Identification of Theophrastus’ pigments egyptios yanos and psimythion from archaeological excavations

Following 4th c. B.C. Theophrastus treatise On Stones, regarding preparation of pigments, blue and white ones coming from fresh archaeological excavations in Attica, Greece, a blue made by Kremer factory and a white reproduced following ancient recipe were all submitted to analytical measurements. New results derived from the application of Infrared Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (IRPAS), Scanning Electron X Ray Microprobe Analyser (SEM-EDS), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy identified their mineralogical content. The Theophrastus’ “psimythion” and “kyanos egyptios” are attributed to the lead white (cerussite and hydrocerussite) and the Egyptian blue (cuprorivaite) respectively.Suivant le traité « Des Pierres » de Théophraste, ive siècle BC, à propos de la préparation des pigments, un pigment blanc et un bleu provenant de fouilles archéologiques récentes en Attique, un bleu fabriqué par le laboratoire Kremer et un blanc reproduit selon une ancienne recette ont été soumis à des analyses physiques. La spectroscopie photoacoustique infrarouge (IRPAS), l’analyse par microscopie électronique à balayage et spectroscopie à dispersion d’énergie (SEM-EDS) et la spectroscopie Raman ont permis d’identifier leur composition minéralogique. Les Théophraste psimythion et kyanos egyptios sont respectivement attribués au blanc de plomb (cérusite et hydrocérusite) et au bleu égyptien (cuprorivaite)

Cross-shift changes in pulmonary function and occupational exposure to particulate matter among e-waste workers in Ghana

IntroductionLittle is known on the association between cross-shift changes in pulmonary function and personal inhalation exposure to particulate matter (PM) among informal electronic-waste (e-waste) recovery workers who have substantial occupational exposure to airborne pollutants from burning e-waste.MethodsUsing a cross-shift design, pre- and post-shift pulmonary function assessments and accompanying personal inhalation exposure to PM (sizes <1, <2.5 μm, and the coarse fraction, 2.5–10 μm in aerodynamic diameter) were measured among e-waste workers (n = 142) at the Agbogbloshie e-waste site and a comparison population (n = 65) in Accra, Ghana during 2017 and 2018. Linear mixed models estimated associations between percent changes in pulmonary function and personal PM.ResultsDeclines in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) per hour were not significantly associated with increases in PM (all sizes) among either study population, despite breathing zone concentrations of PM (all sizes) that exceeded health-based guidelines in both populations. E-waste workers who worked “yesterday” did, however, have larger cross-shift declines in FVC [−2.4% (95%CI: −4.04%, −0.81%)] in comparison to those who did not work “yesterday,” suggesting a possible role of cumulative exposure.DiscussionOverall, short-term respiratory-related health effects related to PM exposure among e-waste workers were not seen in this sample. Selection bias due to the “healthy worker” effect, short shift duration, and inability to capture a true “pre-shift” pulmonary function test among workers who live at the worksite may explain results and suggest the need to adapt cross-shift studies for informal settings

Investigating silent pauses in connected speech: integrating linguistic, neuropsychological, and neuroanatomical perspectives across narrative tasks in post-stroke aphasia

IntroductionSilent pauses are regarded as integral components of the temporal organization of speech. However, it has also been hypothesized that they serve as markers for internal cognitive processes, including word access, monitoring, planning, and memory functions. Although existing evidence across various pathological populations underscores the importance of investigating silent pauses’ characteristics, particularly in terms of frequency and duration, there is a scarcity of data within the domain of post-stroke aphasia.MethodsThe primary objective of the present study is to scrutinize the frequency and duration of silent pauses in two distinct narrative tasks within a cohort of 32 patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia, in comparison with a control group of healthy speakers. Subsequently, we investigate potential correlation patterns between silent pause measures, i.e., frequency and duration, across the two narrative tasks within the patient group, their performance in neuropsychological assessments, and lesion data.ResultsOur findings showed that patients exhibited a higher frequency of longer-duration pauses in both narrative tasks compared to healthy speakers. Furthermore, within-group comparisons revealed that patients tended to pause more frequently and for longer durations in the picture description task, while healthy participants exhibited the opposite trend. With regard to our second research question, a marginally significant interaction emerged between performance in semantic verbal fluency and the narrative task, in relation to the location of silent pauses—whether between or within clauses—predicting the duration of silent pauses in the patient group. However, no significant results were observed for the frequency of silent pauses. Lastly, our study identified that the duration of silent pauses could be predicted by distinct Regions of Interest (ROIs) in spared tissue within the left hemisphere, as a function of the narrative task.DiscussionOverall, this study follows an integrative approach of linguistic, neuropsychological and neuroanatomical data to define silent pauses in connected speech, and illustrates interrelations between cognitive components, temporal aspects of speech, and anatomical indices, while it further highlights the importance of studying connected speech indices using different narrative tasks

