Towards European automatic bioaerosol monitoring: Comparison of 9 automatic pollen observational instruments with classic Hirst-type traps.

To benefit allergy patients and the medical practitioners, pollen information should be available in both a reliable and timely manner; the latter is only recently possible due to automatic monitoring. To evaluate the performance of all currently available automatic instruments, an international intercomparison campaign was jointly organised by the EUMETNET AutoPollen Programme and the ADOPT COST Action in Munich, Germany (March-July 2021). The automatic systems (hardware plus identification algorithms) were compared with manual Hirst-type traps.

Clustering approach for the analysis of the fluorescent bioaerosol collected by an automatic detector.

Automatically operating particle detection devices generate valuable data, but their use in routine aerobiology needs to be harmonized. The growing network of researchers using automatic pollen detectors has the challenge to develop new data processing systems, best suited for identification of pollen or spore from bioaerosol data obtained near-real-time. It is challenging to recognise all the particles in the atmospheric bioaerosol due to their diversity.

Effect of title on eye-movement exploration of cubist paintings by Fernand Léger.

Franklin et al (1993, Leonardo 26 103-108) reported that title information influenced the interpretation of paintings but not the way observers explore and look at the paintings; in their study subjects used a hand pointer to indicate where they looked. We used eye-movement recording and examined the effect of title on eye-movement exploration of nonrealistic cubist paintings giving rise to free interpretation. Three paintings by Fernand Léger were used: The Wedding contained high density of small fragments of real human faces, limbs, or arbitrary fragments mixed with large plane surfaces; The Alarm Clock consisted of arbitrary fragments creating perception of a person; Contrast of Forms contained forms and cylinders.

Free exploration of painting uncovers particularly loose yoking of saccades in dyslexics.

Binocular yoking of saccades is essential for single vision of words during reading. This study examines the quality of binocular coordination in individuals with dyslexia, independent of the process of reading. Fifteen dyslexia children (11.

TMS of the posterior parietal cortex delays the latency of unpredictable saccades but not when they are combined with predictable divergence.

This study tests the influence of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) on the initiation of horizontal and vertical saccades, alone or combined with a predictable divergence. A gap paradigm was used; TMS was applied 100 ms after target onset. TMS of the left PPC increased the latency of unpredictable rightward saccades, while TMS of the right PPC increased the latency of unpredictable downward saccades.

Divergence influences triggering of both vertical and horizontal saccades.

Purpose: In real life, divergence is frequently combined with vertical saccades. The purpose of this study was to examine the initiation of vertical and horizontal saccades, pure or combined with divergence.

Methods: We used a gap paradigm to elicit vertical or horizontal saccades (10 degrees), pure or combined with a predictable divergence (10 degrees).

How the brain obeys Hering's law: a TMS study of the posterior parietal cortex.

Purpose: Human ocular saccades are not perfectly yoked; the origin of this disconjugacy (muscular versus central) remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to test a cortical influence on the binocular coordination of saccades.

Methods: The authors used a gap paradigm to elicit vertical or horizontal saccades of 10 degrees , randomly interleaved; transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied on the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) 100 ms after the target onset.

Role of the posterior parietal cortex in the initiation of saccades and vergence: right/left functional asymmetry.

This study explored in humans the role of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in saccades, vergence, and combined saccade-vergence movements by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS was applied to the right PPC at 80 ms, 90 ms, or 100 ms after target onset in experiment 1, and to the left PPC in experiment 2. Control experiments were also run in which TMS was applied over the primary motor cortex at 90 ms after target onset.

Contextual influence of TMS on the latency of saccades and vergence.

This study examines the effects of TMS of the right PPC on the latency of saccades and vergence alone or combined and the role of experimental design. Two designs were used: pure blocks with exclusively no-TMS or TMS trials; mixed blocks in which no-TMS and TMS trials were interleaved; a control study with TMS of the primary motor cortex (pure blocks) was also conducted and showed no effects on latencies. In contrast, in the experiment with TMS of the PPC latencies for TMS trials increased relative to no-TMS trials for almost all eye movements (isolated saccades, convergence, divergence, and for saccade and divergence components of combined eye movements).

Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the posterior parietal cortex delays the latency of both isolated and combined vergence-saccade movements in humans.

To explore the 3D visual environment most frequently we make combined saccade-vergence eye movements. We studied the effect of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC) on such combined eye movements versus isolated saccade and vergence. In the main experiment, TMS was applied on the rPPC 80, 90 or 100 ms after target onset.

Gap effects on saccade and vergence latency.

To explore visual space, we make saccades, vergence, and, most frequently, combined saccade-vergence eye movements. The initiation of saccades is well studied, while that of vergence is less explored. Saccade latency is influenced by the fixation task: when the target appears simultaneously with the offset of the fixation point, latencies tend to be regular, whereas the introduction of a gap period before target onset causes the emergence of express latencies (80- to 120-ms).