Mindfulness Training Associated With Resting-State Electroencephalograms Dynamics in Novice Practitioners via Mindful Breathing and Body-Scan

Objectives: Mindfulness-based stress reduction has been proven to improve mental health and quality of life. This study examined how mindfulness training and various types of mindfulness practices altered brain activity.Methods: Specifically, the spectral powers of scalp electroencephalography of the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) group (n=17) who underwent an 8-week MBSR training—including mindful breathing and body-scan—were evaluated and compared with those of the waitlist controls (n=14).Results: Empirical results indicated that the post-intervention effect of MBSR significantly elevated the resting-state beta powers and reduced resting-state delta powers in both practices; such changes were not observed in the waitlist control. Compared with mindful breathing, body-scanning resulted in an overall decline in electroencephalograms (EEG) spectral powers at both delta and low-gamma bands among trained participants.Conclusion: Together with our preliminary data of expert mediators, the aforementioned spectral changes were salient after intervention, but mitigated along with expertise. Additionally, after receiving training, the MBSR group’s mindfulness and emotion regulation levels improved significantly, which were correlated with the EEG spectral changes in the theta, alpha, and low-beta bands. The results supported that MBSR might function as a unique internal processing tool that involves increased vigilant capability and induces alterations similar to other cognitive training.

Unit Price of Manufacturing Exports that Process Natural Resources From Latin America.

Lead-inWe explore the potential domestic income increase in Latin American exports following unit prices of exported products by processing stage.In various developed countries, manufacturing began through the internal processing of locally available natural resources. Currently, high-income countries participate in world trade by exporting these types of products. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the level of sophistication of these exports by monitoring the unit price of exports of the petrochemical chain (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela); copper (Chile and Peru); iron and steel (Brazil and Mexico); and soybean and its derivatives (Argentina and Brazil). We show the potential for elevating domestic income in exports by increasing manufacturing done within a country before export.JEL classification: F14, L61, L65, L66, L71, O13, Q17

Problems of reducing loss of agricultural products

Aim. Assess and analyze the structure of agricultural production and the total amount of losses during its transportation, sale and processing. Materials and Methods. The scientific research was based on an assessment of the reported aggregated statistical data on the volume of agricultural production in Russia. Methods of graphic, statistical analysis, methods of analogy and comparison, genesis and synthesis of scientific knowledge were used in the work. Results. The gross volumes of agricultural production were calculated (280 million rubles), the volumes of products sold (8.25 trillion rubles) aimed at personal consumption were determined (81 million rubles), and the total losses of products in the process of their sale and consumption, and transportation to the final consumer were calculated (48 million tons). It was concluded that manufacturers today are actually aimed at exporting raw materials, without its subsequent processing and storage due to the lack of established logistics routes and the necessary capacities for its long-term storage. Recommendations were developed for the development of infrastructure for long-term storage and subsequent processing of agricultural products. Conclusion. Conclusions are drawn about the need to revise the existing system of logistics supplies and transportation of agricultural products from the field to the storage facility or producer. For the successful intensification of the existing process of internal processing of agricultural products, it is necessary to increase the storage and freezing capacities of raw materials.

A new adaptive procedure for estimating perceptual thresholds: the effects of observer bias and its correction.

Adaptive threshold estimation procedures sample close to a subject's perceptual threshold by dynamically adapting the stimulation based on the subject's performance. Yet, perceptual thresholds not only depend on the observers' sensory capabilities but also on any bias in terms of their expectations and response preferences, thus distorting the precision of the threshold estimates. Using the framework of signal detection theory (SDT), independent estimates of both, an observer's sensitivity and internal processing bias can be delineated from threshold estimates. While this approach is commonly available for estimation procedures engaging the method of constant stimuli (MCS), correction procedures for adaptive methods (AM) are only scarcely applied. In this article, we introduce a new AM that takes individual biases into account, and that allows for a bias-corrected assessment of subjects' sensitivity. This novel AM is validated with simulations and compared to a typical MCS-procedure, for which the implementation of bias correction has been previously demonstrated. Comparing AM and MCS demonstrates the viability of the presented AM. Besides its feasibility, the results of the simulation reveal both, advantages, and limitations of the proposed AM. The procedure has considerable practical implications, in particular for the design of shaping procedures in sensory training experiments, in which task difficulty has to be constantly adapted to an observer's performance, to improve training efficiency.

