Cognitive entailments among "the true, the good, the beautiful": a mainland Chinese sample.

Philosophers and cognitive scientists have long debated about the entailments among "the true, the good, the beautiful" (TGB hereafter). In the current article, we directly probed mainland Chinese subjects' cognitive entailment among TGB. Using 1-7 (Experiment 1) and 1-6 (Experiment 2) Likert scales, we convergently observed that mainland Chinese subjects tend to think that the beautiful is not the true, and that the good is the beautiful. Additionally, Experiment 1 also revealed that mainland Chinese subjects tend to think that the true is not the beautiful. Some of these results may reflect anthropological universals, and some others may reflect cultural specifics. Experiment 3 revealed that the most popular translation of TGB in Chinese into English is rather "the true, the kind, the beautiful", suggesting that the three concepts mapped to TGB in Chinese is not one-to-one mapped to the three concepts mapped to TGB in English. Therefore, caution should be exercised when making cross-linguistic or cross-cultural comparisons about TGB in the future.

The Binding Problem 2.0: Beyond Perceptual Features.

The "binding problem" has been a central question in vision science for some 30 years: When encoding multiple objects or maintaining them in working memory, how are we able to represent the correspondence between a specific feature and its corresponding object correctly? In this letter we argue that the boundaries of this research program in fact extend far beyond vision, and we call for coordinated pursuit across the broader cognitive science community of this central question for cognition, which we dub "Binding Problem 2.0".

Electrophysiological hallmarks for event relations and event roles in working memory.

The ability to maintain events (i.e., interactions between/among objects) in working memory is crucial for our everyday cognition, yet the format of this representation is poorly understood. The current ERP study was designed to answer two questions: How is maintaining events (e.g., the tiger hit the lion) neurally different from maintaining item coordinations (e.g., the tiger and the lion)? That is, how is the event relation (present in events but not coordinations) represented? And how is the agent, or initiator of the event encoded differently from the patient, or receiver of the event during maintenance? We used a novel picture-sentence match-across-delay approach in which the working memory representation was "pinged" during the delay, replicated across two ERP experiments with Chinese and English materials. We found that maintenance of events elicited a long-lasting late sustained difference in posterior-occipital electrodes relative to non-events. This effect resembled the negative slow wave reported in previous studies of working memory, suggesting that the maintenance of events in working memory may impose a higher cost compared to coordinations. Although we did not observe significant ERP differences associated with pinging the agent vs. the patient during the delay, we did find that the ping appeared to dampen the ongoing sustained difference, suggesting a shift from sustained activity to activity silent mechanisms. These results suggest a new method by which ERPs can be used to elucidate the format of neural representation for events in working memory.

Non-Contact Measurement of Heart Rate Variability in Frail Geriatric Patients: Response to Early Geriatric Rehabilitation and Comparison with Healthy Old Community-Dwelling Individuals - A Pilot Study.

INTRODUCTION: Frailty is a central geriatric syndrome characterized by a state of increased physiological vulnerability. As the key components of frailty are difficult to capture in their entirety, easily measurable and reliable surrogate parameters are desirable. Since frailty influences heart rate variability (HRV), HRV may be such a surrogate parameter. HRV is typically acquired by an ECG, which, however, may not be tolerated by all patients; in some, it may even trigger delirium. Therefore, we sought to measure HRV in a non-contact and unobtrusive way through photoplethysmography imaging (PPGI). Using our previously presented HRV estimation algorithm for PPGI, we investigated whether PPGI could reveal (1) HRV differences between frail and non-frail individuals and (2) the influences of early geriatric rehabilitation on HRV. METHODS: The study involved 10 frail geriatric inpatients undergoing early geriatric rehabilitation and 10 healthy community-dwelling older adults. All participants underwent a comprehensive geriatric assessment. HRV measurements using a PPGI system and a reference ECG were made at the beginning and the end of the rehabilitation. HRV in terms of LF/HF ratio was analysed for both intra-individual changes during the geriatric rehabilitation and differences between frail geriatric patients and healthy community-dwelling individuals. RESULTS: Across all geriatric patients, the median LF/HF ratio obtained with PPGI was found to be reduced by 0.178 (24.8%) during early geriatric rehabilitation. The assessment at the end of the rehabilitation revealed a simultaneous improvement of the functional state. Moreover, frail geriatric patients had a higher LF/HF ratio than their community-dwelling counterparts. Both observations in PPGI-based HRV were confirmed by the reference. The capability of PPGI to track intra-individual HRV changes was also analysed; a Spearman correlation of ρ = 1.0 between PPGI-based HRV and reference was achieved for 58.8% of the participants. CONCLUSION: Early geriatric rehabilitation improves the functional state, which is associated with an increased HRV. PPGI is capable of detecting HRV changes/trends in that age group. While the tracking of intra-individual HRV changes is also possible, its reliability needs improvement. Nevertheless, the capabilities demonstrated in our study and the non-contact measurement principle of PPGI emphasize its potential for application in geriatric medicine.

