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Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Feb 2023With the rapid development of intelligent mobile terminals and communication technologies, location-based services (LBSs) have become an essential part of users' lives....
With the rapid development of intelligent mobile terminals and communication technologies, location-based services (LBSs) have become an essential part of users' lives. LBS providers upload and share the collected users' location data. The more commonly used methods for location privacy protection are differential privacy and its extensions. However, the semantic information about location, which is an integral part of the location data, often contains sensitive user information. Most existing research methods have failed to pay enough attention to protecting the semantic information in the location data. To remedy this problem, two different scenarios for location semantic privacy protection methods are proposed in this paper to address single-point and continuous location queries. Simulation experiments on real social location check-in datasets, and comparison of three different privacy protection mechanisms, show that our solution demonstrates good service quality and privacy protection considering location semantics.
PubMed: 36850715
DOI: 10.3390/s23042121 -
Ageing Research Reviews Mar 2018Elucidating the impact of healthy cognitive ageing and dementia on autobiographical memory (AM) may help deepen our theoretical understanding of memory and underlying... (Review)
Review
Elucidating the impact of healthy cognitive ageing and dementia on autobiographical memory (AM) may help deepen our theoretical understanding of memory and underlying neural changes. The distinction between episodic and semantic autobiographical memory is particularly informative in this regard. Psychological interventions, particularly those involving reminiscence or music, have led to differential effects on episodic and semantic autobiographical memory. We propose that executive function is a key mediator of psychological therapies on autobiographical memory. We also highlight that interventions that alleviate stress and improve mood, including in major depression, can enhance autobiographical memory. Future research employing more longitudinal approaches and examining moderating factors such as gender and education level will deepen our understanding of changes in AM in later life, enhance our theoretical understanding of the neuroscience of AM and ageing, and help to develop better targeted interventions for preserving AM in older adults.
Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Brain; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Dementia; Executive Function; Humans; Memory Disorders; Memory, Episodic
PubMed: 29246541
DOI: 10.1016/j.arr.2017.12.003 -
Neuropsychobiology 2015Reading words for meaning relies on orthographic, phonological and semantic processing. The triangle model implicates a direct orthography-to-semantics pathway and a...
BACKGROUND
Reading words for meaning relies on orthographic, phonological and semantic processing. The triangle model implicates a direct orthography-to-semantics pathway and a phonologically mediated orthography-to-semantics pathway, which interact with each other. The temporal evolution of processing in these routes is not well understood, although theoretical evidence predicts early phonological processing followed by interactive phonological and semantic processing.
METHOD
This study used electroencephalography-event-related potential (ERP) analysis and magnetoencephalography (MEG) source localisation to identify temporal markers and the corresponding neural generators of these processes in early (∼200 ms) and late (∼400 ms) neurophysiological responses to visual words, pseudowords and consonant strings.
RESULTS
ERP showed an effect of phonology but not semantics in both time windows, although at ∼400 ms there was an effect of stimulus familiarity. Phonological processing at ~200 ms was localised to the left occipitotemporal cortex and the inferior frontal gyrus. At 400 ms, there was continued phonological processing in the inferior frontal gyrus and additional semantic processing in the anterior temporal cortex. There was also an area in the left temporoparietal junction which was implicated in both phonological and semantic processing. In ERP, the semantic response at ∼400 ms appeared to be masked by concurrent processes relating to familiarity, while MEG successfully differentiated these processes.
DISCUSSION
The results support the prediction of early phonological processing followed by an interaction of phonological and semantic processing during word recognition. Neuroanatomical loci of these processes are consistent with previous neuropsychological and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. The results also have implications for the classical interpretation of N400-like responses as markers for semantic processing.
Topics: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Brain Mapping; Electroencephalography; Evoked Potentials; Female; Humans; Magnetoencephalography; Male; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Phonetics; Photic Stimulation; Reading; Semantics; Time Factors; Vocabulary
PubMed: 26337735
DOI: 10.1159/000379752 -
Neuropsychology Review Jun 2017This paper reviews some controversies concerning the original and revised versions of the 'hub-and-spoke' model of conceptual representations and their implication for... (Review)
Review
This paper reviews some controversies concerning the original and revised versions of the 'hub-and-spoke' model of conceptual representations and their implication for abstraction capacity levels. The 'hub-and-spoke' model, which is based on data gathered in patients with semantic dementia (SD), is the most authoritative model of conceptual knowledge. Patterson et al.'s (Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8(12), 976-987, 2007) classical version of this model maintained that conceptual representations are stored in a unitary 'amodal' format in the right and left anterior temporal lobes (ATLs), because in SD the semantic disorder cuts across modalities and categories. Several authors questioned the unitary nature of these representations. They showed that the semantic impairment is 'multi-modal'only in the advanced stages of SD, when atrophy affects the ATLs bilaterally, but that impariments can be modality-specific in lateralised (early) stages of the disease. In these cases, SD mainly affects lexical-semantic knowledge when atrophy predominates on the left side and pictorial representations when atrophy prevails on the right side. Some aspects of the model (i.e. the importance of spokes, the multimodal format of representations and the graded convergence of modalities within the ATLs), which had already been outlined by Rogers et al. (Psychological Review, 111(1), 205-235, 2004) in a computational model of SD, were strengthened by these results. The relevance of these theoretical problems and of empirical data concerning the neural substrate of concrete and abstract words is discussed critically. The conclusion of the review is that the highest levels of abstraction are due more to the structuring influence of language than to the format of representations.