2021 BEETL competition: advancing transfer learning for subject independence & heterogenous EEG data sets

Transfer learning and meta-learning offer some of the most promising avenues to unlock the scalability of healthcare and consumer technologies driven by biosignal data. This is because regular machine learning methods cannot generalise well across human subjects and handle learning from different, heterogeneously collected data sets, thus limiting the scale of training data available. On the other hand, the many developments in transfer- and meta-learning fields would benefit significantly from a real-world benchmark with immediate practical application. Therefore, we pick electroencephalography (EEG) as an exemplar for all the things that make biosignal data analysis a hard problem. We design two transfer learning challenges around a. clinical diagnostics and b. neurotechnology. These two challenges are designed to probe algorithmic performance with all the challenges of biosignal data, such as low signal-to-noise ratios, major variability among subjects, differences in the data recording sessions and techniques, and even between the specific BCI tasks recorded in the dataset. Task 1 is centred on the field of medical diagnostics, addressing automatic sleep stage annotation across subjects. Task 2 is centred on Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI), addressing motor imagery decoding across both subjects and data sets. The successful 2021 BEETL competition with its over 30 competing teams and its 3 winning entries brought attention to the potential of deep transfer learning and combinations of set theory and conventional machine learning techniques to overcome the challenges. The results set a new state-of-the-art for the real-world BEETL benchmarks

Athens by Sound

Architecture is not only that which is built. Architecture is made up of different aspects, both material and immaterial. The atmosphere, the sounds, the smells, the possibility of interaction between human bodies: these all constitute characteristics of space, characteristics that are assuming an increasing importance within architectural research worldwide. Within this field of thought about “Architecture Beyond Building”, we focus on one particular non-material spatial phenomenon that lies ‘beyond the built’: sound. We have created, thus, an interactive sonic map of Athens, which presents, in an unexpected way, fragments of the atmosphere of the city. What would a non-visual map look like? What would it feel like if you wandered within a forest of headphones, playing sounds from different places in Athens? How would it feel if you found yourself in a ‘map’ that only appeared when you walked in it? What would it be like if the map only appeared when you invited one more person to be with you? The Greek pavilion addresses these questions through an atmospheric interactive ‘game’, presenting fragments of sounds and visual sequences of Athens. The visitor recreates the space around him through his own presence and movement. The map appears only where he walks, and/or when he invites one more person to sit next to him. The bodies of the visitors react with one another and with the space itself, creating a dynamic, changing field. This walk in the pavilion takes you “out there”, through invisible Athens. The pavilion brings forth the aspects of architecture that are ‘beyond the material’: the ‘beyond the built’, the almost unreachable, elusive aspects of space, such as sound, non-visual senses, atmosphere. It challenges, thus, the limits of architecture, the limits of what can be mapped and re-located and what cannot. An edited collection by A. Karandinou, C. Achtypi, S. Giamarelos, including texts by: Ιntothepill, Katie Lloyd Thomas, Martin Parker, Panayiotis Tournikiotis, Mark Wigley, Dorian Wiszniewski, Leslie Kavanaugh, Stephen Cairns, Jonathan Hill, Vassilis Ganiatsas, Anastasios Kotsiopoulos, Constance Classen, Stavros Stavrides, Ole Bouman, William Mitchell, Richard Coyne, Neil Spiller, Kas Oosterhuis, Nora Schueler, Zissis Kotionis, Stelarc, Andreas Angelidakis, Aristide Antonas, Slavoj Žižek, Nikolaos Laskaris, Argyris Rokas, Andreas Kourkoulas, John Peponis, Yorgos Ioannou, Yorgos Tzirtzilakis, Konstantinos Vita, Dionyssis Kapsalis, United Visual Artists, Platon Rivellis, and Dimitris Filippidis. Contributors to the Greek National Participation to the 11th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia "Out there. Architecture beyond building" (2008) Organised by: Hellenic Ministry of Culture [yppo.gr] General Directorate of Modern Culture Directorate of Visual Arts Department for the Promotion of Contemporary Art Curators: Anastasia Karandinou Christina Achtypi Stylianos Giamarelos Video works by Intothepill net [intothepill.net] Artists: Yiannis Grigoriadis Yiannis Isidorou Lina Theodorou Sound Recording / Sound Design Dimitris Miyakis [movement.gr] Vangelis Lympouridis Exhibition Graphics / Catalogue Design Company [company-london.com] Design and Implementation of interactive environment 2monochannels [2monochannels.com] Audiovisual and interactive systems design / acoustic design / construction supervision Iraklis Lampropoulos Giorgos Lampropoulos Software programming Vassilis Boukis Electronic subsystem design Michail Kritsotakis Electrical Design Giorgos Satolias Interconnection of interactive elements Vangelis Lympouridis [inter-axions.com] Dimitris Miyakis Light design L+DG lighting architects [lightingdg.com] Thomas Gravanis Christina Frangeti Construction Gavrilos Michalis [gavrilos.gr] Digital printing Polichromo [polichromo.com] Translations Rachel Howard Nikos Masourides Catalogue photographs Intothepill – Internet video platform Catalogue published by futura publications Marketing communication Chryssa Vrouzi Communication associate Katerina Stamidi Photographer Cathy Cunliffe [cathycunliffeΑΤgmail.com] For their financial and material support for the Greek participation at the 11th International Exhibition of Architecture, La Biennale di Venezia, we express our deepest thanks to the sponsors: Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation [onassis.gr] Akzonobel [akzonobel.com] Carteco - Architectural Materials & Design [carteco.gr] L+DG Lighting Architects [lightingdg.com] Plaisio [plaisio.gr] Polichromo Advertising Applications [polichromo.com] iGuzzini illuminazione [iguzzini.com] Diathlasis Architectural Lighting [diathlasis.gr

