The presence of irrelevant alternatives paradoxically increases confidence in perceptual decisions

Confidence in perceptual decisions often reflects the probability of being correct. Hence, we predicted that confidence should be unaffected or be minimally decreased by the presence of irrelevant alternatives. To test this prediction, we designed three experiments. In Experiment 1, participants had to identify the largest geometrical shape among two or three alternatives. In the three-alternative condition, one of the shapes was much smaller than the other two, being a clearly incorrect choice. Counter-intuitively, all else being equal, confidence was higher when the irrelevant alternative was present. We accounted for this effect with a computational model where confidence increases monotonically with the number of irrelevant alternatives, a prediction we confirmed in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, we evaluated whether this effect replicated in a categorical task, but we did not find supporting evidence. Our findings stimulate the use of multi-alternative decision-making tasks to build a thorough understanding of confidence.

Features of the physiological distribution of 68Ga-PSMA and its importance in the differential diagnosis of metastatic lesions of lymph nodes in patients with prostate cancer

Introduction. The appearance of new radiopharmaceuticals based on prostate-specific membrane antigen has significantly increased the accuracy of prostate cancer diagnosis. The physiological accumulation of 68Ga-PSMA in the sympathetic ganglia is important in the diagnosis of metastatic lesions of the lymph nodes. Erroneous interpretation of images can lead to an incorrect choice of tactics for the treatment of prostate cancer.Purpose: improving the diagnosis of prostate cancer with the help of updated data on the physiological accumulation of 68GaPSMA. Identify the sources of potential errors in the interpretation of PET/CT with 68Ga-PSMA.Materials and methods. In order to stage the verified prostate cancer, PET was performed in our center/CT with 68Ga-PSMA in 109 men. All patients were divided into groups by the level of prostate-specific antigen, Gleason sum, and d’Amico.Results. In all patients, we observed the accumulation of RFP in the cervical, abdominal and presacral ganglia. The capture level of the radiotracer was in the range of SUV=1,6–2,3 (median SUV=1,9). In the control PET/CT study after treatment, the accumulation of RFP in the cervical, abdominal and presacral ganglia remained at the same values, which made it possible to identify the detected changes as a variant of the physiological norm.Conclusions. It is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of the physiological distribution and accumulation of radiotracer in organs and tissues, in particular, the capture of 68Ga-PSMA by sympathetic ganglia. This will avoid false-positive cases when describing PET-CT images and will make it possible to increase the informative value of the method.

GNATHOLOGICAL CORRECTION OF DENTOFACIAL APPARATUS AS A COMPONENT OF JUDICIAL CONFLICTS AVOIDANCE IN THE PROCESS OF REHABILITATION OF PATIENTS WITH IATROGENIC OCCLUSAL DISORDERS COMBINED WITH MALOCCLUSIONS

At present, the issues concerning violations of human and civil rights and freedoms are in the focus of legislation globally. Those issues are also relevant in the field of healthcare. Patient-centred approach, patience, understanding of the situation and knowing the laws often help healthcare professionals to avoid conflicts, lawsuits and legal procedures. Dental services have been found out among the most controversial issues of healthcare services. Every year the number of complaints related to the performance of diagnostic and treatment by dentist is constantly growing. The main causes for such lawsuits usually include wrong or incorrect choice of dental treatment, incomplete informing patients about the state of their dental health, not fully developed treatment plan, incomplete or incorrect diagnostic examination or its complete absence both at the beginning and during dental treatment, incorrect choice of technique and failure to follow the sequence of diagnostic and treatment manipulations, especially in patients with malocclusions. Such circumstances cause difficulties in deciding how and in what sequence to perform diagnostic and treatment manipulations, what specialists should be involved in the treatment and what dental equipment should be used at different stages of diagnosis and treatment. The scrutinized investigation of the issues has provided an opportunity to prevent possible conflict situations with patients at different stages of diagnosis and treatment, as well as will help to resolve existing conflicts between doctor and patient. The correct patient-centred approach to solving each of the problems allows dentists to find the best conditions to prevent conflicts and legal procedures when rendering dental services. Selection of individual solution in order to resolve conflict situations is an important step in achieving harmony between doctor and patient.

