Clinical applications of EEG power spectra aperiodic component analysis: A mini-review

Objective: The present mini-review summarizes recent clinical findings related to the analysis of the aperiodic component of EEG (electroencephalographic) power spectra, making them quickly accessible to medical specialists and health researchers, with the aim of boosting related research. Methods: Based on our experience about clinicians’ literature-searching, we queried the PubMed database with terms related to EEG power spectra aperiodic component analysis and selected clinical studies that referenced such terms in the title/abstract, and were published in the last five years. Results: A total of 11 journal articles, dealing with 9 different neurologic and psychiatric conditions published between 1st January 2016 – April 1st 2021, were surveyed. Conclusions: All the reviewed studies focused on exploring the pathophysiological significance of the aperiodic component and its correlation with disease presence, stage, and severity. Despite the heterogeneity of pathologies, it was possible to cluster most of them according to the mechanism underlying slope alterations, namely hypo-/hyper-excitability. It was also possible to identify some counterintuitive findings, probably related to compensation mechanisms of disease-specific neurophysiological alterations. Significance: All the findings seem to support the role of the aperiodic activity as index of excitation/inhibition balance, with promising clinical applications that might challenge the traditional approach to pathologies diagnosis/treatment/follow-up

Effect of the (Nd,Dy)-double doping on the structural properties of ceria

The crystallographic properties of the Ce1-x(Nd0.63Dy0.37)xO2-x/2 system (0 64 x 64 0.6) were studied by means of synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction and compared to the ones of Sm-doped ceria. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of substituting Sm3+ by a mixture of a smaller and a larger ion that ensures a more pronounced Ce4+/dopant size mismatch while having the same average ionic size as Sm3+. Two main findings came to light: (a) the compositional region of the CeO2-based solid solution widens up to x ranging between 0.4 and 0.5, and (b) the cell parameter is larger than the one of Sm-doped ceria at each composition. Both effects are expected to play a significant role on the ionic conductivity of the material. The results are discussed in terms of disorder and cation-vacancy association

Influence of Financial Risk to The Profitability of Sharia Banking In Indonesia

This research aims to deeply analyze the impact of CAR risk, NPF risk, BOPO risk, FDR risk and ROE risk to profitability. The profitability indicator is ROA variable. Quantitative data types in the form of monthly time-series data From The Financial Ratio Report of Sharia Commercial Bank and Sharia Business Unit published by Sharia Banking Directorate, Bank Indonesia and the Bank Licensing and Banking Information Department, Indonesia Financial Services Authority through Sharia Banking Statistics Bank Indonesia/Indonesia Financial Services Authority from January 2006 to January 2018.  The results showed: (1) A regression model on the independent variable simultaneously affects the dependent variable, so that the independent variable regression model can be used to predict the dependent variable; and (2) The CAR variable and FDR variable influential positive and significant toward ROA variable; NPF variable influential negative and significant toward ROA variable; BOPO variable influential negative and insignificant toward ROA variable; ROE variable influential positive and insignificant toward ROA variable.Keywords: Sharia banking, financial risk, profitability

A study of collider signatures for two Higgs doublet models with a Pseudoscalar mediator to Dark Matter

Two Higgs doublet models with an additional pseudoscalar particle coupling to the Standard Model and to a new stable, neutral particle, provide an attractive and fairly minimal route to solving the problem of Dark Matter. They have been the subject of several searches at the LHC. We study the impact of existing LHC measurements on such models, first in the benchmark regions addressed by searches and then after relaxing some of their assumptions and broadening the parameter ranges considered. In each case we study how the new parameters change the potentially visible signatures at the LHC, and identify which of these signatures should already have had a significant impact on existing measurements. This allows us to set some first constraints on a number of so far unstudied scenarios.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures; added EW constraints contours, extended explanation of WW model-dependency, extended motivation for pseudoscalar mediators, corrected typo

Magneto Seebeck effect in REFeAsO (RE=rare earth) compounds: probing the magnon drag scenario

We investigate Seebeck effect in REFeAsO (RE=rare earth)compounds as a function of temperature and magnetic field up to 30T. The Seebeck curves are characterized by a broad negative bump around 50K, which is sample dependent and strongly enhanced by the application of a magnetic field. A model for the temperature and field dependence of the magnon drag contribution to the Seebeck effect by antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin fluctuation is developed. It accounts for the magnitude and scaling properties of such bump feature in our experimental data. This analysis allows to extract precious information on the coupling between electrons and AFM spin fluctuations in these parent compound systems, with implications on the pairing mechanism of the related superconducting compounds

Recovery of Iron Values from Waste Manganiferous Iron Ore Fines for Pellet Making

