Machine Learning Algorithms for Mouse LFP Data Classification in Epilepsy

Successful preictal, interictal and ictal activity discrimination is extremely important for accurate seizure detection and prediction in epileptology. Here, we introduce an algorithmic pipeline applied to local field potentials (LFPs) recorded from layers II/III of the primary somatosensory cortex of young mice for the classification of endogenous (preictal), interictal, and seizure-like (ictal) activity events using time series analysis and machine learning (ML) models. Using the HCTSA time series analysis toolbox, over 4000 features were extracted from the LFPs after applying over 7700 operations. Iterative application of correlation analysis and random-forest-recursive-feature-elimination with cross validation method reduced the dimensionality of the feature space to 22 features and 27 features, in endogenous-to-interictal events discrimination, and interictal-to-ictal events discrimination, respectively. Application of nine ML algorithms on these reduced feature sets showed preictal activity can be discriminated from interictal activity by a radial basis function SVM with a 0.9914 Cohen kappa score with just 22 features, whereas interictal and seizure-like (ictal) activities can be discriminated by the same classifier with a 0.9565 Cohen kappa score with just 27 features. Our preliminary results show that ML application in cortical LFP recordings may be a promising research avenue for accurate seizure detection and prediction in focal epilepsy

Narrating Personal Moments Through Social Images: Postcards as Souvenirs of Memorable Instances and Places

Postcards are purchased both as souvenirs – objects that authenticate past experiences and speak through nostalgia – and as collection items – objects that add to the narration of our personal past. They are sent to relatives and friends as charismatic views of the sociality and culture of the visited other. The postcard is purchased as a mass-produced view of a given society, produced within the given societal borders. The handwriting of the personal beneath the caption of the social transforms the public into private, the social image into an individual memento. This paper examines the role of postcard images as vehicles narrating past instances. Pinned on one’s notice board, the social image is transformed into a personal narration – one connected to one’s past and therefore worthy to be remembered and talked about

The mediation of art through the mass media

Seeking answers to the debates between those who support the Frankfurt School’s idea of a “culture industry” and those who find this belief a serious error, this thesis examines certain aspects of the conditions of the fine arts through the mass media, in a so called mass culture. This examination is pursued through two case studies: 1. Musical languages through the cinema. The history and interpretation of Argentinean tango and its cinema image arc examined. 2. Architecture in photographs—an art through another art. Ancient Greek buildings in postcards. Through this analysis certain critical assumptions, attributes and oversimplifications about such a culture theory will be tested and questioned. If for Adorno taste is nowadays outmoded, for Bourdieu it works unconsciously, with no conscious control. If the “mass” lacks the knowledge required to analyze, think about and finally understand something of art, the media can provide programmes dedicated to the analysis of artworks and therefore knowledge concerning art—both object and concept. Reproduction and mediation are widely condemned but on the other hand, artworks are reproduced and mediated anyway—it is immanent in their character. Artworks are intended for many and therefore are already their own reproductions. Through the artwork’s immanent mediation, its every element becomes its own other—changing both its sensual and objective arrangement. Great works remain eloquent, even when reproduced or mediated. Aesthetic experience is only genuine when intimate: if philosophical analysis can account for the introduction to aesthetic experience, mediated knowledge from other institutions, including the media, can be seen as the actual invitation to it. The Adomian aesthetical experience—the possibility promised by art’s impossibility—can indeed be preserved through such mediation. Through the media, the audience can glimpse art’s ever broken promise of happiness and that glimpse can be stimulative. Reproductions carry the images of the artworks in various environments and conditions, underlying their autonomous character. During mediation, the social function of artworks may again be underestimated but their birth and value as social objects is boldly stressed. The initiated eye/ear can find the social in the autonomous reproduction or the autonomous in the mediated sociality. Because a sufficient amount of time has passed from the time of Adorno’s writings, the experience of the viewers has been enriched both through their many media viewings and through their tourist wanderings. Both mediated and direct experiences have been added up to shape the contemporary audience’s understanding and response to the media messages

The mediation of art through the mass media

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Politics of kinning: adoption and ethical economy of motherhood in modern Greece

