Three-Color FISH Method: Dose-Effect Curves for Translocations in Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Cultures after Gamma-Irradiation In Vitro

Purpose: Plotting dose-effect curves for translocations identified using the tricolor FISH method based on the results of cytogenetic analysis of cultures of peripheral blood lymphocytes of healthy donors after in vitro gamma irradiation. Material and methods: Venous blood was obtained from three donors (2 men and 1 woman aged from 28 to 41 years) and subjected to in vitro gamma irradiation from a 60Co source at doses of 0.10; 0.15; 0.25; 0.35; 0.50; 0.75; 1.00; 1.50; 2.00 and 3.00 Gy at 37 ° C (dose rate 0.5 Gy / min). For tricolor FISH staining, two different sets of DNA probes were used for chromosome pairs 1, 4, 12 and 2, 3, 8. Metaphases with a quasi-diploid number of chromosomes (40-46) and a complete set of all FISH-stained chromosomes, taking into account their total length, were selected for analysis. Differentiation of stable and unstable cells was also carried out. In the cytogenetic analysis, traditional terminology was used with the designation of translocations as reciprocal (complete, two-sided), non-reciprocal (terminal, incomplete, or unilateral), or interstitial. Results: The obtained numerical data were used to statistically compare the frequencies of FISH-recorded translocations when using different sets of DNA probes, when calculating of chromosome aberrations were in all (unstable and stable) and stable metaphase cells, when comparing of the frequencies of FISH-recorded translocations and dicentrics, and assessing of the contribution of the level of translocations between FISH-stained chromosome pairs in the total translocation frequency. The plotted dose-effect curves generally corresponded to the linear-quadratic form. Conclusion: Dose dependences obtained for translocations using two different selected tricolor sets of DNA probes did not differ statistically significantly. At the same time, cytogenetic analysis of only stable metaphase cells revealed a tendency to register lower levels of translocations than when analyzing all cells (unstable and stable ), at the highest doses of 2 and 3 Gy. The levels of dicentrics formed with the participation of FISH-stained chromosomes were significantly lower than the number of observed translocations. The quantitative contribution of translocations between FISH-stained pairs of chromosomes turned out to be very low, which clearly does not contribute to an increase in the sensitivity of the FISH method of retrospective dose estimation as compared to its one-color version. At the same time, the three-color FISH-staining makes it possible to identify such variants of chromosomal rearrangements that are not recorded using the one-color FISH method.

The sound of reading: Color-to-timbre substitution boosts reading performance via OVAL, a novel auditory orthography optimized for visual-to-auditory mapping

Reading is a unique human cognitive skill and its acquisition was proven to extensively affect both brain organization and neuroanatomy. Differently from western sighted individuals, literacy rates via tactile reading systems, such as Braille, are declining, thus imposing an alarming threat to literacy among non-visual readers. This decline is due to many reasons including the length of training needed to master Braille, which must also include extensive tactile sensitivity exercises, the lack of proper Braille instruction and the high costs of Braille devices. The far-reaching consequences of low literacy rates, raise the need to develop alternative, cheap and easy-to-master non-visual reading systems. To this aim, we developed OVAL, a new auditory orthography based on a visual-to-auditory sensory-substitution algorithm. Here we present its efficacy for successful words-reading, and investigation of the extent to which redundant features defining characters (i.e., adding specific colors to letters conveyed into audition via different musical instruments) facilitate or impede auditory reading outcomes. Thus, we tested two groups of blindfolded sighted participants who were either exposed to a monochromatic or to a color version of OVAL. First, we showed that even before training, all participants were able to discriminate between 11 OVAL characters significantly more than chance level. Following 6 hours of specific OVAL training, participants were able to identify all the learned characters, differentiate them from untrained letters, and read short words/pseudo-words of up to 5 characters. The Color group outperformed the Monochromatic group in all tasks, suggesting that redundant characters’ features are beneficial for auditory reading. Overall, these results suggest that OVAL is a promising auditory-reading tool that can be used by blind individuals, by people with reading deficits as well as for the investigation of reading specific processing dissociated from the visual modality.

