Modality-specific Affective Responses and their Implications for Affective BCI

Reliable applications of multimodal affective brain-computer interfaces (aBCI) require a detailed understanding of the processes involved in emotions. To explore the modality-specific nature of affective responses, we studied neurophysiological responses of 24 subjects during visual, auditory, and audiovisual affect stimulation and obtained their subjective ratings. Coherent with literature, we found modality-specific responses in the EEG: parietal alpha power decreases during visual stimulation and increases during auditory stimulation, whereas more anterior alpha power decreases during auditory stimulation and increases during visual stimulation. We discuss the implications of these results for multimodal aBCI

Subjectively reported symptoms in patients with persistent atrial fibrillation and emotional distress

Background: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are characterized by emotional distress and poor quality of life. Little is known about the relation between emotional distress and subjectively reported AF symptoms. Our aims were to compare emotional distress levels in AF patients with distress levels in the general population and to examine the cross-sectional and prospective relationship between subjective AF symptom reports and emotional distress around electrical cardioversion (ECV). Methods: At baseline, this study included 118 patients with persistent AF planned for ECV (aged 68 ± 10 years, 60% men) in which depression (BDI), anxiety (STAI), Type D personality (DS14), perceived stress (PSS-10), and AF symptoms (ATSSS) were assessed. The prospective substudy included 52 patients. Objective AF status was determined by ECG. Results: AF patients experienced significantly higher levels of anxiety (p < 0.001) and depression (p < 0.001) than age and gender matched persons from the general population. Linear regression analyses showed that AF patients with higher depression levels reported significantly more AF symptoms (β = 0.44; p < 0.0005) and reported symptoms to occur with a higher frequency (β = 0.51; p < 0.0005) during the AF episode, independent of age, sex, cardiac disease, BMI, and physical activity. At 4 weeks follow-up, 56% of all patients had maintained sinus rhythm. Repeated Measures Linear mixed modeling showed that these patients reported fewer AF symptoms and a lower frequency of AF symptoms pre and post-ECV (p = 0.04). Also, the course of the number and frequency of reported symptoms was significantly associated with the change in depression over that same time period (p < 0.0005). Conclusion: Patients with persistent AF are characterized by emotional distress. Distressed AF patients, particularly the depressed, report more AF symptoms before and after ECV. These findings call for increased attention of clinicians to emotional distress in this patient population

Is adolescents' food intake associated with exposure to the food intake of their mothers and best friends?

Contains fulltext : 217211.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Both mothers' and best friends' food intake are associated with adolescents' food intake, but they are rarely investigated simultaneously. In this study, we tested the associations of mothers' and best friends’ food intake with adolescents' intake of unhealthy and healthy food, obtained from home and from outside the home, and the moderating role of adolescents' exposure to their food intake. Participants included 667 adolescents (53% female, Mage = 12.9) and 396 of their mothers. Within this adolescent sample, 378 best friend dyads were identified. All participants completed food frequency questionnaires. Mothers separately reported on their food intake in the presence and absence of their child, and adolescents indicated how often they ate and drank together with their best friend during school breaks. Mothers', but not best friends', food intake was positively related to adolescents' intake of unhealthy and healthy food obtained from home and healthy food obtained from outside the home. Exposure to mothers' healthy food intake magnified mother-child similarities in healthy food intake. Exposure to best friends' intake of unhealthy food moderated adolescent-friend similarities in unhealthy food intake. Future work should assess the mechanisms that underlie these similarities, and should investigate these associations over time and in later developmental periods.15 p

Potential of Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC) for waste heat recovery on an Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)

The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is a mature technology to convert low temperature waste heat to electricity. While several energy intensive industries could benefit from the integration of an ORC, their adoption rate is rather low. One important reason is that the prospective end-users find it difficult to recognize and realise the possible energy savings. In more recent years, the electric arc furnaces (EAF) are considered as a major candidate for waste heat recovery. Therefore, in this work, the integration of an ORC coupled to a 100 MWe EAF is investigated. The effect of working with averaged heat profiles, a steam buffer and optimized ORC architectures is investigated. The results show that it is crucial to take into account the heat profile variations for the typical batch process of an EAF. An optimized subcritical ORC (SCORC) can generate an electricity output of 752 kWe with a steam buffer working at 25 bar. However, the use of a steam buffer also impacts the heat transfer to the ORC. A reduction up to 61.5% in net power output is possible due to the additional isothermal plateau of the steam

Metropolitan food supply: commitment mission Egypt

The present study is to investigate the commitment of potential participants to contribute to these opportunities and what their conditions are to the 3 main activities

A questionnaire to assess students’ beliefs about peer-feedback

Research into students’ peer-feedback beliefs varies both thematically and in approaches and outcomes. This study aimed to develop a questionnaire to measure students’ beliefs about peer-feedback. Based on the themes in the literature four scales were conceptualised. In separate exploratory (N = 219) and confirmatory (N = 121) studies, the structure of the questionnaire was explored and tested. These analyses confirmed the a priori conceptualised four scales: (1) students’ valuation of peer-feedback as an instructional method, (2) students’ confidence in the quality and helpfulness of the feedback they provide to a peer, (3) students’ confidence in the quality and helpfulness of the feedback they receive from their peers and (4) the extent to which students regard peer-feedback as an important skill. The value of this Beliefs about Peer-Feedback Questionnaire (BPFQ) is discussed both in terms of future research and the practical insights it may offer higher education teaching staff.Teaching and Teacher Learning (ICLON

Peer feedback on college students’ writing: exploring the relation between students’ ability match, feedback quality and essay performance

There does not appear to be consensus on how to optimally match students during the peer feedback process: with same-ability peers (homogeneously) or different-ability peers (heterogeneously). In fact, there appears to be no empirical evidence that either homogeneous or heterogeneous student matching has any direct effect on writing performance. The current study addressed this issue in the context of an academic writing task. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, 94 undergraduate students were matched in 47 homogeneous or heterogeneous reciprocal dyads, and provided anonymous, formative peer feedback on each other’s draft essays. The relations between students’ individual ability or dyad composition, feedback quality and writing performance were investigated. Neither individual ability nor dyad composition directly related to writing performance. Also, feedback quality did not depend on students’ individual ability or dyad composition, although trends in the data suggest that high-ability reviewers provided more content-related feedback. Finally, peer feedback quality was not related to writing performance, and authors of varying ability levels benefited to a similar extent from peer feedback on different aspects of the text. The results are discussed in relation to their implications for the instructional design of academic writing assignments that incorporate peer feedback.Development Psychopathology in context: schoo

Peer Feedback on academic writing: undergraduate students’ peer feedback role, peer feedback perceptions and essay performance

Within the higher education context, peer feedback is frequently applied as an instructional method. Research on the learning mechanisms involved in the peer feedback process has covered aspects of both providing and receiving feedback. However, a direct comparison of the impact that providing and receiving peer feedback has on students’ writing performance is still lacking. The current study compared the writing performance of undergraduate students (N = 83) who either provided or received anonymous written peer feedback in the context of an authentic academic writing task. In addition, we investigated whether students’ peer feedback perceptions were related to the nature of the peer feedback they received and to writing performance. Results showed that both providing and receiving feedback led to similar improvements of writing performance. The presence of explanatory comments positively related both to how adequate students perceived the peer feedback to be, as well as to students’ willingness to improve based upon it. However, no direct relation was found between these peer feedback perceptions and students’ writing performance increase.Teaching and Teacher Learning (ICLON