Simulating Visual Attention Allocation of Pilots in an Advanced Cockpit Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frische, F.; Osterloh, J.-P.; Luedtke, A.

2011-01-01

This paper describes the results of experiments conducted with human line pilots and a cognitive pilot model during interaction with a new 40 Flight Management System (FMS). The aim of these experiments was to gather human pilot behavior data in order to calibrate the behavior of the model. Human behavior is mainly triggered by visual perception. Thus, the main aspect was to setup a profile of human pilots' visual attention allocation in a cockpit environment containing the new FMS. We first performed statistical analyses of eye tracker data and then compared our results to common results of familiar analyses in standard cockpit environments. The comparison has shown a significant influence of the new system on the visual performance of human pilots. Further on, analyses of the pilot models' visual performance have been performed. A comparison to human pilots' visual performance revealed important improvement potentials.

Psychological Factors Capable of Preventing the Inhibition of Antibody Responses in Separated Infant Monkeys.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coe, Christopher L.; And Others

1987-01-01

Capacity of infant monkeys to mount an antibody response to viral challenge was evaluated after monkeys' removal from their mothers in several social and physical environments. Results indicated that trauma of separation was reduced when infants were familiar with the separation environment or familiar social companions were available. (PCB)

In Praise of the Catenary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Behroozi, F.

2018-04-01

When a chain hangs loosely from its end points, it takes the familiar form known as the catenary. Power lines, clothes lines, and chain links are familiar examples of the catenary in everyday life. Nevertheless, the subject is conspicuously absent from current introductory physics and calculus courses. Even in upper-level physics and math courses, the catenary equation is usually introduced as an example of hyperbolic functions or discussed as an application of the calculus of variations. We present a new derivation of the catenary equation that is suitable for introductory physics and mathematics courses.

Enhancing Negotiation of Meaning through Task Familiarity Using Subtitled Videos in an Online TBLL Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arslanyilmaz, Abdurrahman; Pedersen, Susan

2010-01-01

This study examines the effects of task familiarity through the use of subtitled videos on negotiation of meaning in an online task-based language learning (TBLL) environment. It explores the amount of negotiation of meaning produced by non-native speakers (NNSs) aimed at improving input comprehension to enhance second language acquisition. Ten…

Lying about facial recognition: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Bhatt, S; Mbwana, J; Adeyemo, A; Sawyer, A; Hailu, A; Vanmeter, J

2009-03-01

Novel deception detection techniques have been in creation for centuries. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a neuroscience technology that non-invasively measures brain activity associated with behavior and cognition. A number of investigators have explored the utilization and efficiency of fMRI in deception detection. In this study, 18 subjects were instructed during an fMRI "line-up" task to either conceal (lie) or reveal (truth) the identities of individuals seen in study sets in order to determine the neural correlates of intentionally misidentifying previously known faces (lying about recognition). A repeated measures ANOVA (lie vs. truth and familiar vs. unfamiliar) and two paired t-tests (familiar vs. unfamiliar and familiar lie vs. familiar truth) revealed areas of activation associated with deception in the right MGF, red nucleus, IFG, SMG, SFG (with ACC), DLPFC, and bilateral precuneus. The areas activated in the present study may be involved in the suppression of truth, working and visuospatial memories, and imagery when providing misleading (deceptive) responses to facial identification prompts in the form of a "line-up".

Brain Regions Involved in the Retrieval of Spatial and Episodic Details Associated with a Familiar Environment: An fMRI Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hirshhorn, Marnie; Grady, Cheryl; Rosenbaum, R. Shayna; Winocur, Gordon; Moscovitch, Morris

2012-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to compare brain activity during the retrieval of coarse- and fine-grained spatial details and episodic details associated with a familiar environment. Long-time Toronto residents compared pairs of landmarks based on their absolute geographic locations (requiring either coarse or fine…

Measuring familiarity for natural environments through visual images

Treesearch

William E. Hammitt

1979-01-01

An on-site visual preference methodology involving a pre-and-post rating of bog landscape photographs is discussed. Photographs were rated for familiarity as well as preference. Preference was shown to be closely related to familiarity, assuming visitors had the opportunity to view the scenes during the on-site hiking engagement. Scenes rated high on preference were...

The effect of temperament and responsiveness towards humans on the behavior, physiology and milk production of multi-parous dairy cows in a familiar and novel milking environment.

PubMed

Sutherland, Mhairi A; Rogers, Andrea R; Verkerk, Gwyneth A

2012-10-10

The objectives of this study were to investigate whether; 1) temperament or 2) behavioral responsiveness to humans, can affect the behavior, physiology and productivity of dairy cows being milked in a familiar and novel milking environment. Temperament of multi-parous cows was defined based on exit time from a restraint device, as High Responders (HR; n=10), Medium Responders (MR; n=10) or Low Responders (LR; n=10). The behavioral response of cows to humans was assessed using four tests: restraint, exit speed, avoidance distance test and a voluntary approach test. Cows were milked according to their established routines in a rotary (familiar) milking parlor and behavioral, physiological and production data were collected over five consecutive days, including heart rate, cortisol and oxytocin concentrations and milk yield. The following week, cows were milked in a novel environment (herringbone parlor within the same farm facility) over five consecutive days, and the data and sample collection program was repeated. Cows were then given an exogenous adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) challenge to measure adrenal responsiveness. Exit time was negatively correlated with the behavioral responses of cows to restraint and human avoidance distance (HAD) in the paddock and arena. The behavioral response of cows to the milking process was greater in MR than LR and HR cows in the familiar and novel milking environments. Milk yields were greater in LR than HR cows in the novel but not the familiar milking parlor. Oxytocin concentrations increased during milking in the novel environment, regardless of cow temperament. In the familiar and novel environments, heart rates were higher in HR than LR cows before and during milking and rMSSD was lower in HR cows during milking in a novel environment. There was no difference in cortisol concentrations between LR and HR cows in response to an ACTH challenge, but HR cows had higher baseline cortisol levels than LR cows. The number of leg lifts cows performed when restrained in the crush was associated with several physiological and milk production measures. These results indicate that cows with different temperaments vary in their basal physiology as well as their behavioral and physiological responses to milking and stress associated with being milked in a novel environment. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Ins and Outs of Evaluating Web-Scale Discovery Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoeppner, Athena

2012-01-01

Librarians are familiar with the single-line form, the consolidated index, which represents a very large portion of a library's print and online collection. Their end users are familiar with the idea of a single search across a comprehensive index that produces a large, relevancy-ranked results list. Even though most patrons would not recognize…

Firing rate dynamics in the hippocampus induced by trajectory learning.

PubMed

Ji, Daoyun; Wilson, Matthew A

2008-04-30

The hippocampus is essential for spatial navigation, which may involve sequential learning. However, how the hippocampus encodes new sequences in familiar environments is unknown. To study the impact of novel spatial sequences on the activity of hippocampal neurons, we monitored hippocampal ensembles while rats learned to switch from two familiar trajectories to a new one in a familiar environment. Here, we show that this novel spatial experience induces two types of changes in firing rates, but not locations of hippocampal place cells. First, place-cell firing rates on the two familiar trajectories start to change before the actual behavioral switch to the new trajectory. Second, repeated exposure on the new trajectory is associated with an increased dependence of place-cell firing rates on immediate past locations. The result suggests that sequence encoding in the hippocampus may involve integration of information about the recent past into current state.

Firing Rate Dynamics in the Hippocampus Induced by Trajectory Learning

PubMed Central

Wilson, Matthew A.

2008-01-01

The hippocampus is essential for spatial navigation, which may involve sequential learning. However, how the hippocampus encodes new sequences in familiar environments is unknown. To study the impact of novel spatial sequences on the activity of hippocampal neurons, we monitored hippocampal ensembles while rats learned to switch from two familiar trajectories to a new one in a familiar environment. Here, we show that this novel spatial experience induces two types of changes in firing rates, but not locations of hippocampal place cells. First, place-cell firing rates on the two familiar trajectories start to change before the actual behavioral switch to the new trajectory. Second, repeated exposure on the new trajectory is associated with an increased dependence of place-cell firing rates on immediate past locations. The result suggests that sequence encoding in the hippocampus may involve integration of information about the recent past into current state. PMID:18448645

Deja Vu in Unilateral Temporal-Lobe Epilepsy Is Associated with Selective Familiarity Impairments on Experimental Tasks of Recognition Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Chris B.; Mirsattari, Seyed M.; Pruessner, Jens C.; Pietrantonio, Sandra; Burneo, Jorge G.; Hayman-Abello, Brent; Kohler, Stefan

2012-01-01

In deja vu, a phenomenological impression of familiarity for the current visual environment is experienced with a sense that it should in fact not feel familiar. The fleeting nature of this phenomenon in daily life, and the difficulty in developing experimental paradigms to elicit it, has hindered progress in understanding deja vu. Some…

The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-09-01

where many terrorists first become familiar with Marxist-Leninist ideology or other revolutionary ideas and get involved with radical groups. Russell...Terrorists have the ability to use a variety of weapons, vehicles, and communications equipment and are familiar with their physical environment...acquires the group’s mindset only after being fully indoctrinated and familiarized with its ideology, point of view, leadership attitudes, ways of

Advising Success: Lessons from American Military Assistance Efforts Since World War II

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-12-01

adequate supply of Special Forces personnel who were Spanish speakers and familiar with the Central American region if not El Salvador in particular...Frequent interaction with many countries in the region gave the American military and policymakers familiarity with the regional issues, and a...The time required to familiarize a new advisor to the environment is time spent at less than optimal capability. In El Salvador, the 90-180 day

Tactile Object Familiarity in the Blind Brain Reveals the Supramodal Perceptual-Mnemonic Nature of the Perirhinal Cortex

PubMed Central

Cacciamani, Laura; Likova, Lora T.

2016-01-01

This study is the first to investigate the neural underpinnings of tactile object familiarity in the blind during both perception and memory. In the sighted, the perirhinal cortex (PRC) has been implicated in the assessment of visual object familiarity—a crucial everyday task—as evidenced by reduced activation when an object becomes familiar. Here, to examine the PRC’s role in tactile object familiarity in the absence of vision, we trained blind participants on a unique memory-guided drawing technique and measured brain activity while they perceptually explored raised-line drawings, drew them from tactile memory, and scribbled (control). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after a week of training revealed a significant decrease in PRC activation from pre- to post-training (i.e., from unfamiliar to familiar) during perceptual exploration as well as memory-guided drawing, but not scribbling. This familiarity-based reduction is the first evidence that the PRC represents tactile object familiarity in the blind. Furthermore, the finding of this effect during both tactile perception and tactile memory provides the critical link in establishing the PRC as a structure whose representations are supramodal for both perception and memory. PMID:27148002

Focus of attention and automaticity in handwriting.

PubMed

MacMahon, Clare; Charness, Neil

2014-04-01

This study investigated the nature of automaticity in everyday tasks by testing handwriting performance under single and dual-task conditions. Item familiarity and hand dominance were also manipulated to understand both cognitive and motor components of the task. In line with previous literature, performance was superior in an extraneous focus of attention condition compared to two different skill focus conditions. This effect was found only when writing with the dominant hand. In addition, performance was superior for high familiarity compared to low familiarity items. These findings indicate that motor and cognitive familiarity are related to the degree of automaticity of motor skills and can be manipulated to produce different performance outcomes. The findings also imply that the progression of skill acquisition from novel to novice to expert levels can be traced using different dual-task conditions. The separation of motor and cognitive familiarity is a new approach in the handwriting domain, and provides insight into the nature of attentional demands during performance. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Exploring a novel environment improves motivation and promotes recall of words.

PubMed

Schomaker, Judith; van Bronkhorst, Marthe L V; Meeter, Martijn

2014-01-01

Active exploration of novel environments is known to increase plasticity in animals, promoting long-term potentiation in the hippocampus and enhancing memory formation. These effects can occur during as well as after exploration. In humans novelty's effects on memory have been investigated with other methods, but never in an active exploration paradigm. We therefore investigated whether active spatial exploration of a novel compared to a previously familiarized virtual environment promotes performance on an unrelated word learning task. Exploration of the novel environment enhanced recall, generally thought to be hippocampus-dependent, but not recognition, believed to rely less on the hippocampus. Recall was better for participants that gave higher presence ratings for their experience in the virtual environment. These ratings were higher for the novel compared to the familiar virtual environment, suggesting that novelty increased attention for the virtual rather than real environment; however, this did not explain the effect of novelty on recall.

Social Familiarity Reduces Reaction Times and Enhances Survival of Group-Living Predatory Mites under the Risk of Predation

PubMed Central

Strodl, Markus Andreas; Schausberger, Peter

2012-01-01

Background Social familiarity, which is based on the ability to recognise familiar conspecific individuals following prior association, may affect all major life activities of group-living animals such as foraging, reproduction and anti-predator behaviours. A scarcely experimentally tested explanation why social familiarity is beneficial for group-living animals is provided by limited attention theory. Limited attention theory postulates that focusing on a given task, such as inspection and assessment of unfamiliar group members, has cognitive and associated physiological and behavioural costs with respect to the attention paid to other tasks, such as anti-predator vigilance and response. Accordingly, we hypothesised that social familiarity enhances the anti-predator success of group-living predatory mites, Phytoseiulus persimilis, confronted with an intraguild predator, the predatory mite Amblyseius andersoni. Methodology/Principal Findings We videotaped and analysed the response of two P. persimilis larvae, held in familiar or unfamiliar pairs, to attacks by a gravid A. andersoni female, using the behavioural analyses software EthoVision Pro®. Familiar larvae were more frequently close together, reacted more quickly to predator attacks, survived more predator encounters and survived longer than unfamiliar larvae. Significance In line with the predictions of limited attention theory, we suggest that social familiarity improves anti-predator behaviours because it allows prey to shift attention to other tasks rather than group member assessment. PMID:22927997

Effects of environmental novelty on fear-related behavior and stress responses of rats to emotionally relevant odors.

PubMed

Nikaido, Y; Nakashima, T

2009-05-16

Although various emotional behaviors and activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis of rats are induced by the exposure of 2,5-dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline: TMT, a component of fox odor, these odor-induced responses are influenced by the external environment. Our previous study demonstrated that exposure to green odor, a mixture of cis-3-hexenol and trans-2-hexenal, attenuated stress-induced elevation of the plasma ACTH level in rats. The present study investigated the effect of TMT or green odor on emotional behavior and the HPA axis stress response with or without the influence of environmental novelty. We exposed rats to TMT or green odor in "familiar" or "unfamiliar" environments and compared the various responses, including fear-related behaviors, non-defensive behaviors and plasma ACTH concentrations. TMT induced enhanced freezing behavior, reduced exploration behavior and elevations in plasma ACTH concentrations in two environmental conditions. Comparing TMT-induced responses in an unfamiliar environment with the familiar environment showed that environmental novelty enhanced TMT-induced fear-related behaviors and elevations of plasma ACTH concentrations. These results revealed that TMT causes fear and stress responses in both familiar and unfamiliar environments, although the novelty of an unfamiliar environment enhances these TMT-induced responses. On the other hand, green odor did not induce any responses in either environment. These findings indicate that odor-induced responses are influenced by the surrounding environment.

Impacting Motivation in the Virtual Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Artyushina, Galina; Sheypak, Olga

2012-01-01

Teachers, educational managers and learners must realize that new opportunities are offered by modern on-line communication. A person with basic Internet and Web skills is open to a new world of knowledge, from free Web surfing and self-organized education--through on-line resources and familiarization with Internet culture, its places, sites,…

Experience-Based and On-Line Categorization of Objects in Early Infancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bornstein, Marc H.; Mash, Clay

2010-01-01

What processes do infants employ in categorizing? Infants might categorize on line as they encounter category-related entities; alternatively, infants might depend on prior experience with entities in formulating categories. These alternatives were tested in forty-four 5-month-olds. Infants who were familiarized in the laboratory with a category…

DEVELOPMENT OF HOME CAGE SOCIAL BEHAVIORS IN BALB/cJ vs. C57BL/6J MICE

PubMed Central

Fairless, Andrew H.; Katz, Julia M.; Vijayvargiya, Neha; Dow, Holly C.; Kreibich, Arati Sadalge; Berrettini, Wade H.; Abel, Ted; Brodkin, Edward S.

2012-01-01

BALB/cJ and C57BL/6J inbred mouse strains have been proposed as useful models of low and high levels of sociability (tendency to seek social interaction), respectively, based primarily on behaviors of ~30-day-old mice in the Social Approach Test (SAT). In the SAT, approach and sniffing behaviors of a test mouse toward an unfamiliar stimulus mouse are measured in a novel environment. However, it is unclear whether such results generalize to a familiar environment with a familiar social partner, such as with a littermate in a home cage environment. We hypothesized that C57BL/6J mice would show higher levels of social behaviors than BALB/cJ mice in the home cage environment, particularly at 30 days-of-age. We measured active and passive social behaviors in home cages by pairs of BALB/cJ or C57BL/6J littermates at ages 30, 41, and 69 days. The strains did not differ robustly in their active social behaviors. C57BL/6J mice were more passively social than BALB/cJ mice at 30 days, and C57BL/6J levels of passive social behaviors declined to BALB/cJ levels by 69 days. The differences in passive social behaviors at 30 days-of-age were primarily attributable to differences in huddling. These results indicate that different test conditions (SAT conditions vs. home cage conditions) elicit strain differences in distinct types of behaviors (approach/sniffing vs. huddling behaviors, respectively). Assessment of the more naturalistic social interactions in the familiar home cage environment with a familiar littermate will provide a useful component of a comprehensive assessment of social behaviors in mouse models relevant to autism. PMID:22982070

Teaching Experimental Methods: A Framework for Hands-On Modules

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doherty, David

2011-01-01

Experiments provide a simple and engaging framework for familiarizing students with the process of quantitative social research. In this article, I illustrate how experiments can be used in the classroom environment by describing a module that was implemented in four high school classrooms. The module familiarized students with how the scientific…

The Role of Familiarity for Representations in Norm-Based Face Space

PubMed Central

Faerber, Stella J.; Kaufmann, Jürgen M.; Leder, Helmut; Martin, Eva Maria; Schweinberger, Stefan R.

2016-01-01

According to the norm-based version of the multidimensional face space model (nMDFS, Valentine, 1991), any given face and its corresponding anti-face (which deviates from the norm in exactly opposite direction as the original face) should be equidistant to a hypothetical prototype face (norm), such that by definition face and anti-face should bear the same level of perceived typicality. However, it has been argued that familiarity affects perceived typicality and that representations of familiar faces are qualitatively different (e.g., more robust and image-independent) from those for unfamiliar faces. Here we investigated the role of face familiarity for rated typicality, using two frequently used operationalisations of typicality (deviation-based: DEV), and distinctiveness (face in the crowd: FITC) for faces of celebrities and their corresponding anti-faces. We further assessed attractiveness, likeability and trustworthiness ratings of the stimuli, which are potentially related to typicality. For unfamiliar faces and their corresponding anti-faces, in line with the predictions of the nMDFS, our results demonstrate comparable levels of perceived typicality (DEV). In contrast, familiar faces were perceived much less typical than their anti-faces. Furthermore, familiar faces were rated higher than their anti-faces in distinctiveness, attractiveness, likability and trustworthiness. These findings suggest that familiarity strongly affects the distribution of facial representations in norm-based face space. Overall, our study suggests (1) that familiarity needs to be considered in studies of mental representations of faces, and (2) that familiarity, general distance-to-norm and more specific vector directions in face space make different and interactive contributions to different types of facial evaluations. PMID:27168323

The Role of Familiarity for Representations in Norm-Based Face Space.

PubMed

Faerber, Stella J; Kaufmann, Jürgen M; Leder, Helmut; Martin, Eva Maria; Schweinberger, Stefan R

2016-01-01

According to the norm-based version of the multidimensional face space model (nMDFS, Valentine, 1991), any given face and its corresponding anti-face (which deviates from the norm in exactly opposite direction as the original face) should be equidistant to a hypothetical prototype face (norm), such that by definition face and anti-face should bear the same level of perceived typicality. However, it has been argued that familiarity affects perceived typicality and that representations of familiar faces are qualitatively different (e.g., more robust and image-independent) from those for unfamiliar faces. Here we investigated the role of face familiarity for rated typicality, using two frequently used operationalisations of typicality (deviation-based: DEV), and distinctiveness (face in the crowd: FITC) for faces of celebrities and their corresponding anti-faces. We further assessed attractiveness, likeability and trustworthiness ratings of the stimuli, which are potentially related to typicality. For unfamiliar faces and their corresponding anti-faces, in line with the predictions of the nMDFS, our results demonstrate comparable levels of perceived typicality (DEV). In contrast, familiar faces were perceived much less typical than their anti-faces. Furthermore, familiar faces were rated higher than their anti-faces in distinctiveness, attractiveness, likability and trustworthiness. These findings suggest that familiarity strongly affects the distribution of facial representations in norm-based face space. Overall, our study suggests (1) that familiarity needs to be considered in studies of mental representations of faces, and (2) that familiarity, general distance-to-norm and more specific vector directions in face space make different and interactive contributions to different types of facial evaluations.

Disorders of representation and control in semantic cognition: Effects of familiarity, typicality, and specificity

PubMed Central

Rogers, Timothy T.; Patterson, Karalyn; Jefferies, Elizabeth; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A.

2015-01-01

We present a case-series comparison of patients with cross-modal semantic impairments consequent on either (a) bilateral anterior temporal lobe atrophy in semantic dementia (SD) or (b) left-hemisphere fronto-parietal and/or posterior temporal stroke in semantic aphasia (SA). Both groups were assessed on a new test battery designed to measure how performance is influenced by concept familiarity, typicality and specificity. In line with previous findings, performance in SD was strongly modulated by all of these factors, with better performance for more familiar items (regardless of typicality), for more typical items (regardless of familiarity) and for tasks that did not require very specific classification, consistent with the gradual degradation of conceptual knowledge in SD. The SA group showed significant impairments on all tasks but their sensitivity to familiarity, typicality and specificity was more variable and governed by task-specific effects of these factors on controlled semantic processing. The results are discussed with reference to theories about the complementary roles of representation and manipulation of semantic knowledge. PMID:25934635

Smells familiar: group-joining decisions of predatory mites are mediated by olfactory cues of social familiarity.

PubMed

Muleta, Muluken G; Schausberger, Peter

2013-09-01

Group-living animals frequently have to trade off the costs and benefits of leaving an established group and joining another group. Owing to their high fitness relevance, group-joining decisions are commonly nonrandom and may be based on traits of both individual members and the group such as life stage, body size, social status and group density or size, respectively. Many group-living animals are able to recognize and to associate preferentially with familiar individuals, i.e. those encountered before. Hence, after dispersing from established groups, animals commonly have to decide whether to join a new familiar or unfamiliar group. Using binary choice situations we assessed the effects of social familiarity on group-joining behaviour of the plant-inhabiting predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis . Group living in P. persimilis is brought about by the patchy distribution of its spider mite prey and mutual conspecific attraction. In the first experiment, gravid predator females given a choice between spider mite patches occupied by unfamiliar and familiar groups of females strongly preferred to join familiar groups and to deposit their eggs in these patches. Preference for socially familiar groups was robust across biases of spider mite prey densities between choice options. The second experiment revealed that the predatory mite females can smell social familiarity from a distance. Females subjected to odour choice situations in artificial cages were more strongly attracted to the odour of familiar than unfamiliar groups. We argue that P. persimilis females preferentially join socially familiar groups because a familiar social environment relaxes competition and optimizes foraging and reproduction.

Culturally familiar environment among immigrant Korean elders.

PubMed

Son, Gwi-Ryung; Kim, Hye-Ryoung

2006-01-01

This study's purpose was to describe the concept of familiarity for immigrant Korean elders as expressed through clothing, objects, songs/music, foods, and associated feelings. A descriptive exploratory design with in-depth, face-to-face interviews was used. A convenience sample of 14 immigrant Korean elders, age 63 to 82 years, was recruited from a Korean senior apartment complex. Interviews were tape-recorded and then transcribed in Korean by the first author. Constant comparative analysis was used to derive eight themes related to feelings and practice associated with culturally familiar items: homesickness, comfort, pleasure, mixed feelings, attachment, pride, nostalgic practice, and essentiality. These findings about familiarity could be utilized with ethnic minority elders to enhance their sense of belonging and physical and psychological comfort.

Do Tetranychus urticae males avoid mating with familiar females?

PubMed

Yoshioka, T; Yano, S

2014-07-01

The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, usually lives in kin groups under common webs. Because only the first mating results in fertilisation in female T. urticae, adult males guard quiescent deutonymph females, those at the stage immediately before maturation, to ensure paternity. Therefore, the cost of precopulatory guarding time seems considerable for males. Moreover, the fitness indices of daughters from intra-population crosses were significantly lower than those of daughters from inter-population crosses, indicating that inbreeding depression exists in T. urticae. Therefore, we hypothesised that T. urticae males should be choosy in guarding familiar females to avoid inbreeding depression. Furthermore, webs should be a key element of the environment shared by familiar individuals. In this study, we demonstrated the inbreeding avoidance mechanism of T. urticae males in relation to webs produced by familiar females (known webs) or unfamiliar females (unknown webs). Regardless of surrounding webs (known or unknown), males preferred unfamiliar to familiar females. We further examined whether males detect unfamiliar females by their webs. When males had experienced a female's web without encountering that female, they subsequently preferred females that did not produce the surrounding webs in which the choice experiment was conducted. Results suggest that putative kin recognition for inbreeding avoidance in T. urticae males is based on the relationship between webs and females, and not on the discrimination of webs in shared environments. © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Socioecological psychology.

PubMed

Oishi, Shigehiro

2014-01-01

Socioecological psychology investigates humans' cognitive, emotional, and behavioral adaption to physical, interpersonal, economic, and political environments. This article summarizes three types of socioecological psychology research: (a) association studies that link an aspect of social ecology (e.g., population density) with psychology (e.g., prosocial behavior), (b) process studies that clarify why there is an association between social ecology and psychology (e.g., residential mobility → anxiety → familiarity seeking), and (c) niche construction studies that illuminate how psychological states give rise to the creation and maintenance of a social ecology (e.g., familiarity seeking → dominance of national chain stores). Socioecological psychology attempts to bring the objectivist perspective to psychological science, investigating how objective social and physical environments, not just perception and construal of the environments, affect one's thinking, feeling, and behaviors, as well as how people's thinking, feeling, and behaviors give rise to social and built environments.

The Map in Our Head Is Not Oriented North: Evidence from a Real-World Environment.

PubMed

Brunyé, Tad T; Burte, Heather; Houck, Lindsay A; Taylor, Holly A

2015-01-01

Like most physical maps, recent research has suggested that cognitive maps of familiar environments may have a north-up orientation. We demonstrate that north orientation is not a necessary feature of cognitive maps and instead may arise due to coincidental alignment between cardinal directions and the built and natural environment. Experiment 1 demonstrated that pedestrians have difficulty pointing north while navigating a familiar real-world environment with roads, buildings, and green spaces oriented oblique to cardinal axes. Instead, north estimates tended to be parallel or perpendicular to roads. In Experiment 2, participants did not demonstrate privileged memory access when oriented toward north while making relative direction judgments. Instead, retrieval was fastest and most accurate when orientations were aligned with roads. In sum, cognitive maps are not always oriented north. Rather, in some real-world environments they can be oriented with respect to environment-specific features, serving as convenient reference systems for organizing and using spatial memory.

Smells familiar: group-joining decisions of predatory mites are mediated by olfactory cues of social familiarity☆

PubMed Central

Muleta, Muluken G.; Schausberger, Peter

2013-01-01

Group-living animals frequently have to trade off the costs and benefits of leaving an established group and joining another group. Owing to their high fitness relevance, group-joining decisions are commonly nonrandom and may be based on traits of both individual members and the group such as life stage, body size, social status and group density or size, respectively. Many group-living animals are able to recognize and to associate preferentially with familiar individuals, i.e. those encountered before. Hence, after dispersing from established groups, animals commonly have to decide whether to join a new familiar or unfamiliar group. Using binary choice situations we assessed the effects of social familiarity on group-joining behaviour of the plant-inhabiting predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis. Group living in P. persimilis is brought about by the patchy distribution of its spider mite prey and mutual conspecific attraction. In the first experiment, gravid predator females given a choice between spider mite patches occupied by unfamiliar and familiar groups of females strongly preferred to join familiar groups and to deposit their eggs in these patches. Preference for socially familiar groups was robust across biases of spider mite prey densities between choice options. The second experiment revealed that the predatory mite females can smell social familiarity from a distance. Females subjected to odour choice situations in artificial cages were more strongly attracted to the odour of familiar than unfamiliar groups. We argue that P. persimilis females preferentially join socially familiar groups because a familiar social environment relaxes competition and optimizes foraging and reproduction. PMID:24027341

Production Line Materials. Youth Training Scheme. Core Exemplar Work Based Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Further Education Staff Coll., Blagdon (England).

This trainer's guide is intended to assist supervisors of work-based career training projects in helping students understand the operation of an assembly line, including safe working procedures. The guide is one in a series of core curriculum modules that is intended for use in combination on- and off-the-job programs to familiarize youth with the…

Development of home cage social behaviors in BALB/cJ vs. C57BL/6J mice.

PubMed

Fairless, Andrew H; Katz, Julia M; Vijayvargiya, Neha; Dow, Holly C; Kreibich, Arati Sadalge; Berrettini, Wade H; Abel, Ted; Brodkin, Edward S

2013-01-15

BALB/cJ and C57BL/6J inbred mouse strains have been proposed as useful models of low and high levels of sociability (tendency to seek social interaction), respectively, based primarily on behaviors of ∼30-day-old mice in the Social Approach Test (SAT). In the SAT, approach and sniffing behaviors of a test mouse toward an unfamiliar stimulus mouse are measured in a novel environment. However, it is unclear whether such results generalize to a familiar environment with a familiar social partner, such as with a littermate in a home cage environment. We hypothesized that C57BL/6J mice would show higher levels of social behaviors than BALB/cJ mice in the home cage environment, particularly at 30 days-of-age. We measured active and passive social behaviors in home cages by pairs of BALB/cJ or C57BL/6J littermates at ages 30, 41, and 69 days. The strains did not differ robustly in their active social behaviors. C57BL/6J mice were more passively social than BALB/cJ mice at 30 days, and C57BL/6J levels of passive social behaviors declined to BALB/cJ levels by 69 days. The differences in passive social behaviors at 30 days-of-age were primarily attributable to differences in huddling. These results indicate that different test conditions (SAT conditions vs. home cage conditions) elicit strain differences in distinct types of behaviors (approach/sniffing vs. huddling behaviors, respectively). Assessment of the more naturalistic social interactions in the familiar home cage environment with a familiar littermate will provide a useful component of a comprehensive assessment of social behaviors in mouse models relevant to autism. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Visual laterality in dolphins: importance of the familiarity of stimuli

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Many studies of cerebral asymmetries in different species lead, on the one hand, to a better understanding of the functions of each cerebral hemisphere and, on the other hand, to develop an evolutionary history of hemispheric laterality. Our animal model is particularly interesting because of its original evolutionary path, i.e. return to aquatic life after a terrestrial phase. The rare reports concerning visual laterality of marine mammals investigated mainly discrimination processes. As dolphins are migrant species they are confronted to a changing environment. Being able to categorize new versus familiar objects would allow dolphins a rapid adaptation to novel environments. Visual laterality could be a prerequisite to this adaptability. To date, no study, to our knowledge, has analyzed the environmental factors that could influence their visual laterality. Results We investigated visual laterality expressed spontaneously at the water surface by a group of five common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in response to various stimuli. The stimuli presented ranged from very familiar objects (known and manipulated previously) to familiar objects (known but never manipulated) to unfamiliar objects (unknown, never seen previously). At the group level, dolphins used their left eye to observe very familiar objects and their right eye to observe unfamiliar objects. However, eyes are used indifferently to observe familiar objects with intermediate valence. Conclusion Our results suggest different visual cerebral processes based either on the global shape of well-known objects or on local details of unknown objects. Moreover, the manipulation of an object appears necessary for these dolphins to construct a global representation of an object enabling its immediate categorization for subsequent use. Our experimental results pointed out some cognitive capacities of dolphins which might be crucial for their wild life given their fission-fusion social system and migratory behaviour. PMID:22239860

Visual laterality in dolphins: importance of the familiarity of stimuli.

PubMed

Blois-Heulin, Catherine; Crével, Mélodie; Böye, Martin; Lemasson, Alban

2012-01-12

Many studies of cerebral asymmetries in different species lead, on the one hand, to a better understanding of the functions of each cerebral hemisphere and, on the other hand, to develop an evolutionary history of hemispheric laterality. Our animal model is particularly interesting because of its original evolutionary path, i.e. return to aquatic life after a terrestrial phase. The rare reports concerning visual laterality of marine mammals investigated mainly discrimination processes. As dolphins are migrant species they are confronted to a changing environment. Being able to categorize new versus familiar objects would allow dolphins a rapid adaptation to novel environments. Visual laterality could be a prerequisite to this adaptability. To date, no study, to our knowledge, has analyzed the environmental factors that could influence their visual laterality. We investigated visual laterality expressed spontaneously at the water surface by a group of five common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in response to various stimuli. The stimuli presented ranged from very familiar objects (known and manipulated previously) to familiar objects (known but never manipulated) to unfamiliar objects (unknown, never seen previously). At the group level, dolphins used their left eye to observe very familiar objects and their right eye to observe unfamiliar objects. However, eyes are used indifferently to observe familiar objects with intermediate valence. Our results suggest different visual cerebral processes based either on the global shape of well-known objects or on local details of unknown objects. Moreover, the manipulation of an object appears necessary for these dolphins to construct a global representation of an object enabling its immediate categorization for subsequent use. Our experimental results pointed out some cognitive capacities of dolphins which might be crucial for their wild life given their fission-fusion social system and migratory behaviour.

Remembering to learn: independent place and journey coding mechanisms contribute to memory transfer.

PubMed

Bahar, Amir S; Shapiro, Matthew L

2012-02-08

The neural mechanisms that integrate new episodes with established memories are unknown. When rats explore an environment, CA1 cells fire in place fields that indicate locations. In goal-directed spatial memory tasks, some place fields differentiate behavioral histories ("journey-dependent" place fields) while others do not ("journey-independent" place fields). To investigate how these signals inform learning and memory for new and familiar episodes, we recorded CA1 and CA3 activity in rats trained to perform a "standard" spatial memory task in a plus maze and in two new task variants. A "switch" task exchanged the start and goal locations in the same environment; an "altered environment" task contained unfamiliar local and distal cues. In the switch task, performance was mildly impaired, new firing maps were stable, but the proportion and stability of journey-dependent place fields declined. In the altered environment, overall performance was strongly impaired, new firing maps were unstable, and stable proportions of journey-dependent place fields were maintained. In both tasks, memory errors were accompanied by a decline in journey codes. The different dynamics of place and journey coding suggest that they reflect separate mechanisms and contribute to distinct memory computations. Stable place fields may represent familiar relationships among environmental features that are required for consistent memory performance. Journey-dependent activity may correspond with goal-directed behavioral sequences that reflect expectancies that generalize across environments. The complementary signals could help link current events with established memories, so that familiarity with either a behavioral strategy or an environment can inform goal-directed learning.

Reciprocal activation/inactivation of ERK in the amygdala and frontal cortex is correlated with the degree of novelty of an open-field environment.

PubMed

Sanguedo, Frederico Velasco; Dias, Caio Vitor Bueno; Dias, Flavia Regina Cruz; Samuels, Richard Ian; Carey, Robert J; Carrera, Marinete Pinheiro

2016-03-01

Phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) has been used to identify brain areas activated by exogenous stimuli including psychostimulant drugs. Assess the role of the amygdala in emotional responses. Experimental manipulations were performed in which environmental familiarity was the variable. To provide the maximal degree of familiarity, ERK was measured after removal from the home cage and re-placement back into the same cage. To maximize exposure to an unfamiliar environment, ERK was measured following placement into a novel open field. To assess whether familiarity was the critical variable in the ERK response to the novel open field, ERK was also measured after either four or eight placements into the same environment. ERK quantification was carried out in the amygdala, frontal cortex, and the nucleus accumbens. After home cage re-placement, ERK activation was found in the frontal cortex and nucleus accumbens but was absent in the amygdala. Following placement in a novel environment, ERK activation was more prominent in the amygdala than the frontal cortex or nucleus accumbens. In contrast, with habituation to the novel environment, ERK phosphors declined markedly in the amygdala but increased in the frontal cortex and nucleus accumbens to the level observed following home cage re-placement. The differential responsiveness of the amygdala versus the frontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens to a novel versus a habituated environment is consistent with a reciprocal interaction between these neural systems and points to their important role in the mediation of behavioral activation to novelty and behavioral inactivation with habituation.

REMEMBERING TO LEARN: INDEPENDENT PLACE AND JOURNEY CODING MECHANISMS CONTRIBUTE TO MEMORY TRANSFER

PubMed Central

Bahar, Amir S.; Shapiro, Matthew L.

2012-01-01

The neural mechanisms that integrate new episodes with established memories are unknown. When rats explore an environment, CA1 cells fire in place fields that indicate locations. In goal-directed spatial memory tasks, some place fields differentiate behavioral histories (journey-dependent place fields) while others do not (journey-independent place fields). To investigate how these signals inform learning and memory for new and familiar episodes, we recorded CA1 and CA3 activity in rats trained to perform a standard spatial memory task in a plus maze and in two new task variants. A switch task exchanged the start and goal locations in the same environment; an altered environment task contained unfamiliar local and distal cues. In the switch task, performance was mildly impaired, new firing maps were stable, but the proportion and stability of journey-dependent place fields declined. In the altered environment, overall performance was strongly impaired, new firing maps were unstable, and stable proportions of journey-dependent place fields were maintained. In both tasks, memory errors were accompanied by a decline in journey codes. The different dynamics of place and journey coding suggest that they reflect separate mechanisms and contribute to distinct memory computations. Stable place fields may represent familiar relationships among environmental features that are required for consistent memory performance. Journey-dependent activity may correspond with goal directed behavioral sequences that reflect expectancies that generalize across environments. The complementary signals could help link current events with established memories, so that familiarity with either a behavioral strategy or an environment can inform goal-directed learning. PMID:22323731

Rank acquisition in rhesus macaque yearlings following permanent maternal separation: The importance of the social and physical environment.

PubMed

Wooddell, Lauren J; Kaburu, Stefano S K; Murphy, Ashley M; Suomi, Stephen J; Dettmer, Amanda M

2017-11-01

Rank acquisition is a developmental milestone for young primates, but the processes by which primate yearlings attain social rank in the absence of the mother remain unclear. We studied 18 maternally reared yearling rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) that differed in their social and physical rearing environments. We found that early social experience and maternal rank, but not individual traits (weight, sex, age), predicted dominance acquisition in the new peer-only social group. Yearlings also used coalitions to reinforce the hierarchy, and social affiliation (play and grooming) was likely a product, rather than a determinant, of rank acquisition. Following relocation to a familiar environment, significant rank changes occurred indicating that familiarity with a physical environment was salient in rank acquisition. Our results add to the growing body of literature emphasizing the role of the social and physical environment on behavioral development, namely social asymmetries among peers. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Core geometry in perspective

PubMed Central

Dillon, Moira R.; Spelke, Elizabeth S.

2015-01-01

Research on animals, infants, children, and adults provides evidence that distinct cognitive systems underlie navigation and object recognition. Here we examine whether and how these systems interact when children interpret 2D edge-based perspectival line drawings of scenes and objects. Such drawings serve as symbols early in development, and they preserve scene and object geometry from canonical points of view. Young children show limits when using geometry both in non-symbolic tasks and in symbolic map tasks that present 3D contexts from unusual, unfamiliar points of view. When presented with the familiar viewpoints in perspectival line drawings, however, do children engage more integrated geometric representations? In three experiments, children successfully interpreted line drawings with respect to their depicted scene or object. Nevertheless, children recruited distinct processes when navigating based on the information in these drawings, and these processes depended on the context in which the drawings were presented. These results suggest that children are flexible but limited in using geometric information to form integrated representations of scenes and objects, even when interpreting spatial symbols that are highly familiar and faithful renditions of the visual world. PMID:25441089

Four heads are better than one: combining face composites yields improvements in face likeness.

PubMed

Bruce, Vicki; Ness, Hayley; Hancock, Peter J B; Newman, Craig; Rarity, Jenny

2002-10-01

Four participants constructed face composites, of familiar and unfamiliar targets, using Pro-Fit, with reference images present or from memory. The "mean" of all 4 composites, created by morphing (4-morph) was rated as a better likeness than individual composites on average and was as good as the best individual likeness. When participants attempted to identify targets from line-ups, 4-morphs again performed as well as the best individual composite. In a second experiment, participants familiar with target women attempted to identify composites, and the trend showed better recognition from multiple composites, whether combined or shown together. In a line-up task with unfamiliar participants, 4-morphs produced most correct choices and fewest false positives from target-absent or target-present arrays. These results have practical implications for the way evidence from different witnesses is used in police investigations.

Frequency-domain coherent multidimensional spectroscopy when dephasing rivals pulsewidth: Disentangling material and instrument response

DOE PAGES

Kohler, Daniel D.; Thompson, Blaise J.; Wright, John C.

2017-08-31

Ultrafast spectroscopy is often collected in the mixed frequency/time domain, where pulse durations are similar to system dephasing times. In these experiments, expectations derived from the familiar driven and impulsive limits are not valid. This work simulates the mixed-domain four-wave mixing response of a model system to develop expectations for this more complex field-matter interaction. We also explore frequency and delay axes. We show that these line shapes are exquisitely sensitive to excitation pulse widths and delays. Near pulse overlap, the excitation pulses induce correlations that resemble signatures of dynamic inhomogeneity. We describe these line shapes using an intuitive picturemore » that connects to familiar field-matter expressions. We develop strategies for distinguishing pulse-induced correlations from true system inhomogeneity. Our simulations provide a foundation for interpretation of ultrafast experiments in the mixed domain.« less

NBIC-Convergence as a Paradigm Platform of Sustainable Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dotsenko, Elena

2017-11-01

Today, the fastest rates of scientific and technological development are typical for the spheres of nano-systems and materials industry, information and communication systems, as well as spheres of direct human impact on environment - power industry, urbanization, and industrial infrastructure. Accelerate replacement of a human by machines and robots, the construction of megacities; the transportation of huge volumes of environmentally hazardous goods takes place against the background of intensive generation of knowledge, the transition of the results of fundamental research into specific production technologies. In this process, on the one hand, a fundamentally new format for technological restructuring of the world economy is being developed. On the other hand, a new platform for human-environment interaction is being formed, where both positive and negative environmental impacts will be determined by unstudied factors in the near future. The reason for this is in the forthcoming replacement of the technologies that are familiar to us, although dynamically developing, by fundamentally new - convergent. Entering the front line of technological development - NBIC-convergence - requires a new paradigm of sustainable development.

Understanding the game of the environment

Treesearch

David R. Houston

1979-01-01

Understanding the Game of The Environment is a summary of major ecological principles and concepts viewed as a game in which living organisms interact with each other and their nonliving environment. The use of game terminology helps place a bewildering array of facts and relationships into an understandable framework. All students are familiar with games, and they...

Differential ultrasonic indices of separation distress in the presence and absence of maternal cues in infant rats bred for high and low positive social affect.

