992 research outputs found
Semiconductor-enriched single wall carbon nanotube networks applied to field effect transistors
Substantial progress on field effect transistors "FETs" consisting of
semiconducting single wall carbon nanotubes "s-SWNTs" without detectable traces
of metallic nanotubes and impurities is reported. Nearly perfect removal of
metallic nanotubes is confirmed by optical absorption, Raman measurements, and
electrical measurements. This outstanding result was made possible in
particular by ultracentrifugation (150 000 g) of solutions prepared from SWNT
powders using polyfluorene as an extracting agent in toluene. Such s-SWNTs
processable solutions were applied to realize FET, embodying randomly or
preferentially oriented nanotube networks prepared by spin coating or
dielectrophoresis. Devices exhibit stable p-type semiconductor behavior in air
with very promising characteristics. The on-off current ratio is 10^5, the
on-current level is around 10 A, and the estimated hole mobility is larger
than 2 cm2 / V s
The effect of induced sadness and moderate depression on attention networks
This study investigates how sadness and minor/moderate depression influences the three functions of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control using the attention network test. The aim of the study is to investigate whether minor to moderate depression is more similar to sadness or clinical depression with regards to attentional processing. It was predicted that both induced sadness and minor to moderate depression will influence executive control by narrowing spatial attention and in turn this will lead to less interference from the flanker items (i.e., less effects of congruency) due to a focused attentional state. No differences were predicted for alerting or orienting functions. The results from the two experiments, the first inducing sadness (Experiment 1) and the second measuring subclinical depression (Experiment 2), show that, as expected, participants who are sad or minor to moderately depressed showed less flanker interference compared to participants who were neither sad nor depressed. This study provides strong evidence, that irrespective of its aetiology, sadness and minor/moderate depression have similar effects on spatial attention
Emotional persistence in online chatting communities
How do users behave in online chatrooms, where they instantaneously read and
write posts? We analyzed about 2.5 million posts covering various topics in
Internet relay channels, and found that user activity patterns follow known
power-law and stretched exponential distributions, indicating that online chat
activity is not different from other forms of communication. Analysing the
emotional expressions (positive, negative, neutral) of users, we revealed a
remarkable persistence both for individual users and channels. I.e. despite
their anonymity, users tend to follow social norms in repeated interactions in
online chats, which results in a specific emotional "tone" of the channels. We
provide an agent-based model of emotional interaction, which recovers
qualitatively both the activity patterns in chatrooms and the emotional
persistence of users and channels. While our assumptions about agent's
emotional expressions are rooted in psychology, the model allows to test
different hypothesis regarding their emotional impact in online communication.Comment: 34 pages, 4 main and 12 supplementary figure
Characteristics and risk factors associated with critical illness in pediatric COVID-19
© 2020, The Author(s). Background: While much has been reported regarding the clinical course of COVID-19 in children, little is known regarding factors associated with organ dysfunction in pediatric COVID-19. We describe critical illness in pediatric patients with active COVID-19 and identify factors associated with PICU admission and organ dysfunction. This is a retrospective chart review of 77 pediatric patients age 1 day to 21 years admitted to two New York City pediatric hospitals within the Northwell Health system between February 1 and April 24, 2020 with PCR + SARS-CoV-2. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the hospital course and laboratory results and bivariate comparisons were performed on variables to determine differences. Results: Forty-seven patients (61%) were admitted to the general pediatric floor and thirty (39%) to the PICU. The majority (97%, n = 75) survived to discharge, 1.3% (n = 1) remain admitted, and 1.3% (n = 1) died. Common indications for PICU admission included hypoxia (50%), hemodynamic instability (20%), diabetic ketoacidosis (6.7%), mediastinal mass (6.7%), apnea (6.7%), acute chest syndrome in sickle cell disease (6.7%), and cardiac dysfunction (6.7%). Of PICU patients, 46.7% experienced any significant organ dysfunction (pSOFA \u3e = 2) during admission. Patients aged 12 years or greater were more likely to be admitted to a PICU compared to younger patients (p = 0.015). Presence of an underlying comorbidity was not associated with need for PICU admission (p = 0.227) or organ dysfunction (p = 0.87). Initial white blood cell count (WBC), platelet count, and ferritin were not associated with need for PICU admission. Initial C-reactive protein was associated with both need for PICU admission (p = 0.005) and presence of organ dysfunction (p = 0.001). Initial WBC and presenting thrombocytopenia were associated with organ dysfunction (p = 0.034 and p = 0.003, respectively). Conclusions: Age over 12 years and initial CRP were associated with need for PICU admission in COVID-19. Organ dysfunction was associated with elevated admission CRP, elevated WBC, and thrombocytopenia. These factors may be useful in determining risk for critical illness and organ dysfunction in pediatric COVID-19
Transcultural adaptation of the Emotion Matching Task: an emotion neuropsychological assessment
Emotions play a central role in children’s relationships. Deficits in emotional understanding have been associated with several neuropsychiatric disorders. In Brazil, however, few psychological instruments are available to assess young children’s emotional development. The objective of the present study was to make a transcultural adaptation of the Emotion Matching Task (EMT). The EMT was translated and adapted by a team of bilingual researches and then back-translated to English. The preliminary versions were assessed by EMT’s authors and by Brazilians specialized judges. The final version was applied in a sample of 50 children between three and six years of age and answered by nine judges in three Brazilian states. The results indicate good semantic equivalence and good agreement with the answers provided (κ= 0.88, Z=95.2, p<0.001). The final version of the EMT was considered appropriate and satisfactory
