Benchmarking cEEGrid and Solid Gel-Based Electrodes to Classify Inattentional Deafness in a Flight Simulator

Transfer from experiments in the laboratory to real-life tasks is challenging due notably to the inability to reproduce the complexity of multitasking dynamic everyday life situations in a standardized lab condition and to the bulkiness and invasiveness of recording systems preventing participants from moving freely and disturbing the environment. In this study, we used a motion flight simulator to induce inattentional deafness to auditory alarms, a cognitive difficulty arising in complex environments. In addition, we assessed the possibility of two low-density EEG systems a solid gel-based electrode Enobio (Neuroelectrics, Barcelona, Spain) and a gel-based cEEGrid (TMSi, Oldenzaal, Netherlands) to record and classify brain activity associated with inattentional deafness (misses vs. hits to odd sounds) with a small pool of expert participants. In addition to inducing inattentional deafness (missing auditory alarms) at much higher rates than with usual lab tasks (34.7% compared to the usual 5%), we observed typical inattentional deafness-related activity in the time domain but also in the frequency and time-frequency domains with both systems. Finally, a classifier based on Riemannian Geometry principles allowed us to obtain more than 70% of single-trial classification accuracy for both mobile EEG, and up to 71.5% for the cEEGrid (TMSi, Oldenzaal, Netherlands). These results open promising avenues toward detecting cognitive failures in real-life situations, such as real flight.

Front-of-pack nutrition labels: perceptions and preferences of Brazilian adult consumers

PurposeThis study aimed to examine the perceptions and preferences of Brazilian adult consumers about four different front-of-pack (FOP) food labeling systems proposed by the Brazilian National Health Regulatory Agency.Design/methodology/approachThis is a qualitative study conducted with 33 participants allocated in six focus groups. Four different types of FOP labels were displayed on processed and packaged bread: three interpretive warning labels (black triangle, black octagon and red ellipse) and a hybrid model (nutritional traffic light). Thematic analysis was used to identify the key topics addressed by participants.FindingsThree topics were identified: label design, clarity and precision of information. The results demonstrated an influence of labels on product development and consumers' food choices. Most participants expressed a preference for black warning labels and reported the importance of statements endorsed by the Ministry of Health, which provide credibility and could influence food choices. Furthermore, participants agreed that the traffic light system provides more information but is difficult to interpret when comparing products. Warning labels were reported to have the greatest influence on purchase decisions. However, participants were concerned about how to understand the lack of warning labels on some products.Practical implicationsThe results may help and support the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency to identify and recommend the most effective FOP labeling system to be adopted in Brazil.Originality/valueFew studies investigating adult consumers' perceptions of different FOP label formats have been conducted in the Brazilian context. Our study contributes to the small pool of evidence on the topic by demonstrating that FOP labels can be helpful for consumers when they are presented in an intuitive, interpretative and trustworthy format.

Why Would You Referee?

Adopting a creative yet novel autoethnographic approach, this study explores the experiences of the first author, a newly qualified footballing official. In doing so, the study provides a first person account to showcase the realities of refereeing whereby adding to a small pool of refereeing literature in the process. In providing an evocative account with a theoretical analysis, the research aims to both showcase and explain the demands associated with the position. Therefore, by constructing the said narratives in an easy to understand manner, the study looks to showcases the challenges associated with officiating to a broad audience. While, the study gives a viable explanation to why many newly qualified referees drop out from the role, the study hopes to inform and subsequently aid aspiring officials in their ongoing development.

Optimization of BSA-seq experiment for QTL mapping

Deep sequencing-based bulked segregant analysis (BSA-seq) has become a popular approach for quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping in recent years. Effective statistical methods for BSA-seq have been developed, but how to design a suitable experiment for BSA-seq remains unclear. In this paper, we show in theory how the major experimental factors (including population size, pool proportion, pool balance, and generation) and the intrinsic factors of a QTL (including heritability and degree of dominance) affect the power of QTL detection and the precision of QTL mapping in BSA-seq. Increasing population size can improve the power and precision, depending on the QTL heritability. The best proportion of each pool in the population is around 0.25. So, 0.25 is generally applicable in BSA-seq. Small pool proportion can greatly reduce the power and precision. Imbalance of pool pair in size also causes decrease of the power and precision. Additive effect is more important than dominance effect for QTL mapping. Increasing the generation of filial population produced by selfing can significantly increase the power and precision, especially from F2 to F3. These findings enable researchers to optimize the experimental design for BSA-seq. A web-based program named BSA-seq Design Tool is available at http://124.71.74.135/BSA-seqDesignTool/ and https://github.com/huanglikun/BSA-seqDesignTool.

Benchmarking cEEGrid and solid gel-based electrodes to classify inattentional deafness in a flight simulator

Transfer from experiments in laboratory to real-life tasks is challenging due notably to the inability to reproduce the complexity of multitasking dynamic everyday life situations in a standardized lab condition, and to the bulkiness and invasiveness of recording systems preventing participants from moving freely and disturbing the environment. Here we used a motion flight simulator to induce inattentional deafness to auditory alarms, a cognitive difficulty arising in complex environments. In addition, we assessed the possibility of two low-density EEG systems (a solid gel-based electrode Enobio (Neuroelectrics, Barcelona, Spain) and a gel-based cEEGrid (TMSi, Oldenzaal, Netherlands)) to record and classify brain activity associated with inattentional deafness (misses vs. hits to odd sounds) with a small pool of expert participants. In addition to inducing inattentional deafness (missing auditory alarms) at much higher rates than with usual lab tasks (34.7% compared to the usual 5%), we observed typical inattentional deafness-related activity in the time domain, but also in the frequency and time-frequency domains with both systems. Finally, a classifier based on Riemannian Geometry principles allowed us to obtain more than 70% of single-trial classification accuracy for both mobile EEG, and up to 72.9% for the cEEGrid (TMSi, Oldenzaal, Netherlands). These results open promising avenue towards detecting cognitive failures in real-life situations, such as real flight.