A large volume of overburden and mine wastes is generated during the extraction and beneficiation of the low grade ores. The waste low grade manganiferous iron ore fine from southern part of India was studied for recovery of iron values. The chemical assay of the sample is 52.36% Fe, 4.75% Mn, 8.5% SiO2 and 2.82% Al2O3. The characterization study of the sample indicates the presence of microplaty hematite, goethite, pyrolusite, cryptomelane with minor amount of quartz and kaolinite. The beneficiation study of the sample does not respond to the conventional route of desliming the ground feed followed by gravity separation and magnetic separation. Therefore, an alternative technique of reduction roasting using a producer gas was attempted at different conditions. The characterization of roasted product reveals the phase transformation to magnetite and microplaty magnetite. The low intensity magnetic separation conducted with the roasted products generated at optimal condition shows that 70% concentrate having 64.5% Fe and 1.87% Mn could be produced. The high manganese in the concentrate works as an additive for making pellet with enhancement in pellet strength and drop in reducibility. Utilization of mines waste has significant impact on mineral resources and environmental hazard

Acoustic horizons for axially and spherically symmetric fluid flow

We investigate the formation of acoustic horizons for an inviscid fluid moving in a pipe in the case of stationary and axi-symmetric flow. We show that, differently from what is generally believed, the acoustic horizon forms in correspondence of either a local minimum or maximum of the flux tube cross-section. Similarly, the external potential is required to have either a maximum or a minimum at the horizon, so that the external force has to vanish there. Choosing a power-law equation of state for the fluid, $P\propto \rho^{n}$, we solve the equations of the fluid dynamics and show that the two possibilities are realized respectively for $n>-1$ and $n<-1$. These results are extended also to the case of spherically symmetric flow.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Water Quality and Pollution Status of Lararpur Reservoir with Special Reference to Bacterial Contamination

Laharpur dam was constructed in the southwest of Bhopal city, M.P., India with an objective to store water for irrigational purpose. At the time of planning and construction of the reservoir it was in the outskirts of township but now, with the expansion of the city the reservoir has come well within the settlement. The developmental activities and occupancy in the area is exerting pressure on the water body. Surface water in urban water bodies almost always contains some degree of contamination. This is due to exposure to animals, humans, aquatic life, etc. In addition to this, variety of other human activities resulted in increasing the bacterial concentration of reservoir. Many of these bacteria are pathogenic and spread diseases like typhoid, paratyphoid, gastroenteritis etc. Inflow of sewage in the surface water may play an important role in the transmission of pathogenic agents discharged through feces. Some pathogenic bacteria like Actinomyces sp., Aerobacter aerogenes, A. cloacae, Micrococcus sp., Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillussp, and Shigella species indicate the higher level of fecal contamination of water. This untreated water poses a serious threat to the health of consumers and therefore, calls for urgent intervention by government.&#xd;&#xa

In vivo estimation of the shoulder joint center of rotation using magneto-inertial sensors: MRI-based accuracy and repeatability assessment

Background: The human gleno-humeral joint is normally represented as a spherical hinge and its center of rotation is used to construct humerus anatomical axes and as reduction point for the computation of the internal joint moments. The position of the gleno-humeral joint center (GHJC) can be estimated by recording ad hoc shoulder joint movement following a functional approach. In the last years, extensive research has been conducted to improve GHJC estimate as obtained from positioning systems such as stereo-photogrammetry or electromagnetic tracking. Conversely, despite the growing interest for wearable technologies in the field of human movement analysis, no studies investigated the problem of GHJC estimation using miniaturized magneto-inertial measurement units (MIMUs). The aim of this study was to evaluate both accuracy and precision of the GHJC estimation as obtained using a MIMU-based methodology and a functional approach. Methods: Five different functional methods were implemented and comparatively assessed under different experimental conditions (two types of shoulder motions: cross and star type motion; two joint velocities: ωmax = 90°/s, 180°/s; two ranges of motion: Θ = 45°, 90°). Validation was conducted on five healthy subjects and true GHJC locations were obtained using magnetic resonance imaging. Results: The best performing methods (NAP and SAC) showed an accuracy in the estimate of the GHJC between 20.6 and 21.9 mm and repeatability values between 9.4 and 10.4 mm. Methods performance did not show significant differences for the type of arm motion analyzed or a reduction of the arm angular velocity (180°/s and 90°/s). In addition, a reduction of the joint range of motion (90° and 45°) did not seem to influence significantly the GHJC position estimate except in a few subject-method combinations. Conclusions: MIMU-based functional methods can be used to estimate the GHJC position in vivo with errors of the same order of magnitude than those obtained using traditionally stereo-photogrammetric techniques. The methodology proposed seemed to be robust under different experimental conditions. The present paper was awarded as "SIAMOC Best Methodological Paper 2016"

Convergence of finite difference method for the generalized solutions of Sobolev equations

In this paper, finite difference method is applied to approximate the generalized solutions of Sobolev equations. Using the Steklov mollifier and BrambleHilbert Lemma, a priori error estimates in discrete L2 as well as in discrete H1 norms are derived first for the semidiscrete methods. For the fully discrete schemes, both backward Euler and CrankNicolson methods are discussed and related error analyses are also presented