A new blind color watermarking based on a psychovisual model

In this paper, we address the problem of the use of a human visual system (HVS) model to improve watermark invisibility. We propose a new color watermarking algorithm based on the minimization of the perception of color differences. This algorithm is based on a psychovisual model of the dynamics of cone photoreceptors. We used this model to determine the discrimination power of the human for a particular color and thus the best strategy to modify color pixels. Results were obtained on a color version of the lattice quantization index modulation (LQIM) method and showed improvements on psychovisual invisibility and robustness against several image distortions.

Dominican Futurism

This article looks at Rita Indiana’s performance work and latest novel as an example of Dominican futurism. Dominican futurism, like its counterpart Afrofuturism, centers the Dominican body in a technologically enhanced future, positioning it within a speculative world in which Dominicans are the agents of change. This article argues that Indiana’s version of Dominican futurism engages with “negative aesthetics”—defined here as the aesthetics of disorientation, dystopia, and disgust. Negative aesthetics offer a way of staying with the pain and unrest of trauma in speculative texts. The author posits a lineage of negative aesthetics in the Dominican literary tradition, which we can trace back to the work of the Dominican pessimist writers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While the writers articulating this outlook were invested in colonial attitudes such as anti-Blackness, however, Indiana puts forth a feminist and queer of color version that continues the aesthetic practice while also offering a radical departure by critiquing colonial and neocolonial categories. This article contends that in her Dominican futurism, Indiana pairs the speculative with negative aesthetics to point toward a future that is hopeful while being attentive to the trauma of the past and present.

Neugebauer Models for Color Error Diffusion Halftoning

In this paper, we propose a method for halftoning color images based on an error diffusion technique, a color design criterion and Neugebauer models for expressing colors. For a natural extension of the conventional method for grayscale error diffusion to its color version, we first reformulate grayscale error diffusion with a one-dimensional Neugebauer model. Then we increase the dimension of the model to derive a color error diffusion method based on a three-dimensional Neugebauer model in RGB (red, green and blue) color space. Moreover, we propose a sparse Neugebauer model based on a color design criterion, or the minimal brightness variation criterion (MBVC), from which we derive a sparse Neugebauer model-based error diffusion method. Experimental results show that color halftone images produced by the proposed methods preserve the color contents in original continuous-tone images better than that by conventional color error diffusion methods. We also demonstrate that the proposed sparse method reduce halftone noise better than the state-of-the-art method based on MBVC.

Psychological and Pedagogical Conditions of Intellectual Development in Preschoolers with Severe Speech Disorders

The research featured peculiarities of the intellectual development of children with severe speech disorders. A set of experiments showed that such children have systemic underdevelopment of verbal and non-verbal functions. The empirical part of the research was based on two methods: a color version of Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices Test and Wechsler’s Pre-School & Primary Scale of Intelligence in M. N. Ilyina’s adaptation. The data were analyzed with the help of statistical methods. The article focuses on the system of psychological and pedagogical conditions of the intellectual development of preschoolers in the conditions of preschool educational organizations. The authors consider the sensory education as the basis of intellectual development aimed primarily at the development of feelings and perceptions. The content of the intellectual education includes speech development, development of elementary mathematical concepts, and productive activities (construction, modeling, drawing, application), which are considered as significant aspects of intellectual education. The authors compiled, tested, and evaluated a program of intellectual development of senior preschool children with severe speech disorders. The program was based on didactic games.

MICRODISPLAY STRUCTURES BASED ON ORGANIC GREEN LIGHT EMITTING DIODES USING THERMALLY ACTIVATED DELAYED FLUORESCENCE MATERIALS