Aristotle's dream: Evolutionary and neural aspects of aesthetic communication in the arts.

Art in general perception is something that transcends our notion of reality. In view of the earliest findings in Paleolithic sites, their abstract appearance and sometimes ceremonial context increased their status of a secret language. Even the first figurative cave paintings remained in a context of an encoded semantic whole. The highly symbolic value of art seemed invulnerable. It was just the claim for "mimesis" in Greek antiquity (Plato) that urged artists to "realistically" depict what can be seen-as to stay in track of eternal messages behind. This devaluated the artistic oeuvre to a purely imitating craft and had to overcome at once several inherent obstacles. First, that reality (the phenomenal world) is in general only a pale reflection of what lays behind (Platonic ideas) and second, that the human eye, unlike the human mind, cannot penetrate to more than ephemeral impressions. Moreover, it mixed up reality with what we are able to see (i.e. visual perception), thus supposing a pinpoint representation of the world by our senses. Aristotle was the first to qualify art as picturing more than we usually are meant to see, filling the gap between the sensual and the spiritual world. Aristotelian aesthetics includes concepts of reduction and selection of composition and emotion, thus a summarized view within any performance of poetics or painting. And it took centuries to close the gap between natural and aesthetic perception or art. Life sciences in the 20th century discovered the evolutionary basis of sensory perception as being highly biased and organized, concept as emotion-driven and thus, mentally equipped as well. This sets a new approach in our understanding of perception, art, and aesthetics as an ongoing communication in process on common bases. Art may cooperate or disagree, but never can cut the nexus with its perceptual prejudices and substrate.

Noncontact Monitoring of Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability in Geriatric Patients Using Photoplethysmography Imaging.

OBJECTIVE: Geriatric patients, especially those with dementia or in a delirious state, do not accept conventional contact-based monitoring. Therefore, we propose to measure heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) of geriatric patients in a noncontact and unobtrusive way using photoplethysmography imaging (PPGI). METHODS: PPGI video sequences were recorded from 10 geriatric patients and 10 healthy elderly people using a monochrome camera operating in the near-infrared spectrum and a colour camera operating in the visible spectrum. PPGI waveforms were extracted from both cameras using superpixel-based regions of interests (ROI). A classifier based on bagged trees was trained to automatically select artefact-free ROIs for HR estimation. HRV was calculated in the time-domain and frequency-domain. RESULTS: an RMSE of 1.03 bpm and a correlation of 0.8 with the reference was achieved using the NIR camera for HR estimation. Using the RGB camera, RMSE and correlation improved to 0.48 bpm and 0.95, respectively. Correlation for HRV in the frequency-domain (LF/HF-ratio) was 0.50 using the NIR camera and 0.70 using the RGB camera. CONCLUSION: We were able to demonstrate that PPGI is very suitable to measure HR and HRV in geriatric patients. We strongly believe that PPGI will become clinically relevant in monitoring of geriatric patients. SIGNIFICANCE: we are the first group to measure both HR and HRV in awake geriatric patients using PPGI. Moreover, we systematically evaluate the effects of the spectrum (near-infrared vs. visible), ROI, and additional motion artefact reduction algorithms on the accuracy of estimated HR and HRV.

