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Artificial neural networks for HD-sEMG-based hand position estimation: addressing inter- and intra-subject variability
Get PDFBackground: Reliable control of rehabilitation and assistive devices using High-Density surface Electromyography (HD-sEMG) remains limited by poor robustness to electrode shifts, changes in skin condition, and variability across users. Methods: This study evaluates the performance of the Recursive Prosthetic Control Network (RPC-Net)/High-Density Electrode Array (HDE-Array) system, defined in previous studies, under conditions that reflect real-life usage, including electrode repositioning and cross-subject generalization. The first test evaluated whether the RPC-Net/HDE-Array system maintained stable performance when trained without electrode repositioning and evaluated on data from a different session with altered electrode placement. The study further examined whether explicitly incorporating electrode repositioning during training mitigates the performance degradation typically observed when testing is performed in a separate session. Finally, the effects of inter-subject training were assessed. Results: Experimental results demonstrate that the RPC-Net/HDE-Array system is highly sensitive to electrode repositioning and skin condition variability when trained under static conditions. However, robustness improves significantly when such variability is included during training. The results indicate that performance improves with an increasing number of subjects in the training pool, provided the training set includes only data from subjects other than the one tested, suggesting a strong dependency on subject-specific patterns Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that the RPC-Net/HDE-Array system can achieve robust performance across sessions and users when trained under realistic conditions. This work represents a key step toward practical deployment of muscle-computer interfaces
Justice and responsibility in climate change adaptation research
Get PDFWe address an ethical challenge in climate change adaptation and global health research. The challenge stems from two pairs of intuitions about justice and responsibility in climate change and health. One pair assigns responsibility for adaptation research to high-income countries given their historical emissions, disproportionate share of resources and capacity to intervene. The other pair assigns responsibility to low- and middle-income countries given their agency, right to self-determination, local authority and legitimacy, and disproportionate burden of climate and health risks. The intuitions create conflicting views: obligation and assistance pull in one direction, and agency and authority pull in another. To resolve the tension, we distinguish two forms of responsibility: (i) adaptation-enabling responsibilities; and (ii) adaptation-enacting responsibilities. The resulting division of labour reflects different forms of justice and aligns with the principle of subsidiarity's core elements, namely: non-abandonment, non-absorption, and cooperation and coordination. We thus propose a framework that ascribes adaptation-enabling responsibilities to high-income countries, including adaptation financing, capacity-building and other forms of support; and adaptation-enacting responsibilities to low- and middle-income countries, including priority-setting in local adaptation research, and creation and implementation of their adaptation plans and policies. Our framework also suggests a third form of responsibility: shared adaptation responsibilities, which are jointly assigned to high-income countries, low- and middle-income countries and agents at multiple levels within them. We conclude that genuine collaboration in adaptation research, where high-income countries enable without dominating and low- and middle-income countries act without being abandoned, will be essential for just and effective adaptation to climate change
Music and language: exploring the acoustic dimension of ESL silent reading comprehension through music perception, phonological awareness and auditory working memory
Get PDFA large body of research has explored the intersection of music and language but mostly focused on the area of first language (L1) acquisition in early childhood. The few studies on second language (L2) learning and music have mainly concentrated on listening and speaking skills (Jekiel & Malarski, 2021; Talamini et al., 2018). Therefore, this study aims to address this gap by investigating how music perception relates to L2 reading comprehension in terms of the acoustic dimension.This study involves Chinese adult undergraduates who learn English as a second language (ESL). In a supervised classroom, 139 participants completed the background information questionnaire, music perception test, phonological awareness test, and auditory working memory test on electronic devices and took the English reading comprehension test with pen and paper. They were divided into three groups based on their past and present involvement in musical activities: no training, basic training, and advanced training. Quantitative data were analysed using a correlation matrix, multivariate analysis of variance, and partial least squares (PLS) modelling. Participants with basic and advanced musical training outperformed their untrained counterparts in phonological awareness. Specifically, musical training enhanced their ability to segment sounds in words and blend word parts. The auditory-based PLS model revealed that phonological awareness directly predicted L2 reading comprehension, and that music perception affected reading comprehension directly and indirectly through auditory working memory. Overall, variations in L2 silent reading comprehension are well explained by this model. A rigorous pilot study, sufficient sample size, diverse and reliable research tools, and advanced data analysis enhance the robustness and generalisability of the results.This study offers valuable evidence to support further investigation into the effectiveness of music-related interventions for L2 reading. It holds considerable potential for both pedagogical and therapeutic applications. For instance, future research can explore the integration of musical elements into reading strategy instruction and the use of background music for treating reading disabilities