The aim of the work is to develop a new highly efficient light-emitting structure of microdisplays based on organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) for the modernization of the microdisplayes MDO 02 of the mass production. It is also intended to use the new OLED structure in subsequent developments of new series of microdisplays, including a green glow. Сomplete microdisplay element consists of а active matrix and OLED structure, which is a set of layers of low molecular weight organic materials. The active matrix of the microdisplay MDO 02 contains 800×3(RGB)×600 pixels for the full-color version and 800×600 pixels for the monochrome version. Microdisplay MDO 02 has the following characteristics: the nominal brightness of the full-color glow is 140 cd/m2, the monochrome glow is – 560 cd/m2, the unevenness of the brightness is not more than 15 %, the contrast in relative units is not less than 100:1, the power consumption is not more than 450 mW, the operating time on refusal not less than 5000 hours. To improve these characteristics, it is proposed to use OLED structure, including materials with thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). Materials with TADF have a much simpler synthesis scheme, an expanded selection of starting components and do not need expensive rare and rare-earth metals, which are used for the synthesis of phosphorescent materials. A structure with high light (external quantum yield up to 26.2 %) and electrical parameters with the described dopant synthesis process was selected from a number of OLED structure. This structure consists of four organic layers: hole-injection, hole-transport, emission and electron-transport. As a dopant for the emission layer, material aICTRZs based on indocarbosol derivatives was used. The dopant aICTRZs was synthesized by us according to the proposed synthesis method. The characteristics of this structure were evaluated using an ITO / TAPC (30 nm) / TCTA (10 nm) / CBP (25 nm) / Bphen (30 nm) / LiF (0.5 nm) / Al (150 nm). Although the optical characteristics of such an LED did not reach the declared values, they showed quite good results. As a result, such an OLED structure can be used as an initial one and, with its further development, one can count on stable and high results of the optical and electrical characteristics of MDs.

An Eye-Tracking Analysis of a Restaurant Menu

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of color on eye movements while viewing a restaurant menu. Heat maps suggest that participants tended to view the middle and upper-left parts of the menu the most, regardless of color upon first exposure. Gaze plots showing the order of fixations indicated that color may have impacted initial eye movements in the first 10 seconds. Participants tended to view the center of the menu first in the color condition and the top left portion of the menu first in the non-color version. These results may be useful when designing restaurant menus and understanding the role color may have when attracting users’ gaze.

Changes in emotional state and the perception of body image in patients with dorsopathies after a course of medical massage

Objective: to evaluate the changes in perception of body image in patients with dorsopathies after restorative procedures (with the example of massage).Materials and methods. The study involved 50 patients with spinal diseases (of which 13 had intervertebral disc hernias, 13 patients had protrusions, 22 had scoliosis, 46 had osteochondrosis and 8 patients had spinal traumas). To assess the dynamics of the psychoemotional state and the attitude toward the body, we used the eight-color version of Lьscher color test and the color metaphors technique offered by I.L. Solomin and modified for the research task. Each patient was treated by a course of medical massage (10 sessions). Assessment of psychological parameters was conducted before and after the course of medical massage with the aim to establish the changes in the psychological state. The methods of descriptive statistics, the Student’s test for dependent samples and the procedure of tree clustering were used.Results. The average and elevated levels of non-productive neuropsychic tension after treatment of patients either significantly and statistically significantly decreased or completely normalized. Exhaustion and lethargy in most cases were replaced by higher levels of activity and mobilization of physical and psychological resources. Psychosemantic analysis indicates that after massage sessions, important life values related to health and perception of oneself as more necessary and attractive are allocated in clusters. There is a reason to conclude that a person ceases to “indulge in illness,” and opens up to the external environment, thus family and romantic relationships improve.Conclusion. After a course of medical massage, in addition to the therapeutic effect, patients’ overall psychoemotional state and attitude toward their own bodies improve.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO ASSESS PERSONALITY TRAITS BY MEANS OF LÜSCHER TEST?

Despite 70-year history of 8-color version of the Lüscher Test there are surprisingly few empirical data so far confirming its reliability and validity. The current study aimed to fill this gap. Construct validity of popular scores of the test (ranks of color’s choices and some derivative indexes) was investigated by means of their comparison with supposedly relevant personality trait scores measured by some questionnaires. In five student’s and three military samples (Ntotal = 6643) we could not reveal any consistent evidence of a link between color preferences and the personality traits. Temporary stability of Lüscher Test scores was investigated in four samples by a total number of 1067 subjects. Stability estimates at different modes of the test administration are amounted to r = 0,319–0,473, that is quite insufficient for reliable assessment of personality traits. The results obtained are considered as evidence of uselessness of the Lüscher Test application in high stake context. Also our data call into question a validity of popular systems of interpretations of color preferences, at least in terms of personality traits.