Wired for Her Face? Male Attentional Bias for Female Faces

Under conditions of inattention or deficits in orienting attention, special classes of stimuli (e.g. faces, bodies) are more likely to be perceived than other stimuli. This suggests that biologically salient visual stimuli automatically recruit attention, even when they are task-irrelevant or ignored. Here we report results from a behavioral experiment with female and male subjects and two magnetoencephalography (MEG) experiments with male subjects only, in which we investigated attentional capture with face and hand stimuli. In both the behavioral and MEG experiments, subjects were required to count the number of gender-specific targets from either face or hand categories within a block of stimuli. In the behavioral experiment, we found that male subjects were significantly more accurate in response to female than male face target blocks. There was no corresponding effect found in response to hand target blocks. Female subjects did not show a gender-based difference in response to face or hand target blocks. MEG results indicated that the male subjects’ responses to face stimuli in primary visual cortex (V1) and the face-selective part of the fusiform gyrus (FG) were reduced when male face stimuli were not relevant to the task, whereas female faces maintained a strong response in these areas in both task-relevant and task-irrelevant conditions. These results suggest that within the male brain, female face stimuli are more resilient to suppression than male faces, once attention is drawn to the part of the visual field where the face appears

Transverse Momentum Dependent Parton Distribution/Fragmentation Functions at an Electron-Ion Collider

We present a summary of a recent workshop held at Duke University on Partonic Transverse Momentum in Hadrons: Quark Spin-Orbit Correlations and Quark-Gluon Interactions. The transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs), parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions, and multi-parton correlation functions, were discussed extensively at the Duke workshop. In this paper, we summarize first the theoretical issues concerning the study of partonic structure of hadrons at a future electron-ion collider (EIC) with emphasis on the TMDs. We then present simulation results on experimental studies of TMDs through measurements of single spin asymmetries (SSA) from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) processes with an EIC, and discuss the requirement of the detector for SIDIS measurements. The dynamics of parton correlations in the nucleon is further explored via a study of SSA in D (`D) production at large transverse momenta with the aim of accessing the unexplored tri-gluon correlation functions. The workshop participants identified the SSA measurements in SIDIS as a golden program to study TMDs in both the sea and valence quark regions and to study the role of gluons, with the Sivers asymmetry measurements as examples. Such measurements will lead to major advancement in our understanding of TMDs in the valence quark region, and more importantly also allow for the investigation of TMDs in the sea quark region along with a study of their evolution.Comment: 44 pages 23 figures, summary of Duke EIC workshop on TMDs accepted by EPJ