The dissertation is an ethnographic kai historically situated research about adoption in modern Greece, with special focus on the discourses and processes of connections and disconnections to and from kinship environments. I look into the procedures that “make” mothers and “undo” mothers, especially those cultural, legal and social mechanisms through which some people become parents of a child at the same moment when some others bocome undone. I search what bears and what entangles this process of making and undoing, as well as the historical depth of these processes in Greece. My research is framed by the anthropology of kinship and anthropology of Greece. Following a feminist perspective I use the ethical economy of reproduction so as to draw the ethical framework of what a woman is allowed to do in order to become a mother, the norms that direct the state services, as well as the decisions of biological mothers not to bring up the child they have given birth to. This economy creates those imaginary maternal scripts that could materialize within the context of middle-class subjectivities. The adoption stories follow the history of the welfare state and shed light to the political meaning of children and reproduction in every historical momentΗ διατριβή είναι μία εθνογραφική και ιστορικά τοποθετημένη έρευνα για την υιοθεσία στην σύγχρονη Ελλάδα. Πρόκειται για μία μελέτη που εστιάζει στους λόγους και τις διαδικασίες των συνδέσεων και των αποσυνδέσεων προς και από συγγενειακά περιβάλλοντα. Εστιάζω στις διαδικασίες που «φτιάχνουν γονείς» και που αναιρούν γονείς, κυρίως όμως στις διαδικασίες που «φτιάχνουν μητέρες» και «αναιρούν μητέρες» δηλαδή μέσω ποιων πολιτισμικών, νομικών, κοινωνικών μηχανισμών κάποιοι γίνονται γονείς ενός παιδιού την ίδια στιγμή που κάποιοι άλλοι αναιρούνται από γονείς του. Εξετάζω τι φέρει και τι εμπλέκει αυτή η διαδικασία του φτιάχνω – αναιρώ, αλλά και ποιο είναι το ιστορικό βάθος που φέρουν αυτές οι συγγενειακές διεργασίες στην Ελλάδα. Ακολουθώντας μία φεμινιστική οπτική χρησιμοποιώ την ηθική οικονομία της αναπαραγωγής για να διερευνήσω το ηθικό πλαίσιο που επιτρέπει σε κάποιες γυναίκες να γίνουν μητέρες και τις κανονικότητες που ορίζουν την δράση των κρατικών εκπροσώπων, καθώς και τις αποφάσεις των βιολογικών μητέρων να «αποχωρήσουν» από την συγγενειακή σχέση με το παιδί που γέννησαν. Αυτή η οικονομία δημιουργεί τα φαντασιακά εκείνα μητρικά σενάρια που πραγματώνονται στο πλαίσιο των υποκειμενικοτήτων της μεσαίας τάξης. Οι ιστορίες υιοθεσίας ακολουθούν την ιστορία του κράτους πρόνοιας και ρίχνουν φως στο πολιτικό νόημα των παιδιών και της αναπαραγωγής σε κάθε ιστορική στιγμή

Application of Humic and Fulvic Acids as an Alternative Method of Cleaning Water from Plant Protection Product Residues

Humic acids (HAs) and fulvic acids (FAs) are naturally occurring compounds that influence the fate and transportation of various compounds in the soil. Although HAs and FAs have multiple uses, the reports about their sorbent potential for environmental pollutants are scanty and sparse. In this study, HA and FA, isolated from lignite samples from two mines in Greece, were studied as sorbent materials for three active compounds of plant protection products, namely glyphosate (herbicide), cypermethrin (pyrethroid insecticide), and azoxystrobin (fungicide). According to the results, both HA and FA are promising sorbent materials for these active compounds, with HA achieving better sorption for cypermethrin and azoxystrobin, while FA was found to be more efficient for glyphosate. Moreover, their performance was not compromised by other components commonly found in commercially available herbicides/insecticides/fungicides. In addition, no significant leaching of the sorbed compounds was recorded. Finally, the two materials achieved similar sorption efficiency of the compounds from lake water

Application of Humic and Fulvic Acids as an Alternative Method of Cleaning Water from Plant Protection Product Residues

Humic acids (HAs) and fulvic acids (FAs) are naturally occurring compounds that influence the fate and transportation of various compounds in the soil. Although HAs and FAs have multiple uses, the reports about their sorbent potential for environmental pollutants are scanty and sparse. In this study, HA and FA, isolated from lignite samples from two mines in Greece, were studied as sorbent materials for three active compounds of plant protection products, namely glyphosate (herbicide), cypermethrin (pyrethroid insecticide), and azoxystrobin (fungicide). According to the results, both HA and FA are promising sorbent materials for these active compounds, with HA achieving better sorption for cypermethrin and azoxystrobin, while FA was found to be more efficient for glyphosate. Moreover, their performance was not compromised by other components commonly found in commercially available herbicides/insecticides/fungicides. In addition, no significant leaching of the sorbed compounds was recorded. Finally, the two materials achieved similar sorption efficiency of the compounds from lake water