Towards Real-Time Head Pose Estimation: Exploring Parameter-Reduced Residual Networks on In-the-wild Datasets
Head poses are a key component of human bodily communication and thus a
decisive element of human-computer interaction. Real-time head pose estimation
is crucial in the context of human-robot interaction or driver assistance
systems. The most promising approaches for head pose estimation are based on
Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). However, CNN models are often too complex
to achieve real-time performance. To face this challenge, we explore a popular
subgroup of CNNs, the Residual Networks (ResNets) and modify them in order to
reduce their number of parameters. The ResNets are modifed for different image
sizes including low-resolution images and combined with a varying number of
layers. They are trained on in-the-wild datasets to ensure real-world
applicability. As a result, we demonstrate that the performance of the ResNets
can be maintained while reducing the number of parameters. The modified ResNets
achieve state-of-the-art accuracy and provide fast inference for real-time
applicability.Comment: 32nd International Conference on Industrial, Engineering & Other
Applications of Applied Intelligent Systems (IEA/AIE 2019
Learning to collaborate: Can young children develop better communication strategies through collaboration with a more popular peer
Unpopular children are known to have poor communication skills and experience difficulty in collaborative situations. This study investigated whether pairing unpopular, 5 to 6 year-old, children with a more popular peer would promote more effective collaboration. The study also investigated differences in popular and unpopular children's verbal and non-verbal communication. Thirty-six girls and 36 boys were placed in one of 12 popular, 12 unpopular or 12 mixed pairs. There were no mixed gender pairs. Children were filmed playing a collaborative game. Collaboration in popular pairs was more successful and less disputational than in unpopular pairs. Boys in unpopular pairs broke the rules of the game more often, argued more and did not monitoring their partners' facial expressions effectively. With popular partners they argued less, were more likely to elaborate disagreements, looked at their partner for longer, smiled more and were more likely to offer him a small toy. Unpopular girls' interactions were not markedly disruptive but they clearly benefited from being paired with a child with good communication skills. Popular girls modified their behaviour to take into account an unpopular partner's need for support. These findings suggest that pairing popular and unpopular children may be a useful classroom organisation strategy
Cable-driven parallel robot for curtain wall module installation
A cable-driven parallel robot (CDPR) was developed for the installation of curtain wall modules (CWM). The research addressed the question of whether the CDPR was capable installing CWMs with sufficient accuracy while being competitive compared to conventional manual methods. In order to develop and test such a system, a conceptual framework that consisted of three sub-systems was defined. The tests, carried out in two close-to-real demonstration buildings, revealed an absolute accuracy of the CWM installation of 4 to 23 mm. The working time for installing a CWM was reduced to 0.51 h. The results also show that the system is competitive for a workspace greater than 96 m2 compared to conventional manual methods. However, improvements such as reducing the hours for setting up the CDPR on the one hand and achieving a faster and more robust MEE on the other hand will be still necessary in the future.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant
agreement No. 73251
Joy without demands: Hospital clowns in the world of ailing children
The aim of the present study was to achieve, using an affect theory approach (Tomkins, 1962; 1963; 1991), a deeper theoretical understanding of the psychological significance of hospital clowns' work in caring for ailing children viewed from a care-giver perspective. The methodological approach was qualitative and based on 20 interviews with healthcare staff: 3 men and 17 women. The result showed how the staff emphasized a psychological quality of care alongside the physical quality of care. The hospital clowns' “unexpected possibility” provided a safe area for recovery, for both the children and the staff. The theoretical interpretation showed the presence of the affects surprise/startle, interest/excitement, and enjoyment/joy as well as specifically how “joy without demands” often had a lingering effect in the form of vitality. Joy without demands is discussed in relation to psychological theory with emphasis on: a confirmation of the body's possibilities, a magical attachment, a chance to transcend boundaries, and a non-demanding situation
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On the role of goal relevance in emotional attention: Disgust evokes early attention to cleanliness
Prior evidence has shown that aversive emotional states are characterised by an attentional bias
towards aversive events. The present study investigated whether aversive emotions also bias attention
towards stimuli that represent means by which the emotion can be alleviated. We induced disgust by
having participants touch fake disgusting objects. Participants in the control condition touched nondisgusting
objects. The results of a subsequent dot-probe task revealed that attention was oriented to
disgusting pictures irrespective of condition. However, participants in the disgust condition also
oriented towards pictures representing cleanliness. These findings suggest that the deployment of
attention in aversive emotional states is not purely stimulus driven but is also guided by the goal to
alleviate this emotional state
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