Topics: Concept Formation; Frontotemporal Dementia; Humans; Language; Temporal Lobe
PubMed: 28374287
DOI: 10.1007/s11065-016-9339-8 -
Ageing Research Reviews Jun 2024Semantic dementia is a kind of neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by prominent semantic impairments and anterior temporal lobe atrophy. Since 2010, more studies... (Review)
Review
Semantic dementia is a kind of neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by prominent semantic impairments and anterior temporal lobe atrophy. Since 2010, more studies have devoted to this rare disorder, revealing that it is more complex than we think. Clinical advances include more specific findings of semantic impairments and other higher order cognitive deficits. Neuroimaging techniques can help revealing the different brain networks affected (both structurally and functionally) in this condition. Pathological and genetic studies have also found more complex situations of semantic dementia, which might explain the huge variance existing in semantic dementia. Moreover, the current diagnosis criteria mainly focus on semantic dementia's classical prototype. We further delineated the features of three subtypes of semantic dementia based on atrophy lateralization with three severity stages. In a broader background, as a part of the continuum of neurodegenerative disorders, semantic dementia is commonly compared with other resembling conditions. Therefore, we summarized the differential diagnosis between semantic dementia and them. Finally, we introduced the challenges and achievements of its diagnosis, treatment, care and cross cultural comparison. By providing a comprehensive picture of semantic dementia on different aspects of advances, we hope to deepen the understanding of semantic dementia and promote more inspirations on both clinical and theoretical studies about it.
PubMed: 38866186
DOI: 10.1016/j.arr.2024.102375 -
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision... Feb 2022Semantic similarity is a valuable tool for analysis in biomedicine. When applied to phenotype profiles derived from clinical text, they have the capacity to enable and...
BACKGROUND
Semantic similarity is a valuable tool for analysis in biomedicine. When applied to phenotype profiles derived from clinical text, they have the capacity to enable and enhance 'patient-like me' analyses, automated coding, differential diagnosis, and outcome prediction. While a large body of work exists exploring the use of semantic similarity for multiple tasks, including protein interaction prediction, and rare disease differential diagnosis, there is less work exploring comparison of patient phenotype profiles for clinical tasks. Moreover, there are no experimental explorations of optimal parameters or better methods in the area.
METHODS
We develop a platform for reproducible benchmarking and comparison of experimental conditions for patient phentoype similarity. Using the platform, we evaluate the task of ranking shared primary diagnosis from uncurated phenotype profiles derived from all text narrative associated with admissions in the medical information mart for intensive care (MIMIC-III).
RESULTS
300 semantic similarity configurations were evaluated, as well as one embedding-based approach. On average, measures that did not make use of an external information content measure performed slightly better, however the best-performing configurations when measured by area under receiver operating characteristic curve and Top Ten Accuracy used term-specificity and annotation-frequency measures.
CONCLUSION
We identified and interpreted the performance of a large number of semantic similarity configurations for the task of classifying diagnosis from text-derived phenotype profiles in one setting. We also provided a basis for further research on other settings and related tasks in the area.
Topics: Humans; Phenotype; ROC Curve; Rare Diseases; Semantics
PubMed: 35123470
DOI: 10.1186/s12911-022-01770-4 -
Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Reports 2023The differentiation of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia from dementia and Alzheimer's disease can be difficult, particularly when the semantic anomia is...
The differentiation of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia from dementia and Alzheimer's disease can be difficult, particularly when the semantic anomia is pronounced. This report describes a patient who presented with complaints of memory loss and proved to have prominent semantic loss of all types of nouns, common and proper, concrete and abstract, yet continued to live independently and maintain his activities of daily living. The evaluation was consistent for semantic variant primary progressive aphasia with degradation of semantic knowledge and focal anterior temporal atrophy and hypometabolism. This report summarizes the literature and discusses the differential diagnosis of this disorder from Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.