The three second time window in poems and language processing in general: Complementarity of discrete timing and temporal continuity.

The existence of discrete time windows has triggered the search for permanence and continuity for artists (including poets) in multiple cultures throughout history. In this article, we argue that there exists a 3-s window in the temporal structure of poems as well as in the aesthetic appreciation of poetry by reviewing previous literature on the temporal aspects of poems. This 3-s window can also be considered to be a general temporal machinery underlying human behavior, including language production and perception in general. The reafference principle has provided us a unique frame for understanding cognitive processes. However, "time" was absent in the original two-stage reafference principle. Therefore, we propose a three-stage cycling model of language perception, taking into account time and time windows. We also inspect the possible neural implementations of the three stages: the generation, maintenance, and comparison of predictions (as well as the integration of predictions into the representational context). These three stages are embedded in a temporal window of ~3 s and are repeated in a cycling mode, resulting in the representational context being continuously updated. Thus, it is possible that "semantics" could be carried forward across different time windows, being a "glue" linking the discrete time windows and thus achieving the subjective feeling of temporal continuity. Candidates of such "semantic glue" could include semantic and syntactic structures as well as identity and emotion.

A Broader Look: Camera-Based Vital Sign Estimation across the Spectrum.

OBJECTIVES: Camera-based vital sign estimation allows the contactless assessment of important physiological parameters. Seminal contributions were made in the 1930s, 1980s, and 2000s, and the speed of development seems ever increasing. In this suivey, we aim to overview the most recent works in this area, describe their common features as well as shortcomings, and highlight interesting "outliers". METHODS: We performed a comprehensive literature research and quantitative analysis of papers published between 2016 and 2018. Quantitative information about the number of subjects, studies with healthy volunteers vs. pathological conditions, public datasets, laboratory vs. real-world works, types of camera, usage of machine learning, and spectral properties of data was extracted. Moreover, a qualitative analysis of illumination used and recent advantages in terms of algorithmic developments was also performed. RESULTS: Since 2016, 116 papers were published on camera-based vital sign estimation and 59% of papers presented results on 20 or fewer subjects. While the average number of participants increased from 15.7 in 2016 to 22.9 in 2018, the vast majority of papers (n=100) were on healthy subjects. Four public datasets were used in 10 publications. We found 27 papers whose application scenario could be considered a real-world use case, such as monitoring during exercise or driving. These include 16 papers that dealt with non-healthy subjects. The majority of papers (n=61) presented results based on visual, red-green-blue (RGB) information, followed by RGB combined with other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (n=18), and thermography only (n=12), while other works (n=25) used other mono- or polychromatic non-RGB data. Surprisingly, a minority of publications (n=39) made use of consumer-grade equipment. Lighting conditions were primarily uncontrolled or ambient. While some works focused on specialized aspects such as the removal of vital sign information from video streams to protect privacy or the influence of video compression, most algorithmic developments were related to three areas: region of interest selection, tracking, or extraction of a one-dimensional signal. Seven papers used deep learning techniques, 17 papers used other machine learning approaches, and 92 made no explicit use of machine learning. CONCLUSION: Although some general trends and frequent shortcomings are obvious, the spectrum of publications related to camera-based vital sign estimation is broad. While many creative solutions and unique approaches exist, the lack of standardization hinders comparability of these techniques and of their performance. We believe that sharing algorithms and/ or datasets will alleviate this and would allow the application of newer techniques such as deep learning.

A Multi-Modal Sensor for a Bed-Integrated Unobtrusive Vital Signs Sensing Array.