PubMed

Iacobucci, Paolo; Colonnello, Valentina; Fuchs, Thomas; D'Antuono, Laura; Panksepp, Jaak

2013-10-01

Preclinical models of human mood disorders commonly focus on the study of negative affectivity, without comparably stressing the role of positive affects and their ability to promote resilient coping styles. We evaluated the role of background constitutional affect of rats by studying the separation and reunion responses of infants from low and high positive affect genetic lines (i.e., differentially selected for High and Low 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalisations (USVs). Infants from Low and High 50 kHz USV breeding lines were isolated from mothers and exposed to either social (familiar or unfamiliar bedding) or neutral (clean bedding) odour cues between two short isolation periods, and tested in homeothermic and hypothermic ambient temperatures. Negative affect was estimated by monitoring separation distress calls (35-45 kHz USVs). Low Line pups called at higher rates than High Line, and their rates were stable regardless of odour cue. In contrast, High Line pups increased vocalisations during the second compared with the first isolation periods and during exposure to both familiar and unfamiliar odour cues, but not to neutral odour. Furthermore, the greatest increase in USV emission was seen in the second isolation period following exposure to the unfamiliar odour. However, both lines showed comparable elevated distress USVs to the thermal stressor. High Line animals, selected for a positive affective phenotype (50 kHz USVs), exhibited reduced separation anxiety responses in infancy, making this a promising animal model for the role of constitutional affective states in emotional responsivity and potential resilience against emotional disorders.

Several 1992 astronaut candidates wait in line to receive gear for one of several phases of

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

1992 ASCAN TRAINING --- Several 1992 astronaut candidates wait in line to receive gear for one of several phases of parachute familiarization and survival training at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma. Recognizable in the picture are Jerry M. Linenger, Scott E. Parazynski, Koichi Wakata, Andrew S. W. Thomas, Mary Ellen Weber, Joseph R. Tanner, John M. Grunsfeld and Richard M. Linnehan.

Advances in memory research: single-neuron recordings from the human medial temporal lobe aid our understanding of declarative memory.

PubMed

Viskontas, Indre V

2008-12-01

To gain a complete understanding of how the brain functions, both in illness and good health, data from multiple levels of analysis must be integrated. Technical advances have made direct recordings of neuronal activity deep inside the human brain tractable, providing a rare glimpse into cellular processes during long-term memory formation. Recent findings using intracranial recordings in the medial temporal lobe inform current neural network models of memory, and may lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the neural basis of memory-related processes. These recordings have shown that cells in the hippocampus appear to support declarative learning by distinguishing novel and familiar stimuli via changes in firing patterns. Some cells with highly selective and invariant responses have also been described, and these responses seem to represent abstract concepts such as identity, rather than superficial perceptual features of items. Importantly, however, both selective and globally responsive cells are capable of changing their preferred stimulus depending on the conscious demands of the task. Firing patterns of human medial temporal lobe neurons indicate that cells can be both plastic and stable in terms of the information that they code; although some cells show highly selective and reproducible excitatory responses when presented with a familiar object, other cells change their receptive fields in line with changes in experience and the cognitive environment.

Abdominal paracentesis and thoracocentesis.

PubMed

Lee, Ser Yee; Pormento, James G; Koong, Heng Nung

2009-04-01

Abdominal paracentesis and thoracocentesis are common bedside procedures with diagnostic, therapeutic and palliative roles. We describe a useful and familiar a useful and familiar technique with the use of a multiple lumen catheter commonly used for central venous line insertion for drainage of ascites or moderate to large pleural effusions. The use of a multiple lumen catheter allows easier and more rapid aspiration of fluid with a smaller probability of the side holes being blocked as compared to the standard needle or single catheter methods. This is particularly useful in situations where the dedicated commercial kits for thoracocentesis and abdominal paracentesis are not readily available.

Preparing Physicians for Practice in Managed Care Environments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lurie, Nicole

1996-01-01

Discussion of managed health care looks at its evolution and characteristics, implications for medical education, and the competencies needed by physicians in this new environment, including epidemiological thinking, understanding of human and organizational behavior, familiarity with information technology, quality control skills, knowledge of…

Unix Survival Guide.

PubMed

Stein, Lincoln D

2015-09-03

Most bioinformatics software has been designed to run on Linux and other Unix-like systems. Unix is different from most desktop operating systems because it makes extensive use of a text-only command-line interface. It can be a challenge to become familiar with the command line, but once a person becomes used to it, there are significant rewards, such as the ability to string a commonly used series of commands together with a script. This appendix will get you started with the command line and other Unix essentials. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

What Am I Doing in Timbuktu: Person-Environment Picture Recognition for Persons with Intellectual Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Danielsson, H.; Ronnberg, J.; Andersson, J.

2006-01-01

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of familiarity of depicted persons and environments in recognition of photographs for pupils with different degrees of intellectual disability (ID). Method: Forty-five pupils with ID participated. Results: An interaction effect between the two variables, person and environment, was found…

Facilitating Application of Language Skills in Authentic Environments with a Mobile Learning System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shadiev, R.; Hwang, W.-Y.; Huang, Y.-M.; Liu, T.-Y.

2018-01-01

We uncovered two critical issues in earlier studies: (a) some studies have shown that mobile learning technology is not beneficial for all students due to complexity of learning environments and student prior knowledge, skills, and experience and (b) familiarity of students with the authentic environments in which they learn using mobile…

Best Buy: Planning for Disaster

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sachs, Adam; Ellis, Kerry; Sachs, Adam

2008-01-01

When a 1981 tornado in Minnesota revolutionized the retail approach of Sound of Music, which later changed its name to the now very familiar Best Buy, those who founded the company never imagined that a series of hurricanes twenty years later would also help give it a cutting-edge lead in customer service and disaster planning. That original "Tornado Sale'' introduced low prices in a "no-frills" environment that gave the company higher sales than the industry average and paved the way to a new business model. But before Best Buy could find the silver lining of these new storm clouds., it needed to survive them by planning for the destructive weather that plagued Florida during the summer of 2004. Having seen the power of listening to its employees and customers, Best Buy now seeks to capture their thoughts and feedback about other elements of the business.

Dugong: a Docker image, based on Ubuntu Linux, focused on reproducibility and replicability for bioinformatics analyses.

PubMed

Menegidio, Fabiano B; Jabes, Daniela L; Costa de Oliveira, Regina; Nunes, Luiz R

2018-02-01

This manuscript introduces and describes Dugong, a Docker image based on Ubuntu 16.04, which automates installation of more than 3500 bioinformatics tools (along with their respective libraries and dependencies), in alternative computational environments. The software operates through a user-friendly XFCE4 graphic interface that allows software management and installation by users not fully familiarized with the Linux command line and provides the Jupyter Notebook to assist in the delivery and exchange of consistent and reproducible protocols and results across laboratories, assisting in the development of open science projects. Source code and instructions for local installation are available at https://github.com/DugongBioinformatics, under the MIT open source license. Luiz.nunes@ufabc.edu.br. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

User's Manual for FEMOM3DR. Version 1.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reddy, C. J.

1998-01-01

FEMoM3DR is a computer code written in FORTRAN 77 to compute radiation characteristics of antennas on 3D body using combined Finite Element Method (FEM)/Method of Moments (MoM) technique. The code is written to handle different feeding structures like coaxial line, rectangular waveguide, and circular waveguide. This code uses the tetrahedral elements, with vector edge basis functions for FEM and triangular elements with roof-top basis functions for MoM. By virtue of FEM, this code can handle any arbitrary shaped three dimensional bodies with inhomogeneous lossy materials; and due to MoM the computational domain can be terminated in any arbitrary shape. The User's Manual is written to make the user acquainted with the operation of the code. The user is assumed to be familiar with the FORTRAN 77 language and the operating environment of the computers on which the code is intended to run.

Canadian medical experiments on Shuttle Flight 41-G

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watt, D. G. D.; Money, K. E.; Bondar, R. L.; Thirsk, R. B.; Garneau, M.

1985-01-01

During the 41-G mission, two payload specialist astronauts took part in six Canadian medical experiments designed to measure how the human nervous system adapts to weightlessness, and how this might contribute to space motion sickness. Similar tests conducted pre-flight provided base-line data, and post-flight experiments examined re-adaptation to the ground. No changes were detected in the vestibulo-ocular reflex during this 8-day mission. Pronounced proprioceptive illusions were experienced, especially immediately post-flight. Tactile acuity was normal in the fingers and toes, but the ability to judge limb position was degraded. Estimates of the locations of familiar targets were grossly distorted in the absence of vision. There were no differences in taste thresholds or olfaction. Despite pre-flight tests showing unusual susceptibility to motion sickness, the Canadian payload specialist turned out to be less susceptible than normal on-orbit. Re-adaptation to the normal gravity environment occurred within the first day after landing.

Brief flight to a familiar enclosure in response to a conditional stimulus in rats.

PubMed

de Oca, Beatrice M; Minor, Thomas R; Fanselow, Michael S

2007-04-01

The authors observed brief, directed movement to a familiar enclosure in rats to determine whether this behavior is part of a rat's defensive repertoire when exposed to a conditional-fear stimulus. In Experiment 1, upon exposure to the compound conditional-fear stimulus of tone and light, only rats that received paired presentations of the conditional stimuli and shock fled into a small, familiar enclosure where they then froze. Rats that had received unpaired presentations did not enter the enclosure in significant amounts when later tested. In Experiment 2, the authors observed rats' freezing and use of either a familiar or an unfamiliar enclosure when tested with a conditional-fear stimulus. Rats tested with a familiar enclosure entered it more quickly than did rats without prior exposure to the enclosure. Freezing was greatest when both training and testing environments were similar with respect to access to the enclosure. The results of these 2 experiments support the idea that brief, directed flight in rats is a component of the postencounter stage of predatory imminence (M. S. Fanselow & L. S. Lester, 1988) and is compatible with freezing.

Prosperity or Perdition: Do Lines of Operations Apply in Stability Operations?

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-01-01

explains and defines lines of operations in familiar linear terms, specifying geographic, interior, and exterior examples. It also proposes a new...groups loyal to the two parties extended the blood feud into the rural areas of Colombia. During this fifteen-year period, known as La Violencia (The...the later states of La Violencia , a disillusioned, largely rural, minority movement emerged to form “Peasant Republics” in the country-side not

Verbal definitions of familiar objects in blind children reflect their peculiar perceptual experience.

PubMed

Vinter, A; Fernandes, V; Orlandi, O; Morgan, P

2013-11-01

The aim of the present study was to examine to what extent the verbal definitions of familiar objects produced by blind children reflect their peculiar perceptual experience and, in consequence, differ from those produced by sighted children. Ninety-six visually impaired children, aged between 6 and 14 years, and 32 age-matched sighted children had to define 10 words denoting concrete animate or inanimate familiar objects. The blind children evoked the tactile and auditory characteristics of objects and expressed personal perceptual experiences in their definitions. The sighted children relied on visual perception, and produced more visually oriented verbalism. In contrast, no differences were observed between children in their propensity to include functional attributes in their verbal definitions. The results are discussed in line with embodied views of cognition that postulate mandatory perceptuomotor processing of words during access to their meaning. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

On-Line Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management: Using Learning Outcome Statements To Design Projects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pettijohn, James B.; Ragan, Gay A.; Ragan, Kent P.

2003-01-01

Describes an Internet-based project to familiarize students with online investment analysis and stock portfolio management. Outlines a process for writing learning outcomes that address three levels of cognition: knowledge/comprehension, application/analysis, and synthesis/evaluation. (SK)

Gynecologic Concerns in the Adolescent Girl.

PubMed

Merens, Teri A

2016-01-01

The ever-evolving role of the health care provider can present a variety of challenges, not the least of which is becoming familiar with basic knowledge of other specialties, including gynecologic care. The primary care office provides a comfortable, familiar environment in which the patient can seek medical attention. It is essential that most pediatric offices be equipped to deal with basic adolescent gynecologic care, and that their patients have access to sensitive and confidential care. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

High, low, or familiar? Nest site preferences of experienced laying hens.

PubMed

Krause, E T; Schrader, L

2018-05-22

1. The aim of this study was to investigate which nest heights are preferred by laying hens in the absence of familiar nest locations and whether preferred nest heights are more attractive than a familiar location. In two experiments, a total of 108 hens of four different layer breeds, which were at least 50 weeks of age, were studied. 2. In the first experiment, hens were given individual free choice between nests for 1-week at four different heights (0 cm, 39 cm, 78 cm, and 117 cm above ground). Hens of the four breeds differed in their nest height preferences (P = 0.0013). However, hens of three breeds preferred ground level nests (P < 0.007) and the fourth line showed an equal preference for the ground level and level three, the latter level corresponding to the height of the nests in their home compartments. 4. In the second experiment, hens from the four breeds were given a choice between ground level nests and nests at a familiar location, i.e. at the same location as in their home compartment. Hens of all strains preferred the familiar nest location (P = 0.002) and preferences did not differ between strains (P = 0.77). 5. Laying hens seem to prefer nests at ground level in the absence of a familiar nest. However, if possible, experienced 50 week old hens continue to use a familiar nest location instead of a ground nest location. The results are discussed with respect to a potential primary preference that may be modifiable by experience and with respect to possible relevance in commercial housing.

Revisiting the earliest electrophysiological correlate of familiar face recognition.

PubMed

Huang, Wanyi; Wu, Xia; Hu, Liping; Wang, Lei; Ding, Yulong; Qu, Zhe

2017-10-01

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to reinvestigate the earliest face familiarity effect (FFE: ERP differences between familiar and unfamiliar faces) that genuinely reflects cognitive processes underlying recognition of familiar faces in long-term memory. To trigger relatively early FFEs, participants were required to categorize upright and inverted famous faces and unknown faces in a task that placed high demand on face recognition. More importantly, to determine whether an observed FFE was linked to on-line face recognition, systematical investigation about the relationship between the FFE and behavioral performance of face recognition was conducted. The results showed significant FFEs on P1, N170, N250, and P300 waves. The FFEs on occipital P1 and N170 (<200ms) showed reversed polarities for upright and inverted faces, and were not correlated with any behavioral measure (accuracy, response time) or modulated by learning, indicating that they might merely reflect low-level visual differences between face sets. In contrast, the later FFEs on occipito-temporal N250 (~230ms) and centro-parietal P300 (~350ms) showed consistent polarities for upright and inverted faces. The N250 FFE was individually correlated with recognition speed for upright faces, and could be obtained for inverted faces through learning. The P300 FFE was also related to behavior in many aspects. These findings provide novel evidence supporting that cognitive discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar faces starts no less than 200ms after stimulus onset, and the familiarity effect on N250 may be the first electrophysiological correlate underlying recognition of familiar faces in long-term memory. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Satellite Data Processing System (SDPS) users manual V1.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Caruso, Michael; Dunn, Chris

1989-01-01

SDPS is a menu driven interactive program designed to facilitate the display and output of image and line-based data sets common to telemetry, modeling and remote sensing. This program can be used to display up to four separate raster images and overlay line-based data such as coastlines, ship tracks and velocity vectors. The program uses multiple windows to communicate information with the user. At any given time, the program may have up to four image display windows as well as auxiliary windows containing information about each image displayed. SDPS is not a commercial program. It does not contain complete type checking or error diagnostics which may allow the program to crash. Known anomalies will be mentioned in the appropriate section as notes or cautions. SDPS was designed to be used on Sun Microsystems Workstations running SunView1 (Sun Visual/Integrated Environment for Workstations). It was primarily designed to be used on workstations equipped with color monitors, but most of the line-based functions and several of the raster-based functions can be used with monochrome monitors. The program currently runs on Sun 3 series workstations running Sun OS 4.0 and should port easily to Sun 4 and Sun 386 series workstations with SunView1. Users should also be familiar with UNIX, Sun workstations and the SunView window system.

The underestimated N-glycomes of lepidopteran species

PubMed Central

Stanton, Rhiannon; Hykollari, Alba; Eckmair, Barbara; Malzl, Daniel; Dragosits, Martin; Palmberger, Dieter; Wang, Ping; Wilson, Iain B. H.; Paschinger, Katharina

2017-01-01

Background Insects are significant to the environment, agriculture, health and biotechnology. Many of these aspects display some relationship to glycosylation, e.g., in case of pathogen binding or production of humanised antibodies; for a long time, it has been considered that insect N-glycosylation potentials are rather similar and simple, but as more species are glycomically analysed in depth, it is becoming obvious that there is indeed a large structural diversity and interspecies variability. Methods Using an off-line LC-MALDI-TOF MS approach, we have analysed the N-glycomes of two lepidopteran species (the cabbage looper Trichoplusia ni and the gypsy moth Lymantria dispar) as well as of the commonly-used T. ni High Five cell line. Results We detected not only sulphated, glucuronylated, core difucosylated and Lewis-like antennal fucosylated structures, but also the zwitterion phosphorylcholine on antennal GlcNAc residues, a modification otherwise familiar from nematodes; in L. dispar, N-glycans with glycolipid-like antennae containing α-linked N-acetylgalactosamine were also revealed. Conclusion The lepidopteran glycomes analysed not only display core α1,3-fucosylation, which is foreign to mammals, but also up to 5% anionic and/or zwitterionic glycans previously not found in these species. Significance The occurrence of anionic and zwitterionic glycans in the Lepidoptera data is not only of glycoanalytical and evolutionary interest, but is of biotechnological relevance as lepidopteran cell lines are potential factories for recombinant glycoprotein production. PMID:28077298

Habitat Study. Transect Study. [Environmental Education Units.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minneapolis Independent School District 275, Minn.

These three documents outline teaching activities intended to involve children with their environment. Suggested preliminary studies to motivate and familiarize elementary school students with some characteristics of organisms and their physical environment are followed by descriptions of class activities that may be undertaken in the field.…

The Relationship between the Field-Shifting Phenomenon and Representational Coherence of Place Cells in CA1 and CA3 in a Cue-Altered Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Inah; Knierim, James J.

2007-01-01

Subfields of the hippocampus display differential dynamics in processing a spatial environment, especially when changes are introduced to the environment. Specifically, when familiar cues in the environment are spatially rearranged, place cells in the CA3 subfield tend to rotate with a particular set of cues (e.g., proximal cues), maintaining a…

Seeing odors in color: Cross-modal associations in children and adults from two cultural environments.

PubMed

Goubet, Nathalie; Durand, Karine; Schaal, Benoist; McCall, Daniel D

2018-02-01

We investigated the occurrence and underlying processes of odor-color associations in French and American 6- to 10-year-old children (n = 386) and adults (n = 137). Nine odorants were chosen according to their familiarity to either cultural group. Participants matched each odor with a color, gave hedonic and familiarity judgments, and identified each odor. By 6 years of age, children displayed culture-specific odor-color associations, but age differences were noted in the type of associations. Children and adults in both cultural groups shared common associations and formed associations that were unique to their environment, underscoring the importance of exposure learning in odor-color associations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The influence of camouflage, obstruction, familiarity and spatial ability on target identification from an unmanned ground vehicle.

PubMed

Fincannon, Thomas; Keebler, Joseph R; Jentsch, Florian; Curtis, Michael

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of environmental and cognitive factors on the identification of targets from an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). This was accomplished by manipulating obstruction, camouflage and familiarity of objects in the environment, while also measuring spatial ability. The effects of these variables on target identification were studied by measuring performance of participants that observed pre-recorded video from a 1:35 scaled military operations in urban terrain facility. Analyses indicated that a combination of camouflage and obstruction caused the most detrimental effects on performance, and that there were differences in the recognition of familiar and unfamiliar targets. Further analysis indicated that these detrimental effects could only be overcome with a combination of target familiarity and spatial ability. The findings highlight the degree to which environmental factors hinder performance and the need for a multidimensional approach for improving performance under these conditions. Areas in need of future research are also discussed. Cognitive theory is applied to the problem of perception from UGVs. Results from an experimental study indicate that a combination of camouflage and obstruction caused the most detrimental effects on performance, with differences in the recognition of both familiar and unfamiliar targets. Familiarity and spatial ability interacted to predict the performance.

Adventure in Environment, Outdoor Book.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Park Foundation, Washington, DC.

Presented in this handbook are questions and ideas for students to consider while studying their environment out-of-doors. Developed to accompany the National Environmental Education Development (NEED) program, it was written to help the student learn to look at familiar places and things in new ways. It utilizes the concept of "strand"…

9 CFR 3.81 - Environment enhancement to promote psychological well-being.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... address each of the following: (a) Social grouping. The environment enhancement plan must include specific provisions to address the social needs of nonhuman primates of species known to exist in social groups in... interaction with the care giver or other familiar and knowledgeable person consistent with personnel safety...

Artifical Mountains: A Synthetic Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sipiera, Paul P.; Aumann, John A.

1974-01-01

Describes a secondary science unit which uses an urban environment to develop a comparison between naturally formed mountains and man-constructed skyscrapers. The unit is one in a series of fifty laboratory activities designed to stimulate students of earth science by interrelating scientific principles and procedures to a familiar environment.…

An inkjet-printed microfluidic device for liquid-liquid extraction.

PubMed

Watanabe, Masashi

2011-04-07

A microfluidic device for liquid-liquid extraction was quickly produced using an office inkjet printer. An advantage of this method is that normal end users, who are not familiar with microfabrication, can produce their original microfluidic devices by themselves. In this method, the printer draws a line on a hydrophobic and oil repellent surface using hydrophilic ink. This line directs a fluid, such as water or xylene, to form a microchannel along the printed line. Using such channels, liquid-liquid extraction was successfully performed under concurrent and countercurrent flow conditions. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011

Predicting Intentions of a Familiar Significant Other Beyond the Mirror Neuron System

PubMed Central

Cacioppo, Stephanie; Juan, Elsa; Monteleone, George

2017-01-01

Inferring intentions of others is one of the most intriguing issues in interpersonal interaction. Theories of embodied cognition and simulation suggest that this mechanism takes place through a direct and automatic matching process that occurs between an observed action and past actions. This process occurs via the reactivation of past self-related sensorimotor experiences within the inferior frontoparietal network (including the mirror neuron system, MNS). The working model is that the anticipatory representations of others' behaviors require internal predictive models of actions formed from pre-established, shared representations between the observer and the actor. This model suggests that observers should be better at predicting intentions performed by a familiar actor, rather than a stranger. However, little is known about the modulations of the intention brain network as a function of the familiarity between the observer and the actor. Here, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a behavioral intention inference task, in which participants were asked to predict intentions from three types of actors: A familiar actor (their significant other), themselves (another familiar actor), and a non-familiar actor (a stranger). Our results showed that the participants were better at inferring intentions performed by familiar actors than non-familiar actors and that this better performance was associated with greater activation within and beyond the inferior frontoparietal network i.e., in brain areas related to familiarity (e.g., precuneus). In addition, and in line with Hebbian principles of neural modulations, the more the participants reported being cognitively close to their partner, the less the brain areas associated with action self-other comparison (e.g., inferior parietal lobule), attention (e.g., superior parietal lobule), recollection (hippocampus), and pair bond (ventral tegmental area, VTA) were recruited, suggesting that the more a shared mental representation has been pre-established, the more neurons show suppression in their response to the presentation of information to which they are sensitive. These results suggest that the relation of performance to the extent of neural activation during intention understanding may display differential relationships based on the cognitive domain, brain region, and the cognitive interdependence between the observer and the actor. PMID:28890691

Implications for a Green Curriculum Application toward Sustainable Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin, Elvan; Ertepinar, Hamide; Teksoz, Gaye

2009-01-01

The aim of present study was two-fold: (1) to determine university students' familiarity and understandings of "sustainable development", (2) to examine their attitudes toward sustainable development, environmental values, and their behaviors toward sustainable life styles. The data collected by on-line administration of a questionnaire…

How Children Respond to Art.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nodelman, Perry

1984-01-01

This essay discusses 13 pictorial devices with which one must be familiar to understand the illustrations in Virginia Lee Burton's "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel." Color constancy, implied background, sharply drawn lines, abstractions of caricature, use of perspective, face on objects, and picture book narration are noted. (EJS)

Explorations in Statistics: Correlation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curran-Everett, Douglas

2010-01-01

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This sixth installment of "Explorations in Statistics" explores correlation, a familiar technique that estimates the magnitude of a straight-line relationship between two variables. Correlation is meaningful only when the…

Familiarity expands space and contracts time.

PubMed

Jafarpour, Anna; Spiers, Hugo

2017-01-01

When humans draw maps, or make judgments about travel-time, their responses are rarely accurate and are often systematically distorted. Distortion effects on estimating time to arrival and the scale of sketch-maps reveal the nature of mental representation of time and space. Inspired by data from rodent entorhinal grid cells, we predicted that familiarity to an environment would distort representations of the space by expanding the size of it. We also hypothesized that travel-time estimation would be distorted in the same direction as space-size, if time and space rely on the same cognitive map. We asked international students, who had lived at a college in London for 9 months, to sketch a south-up map of their college district, estimate travel-time to destinations within the area, and mark their everyday walking routes. We found that while estimates for sketched space were expanded with familiarity, estimates of the time to travel through the space were contracted with familiarity. Thus, we found dissociable responses to familiarity in representations of time and space. © 2016 The Authors Hippocampus Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 The Authors Hippocampus Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Neurophysiological correlates of embodiment and motivational factors during the perception of virtual architectural environments.

PubMed

Vecchiato, Giovanni; Jelic, Andrea; Tieri, Gaetano; Maglione, Anton Giulio; De Matteis, Federico; Babiloni, Fabio

2015-09-01

The recent efforts aimed at providing neuroscientific explanations of how people perceive and experience architectural environments have largely justified the initial belief in the value of neuroscience for architecture. However, a systematic development of a coherent theoretical and experimental framework is missing. To investigate the neurophysiological reactions related to the appreciation of ambiances, we recorded the electroencephalographic (EEG) signals in an immersive virtual reality during the appreciation of interior designs. Such data have been analyzed according to the working hypothesis that appreciated environments involve embodied simulation mechanisms and circuits mediating approaching stimuli. EEG recordings of 12 healthy subjects have been performed during the perception of three-dimensional interiors that have been simulated in a CAVE system and judged according to dimensions of familiarity, novelty, comfort, pleasantness, arousal and presence. A correlation analysis on personal judgments returned that scores of novelty, pleasantness and comfort are positively correlated, while familiarity and novelty are in negative way. Statistical spectral maps reveal that pleasant, novel and comfortable interiors produce a de-synchronization of the mu rhythm over left sensorimotor areas. Interiors judged more pleasant and less familiar generate an activation of left frontal areas (theta and alpha bands), along an involvement of areas devoted to spatial navigation. An increase in comfort returns an enhancement of the theta frontal midline activity. Cerebral activations underlying appreciation of architecture could involve different mechanisms regulating corporeal, emotional and cognitive reactions. Therefore, it might be suggested that people's experience of architectural environments is intrinsically structured by the possibilities for action.

Study to Expand Simulation Cockpit Displays of Advanced Sensors

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-03-01

common source is being used for multiple sensor types). If inde- pendent displays and controls are desired then two independent video sources or sensor...line is inserted in each gap, the result is the familiar 211 in- terlace. If two lines are inserted, the result is 31l interlace, and so on. The total...symbol generators. If these systems are oper- ating at various scan rates and if a common display device, such as a multifunction display (MFD) is to

Social Familiarity Governs Prey Patch-Exploitation, - Leaving and Inter-Patch Distribution of the Group-Living Predatory Mite Phytoseiulus persimilis

PubMed Central

Zach, Gernot J.; Peneder, Stefan; Strodl, Markus A.; Schausberger, Peter

2012-01-01

Background In group-living animals, social interactions and their effects on other life activities such as foraging are commonly determined by discrimination among group members. Accordingly, many group-living species evolved sophisticated social recognition abilities such as the ability to recognize familiar individuals, i.e. individuals encountered before. Social familiarity may affect within-group interactions and between-group movements. In environments with patchily distributed prey, group-living predators must repeatedly decide whether to stay with the group in a given prey patch or to leave and search for new prey patches and groups. Methodology/Principal Findings Based on the assumption that in group-living animals social familiarity allows to optimize the performance in other tasks, as for example predicted by limited attention theory, we assessed the influence of social familiarity on prey patch exploitation, patch-leaving, and inter-patch distribution of the group-living, plant-inhabiting predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis. P. persimilis is highly specialized on herbivorous spider mite prey such as the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae, which is patchily distributed on its host plants. We conducted two experiments with (1) groups of juvenile P. persimilis under limited food on interconnected detached leaflets, and (2) groups of adult P. persimilis females under limited food on whole plants. Familiar individuals of both juvenile and adult predator groups were more exploratory and dispersed earlier from a given spider mite patch, occupied more leaves and depleted prey more quickly than individuals of unfamiliar groups. Moreover, familiar juvenile predators had higher survival chances than unfamiliar juveniles. Conclusions/Significance We argue that patch-exploitation and -leaving, and inter-patch dispersion were more favorably coordinated in groups of familiar than unfamiliar predators, alleviating intraspecific competition and improving prey utilization and suppression. PMID:22900062

Social familiarity governs prey patch-exploitation, -leaving and inter-patch distribution of the group-living predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis.

PubMed

Zach, Gernot J; Peneder, Stefan; Strodl, Markus A; Schausberger, Peter

2012-01-01

In group-living animals, social interactions and their effects on other life activities such as foraging are commonly determined by discrimination among group members. Accordingly, many group-living species evolved sophisticated social recognition abilities such as the ability to recognize familiar individuals, i.e. individuals encountered before. Social familiarity may affect within-group interactions and between-group movements. In environments with patchily distributed prey, group-living predators must repeatedly decide whether to stay with the group in a given prey patch or to leave and search for new prey patches and groups. Based on the assumption that in group-living animals social familiarity allows to optimize the performance in other tasks, as for example predicted by limited attention theory, we assessed the influence of social familiarity on prey patch exploitation, patch-leaving, and inter-patch distribution of the group-living, plant-inhabiting predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis. P. persimilis is highly specialized on herbivorous spider mite prey such as the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae, which is patchily distributed on its host plants. We conducted two experiments with (1) groups of juvenile P. persimilis under limited food on interconnected detached leaflets, and (2) groups of adult P. persimilis females under limited food on whole plants. Familiar individuals of both juvenile and adult predator groups were more exploratory and dispersed earlier from a given spider mite patch, occupied more leaves and depleted prey more quickly than individuals of unfamiliar groups. Moreover, familiar juvenile predators had higher survival chances than unfamiliar juveniles. We argue that patch-exploitation and -leaving, and inter-patch dispersion were more favorably coordinated in groups of familiar than unfamiliar predators, alleviating intraspecific competition and improving prey utilization and suppression.

A Wheelchair User with Visual and Intellectual Disabilities Managing Simple Orientation Technology for Indoor Travel

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lancioni, Giulio E.; O'Reilly, Mark F.; Singh, Nirbhay N.; Sigafoos, Jeff; Campodonico, Francesca; Oliva, Doretta

2009-01-01

Persons with profound visual impairments and other disabilities, such as neuromotor and intellectual disabilities, may encounter serious orientation and mobility problems even in familiar indoor environments, such as their homes. Teaching these persons to develop maps of their daily environment, using miniature replicas of the areas or some…

Instructional Supervision: A Descriptive Study Focusing on the Observation and Evaluation of Teachers in Cyberschools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farley, Gregory Charles

2010-01-01

Since 1996, K-12 schools are increasingly moving from a traditional, face-to-face educational environment to an online learning environment utilizing technologies to deliver instruction primarily via the Internet. As this trend continues, administrators familiar with traditional supervisory methods will observe and evaluate teachers of online…

Tropical Rainforests: A Case Study of UK, 13-Year-Olds' Knowledge and Understanding of These Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dove, Jane

2012-01-01

Tropical rainforests are biologically rich ecosystems, which are threatened by a variety of different human activities. This study focuses on students' knowledge and understanding of rainforest locations, their reasons for protecting these environments and their familiarity with selected concepts about rainforest vegetation and soil. These…

Central effects of corticotropin releasing factor (CRF): evidence for similar interactions with environmental novelty and with caffeine.

PubMed

Britton, D R; Indyk, E

1990-01-01

Centrally administered rat/human corticotropin-releasing factor (rCRF) increases low levels of locomotor activity by rats tested in a familiar environment but suppresses the higher levels of activity associated with exposure of the animals to a novel environment. These opposing responses do not appear to be manifestations of a simple rate-dependent effect, since ICV-administered rCRF did not lower the higher levels of locomotor activity associated with the dark (active) phase of the animal's activity cycle. Caffeine, which has anxiogenic effects in man, produces effects in rats which are similar to those of rCRF. That is, both compounds elevate activity in a familiar environment but lower activity in a novel environment. Furthermore, caffeine appears to substitute for novelty in determining the direction of the locomotor effect of rCRF. Animals made hyperactive by caffeine show decreased activity when co-administered rCRF. These findings are consistent with the view that CRF acts through pathways which also subserve the responsiveness to novelty and to the anxiogenic compound caffeine.

Hippocampus lesions induced deficits in social and spatial recognition in Octodon degus.

PubMed

Uekita, Tomoko; Okanoya, Kazuo

2011-06-01

Previous studies of rodents reported that the hippocampus plays an important role in social behavior as well as spatial behavior. However, there are inconsistencies between reports of the effects of hippocampal lesions on social behavior. The present study sought to clarify the aspects of social behavior in which the hippocampus plays a role in the degu, Octodon degus, a social rodent. We examined the effects of hippocampal lesions on social behavior in the degu using familiar and novel partners. When placed in a familiar environment with a familiar partner after surgery, sham operation control (S.Cont) degus exhibited affinitive behavior longer compared with hippocampal lesioned (HPC) degus. In a novel environment, S.Cont degus exhibited longer aggressive behavior toward novel partners, and longer affinitive behavior with familiar partners compared with HPC degus. HPC degus did not show evidence of differentiation in social behavior, regardless of partner's novelty. The results of an anxiety test confirmed that these findings could not be attributed to changes in emotional state. We conducted an object-recognition test with the same subjects. HPC degus showed an impairment in spatial recognition but not object recognition. Taken together, these results suggest that the degu hippocampus plays an important role not only in spatial recognition but also social recognition. The changes in social behavior resulting from hippocampal lesions were interpreted as due to an impairment of social recognition rather than an impairment in novelty detection. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In defense of genuine ignorance: supporting vitality and relevance in graduate curricula.

PubMed

Goren, S; Peter, L; Fischer, S

1992-01-01

Genuine ignorance, defined by John Dewey as curiosity and openmindedness in opposition to repetition of catch phrases and familiar propositions, is nurtured in graduate nursing curricula in which the educational process is congruent with course content. Preparation for advanced practice in the mental health environment of the foreseeable future required abandonment of the familiar medical model in favor of conceptual models consistent with current thinking in psychiatric nursing and exposure to current problems (homelessness, family violence, AIDS) and current problem solving strategies (brief treatment, family preservation). Involvement in practice-based research and operationalizing new perspectives on familiar clinical problems, are suggested as strategies for developing the advanced practitioner. Two of the authors, former graduate students, describe the impact of changed perspectives and research activity on their own practice.

Phenotypic Description of the Spanish Multicentre Genetic Glaucoma Group Cohort

PubMed Central

Gamundi, Maria José; Duch, Susana; Rios, Jose; Carballo, Miguel; Study Group, EMEIGG

2017-01-01

Introduction The aim of the study was to make a phenotypic description of the Spanish multicentre glaucoma group cohort of patients. Design Retrospective, observational, multicentre, cohort study. Material and Methods The clinical charts of 152 patients with hereditary glaucoma from18 Spanish eye centres were reviewed in order to make an epidemiologic description of the type of glaucoma and associated factors. True hereditary cases were compared with familiar cases according to the Gong et al. criteria. Results 61% were true hereditary cases and 39% familiar cases. Ocular comorbidity, optic disc damage, and visual field mean defect were significantly more severe in hereditary patients, who required significantly more first-line hypotensive drugs and surgical interventions to control intraocular pressure than familiar patients. Conclusions The strength of the hereditary component of glaucoma seems to worsen the clinical course, causing more structural and functional damage and requiring more intense glaucoma treatment. The family history of glaucoma should be carefully investigated and taken into consideration when making treatment decisions or intensifying previous treatment. PMID:29082038

A study of the influence of task familiarity on user behaviors and performance with a MeSH term suggestion interface for PubMed bibliographic search.

PubMed

Tang, Muh-Chyun; Liu, Ying-Hsang; Wu, Wan-Ching

2013-09-01

Previous research has shown that information seekers in biomedical domain need more support in formulating their queries. A user study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a metadata based query suggestion interface for PubMed bibliographic search. The study also investigated the impact of search task familiarity on search behaviors and the effectiveness of the interface. A real user, user search request and real system approach was used for the study. Unlike tradition IR evaluation, where assigned tasks were used, the participants were asked to search requests of their own. Forty-four researchers in Health Sciences participated in the evaluation - each conducted two research requests of their own, alternately with the proposed interface and the PubMed baseline. Several performance criteria were measured to assess the potential benefits of the experimental interface, including users' assessment of their original and eventual queries, the perceived usefulness of the interfaces, satisfaction with the search results, and the average relevance score of the saved records. The results show that, when searching for an unfamiliar topic, users were more likely to change their queries, indicating the effect of familiarity on search behaviors. The results also show that the interface scored higher on several of the performance criteria, such as the "goodness" of the queries, perceived usefulness, and user satisfaction. Furthermore, in line with our hypothesis, the proposed interface was relatively more effective when less familiar search requests were attempted. Results indicate that there is a selective compatibility between search familiarity and search interface. One implication of the research for system evaluation is the importance of taking into consideration task familiarity when assessing the effectiveness of interactive IR systems. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tribal Support for E-Enterprise for the Environment

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This notice announces the availability of funds and solicits proposals from eligible organizations that are broadly representative of federally- recognized tribes and are familiar with tribal environmental issues, programs and data

Cognitive Diffusion Model: Facilitating EFL Learning in an Authentic Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shadiev, Rustam; Hwang, Wu-Yuin; Huang, Yueh-Min; Liu, Tzu-Yu

2017-01-01

For this study, we designed learning activities in which students applied newly acquired knowledge to solve meaningful daily life problems in their local community--a real, familiar, and relevant environment for students. For example, students learned about signs and rules in class and then applied this new knowledge to create their own rules for…

Quotidian of accompanying family members in an environment of care: the emergence of hospital tribes.

PubMed

Passos, Silvia da Silva Santos; Pereira, Álvaro; Nitschke, Rosane Gonçalves

2016-01-01

Compreender o relacionamento no quotidiano dos familiares acompanhantes nos cenários de cuidado que se aproximam da metáfora da tribo no ambiente hospitalar. Estudo qualitativo com dados coletados a partir de entrevistas semiestruturadas e observação com 16 familiares acompanhantes de pessoas hospitalizadas com dependência para o autocuidado. Os dados foram submetidos à análise temática e analisados através da metáfora da tribo proposta pela sociologia compreensiva. Os familiares formam um agrupamento social em torno do cuidado onde encontramos as características das tribos: a ambiência emocional; a solidariedade baseada nos vínculos de simpatia e ajuda mútua; a nebulosa afetual no processo interacional; a lógica da fusão nas relações tácteis e a comunhão/religiosidade no processo de ligação numa identidade coletiva. Os familiares na presença do trágico criam agrupamentos sociais que se assemelham a tribos cujo totem é o cuidado. Understand the quotidian relationships of accompanying family members in an environment of care, which are close to the metaphor of a tribe in hospital environment. METHODQualitative study with data gathered from semi-structured interviews and observations with 16 family members accompanying hospitalized individuals with dependence on self-care. Data were submitted to thematic analysis, and analyzed through the metaphor of "tribe" proposed by comprehensive sociology. Family members build up social clusters around caring, where we find traits typical of tribes: emotional ambience; solidarity based on links of sympathy and mutual assistance; an affectual nebula in the process of interaction; a logic of fusion in tactile relations; and communion/religiosity in the process of connecting in a collective identity. In the presence of tragedy, families build social clusters similar to tribes having care as a totem.

Role of Self-Generated Odor Cues in Contextual Representation

PubMed Central

Aikath, Devdeep; Weible, Aldis P; Rowland, David C; Kentros, Clifford G

2014-01-01

As first demonstrated in the patient H.M., the hippocampus is critically involved in forming episodic memories, the recall of “what” happened “where” and “when.” In rodents, the clearest functional correlate of hippocampal primary neurons is the place field: a cell fires predominantly when the animal is in a specific part of the environment, typically defined relative to the available visuospatial cues. However, rodents have relatively poor visual acuity. Furthermore, they are highly adept at navigating in total darkness. This raises the question of how other sensory modalities might contribute to a hippocampal representation of an environment. Rodents have a highly developed olfactory system, suggesting that cues such as odor trails may be important. To test this, we familiarized mice to a visually cued environment over a number of days while maintaining odor cues. During familiarization, self-generated odor cues unique to each animal were collected by re-using absorbent paperboard flooring from one session to the next. Visual and odor cues were then put in conflict by counter-rotating the recording arena and the flooring. Perhaps surprisingly, place fields seemed to follow the visual cue rotation exclusively, raising the question of whether olfactory cues have any influence at all on a hippocampal spatial representation. However, subsequent removal of the familiar, self-generated odor cues severely disrupted both long-term stability and rotation to visual cues in a novel environment. Our data suggest that odor cues, in the absence of additional rule learning, do not provide a discriminative spatial signal that anchors place fields. Such cues do, however, become integral to the context over time and exert a powerful influence on the stability of its hippocampal representation. © 2014 The Authors. Hippocampus Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:24753119

The Big Deals in Biofuels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brainard, Jeffrey

2007-01-01

Plants that bear less familiar names such as switch grass, "Miscanthus," and kenaf, are not much to look at, having weathered Iowa's winter snows. But Iowa State researchers see these crops as seeds of change in alternative fuels. Rows of experimental crops line the test plots at Iowa State University's research farm. Although corn is…

The Role of Feelings in Kant's Account of Moral Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Alix

2016-01-01

In line with familiar portrayals of Kant's ethics, interpreters of his philosophy of education focus essentially on its intellectual dimension: the notions of moral catechism, ethical gymnastics and ethical ascetics, to name but a few. By doing so, they usually emphasise Kant's negative stance towards the role of feelings in moral education. Yet…

Ethnic Heritage Studies: Southern European Foods. Experimental Unit.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freepartner, Susan

This teaching guide focuses on the Southern European food heritage. It is part of the Louisville Area Ethnic Heritage Studies Project described in ED 150 043. The project materials are designed to foster communication across intercultural/ethnic lines. The objective of this unit is to gain familiarity with and appreciate foods from Spain, France,…

An Accessible Approach to Understanding Entropy and Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Philip

2018-01-01

This article challenges the notion that entropy is something to be avoided. A line of argument is presented that is accessible to those not having specialist knowledge and that offers a new perspective to those more familiar with the concept. It shows that temperature is better understood by addressing entropy. Entropy change diagrams are…

The Same Client: The Demographics of Education and Service Delivery Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hodgkinson, Harold L.

In the United States, services (such as education, health care, housing, and transportation) are provided for citizens by a bewildering array of agencies at many government levels. Service organizations must learn to communicate across functional lines, and educators must become familiar with other service providers at various levels. This means…

The role of line junctions in object recognition: The case of reading musical notation.

PubMed

Wong, Yetta Kwailing; Wong, Alan C-N

2018-04-30

Previous work has shown that line junctions are informative features for visual perception of objects, letters, and words. However, the sources of such sensitivity and their generalizability to other object categories are largely unclear. We addressed these questions by studying perceptual expertise in reading musical notation, a domain in which individuals with different levels of expertise are readily available. We observed that removing line junctions created by the contact between musical notes and staff lines selectively impaired recognition performance in experts and intermediate readers, but not in novices. The degree of performance impairment was predicted by individual fluency in reading musical notation. Our findings suggest that line junctions provide diagnostic information about object identity across various categories, including musical notation. However, human sensitivity to line junctions does not readily transfer from familiar to unfamiliar object categories, and has to be acquired through perceptual experience with the specific objects.