PubMed: 37090957
DOI: 10.3233/ADR-230010 -
Acta Psychologica Sep 2018The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the unique contribution of task conflict, semantic conflict and response conflict to the Stroop effect and to test how...
The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the unique contribution of task conflict, semantic conflict and response conflict to the Stroop effect and to test how these conflicts are modulated by manipulating the proportion of neutral trials, known to affect the magnitude of the Stroop effect. In the first experiment, we employed the two-to-one paradigm (De Houwer, 2003) while adding neutral illegible stimuli, and in the second experiment, we employed two colors and four word colors. In both experiments, we created four congruency conditions (neutral, congruent and two kind of incongruent conditions-those that include response conflict and those that do not), which allowed decomposing the Stroop effect into three orthogonal conflicts. In both experiments, we also manipulated the proportion of neutral trials. Task conflict was defined by the contrast between illegible neutrals and color words, semantic conflict by the contrast between congruent and incongruent stimuli, and response conflict by contrasting the two kinds of incongruent stimuli. Our results showed that all conflicts contributed to the Stroop effect. Task conflict and semantic conflict were modulated by the proportion of neutrals but response conflict was not. These findings imply that task conflict and semantic conflict are part of the control loop of the Stroop effect, as conceptualized by Botvinick et al.'s (2001) conflict monitoring model. There is no clear evidence of the response conflict being part of the loop. To complete the picture, we also analyzed the conflicts in the Stroop task using the traditional dependent contrasts approach and found the basic pattern of results was similar. Thus, the main advantage of the orthogonal comparisons approach is the possibility to estimate the unique contribution of the conflicts contributing to the Stroop effect and their modulation of the Stroop phenomenon.
Topics: Color; Color Perception; Conflict, Psychological; Female; Humans; Male; Reaction Time; Semantic Differential; Stroop Test; Young Adult
PubMed: 29078981
DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.10.007 -
HERD Jan 2017The object of this article is to identify the set of affective and emotional factors behind users' assessments of a space in a neonatology unit and to propose design...
OBJECTIVE
The object of this article is to identify the set of affective and emotional factors behind users' assessments of a space in a neonatology unit and to propose design guidelines based on these.
BACKGROUND
The importance of the neonatology service and the variety of users place great demands on the space at all levels. Despite the repercussions, the emotional aspects of the environment have received less attention.
METHODS
To avoid incurring limitations in the user mental scheme, this study uses two complementary methodologies: focus group and semantic differential. The (qualitative) focus group methodology provides exploratory information and concepts. The (quantitative) semantic differential methodology then uses these concepts to extract the conceptual structures that users employ in their assessment of the space. Of the total 175 subjects, 31 took part in focus groups and 144 in semantic differential.
RESULTS
Five independent concepts were identified: privacy, functionality and professional nature, spaciousness, lighting, and cleanliness. In relation to the importance of the overall positive assessment of the space, the perception of privacy and sensations of dominance and pleasure are fundamental. Six relevant design aspects were also identified: provide spacious surroundings, facilitate sufficient separation between the different posts or cots, use different colors from those usually found in health-care centers, as some aversion was found to white and especially green, design areas with childhood themes, use warm artificial light, and choose user-friendly equipment.
CONCLUSIONS
Results provide design recommendations of interest and show the possibilities offered by combining both systems to analyze user response.
Topics: Adult; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Female; Focus Groups; Health Personnel; Hospital Design and Construction; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Male; Middle Aged; Neonatology; Nurseries, Hospital; Parents
PubMed: 27147596
DOI: 10.1177/1937586716641275 -
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of... Nov 2023Empirical evidence has supported that musical excerpts written in major and minor modes are responsible for evoking happiness and sadness, respectively. In this study,...
Empirical evidence has supported that musical excerpts written in major and minor modes are responsible for evoking happiness and sadness, respectively. In this study, we evaluated whether the emotional content evoked by musical stimuli would transfer to abstract figures when they became members of the same equivalence class. Participants assigned to the experimental group were submitted to a training procedure to form equivalence classes comprising musical excerpts (A) and meaningless abstract figures (B, C, and D). Afterward, transfer of function was evaluated using a semantic differential. Participants in the control group showed positive semantic differential scores for major mode musical excerpts, negative scores for minor mode musical excerpts, and neutral scores for the B, C, and D stimuli. Participants in the experimental groups showed positive semantic differential scores for visual stimuli equivalent to the major modes and negative semantic differential scores for visual stimuli equivalent to the minor modes. These results indicate transfer of function of emotional content present in musical stimuli through equivalence class formation. These findings could provide a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of using emotional stimuli in equivalence class formation experiments and in transfer of function itself.
Topics: Humans; Discrimination Learning; Music
PubMed: 37710382
DOI: 10.1002/jeab.881