Categorical identity signatures can reduce host error rates during brood parasitism
Get PDFBiological recognition is often modeled as involving discrimination of continuously-distributed (and continuously-perceived) traits according to decision thresholds. However, traits such as animal signals can be categorically distributed. Here, we test how such categorical distributions may influence fundamental trade-offs in signal recognition, using a brood parasite–host system involving identity recognition. The African cuckoo finch Anomalospiza imberbis parasitizes several host species, each of which has evolved inter-individual variation in egg appearance (“egg signatures”) that facilitates recognition and rejection of mimetic cuckoo finch eggs. We demonstrate that egg signature traits in one host species, the zitting cisticola Cisticola juncidis, are categorically distributed. Field experiments reveal that zitting cisticolas make fewer Type II errors (accepting parasitic eggs) and Type I errors (rejecting their own eggs) than hosts exhibiting continuous variation. This challenges the long-standing expectation (from classification models, statistics, and signal detection theory) of a strict trade-off between these two error types. Individual-based simulations clarify mechanisms by which categorical variation can generate low error rates, especially when combined with “category-based rejection”, whereby hosts only reject eggs of different categories to their own. Our findings show that the categorical distribution and category-based perception of trait variation can shape error trade-offs and coevolutionary dynamics, which should inform studies on other mimicry or self/non-self recognition systems, including immune recognition. They also highlight the importance of quantifying trait distributions and how they are perceived, when understanding coevolution between deceivers and those they deceive
Structural and functional characterisation of SLC45A4, a neuronal polyamine transporter
No full textPolyamines (PAs) are ubiquitous polycationic metabolites essential for diverse cellular processes, including proliferation, protein synthesis, and ion channel regulation, and have been linked to pain signalling through modulation of nociceptor activity. However, no plasma membrane transporter responsible for PA import has previously been identified in mammals. Here, SLC45A4, a previously orphan MFS transporter implicated in chronic pain, was identified as the principal neuronal plasma membrane PA transporter. Metabolomic analysis allowed for identification of PAs as substrates and subsequent cell-based uptake assays, demonstrate that SLC45A4 catalyses high-affinity, low-turnover transport of spermidine and agmatine, a PA-like metabolite. CryoEM structures revealed a novel autoinhibitory plug domain, suggesting a mechanism for regulated transport of PAs, metabolism of which is tightly controlled. Deletion of this domain enabled determination of substrate-bound, outward-facing structures that define key substrate-recognition interactions and, together with biochemical analysis, suggest a mechanism of substrate-induced uniport. Finally, identification of a toxin-derived inhibitor, and determination of inhibitor-bound structures, demonstrate the feasibility of pharmacological inhibition of SLC45A4, and may inform rational design of novel analgesics. By regulation of intracellular PA levels, SLC45A4 presents itself as a previously unknown regulator of neuronal physiology and highlights its link to chronic pain
ATLAS100 data release 1
No full textPublic data release accompanying the ATLAS100 sample definition paper by Srivastav et al. (2026). The data release includes the cleaned and binned ATLAS light curves of 1729 transients in the sample. Also included is a catalog csv file with additional useful metadata for the transients in the sample, including host galaxy associations, any updated classifications, etc
Men Over Merit: Gendering Images of Power and Competence in the Military