Investigation of Eligible Picture Categories for Use as Environmental Cues in Dementia-Sensitive Environments.

PubMed

Motzek, Tom; Bueter, Kathrin; Marquardt, Gesine

2017-07-01

Environmental cues, such as pictures, could be helpful in improving room-finding and wayfinding abilities among older patients. The aim of this study was to identify picture categories that are preferred and easily remembered by older patients and cognitively impaired patients and which therefore might be suitable for use as environmental cues in acute care settings. Twelve pictures were presented to a sample of older patients ( n = 37). The pictures represented different categories: familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar), type of shot (close-up vs. wide shot), and picture content (nature vs. animal vs. urban). We tested the patients' votes of preference and abilities to identify and immediately recall pictures. Cognitively impaired patients ( n = 14) were assessed by the abbreviated mental test and the mini mental state examination and were compared with patients without cognitive impairments ( n = 23) using a repeated measures analysis of variance. The results showed a main effect of familiarity on positive vote and recall of pictures. The absence of interaction effects of familiarity and group indicated an overall impact of familiarity on the sample. Within cognitively impaired patients, a significant difference in recall of picture content between urban (20%) and animal (9%) was found. Pictures, which patients were able to relate to in terms of familiarity and the characteristics urban and nature, seem to be suitable for use as environmental cues. Besides functioning as such, we assume, based on literature, that pictures could further enhance the ambiance or serve as prompts for communication and interaction.

Impact of familiar and unfamiliar settings on cooking task assessments in frail older adults with poor and preserved executive functions.

PubMed

Provencher, Véronique; Demers, Louise; Gagnon, Lise; Gélinas, Isabelle

2012-05-01

Hospitalized frail older patients are usually assessed for their ability to perform some daily living activities in a clinical setting prior to discharge. However, assessments that take place in this unfamiliar environment might not be as representative of their functional performance as assessments at home. This may be related to a decline in some cognitive components, such as executive functions (EF), which enable one to cope with new environments. This study thus aims to compare cooking task performance in familiar and unfamiliar settings in a population of frail older adults with poor and preserved EF. Thirty-seven frail older adults were assigned to one of two groups: poor EF or preserved EF. Participants performed two cooking tasks in familiar and unfamiliar settings, using a counterbalanced design. Their performance was assessed with a reliable tool based on observation of motor and process skills (Assessment of Motor and Process Skills). Thirty-three participants were retained for analysis. They demonstrated significantly better motor skills (F = 5.536; p = 0.025) and process skills (F = 8.149; p = 0.008) in the familiar setting. The difference between settings was particularly marked for process skills in participants with poor EF (F = 16.920; p < 0.001). This study suggests that a home setting may be preferable for a more accurate assessment of cooking task performance in frail older adults, especially those with poor EF. These findings highlight the risk of underestimating frail older adults' performance when assessed in an unfamiliar setting (e.g. hospital), which could lead to inefficient allocation of home care services.

5-HT1a Receptor Antagonists Block Perforant Path-Dentate LTP Induced in Novel, but Not Familiar, Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanberg, Cyndy Davis; Jones, Floretta L.; Do, Viet H.; Dieguez, Dario, Jr.; Derrick, Brian E.

2006-01-01

Numerous studies suggest roles for monoamines in modulating long-term potentiation (LTP). Previously, we reported that both induction and maintenance of perforant path-dentate gyrus LTP is enhanced when induced while animals explore novel environments. Here we investigate the contribution of serotonin and 5-HT1a receptors to the novelty-mediated…

A Solid-State NMR Experiment: Analysis of Local Structural Environments in Phosphate Glasses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Stanley E.; Saiki, David; Eckert, Hellmut; Meise-Gresch, Karin

2004-01-01

An experiment that can be used to directly study the local chemical environments of phosphorus in solid amorphous materials is demonstrated. The experiment aims at familiarizing the students of chemistry with the principles of solid-state NMR, by having them synthesize a simple phosphate glass, and making them observe the (super 31)P NMR spectrum,…

Familiarity with modern health management trends by West African surgeons.

PubMed

Mahmoud, A O; Nkanga, D; Onakoya, A O

2010-09-01

To collate the self-reported assessment of familiarity with some aspects of managerial competencies on the part of some surgeons and their observations on the managerial environment of their health institutions and draw appropriate policy implications. Cross-sectional study using a structured questionnaire. The study was conducted during the 50th Annual Scientific Conference of the West African College of Surgeons, which was held in Calabar, Nigeria, from 6th to It 12th February 2010. One hundred and ten out of 150 surgeons who were attending the conference returned their filled questionnaires. Their familiarity with business and financial concepts was lacking on crucial ones related to marketing strategies. Respondent largely found the listed objections to advertisement of medical services as very appropriate. They preferred largely to interact with themselves in professional associations rather than with others in cross-cultural groupings. Funding (66.4%) and political/ethnic influences (43.9%) were rated as impacting very negatively on their health institutions, while the deployment of information communication technology to institutional processes was adjudged to be unsatisfactory. Most of the indices of core competencies in modern health leadership and management appeared deficient among our study participants and their health institutions managerial environments were equally deficient. We recommend for a well-focussed short time duration health management course for all physicians particularly specialists.

From Familiar Faces to Family.

PubMed

Canham, Sarah L; Battersby, Lupin; Fang, Mei Lan; Sixsmith, Judith; Woolrych, Ryan; Sixsmith, Andrew

2016-04-01

Long-term care (LTC) facilities are increasingly intent on creating a "homelike" atmosphere for residents. Although residential staff are integral to the construction of a home within LTC settings, their perceptions have been relatively absent from the literature. Thirty-two LTC staff participants were interviewed about their experiences and perceptions of the physical environment and conceptualizations of home, and thematic analyses were conducted. An overarching category-interpersonal relationships-emerged from our analyses emphasizing the importance of relationships in creating a homelike environment within institutional settings. Sub-themes that inform our understanding include the following: (a) Staff members' perceptions of home; (b) "Their second home": Adjustment to and familiarity in LTC; and (c) "We become family": Relationality makes a home. The study provides evidence to inform current policies and practices in LTC. Specifically, enough time and space should be given to residents and staff to create and maintain personal relationships to make residential care homelike.

Representation of Cultural Role-Play for Training

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Santarelli, Thomas; Pepe, Aaron; Rosenzweiz, Larry; Paulus, John; Yi, Ahn Na

2010-01-01

The Department of Defense (000) has successfully applied a number of methods for cultural familiarization training ranging from stand-up classroom training, to face-to-face live role-play, to so-called smart-cards. Recent interest has turned to the use of single and mUlti-player gaming technologies to augment these traditional methods of cultural familiarization. One such system, termed CulturePad, has been designed as a game-based role-play environment suitable for use in training and experimentation involving cultural roleplay scenarios. This paper describes the initial CulturePad effort focused on a literature review regarding the use of role-play for cultural training and a feasibility assessment of using a game-mediated environment for role-play. A small-scale pilot involving cultural experts was conducted to collect qualitative behavioral data comparing live role-play to game-mediated role-play in a multiplayer gaming engine.

Male rhesus macaques use vocalizations to distinguish female maternal, but not paternal, kin from non-kin.

PubMed

Pfefferle, Dana; Ruiz-Lambides, Angelina V; Widdig, Anja

Recognizing close kin and adjusting one's behavior accordingly (i.e., favor kin in social interactions, but avoid mating with them) would be an important skill that can increase an animals' inclusive fitness. Previous studies showed that philopatric female rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta ) bias their social behavior toward maternal and paternal kin. Benefits gained from selecting kin should, however, not only apply to the philopatric sex, for which the enduring spatial proximity facilitates kin discrimination. Given that dispersal is costly, the dispersing sex may benefit from migrating together with their kin or into groups containing kin. In male rhesus macaques, natal migrants bias their spatial proximity toward familiar male kin rather than familiar non-kin. Here, we set up playback experiments to test if males use the acoustic modality to discriminate familiar female kin from non-kin in a non-sexual context. Males responded differently to the presentation of "coo" calls of related and unrelated females, with their reaction depending on the interaction between kin-line (maternal vs paternal kin) and degree of relatedness ( r  = 0.5, 0.25). Specifically, males were more likely to respond to close kin compared to more distant kin or unrelated females, with this effect being significant in the maternal, but not paternal kin-line. The present study adds to our knowledge of kin recognition abilities of the dispersing sex, suggesting that male rhesus macaques are also able to identify kin using the acoustic modality. We discuss that the probability of response might be affected by the potential benefit of the social partner.

The Task Is Not Enough: Processing Approaches to Task-Based Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skehan, Peter; Xiaoyue, Bei; Qian, Li; Wang, Zhan

2012-01-01

This article reports on three research studies, all of which concern second language task performance. The first focuses on planning, and compares on-line and strategic planning as well as task repetition. The second study examines the role of familiarity on task performance, and compares this with conventional strategic planning. The third study…

Self, Situation and Escape from Stigmatized Ethnic Identity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berreman, Gerald D.

Anyone familiar with current internal political problems in India cannot remain sanguine about the passivity of her oppressed ethnic minorities, be they defined by caste, religion, or heritage; nor can anyone be, who looks at the long history of religious conversion and reform in India, for every success along these lines in the past 2500 years…

Effects of Modality on the Neural Correlates of Encoding Processes Supporting Recollection and Familiarity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gottlieb, Lauren J.; Rugg, Michael D.

2011-01-01

Prior research has demonstrated that the neural correlates of successful encoding ("subsequent memory effects") partially overlap with neural regions selectively engaged by the on-line demands of the study task. The primary goal of the present experiment was to determine whether this overlap is associated solely with encoding processes supporting…

Principles and Practices of Occupational Safety and Health: Administrator's Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Washington, DC.

The manual guides an instructor in conducting a training course for first-line supervisors to familiarize them with six aspects relating to the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: (1) requirements of the Act, (2) compliance with its standards, (3) identification of health and safety hazards, (4) correction of adverse conditions, (5) record…

Author as Dialogic Site: A Spatial Metaphor for Authoritative Voice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haas, Mark

In a recent debate on authority in the discourse of English Studies scholarship, writers seem to line up on two sides: the "friends of the familiar essay," and those who advocate "the article." The essay/article debate seems to be part of the conflict opened by the Renaissance over writing, selfhood, power, and knowledge. What…

The Spectrometer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenslade, Thomas B., Jr.

2012-01-01

In the fall of 1999 I was shown an Ocean Optics spectrometer-in-the-computer at St. Patricks College at Maynooth, Ireland, and thought that I had seen heaven. Of course, it could not resolve the sodium D-lines (I had done that many years before with a homemade wire diffraction grating), and I began to realize that inside was some familiar old…

A Knowledge Portal and Collaboration Environment for the Earth Sciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Agnese, F. A.

2008-12-01

Earth Knowledge is developing a web-based 'Knowledge Portal and Collaboration Environment' that will serve as the information-technology-based foundation of a modular Internet-based Earth-Systems Monitoring, Analysis, and Management Tool. This 'Knowledge Portal' is essentially a 'mash- up' of web-based and client-based tools and services that support on-line collaboration, community discussion, and broad public dissemination of earth and environmental science information in a wide-area distributed network. In contrast to specialized knowledge-management or geographic-information systems developed for long- term and incremental scientific analysis, this system will exploit familiar software tools using industry standard protocols, formats, and APIs to discover, process, fuse, and visualize existing environmental datasets using Google Earth and Google Maps. An early form of these tools and services is being used by Earth Knowledge to facilitate the investigations and conversations of scientists, resource managers, and citizen-stakeholders addressing water resource sustainability issues in the Great Basin region of the desert southwestern United States. These ongoing projects will serve as use cases for the further development of this information-technology infrastructure. This 'Knowledge Portal' will accelerate the deployment of Earth- system data and information into an operational knowledge management system that may be used by decision-makers concerned with stewardship of water resources in the American Desert Southwest.

Impoverished descriptions of familiar routes in three cases of hippocampal/medial temporal lobe amnesia.

PubMed

Herdman, Katherine A; Calarco, Navona; Moscovitch, Morris; Hirshhorn, Marnie; Rosenbaum, R Shayna

2015-10-01

Recent research has challenged classic theories of hippocampal function in spatial memory with findings that the hippocampus may be necessary for detailed representations of environments learned long ago, but not for remembering the gist or schematic aspects that are sufficient for navigating within those environments (Rosenbaum et al., 2000; Rosenbaum, Winocur, Binns, & Moscovitch, 2012). We aimed to probe further distinctions between detailed and schematic representations of familiar environments in three cases of hippocampal/medial temporal lobe (MTL) amnesia by testing them on a route description task and mental navigation tasks that assess the identity and location of landmarks, and distances and directions between them. The amnesic cases could describe basic directions along known, imagined routes, estimate distance and direction between well-known landmarks, and produce sketch maps with accurate layouts, suggestive of intact schematic representations. However, findings that their route descriptions lack richness of detail, along with impoverished sketch maps and poor landmark recognition, substantiates previous findings that detailed representations are hippocampus-dependent. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Neuropsychological approach to elucidating delusion and psychotic symptoms].

PubMed

Kato, Motoichiro

2012-01-01

Neuropsychological symptom-oriented approach is a critical method to elucidate delusion and psychotic symptoms in patients with focal brain damages and schizophrenia. In Capgras delusion (CD), the delusional misidentification of familiar people disguised as others, the patients with right amygdala damage and bilateral ventromedial prefrontal lesions have a deficient or reduced emotional valence of the person with intact configurational processes of the face. Reduplicative paramnesia (RP) is a specific phenomenon characterized by subjective certainty that a familiar place or person has been duplicated. Clinical evidences indicated that the patient with RP following right prefrontal damages showed the lack of emotional valence for the present hospital. This abnormal sense of familiarity triggered the deficits of the orientation of self to the outside world, that is, double orientation, resulting in the development of geographical reduplicative paramnesia. In line with the pathogenesis of CD and RP after brain damages, the delusion in schizophrenia may have a germ as developmental origins, which include the aberrant or salient perceptual experiences and abnormal sense of agency, and might be further aggravated by the impairment of causal reasoning process such as the jumping-to-conclusions bias.

Familiar trajectories facilitate the interpretation of physical forces when intercepting a moving target.

PubMed

Mijatović, Antonija; La Scaleia, Barbara; Mercuri, Nicola; Lacquaniti, Francesco; Zago, Myrka

2014-12-01

Familiarity with the visual environment affects our expectations about the objects in a scene, aiding in recognition and interaction. Here we tested whether the familiarity with the specific trajectory followed by a moving target facilitates the interpretation of the effects of underlying physical forces. Participants intercepted a target sliding down either an inclined plane or a tautochrone. Gravity accelerated the target by the same amount in both cases, but the inclined plane represented a familiar trajectory whereas the tautochrone was unfamiliar to the participants. In separate sessions, the gravity field was consistent with either natural gravity or artificial reversed gravity. Target motion was occluded from view over the last segment. We found that the responses in the session with unnatural forces were systematically delayed relative to those with natural forces, but only for the inclined plane. The time shift is consistent with a bias for natural gravity, in so far as it reflects an a priori expectation that a target not affected by natural forces will arrive later than one accelerated downwards by gravity. Instead, we did not find any significant time shift with unnatural forces in the case of the tautochrone. We argue that interception of a moving target relies on the integration of the high-level cue of trajectory familiarity with low-level cues related to target kinematics.

Oscillatory encoding of visual stimulus familiarity.

PubMed

Kissinger, Samuel T; Pak, Alexandr; Tang, Yu; Masmanidis, Sotiris C; Chubykin, Alexander A

2018-06-18

Familiarity of the environment changes the way we perceive and encode incoming information. However, the neural substrates underlying this phenomenon are poorly understood. Here we describe a new form of experience-dependent low frequency oscillations in the primary visual cortex (V1) of awake adult male mice. The oscillations emerged in visually evoked potentials (VEPs) and single-unit activity following repeated visual stimulation. The oscillations were sensitive to the spatial frequency content of a visual stimulus and required the muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) for their induction and expression. Finally, ongoing visually evoked theta (4-6 Hz) oscillations boost the VEP amplitude of incoming visual stimuli if the stimuli are presented at the high excitability phase of the oscillations. Our results demonstrate that an oscillatory code can be used to encode familiarity and serves as a gate for oncoming sensory inputs. Significance Statement. Previous experience can influence the processing of incoming sensory information by the brain and alter perception. However, the mechanistic understanding of how this process takes place is lacking. We have discovered that persistent low frequency oscillations in the primary visual cortex encode information about familiarity and the spatial frequency of the stimulus. These familiarity evoked oscillations influence neuronal responses to the oncoming stimuli in a way that depends on the oscillation phase. Our work demonstrates a new mechanism of visual stimulus feature detection and learning. Copyright © 2018 the authors.

Multi-modal low cost mobile indoor surveillance system on the Robust Artificial Intelligence-based Defense Electro Robot (RAIDER)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nair, Binu M.; Diskin, Yakov; Asari, Vijayan K.

2012-10-01

We present an autonomous system capable of performing security check routines. The surveillance machine, the Clearpath Husky robotic platform, is equipped with three IP cameras with different orientations for the surveillance tasks of face recognition, human activity recognition, autonomous navigation and 3D reconstruction of its environment. Combining the computer vision algorithms onto a robotic machine has given birth to the Robust Artificial Intelligencebased Defense Electro-Robot (RAIDER). The end purpose of the RAIDER is to conduct a patrolling routine on a single floor of a building several times a day. As the RAIDER travels down the corridors off-line algorithms use two of the RAIDER's side mounted cameras to perform a 3D reconstruction from monocular vision technique that updates a 3D model to the most current state of the indoor environment. Using frames from the front mounted camera, positioned at the human eye level, the system performs face recognition with real time training of unknown subjects. Human activity recognition algorithm will also be implemented in which each detected person is assigned to a set of action classes picked to classify ordinary and harmful student activities in a hallway setting.The system is designed to detect changes and irregularities within an environment as well as familiarize with regular faces and actions to distinguish potentially dangerous behavior. In this paper, we present the various algorithms and their modifications which when implemented on the RAIDER serves the purpose of indoor surveillance.

The misidentification syndromes as mindreading disorders.

PubMed

Hirstein, William

2010-01-01

The patient with Capgras' syndrome claims that people very familiar to him have been replaced by impostors. I argue that this disorder is due to the destruction of a representation that the patient has of the mind of the familiar person. This creates the appearance of a familiar body and face, but without the familiar personality, beliefs, and thoughts. The posterior site of damage in Capgras' is often reported to be the temporoparietal junction, an area that has a role in the mindreading system, a connected system of cortical areas that allow us to attribute mental states to others. Just as the Capgras' patient claims that that man is not his father, the patient with asomatognosia claims that his arm is not really his. A similar account applies here, in that a nearby brain area, the supramarginal gyrus, is damaged. This area works in concert with the temporoparietal junction and other areas to produce a large representation of a mind inside a body situated in an environment. Damage to the mind-representing part of this system (coupled with damage to executive processes in the prefrontal lobes) causes Capgras' syndrome, whereas damage to the body-representing part of this system (also coupled with executive damage) causes asomatognosia.

Safe Haven.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bush, Gail

2003-01-01

Discusses school libraries as safe havens for teenagers and considers elements that foster that atmosphere, including the physical environment, lack of judgments, familiarity, leisure, and a welcoming nature. Focuses on the importance of relationships, and taking the time to listen to teens and encourage them. (LRW)

If You Say Thee Uh You Are Describing Something Hard: The On-Line Attribution of Disfluency during Reference Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnold, Jennifer E.; Kam, Carla L. Hudson; Tanenhaus, Michael K.

2007-01-01

Eye-tracking and gating experiments examined reference comprehension with fluent (Click on the red. . .) and disfluent (Click on [pause] thee uh red . . .) instructions while listeners viewed displays with 2 familiar (e.g., ice cream cones) and 2 unfamiliar objects (e.g., squiggly shapes). Disfluent instructions made unfamiliar objects more…

Supporting tactical intelligence using collaborative environments and social networking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wollocko, Arthur B.; Farry, Michael P.; Stark, Robert F.

2013-05-01

Modern military environments place an increased emphasis on the collection and analysis of intelligence at the tactical level. The deployment of analytical tools at the tactical level helps support the Warfighter's need for rapid collection, analysis, and dissemination of intelligence. However, given the lack of experience and staffing at the tactical level, most of the available intelligence is not exploited. Tactical environments are staffed by a new generation of intelligence analysts who are well-versed in modern collaboration environments and social networking. An opportunity exists to enhance tactical intelligence analysis by exploiting these personnel strengths, but is dependent on appropriately designed information sharing technologies. Existing social information sharing technologies enable users to publish information quickly, but do not unite or organize information in a manner that effectively supports intelligence analysis. In this paper, we present an alternative approach to structuring and supporting tactical intelligence analysis that combines the benefits of existing concepts, and provide detail on a prototype system embodying that approach. Since this approach employs familiar collaboration support concepts from social media, it enables new-generation analysts to identify the decision-relevant data scattered among databases and the mental models of other personnel, increasing the timeliness of collaborative analysis. Also, the approach enables analysts to collaborate visually to associate heterogeneous and uncertain data within the intelligence analysis process, increasing the robustness of collaborative analyses. Utilizing this familiar dynamic collaboration environment, we hope to achieve a significant reduction of time and skill required to glean actionable intelligence in these challenging operational environments.

Multimodal interaction for human-robot teams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burke, Dustin; Schurr, Nathan; Ayers, Jeanine; Rousseau, Jeff; Fertitta, John; Carlin, Alan; Dumond, Danielle

2013-05-01

Unmanned ground vehicles have the potential for supporting small dismounted teams in mapping facilities, maintaining security in cleared buildings, and extending the team's reconnaissance and persistent surveillance capability. In order for such autonomous systems to integrate with the team, we must move beyond current interaction methods using heads-down teleoperation which require intensive human attention and affect the human operator's ability to maintain local situational awareness and ensure their own safety. This paper focuses on the design, development and demonstration of a multimodal interaction system that incorporates naturalistic human gestures, voice commands, and a tablet interface. By providing multiple, partially redundant interaction modes, our system degrades gracefully in complex environments and enables the human operator to robustly select the most suitable interaction method given the situational demands. For instance, the human can silently use arm and hand gestures for commanding a team of robots when it is important to maintain stealth. The tablet interface provides an overhead situational map allowing waypoint-based navigation for multiple ground robots in beyond-line-of-sight conditions. Using lightweight, wearable motion sensing hardware either worn comfortably beneath the operator's clothing or integrated within their uniform, our non-vision-based approach enables an accurate, continuous gesture recognition capability without line-of-sight constraints. To reduce the training necessary to operate the system, we designed the interactions around familiar arm and hand gestures.

Teaching with Transmedia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pence, Harry E.

2012-01-01

The media environment is currently being dramatically changed by social networking, mobile computing, augmented reality, and transmedia. Of these four, transmedia is probably the least familiar to most educators. Transmedia enhances a central story idea with a variety of media components that provide additional information, give increased…

Emotional Processing of Personally Familiar Faces in the Vegetative State

PubMed Central

Sharon, Haggai; Pasternak, Yotam; Ben Simon, Eti; Gruberger, Michal; Giladi, Nir; Krimchanski, Ben Zion; Hassin, David; Hendler, Talma

2013-01-01

Background The Vegetative State (VS) is a severe disorder of consciousness in which patients are awake but display no signs of awareness. Yet, recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have demonstrated evidence for covert awareness in VS patients by recording specific brain activations during a cognitive task. However, the possible existence of incommunicable subjective emotional experiences in VS patients remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to probe the question of whether VS patients retain a brain ability to selectively process external stimuli according to their emotional value and look for evidence of covert emotional awareness in patients. Methods and Findings In order to explore these questions we employed the emotive impact of observing personally familiar faces, known to provoke specific perceptual as well as emotional brain activations. Four VS patients and thirteen healthy controls first underwent an fMRI scan while viewing pictures of non-familiar faces, personally familiar faces and pictures of themselves. In a subsequent imagery task participants were asked to actively imagine one of their parent's faces. Analyses focused on face and familiarity selective regional brain activations and inter-regional functional connectivity. Similar to controls, all patients displayed face selective brain responses with further limbic and cortical activations elicited by familiar faces. In patients as well as controls, Connectivity was observed between emotional, visual and face specific areas, suggesting aware emotional perception. This connectivity was strongest in the two patients who later recovered. Notably, these two patients also displayed selective amygdala activation during familiar face imagery, with one further exhibiting face selective activations, indistinguishable from healthy controls. Conclusions Taken together, these results show that selective emotional processing can be elicited in VS patients both by external emotionally salient stimuli and by internal cognitive processes, suggesting the ability for covert emotional awareness of self and the environment in VS patients. PMID:24086365

Effects of interventions on normalizing step width during self-paced dual-belt treadmill walking with virtual reality, a randomised controlled trial.

PubMed

Oude Lansink, I L B; van Kouwenhove, L; Dijkstra, P U; Postema, K; Hijmans, J M

2017-10-01

Step width is increased during dual-belt treadmill walking, in self-paced mode with virtual reality. Generally a familiarization period is thought to be necessary to normalize step width. The aim of this randomised study was to analyze the effects of two interventions on step width, to reduce the familiarization period. We used the GRAIL (Gait Real-time Analysis Interactive Lab), a dual-belt treadmill with virtual reality in the self-paced mode. Thirty healthy young adults were randomly allocated to three groups and asked to walk at their preferred speed for 5min. In the first session, the control-group received no intervention, the 'walk-on-the-line'-group was instructed to walk on a line, projected on the between-belt gap of the treadmill and the feedback-group received feedback about their current step width and were asked to reduce it. Interventions started after 1min and lasted 1min. During the second session, 7-10days later, no interventions were given. Linear mixed modeling showed that interventions did not have an effect on step width after the intervention period in session 1. Initial step width (second 30s) of session 1 was larger than initial step width of session 2. Step width normalized after 2min and variation in step width stabilized after 1min. Interventions do not reduce step width after intervention period. A 2-min familiarization period is sufficient to normalize and stabilize step width, in healthy young adults, regardless of interventions. A standardized intervention to normalize step width is not necessary. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Do preschool children learn to read words from environmental prints?

PubMed

Zhao, Jing; Zhao, Pei; Weng, Xuchu; Li, Su

2014-01-01

Parents and teachers worldwide believe that a visual environment rich with print can contribute to young children's literacy. Children seem to recognize words in familiar logos at an early age. However, most of previous studies were carried out with alphabetic scripts. Alphabetic letters regularly correspond to phonological segments in a word and provide strong cues about the identity of the whole word. Thus it was not clear whether children can learn to read words by extracting visual word form information from environmental prints. To exclude the phonological-cue confound, this study tested children's knowledge of Chinese words embedded in familiar logos. The four environmental logos were employed and transformed into four versions with the contextual cues (i.e., something apart from the presentation of the words themselves in logo format like the color, logo and font type cues) gradually minimized. Children aged from 3 to 5 were tested. We observed that children of different ages all performed better when words were presented in highly familiar logos compared to when they were presented in a plain fashion, devoid of context. This advantage for familiar logos was also present when the contextual information was only partial. However, the role of various cues in learning words changed with age. The color and logo cues had a larger effect in 3- and 4- year-olds than in 5-year-olds, while the font type cue played a greater role in 5-year-olds than in the other two groups. Our findings demonstrated that young children did not easily learn words by extracting their visual form information even from familiar environmental prints. However, children aged 5 begin to pay more attention to the visual form information of words in highly familiar logos than those aged 3 and 4.

Do Preschool Children Learn to Read Words from Environmental Prints?

PubMed Central

Zhao, Jing; Zhao, Pei; Weng, Xuchu; Li, Su

2014-01-01

Parents and teachers worldwide believe that a visual environment rich with print can contribute to young children's literacy. Children seem to recognize words in familiar logos at an early age. However, most of previous studies were carried out with alphabetic scripts. Alphabetic letters regularly correspond to phonological segments in a word and provide strong cues about the identity of the whole word. Thus it was not clear whether children can learn to read words by extracting visual word form information from environmental prints. To exclude the phonological-cue confound, this study tested children's knowledge of Chinese words embedded in familiar logos. The four environmental logos were employed and transformed into four versions with the contextual cues (i.e., something apart from the presentation of the words themselves in logo format like the color, logo and font type cues) gradually minimized. Children aged from 3 to 5 were tested. We observed that children of different ages all performed better when words were presented in highly familiar logos compared to when they were presented in a plain fashion, devoid of context. This advantage for familiar logos was also present when the contextual information was only partial. However, the role of various cues in learning words changed with age. The color and logo cues had a larger effect in 3- and 4- year-olds than in 5-year-olds, while the font type cue played a greater role in 5-year-olds than in the other two groups. Our findings demonstrated that young children did not easily learn words by extracting their visual form information even from familiar environmental prints. However, children aged 5 begin to pay more attention to the visual form information of words in highly familiar logos than those aged 3 and 4. PMID:24465677

123s and ABCs: developmental shifts in logarithmic-to-linear responding reflect fluency with sequence values.

PubMed

Hurst, Michelle; Monahan, K Leigh; Heller, Elizabeth; Cordes, Sara

2014-11-01

When placing numbers along a number line with endpoints 0 and 1000, children generally space numbers logarithmically until around the age of 7, when they shift to a predominantly linear pattern of responding. This developmental shift of responding on the number placement task has been argued to be indicative of a shift in the format of the underlying representation of number (Siegler & Opfer, ). In the current study, we provide evidence from both child and adult participants to suggest that performance on the number placement task may not reflect the structure of the mental number line, but instead is a function of the fluency (i.e. ease) with which the individual can work with the values in the sequence. In Experiment 1, adult participants respond logarithmically when placing numbers on a line with less familiar anchors (1639 to 2897), despite linear responding on control tasks with standard anchors involving a similar range (0 to 1287) and a similar numerical magnitude (2000 to 3000). In Experiment 2, we show a similar developmental shift in childhood from logarithmic to linear responding for a non-numerical sequence with no inherent magnitude (the alphabet). In conclusion, we argue that the developmental trend towards linear behavior on the number line task is a product of successful strategy use and mental fluency with the values of the sequence, resulting from familiarity with endpoints and increased knowledge about general ordering principles of the sequence.A video abstract of this article can be viewed at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg5Q2LIFk3M. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Early olfactory environment influences social behaviour in adult Octodon degus.

PubMed

Márquez, Natalia; Martínez-Harms, Jaime; Vásquez, Rodrigo A; Mpodozis, Jorge

2015-01-01

We evaluated the extent to which manipulation of early olfactory environment can influence social behaviours in the South American Hystricognath rodent Octodon degus. The early olfactory environment of newborn degus was manipulated by scenting all litter members with eucalyptol during the first month of life. The social behaviour of sexually mature animals (5-7 months old) towards conspecifics was then assessed using a y-maze to compare the response of control (naïve) and treated animals to two different olfactory configurations (experiment 1): (i) a non-familiarized conspecific impregnated with eucalyptol (eucalyptol arm) presented against (ii) a non-familiarized unscented conspecific (control arm). In addition, in dyadic encounters, we assessed the behaviour of control and eucalyptol treated animals towards a non-familiarized conspecific scented with eucalyptol (experiment 2). We found that control subjects explored and spent significantly less time in the eucalyptol arm, indicating neophobic behaviours towards the artificially scented conspecific. Treated subjects explored and spent similar time in both arms of the maze, showing the same interest for both olfactory stimuli presented. During dyadic encounters in experiment 2, an interaction effect between early experience and sex was observed. Control males escaped and avoided their scented partner more frequently than eucalyptol treated male subjects and than females. Both groups did not differ in the exploration of their scented partners, suggesting that avoidance within agonistic context does not relate to neophobic behaviours. Our results suggest that the exposure to eucalyptol during early ontogeny decreases evasive behaviours within an agonistic context as a result of olfactory learning. Altogether, these results indicate that olfactory cues learned in early ontogeny can influence olfactory-guided behaviours in adult degus.

Action Prediction in Younger versus Older Adults: Neural Correlates of Motor Familiarity

PubMed Central

Diersch, Nadine; Mueller, Karsten; Cross, Emily S.; Stadler, Waltraud; Rieger, Martina; Schütz-Bosbach, Simone

2013-01-01

Generating predictions during action observation is essential for efficient navigation through our social environment. With age, the sensitivity in action prediction declines. In younger adults, the action observation network (AON), consisting of premotor, parietal and occipitotemporal cortices, has been implicated in transforming executed and observed actions into a common code. Much less is known about age-related changes in the neural representation of observed actions. Using fMRI, the present study measured brain activity in younger and older adults during the prediction of temporarily occluded actions (figure skating elements and simple movement exercises). All participants were highly familiar with the movement exercises whereas only some participants were experienced figure skaters. With respect to the AON, the results confirm that this network was preferentially engaged for the more familiar movement exercises. Compared to younger adults, older adults recruited visual regions to perform the task and, additionally, the hippocampus and caudate when the observed actions were familiar to them. Thus, instead of effectively exploiting the sensorimotor matching properties of the AON, older adults seemed to rely predominantly on the visual dynamics of the observed actions to perform the task. Our data further suggest that the caudate played an important role during the prediction of the less familiar figure skating elements in better-performing groups. Together, these findings show that action prediction engages a distributed network in the brain, which is modulated by the content of the observed actions and the age and experience of the observer. PMID:23704980

Action prediction in younger versus older adults: neural correlates of motor familiarity.

PubMed

Diersch, Nadine; Mueller, Karsten; Cross, Emily S; Stadler, Waltraud; Rieger, Martina; Schütz-Bosbach, Simone

2013-01-01

Generating predictions during action observation is essential for efficient navigation through our social environment. With age, the sensitivity in action prediction declines. In younger adults, the action observation network (AON), consisting of premotor, parietal and occipitotemporal cortices, has been implicated in transforming executed and observed actions into a common code. Much less is known about age-related changes in the neural representation of observed actions. Using fMRI, the present study measured brain activity in younger and older adults during the prediction of temporarily occluded actions (figure skating elements and simple movement exercises). All participants were highly familiar with the movement exercises whereas only some participants were experienced figure skaters. With respect to the AON, the results confirm that this network was preferentially engaged for the more familiar movement exercises. Compared to younger adults, older adults recruited visual regions to perform the task and, additionally, the hippocampus and caudate when the observed actions were familiar to them. Thus, instead of effectively exploiting the sensorimotor matching properties of the AON, older adults seemed to rely predominantly on the visual dynamics of the observed actions to perform the task. Our data further suggest that the caudate played an important role during the prediction of the less familiar figure skating elements in better-performing groups. Together, these findings show that action prediction engages a distributed network in the brain, which is modulated by the content of the observed actions and the age and experience of the observer.

Practice makes perfect: familiarity of task determines success in solvable tasks for free-ranging dogs (Canis lupus familiaris).

PubMed

Bhattacharjee, Debottam; Dasgupta, Sandipan; Biswas, Arpita; Deheria, Jayshree; Gupta, Shreya; Nikhil Dev, N; Udell, Monique; Bhadra, Anindita

2017-07-01

Domestic dogs' (Canis lupus familiaris) socio-cognitive faculties have made them highly sensitive to human social cues. While dogs often excel at understanding human communicative gestures, they perform comparatively poorly in problem-solving and physical reasoning tasks. This difference in their behaviour could be due to the lifestyle and intense socialization, where problem solving and physical cognition are less important than social cognition. Free-ranging dogs live in human-dominated environments, not under human supervision and are less socialized. Being scavengers, they often encounter challenges where problem solving is required in order to get access to food. We tested Indian street dogs in familiar and unfamiliar independent solvable tasks and quantified their persistence and dependence on a novel human experimenter, in addition to their success in solving a task. Our results indicate that free-ranging dogs succeeded and persisted more in the familiar task as compared to the unfamiliar one. They showed negligible amount of human dependence in the familiar task, but showed prolonged gazing and considerable begging behaviour to the human experimenter in the context of the unfamiliar task. Cognitive abilities of free-ranging dogs thus play a pivotal role in determining task-associated behaviours based on familiarity. In addition to that, these dogs inherently tend to socialize with and depend on humans, even if they are strangers. Our results also illustrate free-ranging dogs' low competence at physical cognitive tasks.

The Haptic Test Battery: A New Instrument to Test Tactual Abilities in Blind and Visually Impaired and Sighted Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ballesteros, Soledad; Bardisa, Dolores; Millar, Susanna; Reales, Jose M.

2005-01-01

A new psychological test battery was designed to provide a much-needed comprehensive tool for assessing the perceptual and cognitive abilities of visually handicapped children in using active touch. The test materials consist of raised-line, raised-dot, raised-surface shapes and displays, and familiar and novel 3-D objects. The research used 20…

[Errors and dangers in use of the surgical stapler in lung surgery].

PubMed

Junginger, T; Walgenbach, S

1989-01-01

The staple closure of the bronchus, like the manual technique, depends on some essential prerequisites: vascular supply, the length and thickness of the bronchial stump, the resection line, the type of stapler and the size of staples used. GIA 55 or 90 instruments allow safe and simple closure of lung parenchyma. Familiarity with the stapling technique is essential for success.

Visualization of a Large Set of Hydrogen Atomic Orbital Contours Using New and Expanded Sets of Parametric Equations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rhile, Ian J.

2014-01-01

Atomic orbitals are a theme throughout the undergraduate chemistry curriculum, and visualizing them has been a theme in this journal. Contour plots as isosurfaces or contour lines in a plane are the most familiar representations of the hydrogen wave functions. In these representations, a surface of a fixed value of the wave function ? is plotted…

All bonds are not alike: A psychoendocrine evaluation of infant attachment.

PubMed

Gaudin, Sabrina; Chaillou, Elodie; Wycke, Marie-Anne; Cornilleau, Fabien; Moussu, Chantal; Calandreau, Ludovic; Lainé, Anne-Lyse; Nowak, Raymond

2018-01-01

Characteristics of attachment were assessed in peer- and object-reared lambs, and compared to mothered subjects by taking into consideration distress, proximity seeking, and exploration during two separation-reunion tests in both the familiar and a novel environment. Plasma cortisol and oxytocin were assayed as physiological indicators of stress and being comforted during the separation-reunion test. Rewarding properties of the familiar figures were also determined in a conditioned place preference-like paradigm. Between-group analysis revealed the existence of secure attachment with the mother, alteration of secure attachment with the peer and weaker attachment with the object. Weaker attachment was expressed by a lack of distress during separation in the home pen and no preference for the place conditioned with the familiar object. Elevated basal plasma oxytocin levels, but not cortisol, observed in maternally deprived lambs were more likely linked to the absence of a maternal figure rather than social comfort during reunion. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Children's comprehension and production of idioms: the role of context and familiarity.

PubMed

Levorato, M C; Cacciari, C

1992-06-01

Several studies have argued that children under the ages of nine or ten years rarely comprehend figurative language and therefore interpret it literally. Cacciari & Levorato (1989) showed that when idioms are presented within a rich informational environment, children are able to grasp the figurative sense at the age of seven, and also that children are less able to produce idioms than to comprehend them. In three experiments involving 264 children (whose age ranged from 6;9 to 11;9), we contrasted this global elaboration hypothesis with a partially alternative one, the acquisition via exposure hypothesis, according to which the frequency of exposure of children to idioms is the main factor explaining their acquisition and production. Results showed that familiarity (i.e. frequency of exposure) plays a minor role and only for children who are not yet able to use contextual information. Familiarity per se does not adequately explain how children acquire a figurative competence. A tentative model is proposed in order to account for figurative competence acquisition.

The morality of attitudes toward nanotechnology: about God, techno-scientific progress, and interfering with nature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vandermoere, Frederic; Blanchemanche, Sandrine; Bieberstein, Andrea; Marette, Stephan; Roosen, Jutta

2010-02-01

Using survey data, we examine public attitudes toward and awareness of nanotechnology in Germany ( N = 750). First, it is shown that a majority of the people are still not familiar with nanotechnology. In addition, diffusion of information about nanotechnology thus far mostly seems to reach men and people with a relative higher educational background. Also, pro-science and technology views are positively related with nanotech familiarity. Results further show that a majority of the people have an indifferent, ambiguous, or non-attitude toward nanotechnology. Multinomial logit analyses further reveal that nanotech familiarity is positively related with people's attitudes. In addition, it is shown that traditional religiosity is unrelated to attitudes and that individual religiosity is weakly related to nanotechnology attitudes. However, moral covariates other than religiosity seem of major importance. In particular, our results show that more negative views on technological and scientific progress as well as more holistic views about the relation between people and the environment increase the likelihood of having a negative attitude toward nanotechnology.

Outdoor Education: Issues & Investigations, 5-8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boules, Allen, Ed.

Designed to familiarize Oklahoma students with their environment by providing opportunities for exploration, investigation, and evaluation, this outdoor education guide contains suggested activities to be used as a starting point to arouse the interest and curiosity of students through direct observation and investigation. As an additional…

SELECTING RELEVANT TEST SPECIES FOR ECOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENTS FOR PESTICIDES

EPA Science Inventory

In many countries, numerous tests are required prior to chemical registration for the protection of human health and the environment from the unintended effects of chemical releases. The species used in these tests are quite often familiar to scientists, have an extensive histor...

40 CFR 265.37 - Arrangements with local authorities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 26 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Arrangements with local authorities..., STORAGE, AND DISPOSAL FACILITIES Preparedness and Prevention § 265.37 Arrangements with local authorities... (4) Arrangements to familiarize local hospitals with the properties of hazardous waste handled at the...

40 CFR 265.37 - Arrangements with local authorities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 25 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Arrangements with local authorities..., STORAGE, AND DISPOSAL FACILITIES Preparedness and Prevention § 265.37 Arrangements with local authorities... (4) Arrangements to familiarize local hospitals with the properties of hazardous waste handled at the...

The older person as a former driver : quality of life, mobility consequences and mobility adaptation.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-05-01

For an older person (> 65 years of age), the ability to maintain independence in a familiar environment is strongly influenced by efficiency of mobility. Mobility involves an integration of personal body, environmental and social resources. The older...

Mission to Earth: LANDSAT Views the World. [Color imagery of the earth's surface

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Short, N. M.; Lowman, P. D., Jr.; Freden, S. C.; Finch, W. A., Jr.

1976-01-01

The LANDSAT program and system is described. The entire global land surface of Earth is visualized in 400 color plates at a scale and resolution that specify natural land cultural features in man's familiar environments. A glossary is included.

Resistance to Disruption in a Classroom Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parry-Cruwys, Diana E.; Neal, Carrie M.; Ahearn, William H.; Wheeler, Emily E.; Premchander, Raseeka; Loeb, Melissa B.; Dube, William V.

2011-01-01

Substantial experimental evidence indicates that behavior reinforced on a denser schedule is more resistant to disruption than is behavior reinforced on a thinner schedule. The present experiment studied resistance to disruption in a natural educational environment. Responding during familiar activities was reinforced on a multiple…

Mangrove forests

Treesearch

Ariel E. Lugo; Ernesto Medina

2014-01-01

The mangrove environment is not globally homogeneous, but involves many environmental gradients to which mangrove species must adapt and overcome to maintain the familiar structure and physiognomy associated with the mangrove ecosystem. The stature of mangroves, measured by tree height, decreases along the following environmental gradients from low to high salinity,...

CLIPS: A proposal for improved usability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Patton, Charles R.

