Do my emotions show or not? Problems with transparency estimation in women with borderline personality disorder features

Transparency estimation, that is, estimating the extent to which one’s mental states are observable to others, requires the simultaneous representation of the self and of others’ perspective on the self. Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have difficulty integrating multiple perspectives when mentalizing, which may be reflected in impaired transparency estimation. A total of 62 participants high and low in BPD features watched emotionally evocative video clips and estimated the transparency of their emotional experience while facial expression coding software (FaceReader) quantified their objective transparency. Individuals high in BPD features showed a larger discrepancy between estimated and objective transparency than individuals low in BPD features, showing that they both over- and underestimated their transparency. Indeed, estimated transparency positively predicted objective transparency in individuals low in BPD features, but not in individuals high in BPD features. Moreover, the ability to estimate intraindividual variability in one’s own objective transparency was moderated by self-reported arousal in the participants high in BPD features. Impairments in transparency estimation were correlated with self-report measures of borderline features, attachment, and mentalizing. In conclusion, we found that borderline features relate to a reduced capacity to estimate the extent to which one’s own emotional states are observable to others. Although replication in clinical samples of BPD patients is needed, the present study provides evidence for problems in mentalizing the (embodied) self from another person’s perspective in BPD

Three-dimensional electron-hole superfluidity in a superlattice close to room temperature

Although there is strong theoretical and experimental evidence for electron-hole superfluidity in separated sheets of electrons and holes at low $T$, extending superfluidity to high $T$ is limited by strong 2D fluctuations and Kosterlitz-Thouless effects. We show this limitation can be overcome using a superlattice of alternating electron- and hole-doped semiconductor monolayers. The superfluid transition in a 3D superlattice is not topological, and for strong electron-hole pair coupling, the transition temperature $T_c$ can be at room temperature. As a quantitative illustration, we show $T_c$ can reach $270$ K for a superfluid in a realistic superlattice of transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, supplementary material (3 pages) includes 1 table and 1 figur

The Composition of C/2021 A1 (LEONARD) as Measured with CRIRES+ and TRAPPIST-South

We present molecular abundances of different species in C/2021 A1 (Leonard), measured almost simultaneously with ESO/CRIRES+ and TRAPPIST-South, showing that the resulting chemical compositions as retrieved at different wavelengths are in contrast

The valley Zeeman effect in inter- and intra-valley trions in monolayer WSe2

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) hold great promise for future information processing applications utilizing a combination of electron spin and valley pseudospin. This unique spin system has led to observation of the valley Zeeman effect in neutral and charged excitonic resonances under applied magnetic fields. However, reported values of the trion valley Zeeman splitting remain highly inconsistent across studies. Here, we utilize high quality hBN encapsulated monolayer WSe2 to enable simultaneous measurement of both intervalley and intravalley trion photoluminescence. We find the valley Zeeman splitting of each trion state to be describable only by a combination of three distinct g-factors, one arising from the exciton-like valley Zeeman effect, the other two, trion specific, g-factors associated with recoil of the excess electron. This complex picture goes significantly beyond the valley Zeeman effect reported for neutral excitons, and eliminates the ambiguity surrounding the magneto-optical response of trions in tungsten based TMD monolayers

Micromechanical Properties of Injection-Molded Starch–Wood Particle Composites

The micromechanical properties of injection molded starch–wood particle composites were investigated as a function of particle content and humidity conditions. The composite materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. The microhardness of the composites was shown to increase notably with the concentration of the wood particles. In addition,creep behavior under the indenter and temperature dependence were evaluated in terms of the independent contribution of the starch matrix and the wood microparticles to the hardness value. The influence of drying time on the density and weight uptake of the injection-molded composites was highlighted. The results revealed the role of the mechanism of water evaporation, showing that the dependence of water uptake and temperature was greater for the starch–wood composites than for the pure starch sample. Experiments performed during the drying process at 70°C indicated that the wood in the starch composites did not prevent water loss from the samples.Peer reviewe

Characterization of KrF excimer laser annealed PECVD SiₓGe₁-ₓ for MEMS post-processing

This work studies the possibility to treat plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited (PECVD) silicon germanium (Si₁-ₓGeₓ) thin films grown at 400 °C or lower with a pulsed excimer laser for obtaining good MEMS structural layers. The main advantage of using PECVD is that a high growth rate (∼35 nm/min) can be achieved at low temperatures (≤370 °C). It is demonstrated that optimizing the pulse fluence, number and rate yields high quality films characterized by a low defect density (∼10² defect/cm²), large grains (∼300 nm), a low mean stress and a low stress gradient. Furthermore, the electrical resistivity of the as grown material, deposited at 210 °C, is reduced from 12 kΩ cm to 1.3 mΩ cm after laser annealing.status: publishe

Rapid neural categorization of angry and fearful faces is specifically impaired in boys with autism

BACKGROUND: Difficulties with facial expression processing may be associated with the characteristic social impairments in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Emotional face processing in ASD has been investigated in an abundance of behavioral and EEG studies, yielding, however, mixed and inconsistent results. METHODS: We combined fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) with EEG to assess the neural sensitivity to implicitly detect briefly presented facial expressions among a stream of neutral faces, in 23 boys with ASD and 23 matched typically developing (TD) boys. Neutral faces with different identities were presented at 6 Hz, periodically interleaved with an expressive face (angry, fearful, happy, sad in separate sequences) every fifth image (i.e., 1.2 Hz oddball frequency). These distinguishable frequency tags for neutral and expressive stimuli allowed direct and objective quantification of the expression-categorization responses, needing only four sequences of 60 s of recording per condition. RESULTS: Both groups show equal neural synchronization to the general face stimulation and similar neural responses to happy and sad faces. However, the ASD group displays significantly reduced responses to angry and fearful faces, compared to TD boys. At the individual subject level, these neural responses allow to predict membership of the ASD group with an accuracy of 87%. Whereas TD participants show a significantly lower sensitivity to sad faces than to the other expressions, ASD participants show an equally low sensitivity to all the expressions. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate an emotion-specific processing deficit, instead of a general emotion-processing problem: Boys with ASD are less sensitive than TD boys to rapidly and implicitly detect angry and fearful faces. The implicit, fast, and straightforward nature of FPVS-EEG opens new perspectives for clinical diagnosis.status: Published onlin

Deoxygenation of amine N-oxides using gold nanoparticles supported on carbon nanotubes

Deoxygenation of a variety of aromatic and aliphatic amine N-oxides has been carried out in excellent yield using dimethylphenylsilane as the reducing agent under the catalytic influence of a carbon nanotube-gold nanohybrid at room temperature. Low catalyst loading, good TON and TOF values, and recyclability of the catalyst are some of the salient features of our methodology

Validating an EEG-Based Biomarker of Socio-CommunicativeImpairments in ASD (INSAR)

https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.autism-insar.org/resource/resmgr/docs/annualmeeting/Abstract_Book_INSAR2021Virtu.pd

Supramolecular Assembly of Gold Nanoparticles on Carbon Nanotubes: Application to the Catalytic Oxidation of Hydroxylamines

A supramolecular heterogeneous catalyst was developed by assembly and stabilization of gold nanoparticles on the surface of carbon nanotubes. A layer-by-layer assembly strategy was used and the resulting nanohybrid was involved in the catalytic oxidation of hydroxylamines under mild conditions. The nanohybrid demonstrated high efficiency and selectivity on hydroxylamine substrates