In this paper, we present a novel unobtrusive multi-modal sensor for monitoring of physiological parameters featuring capacitive electrocardiogram (cECG), reflective photoplethysmogram (rPPG), and magnetic induction monitoring (MI) in a single sensor. The sensor system comprises sensor nodes designed and optimized for integration into a grid-like array of multiple sensors in a bed and a central controller box for data collection and processing. Hence, it is highly versatile in application and suitable for unobtrusive monitoring of vital signs, both in a professional setting and a home-care environment. The presented hardware design takes both inter-modal interference between cECG and MI into account as well as intra-modal interference due to cross talk between two MI sensors in close vicinity. In a lab study, we evaluated a prototype of our new multi-modal sensor with two sensor nodes on four healthy subjects. The subjects were lying on the sensors and exercising with a hand grip in order to increase heart rate and thus evaluate our sensor both during changing physiological parameters as well as a wider range of those. Heart beat intervals and heart rate variability were derived from both cECG and rPPG. Breathing intervals were derived from the MI sensor. For heart beat intervals, we achieved an RMSE of 2.3 ms and a correlation of 0.99 using cECG. Similarly, using rPPG, an RMSE of 18.9 ms with a correlation of 0.99 was achieved. With regard to breathing intervals derived from MI, we achieved an RMSE of 1.12 s and a correlation of 0.90.

Waveform Analysis for Camera-based Photoplethysmography Imaging.

With the advent of sensitive and affordable cameras, classical contact-based photoplethysmography (PPG) could be enhanced to the spatial domain. Cost-efficient cameras are available in everyday items such as smartphones or computer webcams. The PPG signal, blood volume changes in the vascularity, can be measured remotely by using the camera as a 2-D-PPG detector. However, the evaluation of the extracted signals has mostly been limited to the pulse rate and sometimes the systolic amplitude. In this work, we motivate to generate images and video sequences based on features from the PPG waveform commonly not extracted via cameras. This is achieved by calculating the features for timeseries extracted from an evenly spaced grid of virtual PPG sensors. We briefly discuss the adaption of conventional PPG algorithms to camera-based PPG imaging (PPGI). The extracted parameters are associated with vessel properties and thus, mapping these to images could lead to enhanced vascular diagnostics. In this work, we test the feasibility of the mapping approach: we present the preliminary results gathered from the analysis of two videos of lab experiments with healthy subjects.

Using a Motion Capture System as Reference for Motion Tracking in Photoplethysmography Imaging.

Photoplethysmography Imaging (PPGI) is a camera-based and non-contact technology for measurement of physiological signals. It has been shown that important physiological parameters such as heart rate, heart rate variability and respiratory rate can be derived from PPGI. However, as is the case with most non-contact measurement techniques, motion artefacts present a major challenge. Various algorithms for application to both the 2D PPGI video frames as well as the resulting 1D PPGI waveforms have been developed in order to enhance robustness against motion. In this paper, we focus on the aspect of feature point tracking in the 2D PPGI video sequences. We present an experimental setup, where we used a motion capture system in order to obtain a reference for motion during the recording of PPGI video sequences. In a laboratory experiment, PPGI video sequences were recorded from ten healthy volunteers, who were asked to perform various movements during the recording. The KLT tracking algorithm was applied to the recorded sequences and results compared with the reference values from the motion capture system. The results indicate, that tracking of measurement regions in PPGI video sequences is only one element towards motion robust PPGI. In most scenarios, tracking is not sufficiently precise, requiring further processing of the PPGI waveforms in order to reduce motion artefacts in PPGI signals. These indications were confirmed by further analysis when we looked into the effects of tracking on PPGI heart rate extraction.

Noncontact Monitoring of Respiratory Rate in Newborn Infants Using Thermal Imaging.

Monitoring of respiratory rate (RR) is very important for patient assessment. In fact, it is considered one of the relevant vital parameters in critical care medicine. Nowadays, standard monitoring relies on obtrusive and invasive techniques, which require adhesive electrodes or sensors to be attached to the patient's body. Unfortunately, these procedures cause stress, pain, and frequently damage the vulnerable skin of preterm infants. This paper presents a "black-box" algorithm for remote monitoring of RR in thermal videos. "Black-box" in this context means that the algorithm does not rely on tracking of specific anatomic landmarks. Instead, it automatically distinguishes regions of interest in the video containing the respiratory signal from those containing only noise. To examine its performance and robustness during physiological (phase A) and pathological scenarios (phase B), a study on 12 healthy volunteers was carried out. After a successful validation on adults, a clinical study on eight newborn infants was conducted. A good agreement between estimated RR and ground truth was achieved. In the study involving adult volunteers, a mean root-mean-square error (RMSE) of ( 0.31 ±0.09) breaths/min and ( 3.27 ±0.72) breaths/min was obtained for phase A and phase B, respectively. In the study involving infants, the mean RMSE hovered around ( 4.15 ±1.44) breaths/min. In brief, this paper demonstrates that infrared thermography might become a clinically relevant alternative for the currently available RR monitoring modalities in neonatal care.