1990-01-01

This paper proposes the enhancement of the CLIPS user interface to improve the over-all usability of the CLIPS development environment. It suggests some directions for the long term growth of the user interface, and discusses some specific strengths and weaknesses of the current CLIPS PC user interface. Every user of CLIPS shares a common experience: his/her first interaction with the system itself. As with any new language, between the process of installing CLIPS on the appropriate computer and the completion of a large application, an intensive learning process takes place. For those with extensive programming knowledge and LISP backgrounds, this experience may have been mostly interesting and pleasant. Being familiar with products that are similar to CLIPS in many ways, these users enjoy a relatively short training period with the product. Already familiar with many of the functions they wish to employ, experienced users are free to focus on the capabilities of CLIPS that make it uniquely useful within their working environment.

My owner, right or wrong: the effect of familiarity on the domestic dog's behavior in a food-choice task.

PubMed

Cook, Amy; Arter, Jennifer; Jacobs, Lucia F

2014-03-01

Dogs are strongly influenced by human behavior, and they readily form bonds with specific humans. Yet these lines of inquiry are not often combined. The goal of this study was to investigate whether such bonds would play a role in how dogs behave in response to human signals. Using various types of signals, we compared dogs' use of information from a familiar human (their owner) versus an unfamiliar human when choosing between two food containers. In some conditions, the owner indicated a container that gave food and a stranger indicated a container that did not; in other conditions, this was reversed. Dogs more often chose the container indicated by or nearest to their owner, even when this container never yielded a food reward. In two conditions, dogs chose at chance: a control condition in which both pointers were strangers and a condition in which the owner and stranger sat reading books and provided no social signal. This is the first study to directly compare owners to strangers in a single food-choice situation. Our results suggest that dogs make decisions by attending preferentially to social signals from humans with whom they have become familiar.

The dynamics of big data and human rights: the case of scientific research.

PubMed

Vayena, Effy; Tasioulas, John

2016-12-28

In this paper, we address the complex relationship between big data and human rights. Because this is a vast terrain, we restrict our focus in two main ways. First, we concentrate on big data applications in scientific research, mostly health-related research. And, second, we concentrate on two human rights: the familiar right to privacy and the less well-known right to science. Our contention is that human rights interact in potentially complex ways with big data, not only constraining it, but also enabling it in various ways; and that such rights are dynamic in character, rather than fixed once and for all, changing in their implications over time in line with changes in the context we inhabit, and also as they interact among themselves in jointly responding to the opportunities and risks thrown up by a changing world. Understanding this dynamic interaction of human rights is crucial for formulating an ethic tailored to the realities-the new capabilities and risks-of the rapidly evolving digital environment.This article is part of the themed issue 'The ethical impact of data science'. © 2016 The Author(s).

The dynamics of big data and human rights: the case of scientific research

PubMed Central

Tasioulas, John

2016-01-01

In this paper, we address the complex relationship between big data and human rights. Because this is a vast terrain, we restrict our focus in two main ways. First, we concentrate on big data applications in scientific research, mostly health-related research. And, second, we concentrate on two human rights: the familiar right to privacy and the less well-known right to science. Our contention is that human rights interact in potentially complex ways with big data, not only constraining it, but also enabling it in various ways; and that such rights are dynamic in character, rather than fixed once and for all, changing in their implications over time in line with changes in the context we inhabit, and also as they interact among themselves in jointly responding to the opportunities and risks thrown up by a changing world. Understanding this dynamic interaction of human rights is crucial for formulating an ethic tailored to the realities—the new capabilities and risks—of the rapidly evolving digital environment. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The ethical impact of data science’. PMID:28336802

The ESA Space Environment Information System (SPENVIS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heynderickx, D.; Quaghebeur, B.; Evans, H. D. R.

2002-01-01

The ESA SPace ENVironment Information System (SPENVIS) provides standardized access to models of the hazardous space environment through a user-friendly WWW interface. The interface includes parameter input with extensive defaulting, definition of user environments, streamlined production of results (both in graphical and textual form), background information, and on-line help. It is available on-line at http://www.spenvis.oma.be/spenvis/. SPENVIS Is designed to help spacecraft engineers perform rapid analyses of environmental problems and, with extensive documentation and tutorial information, allows engineers with relatively little familiarity with the models to produce reliable results. It has been developed in response to the increasing pressure for rapid-response tools for system engineering, especially in low-cost commercial and educational programmes. It is very useful in conjunction with radiation effects and electrostatic charging testing in the context of hardness assurance. SPENVIS is based on internationally recognized standard models and methods in many domains. It uses an ESA-developed orbit generator to produce orbital point files necessary for many different types of problem. It has various reporting and graphical utilities, and extensive help facilities. The SPENVIS radiation module features models of the proton and electron radiation belts, as well as solar energetic particle and cosmic ray models. The particle spectra serve as input to models of ionising dose (SHIELDOSE), Non-Ionising Energy Loss (NIEL), and Single Event Upsets (CREME). Material shielding is taken into account for all these models, either as a set of user-defined shielding thicknesses, or in combination with a sectoring analysis that produces a shielding distribution from a geometric description of the satellite system. A sequence of models, from orbit generator to folding dose curves with a shielding distribution, can be run as one process, which minimizes user interaction and facilitates multiple runs with different orbital or shielding configurations. SPENVIS features a number of models and tools for evaluating spacecraft charging. The DERA DICTAT tool for evaluation of internal charging calculates the electron current that passes through a conductive shield and becomes deposited inside a dielectric, and predicts whether an electrostatic discharge will occur. SPENVIS has implemented the DERA EQUIPOT non-geometrical tool for assessing material susceptibility to charging in typical orbital environments, including polar and GEO environments. SPENVIS Also includes SOLARC, for assessment of the current collection and the floating potential of solar arrays in LEO. Finally, the system features access to data from surface charging events on CRRES and the Russian Gorizont spacecraft, in the form of spectrograms and double Maxwellian fit parameters. SPENVIS also contains an active, integrated version of the ECSS Space Environment Standard, and access to in-flight data. Apart from radiation and plasma environments, SPENVIS includes meteoroid and debris models, atmospheric models (including atomic oxygen), and magnetic field models implemented by means of the UNILIB library for magnetic coordinate evaluation, magnetic field line tracing and drift shell tracing. The UNILIB library is freely accessible from the Web (http://www.magnet.oma.be/unilib/) for downloading in the form of a Fortran object library for different platforms (DecAlpha, SunOS, HPUX and PC/MS-Windows).

Refractory Gastrointestinal Bleeding: Role of Angiographic Intervention

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Although endoscopic hemostasis remains initial treatment modality for nonvariceal gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding, severe bleeding despite endoscopic management occurs in 5% to 10% of the patients, requiring surgery or transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE). TAE is now considered the first-line therapy for massive GI bleeding refractory to endoscopic management. GI endoscopists need to be familiar with indications, principles, outcomes, and complications of TAE, as well as embolic materials available. PMID:24143308

Density-Gradient Theory: A Macroscopic Approach to Quantum Confinement and Tunneling in Semiconductor Devices

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-01

that are attractive as luminescent biolabels, and possibly also for optoelectronic devices and solar cells . The equilibrium nature of such situations...The boundary layers as- sociated with the diffusion and Debye lengths are familiar, while that of LQ defines the layer in which the quantum in...circuits, transmission lines Diffusion -drift, density-gradient Semi-classical electron dynamics, Boltzmann transport Schrödinger, density- matrix, Wigner

Neuronal correlates of perception, imagery, and memory for familiar tunes.

PubMed

Herholz, Sibylle C; Halpern, Andrea R; Zatorre, Robert J

2012-06-01

We used fMRI to investigate the neuronal correlates of encoding and recognizing heard and imagined melodies. Ten participants were shown lyrics of familiar verbal tunes; they either heard the tune along with the lyrics, or they had to imagine it. In a subsequent surprise recognition test, they had to identify the titles of tunes that they had heard or imagined earlier. The functional data showed substantial overlap during melody perception and imagery, including secondary auditory areas. During imagery compared with perception, an extended network including pFC, SMA, intraparietal sulcus, and cerebellum showed increased activity, in line with the increased processing demands of imagery. Functional connectivity of anterior right temporal cortex with frontal areas was increased during imagery compared with perception, indicating that these areas form an imagery-related network. Activity in right superior temporal gyrus and pFC was correlated with the subjective rating of imagery vividness. Similar to the encoding phase, the recognition task recruited overlapping areas, including inferior frontal cortex associated with memory retrieval, as well as left middle temporal gyrus. The results present new evidence for the cortical network underlying goal-directed auditory imagery, with a prominent role of the right pFC both for the subjective impression of imagery vividness and for on-line mental monitoring of imagery-related activity in auditory areas.

A Podiatric Medical Residency Program in an Academic Health Science Center

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bogy, Louis T.; And Others

1977-01-01

The podiatric medical residency program in the Health Science Center at San Antonio provides an intensive exposure for the newly graduated podiatrist to practice in a multidisciplinary environment. Residents become more familiar with general medical and surgical diseases and disorders as well as podiatric pathology. (LBH)

78 FR 33331 - Tribal Consultation and Coordination Policy for the U.S. Department of Commerce

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-04

.... Comment 4: Clarify the Department's role in coordinating with other federal agencies, and increase....'' Comments to Section 5: Roles and Responsibilities Comment 24: The tribal consultation official should.... Additionally, the policy should acknowledge that Tribes are more familiar with their local environment and...

Authentic Learning Environments in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herrington, Tony; Herrington, Jan

2006-01-01

As greater accountability in higher education grows, authentic learning has found a prominent place in the education agenda. Technology continues to open up possibilities for innovative and effective learning opportunities, and students and teachers are no longer happy to accept familiar classroom-based pedagogies that rely on content delivery and…

Cultivating Human Capabilities in Venturesome Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hogan, Padraig

2013-01-01

The notion of competencies has been a familiar feature of educational reform policies for decades. In this essay, Padraig Hogan begins by highlighting the contrasting notion of capabilities, pioneered by the research of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. An educational variant of the notion of capabilities then becomes the basis for exploring…

An Analysis of Student Hypermedia Navigation and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Epp, Erik Minh

2010-01-01

As society's interactions with web technology mature from novelty to familiarity and finally into transparence for users, it becomes important to reexamine what modern students are taking from their experiences with educational technology. Students in a physical chemistry laboratory course interacted with a hypermedia learning environment as part…

Space Handbook, Eighth Revision, July 1970.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brewer, Donald A., Ed.

"Space Handbook" is used as the text for the Fundamentals of Space Operations Course of the Air University Institute of Professional Development, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. The text familiarizes the student with basic physical laws and these aspects of aerospace science as indicated by chapter titles: The Space Environment; Orbital…

40 CFR 264.37 - Arrangements with local authorities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 25 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Arrangements with local authorities... FACILITIES Preparedness and Prevention § 264.37 Arrangements with local authorities. (a) The owner or... familiarize local hospitals with the properties of hazardous waste handled at the facility and the types of...

40 CFR 264.37 - Arrangements with local authorities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 26 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Arrangements with local authorities... FACILITIES Preparedness and Prevention § 264.37 Arrangements with local authorities. (a) The owner or... familiarize local hospitals with the properties of hazardous waste handled at the facility and the types of...

Developing Adaptable Online Information Literacy Modules for a Learning Management System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mune, Christina; Goldman, Crystal; Higgins, Silke; Eby, Laurel; Chan, Emily K.; Crotty, Linda

2015-01-01

Higher education institutions increasingly utilize learning management systems (LMS) to teach courses and programs in hybrid or online-only formats. Providing information literacy instruction in these emerging digital environments poses challenges to librarians as the delivery of instruction requires familiarity with navigating an LMS and…

Ask Systems: Interrogative Access to Multiple Ways of Thinking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jonassen, David H.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to familiarize instructional designers and researchers with a useful design and research paradigm known as "Ask Systems." Ask Systems are interrogative interfaces to information and learning environments that model conversations with a skilled, reflective practitioner (Schon, The reflective practitioner, "1983") or…

An Energy Environment Education Program for Grade 6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cannon, Esther; And Others

This curriculum guide contains 33 interdisciplinary energy and environmental education activities to help students become familiar with past, present, and alternative sources and forms of energy as well as the economic and environmental cost of energy consumption. Each activity, designed to meet one of five objectives, includes: (1) statement of…

40 CFR 94.11 - Requirements for rebuilding certified engines.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... person familiar with the design and function of motor vehicle engines would reasonably believe that the... Engine Book of Record Parameters. [64 FR 73331, Dec. 29, 1999, as amended at 68 FR 9784, Feb. 28, 2003] ... engines. 94.11 Section 94.11 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR...

Network analysis: a new tool for resource managers

Treesearch

Ruth H. Allen

1980-01-01

Resource managers manipulate ecosystems for direct or indirect human uses. Examples of relatively well studied resource management issues include familiar biological products such as: forests, ranges, fish and wildlife; or physical products such as air, water and soil. Until very recently, urban environments received much less scholarly attention. However, as Spurr (...

ADAM -- Unix Version

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chipperfield, A. J.

This document describes the use of the Starlink Software Environment, ADAM, on Unix. It is primarily of use to programmers but the early sections contain information useful to any user. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the concepts of ADAM programming and that the Starlink software is installed in the standard way.

Planning Curriculum in International Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durtka, Sharon; Dye, Alex; Freund, Judy; Harris, Jay; Kline, Julie; LeBreck, Carol; Reimbold, Rebecca; Tabachnick, Robert; Tantala, Renee; Wagler, Mark

International education begins at home, in the very communities and environments most familiar to students. A student does not need to travel outside U.S. borders to meet the peoples or understand the issues of the global village. This planning guide shows how curriculum in all subject areas encompasses global challenges, global cultures, and…

Technology Education in Elementary School: Why and How?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alamaki, Ari

This paper discusses using technology education in the elementary school to encourage innovation and adaptation, technological literacy, and creative problem solving. Technology education is seen based on hands-on activities where pupils make things and become familiar with their technological environment. The hands-on activity should evolve like…

Synchronous Learning Best Practices: An Action Research Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warden, Clyde A.; Stanworth, James O.; Ren, Jian Biao; Warden, Antony R.

2013-01-01

Low cost and significant advances in technology now allow instructors to create their own virtual learning environments. Creating social interactions within a virtual space that emulates the physical classroom remains challenging. While students are familiar with virtual worlds and video meetings, they are inexperienced as virtual learners. Over a…

MOOs for Teaching and Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Furst-Bowe, Julie

1996-01-01

Discusses the use of MOOs (Multi-User Dimension/Dungeon Object Oriented), text-based virtual reality environments, in education. Highlights include connecting to a network; exploring several MOOs to determine which is most appropriate; and familiarizing students with the MOO's interaction and behavior policies, as well as how to operate in the…

Fantastic Journey through Minds and Machines.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muir, Michael

Intended for learners with a basic familiarity with the Logo programming language, this manual is designed to introduce them to artificial intelligence and enhance their programming capabilities. Nine chapters discuss the following features of Logo: (1) MAZE.MASTER, a look at robots and how sensors make machines aware of their environment; (2)…

The architecture of human kin detection

PubMed Central

Lieberman, Debra; Tooby, John; Cosmides, Leda

2012-01-01

Evolved mechanisms for assessing genetic relatedness have been found in many species, but their existence in humans has been a matter of controversy. Here we report three converging lines of evidence, drawn from siblings, that support the hypothesis that kin detection mechanisms exist in humans. These operate by computing, for each familiar individual, a unitary regulatory variable (the kinship index) that corresponds to a pairwise estimate of genetic relatedness between self and other. The cues that the system uses were identified by quantitatively matching individual exposure to potential cues of relatedness to variation in three outputs relevant to the system’s evolved functions: sibling altruism, aversion to personally engaging in sibling incest, and moral opposition to third party sibling incest. As predicted, the kin detection system uses two distinct, ancestrally valid cues to compute relatedness: the familiar other’s perinatal association with the individual’s biological mother, and duration of sibling coresidence. PMID:17301784

From network heterogeneities to familiarity detection and hippocampal memory management

PubMed Central

Wang, Jane X.; Poe, Gina; Zochowski, Michal

2009-01-01

Hippocampal-neocortical interactions are key to the rapid formation of novel associative memories in the hippocampus and consolidation to long term storage sites in the neocortex. We investigated the role of network correlates during information processing in hippocampal-cortical networks. We found that changes in the intrinsic network dynamics due to the formation of structural network heterogeneities alone act as a dynamical and regulatory mechanism for stimulus novelty and familiarity detection, thereby controlling memory management in the context of memory consolidation. This network dynamic, coupled with an anatomically established feedback between the hippocampus and the neocortex, recovered heretofore unexplained properties of neural activity patterns during memory management tasks which we observed during sleep in multiunit recordings from behaving animals. Our simple dynamical mechanism shows an experimentally matched progressive shift of memory activation from the hippocampus to the neocortex and thus provides the means to achieve an autonomous off-line progression of memory consolidation. PMID:18999453

Is it possible to use highly realistic virtual reality in the elderly? A feasibility study with image-based rendering.

PubMed

Benoit, Michel; Guerchouche, Rachid; Petit, Pierre-David; Chapoulie, Emmanuelle; Manera, Valeria; Chaurasia, Gaurav; Drettakis, George; Robert, Philippe

2015-01-01

Virtual reality (VR) opens up a vast number of possibilities in many domains of therapy. The primary objective of the present study was to evaluate the acceptability for elderly subjects of a VR experience using the image-based rendering virtual environment (IBVE) approach and secondly to test the hypothesis that visual cues using VR may enhance the generation of autobiographical memories. Eighteen healthy volunteers (mean age 68.2 years) presenting memory complaints with a Mini-Mental State Examination score higher than 27 and no history of neuropsychiatric disease were included. Participants were asked to perform an autobiographical fluency task in four conditions. The first condition was a baseline grey screen, the second was a photograph of a well-known location in the participant's home city (FamPhoto), and the last two conditions displayed VR, ie, a familiar image-based virtual environment (FamIBVE) consisting of an image-based representation of a known landmark square in the center of the city of experimentation (Nice) and an unknown image-based virtual environment (UnknoIBVE), which was captured in a public housing neighborhood containing unrecognizable building fronts. After each of the four experimental conditions, participants filled in self-report questionnaires to assess the task acceptability (levels of emotion, motivation, security, fatigue, and familiarity). CyberSickness and Presence questionnaires were also assessed after the two VR conditions. Autobiographical memory was assessed using a verbal fluency task and quality of the recollection was assessed using the "remember/know" procedure. All subjects completed the experiment. Sense of security and fatigue were not significantly different between the conditions with and without VR. The FamPhoto condition yielded a higher emotion score than the other conditions (P<0.05). The CyberSickness questionnaire showed that participants did not experience sickness during the experiment across the VR conditions. VR stimulates autobiographical memory, as demonstrated by the increased total number of responses on the autobiographical fluency task and the increased number of conscious recollections of memories for familiar versus unknown scenes (P<0.01). The study indicates that VR using the FamIBVE system is well tolerated by the elderly. VR can also stimulate recollections of autobiographical memory and convey familiarity of a given scene, which is an essential requirement for use of VR during reminiscence therapy.

Is it possible to use highly realistic virtual reality in the elderly? A feasibility study with image-based rendering

PubMed Central

Benoit, Michel; Guerchouche, Rachid; Petit, Pierre-David; Chapoulie, Emmanuelle; Manera, Valeria; Chaurasia, Gaurav; Drettakis, George; Robert, Philippe

2015-01-01

Background Virtual reality (VR) opens up a vast number of possibilities in many domains of therapy. The primary objective of the present study was to evaluate the acceptability for elderly subjects of a VR experience using the image-based rendering virtual environment (IBVE) approach and secondly to test the hypothesis that visual cues using VR may enhance the generation of autobiographical memories. Methods Eighteen healthy volunteers (mean age 68.2 years) presenting memory complaints with a Mini-Mental State Examination score higher than 27 and no history of neuropsychiatric disease were included. Participants were asked to perform an autobiographical fluency task in four conditions. The first condition was a baseline grey screen, the second was a photograph of a well-known location in the participant’s home city (FamPhoto), and the last two conditions displayed VR, ie, a familiar image-based virtual environment (FamIBVE) consisting of an image-based representation of a known landmark square in the center of the city of experimentation (Nice) and an unknown image-based virtual environment (UnknoIBVE), which was captured in a public housing neighborhood containing unrecognizable building fronts. After each of the four experimental conditions, participants filled in self-report questionnaires to assess the task acceptability (levels of emotion, motivation, security, fatigue, and familiarity). CyberSickness and Presence questionnaires were also assessed after the two VR conditions. Autobiographical memory was assessed using a verbal fluency task and quality of the recollection was assessed using the “remember/know” procedure. Results All subjects completed the experiment. Sense of security and fatigue were not significantly different between the conditions with and without VR. The FamPhoto condition yielded a higher emotion score than the other conditions (P<0.05). The CyberSickness questionnaire showed that participants did not experience sickness during the experiment across the VR conditions. VR stimulates autobiographical memory, as demonstrated by the increased total number of responses on the autobiographical fluency task and the increased number of conscious recollections of memories for familiar versus unknown scenes (P<0.01). Conclusion The study indicates that VR using the FamIBVE system is well tolerated by the elderly. VR can also stimulate recollections of autobiographical memory and convey familiarity of a given scene, which is an essential requirement for use of VR during reminiscence therapy. PMID:25834437

Déjà vu in unilateral temporal-lobe epilepsy is associated with selective familiarity impairments on experimental tasks of recognition memory.

PubMed

Martin, Chris B; Mirsattari, Seyed M; Pruessner, Jens C; Pietrantonio, Sandra; Burneo, Jorge G; Hayman-Abello, Brent; Köhler, Stefan

2012-11-01

In déjà vu, a phenomenological impression of familiarity for the current visual environment is experienced with a sense that it should in fact not feel familiar. The fleeting nature of this phenomenon in daily life, and the difficulty in developing experimental paradigms to elicit it, has hindered progress in understanding déjà vu. Some neurological patients with temporal-lobe epilepsy (TLE) consistently experience déjà vu at the onset of their seizures. An investigation of such patients offers a unique opportunity to shed light on its possible underlying mechanisms. In the present study, we sought to determine whether unilateral TLE patients with déjà vu (TLE+) show a unique pattern of interictal memory deficits that selectively affect familiarity assessment. In Experiment 1, we employed a Remember-Know paradigm for categorized visual scenes and found evidence for impairments that were limited to familiarity-based responses. In Experiment 2, we administered an exclusion task for highly similar categorized visual scenes that placed both recognition processes in opposition. TLE+ patients again displayed recognition impairments, and these impairments spared their ability to engage recollective processes so as to counteract familiarity. The selective deficits we observed in TLE+ patients contrasted with the broader pattern of recognition-memory impairments that was present in a control group of unilateral patients without déjà vu (TLE-). MRI volumetry revealed that ipsilateral medial temporal structures were less broadly affected in TLE+ than in TLE- patients, with a trend for more focal volume reductions in the rhinal cortices of the TLE+ group. The current findings establish a first empirical link between déjà vu in TLE and processes of familiarity assessment, as defined and measured in current cognitive models. They also reveal a pattern of selectivity in recognition impairments that is rarely observed and, thus, of significant theoretical interest to the memory literature at large. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neural Network Prototyping Package Within IRAF

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bazell, David

1997-01-01

The purpose of this contract was to develop a neural network package within the IRAF environment to allow users to easily understand and use different neural network algorithms the analysis of astronomical data. The package was developed for use within IRAF to allow portability to different computing environments and to provide a familiar and easy to use interface with the routines. In addition to developing the software and supporting documentation, we planned to use the system for the analysis of several sample problems to prove its viability and usefulness.

How does horizontal and vertical navigation influence spatial memory of multifloored environments?

PubMed

Thibault, Guillaume; Pasqualotto, Achille; Vidal, Manuel; Droulez, Jacques; Berthoz, Alain

2013-01-01

Although a number of studies have been devoted to 2-D navigation, relatively little is known about how the brain encodes and recalls navigation in complex multifloored environments. Previous studies have proposed that humans preferentially memorize buildings by a set of horizontal 2-D representations. Yet this might stem from the fact that environments were also explored by floors. Here, we have investigated the effect of spatial learning on memory of a virtual multifloored building. Two groups of 28 participants watched a computer movie that showed either a route along floors one at a time or travel between floors by simulated lifts, consisting in both cases of a 2-D trajectory in the vertical plane. To test recognition, the participants viewed a camera movement that either replicated a segment of the learning route (familiar segment) or did not (novel segment-i.e., shortcuts). Overall, floor recognition was not reliably superior to column recognition, but learning along a floor route produced a better spatial memory performance than did learning along a column route. Moreover, the participants processed familiar segments more accurately than novel ones, not only after floor learning, but crucially, also after column learning, suggesting a key role of the observation mode on the exploitation of spatial memory.

Processing of nutritious, safe and acceptable foods from cells candidate crops

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, B.; Nelson, P. E.; Irvine, R.; Kanach, L. L.

A controlled ecological life-support system (CELSS) is required to sustain life for long-duration space missions. The challenge is preparing a wide variety of tasty, familiar, and nutritious foods from CELSS candidate crops under space environmental conditions. Conventional food processing technologies will have to be modified to adapt to the space environment. Extrusion is one of the processes being examined as a means of converting raw plant biomass into familiar foods. A nutrition-improved pasta has been developed using cowpea as a replacement for a portion of the durum semolina. A freeze-drying system that simulates the space conditions has also been developed. Other technologies that would fulfill the requirements of a CELSS will also be addressed.

Processing of nutritious, safe and acceptable foods from CELSS candidate crops

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fu, B.; Nelson, P. E.; Irvine, R.; Kanach, L. L.; Mitchell, C. A. (Principal Investigator)

1996-01-01

A controlled ecological life-support system (CELSS) is required to sustain life for long-duration space missions. The challenge is preparing a wide variety of tasty, familiar, and nutritious foods from CELSS candidate crops under space environmental conditions. Conventional food processing technologies will have to be modified to adapt to the space environment. Extrusion is one of the processes being examined as a means of converting raw plant biomass into familiar foods. A nutrition-improved pasta has been developed using cowpea as a replacement for a portion of the durum semolina. A freeze-drying system that simulates the space conditions has also been developed. Other technologies that would fulfill the requirements of a CELSS will also be addressed.

Cultural sharing in a global village: evidence for extracultural cognition in European Americans.

PubMed

Alter, Adam L; Kwan, Virginia S Y

2009-04-01

The authors examined the effects of exposure to foreign cultural environments and symbols on decision making among European Americans. Although European Americans predicted change less frequently than East Asians did (Pilot Study A), European Americans anticipated greater change when primed with East Asian culturally-laden locations (Pilot Study B and Study 1) and the East Asian yin-yang symbol (Studies 2-7). These effects held in the domains of stock prediction and weather forecasting and were stronger the more familiar European Americans were with the cultural primes, and the longer they had spent overseas. Together, these findings suggest that familiar culturally-laden cues sometimes prime people within one cultural milieu to make so-called extracultural judgments. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Bilingual children weigh speaker’s referential cues and word-learning heuristics differently in different language contexts when interpreting a speaker’s intent

PubMed Central

Hung, Wan-Yu; Patrycia, Ferninda; Yow, W. Q.

2015-01-01

Past research has investigated how children use different sources of information such as social cues and word-learning heuristics to infer referential intents. The present research explored how children weigh and use some of these cues to make referential inferences. Specifically, we examined how switching between languages known (familiar) or unknown (unfamiliar) to a child would influence his or her choice of cue to interpret a novel label in a challenging disambiguation task, where a pointing cue was pitted against the mutual exclusivity (ME) principle. Forty-eight 3-and 4-years-old English–Mandarin bilingual children listened to a story told either in English only (No-Switch), English and Mandarin (Familiar-Switch), English and Japanese (Unfamiliar-Switch), or English and English-sounding nonsense sentences (Nonsense-Switch). They were then asked to select an object (from a pair of familiar and novel objects) after hearing a novel label paired with the speaker’s point at the familiar object, e.g., “Can you give me the blicket?” Results showed that children in the Familiar-Switch condition were more willing to relax ME to follow the speaker’s point to pick the familiar object than those in the Unfamiliar-Switch condition, who were more likely to pick the novel object. No significant differences were found between the other conditions. Further analyses revealed that children in the Unfamiliar-Switch condition looked at the speaker longer than children in the other conditions when the switch happened. Our findings suggest that children weigh speakers’ referential cues and word-learning heuristics differently in different language contexts while taking into account their communicative history with the speaker. There are important implications for general education and other learning efforts, such as designing learning games so that the history of credibility with the user is maintained and how learning may be best scaffolded in a helpful and trusting environment. PMID:26113836

Hurt but still alive: Residual activity in the parahippocampal cortex conditions the recognition of familiar places in a patient with topographic agnosia.

PubMed

van Assche, Mitsouko; Kebets, Valeria; Lopez, Ursula; Saj, Arnaud; Goldstein, Rachel; Bernasconi, Françoise; Vuilleumier, Patrik; Assal, Frédéric

2016-01-01

The parahippocampal cortex (PHC) participates in both perception and memory. However, the way perceptual and memory processes cooperate when we navigate in our everyday life environment remains poorly understood. We studied a stroke patient presenting a brain lesion in the right PHC, which resulted in a mild and quantifiable topographic agnosia, and allowed us to investigate the role of this structure in overt place recognition. Photographs of personally familiar and unfamiliar places were displayed during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Familiar places were either recognized or unrecognized by the patient and 6 age- and education-matched controls in a visual post-scan recognition test. In fMRI, recognized places were associated with a network comprising the fusiform gyrus in the intact side, but also the right anterior PHC, which included the lesion site. Moreover, this right PHC showed increased connectivity with the left homologous PHC in the intact hemisphere. By contrasting recognized with unrecognized familiar places, we replicate the finding of the joint involvement of the retrosplenial cortex, occipito-temporal areas, and posterior parietal cortex in place recognition. This study shows that the ability for left and right anterior PHC to communicate despite the neurological damage conditioned place recognition success in this patient. It further highlights a hemispheric asymmetry in this process, by showing the fundamental role of the right PHC in topographic agnosia.

Recognizing familiar objects by hand and foot: Haptic shape perception generalizes to inputs from unusual locations and untrained body parts.

PubMed

Lawson, Rebecca

2014-02-01

The limits of generalization of our 3-D shape recognition system to identifying objects by touch was investigated by testing exploration at unusual locations and using untrained effectors. In Experiments 1 and 2, people found identification by hand of real objects, plastic 3-D models of objects, and raised line drawings placed in front of themselves no easier than when exploration was behind their back. Experiment 3 compared one-handed, two-handed, one-footed, and two-footed haptic object recognition of familiar objects. Recognition by foot was slower (7 vs. 13 s) and much less accurate (9 % vs. 47 % errors) than recognition by either one or both hands. Nevertheless, item difficulty was similar across hand and foot exploration, and there was a strong correlation between an individual's hand and foot performance. Furthermore, foot recognition was better with the largest 20 of the 80 items (32 % errors), suggesting that physical limitations hampered exploration by foot. Thus, object recognition by hand generalized efficiently across the spatial location of stimuli, while object recognition by foot seemed surprisingly good given that no prior training was provided. Active touch (haptics) thus efficiently extracts 3-D shape information and accesses stored representations of familiar objects from novel modes of input.

Network dynamics underlying the formation of sparse, informative representations in the hippocampus.

PubMed

Karlsson, Mattias P; Frank, Loren M

2008-12-24

During development, activity-dependent processes increase the specificity of neural responses to stimuli, but the role that this type of process plays in adult plasticity is unclear. We examined the dynamics of hippocampal activity as animals learned about new environments to understand how neural selectivity changes with experience. Hippocampal principal neurons fire when the animal is located in a particular subregion of its environment, and in any given environment the hippocampal representation is sparse: less than half of the neurons in areas CA1 and CA3 are active whereas the rest are essentially silent. Here we show that different dynamics govern the evolution of this sparsity in CA1 and upstream area CA3. CA1, but not CA3, produces twice as many spikes in novel compared with familiar environments. This high rate firing continues during sharp wave ripple events in a subsequent rest period. The overall CA1 population rate declines and the number of active cells decreases as the environment becomes familiar and task performance improves, but the decline in rate is not uniform across neurons. Instead, the activity of cells with initial peak spatial rates above approximately 12 Hz is enhanced, whereas the activity of cells with lower initial peak rates is suppressed. The result of these changes is that the active CA1 population comes to consist of a relatively small group of cells with strong spatial tuning. This process is not evident in CA3, indicating that a region-specific and long timescale process operates in CA1 to create a sparse, spatially informative population of neurons.

School Counselor's Perception of Their Multicultural Competency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mayorga, Mary G.; Furgerson, Karen; Cook, Katrina; Wardle, Elizabeth Ann

2013-01-01

A school counselor's work environment is diverse by virtue of the student population that attends the school setting, yet it is possible that school counselors may not be prepared to deal with a diverse population. As part of counselor training a course in multicultural counseling is offered so that counseling students become familiar with the…

Biomechanical Concepts for the Physical Educator

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strohmeyer, H. Scott

2004-01-01

The concepts and principles of biomechanics are familiar to the teacher of physical science as well as to the physical educator. The difference between the two instructors, however, is that one knows the language of science and the other provides an experientially rich environment to support acquisition of these concepts and principles. Use of…

The Role of Early Visual Attention in Social Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Jennifer B.; Luyster, Rhiannon J.; Yim, Jung Yeon; Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Nelson, Charles A.

2013-01-01

Faces convey important information about the social environment, and even very young infants are preferentially attentive to face-like over non-face stimuli. Eye-tracking studies have allowed researchers to examine which features of faces infants find most salient across development, and the present study examined scanning of familiar (i.e.,…

Toddler Techies: A Study of Young Children's Interaction with Computers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Kirsten; Blashki, Kathy

2004-01-01

This article describes an ethnographic study of children's behavioural interaction with multimedia within a familiar context. The rationale for such a study was to provide data and evaluation of the capabilities of young children in an expressly modified multimedia environment and to determine the usefulness of employing technology as an adjunct…

Looking beyond the Boundaries: Time to Put Landmarks Back on the Cognitive Map?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lew, Adina R.

2011-01-01

Since the proposal of Tolman (1948) that mammals form maplike representations of familiar environments, cognitive map theory has been at the core of debates on the fundamental mechanisms of animal learning and memory. Traditional formulations of cognitive map theory emphasize relations between landmarks and between landmarks and goal locations as…

Adaptational Tasks in Childhood in Our Culture.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Lois B.

1964-01-01

During the first months after birth, a child's functions begin to emerge. By age three a child is expected to have mastered the basic tasks of (1) good vegetative functioning (management of drives and impulses involved in eating and elimination), (2) perceptual organization and familiarization with the home environment and skills to orient to a…

Classroom Use of a Verbal Measure of Information Rate: An Exploratory Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finkler, Deana; Thompson, Patricia

The Verbal Measure of Information Rate (VMIR) is a measure of information rate which reflects the elements, features, and changes in a complex environment. Subjects rated 14 bipolar adjective pairs to indicate an appropriate description of the learning situation or information load (simple-complex, novel-familiar). The measure was administered to…

Twain's "Hannibal." Learning Page Lesson Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Jan; Thiese, Norma

Writers are influenced by their environment including family, community, lifestyle, or location. One such writer was Mark Twain. With this lesson plan the learner will become familiar with and analyze life around Mark Twain's hometown, Hannibal, Missouri, during the latter half of the 19th century by using various online and print resources to…

Fillers as Signs of Distributional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taelman, Helena; Durieux, Gert; Gillis, Steven

2009-01-01

A longitudinal analysis is presented of the fillers of a Dutch-speaking child between 1;10 and 2;7. Our analysis corroborates familiar regularities reported in the literature: most fillers resemble articles in shape and distribution, and are affected by rhythmic and positional constraints. A novel finding is the impact of the lexical environment:…

Young Adult Male Satisfaction with Drug & Alcohol Rehabilitation Facilities: Interior Design Implications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Potthoff, Joy K.

1991-01-01

Examined young adult male patient (n=18) satisfaction with interior environments of three different in-patient drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities: renovated Elk's Club; hospital wing; and facility built for drug and alcohol treatment. Findings indicated satisfaction declined over four-week treatment period; familiar objects were missed;…

The Known Mix: A Taste of Variation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canada, Daniel L.

2008-01-01

To create an environment in which all students have opportunities to notice, describe, and wonder about variability, this article takes a context familiar to many teacher--sampling colored chips from a jar--and shows how this context was used to explicitly focus on variation in the classroom. The sampling activity includes physical as well as…

Foreign Language Students' Conversational Negotiations in Different Task Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardy, Ilonca M.; Moore, Joyce L.

2004-01-01

This study examined the effect of structural and content characteristics of language tasks on foreign language learners' conversational negotiations. In a 2x2 Greco-Latin square design, degree of structural support of language tasks, students' degree of familiarity with German video segments, and task order were varied. Twenty-eight pairs of…

Mobile Devices for Learning: What You Need to Know

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robledo, S. Jhoanna

2012-01-01

The Common Core State Standards call for students to develop digital media and technology skills. One way to help them reach that goal: incorporate gadgets they're already familiar with--cell phones, tablets, and smartphones--into their learning environment. Mobile devices are becoming essential to students' daily lives. According to a 2011 Pew…

The Alternative Lenses of Assessment: Educating Social Workers about Psychopathology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Satterly, Brent A.

2007-01-01

The use of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM IV) as a teaching tool for social workers to understand mental illness has been debated for many years. The general consensus is that social workers need to be "familiar" with this classification system. Social Work's person in environment perspective, however, requires…

Bibliography of Spanish and Southwestern Indian Cultures Library Books.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hillyer, Mildred

Compiled to encourage Spanish and Indian-speaking children to communicate meaningfully in English, the bibliography cites books that present a familiar environment and are about famous and successful members of their ethnic groups. The 239 books cited were published between 1926 and 1968. Some citations include annotations, suggested age groups,…

Emotional Distress and Posttraumatic Stress in Children: The Impact of Direct versus Indirect Exposure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bhushan, Braj; Kumar, J. Sathya

2009-01-01

This study examined whether familiarity with the physical environment and verbal/pictorial exposure to a tsunami also inducted posttraumatic stress symptoms in adolescents. The Impact of Event Scale (IES) and Pediatric Emotional Distress Scale (PEDS) were administered to 231 subjects (130 directly exposed and 101 indirectly exposed). The directly…

What Is Complexity Theory and What Are Its Implications for Educational Change?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mason, Mark

2008-01-01

HistoryThis paper considers questions of continuity and change in education from the perspective of complexity theory, introducing the field to educationists who might not be familiar with it. Given a significant degree of complexity in a particular environment (or "dynamical system"), new properties and behaviours, which are not necessarily…

Mental "Space" Travel: Damage to Posterior Parietal Cortex Prevents Egocentric Navigation and Reexperiencing of Remote Spatial Memories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ciaramelli, Elisa; Rosenbaum, R. Shayna; Solcz, Stephanie; Levine, Brian; Moscovitch, Morris

2010-01-01

The ability to navigate in a familiar environment depends on both an intact mental representation of allocentric spatial information and the integrity of systems supporting complementary egocentric representations. Although the hippocampus has been implicated in learning new allocentric spatial information, converging evidence suggests that the…

Blended Learning with Everyday Technologies to Activate Students' Collaborative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vesisenaho, Mikko; Valtonen, Teemu; Kukkonen, Jari; Havu-Nuutinen, Sari; Hartikainen, Anu; Karkkainen, Sirpa

2010-01-01

Schools are facing challenges to meet the demands of the information society and the student generation of today. Not only are students carrying their mobile phones everywhere, they are also familiar with different online environments, especially social software. This situation can be seen both a challenge and a chance for schools, as mobile…

Support Systems and Women of the Diaspora

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ojo, Elizabeth D.

2009-01-01

Humans are social beings endowed with intrinsic and extrinsic capabilities and a desire to seek and receive social support from one another. The extent to which this action takes place varies as people move farther away from their familiar environment to new locations. Many immigrant women have traveled far and wide in search of "better…

The Atlantic Canada-New England Region and Environment. A Learning Activity Packet.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maine Univ., Orono. New England - Atlantic Provinces - Quebec Center.

In this Learning Activity Packet (LAP) students examine the geographic and ecological bases of the Eastern international region. The overall objective of activities is to help students comprehend the man-earth relationship concept. By studying this familiar relevant region students gain geographic knowledge and skills applicable to other areas.…

Mathematics Anxiety of Ninth Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yavuz, Günes

2018-01-01

Human beings have been using mathematics since they got familiar with the environment they lived in. Because of this reason, the emphasis of necessity of mathematics education for schools with various levels in different countries has undoubtedly been agreed upon. Mathematics anxiety is a problem for many people. Mathematics anxiety is one of the…

The Compatibility of Action Learning with Inner Game Coaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aitkenhead, Andy

2009-01-01

Using "inner game" coaching techniques in the remediation of a challenged programme at a Global Investment Bank the environment was transformed into a delivery focused culture. The techniques included group sessions that would be familiar to anyone aware of action learning and were an integral part of the strategy to ensure sustainable…

Rural patients’ experiences accessing surgery in British Columbia

PubMed Central

Humber, Nancy; Dickinson, Paul

2010-01-01

Background More than 33% of Canadians live in rural areas. The vulnerability of rural surgical patients makes them particularly sensitive to barriers to accessing health care. This study aims to describe rural patients’ experiences accessing local non-specialist, family physician–surgeon care and regional specialist surgical care when no local surgical care was available. Methods We conducted a qualitative pilot study of self-selected patients. Interviews were analyzed using a modified Delphi technique and NVivo qualitative software. Results The needs of rural surgical patients were reflective of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: physiologic, safety and security, community belonging and self-esteem/self-actualization. Rural patients expressed a strong desire for individualized care in a familiar environment. When such care was not available, patients found it difficult to meet even basic physiologic needs. Maternity patients and marginalized populations were particularly vulnerable. Conclusion Rural patients seem to prefer individualized care in a familiar environment to address more of their qualitative emotional, psychological and cultural needs rather than only the physiologic needs of surgery. Larger studies are needed to delineate more clearly the qualitative aspects of surgical care. PMID:21092429

Measuring food environments: a historical perspective.

PubMed

Glanz, Karen

2009-04-01

Food and nutrition environments are believed to contribute to obesity and chronic diseases. There is a need for valid, reliable measures of nutrition environments. Familiarity with previous efforts to measure food and nutrition environments can help researchers and practitioners build on past accomplishments. This article describes sources of food-environment data, discusses how they have been used, and places the definition and measurement of food and nutrition environments in historical context. Review articles, agency websites, and peer-reviewed articles were the main sources of information. The review is organized around three main types of data sources identified as historic traditions: government, industry, and research. Types of data include archives, business monitoring records, surveys, observational assessments, and self-report surveys. Future development of clear, adaptable measures of food and nutrition environments will build on lessons of the past and will update and improve on past tools.

Differential effects of context on psychomotor sensitization to ethanol and cocaine.

PubMed

Didone, Vincent; Quoilin, Caroline; Dieupart, Julie; Tirelli, Ezio; Quertemont, Etienne

2016-04-01

Repeated drug injections lead to sensitization of their stimulant effects in mice, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as drug psychomotor sensitization. Previous studies showed that sensitization to cocaine is context dependent as its expression is reduced in an environment that was not paired with cocaine administration. In contrast, the effects of the test context on ethanol sensitization remain unclear. In the present study, female OF1 mice were repeatedly injected with 1.5 g/kg ethanol to test for both the effects of context novelty/familiarity and association on ethanol sensitization. A first group of mice was extensively pre-exposed to the test context before ethanol sensitization and ethanol injections were paired with the test context (familiar and paired group). A second group was not pre-exposed to the test context, but ethanol injections were paired with the test context (nonfamiliar and paired group). Finally, a third group of mice was not pre-exposed to the test context and ethanol was repeatedly injected in the home cage (unpaired group). Control groups were similarly exposed to the test context, but were injected with saline. In a second experiment, cocaine was used as a positive control. The same behavioral procedure was used, except that mice were injected with 10 mg/kg cocaine instead of ethanol. The results show a differential involvement of the test context in the sensitization to ethanol and cocaine. Cocaine sensitization is strongly context dependent and is not expressed in the unpaired group. In contrast, the expression of ethanol sensitization is independent of the context in which it was administered, but is strongly affected by the relative novelty/familiarity of the environment. Extensive pre-exposure to the test context prevented the expression of ethanol sensitization. One possible explanation is that expression of ethanol sensitization requires an arousing environment.

