective particle swarm optimisation (MOPSO). By using the K-means clustering method, a Pareto front of an optimised solution set was divided into three clustering zones with the optimal heat transfer performance, balanced performance, and optimal hydraulic performance. Combined with a comprehensive enhanced heat transfer factor, suggestions for trade-off in these three zones were proposed. The results indicate that the hybrid Fe3O4/graphene nanofluids is an attractive heat transfer medium in the MCHS and the optimised dimensions obtained by the MOPSO can simultaneously reduce the thermal resistance and pressure drop across the MCHS. Nanofluids with higher concentrations can amplify the effects of reducing the thermal resistance without increasing the loss of pumping power when the working temperature of the MCHS increases. The increase in the concentration of nanofluids can constantly decrease the dimensions of the MCHS in the Pareto front. Therefore, ensuring the stability of nanofluids can prevent the resulting pseudo-high concentration from influencing the accuracy of optimisation data

A Computer-Aided Analysis Method of SPECT Brain Images for Quantitative Treatment Monitoring: Performance Evaluations and Clinical Applications

The objective and quantitative analysis of longitudinal single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images are significant for the treatment monitoring of brain disorders. Therefore, a computer aided analysis (CAA) method is introduced to extract a change-rate map (CRM) as a parametric image for quantifying the changes of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in longitudinal SPECT brain images. The performances of the CAA-CRM approach in treatment monitoring are evaluated by the computer simulations and clinical applications. The results of computer simulations show that the derived CRMs have high similarities with their ground truths when the lesion size is larger than system spatial resolution and the change rate is higher than 20%. In clinical applications, the CAA-CRM approach is used to assess the treatment of 50 patients with brain ischemia. The results demonstrate that CAA-CRM approach has a 93.4% accuracy of recovered region’s localization. Moreover, the quantitative indexes of recovered regions derived from CRM are all significantly different among the groups and highly correlated with the experienced clinical diagnosis. In conclusion, the proposed CAA-CRM approach provides a convenient solution to generate a parametric image and derive the quantitative indexes from the longitudinal SPECT brain images for treatment monitoring

STAI-TAI scores of female and male participants in HTA group and T-Test between two genders.

<p>STAI-TAI scores of female and male participants in HTA group and T-Test between two genders.</p

Basic characteristics of coalfield tectonic framework in China

The occurrence of coal-bearing strata in China is characterized by the variety of coal-bearing basins，the remarkable spatial and temporal differences of late tectonic deformations.The main controlling factors，which determine the tectonic framework of coalfields，include geodynamic environment，tectonic evolution，deep structures，tectonic stress，and lithologic combination features of coal measures.The continent of China has experienced multi-stage tectonic movements since the late Paleozoic，and due to the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of continental tectonic evolution and the complexity of basement properties，the coalfield structures present complex and ordered patterns.The coalfield tectonic framework of China can be divided into two major coalfield regions，three coal deformation zones，and five coal occurrence structural areas.Taking coal occurrence structural sub-areas as basic units，the tectonic characteristics of five coal occurrence structural areas in China were summarized in this paper

Isotopic and Hydrochemical Characteristics of the Changqing-Xiaolipu Water Resource, Jinan, Eastern China: Implications for Water Resources in the Yellow River Basin

The Yellow River has played an indispensable role in supporting Chinese civilization because it provides water resources and rich soil for agriculture. This study analyzes the major ions and the isotopic ratios of the hydrogen (&delta;D), oxygen (&delta;18O), and carbon (14C) of groundwater samples to identify the sources of recharge and the impact of the Yellow River on the Changqing-Xiaolipu karst aquifer. The major ion/Cl&minus; ratios generally follow the mixing line between the Yellow River and the karst groundwater recharge in the southern mountain areas, indicating the importance of mixing under natural influences in the Yellow River Basin. The dominant hydrochemical type of karst groundwater is Ca&middot;Mg-HCO3&middot;SO4, whereas that of Yellow River water is Ca&middot;Na&middot;Mg-SO4&middot;Cl. Most karst groundwater consists of 10&ndash;30% Yellow River water, indicating that the water resources of the Yellow River Basin are generally supplemented by the Yellow River. Therefore, the Yellow River must be considered during the characterization of the chemistry and budget of water resources in the Yellow River Basin

A sample stimulus in the invisible condition.

<p>The left image was presented to the non-dominant eye and the right image was presented to the dominant eye.</p

Attention bias and avoidance by neutral, happy and fearful faces in the invisible condition.

<p>Female participants exhibited attentional bias to fearful faces, while male participants exhibited attentional avoidance of fearful faces. This result supported that there was gender difference in HTA population. Additionally, we did not find attentional effects by both neutral and happy faces. Error bars denote 1 SEM calculated across subjects.</p