Non-Contact Remote Measurement of Heart Rate Variability using Near-Infrared Photoplethysmography Imaging.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is an important clinical parameter associated with the autonomous nervous system (ANS), age, as well as many diseases such as myocardial infarction, diabetes or renal failure. Gold standard for measurement of HRV is a high-resolution electrocardiogram (ECG). With the current trend towards non-contact and unobtrusive monitoring of vital signs, HRV has also become an interesting and important parameter for non-contact monitoring. In this paper, we present an approach towards non-contact and unobtrusive monitoring of heart rate variability using the camera-based technology of photoplethysmography imaging (PPGI). We investigated the suitability of invisible near-infrared illumination for PPGI, which would enable measurement of HRV in darkness. We compared results obtained using infrared illumination with those obtained using visible light as PPGI illumination and calculated both time-domain as well as frequency-domain HRV parameters. The results achieved with infrared illumination were on par with those using conventional illumination in the visible spectrum. We concluded that infrared illumination enables unobtrusive and non-contact remote HRV measurement in both darkness as well as regular daylight conditions using PPGI.

Estimation of breathing rate in thermal imaging videos: a pilot study on healthy human subjects.

Diverse studies have demonstrated the importance of monitoring breathing rate (BR). Commonly, changes in BR are one of the earliest and major markers of serious complications/illness. However, it is frequently neglected due to limitations of clinically established measurement techniques, which require attachment of sensors. The employment of adhesive pads or thoracic belts in preterm infants as well as in traumatized or burned patients is an additional paramount issue. The present paper proposes a new robust approach, based on data fusion, to remotely monitor BR using infrared thermography (IRT). The algorithm considers not only temperature modulation around mouth and nostrils but also the movements of both shoulders. The data of these four sensors/regions of interest need to be further fused to reach improved accuracy. To investigate the performance of our approach, two different experiments (phase A: normal breathing, phase B: simulation of breathing disorders) on twelve healthy volunteers were performed. Thoracic effort (piezoplethysmography) was simultaneously acquired to validate our results. Excellent agreements between BR estimated with IRT and gold standard were achieved. While in phase A a mean correlation of 0.98 and a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.28 bpm was reached, in phase B the mean correlation and the RMSE hovered around 0.95 and 3.45 bpm, respectively. The higher RMSE in phase B results predominantly from delays between IRT and gold standard in BR transitions: eupnea/apnea, apnea/tachypnea etc. Moreover, this study also demonstrates the capability of IRT to capture varied breathing disorders, and consecutively, to assess respiratory function. In summary, IRT might be a promising monitoring alternative to the conventional contact-based techniques regarding its performance and remarkable capabilities.

Extraction, Chemical Composition, and Antifungal Activity of Essential Oil of Bitter Almond.

The essential oil from the powder residual of dried bitter almond, a novel and environmentally-friendly fungicide, was successfully extracted in a 0.7% yield by hydro-distillation under optimized conditions. The chemical composition of bitter almond essential oil (BAEO) was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Twenty-one different components representing 99.90% of the total essential oil were identified, of which benzaldehyde (62.52%), benzoic acid (14.80%), and hexadecane (3.97%) were the most abundant components. Furthermore, the in vitro and in vivo antifungal activities of BAEO against common plant pathogenic fungi were evaluated by the mycelium linear growth rate method and pot test, respectively. It was documented that 1 mg/mL of BAEO could variously inhibit all tested pathogenic fungi with the inhibition rates of 44.8%~100%. Among the tested 19 strains of fungi, the median effective concentration (EC50) values of BAEO against Alternaria brassicae and Alternaria solani were only 50.2 and 103.2 µg/mL, respectively, which were higher than those of other fungi. The in vivo antifungal activity of BAEO against Gloeosporium orbiculare was much higher than Blumeria graminis. The protective efficacy for the former was up to 98.07% at 10 mg/mL and the treatment efficacy was 93.41% at 12 mg/mL. The above results indicated that BAEO has the great potential to be developed as a botanical and agricultural fungicide.