Sampling over Nonuniform Distributions: A Neural Efficiency Account of the Primacy Effect in Statistical Learning.

PubMed

Karuza, Elisabeth A; Li, Ping; Weiss, Daniel J; Bulgarelli, Federica; Zinszer, Benjamin D; Aslin, Richard N

2016-10-01

Successful knowledge acquisition requires a cognitive system that is both sensitive to statistical information and able to distinguish among multiple structures (i.e., to detect pattern shifts and form distinct representations). Extensive behavioral evidence has highlighted the importance of cues to structural change, demonstrating how, without them, learners fail to detect pattern shifts and are biased in favor of early experience. Here, we seek a neural account of the mechanism underpinning this primacy effect in learning. During fMRI scanning, adult participants were presented with two artificial languages: a familiar language (L1) on which they had been pretrained followed by a novel language (L2). The languages were composed of the same syllable inventory organized according to unique statistical structures. In the absence of cues to the transition between languages, posttest familiarity judgments revealed that learners on average more accurately segmented words from the familiar language compared with the novel one. Univariate activation and functional connectivity analyses showed that participants with the strongest learning of L1 had decreased recruitment of fronto-subcortical and posterior parietal regions, in addition to a dissociation between downstream regions and early auditory cortex. Participants with a strong new language learning capacity (i.e., higher L2 scores) showed the opposite trend. Thus, we suggest that a bias toward neural efficiency, particularly as manifested by decreased sampling from the environment, accounts for the primacy effect in learning. Potential implications of this hypothesis are discussed, including the possibility that "inefficient" learning systems may be more sensitive to structural changes in a dynamic environment.

Age, environment, object recognition and morphological diversity of GFAP-immunolabeled astrocytes.

PubMed

Diniz, Daniel Guerreiro; de Oliveira, Marcus Augusto; de Lima, Camila Mendes; Fôro, César Augusto Raiol; Sosthenes, Marcia Consentino Kronka; Bento-Torres, João; da Costa Vasconcelos, Pedro Fernando; Anthony, Daniel Clive; Diniz, Cristovam Wanderley Picanço

2016-10-10

Few studies have explored the glial response to a standard environment and how the response may be associated with age-related cognitive decline in learning and memory. Here we investigated aging and environmental influences on hippocampal-dependent tasks and on the morphology of an unbiased selected population of astrocytes from the molecular layer of dentate gyrus, which is the main target of perforant pathway. Six and twenty-month-old female, albino Swiss mice were housed, from weaning, in a standard or enriched environment, including running wheels for exercise and tested for object recognition and contextual memories. Young adult and aged subjects, independent of environment, were able to distinguish familiar from novel objects. All experimental groups, except aged mice from standard environment, distinguish stationary from displaced objects. Young adult but not aged mice, independent of environment, were able to distinguish older from recent objects. Only young mice from an enriched environment were able to distinguish novel from familiar contexts. Unbiased selected astrocytes from the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus were reconstructed in three-dimensions and classified using hierarchical cluster analysis of bimodal or multimodal morphological features. We found two morphological phenotypes of astrocytes and we designated type I the astrocytes that exhibited significantly higher values of morphological complexity as compared with type II. Complexity = [Sum of the terminal orders + Number of terminals] × [Total branch length/Number of primary branches]. On average, type I morphological complexity seems to be much more sensitive to age and environmental influences than that of type II. Indeed, aging and environmental impoverishment interact and reduce the morphological complexity of type I astrocytes at a point that they could not be distinguished anymore from type II. We suggest these two types of astrocytes may have different physiological roles and that the detrimental effects of aging on memory in mice from a standard environment may be associated with a reduction of astrocytes morphological diversity.

Attention in the real world: toward understanding its neural basis

PubMed Central

Peelen, Marius V.; Kastner, Sabine

2016-01-01

The efficient selection of behaviorally relevant objects from cluttered environments supports our everyday goals. Attentional selection has typically been studied in search tasks involving artificial and simplified displays. Although these studies have revealed important basic principles of attention, they do not explain how the brain efficiently selects familiar objects in complex and meaningful real-world scenes. Findings from recent neuroimaging studies indicate that real-world search is mediated by ‘what’ and ‘where’ attentional templates that are implemented in high-level visual cortex. These templates represent target-diagnostic properties and likely target locations, respectively, and are shaped by object familiarity, scene context, and memory. We propose a framework for real-world search that incorporates these recent findings and specifies directions for future study. PMID:24630872

40 CFR 267.55 - What is the role of the emergency coordinator?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 26 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What is the role of the emergency... STANDARDIZED PERMIT Contingency Plan and Emergency Procedures § 267.55 What is the role of the emergency... familiar with all aspects of the facility's contingency plan, all operations and activities at the facility...

Intervention Strategies for School Age Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

D'Entremont, Denise Morel

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a relatively new diagnostic label. As more physicians become familiar with the diagnosis of this syndrome, schools will begin to see children with the label FAS and Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE). Children with FAS often do not pick up skills from their environment as easily as some of their peers. They often need to…

Essential Skills and Knowledge for Troubleshooting E-Resources Access Issues in a Web-Scale Discovery Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carter, Sunshine; Traill, Stacie

2017-01-01

Electronic resource access troubleshooting is familiar work in most libraries. The added complexity introduced when a library implements a web-scale discovery service, however, creates a strong need for well-organized, rigorous training to enable troubleshooting staff to provide the best service possible. This article outlines strategies, tools,…

A Questioning Environment for Scaffolding Learners' Questioning Engagement with Academic Text: A University Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardman, J.; Ng'ambi, D.

2003-01-01

Access to the textual world of academia requires that learners are familiar with the critical open-ended questioning stance demanded by textuality. Anecdotal evidence suggests that learners registered for the Bachelor of Education Honours degree are unable to generate appropriate questions to interrogate academic text, impacting on their ability…

Attentional Preference and Experience: II. An Exploratory Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Visual Familiarity and Responsiveness.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uzgiris, Ina C.; Hunt, J. McV.

The human infant is now considered capable of active informational interaction with the environment. This study tested certain hypotheses concerning the nature of that interaction. These hypotheses, developed partly from Piaget's work, are (1) that repeated visual encounters with a stimulus pattern leads first to attentional preference for that…

New Teachers' Challenges: How Culturally Responsive Teaching, Classroom Management, & Assessment Literacy Are Intertwined

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lew, Moi Mooi; Nelson, Regena Fails

2016-01-01

In the past decade, educational environments have drastically changed over time and have become more diverse and complex. The rapid influx of pluralistic populations from a variety of different societies contribute to the diverse student population. Student diversity creates challenges to new teachers if they are not familiar with culturally…

Looking at Earth from space. Glossary of terms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

This glossary is one of a series of NASA publications designed to familiarize educators with global change issues and Mission to Planet Earth. The series enables teachers to enhance classroom studies with hands-on activities, including satellite images. Concepts and terms related to the global environment and the impact of human activities on the planet are presented.

Embedded Advertising on Television: Classic Legal Environment and Business Law Content "Brought to You by ..."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cain, Rita Marie

2010-01-01

Students are familiar with some or all depictions of branded products in popular television shows. But they probably have no idea the number of legal and public policy issues these product appearances are generating. This article explains how embedded advertising in television shows can be the attention-grabbing vehicle for teaching numerous…

Effects of Home Literacy on Children's Recall. Technical Report No. 420.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greer, Eunice Ann; Mason, Jana M.

A study assessed the impact of the home literacy environment on kindergartners' recall of topically familiar and unfamiliar information. Subjects, 32 kindergarten students (16 from a public school and 16 in a gifted program in a private school), were selected from a mid-sized, mid-western community. All subjects recalled two of four…

STRUCTURED LEARNING AND TRAINING ENVIRONMENTS--A PREPARATION LABORATORY FOR ADVANCED MAMMALIAN PHYSIOLOGY.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

FIEL, NICHOLAS J.; JOHNSTON, RAYMOND F.

A PREPARATION LABORATORY WAS DESIGNED TO FAMILIARIZE STUDENTS IN ADVANCED MAMMALIAN PHYSIOLOGY WITH LABORATORY SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES AND THUS SHORTEN THE TIME THEY SPEND IN SETTING UP ACTUAL EXPERIMENTS. THE LABORATORY LASTS 30 MINUTES, IS FLEXIBLE AND SIMPLE OF OPERATION, AND DOES NOT REQUIRE A PROFESSOR'S PRESENCE. THE BASIC TRAINING UNIT IS THE…

Different Locks Must Be Opened with Different Keys: Using Chinese Proverbs for Teaching Finance to Chinese-Speaking Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biktimirov, Ernest N.; Feng, Jingtao

2006-01-01

This paper suggests the use of Chinese proverbs in the teaching of finance to Chinese-speaking students. Familiar proverbs facilitate teaching to Chinese students by appealing to students' prior knowledge, improving retention of new material, and creating a friendlier classroom environment. Using Chinese proverbs in finance instruction also…

Challenging the Sounds of Silence: A Qualitative Study of Gay-Straight Alliances and School Reform Efforts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mayberry, Maralee; Chenneville, Tiffany; Currie, Sean

2013-01-01

We explore the efficacy of one increasingly familiar strategic intervention designed to disrupt antigay school environments--Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs). Despite the increasing popularity of GSAs, there has been little research on the ways in which they do--and do not--impact school climate. The ubiquity of antigay and homophobic attitudes…

The Early Years: Animal Adventures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashbrook, Peggy

2007-01-01

Children can have a new favorite animal every week or even every hour. The more familiar the children become with an animal, the more they will be able to understand how its body form and behavior allow it to survive. Learning about the characteristics of organisms and how organisms relate to their environment is part of the National Science…

Preserved learning of novel information in amnesia: evidence for multiple memory systems.

PubMed

Gordon, B

1988-06-01

Four of five patients with marked global amnesia, and others with new learning impairments, showed normal processing facilitation for novel stimuli (nonwords) and/or for familiar stimuli (words) on a word/nonword (lexical) decision task. The data are interpreted as a reflection of the learning capabilities of in-line neural processing stages with multiple, distinct, informational codes. These in-line learning processes are separate from the recognition/recall memory impaired by amygdalohippocampal/dosomedial thalamic damage, but probably supplement such memory in some tasks in normal individuals. Preserved learning of novel information seems incompatible with explanations of spared learning in amnesia that are based on the episodic/semantic or memory/habit distinctions, but is consistent with the procedural/declarative hypothesis.

The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism: relation to familiar risk of affective disorder, BDNF levels and salivary cortisol.

PubMed

Vinberg, Maj; Trajkovska, Viktorija; Bennike, Bente; Knorr, Ulla; Knudsen, Gitte M; Kessing, Lars V

2009-10-01

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are considered to play an important role in the pathophysiology of affective disorders. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism is associated with a familiar risk of affective disorder and whether these genotypes affect whole blood BDNF level and salivary cortisol. In a high-risk study, healthy monozygotic and dizygotic twins with and without a co-twin (high- and low-risk twins, respectively) history of affective disorder were identified through nationwide registers. Familiar predisposition to unipolar and bipolar disorder was not associated with any specific genotype pattern of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism, not in this sample of 124 val/val, 58 val/met and 8 met/met individuals. However, the combination of having a high familiar risk of affective disorder and the met allele was associated with a higher whole blood BDNF (p=0.02) and a higher evening cortisol level (p=0.01), but not with awakening cortisol. Individuals at high risk of affective disorders and who are carriers of the met allele of the Val66Met polymorphism may present with an enhanced stress response. The presence of a specific genotype alone may not enhance the risk of developing an affective episode. Rather, the altered stress response may be expressed only in combination with other risk variants through interactions with the environment.

Sensory Augmentation for the Blind

PubMed Central

Kärcher, Silke M.; Fenzlaff, Sandra; Hartmann, Daniela; Nagel, Saskia K.; König, Peter

2012-01-01

Common navigational aids used by blind travelers during large-scale navigation divert attention away from important cues of the immediate environment (i.e., approaching vehicles). Sensory augmentation devices, relying on principles similar to those at work in sensory substitution, can potentially bypass the bottleneck of attention through sub-cognitive implementation of a set of rules coupling motor actions with sensory stimulation. We provide a late blind subject with a vibrotactile belt that continually signals the direction of magnetic north. The subject completed a set of behavioral tests before and after an extended training period. The tests were complemented by questionnaires and interviews. This newly supplied information improved performance on different time scales. In a pointing task we demonstrate an instant improvement of performance based on the signal provided by the device. Furthermore, the signal was helpful in relevant daily tasks, often complicated for the blind, such as keeping a direction over longer distances or taking shortcuts in familiar environments. A homing task with an additional attentional load demonstrated a significant improvement after training. The subject found the directional information highly expedient for the adjustment of his inner maps of familiar environments and describes an increase in his feeling of security when exploring unfamiliar environments with the belt. The results give evidence for a firm integration of the newly supplied signals into the behavior of this late blind subject with better navigational performance and more courageous behavior in unfamiliar environments. Most importantly, the complementary information provided by the belt lead to a positive emotional impact with enhanced feeling of security. The present experimental approach demonstrates the positive potential of sensory augmentation devices for the help of handicapped people. PMID:22403535

Electroencephalographic Correlates of Sensorimotor Integration and Embodiment during the Appreciation of Virtual Architectural Environments.

PubMed

Vecchiato, Giovanni; Tieri, Gaetano; Jelic, Andrea; De Matteis, Federico; Maglione, Anton G; Babiloni, Fabio

2015-01-01

Nowadays there is the hope that neuroscientific findings will contribute to the improvement of building design in order to create environments which satisfy man's demands. This can be achieved through the understanding of neurophysiological correlates of architectural perception. To this aim, the electroencephalographic (EEG) signals of 12 healthy subjects were recorded during the perception of three immersive virtual reality environments (VEs). Afterwards, participants were asked to describe their experience in terms of Familiarity, Novelty, Comfort, Pleasantness, Arousal, and Presence using a rating scale from 1 to 9. These perceptual dimensions are hypothesized to influence the pattern of cerebral spectral activity, while Presence is used to assess the realism of the virtual stimulation. Hence, the collected scores were used to analyze the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the EEG for each behavioral dimension in the theta, alpha and mu bands by means of time-frequency analysis and topographic statistical maps. Analysis of Presence resulted in the activation of the frontal-midline theta, indicating the involvement of sensorimotor integration mechanisms when subjects expressed to feel more present in the VEs. Similar patterns also characterized the experience of familiar and comfortable VEs. In addition, pleasant VEs increased the theta power across visuomotor circuits and activated the alpha band in areas devoted to visuospatial exploration and processing of categorical spatial relations. Finally, the de-synchronization of the mu rhythm described the perception of pleasant and comfortable VEs, showing the involvement of left motor areas and embodied mechanisms for environment appreciation. Overall, these results show the possibility to measure EEG correlates of architectural perception involving the cerebral circuits of sensorimotor integration, spatial navigation, and embodiment. These observations can help testing architectural hypotheses in order to design environments matching the changing needs of humans.

Electroencephalographic Correlates of Sensorimotor Integration and Embodiment during the Appreciation of Virtual Architectural Environments

PubMed Central

Vecchiato, Giovanni; Tieri, Gaetano; Jelic, Andrea; De Matteis, Federico; Maglione, Anton G.; Babiloni, Fabio

2015-01-01

Nowadays there is the hope that neuroscientific findings will contribute to the improvement of building design in order to create environments which satisfy man's demands. This can be achieved through the understanding of neurophysiological correlates of architectural perception. To this aim, the electroencephalographic (EEG) signals of 12 healthy subjects were recorded during the perception of three immersive virtual reality environments (VEs). Afterwards, participants were asked to describe their experience in terms of Familiarity, Novelty, Comfort, Pleasantness, Arousal, and Presence using a rating scale from 1 to 9. These perceptual dimensions are hypothesized to influence the pattern of cerebral spectral activity, while Presence is used to assess the realism of the virtual stimulation. Hence, the collected scores were used to analyze the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the EEG for each behavioral dimension in the theta, alpha and mu bands by means of time-frequency analysis and topographic statistical maps. Analysis of Presence resulted in the activation of the frontal-midline theta, indicating the involvement of sensorimotor integration mechanisms when subjects expressed to feel more present in the VEs. Similar patterns also characterized the experience of familiar and comfortable VEs. In addition, pleasant VEs increased the theta power across visuomotor circuits and activated the alpha band in areas devoted to visuospatial exploration and processing of categorical spatial relations. Finally, the de-synchronization of the mu rhythm described the perception of pleasant and comfortable VEs, showing the involvement of left motor areas and embodied mechanisms for environment appreciation. Overall, these results show the possibility to measure EEG correlates of architectural perception involving the cerebral circuits of sensorimotor integration, spatial navigation, and embodiment. These observations can help testing architectural hypotheses in order to design environments matching the changing needs of humans. PMID:26733924

Astronomy Education in Greece

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Metaxa, M.

Basic education is fundamental to higher education and scientific and technological literacy. We can confront the widespread adult ignorance and apathy about science and technology. Astronomy, an interdisciplinary science, enhances students' interest and overcomes educational problems. Three years ago, we developed astronomy education in these ways: 1. Summer School for School Students. (50 students from Athens came to the first Summer School in Astrophysics at the National Observatory, September 2-5, 1996, for lectures by professional astronomers and to be familiarized with observatory instruments. 2. Introducing Students to Research. (This teaches students more about science so they are more confident about it. Our students have won top prizes in European research contests for their studies of objects on Schmidt plates and computations on PCs.) 3. Hands-on Activities. (Very important because they bring students close to their natural environment. Activities are: variable-star observations (AAVSO), Eratosthenes project, solar-eclipse, sunspot and comet studies. 4. Contact with Professional Astronomers and Institutes. (These help students reach their social environment and motivate them as "science carriers". We try to make contacts at astronomical events, and through visits to appropriate institutions.) 5. Internet Programs. (Students learn about and familiarize themselves with their technological environment.) 6. Laboratory exercises. (Students should do science, not just learn about it We introduced the following lab. exercises: supernova remnants, galaxy classification, both from Schmidt plates, celestial sphere.

An Impaled Potential Unexploded Device in the Civilian Trauma Setting: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

PubMed

Thaut, Lane C; Murtha, Andrew S; Johnson, Anthony E; Roper, Jamie L

2018-05-01

The management of patients with impaled unexploded devices is rare in the civilian setting. However, as the lines of the traditional battlefield are blurred by modern warfare and terrorist activity, emergency providers should be familiar with facility protocols, plans, and contact information of their local resources for unexploded devices. A 44-year-old male sustained a close-proximity blast injury to his lower extremities while manipulating a mortar-type firework. He presented to the regional trauma center with an open, comminuted distal femur fracture and radiographic evidence of a potential explosive device in his thigh. His management was coordinated with the local Explosive Ordinance Disposal and the fire department. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: Explosive devices pose a grave threat when encountered. Familiarization with protocols to manage these patients can mitigate disaster. Emergency providers should expect and be prepared to coordinate care for these patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Haptic object matching by blind and sighted adults and children.

PubMed

Withagen, Ans; Kappers, Astrid M L; Vervloed, Mathijs P J; Knoors, Harry; Verhoeven, Ludo

2012-02-01

The present study describes a tactual object matching task based on the study of Lederman and Klatzky (1987) for the dimensions Exact shape, Weight, Volume and Texture. Participants were congenitally blind children and their sighted classmates, congenitally blind adults and sighted adults. To study a possible effect of familiarity the task was performed four times. Based on Millar's CAPIN (Convergent Active Processes in Interrelated Networks) model of spatial processing (Millar, 1994) it was thought that this manipulation would add redundant information to the experiment from which the children and blind participants could benefit. The results showed that accuracy was affected more by age than visual status, especially for the dimension Exact Shape. With regard to response times, children were in most cases faster than adults, especially the sighted adults. Familiarization had a significant effect on response times for all dimensions. Extra exercise only increased accuracy for the dimension Texture. These results were generally in line with the CAPIN model. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Overcoming the Effects of Variation in Infant Speech Segmentation: Influences of Word Familiarity

PubMed Central

Singh, Leher; Nestor, Sarah S.; Bortfeld, Heather

2010-01-01

Previous studies have shown that 7.5-month-olds can track and encode words in fluent speech, but they fail to equate instances of a word that contrast in talker gender, vocal affect, and fundamental frequency. By 10.5 months, they succeed at generalizing across such variability, marking a clear transition period during which infants’ word recognition skills become qualitatively more mature. Here we explore the role of word familiarity in this critical transition and, in particular, whether words that occur frequently in a child’s listening environment (i.e., “Mommy” and “Daddy”) are more easily recognized when they differ in surface characteristics than those that infants have not previously encountered (termed nonwords). Results demonstrate that words are segmented from continuous speech in a more linguistically mature fashion than nonwords at 7.5 months, but at 10.5 months, both words and nonwords are segmented in a relatively mature fashion. These findings suggest that early word recognition is facilitated in cases where infants have had significant exposure to items, but at later stages, infants are able to segment items regardless of their presumed familiarity. PMID:21088702

If the face is familiar, the patient may be overusing healthcare.

PubMed

2014-01-01

Patients who use the healthcare system excessively, and often for avoidable issues, create a burden for hospitals and consume a significant portion of healthcare expenditures. Many frequent users have complex medical and psychosocial needs, are uninsured, or have behavioral health issues. Case managers should identify patients who are potential frequent utilizers and make sure they are connected with a primary care provider. Take the time to find out barriers to care and call in a social worker to help line up community resources.

Reducing losses from earthquakes through personal preparedness

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kockelman, W.J.

1985-01-01

A prerequisite to personal preparedness is familiarity with and concern about the other hazard-reduction phases. Strengthening the structure of the home, storing water, and showing family members how to shut off utility-supply lines are only a part of personal preparedness. Equally important are other phases such as picking up children from an evacuated school, securing heavy objects at the work palce as well as in the home, and retrofitting the commuter-highway overpasses needed to reunite a family. 

The use of virtual reality to reimagine two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fath, Elaine

2015-03-01

A familiar realm in the world of two-dimensional art is the craft of taking a flat canvas and creating, through color, size, and perspective, the illusion of a three-dimensional space. Using well-explored tricks of logic and sight, impossible landscapes such as those by surrealists de Chirico or Salvador Dalí seem to be windows into new and incredible spaces which appear to be simultaneously feasible and utterly nonsensical. As real-time 3D imaging becomes increasingly prevalent as an artistic medium, this process takes on an additional layer of depth: no longer is two-dimensional space restricted to strategies of light, color, line and geometry to create the impression of a three-dimensional space. A digital interactive environment is a space laid out in three dimensions, allowing the user to explore impossible environments in a way that feels very real. In this project, surrealist two-dimensional art was researched and reimagined: what would stepping into a de Chirico or a Magritte look and feel like, if the depth and distance created by light and geometry were not simply single-perspective illusions, but fully formed and explorable spaces? 3D environment-building software is allowing us to step into these impossible spaces in ways that 2D representations leave us yearning for. This art project explores what we gain--and what gets left behind--when these impossible spaces become doors, rather than windows. Using sketching, Maya 3D rendering software, and the Unity Engine, surrealist art was reimagined as a fully navigable real-time digital environment. The surrealist movement and its key artists were researched for their use of color, geometry, texture, and space and how these elements contributed to their work as a whole, which often conveys feelings of unexpectedness or uneasiness. The end goal was to preserve these feelings while allowing the viewer to actively engage with the space.

Children with Multiple Stays at Refuges for Abused Women and Their Experiences of Teacher Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Selvik, Sabreen; Raaheim, Arild; Øverlien, Carolina

2017-01-01

Numerous children around the world are forced to make multiple moves with their mothers in and out of refuges for abused women. Each time, they experience a sudden upheaval of their familiar environment. For these children, domestic violence and flight from violence is not an isolated event but part of their upbringing. Few statistics and little…

Integrating Popular Web Applications in Classroom Learning Environments and Its Effects on Teaching, Student Learning Motivation and Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Yen-Ting; Jou, Min

2013-01-01

Advancements in information and communication technology (ICT) allowed several tools and systems to be proposed for improving classroom experiences to both instructors and students. However, most of these tools were brand-new and stand-alone programs that require users to invest additional time and effort to become familiar with their use. This…

Toys in Space: Exploring Science with the Astronauts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sumners, Carolyn

The purpose of the Toys in Space project was to create new ways for children to discover the joy and excitement of science and technology in the world around us. This book describes how familiar toys behave in the space environment where the downward pull of gravity is absent, and clearly documents those principles of physics that explain why the…

The Impact of Supported and Annotated Mobile Learning on Achievement and Cognitive Load

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shadiev, Rustam; Hwang, Wu-Yuin; Huang, Yueh-Min; Liu, Tzu-Yu

2015-01-01

We designed activities for learning English as a foreign language in a mobile learning environment with familiar authentic support for this study. Students learned at school and then applied their newly gained knowledge to solve daily life problems by first using a tablet to take pictures of objects they wished to learn about, then describing them…

America After 3PM Special Report on Summer: Missed Opportunities, Unmet Demand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Afterschool Alliance, 2010

2010-01-01

For many children in America, summer vacation means camp, trips to new or familiar destinations, visits to museums, parks and libraries, and a variety of enriching activities--either with families or as part of a summer learning program. But for millions of others, when schools close for the summer, safe and enriching learning environments are out…

Scientific Data Analysis Toolkit: A Versatile Add-in to Microsoft Excel for Windows

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halpern, Arthur M.; Frye, Stephen L.; Marzzacco, Charles J.

2018-01-01

Scientific Data Analysis Toolkit (SDAT) is a rigorous, versatile, and user-friendly data analysis add-in application for Microsoft Excel for Windows (PC). SDAT uses the familiar Excel environment to carry out most of the analytical tasks used in data analysis. It has been designed for student use in manipulating and analyzing data encountered in…

Tech Talk for Social Studies Teachers: Evaluating Online Resources--The Importance of Critical Reading Skills in Online Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Street, Chris

2005-01-01

In the past two decades, substantial changes in pedagogy, advances in technology, and new emphases on critical reading, writing, and thinking across the curriculum have swept the educational landscape of the United States. Although "many students are familiar with some technological elements (notably e-mail and Web browsing), few demonstrate the…

Quantitative Analysis of Teachers' Perceptions of Parental Involvement and Communication in the Online School Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Amy K.

2017-01-01

Parent and family involvement is a familiar topic used by many researchers in the traditional education setting yet vastly under used as it applies to the online education setting. The purpose of this study was to explore and determine if there are any differences among online teachers' perceptions of parental involvement and communication in the…

Illuminating Engineering Research Institute Annual Report 1966. A Review of Research Activities and a View of New Goals in a Luminous Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Illuminating Engineering Research Inst., New York, NY.

Several of the more familiar Illuminating Engineering Research Institute projects which have been chronicled progressively during the past several years are discussed in this report. Those elaborated on are--(1) visual performance and illumination, (2) roadway visual tasks, (3) color preference studies, (4) glare from large sources, (5) discomfort…

Population growth, economic security, and cultural change in wilderness counties

Treesearch

Paul A. Lorah

2000-01-01

A familiar version of the “jobs versus the environment” argument asserts that wilderness areas limit economic growth by locking up potentially productive natural resources. Analysis of the development paths of rural Western counties shows that this is unlikely: the presence of Wilderness is correlated with income, employment and population growth. Similarly, Wilderness...

Environmental Public Health Research at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – Addressing Community Exposures and Outcomes from One Researcher’s Perspective

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) mission is to protect human health and the environment. Those not familiar with U.S. EPA’s mission often do not realize that U.S. EPA is a public health agency. In this presentation, Dr. Danelle Lobdell will provid...

A Systematic Replication of Teaching Children with Autism to Respond Appropriately to Lures from Strangers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bergstrom, Ryan; Najdowski, Adel C.; Tarbox, Jonathan

2014-01-01

We evaluated the effects of behavioral skills training in the home for teaching children with autism to abstain from going with strangers and immediately inform a familiar adult of the stranger's attempt to lure them in the natural environment. All participants learned to respond correctly to lures in the home and demonstrated concomitant…

How the Non-Work Environment Can Affect Worker and Family Health.

PubMed

Rittle, Chad

2016-10-19

Occupational health nurses are familiar with environmental exposures workers encounter in their workplaces. However, employees are only "on-the-job" about one third of each workday, with a multitude of potential exposures in other environments that can affect their health. This article addresses some of the major exposures employees encounter outside the workplace-air, water, and soil pollution, and hazardous wastes-including a discussion of several well-known national and international environmental incidents. The major sources of these pollutants and how they contaminate the environment were investigated. Finally, risk assessment and communication along with effective strategies for educating employees and the community are presented. © 2016 The Author(s).

Interrupted breeding in a songbird migrant triggers development of nocturnal locomotor activity.

PubMed

Mukhin, Andrey; Kobylkov, Dmitry; Kishkinev, Dmitry; Grinkevich, Vitaly

2018-04-03

Long-distance avian migrants, e.g. Eurasian reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus), can precisely schedule events of their annual cycle. However, the proximate mechanisms controlling annual cycle and their interplay with environmental factors are poorly understood. We artificially interrupted breeding in reed warblers by bringing them into captivity and recording birds' locomotor activity for 5-7 days. Over this time, most of the captive birds gradually developed nocturnal locomotor activity not observed in breeding birds. When the birds were later released and radio-tracked, the individuals with highly developed caged activity performed nocturnal flights. We also found that reed warblers kept indoors without access to local cues developed a higher level of nocturnal activity compared to the birds kept outdoors with an access to the familiar environment. Also, birds translocated from a distant site (21 km) had a higher motivation to fly at night-time after release compared to the birds captured within 1 km of a study site. Our study suggests that an interrupted breeding triggers development of nocturnal locomotor activity in cages, and the level of activity is correlated with motivation to perform nocturnal flights in the wild, which can be restrained by familiar environment.

An Educational Multimedia Presentation on the Introduction to Spacecraft Charging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, E.; dePayrebrune, M.

2004-01-01

Over the last few decades, significant knowledge has been gained in how to protect spacecraft from charging; however, the continuing technical advancement in the design and build of satellites requires on-going effort in the study of spacecraft charging. A situation that we have encountered is that not all satellite designers and builders are familiar with the problem of spacecraft charging. The design of a satellite involves many talented people with diverse backgrounds, ranging from manufacturing and assembly to engineering and program management. The complex design and build of a satellite system requires people with highly specialized skills such that cross-specialization is often not achievable. As a result, designers and builders of satellites are not usually familiar with the problems outside their specialization. This is also true for spacecraft charging. Not everyone is familiar with the definition of spacecraft charging and the damage that spacecraft charging can cause. Understanding the problem is an important first step in getting everyone involved in addressing the appropriate spacecraft charging issues during the satellite design and build phases. To address this important first step, an educational multimedia presentation has been created to inform the general engineering community about the basics of spacecraft charging. The content of this educational presentation is based on relevant published technical papers. The presentation was developed using Macromedia Flash. This software produces a more dynamic learning environment than a typical slide show , resulting in a more effective learning experience. The end result is that the viewer will have learned about the basics of spacecraft charging. This presentation is available to the public through our website, www.dplscience.com, free of charge. Viewers are encouraged to pass this presentation to colleagues within their own work environment. This paper describes the content of the multimedia presentation.

Autonomous Visual Navigation of an Indoor Environment Using a Parsimonious, Insect Inspired Familiarity Algorithm

PubMed Central

Brayfield, Brad P.

2016-01-01

The navigation of bees and ants from hive to food and back has captivated people for more than a century. Recently, the Navigation by Scene Familiarity Hypothesis (NSFH) has been proposed as a parsimonious approach that is congruent with the limited neural elements of these insects’ brains. In the NSFH approach, an agent completes an initial training excursion, storing images along the way. To retrace the path, the agent scans the area and compares the current scenes to those previously experienced. By turning and moving to minimize the pixel-by-pixel differences between encountered and stored scenes, the agent is guided along the path without having memorized the sequence. An important premise of the NSFH is that the visual information of the environment is adequate to guide navigation without aliasing. Here we demonstrate that an image landscape of an indoor setting possesses ample navigational information. We produced a visual landscape of our laboratory and part of the adjoining corridor consisting of 2816 panoramic snapshots arranged in a grid at 12.7-cm centers. We show that pixel-by-pixel comparisons of these images yield robust translational and rotational visual information. We also produced a simple algorithm that tracks previously experienced routes within our lab based on an insect-inspired scene familiarity approach and demonstrate that adequate visual information exists for an agent to retrace complex training routes, including those where the path’s end is not visible from its origin. We used this landscape to systematically test the interplay of sensor morphology, angles of inspection, and similarity threshold with the recapitulation performance of the agent. Finally, we compared the relative information content and chance of aliasing within our visually rich laboratory landscape to scenes acquired from indoor corridors with more repetitive scenery. PMID:27119720

Pre-training in a radial arm maze abolished anxiety and impaired habituation in C57BL6/J mice treated with dizocilpine.

PubMed

Abuhamdah, R M; Hussain, M D; Chazot, P L; Ennaceur, A

2016-10-01

Familiarity can imply a reduction of fear and anxiety, which may render learning and memory performance insensitive to NMDA receptor antagonism. Our previous study indicates that MK-801 (dizocilpine), NMDA antagonist, increased anxiety and prevented the acquisition of a spatial memory task. Here, we examined whether MK-801 will produce anxiety in mice that were familiar with the test environment. Male C57BL/6J mice were exposed, one session a day for 7days, to a 3D maze, which consisted of nine arms attached to upward inclined bridges radiating from a nonagonal platform. In this maze, high anxiety mice avoid the arms in the first sessions. One group of mice received saline (SAL) while a second group received MK-801 (MKD1), both on day one. A third group received saline in the first 3 sessions, and MK 801 in subsequent sessions (MKD4). Saline and MK-801 (0.1mg/kg) were administered intraperitoneally 30min before the test. MKD4 mice demonstrated an increase in bridge and arm visits, and reached arm/bridge entries ratio close to 1 in session 5. SAL mice also crossed frequently onto the arms, and reached a comparable ratio, but this was achieved with a lower number of arm visits. MKD1 mice demonstrated a reduced number of arm visits in each session compared to SAL and MKD4 mice. Dizocilpine produced anxiety in mice treated from day 1 of the test, but not in those treated from day 4. It also impaired habituation in animals familiar with the test environment; it produced sustained non-habituating hyperactivity. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Social context affects behavior, preoptic area gene expression, and response to D2 receptor manipulation during territorial defense in a cichlid fish.

PubMed

Weitekamp, C A; Nguyen, J; Hofmann, H A

2017-07-01

Social context often has profound effects on behavior, yet the neural and molecular mechanisms which mediate flexible behavioral responses to different social environments are not well understood. We used the African cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni, to examine aggressive defense behavior across three social contexts representing different motivational states: a reproductive opportunity, a familiar male and a neutral context. To elucidate how differences in behavior across contexts may be mediated by neural gene expression, we examined gene expression in the preoptic area, a brain region known to control male aggressive and sexual behavior. We show that social context has broad effects on preoptic gene expression. Specifically, we found that the expression of genes encoding nonapeptides and sex steroid receptors are upregulated in the familiar male context. Furthermore, circulating levels of testosterone and cortisol varied markedly depending on social context. We also manipulated the D2 receptor (D2R) in each social context, given that it has been implicated in mediating context-dependent behavior. We found that a D2R agonist reduced intruder-directed aggression in the reproductive opportunity and familiar male contexts, while a D2R antagonist inhibited intruder-directed aggression in the reproductive opportunity context and increased aggression in the neutral context. Our results demonstrate a critical role for preoptic gene expression, as well as circulating steroid hormone levels, in encoding information from the social environment and in shaping adaptive behavior. In addition, they provide further evidence for a role of D2R in context-dependent behavior. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.

Effects of rearing environment on the gut antimicrobial responses of two broiler chicken lines.

PubMed

Butler, Vanessa L; Mowbray, Catherine A; Cadwell, Kevin; Niranji, Sherko S; Bailey, Richard; Watson, Kellie A; Ralph, John; Hall, Judith

2016-10-01

To reduce the risk of enteric disease in poultry, knowledge of how bird gut innate defences mature with age while also responding to different rearing environments is necessary. In this study the gut innate responses of two phylogenetically distinct lines of poultry raised from hatch to 35days, in conditions mimicing high hygiene (HH) and low hygiene (LH) rearing environments, were compared. Analyses focussed on the proximal gut antimicrobial activities and the duodenal and caecal AvBD1, 4 and 10 defensin profiles. Variability in microbial killing was observed between individual birds in each of the two lines at all ages, but samples from day 0 birds (hatch) of both lines exhibited marked killing properties, Line X: 19±11% (SEM) and Line Y: 8.5±12% (SEM). By day 7 a relaxation in killing was observed with bacterial survival increased from 3 (Line Y (LY)) to 11 (Line X (LX)) fold in birds reared in the HH environment. A less marked response was observed in the LH environment and delayed until day 14. At day 35 the gut antimicrobial properties of the two lines were comparable. The AvBD 1, 4 and 10 data relating to the duodenal and caecal tissues of day 0, 7 and 35 birds LX and LY birds revealed gene expression trends specific to each line and to the different rearing environments although the data were confounded by inter-individual variability. In summary elevated AvBD1 duodenal expression was detected in day 0 and day 7 LX, but not LY birds, maintained in LH environments; Line X and Y duodenal AvBD4 profiles were detected in day 7 birds reared in both environments although duodenal AvBD10 expression was less sensitive to bird age and rearing background. Caecal AvBD1 expression was particularly evident in newly hatched birds. These data suggest that proximal gut antimicrobial activity is related to the bird rearing environments although the roles of the AvBDs in such activities require further investigation. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Standardized, Interdepartmental, Simulation-Based Central Line Insertion Course Closes an Educational Gap and Improves Intern Comfort with the Procedure.

PubMed

Grudziak, Joanna; Herndon, Blair; Dancel, Ria D; Arora, Harendra; Tignanelli, Christopher J; Phillips, Michael R; Crowner, Jason R; True, Nicholas A; Kiser, Andy C; Brown, Rebecca F; Goodell, Harry P; Murty, Neil; Meyers, Michael O; Montgomery, Sean P

2017-06-01

Central line placement is a common procedure, routinely performed by junior residents in medical and surgical departments. Before this project, no standardized instructional course on the insertion of central lines existed at our institution, and few interns had received formal ultrasound training. Interns from five departments participated in a simulation-based central line insertion course. Intern familiarity with the procedure and with ultrasound, as well as their prior experience with line placement and their level of comfort, was assessed. Of the 99 interns in participating departments, 45 per cent had been trained as of October 2015. Forty-one per cent were female. The majority (59.5%) had no prior formal ultrasound training, and 46.0 per cent had never placed a line as primary operator. Scores increased significantly, from a precourse score mean of 13.7 to a postcourse score mean of 16.1, P < 0.001. All three of the self-reported measures of comfort with ultrasound also improved significantly. All interns reported the course was "very much" helpful, and 100 per cent reported they felt "somewhat" or "much" more comfortable with the procedure after attendance. To our knowledge, this is the first hospital-wide, standardized, simulation-based central line insertion course in the United States. Preliminary results indicate overwhelming satisfaction with the course, better ultrasound preparedness, and improved comfort with central line insertion.

The use of non-wood forest products by migrants in a new settlement: experiences of a Visayan community in Palawan, Philippines.

PubMed

Lacuna-Richman, Celeste

2006-09-07

Migrants are often constrained by a lack of knowledge regarding their new environment and require new skills for their livelihood. In Palawan, some of these necessary skills and knowledge are related to the collection and use of non-wood forest products (NWFPs), many of which the migrants were previously not familiar with. The predominantly Visayan migrants have been successful in familiarizing themselves with the NWFPs in the surrounding forests, with assistance from some of the local indigenous people, in this case the Tagbanua, and from previous migrant settlers. The NWFPs they know about and the extent of use are presented. Currently, except for almaciga (Agathis philippinensis Warb.) resin and house-building materials, NWFPs are considered as supplements to agricultural products, not as main source of either subsistence or income.

Increasing Accessibility to the Blind of Virtual Environments, Using a Virtual Mobility Aid Based On the "EyeCane": Feasibility Study

PubMed Central

Maidenbaum, Shachar; Levy-Tzedek, Shelly; Chebat, Daniel-Robert; Amedi, Amir

2013-01-01

Virtual worlds and environments are becoming an increasingly central part of our lives, yet they are still far from accessible to the blind. This is especially unfortunate as such environments hold great potential for them for uses such as social interaction, online education and especially for use with familiarizing the visually impaired user with a real environment virtually from the comfort and safety of his own home before visiting it in the real world. We have implemented a simple algorithm to improve this situation using single-point depth information, enabling the blind to use a virtual cane, modeled on the “EyeCane” electronic travel aid, within any virtual environment with minimal pre-processing. Use of the Virtual-EyeCane, enables this experience to potentially be later used in real world environments with identical stimuli to those from the virtual environment. We show the fast-learned practical use of this algorithm for navigation in simple environments. PMID:23977316

Implicit Recognition of Familiar and Unfamiliar Faces in Schizophrenia: A Study of the Skin Conductance Response in Familiarity Disorders.

PubMed

Ameller, Aurely; Picard, Aline; D'Hondt, Fabien; Vaiva, Guillaume; Thomas, Pierre; Pins, Delphine

2017-01-01

Familiarity is a subjective sensation that contributes to person recognition. This process is described as an emotion-based memory-trace of previous meetings and could be disrupted in schizophrenia. Consequently, familiarity disorders could be involved in the impaired social interactions observed in patients with schizophrenia. Previous studies have primarily focused on famous people recognition. Our aim was to identify underlying features, such as emotional disturbances, that may contribute to familiarity disorders in schizophrenia. We hypothesize that patients with familiarity disorders will exhibit a lack of familiarity that could be detected by a flattened skin conductance response (SCR). The SCR was recorded to test the hypothesis that emotional reactivity disturbances occur in patients with schizophrenia during the categorization of specific familiar, famous and unknown faces as male or female. Forty-eight subjects were divided into the following 3 matched groups with 16 subjects per group: control subjects, schizophrenic people with familiarity disorder, and schizophrenic people without familiarity disorders. Emotional arousal is reflected by the skin conductance measures. The control subjects and the patients without familiarity disorders experienced a differential emotional response to the specific familiar faces compared with that to the unknown faces. Nevertheless, overall, the schizophrenic patients without familiarity disorders showed a weaker response across conditions compared with the control subjects. In contrast, the patients with familiarity disorders did not show any significant differences in their emotional response to the faces, regardless of the condition. Only patients with familiarity disorders fail to exhibit a difference in emotional response between familiar and non-familiar faces. These patients likely emotionally process familiar faces similarly to unknown faces. Hence, the lower feelings of familiarity in schizophrenia may be a premise enabling the emergence of familiarity disorders.

