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Multimodal communication research focuses on how different means of signalling coordinate to communicate effectively. This line of research is traditionally influenced by fields such as cognitive and neuroscience, human-computer interaction, and linguistics. With new technologies becoming available in fields such as natural language processing and computer vision, the field can increasingly avail itself of new ways of analyzing and understanding multimodal communication. As a result, there is a general hope that multimodal research may be at the “precipice of greatness” due to technological advances in computer science and resulting extended empirical coverage. However, for this to come about there must be sufficient guidance on key (theoretical) needs of innovation in the field of multimodal communication. Absent such guidance, the research focus of computer scientists might increasingly diverge from crucial issues in multimodal communication. With this paper, we want to further promote interaction between these fields, which may enormously benefit both communities. The multimodal research community (represented here by a consortium of researchers from the Visual Communication [ViCom] Priority Programme) can engage in the innovation by clearly stating which technological tools are needed to make progress in the field of multimodal communication. In this article, we try to facilitate the establishment of a much needed common ground on feasible expectations (e.g., in terms of terminology and measures to be able to train machine learning algorithms) and to critically reflect possibly idle hopes for technical advances, informed by recent successes and challenges in computer science, social signal processing, and related domains.

Die Umweltprobenbank des Bundes sammelt standardisiert Human- und Umweltproben und lagert diese veränderungsfrei für zukünftige Untersuchungen. Die große Auswahl an unterschiedlichen Matrizes aus verschiedenen Probenahmegebieten ermöglicht einen Überblick über die Belastungssituation des Menschen und seiner Umwelt. Die Schadstoffanalytik erfolgt sowohl im direkten Anschluss an die Probenahme (Real-Time-Monitoring) als auch in retrospektiven Untersuchungen an den eingelagerten Proben. Die hohe Standardisierung ermöglicht die Reproduzier- und Vergleichbarkeit der gesammelten Proben und lässt so eine Aussage über die zeitliche Veränderung der Belastungen zu. Die Umweltprobenbank des Bundes ist ein exzellentes Werkzeug für das Monitoring der Schadstoffbelastungen der Umwelt und des Menschen. Geringe zeitliche oder marginale regionale Unterschiede an Schadstoffkonzentrationen sind erfassbar, da die hierzu notwendigen Analysen standardisierter Umwelt- und Humanproben aus unterschiedlichen Jahren und Regionen zum gleichen Zeitpunkt durchgeführt werden können. Die Langzeitbeobachtung von Schadstoffbelastungen in Umwelt- und Humanproben ist eine wichtige Grundlage für gesetzliche Regulierungen von Chemikalien und deren Erfolgskontrolle. Damit ist die Umweltprobenbank des Bundes ein essenzielles Instrument des umweltbezogenen Gesundheitsschutzes in Deutschland.

Frontiers in psychology 10, 1913 (2019). doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01913, Published by Frontiers Research Foundation, Lausanne

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd Background Neuroimaging studies have shown structural alterations in several brain regions in children and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Through the formation of the international ENIGMA ADHD Working Group, we aimed to address weaknesses of previous imaging studies and meta-analyses, namely inadequate sample size and methodological heterogeneity. We aimed to investigate whether there are structural differences in children and adults with ADHD compared with those without this diagnosis. Methods In this cross-sectional mega-analysis, we used the data from the international ENIGMA Working Group collaboration, which in the present analysis was frozen at Feb 8, 2015. Individual sites analysed structural T1-weighted MRI brain scans with harmonised protocols of individuals with ADHD compared with those who do not have this diagnosis. Our primary outcome was to assess case-control differences in subcortical structures and intracranial volume through pooling of all individual data from all cohorts in this collaboration. For this analysis, p values were significant at the false discovery rate corrected threshold of p=0·0156. Findings Our sample comprised 1713 participants with ADHD and 1529 controls from 23 sites with a median age of 14 years (range 4–63 years). The volumes of the accumbens (Cohen's d=−0·15), amygdala (d=−0·19), caudate (d=−0·11), hippocampus (d=−0·11), putamen (d=−0·14), and intracranial volume (d=−0·10) were smaller in individuals with ADHD compared with controls in the mega-analysis. There was no difference in volume size in the pallidum (p=0·95) and thalamus (p=0·39) between people with ADHD and controls. Exploratory lifespan modelling suggested a delay of maturation and a delay of degeneration, as effect sizes were highest in most subgroups of children (21 years): in the accumbens (Cohen's d=−0·19 vs −0·10), amygdala (d=−0·18 vs −0·14), caudate (d=−0·13 vs −0·07), hippocampus (d=−0·12 vs −0·06), putamen (d=−0·18 vs −0·08), and intracranial volume (d=−0·14 vs 0·01). There was no difference between children and adults for the pallidum (p=0·79) or thalamus (p=0·89). Case-control differences in adults were non-significant (all p>0·03). Psychostimulant medication use (all p>0·15) or symptom scores (all p>0·02) did not influence results, nor did the presence of comorbid psychiatric disorders (all p>0·5). Interpretation With the largest dataset to date, we add new knowledge about bilateral amygdala, accumbens, and hippocampus reductions in ADHD. We extend the brain maturation delay theory for ADHD to include subcortical structures and refute medication effects on brain volume suggested by earlier meta-analyses. Lifespan analyses suggest that, in the absence of well powered longitudinal studies, the ENIGMA cross-sectional sample across six decades of ages provides a means to generate hypotheses about lifespan trajectories in brain phenotypes. Funding National Institutes of Health.

Behavioral research has revealed deficits in the development of joint attention (JA) as one of the earliest signs of autism. While the neural basis of JA has been studied predominantly in adults, we recently demonstrated a protracted development of the brain networks supporting JA in typically developing children and adolescents. The present eye-tracking/fMRI study now extends these findings to adolescents with autism. Our results show that in adolescents with autism JA is subserved by abnormal activation patterns in brain areas related to social cognition abnormalities which are at the core of ASD including the STS and TPJ, despite behavioral maturation with no behavioral differences. Furthermore, in the autism group we observed increased neural activity in a network of social and emotional processing areas during interactions with their mother. Moreover, data indicated that less severely affected individuals with autism showed higher frontal activation associated with self-initiated interactions. Taken together, this study provides first-time data of JA in children/adolescents with autism incorporating the interactive character of JA, its reciprocity and motivational aspects. The observed functional differences in adolescents ASD suggest that persistent developmental differences in the neural processes underlying JA contribute to social interaction difficulties in ASD., NeuroImage: Clinical, 14, ISSN:2213-1582

Hintergrund: Im Akutstadium der Starvation zeigen Patientinnen mit Anorexia nervosa (AN) eine ausgeprägte kortikale Atrophie. Jedoch wissen wir bislang sehr wenig über die funktionelle Relevanz dieses Substanzverlustes bzw. über die Reversibilität und prognostische Relevanz solcher[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 3. Wissenschaftlicher Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Essstörungen

Auger LMM spectra and preliminary model simulations of Ar(9+) and metastable Ar(8+) ions interacting with a clean monocrystalline n-doped Si(100) surface are presented. By varying the experimental parameters, several yet undiscovered spectroscopic features have been observed providing valuable hints for the development of an adequate interaction model. On our apparatus the ion beam energy can be lowered to almost mere image charge attraction. High data acquisition rates could still be maintained yielding an unprecedented statistical quality of the Auger spectra., 34 pages, 11 figures, http://pikp28.uni-muenster.de/~ducree/