Design, Synthesis, and Structure--Activity Relationship of New 2-Aryl-3,4-dihydro-ß-carbolin-2-ium Salts as Antifungal Agents.

Twenty-two 2-aryl-9-methyl-3,4-dihydro-ß-carbolin-2-ium bromides along with four 9-demethylated derivatives were synthesized and characterized by spectroscopic analysis. By using the mycelium growth rate method, the compounds were evaluated for antifungal activities in vitro against six plant pathogenic fungi, and structure-activity relationships (SAR) were derived. Almost all of the compounds showed obvious inhibition activity on each of the fungi at 150 µM. For all of the fungi, 10 of the compounds showed average inhibition rates of >80% at 150 µM, and most of their EC50 values were in the range of 2.0-30.0 µM. SAR analysis showed that the substitution pattern of the N-aryl ring significantly influences the activity; N9-alkylation improves the activity, whereas aromatization of ring-C reduces the activity. It was concluded that the present research provided a series of new 2-aryl-9-alkyl-3,4-dihydro-ß-carbolin-2-iums with excellent antifungal potency and structure optimization design for the development of new carboline antifungal agents.

Remote monitoring of breathing dynamics using infrared thermography.

An atypical or irregular respiratory frequency is considered to be one of the earliest markers of physiological distress. In addition, monitoring of this vital parameter plays a major role in diagnosis of respiratory disorders, as well as in early detection of sudden infant death syndrome. Nevertheless, the current measurement modalities require attachment of sensors to the patient's body, leading to discomfort and stress. The current paper presents a new robust algorithm to remotely monitor breathing rate (BR) by using thermal imaging. This approach permits to detect and to track the region of interest (nose) as well as to estimate BR. In order to study the performance of the algorithm, and its robustness against motion and breathing disorders, three different thermal recordings of 11 healthy volunteers were acquired (sequence 1: normal breathing; sequence 2: normal breathing plus arbitrary head movements; and sequence 3: sequence of specific breathing patterns). Thoracic effort (piezoplethysmography) served as "gold standard" for validation of our results. An excellent agreement between estimated BR and ground truth was achieved. Whereas the mean correlation for sequence 1-3 were 0.968, 0.940 and 0.974, the mean absolute BR errors reached 0.33, 0.55 and 0.96 bpm (breaths per minute), respectively. In brief, this work demonstrates that infrared thermography is a promising, clinically relevant alternative for the currently available measuring modalities due to its performance and diverse remarkable advantages.

Robust remote monitoring of breathing function by using infrared thermography.

An abnormal breathing rate (BR) is one of the strongest markers of physiological distress. Moreover, it plays an important role in early detection of sudden infant death syndrome, as well as in the diagnosis of respiratory disorders. However, the current measuring modalities can cause discomfort to the patient, since attachment to the patient's body is required. This paper proposes a new approach based on infrared thermography to remotely monitor BR. This method allows to (1) detect automatically the nose, (2) track the associate region of interest (ROI), and (3) extract BR. To evaluate the performance of this method, thermal recording of 5 healthy subjects were acquired. Results were compared with BR obtained by capnography. The introduced approach demonstrated an excellent performance. ROIs were precisely segmented and tracked. Furthermore, a Bland-Altman diagram showed a good agreement between estimated BR and gold standard. The mean correlation and mean absolute BR error are 0.92 ± 0.07 and 0.53 bpm, respectively. In summary, infrared thermography seems to be a great, clinically relevant alternative to attached sensors, due to its outstanding characteristics and performance.