Mondegreens and Soramimi as a Method to Induce Misperceptions of Speech Content – Influence of Familiarity, Wittiness, and Language Competence

PubMed Central

Beck, Claudia; Kardatzki, Bernd; Ethofer, Thomas

2014-01-01

Expectations and prior knowledge can strongly influence our perception. In vision research, such top-down modulation of perceptual processing has been extensively studied using ambiguous stimuli, such as reversible figures. Here, we propose a novel method to address this issue in the auditory modality during speech perception by means of Mondgreens and Soramimi which represent song lyrics with the potential for misperception within one or across two languages, respectively. We demonstrate that such phenomena can be induced by visual presentation of the alternative percept and occur with a sufficient probability to exploit them in neuroscientific experiments. Song familiarity did not influence the occurrence of such altered perception indicating that this tool can be employed irrespective of the participants’ knowledge of music. On the other hand, previous knowledge of the alternative percept had a strong impact on the strength of altered perception which is in line with frequent reports that these phenomena can have long-lasting effects. Finally, we demonstrate that the strength of changes in perception correlated with the extent to which they were experienced as amusing as well as the vocabulary of the participants as source of potential interpretations. These findings suggest that such perceptional phenomena might be linked to the pleasant experience of resolving ambiguity which is in line with the long-existing theory of Hermann von Helmholtz that perception and problem-solving recruit similar processes. PMID:24416261

40 CFR 94.510 - Compliance with criteria for production line testing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 20 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Compliance with criteria for production line testing. 94.510 Section 94.510 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... Manufacturer Production Line Testing Programs § 94.510 Compliance with criteria for production line testing. (a...

40 CFR 91.510 - Compliance with criteria for production line testing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 20 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Compliance with criteria for production line testing. 91.510 Section 91.510 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... Production Line Testing Program § 91.510 Compliance with criteria for production line testing. (a) A failed...

The effect of familiarity on perceived interestingness of images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, Sharon Lynn; Fedorovskaya, Elena; Quek, Francis; Snyder, Jeffrey

2013-03-01

We present an exploration of familiarity as a meaningful dimension for the individualized adaptation of media-rich interfaces. In this paper, we investigate in particular the effect of digital images personalized for familiarity on users' perceived interestingness. Two dimensions of familiarity, facial familiarity and familiarity with image context, are manipulated. Our investigation consisted of three studies: the first two address how morphing technology can be used to convey meaningful familiarity, and the third studies the effect of such familiarity on users' sense of interestingness. Four levels of person familiarity varying in degree of person knowledge, and two levels of context familiarity varying in frequency of exposure, were considered: Self, Friend, Celebrity, and Stranger in Familiar and Unfamiliar contexts. Experimental results showed significant main effects of context and person familiarity. Our findings deepen understanding of the critical element of familiarity in HCI and its relationship to the interestingness of images, and can have great impact for the design of media-rich systems.

Transfer of Nature of Science Understandings into Similar Contexts: Promises and Possibilities of an Explicit Reflective Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khishfe, Rola

2013-11-01

The purpose of this study was to (a) investigate the effectiveness of explicit nature of science (NOS) instruction in the context of controversial socioscientific issues and (b) explore whether the transfer of acquired NOS understandings, which were explicitly taught in the context of one socioscientific context, into other similar contexts (familiar and unfamiliar) was possible. Participants were 10th grade students in two intact sections at one high school. The treatment involved teaching a six-week unit about genetic engineering. For one group (non-NOS group), there was no explicit instruction about NOS. For the other group (NOS group), explicit instruction about three NOS aspects (subjective, empirical, and tentative) was dispersed across the genetic engineering unit. A questionnaire including two open-ended scenarios, in conjunction with semi-structured interviews, was used to assess the change in participants' understandings of NOS and their ability to transfer their acquired understandings into similar contexts. The first scenario involved a familiar context about genetically modified food and the second one focused on an unfamiliar context about water fluoridation. Results showed no improvement in NOS understandings of participants in the non-NOS group in relation to the familiar and unfamiliar contexts. On the other hand, there was a general improvement in the NOS understandings of participants in the NOS group in relation to both the familiar and unfamiliar contexts. Implications about the transfer of participants' acquired NOS understandings on the basis of the distance between the context of learning and that of application are highlighted and discussed in link with the classroom learning environment.

Familiarity facilitates feature-based face processing.

PubMed

Visconti di Oleggio Castello, Matteo; Wheeler, Kelsey G; Cipolli, Carlo; Gobbini, M Ida

2017-01-01

Recognition of personally familiar faces is remarkably efficient, effortless and robust. We asked if feature-based face processing facilitates detection of familiar faces by testing the effect of face inversion on a visual search task for familiar and unfamiliar faces. Because face inversion disrupts configural and holistic face processing, we hypothesized that inversion would diminish the familiarity advantage to the extent that it is mediated by such processing. Subjects detected personally familiar and stranger target faces in arrays of two, four, or six face images. Subjects showed significant facilitation of personally familiar face detection for both upright and inverted faces. The effect of familiarity on target absent trials, which involved only rejection of unfamiliar face distractors, suggests that familiarity facilitates rejection of unfamiliar distractors as well as detection of familiar targets. The preserved familiarity effect for inverted faces suggests that facilitation of face detection afforded by familiarity reflects mostly feature-based processes.

The modulatory effect of semantic familiarity on the audiovisual integration of face-name pairs.

PubMed

Li, Yuanqing; Wang, Fangyi; Huang, Biao; Yang, Wanqun; Yu, Tianyou; Talsma, Durk

2016-12-01

To recognize individuals, the brain often integrates audiovisual information from familiar or unfamiliar faces, voices, and auditory names. To date, the effects of the semantic familiarity of stimuli on audiovisual integration remain unknown. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we used familiar/unfamiliar facial images, auditory names, and audiovisual face-name pairs as stimuli to determine the influence of semantic familiarity on audiovisual integration. First, we performed a general linear model analysis using fMRI data and found that audiovisual integration occurred for familiar congruent and unfamiliar face-name pairs but not for familiar incongruent pairs. Second, we decoded the familiarity categories of the stimuli (familiar vs. unfamiliar) from the fMRI data and calculated the reproducibility indices of the brain patterns that corresponded to familiar and unfamiliar stimuli. The decoding accuracy rate was significantly higher for familiar congruent versus unfamiliar face-name pairs (83.2%) than for familiar versus unfamiliar faces (63.9%) and for familiar versus unfamiliar names (60.4%). This increase in decoding accuracy was not observed for familiar incongruent versus unfamiliar pairs. Furthermore, compared with the brain patterns associated with facial images or auditory names, the reproducibility index was significantly improved for the brain patterns of familiar congruent face-name pairs but not those of familiar incongruent or unfamiliar pairs. Our results indicate the modulatory effect that semantic familiarity has on audiovisual integration. Specifically, neural representations were enhanced for familiar congruent face-name pairs compared with visual-only faces and auditory-only names, whereas this enhancement effect was not observed for familiar incongruent or unfamiliar pairs. Hum Brain Mapp 37:4333-4348, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Interactive Environment Familiarization and Indicator Trainer: User Evaluation

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

data collected as part of this study was approved either by Defence Research and Development Canada’s Human Research Ethics Board or by the Director ...deployment experience in Afghanistan. Participants were not remunerated for their participation as no abnormal stress or discomfort was anticipated (DAOD...Wojtarowicz (DRDC Toronto) Run Director : Cpl Philip Mach (DRDC Toronto) Work breakdown element: 12rr03 ACRONYMS CF Canadian Forces CFB

"Playgrounds Which Would Never Happen Now, because They'd Be Far Too Dangerous": Risk, Childhood Development and Radical Sites of Theatre Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Grant Tyler

2011-01-01

This article revisits radical playgrounds of the past to offer a productive dialogue with recent debates on how child environments can foster citizenship and community. Joan Littlewood's playground projects are familiar examples of theatre techniques being applied to develop children's sense of belonging in a city. This essay considers the less…

The Teaching of Business French in Its Interaction with Legal, Economic, Political and Cultural Realities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Branan, Elisabeth Girod

One approach to teaching business French is to familiarize students with true business situations and to help students realize that business interacts with a body of laws and within a political and socioeconomic environment. On the first day of class, students are divided into groups of two or three, and each group becomes an enterprise with a…

GLobal Integrated Design Environment (GLIDE): A Concurrent Engineering Application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McGuire, Melissa L.; Kunkel, Matthew R.; Smith, David A.

2010-01-01

The GLobal Integrated Design Environment (GLIDE) is a client-server software application purpose-built to mitigate issues associated with real time data sharing in concurrent engineering environments and to facilitate discipline-to-discipline interaction between multiple engineers and researchers. GLIDE is implemented in multiple programming languages utilizing standardized web protocols to enable secure parameter data sharing between engineers and researchers across the Internet in closed and/or widely distributed working environments. A well defined, HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) based Application Programming Interface (API) to the GLIDE client/server environment enables users to interact with GLIDE, and each other, within common and familiar tools. One such common tool, Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation), paired with its add-in API for GLIDE, is discussed in this paper. The top-level examples given demonstrate how this interface improves the efficiency of the design process of a concurrent engineering study while reducing potential errors associated with manually sharing information between study participants.

[Living and dying with frailty : Qualitative interviews with elderly people in the domestic environment].

PubMed

Klindtworth, Katharina; Geiger, Karin; Pleschberger, Sabine; Bleidorn, Jutta; Schneider, Nils; Müller-Mundt, Gabriele

2017-02-01

Frail older people are becoming an increasingly more important target group in healthcare provision. Little is known about patients' views on frailty and its various impacts, especially towards the end of life. This study was carried out to analyze the needs of frail elderly people at the end of life. A qualitative, longitudinal case study design was applied and included 31 frail older patients (≥ 70 year) with a Canadian study of health and aging (CSHA) clinical frailty scale (CFS) grade 6/7 from urban and rural areas within the region of Lower Saxony. The analysis was based on guided interviews and followed the principles of grounded theory. From the patients' perspective frailty is perceived as a process of increasing complexity of health problems, increased vulnerability and reduced ability to perform tasks. Frailty is experienced as various deficits including the physical, psychological, social and existential dimensions. Living and dying in a familiar environment and maintaining autonomy was identified as a core category. Key determinants were access to and quality of healthcare services as well as various individual and social resources. A palliative biopsychosocial care approach should be established early in the process of frailty, including advance care planning in order to meet the patients' needs of staying in a familiar environment. General practitioners as well as home care nursing personnel have to collaborate in order to balance issues of autonomy with increased care needs and the support of informal carers as key partners towards the end of life.

40 CFR Table 10 to Subpart Wwww of... - Data Requirements for New and Existing Continuous Lamination Lines and Continuous Casting Lines...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 13 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Data Requirements for New and Existing Continuous Lamination Lines and Continuous Casting Lines Complying With a Percent Reduction Limit on a Per Line Basis 10 Table 10 to Subpart WWWW of Part 63 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS ...

40 CFR Table 10 to Subpart Wwww of... - Data Requirements for New and Existing Continuous Lamination Lines and Continuous Casting Lines...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 13 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Data Requirements for New and Existing Continuous Lamination Lines and Continuous Casting Lines Complying With a Percent Reduction Limit on a Per Line Basis 10 Table 10 to Subpart WWWW of Part 63 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS ...

Happy faces are preferred regardless of familiarity--sad faces are preferred only when familiar.

PubMed

Liao, Hsin-I; Shimojo, Shinsuke; Yeh, Su-Ling

2013-06-01

Familiarity leads to preference (e.g., the mere exposure effect), yet it remains unknown whether it is objective familiarity, that is, repetitive exposure, or subjective familiarity that contributes to preference. In addition, it is unexplored whether and how different emotions influence familiarity-related preference. The authors investigated whether happy or sad faces are preferred or perceived as more familiar and whether this subjective familiarity judgment correlates with preference for different emotional faces. An emotional face--happy or sad--was paired with a neutral face, and participants rated the relative preference and familiarity of each of the paired faces. For preference judgment, happy faces were preferred and sad faces were less preferred, compared with neutral faces. For familiarity judgment, happy faces did not show any bias, but sad faces were perceived as less familiar than neutral faces. Item-by-item correlational analyses show preference for sad faces--but not happy faces--positively correlate with familiarity. These results suggest a direct link between positive emotion and preference, and argue at least partly against a common cause for familiarity and preference. Instead, facial expression of different emotional valence modulates the link between familiarity and preference.

Nature works best when allowed to run its course. The experience of midwives promoting normal births in a home birth setting.

PubMed

Aune, Ingvild; Hoston, Mari A; Kolshus, Nora J; Larsen, Christel E G

2017-07-01

to gain a deeper understanding of how midwives promote a normal birth in a home birth setting in Norway. a qualitative approach was chosen for data collection. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine midwives working in a home birth setting in different areas in Norway. The transcribed interviews were analysed with the help of systematic text condensation. the analysis generated two main themes: «The midwife's fundamental beliefs» and «Working in line with one's ideology». The midwives had a fundamental belief that childbirth is a normal event that women are able to manage. It is important that this attitude is transferred to the woman in order for her to believe in her own ability to give birth. The midwives in the study were able to work according to their ideology when promoting a normal birth at home. To avoid disturbing the natural birth process was described as an important factor. Also crucial was to approach the work in a patient manner. Staying at home in a safe environment and establishing a close relationship with the midwife also contributed positively to a normal birth. the midwife's attitude is important when trying to promote a normal birth. Patience was seen as essential to avoid interventions. Being in a safe environment with a familiar midwife provides a good foundation for a normal birth. The attitude of the midwives towards normal childbirth ought to be more emphasised, also in the context of maternity wards. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Insect navigation: do ants live in the now?

PubMed

Graham, Paul; Mangan, Michael

2015-03-01

Visual navigation is a critical behaviour for many animals, and it has been particularly well studied in ants. Decades of ant navigation research have uncovered many ways in which efficient navigation can be implemented in small brains. For example, ants show us how visual information can drive navigation via procedural rather than map-like instructions. Two recent behavioural observations highlight interesting adaptive ways in which ants implement visual guidance. Firstly, it has been shown that the systematic nest searches of ants can be biased by recent experience of familiar scenes. Secondly, ants have been observed to show temporary periods of confusion when asked to repeat a route segment, even if that route segment is very familiar. Taken together, these results indicate that the navigational decisions of ants take into account their recent experiences as well as the currently perceived environment. © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

The use of non-wood forest products by migrants in a new settlement: experiences of a Visayan community in Palawan, Philippines

PubMed Central

Lacuna-Richman, Celeste

2006-01-01

Migrants are often constrained by a lack of knowledge regarding their new environment and require new skills for their livelihood. In Palawan, some of these necessary skills and knowledge are related to the collection and use of non-wood forest products (NWFPs), many of which the migrants were previously not familiar with. The predominantly Visayan migrants have been successful in familiarizing themselves with the NWFPs in the surrounding forests, with assistance from some of the local indigenous people, in this case the Tagbanua, and from previous migrant settlers. The NWFPs they know about and the extent of use are presented. Currently, except for almaciga (Agathis philippinensis Warb.) resin and house-building materials, NWFPs are considered as supplements to agricultural products, not as main source of either subsistence or income. PMID:16959026

[Eating behavior and childhood obesity: family influences].

PubMed

Domínguez-Vásquez, P; Olivares, S; Santos, J L

2008-09-01

Eating behavior involves all actions that define the relation between human beings and food. It is accepted that feeding habits are acquired through eating experiences and practices learned from the familiar and social context in early childhood. Besides the role of the social context, it is also assumed that familiar factors, both common family environment and genetic inheritance, have an important influence on food intake and eating behavior linked with childhood obesity. Research on food intake and childhood obesity has been traditionally focused on the amount and type of foods in the usual diet. However, it is an increasing interest to understand the link between eating behavior and obesity using questionnaires. There are several psychometric tools that have been developed specifically to deal with human eating behavior. This review summarizes the family influences, both genetic and non-genetic, on childhood feeding behavior and their relation to childhood obesity.

[Conceptualization of knowledge management in medium and high complexity health institutions].

PubMed

Arboleda-Posada, Gladys I

2016-06-01

Objective To identify the familiarization, conceptualization and incorporation of employees of medium and high complexity health institutions in the Valle de Aburrá, Colombia into the strategic knowledge management platform in 2011. Methodology Cross sectional study. The study was carried out by applying surveys to 224 employees to assess knowledge management. The population included staff who working in the Health Providing Institutions (IPS) of high (52) and medium complexity (322) in the Valle de Aburrá in 2011. In both the public and private institutions surveyed, 38.8 % of the respondents said they were not familiar with knowledge management. Among those who had administrative training, the ignorance was less than among care workers. It was also noted that as the level of education increased, knowledge of the concept was greater. A high proportion (65.2 % ) of respondents placed the concept in line with the creation, organization, storage, retrieval, transfer and application of knowledge systematically. 78.7 % of respondents from public institutions said that knowledge management was part of the strategic platform of the institution. 58.3 % from private institutions said the same. Conclusions In general terms the concept of knowledge management is not well conceived or familiar to the staff working in these institutions. The study confirmed a lack of empowerment in the field to promote the development of new ideas and to ensure that they become service innovations or processes that contribute to the development of institutional knowledge.

Underworld - Bringing a Research Code to the Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moresi, L. N.; Mansour, J.; Giordani, J.; Farrington, R.; Kaluza, O.; Quenette, S.; Woodcock, R.; Squire, G.

2017-12-01

While there are many reasons to celebrate the passing of punch card programming and flickering green screens,the loss of the sense of wonder at the very existence of computers and the calculations they make possible shouldnot be numbered among them. Computers have become so familiar that students are often unaware that formal and careful design of algorithms andtheir implementations remains a valuable and important skill that has to be learned and practiced to achieveexpertise and genuine understanding. In teaching geodynamics and geophysics at undergraduate level, we aimed to be able to bring our researchtools into the classroom - even when those tools are advanced, parallel research codes that we typically deploy on hundredsor thousands of processors, and we wanted to teach not just the physical concepts that are modelled by these codes but asense of familiarity with computational modelling and the ability to discriminate a reliable model from a poor one. The underworld code (www.underworldcode.org) was developed for modelling plate-scale fluid mechanics and studyingproblems in lithosphere dynamics. Though specialised for this task, underworld has a straightforwardpython user interface that allows it to run within the environment of jupyter notebooks on a laptop (at modest resolution, of course).The python interface was developed for adaptability in addressing new research problems, but also lends itself to integration intoa python-driven learning environment. To manage the heavy demands of installing and running underworld in a teaching laboratory, we have developed a workflow in whichwe install docker containers in the cloud which support a number of students to run their own environment independently. We share ourexperience blending notebooks and static webpages into a single web environment, and we explain how we designed our graphics andanalysis tools to allow notebook "scripts" to be queued and run on a supercomputer.

Self- or familiar-face recognition advantage? New insight using ambient images.

PubMed

Bortolon, Catherine; Lorieux, Siméon; Raffard, Stéphane

2018-06-01

Self-face recognition has been widely explored in the past few years. Nevertheless, the current literature relies on the use of standardized photographs which do not represent daily-life face recognition. Therefore, we aim for the first time to evaluate self-face processing in healthy individuals using natural/ambient images which contain variations in the environment and in the face itself. In total, 40 undergraduate and graduate students performed a forced delayed-matching task, including images of one's own face, friend, famous and unknown individuals. For both reaction time and accuracy, results showed that participants were faster and more accurate when matching different images of their own face compared to both famous and unfamiliar faces. Nevertheless, no significant differences were found between self-face and friend-face and between friend-face and famous-face. They were also faster and more accurate when matching friend and famous faces compared to unfamiliar faces. Our results suggest that faster and more accurate responses to self-face might be better explained by a familiarity effect - that is, (1) the result of frequent exposition to one's own image through mirror and photos, (2) a more robust mental representation of one's own face and (3) strong face recognition units as for other familiar faces.

Dissociable patterns of brain activity for mentalizing about known others: a role for attachment

PubMed Central

Laurita, Anne C.; Hazan, Cindy

2017-01-01

Abstract The human brain tracks dynamic changes within the social environment, forming and updating representations of individuals in our social milieu. This mechanism of social navigation builds an increasingly complex map of persons with whom we are familiar and form attachments to guide adaptive social behaviors. We examined the neural representation of known others along a continuum of attachment using fMRI. Heterosexual adults (N = 29, 16 females), in romantic relationships for more than 2 years, made trait judgments for a romantic partner, parent, close friend, familiar acquaintance and self-during scanning. Multivariate analysis, partial least squares, was used to identify whole-brain patterns of brain activation associated with trait judgments of known others across a continuum of attachment. Across conditions, trait judgments engaged the default network and lateral prefrontal cortex. Judgments about oneself and a partner were associated with a common activation pattern encompassing anterior and middle cingulate, posterior superior temporal sulcus, as well as anterior insula. Parent and close friend judgments engaged medial and anterior temporal lobe regions. These results provide novel evidence that mentalizing about known familiar others results in differential brain activity. We provide initial evidence that the representation of adult attachment is a distinguishing feature of these differences. PMID:28407150

Rhythmic grouping biases constrain infant statistical learning

PubMed Central

Hay, Jessica F.; Saffran, Jenny R.

2012-01-01

Linguistic stress and sequential statistical cues to word boundaries interact during speech segmentation in infancy. However, little is known about how the different acoustic components of stress constrain statistical learning. The current studies were designed to investigate whether intensity and duration each function independently as cues to initial prominence (trochaic-based hypothesis) or whether, as predicted by the Iambic-Trochaic Law (ITL), intensity and duration have characteristic and separable effects on rhythmic grouping (ITL-based hypothesis) in a statistical learning task. Infants were familiarized with an artificial language (Experiments 1 & 3) or a tone stream (Experiment 2) in which there was an alternation in either intensity or duration. In addition to potential acoustic cues, the familiarization sequences also contained statistical cues to word boundaries. In speech (Experiment 1) and non-speech (Experiment 2) conditions, 9-month-old infants demonstrated discrimination patterns consistent with an ITL-based hypothesis: intensity signaled initial prominence and duration signaled final prominence. The results of Experiment 3, in which 6.5-month-old infants were familiarized with the speech streams from Experiment 1, suggest that there is a developmental change in infants’ willingness to treat increased duration as a cue to word offsets in fluent speech. Infants’ perceptual systems interact with linguistic experience to constrain how infants learn from their auditory environment. PMID:23730217

I know I've seen you before: Distinguishing recent-single-exposure-based familiarity from pre-existing familiarity

PubMed Central

Gimbel, Sarah I.; Brewer, James B.; Maril, Anat

2018-01-01

This study examines how individuals differentiate recent-single-exposure-based familiarity from pre-existing familiarity. If these are two distinct cognitive processes, are they supported by the same neural bases? This study examines how recent-single-exposure-based familiarity and multiple-previous-exposure-based familiarity are supported and represented in the brain using functional MRI. In a novel approach, we first behaviorally show that subjects can divide retrieval of items in pre-existing memory into judgments of recollection and familiarity. Then, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examine the differences in blood oxygen level dependent activity and regional connectivity during judgments of recent-single-exposure-based and pre-existing familiarity. Judgments of these two types of familiarity showed distinct regions of activation in a whole-brain analysis, in medial temporal lobe (MTL) substructures, and in MTL substructure functional-correlations with other brain regions. Specifically, within the MTL, perirhinal cortex showed increased activation during recent-single-exposure-based familiarity while parahippocampal cortex showed increased activation during judgments of pre-existing familiarity. We find that recent-single-exposure-based and pre-existing familiarity are represented as distinct neural processes in the brain; this is supported by differing patterns of brain activation and regional correlations. This spatially distinct regional brain involvement suggests that the two separate experiences of familiarity, recent-exposure-based familiarity and pre-existing familiarity, may be cognitively distinct. PMID:28073651

[Familial retinoblastoma: cytogenetic study of the tumor].

PubMed

Robledo Batanero, M; Manzanal Martínez, A; Ayuso García, C; Benítez Ortiz, J

1990-05-01

We report a case of familiar retinoblastoma, in which both mother and daughter show bilateral retinoblastoma. The cytogenetic study, in both peripheral blood lymphocytes and tumoral tissue did not show alterations on the 13 chromosome, although we found a complex kariotype in tumoral tissue defined by three celular lines. In all of them appears a marker in which the 6 chromosome is involved (der 6). The derivated of 6 chromosome are markers highly characteristic of the retinoblastoma cases, and can be related with the aggressivity of tumor and the appearance of the second tumors.

Cross-Coordinated Control: An Experimentally Verified Technique for the Hybrid Twist and Wrench Control of a Voltage-Controlled Industrial Robot

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-12-30

11 2.1 Introduction and O bjective ............................ 11 2.2 Line Geometry and Screw Theory ....... .................. 12 2.3 K inestatics... geometry . 13 Also, an important requirement for many advanced control strategies is the capability for real time velocity computation . While the...dynamics reduces to the following familiar equation. r = H(0)0 + C ( O , O ) + G( O ) + J(G)Tw (3.51) Here 0 is a vector of joint angles, H is the inertia matrix, C

Relativistic Coulomb excitation of the giant dipole resonance in nuclei: How to calculate transition probabilities without invoking the Lienard-Wiechert relativistic scalar and vector potentials

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dasso, C.H.; Gallardo, M.

2006-01-15

The conclusions extracted from a recent study of the excitation of giant dipole resonances in nuclei at relativistic bombarding energies open the way for a further simplification of the problem. It consists in the elimination of the relativistic scalar and vector electromagnetic potentials and the familiar numerical difficulties associated with their presence in the calculation scheme. The inherent advantage of a reformulation of the problem of relativistic Coulomb excitation of giant dipole resonances along these lines is discussed.

40 CFR Table 10 to Subpart Wwww of... - Data Requirements for New and Existing Continuous Lamination Lines and Continuous Casting Lines...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 12 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Data Requirements for New and Existing Continuous Lamination Lines and Continuous Casting Lines Complying With a Percent Reduction Limit on a Per Line Basis 10 Table 10 to Subpart WWWW of Part 63 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUE...

40 CFR Table 10 to Subpart Wwww of... - Data Requirements for New and Existing Continuous Lamination Lines and Continuous Casting Lines...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 12 2011-07-01 2009-07-01 true Data Requirements for New and Existing Continuous Lamination Lines and Continuous Casting Lines Complying With a Percent Reduction Limit on a Per Line Basis 10 Table 10 to Subpart WWWW of Part 63 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUE...

40 CFR Table 10 to Subpart Wwww of... - Data Requirements for New and Existing Continuous Lamination Lines and Continuous Casting Lines...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 13 2013-07-01 2012-07-01 true Data Requirements for New and Existing Continuous Lamination Lines and Continuous Casting Lines Complying With a Percent Reduction Limit on a Per Line Basis 10 Table 10 to Subpart WWWW of Part 63 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUE...

The role of familiarity in binary choice inferences.

PubMed

Honda, Hidehito; Abe, Keiga; Matsuka, Toshihiko; Yamagishi, Kimihiko

2011-07-01

In research on the recognition heuristic (Goldstein & Gigerenzer, Psychological Review, 109, 75-90, 2002), knowledge of recognized objects has been categorized as "recognized" or "unrecognized" without regard to the degree of familiarity of the recognized object. In the present article, we propose a new inference model--familiarity-based inference. We hypothesize that when subjective knowledge levels (familiarity) of recognized objects differ, the degree of familiarity of recognized objects will influence inferences. Specifically, people are predicted to infer that the more familiar object in a pair of two objects has a higher criterion value on the to-be-judged dimension. In two experiments, using a binary choice task, we examined inferences about populations in a pair of two cities. Results support predictions of familiarity-based inference. Participants inferred that the more familiar city in a pair was more populous. Statistical modeling showed that individual differences in familiarity-based inference lie in the sensitivity to differences in familiarity. In addition, we found that familiarity-based inference can be generally regarded as an ecologically rational inference. Furthermore, when cue knowledge about the inference criterion was available, participants made inferences based on the cue knowledge about population instead of familiarity. Implications of the role of familiarity in psychological processes are discussed.

Mothers Respond Differently to Infants' Familiar versus Non-Familiar Verbal Imitations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olson, Janet; Masur, Elise Frank

2012-01-01

Mothers' verbal responses to their infants' spontaneous imitations of familiar and non-familiar words during naturally occurring interactions were examined in a longitudinal sample observed at 1 ; 1, 1 ; 5 and 1 ; 9. Maternal responses to both familiar and non-familiar imitations exhibited structural characteristics likely to be facilitative of…

The conscious, the unconscious, and familiarity.

PubMed

Scott, Ryan B; Dienes, Zoltán

2008-09-01

This article examines the role of subjective familiarity in the implicit and explicit learning of artificial grammars. Experiment 1 found that objective measures of similarity (including fragment frequency and repetition structure) predicted ratings of familiarity, that familiarity ratings predicted grammaticality judgments, and that the extremity of familiarity ratings predicted confidence. Familiarity was further shown to predict judgments in the absence of confidence, hence contributing to above-chance guessing. Experiment 2 found that confidence developed as participants refined their knowledge of the distribution of familiarity and that differences in familiarity could be exploited prior to confidence developing. Experiment 3 found that familiarity was consciously exploited to make grammaticality judgments including those made without confidence and that familiarity could in some instances influence participants' grammaticality judgments apparently without their awareness. All 3 experiments found that knowledge distinct from familiarity was derived only under deliberate learning conditions. The results provide decisive evidence that familiarity is the essential source of knowledge in artificial grammar learning while also supporting a dual-process model of implicit and explicit learning. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved.

I know I've seen you before: Distinguishing recent-single-exposure-based familiarity from pre-existing familiarity.

PubMed

Gimbel, Sarah I; Brewer, James B; Maril, Anat

2017-03-01

This study examines how individuals differentiate recent-single-exposure-based familiarity from pre-existing familiarity. If these are two distinct cognitive processes, are they supported by the same neural bases? This study examines how recent-single-exposure-based familiarity and multiple-previous-exposure-based familiarity are supported and represented in the brain using functional MRI. In a novel approach, we first behaviorally show that subjects can divide retrieval of items in pre-existing memory into judgments of recollection and familiarity. Then, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examine the differences in blood oxygen level dependent activity and regional connectivity during judgments of recent-single-exposure-based and pre-existing familiarity. Judgments of these two types of familiarity showed distinct regions of activation in a whole-brain analysis, in medial temporal lobe (MTL) substructures, and in MTL substructure functional-correlations with other brain regions. Specifically, within the MTL, perirhinal cortex showed increased activation during recent-single-exposure-based familiarity while parahippocampal cortex showed increased activation during judgments of pre-existing familiarity. We find that recent-single-exposure-based and pre-existing familiarity are represented as distinct neural processes in the brain; this is supported by differing patterns of brain activation and regional correlations. This spatially distinct regional brain involvement suggests that the two separate experiences of familiarity, recent-exposure-based familiarity and pre-existing familiarity, may be cognitively distinct. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The best of both worlds : integrating textual and visual command interfaces for Mars Rover Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maxwell, Scott A.; Cooper, Brian; Hartman, Frank; Wright, John; Yen, Jeng; Leger, Chris

2005-01-01

A Mars rover is a complex system, and driving one is a complex endeavor. Rover driver must be intimately familiar with the hardware and software of the mobility system and of the robotic arm. They must rapidly assess threats in the terrain, then creatively combine their knowledge o f the vehicle and its environment to achieve each day's science and engineering objective.

Do Challenge, Task Experience or Computer Familiarity Influence the Learning of Historical Chronology from Virtual Environments in 8-9 Year Old Children?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korallo, Liliya; Foreman, Nigel; Boyd-Davis, Stephen; Moar, Magnus; Coulson, Mark

2012-01-01

Studies examined the potential use of VEs in teaching historical chronology to 127 children of primary school age (8-9 years). The use of passive fly-through VEs had been found, in an earlier study, to be disadvantageous with this age group when tested for their subsequent ability to place displayed sequential events in correct chronological…

Predictor Development and Pilot Testing of a Prototype Selection Instrument for Army Flight Training

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-02-01

called the Automated Pilot Examination System, or "APEX") during the preliminary validation reserach . The current version of the ASTB includes subtests...of objects in three-dimensional space . Aviation & Nautical Information: items assess an examinee’s familiarity with aviation history, nautical...proficiency. Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine, 46, 309-311. Daryanian, B. (1980). Subjective scaling of mental workload in a multi-task environment

America's Maritime Heritage: From Sail Power to Nuclear Power. Book 1 and Book 2. An Energy Education Activity Book [And] America's Maritime Heritage: A Frequently Forgotten Treasure.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heitzman, William Ray

These documents provide background information and a series of problems and activities to familiarize students with important maritime activities in the United States. Book I contains problems involving the movement of freight on inland waterways, questions on energy and the environment, and a chart with questions on United States oil imports.…

An Augmented Virtuality Display for Improving UAV Usability

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-01-01

cockpit. For a more universally-understood metaphor, we have turned to virtual environments of the type represented in video games . Many of the...people who have the need to fly UAVs (such as military personnel) have experience with playing video games . They are skilled in navigating virtual...Another aspect of tailoring the interface to those with video game experience is to use familiar controls. Microsoft has developed a popular and

Can SNMP be Used to Create a Silent SS in an 802.16 Implementation

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-09-01

wireless transmissions by using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). SNMP is a networking protocol that can be used by network ...802.16 as a unique networking technology. In a more familiar wireless networking environment like Wi-Fi, there is no central scheduler for access to...much a concern due to the scheduling algorithm , this power saving method provides good transmission security as a

STS-32 Commander Brandenstein in LES prepares for WETF water egress training

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1989-01-01

STS-32 Commander Daniel C. Brandenstein, wearing a launch and entry suit (LES), orange parachute harness and life vest, is briefed on emergency egress procedures in JSC's Weightless Environment Training Facility Bldg 29. The crew used the WETF's nearby 25 ft deep pool for the exercises, which familiarize assigned space shuttle crewmembers with procedures associated with the post-Challenger pole system of emergency egress.

The Importance of Assessments: How Portfolios Can Impact Students' Self-Efficacy and Comprehension in an Online Graphic Design Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Terry

2013-01-01

The purpose for this study was to find an assessment that is currently being used and is a common assessment familiar to others within the Brick-and-mortar classroom and transform that assessment for use within the online learning environment. By using assessments, teachers can measure whether or not students are learning what it is they are…

Do familiar teammates request and accept more backup? Transactive memory in air traffic control.

PubMed

Smith-Jentsch, Kimberly A; Kraiger, Kurt; Cannon-Bowers, Janis A; Salas, Eduardo

2009-04-01

The present study investigated factors that explain when and why different groups of teammates are more likely to request and accept backup from one another when needed in an environment characterized by extreme time pressure and severe consequences of error: commercial air traffic control (ATC). Transactive memory theory states that teammates develop consensus regarding the distribution of their relative expertise as well as confidence in that expertise over time and that this facilitates coordination processes. The present study investigated whether this theory could help to explain between-team differences in requesting and accepting backup when needed. The present study used cross-sectional data collected from 51 commercial ATC teams. Hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis. Teammates with greater experience working together requested and accepted backup from one another more than those with lesser experience working together. Teammate knowledge consensus and perceived team efficacy appear to have mediated this relationship. Transactive memory theory extends to high-stress environments in which members' expertise is highly overlapping. Teammates' shared mental models about one another increase the likelihood that they will request and accept backup. Teammate familiarity should be considered when choosing among potential replacement team members. Training strategies that accelerate the development of teammate knowledge consensus and team efficacy are warranted.

Randomized Video-Feedback Intervention in Home-Based Childcare: Improvement of Children's Wellbeing Dependent on Time Spent with Trusted Caregiver.

PubMed

Groeneveld, Marleen G; Vermeer, Harriet J; van IJzendoorn, Marinus H; Linting, Mariëlle

The childcare environment offers a wide array of developmental opportunities for children. Providing children with a feeling of security to explore this environment is one of the most fundamental goals of childcare. In the current study the effectiveness of Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting-Child Care (VIPP-CC) was tested on children's wellbeing in home-based childcare in a randomized controlled trial. Forty-seven children and their caregivers were randomly assigned to the intervention group or control group. Children's wellbeing, caregiver sensitivity, and global childcare quality were observed during a pretest and a posttest. We did not find an overall intervention effect on child wellbeing, but a significant interaction effect with months spent with a trusted caregiver was present. Children who were less familiar with the caregiver showed an increase in wellbeing scores in both the intervention and control group, but for the group of children who were more familiar with the caregiver, wellbeing increased only in the intervention group. Although there was no overall effect of the VIPP-CC on children's wellbeing, the VIPP-CC seems effective in children who have been cared for by the same trusted caregiver for a longer period of time.

Can a virtual reality assessment of fine motor skill predict successful central line insertion?

PubMed

Mohamadipanah, Hossein; Parthiban, Chembian; Nathwani, Jay; Rutherford, Drew; DiMarco, Shannon; Pugh, Carla

2016-10-01

Due to the increased use of peripherally inserted central catheter lines, central lines are not performed as frequently. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether a virtual reality (VR)-based assessment of fine motor skills can be used as a valid and objective assessment of central line skills. Surgical residents (N = 43) from 7 general surgery programs performed a subclavian central line in a simulated setting. Then, they participated in a force discrimination task in a VR environment. Hand movements from the subclavian central line simulation were tracked by electromagnetic sensors. Gross movements as monitored by the electromagnetic sensors were compared with the fine motor metrics calculated from the force discrimination tasks in the VR environment. Long periods of inactivity (idle time) during needle insertion and lack of smooth movements, as detected by the electromagnetic sensors, showed a significant correlation with poor force discrimination in the VR environment. Also, long periods of needle insertion time correlated to the poor performance in force discrimination in the VR environment. This study shows that force discrimination in a defined VR environment correlates to needle insertion time, idle time, and hand smoothness when performing subclavian central line placement. Fine motor force discrimination may serve as a valid and objective assessment of the skills required for successful needle insertion when placing central lines. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Animal cognition. Number-space mapping in the newborn chick resembles humans' mental number line.

PubMed

Rugani, Rosa; Vallortigara, Giorgio; Priftis, Konstantinos; Regolin, Lucia

2015-01-30

Humans represent numbers along a mental number line (MNL), where smaller values are located on the left and larger on the right. The origin of the MNL and its connections with cultural experience are unclear: Pre-verbal infants and nonhuman species master a variety of numerical abilities, supporting the existence of evolutionary ancient precursor systems. In our experiments, 3-day-old domestic chicks, once familiarized with a target number (5), spontaneously associated a smaller number (2) with the left space and a larger number (8) with the right space. The same number (8), though, was associated with the left space when the target number was 20. Similarly to humans, chicks associate smaller numbers with the left space and larger numbers with the right space. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Non-line-of-sight (NLOS), secure, low-probability of intercept (LPI), antijam (AJ), high frequency (HF), real time video communication system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lupinetti, F.

1988-01-01

This paper outlines a video communication system capable of non-line-of-sight (NLOS), secure, low-probability of intercept (LPI), antijam, real time transmission and reception of video information in a tactical enviroment. An introduction to a class of ternary PN sequences is presented to familiarize the reader with yet another avenue for spreading and despreading baseband information. The use of the high frequency (HF) band (1.5 to 30 MHz) for real time video transmission is suggested to allow NLOS communication. The spreading of the baseband information by means of multiple nontrivially different ternary pseudonoise (PN) sequence is used in order to assure encryptionmore » of the signal, enhanced security, a good degree of LPI, and good antijam features. 18 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab.« less

Positive facial affect facilitates the identification of famous faces.

PubMed

Gallegos, Diana R; Tranel, Daniel

2005-06-01

Several convergent lines of evidence have suggested that the presence of an emotion signal in a visual stimulus can influence processing of that stimulus. In the current study, we picked up on this idea, and explored the hypothesis that the presence of an emotional facial expression (happiness) would facilitate the identification of familiar faces. We studied two groups of normal participants (overall N=54), and neurological patients with either left (n=8) or right (n=10) temporal lobectomies. Reaction times were measured while participants named familiar famous faces that had happy expressions or neutral expressions. In support of the hypothesis, naming was significantly faster for the happy faces, and this effect obtained in the normal participants and in both patient groups. In the patients with left temporal lobectomies, the effect size for this facilitation was large (d=0.87), suggesting that this manipulation might have practical implications for helping such patients compensate for the types of naming defects that often accompany their brain damage. Consistent with other recent work, our findings indicate that emotion can facilitate visual identification, perhaps via a modulatory influence of the amygdala on extrastriate cortex.

Ganymede's magnetosphere: Magnetometer overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kivelson, M. G.; Warnecke, J.; Bennett, L.; Joy, S.; Khurana, K. K.; Linker, J. A.; Russell, C. T.; Walker, R. J.; Polanskey, C.

1998-09-01

Ganymede presents a unique example of an internally magnetized moon whose intrinsic magnetic field excludes the plasma present at its orbit, thereby forming a magnetospheric cavity. We describe some of the properties of this mini-magnetosphere, embedded in a sub-Alfvénic flow and formed within a planetary magnetosphere. A vacuum superposition model (obtained by adding the internal field of Ganymede to the field imposed by Jupiter) organizes the data acquired by the Galileo magnetometer on four close passes in a useful, intuitive fashion. The last field line that links to Ganymede at both ends extends to ~2 Ganymede radii, and the transverse scale of the magnetosphere is ~5.5 Ganymede radii. Departures from this simple model arise from currents flowing in the Alfvén wings and elsewhere on the magnetopause. The four passes give different cuts through the magnetosphere from which we develop a geometric model for the magnetopause surface as a function of the System III location of Ganymede. On one of the passes, Ganymede was located near the center of Jupiter's plasma disk. For this pass we identify probable Kelvin-Helmholtz surface waves on the magnetopause. After entering the relatively low-latitude upstream magnetosphere, Galileo apparently penetrated the region of closed field lines (ones that link to Ganymede at both ends), where we identify predominantly transverse fluctuations at frequencies reasonable for field line resonances. We argue that magnetic field measurements, when combined with flow measurements, show that reconnection is extremely efficient. Downstream reconnection, consequently, may account for heated plasma observed in a distant crossing of Ganymede's wake. We note some of the ways in which Ganymede's unusual magnetosphere corresponds to familiar planetary magnetospheres (viz., the magnetospheric topology and an electron ring current). We also comment on some of the ways in which it differs from familiar planetary magnetospheres (viz., relative stability and predictability of upstream plasma and field conditions, absence of a magnetotail plasma sheet and of a plasmasphere, and probable instability of the ring current).

Global adaptation patterns of Australian and CIMMYT spring bread wheat.

PubMed

Mathews, Ky L; Chapman, Scott C; Trethowan, Richard; Pfeiffer, Wolfgang; van Ginkel, Maarten; Crossa, Jose; Payne, Thomas; Delacy, Ian; Fox, Paul N; Cooper, Mark

2007-10-01

The International Adaptation Trial (IAT) is a special purpose nursery designed to investigate the genotype-by-environment interactions and worldwide adaptation for grain yield of Australian and CIMMYT spring bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and durum wheat (T. turgidum L. var. durum). The IAT contains lines representing Australian and CIMMYT wheat breeding programs and was distributed to 91 countries between 2000 and 2004. Yield data of 41 reference lines from 106 trials were analysed. A multiplicative mixed model accounted for trial variance heterogeneity and inter-trial correlations characteristic of multi-environment trials. A factor analytic model explained 48% of the genetic variance for the reference lines. Pedigree information was then incorporated to partition the genetic line effects into additive and non-additive components. This model explained 67 and 56% of the additive by environment and non-additive by environment genetic variances, respectively. Australian and CIMMYT germplasm showed good adaptation to their respective target production environments. In general, Australian lines performed well in south and west Australia, South America, southern Africa, Iran and high latitude European and Canadian locations. CIMMYT lines performed well at CIMMYT's key yield testing location in Mexico (CIANO), north-eastern Australia, the Indo-Gangetic plains, West Asia North Africa and locations in Europe and Canada. Maturity explained some of the global adaptation patterns. In general, southern Australian germplasm were later maturing than CIMMYT material. While CIANO continues to provide adapted lines to northern Australia, selecting for yield among later maturing CIMMYT material in CIANO may identify lines adapted to southern and western Australian environments.