Theta oscillations in frontal cortex differentially modulate accuracy and speed in flexible stimulus- and action-based learning

ABSTRACTFlexible reward learning relies on frontal cortex, with substantial evidence indicating the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) play important roles. Recent studies in both rat and macaque suggest theta oscillations (5-10 Hz) may be a spectral signature that coordinates this learning. However, causal network-level interactions between ACC and OFC in flexible learning remain unclear. We investigated the learning of stimulus-outcome (S-O) and action-outcome (A-O) associations using a combination of simultaneous in-vivo electrophysiology in dorsal ACC and ventral OFC, partnered with bilateral inhibitory DREADDs in ACC. In freely-behaving male and female rats and using a within-subject design, we examined accuracy and speed of response across distinct and precisely-defined trial epochs including correct choice, incorrect choice, and reward collection. We report significant modulation of accuracy by theta power in both ACC and OFC. Both ACC and OFC theta oscillations consistently signaled accuracy in the initial discrimination phase, whereas it was OFC theta alone in the reversal phases of both S-O and A-O learning. Theta power in either region was not correlated with deliberation speed. Indeed, theta modulation of accuracy was dissociable from its involvement in speed of response which was affected by ACC inhibition, most prominently in A-O learning. Results are discussed with reference to the nonhuman primate literature, where there is by contrast more reported specialization of OFC and ACC in flexible learning of stimuli and actions. The present results also point to a specific role of OFC theta in signaling a reversal of either kind.

Dimensional-time relationships of the technological process of manufacturing a "ТМЗ—450Д" diesel cylinder

Changes in the dimensions of the main bore of the cylinder of a "ТМЗ-450Д" diesel engine in the technological process of its mechanical and thermal treatment at the Tula Machine-Building Plant are analyzed. The accepted sequence of operations is presented: turning with CNC — aging — boring — aging — honing — aging — honing — honing — honing — aging. An incorrect choice of the cylinder basing scheme was noted during the first operations. A new version of the technological process of mechanical and heat treatments is proposed, including natural aging and the use of double boring on a modular boring machine, which made it possible to reduce the number of honing operations to one, including rough and finish steps. Keywords: shape and size errors, aging, dimensional changes, basing, boring, honing, Abbot diagram. [email protected]

EKF- and UKF-Based Estimators for Radar System

In radar, the measurements (like the range and radial velocity) are determined from the time delay and Doppler shift. Since the time delay and Doppler shift are estimated from the phase of the received echo, the concerned estimation problem is nonlinear. Consequently, the conventional estimator based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT) is prone to yield high estimation errors. Recently, nonlinear estimators based on kernel least mean square (KLMS) are introduced and found to outperform the conventional estimator. However, estimators based on KLMS are susceptible to incorrect choice of various system parameters. Thus, to mitigate the limitation of existing estimators, in this paper, two efficient low-complexity nonlinear estimators, namely, the extended Kalman filter (EKF) and the unscented Kalman filter (UKF), are proposed. The EKF is advantageous due to its implementation simplicity; however, it suffers from the poor representation of the nonlinear functions by the first-order linearization, whereas UKF outperforms the EKF and offers better stability due to exact consideration of the system nonlinearity. Simulation results reveal improved accuracy achieved by the proposed EKF- and UKF-based estimators.

Reversal of a Spatial Discrimination Task in the Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris)

Reversal learning requires an animal to learn to discriminate between two stimuli but reverse its responses to these stimuli every time it has reached a learning criterion. Thus, different from pure discrimination experiments, reversal learning experiments require the animal to respond to stimuli flexibly, and the reversal learning performance can be taken as an illustration of the animal's cognitive abilities. We herein describe a reversal learning experiment involving a simple spatial discrimination task, choosing the right or left side, with octopus. When trained with positive reinforcement alone, most octopuses did not even learn the original task. The learning behavior changed drastically when incorrect choices were indicated by a visual signal: the octopuses learned the task within a few sessions and completed several reversals thereby decreasing the number of errors needed to complete a reversal successively. A group of octopus trained with the incorrect-choice signal directly acquired the task quickly and reduced their performances over reversals. Our results indicate that octopuses are able to perform successfully in a reversal experiment based on a spatial discrimination showing progressive improvement, however, without reaching the ultimate performance. Thus, depending on the experimental context, octopus can show behavioral flexibility in a reversal learning task, which goes beyond mere discrimination learning.