In the land of data streams where synopses are missing, one framework to bring them all

In pursuit of real-time data analysis, approximate summarization structures, i.e., synopses, have gained importance over the years. However, existing stream processing systems, such as Flink, Spark, and Storm, do not support synopses as first class citizens, i.e., as pipeline operators. Synopses' implementation is upon users. This is mainly because of the diversity of synopses, which makes a unified implementation difficult. We present Condor, a framework that supports synopses as first class citizens. Condor facilitates the specification and processing of synopsis-based streaming jobs while hiding all internal processing details. Condor's key component is its model that represents synopses as a particular case of windowed aggregate functions. An inherent divide and conquer strategy allows Condor to efficiently distribute the computation, allowing for high-performance and linear scalability. Our evaluation shows that Condor outperforms existing approaches by up to a factor of 75x and that it scales linearly with the number of cores.

Mindfulness Training Alters Resting-State EEG Dynamics in Novice Practitioners via Mindful Breathing and Body-scan

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been proven to improve mental health and quality of life. This study examined how mindfulness training and various types of mindfulness practices altered brain activity. Specifically, the spectral powers of scalp electroencephalography (EEG) of the MBSR group who underwent an 8-week mindfulness training—including mindful breathing and body-scan—were evaluated and compared with those of the waitlist controls. Empirical results indicated that the long-term mindfulness intervention effect significantly elevated the resting-state beta powers and reduced resting-state delta powers in both practices; such changes were not observed in the waitlist control. Compared with mindful breathing, body-scanning resulted in an overall decline in EEG spectral powers at both delta and gamma bands among trained participants. Together with our preliminary data of expert mediators, the aforementioned spectral changes were salient after intervention, but mitigated along with expertise. Additionally, after receiving training, the MBSR group’s mindfulness and emotion regulation levels improved significantly, which were correlated with the EEG spectral changes in the theta, alpha, and low-beta bands. This study elaborated the neurophysiological correlates of mindfulness practices, suggesting that MBSR might function as a unique internal processing that involves increased vigilant capability and induces alterations similar to other cognitive training.

Bedload Velocity and Backscattering Strength from Mobile Sediment Bed: A Laboratory Investigation Comparing Bistatic Versus Monostatic Acoustic Configuration

Despite the many advantages of using active ultrasound sonars, recent studies have shown that the specific acoustic geometry, signal-processing configuration, and complex surface-volume scattering process at the riverbed introduce several uncertainties in bedload estimation. This study presents a comparison of bedload velocity and bottom echo intensity measurements performed by monostatic and bistatic active ultrasound systems. The monostatic configuration is widely applied in the field to measure the apparent velocity at the riverbed with an acoustic current Doppler profiler (ADCP). Two laboratory investigations were conducted in two different hydraulic facilities deploying ADCP Stream Pro, monostatic and bistatic acoustic velocity profilers, manufactured by Ubertone. The bistatic instruments provided more accurate bedload velocity measurements and helped in understanding the acoustic sampling of the monastic systems. The bistatic profiles succeeded in measuring a profile over the active bedload layer, and the monostatic instruments resulted in different bedload velocity estimations depending on the acoustic resolution and sampling. The echo intensity increased in the cells measured within the active bedload layer with respect to the cell measuring the water column above. The cells that sampled the immobile bed surface beneath the bedload layer showed a reduction of the echo intensity compared with the cells above. The acoustic sampling, which combines the measurement volume geometry and internal processing, seems crucial for more accurate outputs. Future research about the use of monostatic instruments in the field should aim to define the best possible setting for the acoustic parameters at a given bedload condition that may be tuned by evaluating the backscattering at the river bottom together with the apparent bedload velocity.

DYNAMIC CHANGE MONITORING OF QIANLONG GARDEN ROCKERY IN FORBIDDEN CITY BASED ON INSAR AND LIDAR TECHNOLOGY

The traditional method of deformation monitoring involves a large amount of external field measurement and internal processing to obtain the deformation of the measured object. With the development of InSAR technology, deformation monitoring can now be completed more efficiently. In this paper, InSAR technology and LiDAR technology are used to detect the deformation of the Fuwangge Rockery in Qianlong Garden, InSAR technology can provide higher point accuracy and LiDAR technology can provide higher spatial resolution. After the deformation of the rockery is obtained by LiDAR technology, the InSAR experimental results are verified. It is expected that the error of deformation analysis by the two methods will be within 5mm. Finally, the detection results of the two are consistent with each other and complement each other. At the same time, InSAR technology combined with LiDAR technology also provides a new idea for deformation monitoring.