Get PDFAs potent symbols of power and the state, military organisations and their personnel composition have important implications for the construction of gender images in broader society. The question of who can (or should) participate in the military has further developed into a cultural and political flashpoint amidst simultaneous trends of demographic decline and militarisation in democracies throughout the world. These trends have been particularly pronounced in Japan, where the government has claimed to address the resulting recruitment shortages by hiring more female personnel. This article examines why the share of women in the country’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) remains curiously low, nevertheless. Based on previously undisclosed admissions data from the military academy whose graduates dominate the SDF’s senior leadership, this article shows how gender-specific recruitment targets have amounted to a system of affirmative action for male applicants, where the path to admission for women has proven up to six times more competitive. Contrary to entrenched notions of a link between masculinity and military prowess, this article demonstrates how artificially maintaining a male-dominated composition of the SDF leadership has come at the detriment to the organisation’s own meritocratic principles, undermining the academic and physical standards the recruitment process purports to uphold. This article thus introduces a novel claim to the literature on the theoretical determinants of gender composition in military organisations: The more meritocratic the recruitment process, the more balanced the share of male and female personnel
Information-based models in centralised and decentralised exchanges: spoofing and private order flow
Get PDFIn this thesis we focus on information-based models in both traditional exchanges (limit order books) and decentralised ones.We propose a dynamic model of the limit order book to derive conditions to test if a trading algorithm learns to manipulate the order book. Our results show that as a market maker becomes more tolerant to bearing inventory risk, the learning algorithm will find optimal strategies that manipulate the book more frequently. Manipulation helps to revert inventory to an optimal level and to execute round-trip trades with limit orders at a higher probability than was otherwise likely to occur. Spoofing is a special case of quote-based manipulation where the market maker prefers that the manipulative limit orders are not filled. We use high-frequency data to check our conditions and show that algorithms will learn to manipulate Nasdaq's limit order book. Finally, we extend our model in several directions and we see manipulation can still arise in all of them. In particular, when two market makers use learning algorithms to trade, their algorithms can learn to coordinate their manipulation.We study how the design of blockchains shapes the interaction between traders in decentralised exchanges (DEXs) and participants in the blockchain security protocol. On blockchains such as Ethereum, traders can route their transactions through either a public memory pool, where transactions are visible and subject to attacks, or private memory pools, where transactions are hidden but can only be executed by specific builders. These features create a fundamental trade-off between execution certainty and protection from attacks. We develop two complementary models to analyse this trade-off. The first model studies the effect of competition among builders (MEV-Boost auction). We show that DEX liquidity depth governs equilibrium fragmentation: when liquidity is high, traders concentrate in one private pool, whereas scarce liquidity leads to balanced order flow across pools. The second model examines the role of builder composition-specifically, the share of builders able to execute private orders. Here, traders’ behaviour and equilibrium fragmentation depend on this composition, with higher shares of public-only builders inducing a shift toward public execution. Together, the models explain how liquidity conditions and builder structure jointly order flow fragmentation
Neurotransmitter alterations in seasonal affective disorder
Get PDFSeasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of unipolar depression characterized by depressive symptoms mainly during the cold season, which were often linked to alterations in the serotonergic system. It is assumed that other neurotransmitter systems, such as glutamate and GABA, are similarly affected. Hence, we investigated differences in glutamate and GABA between SAD patients and healthy control subjects using magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging (MRSI). Fourteen SAD patients (11 female, 36 ± 11 years) and 14 sex- and age-matched healthy controls, were scanned once between October and February using multi-voxel 3D-GABA-edited MEGA-LASER MRSI at 3 T. Mean GABA+ and Glx (glutamate + glutamine) to total creatine (tCr) ratios were calculated in five brain regions. Mann-Whitney-U-Tests were performed for each region and neurotransmitter ratio independently as well as correlation analyses between neurotransmitter ratios and clinical scores, respectively. A significant reduction in GABA+/tCr ratios in the hippocampus (pcorr = 0.049) between SAD patients and healthy individuals was revealed. No significant changes in other brain regions or correlations with the investigated clinical scores were shown. Our findings of altered GABA concentrations in the hippocampus are in line with neurotransmitter alterations across other subtypes of depression, hinting towards common neurobiological mechanisms and highlights the interplay between environmental factors and neurotransmitter systems
Nexus between conflict, fragility, and poverty
Get PDFThis brief provides a comprehensive analysis of the nexus between conflict, fragility, and multidimensional poverty in IsDB member countries. Drawing on the latest data from the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), the World Bank’s Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations (FCS) list, and the OECD’s State of Fragility report, the brief highlights the disproportionate burden of conflict and fragility borne by IsDB member states and the profound implications for human development and poverty reduction