Stable Modality-Specific Activity Flows As Reflected by the Neuroenergetic Approach to the fMRI Weighted Maps

This article uses the ideas of neuroenergetic and neural field theories to detect stimulation-driven energy flows in the brain during face and auditory word processing. In this analysis, energy flows are thought to create the stable gradients of the fMRI weighted summary images. The sources, from which activity spreads in the brain during face processing, were detected in the occipital cortex. The following direction of energy flows in the frontal cortex was described: the right inferior frontal = >the left inferior frontal = >the triangular part of the left inferior frontal cortex = >the left operculum. In the left operculum, a localized circuit was described. For auditory word processing, the sources of activity flows were detected bilaterally in the middle superior temporal regions, they were also detected in the left posterior superior temporal cortex. Thus, neuroenergetic assumptions may give a novel perspective for the analysis of neuroimaging data

Інноваційні технології в будівництві

The article considers theoretical and practical bases of tendencies of development of construction market of Ukraine; determined that the directions of innovative business in construction are the following: a) the purchase of advanced foreign technologies and the organization of production of new products; b) purchase of progressive materials, machines and equipment for construction organizations; c) purchase of domestic and foreign patents for further organization of own production of building materials; d) services of foreign construction companies in the production of construction works using new technologies; e) conducting own R&D; f) implementation of own innovative architectural and design developments; g) training of workers and specialists in new technologies, skills in working with new mechanisms and building materials. Conclusions have been made about the need to introduce innovative technologies in construction; directions for stimulating the development of the construction market based on the introduction of innovative technologies are proposed. It is determined that in recent years there have been global changes in the main economic and production indicators of the external environment that affect the activity of construction enterprises. The most important of them are: complication of production; high requirements for quality of products and terms of delivery of products to customers; the emergence of individual requirements for products, which necessitated the transition to almost individual production with the whole complex of complex organizational and technical measures and system of reorganizations; increased competition.It is substantiated that the implementation of the stated proposals for the activation of innovative activity in construction can serve as a certain impetus for accelerating the scientific and technological development of the domestic economy, the development not only of the construction market, but also the enhancement of Ukraine's competitiveness in the world market, which is especially relevant in modern conditionsУ статті розглянуті теоретичні та практичні основи тенденцій розвитку будівельного ринку України; визначено, що  серед напрямків інноваційного бізнесу в будівництві можна виділити наступні: а) закупівля прогресивних закордонних технологій і організація виробництва нової продукції; б) закупівля прогресивних матеріалів, машин і обладнання для будівельних організацій; в) закупівля вітчизняних і закордонних патентів для подальшої організації власного виробництва будівельних матеріалів; г) послуги закордонних будівельних компаній при виробництві будівельних робіт з використанням нових технологій;                 д) проведення власних НДДКР; е) виконання власних інноваційних архітектурно-проектних розробок; ж) навчання робітників і фахівців новим технологіям, навичкам роботи з новими механізмами та будівельними матеріалами. Зроблені висновки про необхідність впровадження інноваційних технологій в будівництві; запропоновано напрями для стимулювання розвитку будівельного ринку на основі впровадження інноваційних технологій. Визначено, що за останні роки відбулися глобальні зміни основних економічних і виробничих показників зовнішнього середовища, що впливають на діяльність будівельних підприємств. До найважливіших з них відноситься: ускладнення продукції; високі вимоги до якості продукції і термінами здачі продукції замовникам; поява індивідуальних вимог до продукції, що зумовило необхідність переходу практично до індивідуального виробництва з усім комплексом складних організаційно-технічних заходів і системи реорганізацій; посилення конкурентної боротьби.Обґрунтовано, що реалізація викладених пропозицій щодо активізації інноваційної діяльності в будівництві може служити певним стимулом для прискорення науково-технічного розвитку вітчизняної економіки, розвитку не тільки будівельного ринку, а й посилення конкурентоспроможності України на світовому ринку, що є особливо актуальним в сучасних умовах

Інтенсифікація інноваційних процесів на основі кластеризації економіки

The problems of innovative processes intensification are considered, operational innovative infrastructure is analyzed, new infrastructure elements are examined, namely clusters, which ensure interconnection and mutual augmentability of industrial sectors, their advantages and necessity of further development are explored with the view of innovative processes intensification in the region.Розглядаються проблеми інтенсифікації інноваційних процесів в регіоні, аналізується діюча інноваційна інфраструктура, розглядаються нові елементи інфраструктури – кластери, що забезпечують взаємозв'язок і взаємодоповнюваність галузей, вивчаються їх переваги та необхідність подальшого розвитку з метою інтенсифікації інноваційних процесів в регіоні

Structural Heterogeneity in Low-Alloyed Pipe Steel 13HFA after Hot Rolling

The distribution of structural components over the cross section of tubular billet was investigated. Using the anisotropy coefficient, the degree of orientation of the ferritic-pearlitic structure is determined. The relationship between the values of the anisotropy coefficient and the hardness.Исследовано распределение структурных составляющих по сечению трубной заготовки. Используя коэффициент анизотропии, определена степень ориентации феррито-перлитной структуры. Установлена связь между значениями коэффициента анизотропии и твердостью

Degradation levels of continuous speech affect neural speech tracking and alpha power differently