The hard-won benefits of familiarity in visual search: naturally familiar brand logos are found faster.

PubMed

Qin, Xiaoyan Angela; Koutstaal, Wilma; Engel, Stephen A

2014-05-01

Familiar items are found faster than unfamiliar ones in visual search tasks. This effect has important implications for cognitive theory, because it may reveal how mental representations of commonly encountered items are changed by experience to optimize performance. It remains unknown, however, whether everyday items with moderate levels of exposure would show benefits in visual search, and if so, what kind of experience would be required to produce them. Here, we tested whether familiar product logos were searched for faster than unfamiliar ones, and also familiarized subjects with previously unfamiliar logos. Subjects searched for preexperimentally familiar and unfamiliar logos, half of which were familiarized in the laboratory, amongst other, unfamiliar distractor logos. In three experiments, we used an N-back-like familiarization task, and in four others we used a task that asked detailed questions about the perceptual aspects of the logos. The number of familiarization exposures ranged from 30 to 84 per logo across experiments, with two experiments involving across-day familiarization. Preexperimentally familiar target logos were searched for faster than were unfamiliar, nonfamiliarized logos, by 8 % on average. This difference was reliable in all seven experiments. However, familiarization had little or no effect on search speeds; its average effect was to improve search times by 0.7 %, and its effect was significant in only one of the seven experiments. If priming, mere exposure, episodic memory, or relatively modest familiarity were responsible for familiarity's effects on search, then performance should have improved following familiarization. Our results suggest that the search-related advantage of familiar logos does not develop easily or rapidly.

The hippocampus supports both recollection and familiarity when memories are strong

PubMed Central

Smith, Christine N.; Wixted, John T.; Squire, Larry R.

2011-01-01

Recognition memory is thought to consist of two component processes – recollection and familiarity. It has been suggested that the hippocampus supports recollection, while adjacent cortex supports familiarity. However, the qualitative experiences of recollection and familiarity are typically confounded with a quantitative difference in memory strength (recollection > familiarity). Thus, the question remains whether the hippocampus might in fact support familiarity-based memories whenever they are as strong as recollection-based memories. We addressed this problem in a novel way using the Remember/Know procedure where we could explicitly match the confidence and accuracy of Remember and Know decisions. As in earlier studies, recollected items had higher accuracy and confidence than familiar items, and hippocampal activity was higher for recollected items than for familiar items. Furthermore hippocampal activity was similar for familiar items, misses, and correct rejections. When the accuracy and confidence of recollected and familiar items were matched, the findings were dramatically different. Hippocampal activity was now similar for recollected and familiar items. Importantly, hippocampal activity was also greater for familiar items than for misses or correct rejections (as well as for recollected items vs. misses or correct rejections). Our findings suggest that the hippocampus supports both recollection and familiarity when memories are strong. PMID:22049412

THE MAGNETIC SENSITIVITY OF THE Mg ii k LINE TO THE JOINT ACTION OF HANLE, ZEEMAN, AND MAGNETO-OPTICAL EFFECTS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ballester, E. Alsina; Bueno, J. Trujillo; Belluzzi, L., E-mail: ealsina@iac.es, E-mail: jtb@iac.es, E-mail: belluzzi@irsol.ch

2016-11-10

We highlight the main results of a radiative transfer investigation on the magnetic sensitivity of the solar Mg ii k resonance line at 2795.5 Å, accounting for the joint action of the Hanle and Zeeman effects as well as partial frequency redistribution phenomena. We confirm that at the line center, the linear polarization signals produced by scattering processes are measurable, and that they are sensitive, via the Hanle effect, to magnetic fields with strengths between 5 and 50 G, approximately. We also show that the Zeeman effect produces conspicuous circular polarization signals, especially for longitudinal fields stronger than 50 G,more » which can be used to estimate the magnetization of the solar chromosphere via the familiar magnetograph formula. The most novel result is that magneto-optical effects produce, in the wings of the line, a decrease of the Q / I scattering polarization pattern and the appearance of U / I signals (i.e., a rotation of the plane of linear polarization). This sensitivity of the Q / I and U / I wing signals to both weak (∼5 G) and stronger magnetic fields expands the scientific interest of the Mg ii k line for probing the chromosphere in quiet and active regions of the Sun.« less

Preferring familiar emotions: As you want (and like) it?

PubMed Central

Ford, Brett Q.; Tamir, Maya

2014-01-01

Do people want to feel emotions that are familiar to them? In two studies, participants rated how much they typically felt various emotions (i.e., familiarity of the emotion) and how much they generally wanted to experience these emotions. We found that, in general, people wanted to feel pleasant emotions more than unpleasant emotions. However, for both pleasant and unpleasant emotions, people more (vs. less) familiar with an emotion also wanted to experience it more. Links between the familiarity of an emotion and wanting to experience that emotion were not explained by the concurrent experience of familiar emotions. Also, we show that although familiar emotions were also liked more, liking did not fully account for wanting familiar emotions. Finally, the familiarity of emotions mediated the links between trait affect and the emotions people wanted to feel. We propose that people are motivated to feel familiar emotions, in part, because of their instrumental value. PMID:23962316

Talker familiarity and spoken word recognition in school-age children*

PubMed Central

Levi, Susannah V.

2014-01-01

Research with adults has shown that spoken language processing is improved when listeners are familiar with talkers’ voices, known as the familiar talker advantage. The current study explored whether this ability extends to school-age children, who are still acquiring language. Children were familiarized with the voices of three German–English bilingual talkers and were tested on the speech of six bilinguals, three of whom were familiar. Results revealed that children do show improved spoken language processing when they are familiar with the talkers, but this improvement was limited to highly familiar lexical items. This restriction of the familiar talker advantage is attributed to differences in the representation of highly familiar and less familiar lexical items. In addition, children did not exhibit accent-general learning; despite having been exposed to German-accented talkers during training, there was no improvement for novel German-accented talkers. PMID:25159173

Preferring familiar emotions: as you want (and like) it?

PubMed

Ford, Brett Q; Tamir, Maya

2014-01-01

Do people want to feel emotions that are familiar to them? In two studies, participants rated how much they typically felt various emotions (i.e., familiarity of the emotion) and how much they generally wanted to experience these emotions. We found that, in general, people wanted to feel pleasant emotions more than unpleasant emotions. However, for both pleasant and unpleasant emotions, people more (vs. less) familiar with an emotion also wanted to experience it more. Links between the familiarity of an emotion and wanting to experience that emotion were not explained by the concurrent experience of familiar emotions. Also, we show that although familiar emotions were also liked more, liking did not fully account for wanting familiar emotions. Finally, the familiarity of emotions mediated the links between trait affect and the emotions people wanted to feel. We propose that people are motivated to feel familiar emotions, in part, because of their instrumental value.

Prior familiarity with components enhances unconscious learning of relations.

PubMed

Scott, Ryan B; Dienes, Zoltan

2010-03-01

The influence of prior familiarity with components on the implicit learning of relations was examined using artificial grammar learning. Prior to training on grammar strings, participants were familiarized with either the novel symbols used to construct the strings or with irrelevant geometric shapes. Participants familiarized with the relevant symbols showed greater accuracy when judging the correctness of new grammar strings. Familiarity with elemental components did not increase conscious awareness of the basis for discriminations (structural knowledge) but increased accuracy even in its absence. The subjective familiarity of test strings predicted grammaticality judgments. However, prior exposure to relevant symbols did not increase overall test string familiarity or reliance on familiarity when making grammaticality judgments. Familiarity with the symbols increased the learning of relations between them (bigrams and trigrams) thus resulting in greater familiarity for grammatical versus ungrammatical strings. The results have important implications for models of implicit learning.

Astronaut Russell Schweickart inside simulator for EVA training

NASA Image and Video Library

1968-12-11

S68-55391 (11 Dec. 1968) --- Astronaut Russell L. Schweickart, lunar module pilot of the Apollo 9 (Spacecraft 104/Lunar Module 3/Saturn 504) space mission, is seen inside Chamber "A," Space Environment Simulation Laboratory, Building 32, participating in dry run activity in preparation for extravehicular activity which is scheduled in Chamber "A." The purpose of the scheduled training is to familiarize the crewmen with the operation of EVA equipment in a simulated space environment. In addition, metabolic and workload profiles will be simulated on each crewman. Astronauts Schweickart and Alan L. Bean, backup lunar module pilot, are scheduled to receive thermal-vacuum training simulating Earth-orbital EVA.

Shaping reverberating sound fields with an actively tunable metasurface.

PubMed

Ma, Guancong; Fan, Xiying; Sheng, Ping; Fink, Mathias

2018-06-26

A reverberating environment is a common complex medium for airborne sound, with familiar examples such as music halls and lecture theaters. The complexity of reverberating sound fields has hindered their meaningful control. Here, by combining acoustic metasurface and adaptive wavefield shaping, we demonstrate the versatile control of reverberating sound fields in a room. This is achieved through the design and the realization of a binary phase-modulating spatial sound modulator that is based on an actively reconfigurable acoustic metasurface. We demonstrate useful functionalities including the creation of quiet zones and hotspots in a typical reverberating environment. Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

Sex difference in the processing of task-relevant and task-irrelevant social information: an event-related potential study of familiar face recognition.

PubMed

Wang, Jinzhao; Kitayama, Shinobu; Han, Shihui

2011-08-23

Behavioral studies suggest that men are more likely to develop independent self-construals whereas women are more likely to develop interdependent self-construals. The gender difference in self-construals leads to two predictions. First, independent self-construals may result in a bias of attentional processing of self-related information that is stronger in men than in women. Second, interdependent self-construals may induce greater sensitivity to contextual information from the environment in women than in men. The present study tested these hypotheses by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) to familiar faces (self-, mother-, and father-faces) and unfamiliar faces (gender/age matched strangers' faces) from 14 male and 14 female adults. Using an odd ball paradigm, in separate blocks of trials, familiar faces were designated as either targets that required behavioral responses or as non-targets that did not require a behavioral response. We found that a long latency positivity at 420-620 ms over the parietal area (the attention sensitive target P3) showed a larger amplitude to self-face than to mother-/father-faces that were designated as targets in men but not in women. In contrast, a long latency positivity at 430-530 ms over the central area (the context sensitive novelty P3) was enlarged to familiar compared to strangers' faces that were designated as non-targets and this effect was greater in women than in men. Our results showed ERP evidence for sex differences in the processing of task-relevant and task-irrelevant social information. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Gnuastro: GNU Astronomy Utilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akhlaghi, Mohammad

2018-01-01

Gnuastro (GNU Astronomy Utilities) manipulates and analyzes astronomical data. It is an official GNU package of a large collection of programs and C/C++ library functions. Command-line programs perform arithmetic operations on images, convert FITS images to common types like JPG or PDF, convolve an image with a given kernel or matching of kernels, perform cosmological calculations, crop parts of large images (possibly in multiple files), manipulate FITS extensions and keywords, and perform statistical operations. In addition, it contains programs to make catalogs from detection maps, add noise, make mock profiles with a variety of radial functions using monte-carlo integration for their centers, match catalogs, and detect objects in an image among many other operations. The command-line programs share the same basic command-line user interface for the comfort of both the users and developers. Gnuastro is written to comply fully with the GNU coding standards and integrates well with all Unix-like operating systems. This enables astronomers to expect a fully familiar experience in the source code, building, installing and command-line user interaction that they have seen in all the other GNU software that they use. Gnuastro's extensive library is included for users who want to build their own unique programs.

Structural Analysis of Pressurized Small Diameter Lines in a Random Vibration Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Mark; Ridnour, Andrew; Brethen, Mark

2011-01-01

The pressurization and propellant feed lines for the Ares 1 Upper Stage Reaction and Roll Control Systems (ReCS and RoCS) were required to be in a high g-load random vibration flight environment. The lines connected the system components and were filled with both liquid hydrazine and gaseous helium. They are considered small and varied between one fourth to one inch in diameter. The random vibration of the lines was considered to be base excitation through the mating components and mounting hardware. It was found that reducing the amount of support structure for the lines added flexibility to the system and improved the line stresses from random vibration, but caused higher stresses from the static g-loads. The locations and number of brackets were optimized by analyzing the mode shapes of the lines causing high stresses. The use of brackets that only constrain motion in the direction of concern further reduced the stresses in the lines. Finite element analysis was used to perform the analysis. The lines were pre-stressed by temperature and internal pressure with fluid and insulation included as non-structural mass. Base excitation was added to the model using Power Spectral Density (PSD) data for the expected flight loads. The random vibration and static g-load cases were combined to obtain the total stress in the lines. This approach advances the state of the art in line analysis by using FEA to predict the stresses in the lines and to optimize the entire system based on the expected flight environment. Adding flexibility to lines has been used in piping system for temperature loads, but in flight environments flexibility has been limited for the static stresses. Adding flexibility to the system in a flight environment by reducing brackets has the benefit of reducing stresses and weight

Simulation Training for the Office-Based Anesthesia Team.

PubMed

Ritt, Richard M; Bennett, Jeffrey D; Todd, David W

2017-05-01

An OMS office is a complex environment. Within such an environment, a diverse scope of complex surgical procedures is performed with different levels of anesthesia, ranging from local anesthesia to general anesthesia, on patients with varying comorbidities. Optimal patient outcomes require a functional surgical and anesthetic team, who are familiar with both standard operational principles and emergency recognition and management. Offices with high volume and time pressure add further stress and potential risk to the office environment. Creating and maintaining a functional surgical and anesthetic team that is competent with a culture of patient safety and risk reduction is a significant challenge that requires time, commitment, planning, and dedication. This article focuses on the role of simulation training in office training and preparation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

40 CFR 92.510 - Compliance with criteria for production line testing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 20 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Compliance with criteria for production line testing. 92.510 Section 92.510 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... Manufacturer and Remanufacturer Production Line Testing and Audit Programs § 92.510 Compliance with criteria...

The word-frequency paradox for recall/recognition occurs for pictures.

PubMed

Karlsen, Paul Johan; Snodgrass, Joan Gay

2004-08-01

A yes-no recognition task and two recall tasks were conducted using pictures of high and low familiarity ratings. Picture familiarity had analogous effects to word frequency, and replicated the word-frequency paradox in recall and recognition. Low-familiarity pictures were more recognizable than high-familiarity pictures, pure lists of high-familiarity pictures were more recallable than pure lists of low-familiarity pictures, and there was no effect of familiarity for mixed lists. These results are consistent with the predictions of the Search of Associative Memory (SAM) model.

Recognition memory in tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri) after repeated familiarization sessions.

PubMed

Khani, Abbas; Rainer, Gregor

2012-07-01

Recognition memories are formed during perceptual experience and allow subsequent recognition of previously encountered objects as well as their distinction from novel objects. As a consequence, novel objects are generally explored longer than familiar objects by many species. This novelty preference has been documented in rodents using the novel object recognition (NOR) test, as well is in primates including humans using preferential looking time paradigms. Here, we examine novelty preference using the NOR task in tree shrew, a small animal species that is considered to be an intermediary between rodents and primates. Our paradigm consisted of three phases: arena familiarization, object familiarization sessions with two identical objects in the arena and finally a test session following a 24-h retention period with a familiar and a novel object in the arena. We employed two different object familiarization durations: one and three sessions on consecutive days. After three object familiarization sessions, tree shrews exhibited robust preference for novel objects on the test day. This was accompanied by significant reduction in familiar object exploration time, occurring largely between the first and second day of object familiarization. By contrast, tree shrews did not show a significant preference for the novel object after a one-session object familiarization. Nonetheless, they spent significantly less time exploring the familiar object on the test day compared to the object familiarization day, indicating that they did maintain a memory trace for the familiar object. Our study revealed different time courses for familiar object habituation and emergence of novelty preference, suggesting that novelty preference is dependent on well-consolidated memory of the competing familiar object. Taken together, our results demonstrate robust novelty preference of tree shrews, in general similarity to previous findings in rodents and primates. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Demonstration of NICT Space Weather Cloud --Integration of Supercomputer into Analysis and Visualization Environment--

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watari, S.; Morikawa, Y.; Yamamoto, K.; Inoue, S.; Tsubouchi, K.; Fukazawa, K.; Kimura, E.; Tatebe, O.; Kato, H.; Shimojo, S.; Murata, K. T.

2010-12-01

In the Solar-Terrestrial Physics (STP) field, spatio-temporal resolution of computer simulations is getting higher and higher because of tremendous advancement of supercomputers. A more advanced technology is Grid Computing that integrates distributed computational resources to provide scalable computing resources. In the simulation research, it is effective that a researcher oneself designs his physical model, performs calculations with a supercomputer, and analyzes and visualizes for consideration by a familiar method. A supercomputer is far from an analysis and visualization environment. In general, a researcher analyzes and visualizes in the workstation (WS) managed at hand because the installation and the operation of software in the WS are easy. Therefore, it is necessary to copy the data from the supercomputer to WS manually. Time necessary for the data transfer through long delay network disturbs high-accuracy simulations actually. In terms of usefulness, integrating a supercomputer and an analysis and visualization environment seamlessly with a researcher's familiar method is important. NICT has been developing a cloud computing environment (NICT Space Weather Cloud). In the NICT Space Weather Cloud, disk servers are located near its supercomputer and WSs for data analysis and visualization. They are connected to JGN2plus that is high-speed network for research and development. Distributed virtual high-capacity storage is also constructed by Grid Datafarm (Gfarm v2). Huge-size data output from the supercomputer is transferred to the virtual storage through JGN2plus. A researcher can concentrate on the research by a familiar method without regard to distance between a supercomputer and an analysis and visualization environment. Now, total 16 disk servers are setup in NICT headquarters (at Koganei, Tokyo), JGN2plus NOC (at Otemachi, Tokyo), Okinawa Subtropical Environment Remote-Sensing Center, and Cybermedia Center, Osaka University. They are connected on JGN2plus, and they constitute 1PB (physical size) virtual storage by Gfarm v2. These disk servers are connected with supercomputers of NICT and Osaka University. A system that data output from the supercomputers are automatically transferred to the virtual storage had been built up. Transfer rate is about 50 GB/hrs by actual measurement. It is estimated that the performance is reasonable for a certain simulation and analysis for reconstruction of coronal magnetic field. This research is assumed an experiment of the system, and the verification of practicality is advanced at the same time. Herein we introduce an overview of the space weather cloud system so far we have developed. We also demonstrate several scientific results using the space weather cloud system. We also introduce several web applications of the cloud as a service of the space weather cloud, which is named as "e-SpaceWeather" (e-SW). The e-SW provides with a variety of space weather online services from many aspects.

Students' self-explanations while solving unfamiliar cases: the role of biomedical knowledge.

PubMed

Chamberland, Martine; Mamede, Sílvia; St-Onge, Christina; Rivard, Marc-Antoine; Setrakian, Jean; Lévesque, Annie; Lanthier, Luc; Schmidt, Henk G; Rikers, Remy M J P

2013-11-01

General guidelines for teaching clinical reasoning have received much attention, despite a paucity of instructional approaches with demonstrated effectiveness. As suggested in a recent experimental study, self-explanation while solving clinical cases may be an effective strategy to foster reasoning in clinical clerks dealing with less familiar cases. However, the mechanisms that mediate this benefit have not been specifically investigated. The aim of this study was to explore the types of knowledge used by students when solving familiar and less familiar clinical cases with self-explanation. In a previous study, 36 third-year medical students diagnosed familiar and less familiar clinical cases either by engaging in self-explanation or not. Based on an analysis of previously collected data, the present study compared the content of self-explanation protocols generated by seven randomly selected students while solving four familiar and four less familiar cases. In total, 56 verbal protocols (28 familiar and 28 less familiar) were segmented and coded using the following categories: paraphrases, biomedical inferences, clinical inferences, monitoring statements and errors. Students provided more self-explanation segments from less familiar cases (M = 275.29) than from familiar cases (M = 248.71, p = 0.046). They provided significantly more paraphrases (p = 0.001) and made more errors (p = 0.008). A significant interaction was found between familiarity and the type of inferences (biomedical versus clinical, p = 0.016). When self-explaining less familiar cases, students provided significantly more biomedical inferences than familiar cases. Lack of familiarity with a case seems to stimulate medical students to engage in more extensive thinking during self-explanation. Less familiar cases seem to activate students' biomedical knowledge, which in turn helps them to create new links between biomedical and clinical knowledge, and eventually construct a more coherent mental representation of diseases. This may clarify the previously found positive effect that self-explanation has on the diagnosis of unfamiliar cases. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Military Application of Networking by Touch in Collaborative Planning and Tactical Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-01

the network. For example, processing, or understanding, four plus pages per second, let alone 1500 pages, far surpasses a normal user’s ability to...discovering rapid, evolutionary approaches for filtering four to 1500 pages per second into knowledgeable forms relevant to the user. Unless we...weapons at the ready when the TL receives a slight vibration in the upper right quadrant of a vest he is wearing. The familiar tactile sensation

ACCESS: A Communicating and Cooperating Expert Systems System.

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-01-31

therefore more quickly accepted by programmers. This is in part due to the already familiar concepts of multi-processing environments (e.g. semaphores ...Di68] and monitors [Br75]) which can be viewed as a special case of synchronized shared memory models [Di6S]. Heterogeneous systems however, are by...locality of nodes is not possible and frequent access of memory is required. Synchronization of processes also suffers from a loss of efficiency in

A Process Analysis of the Uniform Chart of Accounts Personnel Utilization System

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-04-23

business practices is evolving rapidly. The ever- changing health care environment requires all providers to be familiar with the costs of each...advised the standardization of the data used to develop them as well as the formulas for calculating them. These changes mostly related to workload...can also be used to determine site-specific capabilities and to identify potential areas for inter - service support of workload through sharing of

USSR Report, International Affairs

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-06-05

country has millionaires and even billionaires. On a clear day, you can see the pyramids well from Muqattam Hill. All of us are familiar with them...from childhood. And of course, on one of my first days after arriving in Cairo I set off for Giza , a suburb of the Egyptian capital, to see this man...made wonder. The environs of the pyramids were deserted. The local tourist industry was literally standing idle. On catching sight of the rare

A System Approach to Navy Medical Education and Training. Appendix 38. Competency Curriculum for Psychiatric Technician.

DTIC Science & Technology

1974-08-31

Interaction with Patient with Mental Retardation and/or Organic Brain Syndrome . . . 23 i- £ 4. Interaction with Patient with Personality or Character...Patient Diagnosed as a Sexual Deviant . . ............... 21 3 Interaction with Patient with Mental Retardation and/or Organic Brain Syndrome . . 23 4...retardation or an organic brain syndrome (organic brain disorder) (Behavior) The PSYT will assist patient in becoming familiar with the physical environment of

Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference Partnerships for Learning in the New Millennium Abstracts

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-01-01

for flight test data, and both generic and specialized tools of data filtering , data calibration, modeling , system identification, and simulation...GRAMMATICAL MODEL AND PARSER FOR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER’S COMMANDS 11 A SPEECH-CONTROLLED INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT FOR SHIP FAMILIARIZATION 12... MODELING AND SIMULATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY 23 NEW COTS HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REDUCE THE COST AND EFFORT IN REPLACING AGING FLIGHT SIMULATORS SUBSYSTEMS

Tactical Requirements for Peacekeeping Operations.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-12-02

is the slum area of Burj - Al -Barjneh, which houses Palestinian refugees and Shia Muslims. Sniper fire from ’o.- this area became one of the greatest...isolation and low target value of most outposts, the only organization that might benefit from attacking them would be radical Arab terrorists, either...prevention and treatment (1/2 hr) Navigate in a desert environment (8 hrs) CD training (16 hrs) Handling POW’s (1 hr) Arabic familiarization course (40 hrs

STS-50 Payload Specialist Trinh during JSC WETF Bailout Exercises in Bldg 29

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

STS-50 Columbia, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 102, United States Microgravity Laboratory 1 (USML-1) Payload Specialist Eugene H. Trinh, wearing launch and entry suit (LES), listens to instructions prior to participating in launch emergency egress (bailout) exercises in JSC's Weightless Environment Training Facility (WETF) Bldg 29. The WETF's 25-foot deep pool will simulate the ocean as crewmembers familiarize themselves with procedures associated with a bailout and subsequent water landing.

Development of a Real-Time General-Purpose Digital Signal Processing Laboratory System.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-12-01

should serve several important purposes: to familiarize students with the use of common DSP tools in an instructional environment, to serve as a research ...of Dayton Research Institute researchers for DSP software and DSP system design insight. 3. Formulation of statement of requirements for development...Neither the University of Dayton nor its Research Institute have a DSP computer system. While UD offered no software or DSP system design information

Making myself understood: perceived factors affecting the intelligibility of sung text

PubMed Central

Fine, Philip A.; Ginsborg, Jane

2014-01-01

Singing is universal, and understanding sung words is thought to be important for many listeners’ enjoyment of vocal and choral music. However, this is not a trivial task, and sung text intelligibility is probably affected by many factors. A survey of musicians was undertaken to identify the factors believed to have most impact on intelligibility, and to assess the importance of understanding sung words in familiar and unfamiliar languages. A total of 143 professional and amateur musicians, including singers, singing teachers, and regular listeners to vocal music, provided 394 statements yielding 851 references to one or more of 43 discrete factors in four categories: performer-related, listener-related, environment-related and words/music-related. The factors mentioned most frequently in each of the four categories were, respectively: diction; hearing ability; acoustic; and genre. In more than a third of references, the extent to which sung text is intelligible was attributed to the performer. Over 60% of respondents rated the ability to understand words in familiar languages as “very important,” but only 17% when the text was in an unfamiliar language. Professional musicians (47% of the sample) rated the importance of understanding in both familiar and unfamiliar languages significantly higher than amateurs but listed fewer factors overall and fewer listener-related factors. The more important the respondents rated understanding, the more performer-related and environment-related factors they tended to list. There were no significant differences between the responses of those who teach singing and those who do not. Enhancing sung text intelligibility is thus perceived to be within the singer’s control, at least to some extent, but there are also many factors outside their control. Empirical research is needed to explore some of these factors in greater depth, and has the potential to inform pedagogy for singers, composers, and choral directors. PMID:25249987

Brain Responses Differ to Faces of Mothers and Fathers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arsalidou, Marie; Barbeau, Emmanuel J.; Bayless, Sarah J.; Taylor, Margot J.

2010-01-01

We encounter many faces each day but relatively few are personally familiar. Once faces are familiar, they evoke semantic and social information known about the person. Neuroimaging studies demonstrate differential brain activity to familiar and non-familiar faces; however, brain responses related to personally familiar faces have been more rarely…

The warm glow heuristic: when liking leads to familiarity.

PubMed

Monin, Benoît

2003-12-01

Five studies demonstrate that the positive valence of a stimulus increases its perceived familiarity, even in the absence of prior exposure. For example, beautiful faces feel familiar. Two explanations for this effect stand out: (a). Stimulus prototypicality leads both to positivity and familiarity, and (b). positive affect is used to infer familiarity in a heuristic fashion. Studies 1 and 2 show that attractive faces feel more familiar than average ones and that prototypicality accounts for only part of this effect. In Study 3, the rated attractiveness of average faces was manipulated by contrast, and their perceived familiarity changed accordingly, although their inherent prototypicaliry remained the same. In Study 4, positive words felt more familiar to participants than neutral and negative words. Study 5 shows that the effect is strongest when recognition is difficult. The author concludes that both prototypicality and a warm glow heuristic are responsible for the "good-is-familiar" phenomenon.

When emotions are expressed figuratively: Psycholinguistic and Affective Norms of 619 Idioms for German (PANIG).

PubMed

Citron, Francesca M M; Cacciari, Cristina; Kucharski, Michael; Beck, Luna; Conrad, Markus; Jacobs, Arthur M

2016-03-01

Despite flourishing research on the relationship between emotion and literal language, and despite the pervasiveness of figurative expressions in communication, the role of figurative language in conveying affect has been underinvestigated. This study provides affective and psycholinguistic norms for 619 German idiomatic expressions and explores the relationships between affective and psycholinguistic idiom properties. German native speakers rated each idiom for emotional valence, arousal, familiarity, semantic transparency, figurativeness, and concreteness. They also described the figurative meaning of each idiom and rated how confident they were about the attributed meaning. The results showed that idioms rated high in valence were also rated high in arousal. Negative idioms were rated as more arousing than positive ones, in line with results from single words. Furthermore, arousal correlated positively with figurativeness (supporting the idea that figurative expressions are more emotionally engaging than literal expressions) and with concreteness and semantic transparency. This suggests that idioms may convey a more direct reference to sensory representations, mediated by the meanings of their constituting words. Arousal correlated positively with familiarity. In addition, positive idioms were rated as more familiar than negative idioms. Finally, idioms without a literal counterpart were rated as more emotionally valenced and arousing than idioms with a literal counterpart. Although the meanings of ambiguous idioms were less correctly defined than those of unambiguous idioms, ambiguous idioms were rated as more concrete than unambiguous ones. We also discuss the relationships between the various psycholinguistic variables characterizing idioms, with reference to the literature on idiom structure and processing.

Exploring staff perceptions on the role of physical environment in dementia care setting.

PubMed

Lee, Sook Y; Chaudhury, Habib; Hung, Lillian

2016-07-01

This study explored staff perceptions of the role of physical environment in dementia care facilities in affecting resident's behaviors and staff care practice. We conducted focus groups with staff (n = 15) in two purposely selected care facilities in Vancouver, Canada. Focus group participants included nurses, care aides, recreation staff, administrative staff, and family. Data analysis revealed two themes: (a) a supportive physical environment contributes positively to both quality of staff care interaction and residents' quality of life and (b) an unsupportive physical environment contributes negatively to residents' quality of life and thereby makes the work of staff more challenging. The staff participants collectively viewed that comfort, familiarity, and an organized space were important therapeutic resources for supporting the well-being of residents. Certain behaviors of residents were influenced by poor environmental factors, including stimulation overload, safety risks, wayfinding challenge, and rushed care This study demonstrates the complex interrelationships among the dementia care setting's physical environment, staff experiences, and residents' quality of life. © The Author(s) 2014.

Spatially rearranged object parts can facilitate perception of intact whole objects.

PubMed

Cacciamani, Laura; Ayars, Alisabeth A; Peterson, Mary A

2014-01-01

The familiarity of an object depends on the spatial arrangement of its parts; when the parts are spatially rearranged, they form a novel, unrecognizable configuration. Yet the same collection of parts comprises both the familiar and novel configuration. Is it possible that the collection of familiar parts activates a representation of the intact familiar configuration even when they are spatially rearranged? We presented novel configurations as primes before test displays that assayed effects on figure-ground perception from memories of intact familiar objects. In our test displays, two equal-area regions shared a central border; one region depicted a portion of a familiar object. Previous research with such displays has shown that participants are more likely to perceive the region depicting a familiar object as the figure and the abutting region as its ground when the familiar object is depicted in its upright orientation rather than upside down. The novel primes comprised either the same or a different collection of parts as the familiar object in the test display (part-rearranged and control primes, respectively). We found that participants were more likely to perceive the familiar region as figure in upright vs. inverted displays following part-rearranged primes but not control primes. Thus, priming with a novel configuration comprising the same familiar parts as the upcoming figure-ground display facilitated orientation-dependent effects of object memories on figure assignment. Similar results were obtained when the spatially rearranged collection of parts was suggested on the groundside of the prime's border, suggesting that familiar parts in novel configurations access the representation of their corresponding intact whole object before figure assignment. These data demonstrate that familiar parts access memories of familiar objects even when they are arranged in a novel configuration.

Spatially rearranged object parts can facilitate perception of intact whole objects

PubMed Central

Cacciamani, Laura; Ayars, Alisabeth A.; Peterson, Mary A.

2014-01-01

The familiarity of an object depends on the spatial arrangement of its parts; when the parts are spatially rearranged, they form a novel, unrecognizable configuration. Yet the same collection of parts comprises both the familiar and novel configuration. Is it possible that the collection of familiar parts activates a representation of the intact familiar configuration even when they are spatially rearranged? We presented novel configurations as primes before test displays that assayed effects on figure-ground perception from memories of intact familiar objects. In our test displays, two equal-area regions shared a central border; one region depicted a portion of a familiar object. Previous research with such displays has shown that participants are more likely to perceive the region depicting a familiar object as the figure and the abutting region as its ground when the familiar object is depicted in its upright orientation rather than upside down. The novel primes comprised either the same or a different collection of parts as the familiar object in the test display (part-rearranged and control primes, respectively). We found that participants were more likely to perceive the familiar region as figure in upright vs. inverted displays following part-rearranged primes but not control primes. Thus, priming with a novel configuration comprising the same familiar parts as the upcoming figure-ground display facilitated orientation-dependent effects of object memories on figure assignment. Similar results were obtained when the spatially rearranged collection of parts was suggested on the groundside of the prime's border, suggesting that familiar parts in novel configurations access the representation of their corresponding intact whole object before figure assignment. These data demonstrate that familiar parts access memories of familiar objects even when they are arranged in a novel configuration. PMID:24904495

Pigeons (Columba livia) know when they will need hints: prospective metacognition for reference memory?

PubMed

Iwasaki, Sumie; Watanabe, Sota; Fujita, Kazuo

2018-03-01

Despite their impressive cognitive abilities, avian species have shown less evidence for metacognition than mammals. We suspect that commonly used tasks such as matching to sample might be too demanding to allow metacognitive processing within birds' working memory. Here, we examined whether pigeons could control their behavior as a function of knowledge levels on a three-item sequence learning task, a reference memory task supposedly requiring fewer working memory resources. The experiment used two types of lists differing in familiarity. One was familiar to the pigeons through repeated exposure, whereas the other was novel in every new session. In test sessions, pigeons could choose between a trial with a hint specifying the next item to peck and one with no hint. However, successful responses in trials with a hint resulted in lowered rates of primary reinforcement: .60 in the first test and .75 in the second. Results showed that two of four pigeons chose the trial with a hint significantly more often before receiving a novel list than the familiar list in the four sessions of the first test, and three did so in the second test. Impressively, one bird showed robust evidence in the very first sessions in both tests. These results suggest that pigeons may monitor their long-term knowledge states and thereby control their environment before starting to solve a task.

Acetylcholine contributes to the integration of self-movement cues in head direction cells.

PubMed

Yoder, Ryan M; Chan, Jeremy H M; Taube, Jeffrey S

2017-08-01

Acetylcholine contributes to accurate performance on some navigational tasks, but details of its contribution to the underlying brain signals are not fully understood. The medial septal area provides widespread cholinergic input to various brain regions, but selective damage to medial septal cholinergic neurons generally has little effect on landmark-based navigation, or the underlying neural representations of location and directional heading in visual environments. In contrast, the loss of medial septal cholinergic neurons disrupts navigation based on path integration, but no studies have tested whether these path integration deficits are associated with disrupted head direction (HD) cell activity. Therefore, we evaluated HD cell responses to visual cue rotations in a familiar arena, and during navigation between familiar and novel arenas, after muscarinic receptor blockade with systemic atropine. Atropine treatment reduced the peak firing rate of HD cells, but failed to significantly affect other HD cell firing properties. Atropine also failed to significantly disrupt the dominant landmark control of the HD signal, even though we used a procedure that challenged this landmark control. In contrast, atropine disrupted HD cell stability during navigation between familiar and novel arenas, where path integration normally maintains a consistent HD cell signal across arenas. These results suggest that acetylcholine contributes to path integration, in part, by facilitating the use of idiothetic cues to maintain a consistent representation of directional heading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Preparing for Novel versus Familiar Events: Shifts in Global and Local Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forster, Jens; Liberman, Nira; Shapira, Oren

2009-01-01

Six experiments examined whether novelty versus familiarity influences global versus local processing styles. Novelty and familiarity were manipulated by either framing a task as new versus familiar or by asking participants to reflect upon novel versus familiar events prior to the task (i.e., procedural priming). In Experiments 1-3, global…

Acoustic modes in fluid networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Michalopoulos, C. D.; Clark, Robert W., Jr.; Doiron, Harold H.

1992-01-01

Pressure and flow rate eigenvalue problems for one-dimensional flow of a fluid in a network of pipes are derived from the familiar transmission line equations. These equations are linearized by assuming small velocity and pressure oscillations about mean flow conditions. It is shown that the flow rate eigenvalues are the same as the pressure eigenvalues and the relationship between line pressure modes and flow rate modes is established. A volume at the end of each branch is employed which allows any combination of boundary conditions, from open to closed, to be used. The Jacobi iterative method is used to compute undamped natural frequencies and associated pressure/flow modes. Several numerical examples are presented which include acoustic modes for the Helium Supply System of the Space Shuttle Orbiter Main Propulsion System. It should be noted that the method presented herein can be applied to any one-dimensional acoustic system involving an arbitrary number of branches.

Watching film for the first time: how adult viewers interpret perceptual discontinuities in film.

PubMed

Schwan, Stephan; Ildirar, Sermin

2010-07-01

Although film, television, and video play an important role in modern societies, the extent to which the similarities of cinematographic images to natural, unmediated conditions of visual experience contribute to viewers' comprehension is largely an open question. To address this question, we compared 20 inexperienced adult viewers from southern Turkey with groups of medium- and high-experienced adult viewers from the same region. In individual sessions, each participant was shown a set of 14 film clips that included a number of perceptual discontinuities typical for film. The viewers' interpretations were recorded and analyzed. The findings show that it is not the similarity to conditions of natural perception but the presence of a familiar line of action that determines the comprehensibility of films for inexperienced viewers. In the absence of such a line of action, extended prior experience is required for appropriate interpretation of cinematographic images such as those we investigated in this study.

Fractonic line excitations: An inroad from three-dimensional elasticity theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pai, Shriya; Pretko, Michael

2018-06-01

We demonstrate the existence of a fundamentally new type of excitation, fractonic lines, which are linelike excitations with the restricted mobility properties of fractons. These excitations, described using an amalgamation of higher-form gauge theories with symmetric tensor gauge theories, see direct physical realization as the topological lattice defects of ordinary three-dimensional quantum crystals. Starting with the more familiar elasticity theory, we show how theory maps onto a rank-4 tensor gauge theory, with phonons corresponding to gapless gauge modes and disclination defects corresponding to linelike charges. We derive flux conservation laws which lock these linelike excitations in place, analogous to the higher moment charge conservation laws of fracton theories. This way of encoding mobility restrictions of lattice defects could shed light on melting transitions in three dimensions. This new type of extended object may also be a useful tool in the search for improved quantum error-correcting codes in three dimensions.

On the other side of the battle: Russian nurses in the Crimean War.

PubMed

Benson, E R

1992-01-01

One redeeming feature that emerged from the horrors of the Crimean War was the skilled and compassionate nursing care provided by women. The work of Florence Nightingale and her nurses with the British forces is a familiar story. What is less well-known is that the fighting forces on the other side of the battle lines also had their contingent of nurses who helped to alleviate the suffering of their sick and wounded. This paper discusses the events leading up to the organization of Russia's volunteer nurses who provided care on their side of the battle.

Recall versus familiarity when recall fails for words and scenes: The differential roles of the hippocampus, perirhinal cortex, and category-specific cortical regions☆

PubMed Central

Ryals, Anthony J.; Cleary, Anne M.; Seger, Carol A.

2013-01-01

This fMRI study examined recall and familiarity for words and scenes using the novel recognition without cued recall (RWCR) paradigm. Subjects performed a cued recall task in which half of the test cues resembled studied items (and thus were familiar) and half did not. Subjects also judged the familiarity of the cue itself. RWCR is the finding that, among cues for which recall fails, subjects generally rate cues that resemble studied items as more familiar than cues that do not. For words, left and right hippocampal activity increased when recall succeeded relative to when it failed. When recall failed, right hippocampal activity was decreased for familiar relative to unfamiliar cues. In contrast, right Prc activity increased for familiar cues for which recall failed relative to both familiar cues for which recall succeeded and to unfamiliar cues. For scenes, left hippocampal activity increased when recall succeeded relative to when it failed but did not differentiate familiar from unfamiliar cues when recall failed. In contrast, right Prc activity increased for familiar relative to unfamiliar cues when recall failed. Category-specific cortical regions showed effects unique to their respective stimulus types: The visual word form area (VWFA) showed effects for recall vs. familiarity specific to words, and the parahippocampal place area (PPA) showed effects for recall vs. familiarity specific to scenes. In both cases, these effects were such that there was increased activity occurring during recall relative to when recall failed, and decreased activity occurring for familiar relative to unfamiliar cues when recall failed. PMID:23142268

Social familiarity modulates group living and foraging behaviour of juvenile predatory mites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strodl, Markus A.; Schausberger, Peter

2012-04-01

Environmental stressors during early life may have persistent consequences for phenotypic development and fitness. In group-living species, an important stressor during juvenile development is the presence and familiarity status of conspecific individuals. To alleviate intraspecific conflicts during juvenile development, many animals evolved the ability to discriminate familiar and unfamiliar individuals based on prior association and use this ability to preferentially associate with familiar individuals. Assuming that familiar neighbours require less attention than unfamiliar ones, as predicted by limited attention theory, assorting with familiar individuals should increase the efficiency in other tasks. We assessed the influence of social familiarity on within-group association behaviour, development and foraging of juvenile life stages of the group-living, plant-inhabiting predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis. The observed groups consisted either of mixed-age familiar and unfamiliar juvenile mites or of age-synchronized familiar or unfamiliar juvenile mites or of pairs of familiar or unfamiliar larvae. Overall, familiar mites preferentially grouped together and foraged more efficiently, i.e. needed less prey at similar developmental speed and body size at maturity, than unfamiliar mites. Preferential association of familiar mites was also apparent in the inter-exuviae distances. Social familiarity was established by imprinting in the larval stage, was not cancelled or overridden by later conspecific contacts and persisted into adulthood. Life stage had an effect on grouping with larvae being closer together than nymphal stages. Ultimately, optimized foraging during the developmental phase may relax within-group competition, enhance current and future food supply needed for optimal development and optimize patch exploitation and leaving under limited food.

Development of a residency program in radiation oncology physics: an inverse planning approach.

PubMed

Khan, Rao F H; Dunscombe, Peter B

2016-03-08

Over the last two decades, there has been a concerted effort in North America to organize medical physicists' clinical training programs along more structured and formal lines. This effort has been prompted by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs (CAMPEP) which has now accredited about 90 residency programs. Initially the accreditation focused on standardized and higher quality clinical physics training; the development of rounded professionals who can function at a high level in a multidisciplinary environment was recognized as a priority of a radiation oncology physics residency only lately. In this report, we identify and discuss the implementation of, and the essential components of, a radiation oncology physics residency designed to produce knowledgeable and effective clinical physicists for today's safety-conscious and collaborative work environment. Our approach is that of inverse planning, by now familiar to all radiation oncology physicists, in which objectives and constraints are identified prior to the design of the program. Our inverse planning objectives not only include those associated with traditional residencies (i.e., clinical physics knowledge and critical clinical skills), but also encompass those other attributes essential for success in a modern radiation therapy clinic. These attributes include formal training in management skills and leadership, teaching and communication skills, and knowledge of error management techniques and patient safety. The constraints in our optimization exercise are associated with the limited duration of a residency and the training resources available. Without compromising the knowledge and skills needed for clinical tasks, we have successfully applied the model to the University of Calgary's two-year residency program. The program requires 3840 hours of overall commitment from the trainee, of which 7%-10% is spent in obtaining formal training in nontechnical "soft skills".

Acoustic Wave Propagation in Pressure Sense Lines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vitarius, Patrick; Gregory, Don A.; Wiley, John; Korman, Valentin

2003-01-01

Sense lines are used in pressure measurements to passively transmit information from hostile environments to areas where transducers can be used. The transfer function of a sense line can be used to obtain information about the measured environment from the protected sensor. Several properties of this transfer function are examined, including frequency dependence, Helmholtz resonance, and time of flight delay.