EGFR-RAS-MAPK signaling is confined to the plasma membrane and associated endorecycling protrusions

The subcellular localization of RAS GTPases defines the operational compartment of the EGFR-ERK1/2 signaling pathway within cells. Hence, we used live-cell imaging to demonstrate that endogenous KRAS and NRAS tagged with mNeonGreen are predominantly localized to the plasma membrane. NRAS was also present in the Golgi apparatus and a tubular, plasma-membrane derived endorecycling compartment, enriched in recycling endosome markers (TERC). In EGF-stimulated cells, there was essentially no colocalization of either mNeonGreen-KRAS or mNeonGreen-NRAS with endosomal EGFR, which, by contrast, remained associated with endogenous Grb2-mNeonGreen, a receptor adaptor upstream of RAS. ERK1/2 activity was diminished by blocking cell surface EGFR with cetuximab, even after most ligand-bound, Grb2-associated EGFRs were internalized. Endogenous mCherry-tagged RAF1, an effector of RAS, was recruited to the plasma membrane, with subsequent accumulation in mNG-NRAS–containing TERCs. We propose that a small pool of surface EGFRs sustain signaling within the RAS-ERK1/2 pathway and that RAS activation persists in TERCs, whereas endosomal EGFR does not significantly contribute to ERK1/2 activity.

BRISK: Dynamic Encryption Based Cipher for Long Term Security

Several emerging areas like the Internet of Things, sensor networks, healthcare and distributed networks feature resource-constrained devices that share secure and privacy-preserving data to accomplish some goal. The majority of standard cryptographic algorithms do not fit with these constrained devices due to heavy cryptographic components. In this paper, a new block cipher, BRISK, is proposed with a block size of 32-bit. The cipher design is straightforward due to simple round operations, and these operations can be efficiently run in hardware and suitable for software. Another major concept used with this cipher is dynamism during encryption for each session; that is, instead of using the same encryption algorithm, participants use different ciphers for each session. Professor Lars R. Knudsen initially proposed dynamic encryption in 2015, where the sender picks a cipher from a large pool of ciphers to encrypt the data and send it along with the encrypted message. The receiver does not know about the encryption technique used before receiving the cipher along with the message. However, in the proposed algorithm, instead of choosing a new cipher, the process uses the same cipher for each session, but varies the cipher specifications from a given small pool, e.g., the number of rounds, cipher components, etc. Therefore, the dynamism concept is used here in a different way.

Replication-dependent histone biosynthesis is coupled to cell-cycle commitment

The current model of replication-dependent (RD) histone biosynthesis posits that RD histone gene expression is coupled to DNA replication, occurring only in S phase of the cell cycle once DNA synthesis has begun. However, several key factors in the RD histone biosynthesis pathway are up-regulated by E2F or phosphorylated by CDK2, suggesting these processes may instead begin much earlier, at the point of cell-cycle commitment. In this study, we use both fixed- and live-cell imaging of human cells to address this question, revealing a hybrid model in which RD histone biosynthesis is first initiated in G1, followed by a strong increase in histone production in S phase of the cell cycle. This suggests a mechanism by which cells that have committed to the cell cycle build up an initial small pool of RD histones to be available for the start of DNA replication, before producing most of the necessary histones required in S phase. Thus, a clear distinction exists at completion of mitosis between cells that are born with the intention of proceeding through the cell cycle and replicating their DNA and cells that have chosen to exit the cell cycle and have no immediate need for histone synthesis.

Brain Regional Differences in Hexanucleotide Repeat Length in X-Linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism Using Nanopore Sequencing

ObjectiveOur study investigated the presence of regional differences in hexanucleotide repeat number in postmortem brain tissues of 2 patients with X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism (XDP), a combined dystonia-parkinsonism syndrome modified by a (CCCTCT)n repeat within the causal SINE-VNTR-Alu retrotransposon insertion in the TAF1 gene.MethodsGenomic DNA was extracted from blood and postmortem brain samples, including the basal ganglia and cortex from both patients and from the cerebellum, midbrain, and pituitary gland from 1 patient. Repeat sizing was performed using fragment analysis, small-pool PCR-based Southern blotting, and Oxford nanopore sequencing.ResultsThe basal ganglia (p < 0.001) and cerebellum (p < 0.001) showed higher median repeat numbers and higher degrees of repeat instability compared with blood.ConclusionsSomatic repeat instability may predominate in brain regions selectively affected in XDP, thereby hinting at its potential role in disease manifestation and modification.

Perception of Security Issues in the Development of Cloud-IoT Systems by a Novice Programmer

It is very hard (or ineffective) to take an old system and add to it security features like plug-ins. Therefore, a computer system is much more reliable designed with the approach of security-by-design. Nowadays, there are several tools, middlewares, and platforms designed with this concept in mind, but they must be appropriately used to guarantee a suitable level of reliability and safety. A security-by-design approach is fundamental when creating a distributed application in the IoT field, composed of sensors, actuators, and cloud services. The IoT usually requires handling different programming languages and technologies in which a developer might not be very expert. Through a use case, we analyzed the security of some IoT components of Amazon Web Services (AWS) from a novice programmer’s point of view. Even if such a platform could be secure by itself, a novice programmer could do something wrong and leave some possible attack points to a malicious user. To this end, we also surveyed a small pool of novice IoT programmers from a consulting engineering company. Even if we discovered that AWS seems quite robust, we noticed that some common security concepts are often not clear or applied, leaving the door open to possible issues.