Making sense of a poor auditory signal can pose a challenge. Previous attempts to quantify speech intelligibility in neural terms have usually focused on one of two measures, namely low-frequency speech-brain synchronization or alpha power modulations. However, reports have been mixed concerning the modulation of these measures, an issue aggravated by the fact that they have normally been studied separately. We present two MEG studies analyzing both measures. In study 1, participants listened to unimodal auditory speech with three different levels of degradation (original, 7-channel and 3-channel vocoding). Intelligibility declined with declining clarity, but speech was still intelligible to some extent even for the lowest clarity level (3-channel vocoding). Low-frequency (1-7 Hz) speech tracking suggested a u-shaped relationship with strongest effects for the medium degraded speech (7-channel) in bilateral auditory and left frontal regions. To follow up on this finding, we implemented three additional vocoding levels (5-channel, 2-channel, 1-channel) in a second MEG study. Using this wider range of degradation, the speech-brain synchronization showed a similar pattern as in study 1 but further showed that when speech becomes unintelligible, synchronization declines again. The relationship differed for alpha power, which continued to decrease across vocoding levels reaching a floor effect for 5-channel vocoding. Predicting subjective intelligibility based on models either combining both measures or each measure alone, showed superiority of the combined model. Our findings underline that speech tracking and alpha power are modified differently by the degree of degradation of continuous speech but together contribute to the subjective speech understanding

On inconsistency of experimental data on primary nuclei spectra with sea level muon intensity measurements

For the first time a complete set of the most recent direct data on primary cosmic ray spectra is used as input into calculations of muon flux at sea level in wide energy range $E_\mu=1-3\cdot10^5$ GeV. Computations have been performed with the CORSIKA/QGSJET and CORSIKA/VENUS codes. The comparison of the obtained muon intensity with the data of muon experiments shows, that measurements of primary nuclei spectra conform to sea level muon data only up to several tens of GeV and result in essential deficit of muons at higher energies. As it follows from our examination, uncertainties in muon flux measurements and in the description of nuclear cascades development are not suitable to explain this contradiction, and the only remaining factor, leading to this situation, is underestimation of primary light nuclei fluxes. We have considered systematic effects, that may distort the results of the primary cosmic ray measurements with the application of the emulsion chambers. We suggest, that re-examination of these measurements is required with the employment of different hadronic interaction models. Also, in our point of view, it is necessary to perform estimates of possible influence of the fact, that sizable fraction of events, identified as protons, actually are antiprotons. Study of these cosmic ray component begins to attract much attention, but today nothing definite is known for the energies $>40$ GeV. In any case, to realize whether the mentioned, or some other reasons are the sources of disagreement of the data on primaries with the data on muons, the indicated effects should be thoroughly analyzed

Stent-assisted coiling of acute ruptured cerebral aneurysms

The necessity of quick surgical treatment of acute ruptured cerebral aneurysms was demonstrated in large studies by the ISAT and ISUIA, which also proved the advantage of the endovascular method over the surgical one. Ballonassistence is widely used in treatment of aneurysms with wide neck and unfavorable vascular anatomy, but the radicality of the treatment is insufficient. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of stent-assisted embolization of «acute» cerebral aneurysms. Material and methods. A retrospective analysis of the treatment of 234 patients with «acute» cerebral aneurysms was carried out. Results. Only coils were used in 40.6 % of cases (n = 95), balloon-assistance, in 40.2 % of cases (n = 94), and stent-assistance, in 19.2 % of cases (n = 45). There were 11.5 % (n = 27) clinically significant complications. Total aneurysm occlusion (Raymond-Roy I) was achieved in 187 cases (79.9 %); the radicality at the control examination was 67.1 % (157 patients). Discussion. The radicality of the treatment with stents was slightly higher then with balloons and coils at the end of operation (84.4 %, n = 38 and 78.8 %, n = 149, p > 0.05), but it was significantly higher at the control examination (80.0 %, n = 36 and 60.8 %, n = 115, respectively, p <0.05). Also, we had no statistically significant difference of the complication rate in the «stent» and «no stent» groups; therefore, the clinical outcomes of endovascular treatment of cerebral aneurysms did not depend on the choice of treatment method. Conclusions. Intracranial stents allow achieving good results of the embolization of complex aneurysms in the acute period of intracranial hemorrhage without increasing the risk of surgical treatment

Effect of Audiovisual Training on Monaural Spatial Hearing in Horizontal Plane

The article aims to test the hypothesis that audiovisual integration can improve spatial hearing in monaural conditions when interaural difference cues are not available. We trained one group of subjects with an audiovisual task, where a flash was presented in parallel with the sound and another group in an auditory task, where only sound from different spatial locations was presented. To check whether the observed audiovisual effect was similar to feedback, the third group was trained using the visual feedback paradigm. Training sessions were administered once per day, for 5 days. The performance level in each group was compared for auditory only stimulation on the first and the last day of practice. Improvement after audiovisual training was several times higher than after auditory practice. The group trained with visual feedback demonstrated a different effect of training with the improvement smaller than the group with audiovisual training. We conclude that cross-modal facilitation is highly important to improve spatial hearing in monaural conditions and may be applied to the rehabilitation of patients with unilateral deafness and after unilateral cochlear implantation

Bayesian Cue Integration as a Developmental Outcome of Reward Mediated Learning

Average human behavior in cue combination tasks is well predicted by Bayesian inference models. As this capability is acquired over developmental timescales, the question arises, how it is learned. Here we investigated whether reward dependent learning, that is well established at the computational, behavioral, and neuronal levels, could contribute to this development. It is shown that a model free reinforcement learning algorithm can indeed learn to do cue integration, i.e. weight uncertain cues according to their respective reliabilities and even do so if reliabilities are changing. We also consider the case of causal inference where multimodal signals can originate from one or multiple separate objects and should not always be integrated. In this case, the learner is shown to develop a behavior that is closest to Bayesian model averaging. We conclude that reward mediated learning could be a driving force for the development of cue integration and causal inference