fMRI scanner noise interaction with affective neural processes

The purpose of the present study was the investigation of interaction effects between functional MRI scanner noise and affective neural processes. Stimuli comprised of psychoacoustically balanced musical pieces, expressing three different emotions (fear, neutral, joy). Participants (N=34, 19 female) were split into two groups, one subjected to continuous scanning and another subjected to sparse temporal scanning that features decreased scanner noise. Tests for interaction effects between scanning group (sparse/quieter vs continuous/noisier) and emotion (fear, neutral, joy) were performed. Results revealed interactions between the affective expression of stimuli and scanning group localized in bilateral auditory cortex, insula and visual cortex (calcarine sulcus). Post-hoc comparisons revealed that during sparse scanning, but not during continuous scanning, BOLD signals were significantly stronger for joy than for fear, as well as stronger for fear than for neutral in bilateral auditory cortex. During continuous scanning, but not during sparse scanning, BOLD signals were significantly stronger for joy than for neutral in the left auditory cortex and for joy than for fear in the calcarine sulcus. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to show a statistical interaction effect between scanner noise and affective processes and extends evidence suggesting scanner noise to be an important factor in functional MRI research that can affect and distort affective brain processes

Alcohol-related behaviours, beliefs, and knowledge regarding cancer risk related to alcohol in the New South Wales LGBTQ+ community

Sexuality and gender diverse (LGBTQ+) people are a priority for cancer control due to differing experience of risk factors for cancer and participation in cancer screening services compared to cisgender and heterosexual people. Alcohol use among LGBTQ+ people is typically higher compared to the general population, but awareness of alcohol-related cancer risk in the LGBTQ+ community is unclear and other alcohol-related behaviours/beliefs (e.g., perceived health risks) have also been under-researched in this community. This technical report details a study conducted in collaboration with ACON and Cancer Institute NSW to examine a range of alcohol-related behaviours and beliefs among LGBTQ+ adults in NSW, including alcohol use patterns, perceived health risks of alcohol use, awareness of alcohol-related cancer risk, and alcohol-related help-seeking behaviours

Zebra Finch Song Phonology and Syntactical Structure across Populations and Continents-A Computational Comparison

StH was supported by an LIBC grant to Clara C. Levelt and CtC

Designing Privacy-aware Internet of Things Applications

Internet of Things (IoT) applications typically collect and analyse personal data that can be used to derive sensitive information about individuals. However, thus far, privacy concerns have not been explicitly considered in software en- gineering processes when designing IoT applications. The advent of behaviour driven security mechanisms, failing to address privacy concerns in the design of IoT applications can have security implications. In this paper, we explore how a Privacy-by-Design (PbD) framework, formulated as a set of guidelines, can help software engineers integrate data privacy considerations into the design of IoT applications. We studied the utility of this PbD framework by studying how software engineers use it to design IoT applications. We also explore the challenges in using the set of guidelines to influence the IoT applications design process. In addition to highlighting the benefits of having a PbD framework to make privacy features explicit during the design of IoT applications, our studies also surfaced a number of challenges associated with the approach. A key find- ing of our research is that the PbD framework significantly increases both novice and expert software engineers’ ability to design privacy into IoT applications