Optimization of the Algorithm for Choosing the Surgical Treatment of Anterior Recurrent Instability of the Shoulder Joint

Introduction. Chronic recurrent instability of the shoulder joint is a frequent outcome of conservative treatment oftraumatic dislocation of the shoulder (2.8–30 % of cases). Preoperative examination largely determines the outcome of surgical treatment of this pathology.The aim of the study was to provide a clinical assessment of the developed algorithm for the surgical treatment of patients with recurrent anterior shoulder joint instability. Materials and methods. The results of treatment of 98 patients with recurrent anterior shoulder joint instability were studied. Preoperative examination included clinical tests, MRI or CT with calculation of bone loss. Fifty-six patients (57.1 %) underwent Bankart operation, 14 patients (14.3 %) – Latarjet operation. Twenty-three patients (23.5 %) underwent Bankart + Remplissage surgery, and 5 (5.1 %) – Latarjet + remplissage. The result was assessed on the ROWE scale.Results. Bone defects significant in the formation of instability (“glenoid off track”) were found in 19.4 % of patients, and “glenoid on track” – in 80.6 %. According to the proposed algorithm for treating patients with anterior recurrent instability of the shoulder joint, the “glenoid off track” state was an indication for Latarjet surgery. When “glenoid on track” was used, indications for Bankart operation were displayed. The remplissage procedure was indicated in case of the presence of a Hill-Sachs grade 3 defect or the presence of hyperelasticity of the tissues of the shoulder joint. The mean ROWE score for the entire group of patients before surgery was 41.5 ± 12.8 points, and 15 months after sur gery – 94.9 ± 3.4 points. Two recurrent dislocations were revealed, one of which was associated with repeated trauma, and the other – with an incorrect choice of stabilization technique. One complication (axillary nerve neuropathy) was observed, which was arrested conservatively.Conclusions. The proposed algorithm allowed us to obtain positive results in 97.9 % of cases.

STRATEGIES AND REALITIES OF INTEGRATION OF DOMESTIC ENTERPRISES INTO THE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

The article defines the essence, role and significance of economic strategies in the context of integrating domestic market agents into the international business environment. The main aspects of defining the concept of "strategy" are studied, and on this basis, the effects and phenomena that are implemented in the general economic theory are described and formalized. Based on the identification of the category of "strategy" in the context of various scientific approaches, the correctness of the author's research methodology is proven. The potential and main problems faced in the process of working up economic strategies for the development of integrated enterprises are identified, as well as the main threats posed to the evolution of market agents as a result of incorrect choice of strategic management tools are outlined. The categories of "strategy - economic behaviour" have been formalized following the author's concept, which outlines key similarities and differences. The main features of economic strategies are formed and generalized. It is emphasized that the international business environment is actively used by domestic integrated enterprises as a channel for removing financial resources outside the country. Particular attention is paid to the negative consequences of tax minimization, including the cases of reinvoicing (change in the price of goods) under the conditions of using non-resident companies. Emphasis is given to the main ways of stopping dysfunctional economic processes. It is established that from the point of view of the destructiveness of economic processes, the corresponding dysfunctions of strategy formation are a direct consequence of unjustified liberalization of the legislation. It is defined that the institutional environment itself is one of the key factors of ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of undergoing a socio-economic change in the context of implementing strategies for the development of integrated enterprises. It is pointed out that the dysfunctions of economic reform, including the destructive models of economic behaviour of enterprises, have become, in fact, a natural consequence of thoughtless institutional changes.

Self-Controlled Cleaving Method for Silicon DRIE Process Cross-Section Characterization

Advanced microsystems widely used in integrated optoelectronic devices, energy harvesting components, and microfluidic lab-on-chips require high-aspect silicon microstructures with a precisely controlled profile. Such microstructures can be fabricated using the Bosch process, which is a key process for the mass production of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) devices. One can measure the etching profile at a cross-section to characterize the Bosch process quality by cleaving the substrate into two pieces. However, the cleaving process of several neighboring deeply etched microstructures is a very challenging and uncontrollable task. The cleaving method affects both the cleaving efficiency and the metrology quality of the resulting etched microstructures. The standard cleaving technique using a diamond scriber does not solve this issue. Herein, we suggest a highly controllable cross-section cleaving method, which minimizes the effect on the resulting deep etching profile. We experimentally compare two cleaving methods based on various auxiliary microstructures: (1) etched transverse auxiliary lines of various widths (from 5 to 100 μm) and positions; and (2) etched dashed auxiliary lines. The interplay between the auxiliary lines and the etching process is analyzed for dense periodic and isolated trenches sized from 2 to 50 μm with an aspect ratio of more than 10. We experimentally showed that an incorrect choice of auxiliary line parameters leads to silicon “build-up” defects at target microstructures intersections, which significantly affects the cross-section profile metrology. Finally, we suggest a highly controllable defect-free cross-section cleaving method utilizing dashed auxiliary lines with the stress concentrators.