40 CFR 63.1569 - What are my requirements for HAP emissions from bypass lines?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 12 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true What are my requirements for HAP emissions from bypass lines? 63.1569 Section 63.1569 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION... HAP emissions from bypass lines? (a) What work practice standards must I meet? (1) You must meet each...

Framing the grid: effect of boundaries on grid cells and navigation.

PubMed

Krupic, Julija; Bauza, Marius; Burton, Stephen; O'Keefe, John

2016-11-15

Cells in the mammalian hippocampal formation subserve neuronal representations of environmental location and support navigation in familiar environments. Grid cells constitute one of the main cell types in the hippocampal formation and are widely believed to represent a universal metric of space independent of external stimuli. Recent evidence showing that grid symmetry is distorted in non-symmetrical environments suggests that a re-examination of this hypothesis is warranted. In this review we will discuss behavioural and physiological evidence for how environmental shape and in particular enclosure boundaries influence grid cell firing properties. We propose that grid cells encode the geometric layout of enclosures. © 2016 The Authors. The Journal of Physiology © 2016 The Physiological Society.

[Age-adaptable to any age].

PubMed

Philippen, D P

1996-01-01

A definition separating the "elderly" from younger people should be avoided as well as any manifestation of any type of segregation. The environment must provide equal chances and opportunities for every person, regardless of age or abilities. Self-determined independence throughout life and the chance to remain in one's established home, community, and familiar environment require barrier-free design in all areas of the person's life-space. Dependencies and disabling factors can be diminished, and abilities can be restored by intensive rehabilitation and support of personal dignity, assisted by ambulant care and by products designed as barrier-free. They, lower the need for special aids and save costs. Such solutions are available. They must be applied with all consequences.

Electric utility pole yard training facility: Designing an effective learning environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Topping, Robert P.

The primary responsibility of electric utilities is to supply consistent, dependable, and affordable energy to private customers, businesses, and industries. As with many businesses, electric utilities are experiencing the effects of an aging workforce and expending considerable resources to train their current and replacement workers. Community colleges can partner with electric utilities to provide effective learning environments for these workers, and gain access to new sources of revenue and community support for the colleges. The purpose of this study was to describe the functions, features, and major design issues of an effective learning environment for training electric utility industry workers, the electric utility line-worker pole yard. Case studies of three "state of the art" line-worker pole yard training environments provide the basis for the study's findings and implications. The study was guided by the following research questions: (1) What is the function of a line-worker pole yard in supporting effective training? (2) What are the features of present day ("state of the art") line-worker pole yard learning environments? and (3) What are the major issues that need to be addressed in designing a line-worker pole yard learning environment for the future? The study participants included industry representatives, training coordinators, instructors, and students from the three selected "state of the art" line-worker pole yard sites. The overall findings from the study resulted in composites of the desired features of learning outcomes, learning process, and learning environment for a line-worker pole yard training program and major issues that are affecting the future design of these training programs. Composite findings of a pole-yard training environment included unique features associated with: (a) outdoor, (b) indoor, (c) underground, (d) classroom, (e) gathering places, and (f) work-based learning components. Composite findings with regard to major issues that need to be considered in future designs of pole-yard training environments included: (a) available unrestricted land for expansion, (b) resource commitment level, (c) workforce demographics, (d) aging industrial infrastructure, (e) electronic information and communication capability, (f) quality and quantity of available instructors, and (g) environmental and economic impact.

Optimizing the updated Goddard shortwave radiation Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) scheme for Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mielikainen, Jarno; Huang, Bormin; Huang, Allen H.-L.

2015-05-01

Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) ushers in a new era of supercomputing speed, performance, and compatibility. It allows the developers to run code at trillions of calculations per second using the familiar programming model. In this paper, we present our results of optimizing the updated Goddard shortwave radiation Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) scheme on Intel Many Integrated Core Architecture (MIC) hardware. The Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor is the first product based on Intel MIC architecture, and it consists of up to 61 cores connected by a high performance on-die bidirectional interconnect. The co-processor supports all important Intel development tools. Thus, the development environment is familiar one to a vast number of CPU developers. Although, getting a maximum performance out of Xeon Phi will require using some novel optimization techniques. Those optimization techniques are discusses in this paper. The results show that the optimizations improved performance of the original code on Xeon Phi 7120P by a factor of 1.3x.

Synesthetic grapheme-color percepts exist for newly encountered Hebrew, Devanagari, Armenian and Cyrillic graphemes

PubMed Central

Blair, Christopher David; Berryhill, Marian E.

2013-01-01

Grapheme-color synesthetes experience color, not physically present, when viewing symbols. Synesthetes cannot remember learning these associations. Must synesthetic percepts be formed during a sensitive period? Can they form later and be consistent? What determines their nature? We tested grapheme-color synesthete, MC2, before, during and after she studied Hindi abroad. We investigated whether novel graphemes elicited synesthetic percepts, changed with familiarity, and/or benefited from phonemic information. MC2 reported color percepts to novel Devanagari and Hebrew graphemes. MC2 monitored these percepts over 6 months in a Hindi-speaking environment. MC2 and synesthete DN, reported synesthetic percepts for Armenian graphemes, or Cyrillic graphemes + phonemes over time. Synesthetes, not controls, reported color percepts for novel graphemes that gained consistency over time. Phonemic information did not enhance consistency. Thus, synesthetes can form and consolidate percepts to novel graphemes as adults. These percepts may depend on pre-existing grapheme-color relationships but they can flexibly shift with familiarity. PMID:23860303

A fuzzy classifier system for process control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Karr, C. L.; Phillips, J. C.

1994-01-01

A fuzzy classifier system that discovers rules for controlling a mathematical model of a pH titration system was developed by researchers at the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM). Fuzzy classifier systems successfully combine the strengths of learning classifier systems and fuzzy logic controllers. Learning classifier systems resemble familiar production rule-based systems, but they represent their IF-THEN rules by strings of characters rather than in the traditional linguistic terms. Fuzzy logic is a tool that allows for the incorporation of abstract concepts into rule based-systems, thereby allowing the rules to resemble the familiar 'rules-of-thumb' commonly used by humans when solving difficult process control and reasoning problems. Like learning classifier systems, fuzzy classifier systems employ a genetic algorithm to explore and sample new rules for manipulating the problem environment. Like fuzzy logic controllers, fuzzy classifier systems encapsulate knowledge in the form of production rules. The results presented in this paper demonstrate the ability of fuzzy classifier systems to generate a fuzzy logic-based process control system.

Robust and Rapid Air-Borne Odor Tracking without Casting1,2,3

PubMed Central

Bhattacharyya, Urvashi

2015-01-01

Abstract Casting behavior (zigzagging across an odor stream) is common in air/liquid-borne odor tracking in open fields; however, terrestrial odor localization often involves path selection in a familiar environment. To study this, we trained rats to run toward an odor source in a multi-choice olfactory arena with near-laminar airflow. We find that rather than casting, rats run directly toward an odor port, and if this is incorrect, they serially sample other sources. This behavior is consistent and accurate in the presence of perturbations, such as novel odors, background odor, unilateral nostril stitching, and turbulence. We developed a model that predicts that this run-and-scan tracking of air-borne odors is faster than casting, provided there are a small number of targets at known locations. Thus, the combination of best-guess target selection with fallback serial sampling provides a rapid and robust strategy for finding odor sources in familiar surroundings. PMID:26665165

[Family violence and aggressive and oppositional behavior in childhood: a literature review].

PubMed

Pesce, Renata

2009-01-01

This article presents a review of the world literature about two important subjects: family violence and problems of aggressive behavior and oppositional defiant disorder in childhood. We opted for publications that had used the CBCL- Child Behavior Checklist for investigating behavior problems in children. This instrument is internationally recognized for its reliability and validity, considered an efficient tool for identifying behavior problems in children. Our findings showed that marital violence predominated in the studies as kind of familiar violence able to cause problems of aggressiveness and transgression in children. Another point discussed was the lack of consensus on the terms used in the articles to refer to such behavior problems. The review showed the need for in-depth studies into this subject, mainly in the sense of thinking about prevention and health promotion in childhood and adolescence. Aggressive behavior in children tends to remain and increase over time, a fact that points to the need for strategies for preventing these problems in the school, familiar and health environments.

Value associations of irrelevant stimuli modify rapid visual orienting.

PubMed

Rutherford, Helena J V; O'Brien, Jennifer L; Raymond, Jane E

2010-08-01

In familiar environments, goal-directed visual behavior is often performed in the presence of objects with strong, but task-irrelevant, reward or punishment associations that are acquired through prior, unrelated experience. In a two-phase experiment, we asked whether such stimuli could affect speeded visual orienting in a classic visual orienting paradigm. First, participants learned to associate faces with monetary gains, losses, or no outcomes. These faces then served as brief, peripheral, uninformative cues in an explicitly unrewarded, unpunished, speeded, target localization task. Cues preceded targets by either 100 or 1,500 msec and appeared at either the same or a different location. Regardless of interval, reward-associated cues slowed responding at cued locations, as compared with equally familiar punishment-associated or no-value cues, and had no effect when targets were presented at uncued locations. This localized effect of reward-associated cues is consistent with adaptive models of inhibition of return and suggests rapid, low-level effects of motivation on visual processing.

Individual differences in infant fearfulness and cognitive performance: a testing, performance, or competence effect?

PubMed

Rieser-Danner, Loretta A

2003-02-01

The author conducted 2 studies to examine the relations between infant fear and cognitive testing performance in 12-month-old infants. In Study 1, fear was assessed by using 2 standard temperament questionnaires and a laboratory-based, standardized stranger approach. Individual differences in cognitive development were assessed using the Object Permanence Scale of the Infant Psychological Development Scales (I. C. Uzgiris & J. M. Hunt, 1975). All 3 assessments of fear significantly predicted object permanence performance, with correlations ranging from -.32 to -.35. In Study 2, fear was assessed via a maternal report questionnaire, and habituation performance was assessed via a basic-level categorization task. Familiarity with the examiner and with the testing environment was manipulated to test for a familiarity influence on performance. Testing revealed individual differences in both fear and habituation. Results suggest that highly fearful infants required more trials to habituate and were less likely to meet the habituation criterion than infants who were less fearful. Methodological and conceptual implications of these results are discussed.

The association between weekly work hours, crew familiarity, and occupational injury and illness in emergency medical services workers.

PubMed

Weaver, Matthew D; Patterson, P Daniel; Fabio, Anthony; Moore, Charity G; Freiberg, Matthew S; Songer, Thomas J

2015-12-01

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers are shift workers in a high-risk, uncontrolled occupational environment. EMS-worker fatigue has been associated with self-reported injury, but the influence of extended weekly work hours is unknown. A retrospective cohort study was designed using historical shift schedules and occupational injury and illness reports. Using multilevel models, we examined the association between weekly work hours, crew familiarity, and injury or illness. In total, 966,082 shifts and 950 reports across 14 EMS agencies were obtained over a 1-3 year period. Weekly work hours were not associated with occupational injury or illness. Schedule characteristics that yield decreased exposure to occupational hazards, such as part-time work and night work, conferred reduced risk of injury or illness. Extended weekly work hours were not associated with occupational injury or illness. Future work should focus on transient exposures and agency-level characteristics that may contribute to adverse work events. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Planning Beyond Tactics: Towards a Military Application of the Philosophy of Design in the Formulation of Strategy

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-05-22

mimicry etc.). But this is only true on the level of the strata – a parallelism between two strata such that a plant organization on one imitates...existing planning structure, but augments it, increasing the relevance of subordinate actions to both the desires of commanders and the environment they...acute observation, and a familiarity and ease with ambiguity. In every sense design is philosophy embracing ever- increasing complexity. Thinking

Lessons Learned With a Global Graph and Ozone Widget Framework (OWF) Testbed

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-01

of operating system and database environments. The following is one example. Requirements are: Java 1.6 + and a Relational Database Management...We originally tried to use MySQL as our database, because we were more familiar with it, but since the database dumps as well as most of the...Global Graph Rest Services In order to set up the Global Graph Rest Services, you will need to have the following dependencies installed: Java 1.6

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Space Station Processing Facility, STS-115 Mission Specialist Joseph Tanner (second from left, foreground) works with technicians to learn more about the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), known as Kibo. The JEM consists of six components: two research facilities - the Pressurized Module and the Exposed Facility; a Logistics Module attached to each of them; a Remote Manipulator System; and an Inter-Orbit Communication System unit. Kibo also has a scientific airlock through which experiments are transferred and exposed to the external environment of space. The various components of JEM will be assembled in space over the course of three Space Shuttle missions. Equipment familiarization is a routine part of astronaut training and launch preparations.

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-10-22

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Space Station Processing Facility, STS-115 Mission Specialist Joseph Tanner (second from left, foreground) works with technicians to learn more about the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), known as Kibo. The JEM consists of six components: two research facilities - the Pressurized Module and the Exposed Facility; a Logistics Module attached to each of them; a Remote Manipulator System; and an Inter-Orbit Communication System unit. Kibo also has a scientific airlock through which experiments are transferred and exposed to the external environment of space. The various components of JEM will be assembled in space over the course of three Space Shuttle missions. Equipment familiarization is a routine part of astronaut training and launch preparations.

Learning from Somaliland? Transferability of learning from volunteering to national health service practice in the UK.

PubMed

Tillson, Esther; van Wees, Sibylle Herzig; McGowan, Charlotte; Franklin, Hannah; Jones, Helena; Bogue, Patrick; Aliabadi, Shirin; Baraitser, Paula

2016-03-22

Capacity building partnerships between healthcare institutions have the potential to benefit both partners particularly in staff development. Previous research suggests that volunteering can contribute to professional development but there is little evidence on how learning is acquired, the barriers and facilitators to learning in this context or the process of translation of learning to the home environment. Volunteers from a healthcare partnership between the UK and Somaliland reported learning in communication, interdisciplinary working, teaching, management, leadership and service development. This learning came from observing familiar practices in unfamiliar environments; alternative solutions to familiar problems; learning about Somali culture; opportunities to assume higher levels of responsibility and new professional relationships. There was variability in the extent of translation to NHS practice. Time and support available for reflection and mentoring were important facilitators of this process. The professional development outcomes documented in this study came directly from the experience of volunteering. Experiential learning theory suggests that this requires a complex process of critical reflection and new knowledge generation, testing and translation for use in new contexts. This process benefits from identification of learning as an important element of volunteering and support for reflection and the translation translation of learning to UK contexts. We suggest that missed opportunities for volunteer learning will remain until the volunteering process is overtly framed as part of continuing professional development.

Brain regions involved in the retrieval of spatial and episodic details associated with a familiar environment: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Hirshhorn, Marnie; Grady, Cheryl; Rosenbaum, R Shayna; Winocur, Gordon; Moscovitch, Morris

2012-11-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to compare brain activity during the retrieval of coarse- and fine-grained spatial details and episodic details associated with a familiar environment. Long-time Toronto residents compared pairs of landmarks based on their absolute geographic locations (requiring either coarse or fine discriminations) or based on previous visits to those landmarks (requiring episodic details). An ROI analysis of the hippocampus showed that all three conditions activated the hippocampus bilaterally. Fine-grained spatial judgments recruited an additional region of the right posterior hippocampus, while episodic judgments recruited an additional region of the right anterior hippocampus, and a more extensive region along the length of the left hippocampus. To examine whole-brain patterns of activity, Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis was used to identify sets of brain regions whose activity covaried with the three conditions. All three comparison judgments recruited the default mode network including the posterior cingulate/retrosplenial cortex, middle frontal gyrus, hippocampus, and precuneus. Fine-grained spatial judgments also recruited additional regions of the precuneus, parahippocampal cortex and the supramarginal gyrus. Episodic judgments recruited the posterior cingulate and medial frontal lobes as well as the angular gyrus. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of hippocampal function and spatial and episodic memory. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Space Station Processing Facility, STS-115 Mission Specialist Joseph Tanner (center, foreground) works with technicians to learn more about the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), known as Kibo. The JEM consists of six components: two research facilities - the Pressurized Module and the Exposed Facility; a Logistics Module attached to each of them; a Remote Manipulator System; and an Inter-Orbit Communication System unit. Kibo also has a scientific airlock through which experiments are transferred and exposed to the external environment of space. The various components of JEM will be assembled in space over the course of three Space Shuttle missions. Equipment familiarization is a routine part of astronaut training and launch preparations.

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-10-22

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Space Station Processing Facility, STS-115 Mission Specialist Joseph Tanner (center, foreground) works with technicians to learn more about the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), known as Kibo. The JEM consists of six components: two research facilities - the Pressurized Module and the Exposed Facility; a Logistics Module attached to each of them; a Remote Manipulator System; and an Inter-Orbit Communication System unit. Kibo also has a scientific airlock through which experiments are transferred and exposed to the external environment of space. The various components of JEM will be assembled in space over the course of three Space Shuttle missions. Equipment familiarization is a routine part of astronaut training and launch preparations.

Effects of visual familiarity for words on interhemispheric cooperation for lexical processing.

PubMed

Yoshizaki, K

2001-12-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of visual familiarity of words on interhemispheric lexical processing. Words and pseudowords were tachistoscopically presented in a left, a right, or bilateral visual fields. Two types of words, Katakana-familiar-type and Hiragana-familiar-type, were used as the word stimuli. The former refers to the words which are more frequently written with Katakana script, and the latter refers to the words which are written predominantly in Hiragana script. Two conditions for the words were set up in terms of visual familiarity for a word. In visually familiar condition, words were presented in familiar script form and in visually unfamiliar condition, words were presented in less familiar script form. The 32 right-handed Japanese students were asked to make a lexical decision. Results showed that a bilateral gain, which indicated that the performance in the bilateral visual fields was superior to that in the unilateral visual field, was obtained only in the visually familiar condition, not in the visually unfamiliar condition. These results suggested that the visual familiarity for a word had an influence on the interhemispheric lexical processing.

Recall versus familiarity when recall fails for words and scenes: the differential roles of the hippocampus, perirhinal cortex, and category-specific cortical regions.

PubMed

Ryals, Anthony J; Cleary, Anne M; Seger, Carol A

2013-01-25

This fMRI study examined recall and familiarity for words and scenes using the novel recognition without cued recall (RWCR) paradigm. Subjects performed a cued recall task in which half of the test cues resembled studied items (and thus were familiar) and half did not. Subjects also judged the familiarity of the cue itself. RWCR is the finding that, among cues for which recall fails, subjects generally rate cues that resemble studied items as more familiar than cues that do not. For words, left and right hippocampal activity increased when recall succeeded relative to when it failed. When recall failed, right hippocampal activity was decreased for familiar relative to unfamiliar cues. In contrast, right Prc activity increased for familiar cues for which recall failed relative to both familiar cues for which recall succeeded and to unfamiliar cues. For scenes, left hippocampal activity increased when recall succeeded relative to when it failed but did not differentiate familiar from unfamiliar cues when recall failed. In contrast, right Prc activity increased for familiar relative to unfamiliar cues when recall failed. Category-specific cortical regions showed effects unique to their respective stimulus types: The visual word form area (VWFA) showed effects for recall vs. familiarity specific to words, and the parahippocampal place area (PPA) showed effects for recall vs. familiarity specific to scenes. In both cases, these effects were such that there was increased activity occurring during recall relative to when recall failed, and decreased activity occurring for familiar relative to unfamiliar cues when recall failed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A circuit-based mechanism underlying familiarity signaling and the preference for novelty

PubMed Central

Molas, Susanna; Zhao-Shea, Rubing; Liu, Liwang; DeGroot, Steven R.; Gardner, Paul D.; Tapper, Andrew R.

2017-01-01

Novelty preference (NP) is an evolutionarily conserved, essential survival mechanism often dysregulated in neuropsychiatric disorders. NP is mediated by a motivational dopamine signal that increases in response to novel stimuli thereby driving exploration. However, the mechanism by which once novel stimuli transitions to familiar stimuli is unknown. Here we describe a neuroanatomical substrate for familiarity signaling, the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN) of the midbrain, which is activated as novel stimuli become familiar with multiple exposures. Optogenetic silencing of IPN neurons increases salience of and interaction with familiar stimuli without affecting novelty responses; whereas, photo-activation of the same neurons reduces exploration of novel stimuli mimicking familiarity. Bi-directional control of NP by the IPN depends on familiarity- and novelty-signals arising from excitatory habenula and dopaminergic ventral tegmental area inputs, which activate and reduce IPN activity, respectively. These results demonstrate that familiarity signals through unique IPN circuitry that opposes novelty seeking to control NP. PMID:28714952

A circuit-based mechanism underlying familiarity signaling and the preference for novelty.

PubMed

Molas, Susanna; Zhao-Shea, Rubing; Liu, Liwang; DeGroot, Steven R; Gardner, Paul D; Tapper, Andrew R

2017-09-01

Novelty preference (NP) is an evolutionarily conserved, essential survival mechanism often dysregulated in neuropsychiatric disorders. NP is mediated by a motivational dopamine signal that increases in response to novel stimuli, thereby driving exploration. However, the mechanism by which once-novel stimuli transition to familiar stimuli is unknown. Here we describe a neuroanatomical substrate for familiarity signaling, the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN) of the midbrain, which is activated as novel stimuli become familiar with multiple exposures. In mice, optogenetic silencing of IPN neurons increases salience of and interaction with familiar stimuli without affecting novelty responses, whereas photoactivation of the same neurons reduces exploration of novel stimuli mimicking familiarity. Bidirectional control of NP by the IPN depends on familiarity signals and novelty signals arising from excitatory habenula and dopaminergic ventral tegmentum inputs, which activate and reduce IPN activity, respectively. These results demonstrate that familiarity signals through unique IPN circuitry that opposes novelty seeking to control NP.

Characterizing episodic memory retrieval: electrophysiological evidence for diminished familiarity following unitization.

PubMed

Pilgrim, Lea K; Murray, Jamie G; Donaldson, David I

2012-08-01

Episodic memory relies on both recollection and familiarity; why these processes are differentially engaged during retrieval remains unclear. Traditionally, recollection has been considered necessary for tasks requiring associative retrieval, whereas familiarity supports recognition of items. Recently, however, familiarity has been shown to contribute to associative recognition if stimuli are "unitized" at encoding (a single representation is created from multiple elements)-the "benefit" of unitization. Here, we ask if there is also a "cost" of unitization; are the elements of unitized representations less accessible via familiarity? We manipulated unitization during encoding and used ERPs to index familiarity and recollection at retrieval. The data revealed a selective reduction in the neural correlate of familiarity for individual words originally encoded in unitized compared with nonunitized word pairs. This finding reveals a measurable cost of unitization, suggesting that the nature of to-be-remembered stimuli is critical in determining whether familiarity contributes to episodic memory.

Learner-Centered Instruction (LCI): Volume IV, The Simulated Maintenance Task Environment (SMTE): A Job Specific Simulator.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rifkin, Kenneth I.; And Others

The purpose of the simulated maintenance task environment is to provide a means for training and job performance testing of the flight line weapon control systems mechanic/technician for the F-111A aircraft. It provides practice in flight line equipment checkout, troubleshooting, and removal and replacement of line replaceable units in the…

Genomic Prediction with Pedigree and Genotype × Environment Interaction in Spring Wheat Grown in South and West Asia, North Africa, and Mexico.

PubMed

Sukumaran, Sivakumar; Crossa, Jose; Jarquin, Diego; Lopes, Marta; Reynolds, Matthew P

2017-02-09

Developing genomic selection (GS) models is an important step in applying GS to accelerate the rate of genetic gain in grain yield in plant breeding. In this study, seven genomic prediction models under two cross-validation (CV) scenarios were tested on 287 advanced elite spring wheat lines phenotyped for grain yield (GY), thousand-grain weight (GW), grain number (GN), and thermal time for flowering (TTF) in 18 international environments (year-location combinations) in major wheat-producing countries in 2010 and 2011. Prediction models with genomic and pedigree information included main effects and interaction with environments. Two random CV schemes were applied to predict a subset of lines that were not observed in any of the 18 environments (CV1), and a subset of lines that were not observed in a set of the environments, but were observed in other environments (CV2). Genomic prediction models, including genotype × environment (G×E) interaction, had the highest average prediction ability under the CV1 scenario for GY (0.31), GN (0.32), GW (0.45), and TTF (0.27). For CV2, the average prediction ability of the model including the interaction terms was generally high for GY (0.38), GN (0.43), GW (0.63), and TTF (0.53). Wheat lines in site-year combinations in Mexico and India had relatively high prediction ability for GY and GW. Results indicated that prediction ability of lines not observed in certain environments could be relatively high for genomic selection when predicting G×E interaction in multi-environment trials. Copyright © 2017 Sukumaran et al.

[Familiarity and perceptions of Portuguese cardiologists concerning cardiac magnetic resonance and cardiac computed tomography: the extent of the task ahead].

PubMed

Ferreira, António Miguel; Bettencourt, Nuno; Matos, Pedro; Oliveira, Luís; Almeida, Ana G

2013-01-01

Rapid advances in cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) pose challenges for practicing physicians in terms of awareness of their indications, contraindications, advantages and pitfalls. We conducted a nationwide online survey assessing the familiarity, perceptions and patterns of use concerning these imaging modalities based on a questionnaire sent to all physician members of the Portuguese Society of Cardiology. The responses from 205 physicians (21% response rate) were analyzed. Roughly half of them requested less than one CMR (51%) or CCTA (52%) per week. Suspected coronary artery disease in symptomatic patients with intermediate pretest probability was considered a good or excellent indication for CCTA by 59% of respondents when performed as a second-line exam, and by 29% as a first-line exam. Cardiac masses, congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathies were considered good or excellent indications for CMR by over 90% of respondents, while assessment of myocardial viability and acute myocardial infarction with normal coronary arteries were considered good or excellent indications by 75% and 65% of respondents, respectively. Less than half (39%) answered all the questions regarding contraindications for CMR correctly, and 15% were unaware that CMR does not involve ionizing radiation. The main reasons for not referring a patient for CMR were limited availability (45%) and cost (36%). Portuguese cardiologists appear to be moderately aware of the indications, contraindications and advantages of these new imaging modalities. Greater efforts should be made to improve physician education on this subject in order to improve patient care. Copyright © 2012 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Published by Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

The Influence of Familiarity on Affective Responses to Natural Scenes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanabria Z., Jorge C.; Cho, Youngil; Yamanaka, Toshimasa

This kansei study explored how familiarity with image-word combinations influences affective states. Stimuli were obtained from Japanese print advertisements (ads), and consisted of images (e.g., natural-scene backgrounds) and their corresponding headlines (advertising copy). Initially, a group of subjects evaluated their level of familiarity with images and headlines independently, and stimuli were filtered based on the results. In the main experiment, a different group of subjects rated their pleasure and arousal to, and familiarity with, image-headline combinations. The Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) scale was used to evaluate pleasure and arousal, and a bipolar scale was used to evaluate familiarity. The results showed a high correlation between familiarity and pleasure, but low correlation between familiarity and arousal. The characteristics of the stimuli, and their effect on the variables of pleasure, arousal and familiarity, were explored through ANOVA. It is suggested that, in the case of natural-scene ads, familiarity with image-headline combinations may increase the pleasure response to the ads, and that certain components in the images (e.g., water) may increase arousal levels.

MicroShell Minimalist Shell for Xilinx Microprocessors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Werne, Thomas A.

2011-01-01

MicroShell is a lightweight shell environment for engineers and software developers working with embedded microprocessors in Xilinx FPGAs. (MicroShell has also been successfully ported to run on ARM Cortex-M1 microprocessors in Actel ProASIC3 FPGAs, but without project-integration support.) Micro Shell decreases the time spent performing initial tests of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) designs, simplifies running customizable one-time-only experiments, and provides a familiar-feeling command-line interface. The program comes with a collection of useful functions and enables the designer to add an unlimited number of custom commands, which are callable from the command-line. The commands are parameterizable (using the C-based command-line parameter idiom), so the designer can use one function to exercise hardware with different values. Also, since many hardware peripherals instantiated in FPGAs have reasonably simple register-mapped I/O interfaces, the engineer can edit and view hardware parameter settings at any time without stopping the processor. MicroShell comes with a set of support scripts that interface seamlessly with Xilinx's EDK tool. Adding an instance of MicroShell to a project is as simple as marking a check box in a library configuration dialog box and specifying a software project directory. The support scripts then examine the hardware design, build design-specific functions, conditionally include processor-specific functions, and complete the compilation process. For code-size constrained designs, most of the stock functionality can be excluded from the compiled library. When all of the configurable options are removed from the binary, MicroShell has an unoptimized memory footprint of about 4.8 kB and a size-optimized footprint of about 2.3 kB. Since MicroShell allows unfettered access to all processor-accessible memory locations, it is possible to perform live patching on a running system. This can be useful, for instance, if a bug is discovered in a routine but the system cannot be rebooted: Shell allows a skilled operator to directly edit the binary executable in memory. With some forethought, MicroShell code can be located in a different memory location from custom code, permitting the custom functionality to be overwritten at any time without stopping the controlling shell.

Mealtimes in a neurological ward: a phenomenological-hermeneutic study.

PubMed

Beck, Malene; Martinsen, Bente; Poulsen, Ingrid; Birkelund, Regner

2016-06-01

To examine the environment surrounding hospital meals for patients with neurological diseases. A determined effort has been made to optimise the nutrition of hospitalised patients. However, the organisation of mealtimes and their relational and aesthetic aspects have not received similar attention. The result is that all other tasks continue with undiminished intensity when patient meals are served and eaten. Based on a qualitative design, 25 mealtime situations were systematically observed. The observations varied by time of day, date, staff and patients present. Field notes were taken on the spot, and quotes were written directly. After transcription, the text materials were analysed and interpreted using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach inspired by the philosopher Paul Ricouer. Three main themes were identified in the analysis: eating in a railway station, creating aesthetic mealtimes in an unaesthetic atmosphere and using familiar rituals in unfamiliar surroundings. The inclusion of aesthetic elements and familiarity was found to play an important role in the desire of patients to eat. However, these elements were challenged by the design of the physical space and institutional structures. This study contributes to our understanding of the environment surrounding hospital meals for patients with neurological diseases. Based on this study, it can be concluded that meals were at a high risk of being served as a mindless task without the recognition that mealtimes are sensed with the whole body of the patient and not only by the mouth. The importance of the mealtime environment must be acknowledged because it serves as a communicative aspect for neurological patients by letting them know what to expect from the coming hospital meal. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Environmental factors influencing older adults' walking for transportation: a study using walk-along interviews.

PubMed

Van Cauwenberg, Jelle; Van Holle, Veerle; Simons, Dorien; Deridder, Riet; Clarys, Peter; Goubert, Liesbet; Nasar, Jack; Salmon, Jo; De Bourdeaudhuij, Ilse; Deforche, Benedicte

2012-07-10

Current knowledge on the relationship between the physical environment and walking for transportation among older adults (≥ 65 years) is limited. Qualitative research can provide valuable information and inform further research. However, qualitative studies are scarce and fail to include neighborhood outings necessary to study participants' experiences and perceptions while interacting with and interpreting the local social and physical environment. The current study sought to uncover the perceived environmental influences on Flemish older adults' walking for transportation. To get detailed and context-sensitive environmental information, it used walk-along interviews. Purposeful convenience sampling was used to recruit 57 older adults residing in urban or semi-urban areas. Walk-along interviews to and from a destination (e.g. a shop) located within a 15 minutes' walk from the participants' home were conducted. Content analysis was performed using NVivo 9 software (QSR International). An inductive approach was used to derive categories and subcategories from the data. Data were categorized in the following categories and subcategories: access to facilities (shops & services, public transit, connectivity), walking facilities (sidewalk quality, crossings, legibility, benches), traffic safety (busy traffic, behavior of other road users), familiarity, safety from crime (physical factors, other persons), social contacts, aesthetics (buildings, natural elements, noise & smell, openness, decay) and weather. The findings indicate that to promote walking for transportation a neighborhood should provide good access to shops and services, well-maintained walking facilities, aesthetically appealing places, streets with little traffic and places for social interaction. In addition, the neighborhood environment should evoke feelings of familiarity and safety from crime. Future quantitative studies should investigate if (changes in) these environmental factors relate to (changes in) older adults' walking for transportation.

How do early emotional experiences in the operating theatre influence medical student learning in this environment?

PubMed

Bowrey, David J; Kidd, Jane M

2014-01-01

The emotions experienced by medical students on first exposure to the operating theatre are unknown. It is also unclear what influence these emotions have on the learning process. To understand the emotions experienced by students when in the operating theatre for the first time and the impact of these emotions on learning. Nine 3rd-year medical students participated in semistructured interviews to explore these themes. A qualitative approach was used; interviews were transcribed and coded thematically. All participants reported initial negative emotions (apprehension, anxiety, fear, shame, overwhelmed), with excitement being reported by 3. Six participants considered that their anxiety was so overwhelming that it was detrimental to their learning. Participants described a period of familiarization to the environment, after which learning was facilitated. Early learning experiences centered around adjustment to the physical environment of the operating theatre. Factors driving initial negative feelings were loss of familiarity, organizational issues, concerns about violating protocol, and a fear of syncope. Participants considered that it took a median of 1 week (range = 1 day-3 weeks) or 5 visits to the operating theatre (range = 1-10) before feeling comfortable in the new setting. Emotions experienced on subsequent visits to the operating theatre were predominantly positive (enjoyment, happiness, confident, involved, pride). Two participants reported negative feelings related to social exclusion. Being included in the team was a powerful determinant of enjoyment. These findings indicate that for learning in the operating theatre to be effective, addressing the negative emotions of the students might be beneficial. This could be achieved by a formal orientation program for both learners and tutors in advance of attendance in the operating theatre. For learning to be optimized, students must feel a sense of inclusion in the theatre community of practice.

Environmental factors influencing older adults’ walking for transportation: a study using walk-along interviews

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Current knowledge on the relationship between the physical environment and walking for transportation among older adults (≥ 65 years) is limited. Qualitative research can provide valuable information and inform further research. However, qualitative studies are scarce and fail to include neighborhood outings necessary to study participants’ experiences and perceptions while interacting with and interpreting the local social and physical environment. The current study sought to uncover the perceived environmental influences on Flemish older adults’ walking for transportation. To get detailed and context-sensitive environmental information, it used walk-along interviews. Methods Purposeful convenience sampling was used to recruit 57 older adults residing in urban or semi-urban areas. Walk-along interviews to and from a destination (e.g. a shop) located within a 15 minutes’ walk from the participants’ home were conducted. Content analysis was performed using NVivo 9 software (QSR International). An inductive approach was used to derive categories and subcategories from the data. Results Data were categorized in the following categories and subcategories: access to facilities (shops & services, public transit, connectivity), walking facilities (sidewalk quality, crossings, legibility, benches), traffic safety (busy traffic, behavior of other road users), familiarity, safety from crime (physical factors, other persons), social contacts, aesthetics (buildings, natural elements, noise & smell, openness, decay) and weather. Conclusions The findings indicate that to promote walking for transportation a neighborhood should provide good access to shops and services, well-maintained walking facilities, aesthetically appealing places, streets with little traffic and places for social interaction. In addition, the neighborhood environment should evoke feelings of familiarity and safety from crime. Future quantitative studies should investigate if (changes in) these environmental factors relate to (changes in) older adults’ walking for transportation. PMID:22780948

Effects of cross-language voice training on speech perception: Whose familiar voices are more intelligible?

PubMed Central

Levi, Susannah V.; Winters, Stephen J.; Pisoni, David B.

2011-01-01

Previous research has shown that familiarity with a talker’s voice can improve linguistic processing (herein, “Familiar Talker Advantage”), but this benefit is constrained by the context in which the talker’s voice is familiar. The current study examined how familiarity affects intelligibility by manipulating the type of talker information available to listeners. One group of listeners learned to identify bilingual talkers’ voices from English words, where they learned language-specific talker information. A second group of listeners learned the same talkers from German words, and thus only learned language-independent talker information. After voice training, both groups of listeners completed a word recognition task with English words produced by both familiar and unfamiliar talkers. Results revealed that English-trained listeners perceived more phonemes correct for familiar than unfamiliar talkers, while German-trained listeners did not show improved intelligibility for familiar talkers. The absence of a processing advantage in speech intelligibility for the German-trained listeners demonstrates limitations on the Familiar Talker Advantage, which crucially depends on the language context in which the talkers’ voices were learned; knowledge of how a talker produces linguistically relevant contrasts in a particular language is necessary to increase speech intelligibility for words produced by familiar talkers. PMID:22225059

Word learning in adults with second-language experience: effects of phonological and referent familiarity.

PubMed

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon; Van Hecke, Stephanie

2013-04-01

The goal of this research was to examine whether phonological familiarity exerts different effects on novel word learning for familiar versus unfamiliar referents and whether successful word learning is associated with increased second-language experience. Eighty-one adult native English speakers with various levels of Spanish knowledge learned phonologically familiar novel words (constructed using English sounds) or phonologically unfamiliar novel words (constructed using non-English and non-Spanish sounds) in association with either familiar or unfamiliar referents. Retention was tested via a forced-choice recognition task. A median-split procedure identified high-ability and low-ability word learners in each condition, and the two groups were compared on measures of second-language experience. Findings suggest that the ability to accurately match newly learned novel names to their appropriate referents is facilitated by phonological familiarity only for familiar referents but not for unfamiliar referents. Moreover, more extensive second-language learning experience characterized superior learners primarily in one word-learning condition: in which phonologically unfamiliar novel words were paired with familiar referents. Together, these findings indicate that phonological familiarity facilitates novel word learning only for familiar referents and that experience with learning a second language may have a specific impact on novel vocabulary learning in adults.

Word learning in adults with second language experience: Effects of phonological and referent familiarity

PubMed Central

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon; Van Hecke, Stephanie

2014-01-01

Purpose The goal of this research was to examine whether phonological familiarity exerts different effects on novel word learning for familiar vs. unfamiliar referents, and whether successful word-learning is associated with increased second-language experience. Method Eighty-one adult native English speakers with various levels of Spanish knowledge learned phonologically-familiar novel words (constructed using English sounds) or phonologically-unfamiliar novel words (constructed using non-English and non-Spanish sounds) in association with either familiar or unfamiliar referents. Retention was tested via a forced-choice recognition-task. A median-split procedure identified high-ability and low-ability word-learners in each condition, and the two groups were compared on measures of second-language experience. Results Findings suggest that the ability to accurately match newly-learned novel names to their appropriate referents is facilitated by phonological familiarity only for familiar referents but not for unfamiliar referents. Moreover, more extensive second-language learning experience characterized superior learners primarily in one word-learning condition: Where phonologically-unfamiliar novel words were paired with familiar referents. Conclusions Together, these findings indicate that phonological familiarity facilitates novel word learning only for familiar referents, and that experience with learning a second language may have a specific impact on novel vocabulary learning in adults. PMID:22992709

How Familiar are Clinician Teammates in the Emergency Department?

PubMed Central

Patterson, P. Daniel; Pfeiffer, Anthony J.; Lave, Judith R.; Weaver, Matthew D.; Abebe, Kaleab; Krackhardt, David; Arnold, Robert M.; Yealy, Donald M.

2016-01-01

Objectives Lack of familiarity between teammates is linked to worsened safety in high-risk settings. The Emergency Department (ED) is a high-risk health care setting where unfamiliar teams are created by diversity in clinician shift schedules and flexibility in clinician movement across the department. We sought to characterize familiarity between clinician teammates in one urban teaching hospital Emergency Department (ED) over a 22-week study period. Methods We used a retrospective study design of shift-scheduling data to calculate the mean weekly hours of familiarity between teammates at the dyadic level, and the proportion of clinicians with a minimum of 2-hours, 5-hours, 10-hours, and 20-hours of familiarity at any given hour during the study period. Results Mean weekly hours of familiarity between ED clinician dyads was 2 hours (SD 1.5). At any given hour over the study period, the proportion of clinicians with a minimum of 2, 5, 10, or 20-hours of familiarity was 80%, 51%, 27%, and 0.8%, respectively. Conclusions In our study, few clinicians could be described as having a high level of familiarity with teammates. The limited familiarity between ED clinicians identified in this study may be a natural feature of ED care delivery in academic settings. We provide a template for measurement of ED team familiarity. PMID:24351519

Feminism and nursing.

PubMed

Chinn, P L; Wheeler, C E

1985-01-01

Feminism provides a personal, philosophic and political means for analyzing the realities of women's lives as lived in patriarchal systems. It is not a single line of thought; multiple approaches have been developed that provide diverse avenues for confronting systematic injustices while learning to value ourselves as women. Jo Ann Ashley, recognizing that new realities must emerge from within nursing rather than from other groups, states: "For many years we have heard that nursing is at the crossroads. Nursing never seems to get over being at a crossroads. Indeed, nursing has been at a crossroads many times, but instead of taking a new road, leaders in the profession always choose to continue bearing the burden of continuing to live out the subservient role under the patriarchal system, rather than taking a new road that can lead beyond patriarchy. Nursing is no longer at a crossroads. It is at a turning point. It needs to turn away from being the "token torturer" of itself and other women. It needs to turn toward the health awaiting women in a woman-defined, woman-created world that lies beyond patriarchal ideas and institutions." Movement in this direction requires becoming familiar with feminist literature and the insights that women scholars have provided. In nursing, a feminist perspective requires an uncompromising questioning of the forces that divide us from one another, the ethics of our actions, and our co-optation into the unhealthy environment of the current health care system.

Commercialization of veterinary viral vaccines.

PubMed

Flore, P H

2004-12-01

If vaccines are to reliably prevent disease, they must be developed, produced and quality-controlled according to very strict regulations and procedures. Veterinary viral vaccine registrations are governed by different rules in different countries, but these rules all emphasize that the quality of the raw materials--the cells, eggs, animals or plants that are used in production--need to be carefully controlled. The veterinary vaccine business is also very cost-conscious. Emphasis over the last 5-10 years has therefore been to develop culture systems that minimize labor and sterility problems and thus provide for reliable and cost-effective production. Implementing these often more complex systems in a production environment takes considerable effort, first in scale-up trials and further down the line in convincing production personnel to change their familiar system for something new and possibly untried. To complete scale-up trials successfully, it is absolutely necessary to understand the biochemistry of the cells and the influence of the virus on the cells under scale-up and later production conditions. Once a viral product can be produced on a large scale, it is imperative that the quality of the end-product is controlled in an intelligent way. One needs to know whether the end-product performs in the animal as was intended during its conception in the research and development department. The development of the appropriate tests to demonstrate this plays an important role in the successful development of a vaccine.

Familiarity and face emotion recognition in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Lahera, Guillermo; Herrera, Sara; Fernández, Cristina; Bardón, Marta; de los Ángeles, Victoria; Fernández-Liria, Alberto

2014-01-01

To assess the emotion recognition in familiar and unknown faces in a sample of schizophrenic patients and healthy controls. Face emotion recognition of 18 outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia (DSM-IVTR) and 18 healthy volunteers was assessed with two Emotion Recognition Tasks using familiar faces and unknown faces. Each subject was accompanied by 4 familiar people (parents, siblings or friends), which were photographed by expressing the 6 Ekman's basic emotions. Face emotion recognition in familiar faces was assessed with this ad hoc instrument. In each case, the patient scored (from 1 to 10) the subjective familiarity and affective valence corresponding to each person. Patients with schizophrenia not only showed a deficit in the recognition of emotions on unknown faces (p=.01), but they also showed an even more pronounced deficit on familiar faces (p=.001). Controls had a similar success rate in the unknown faces task (mean: 18 +/- 2.2) and the familiar face task (mean: 17.4 +/- 3). However, patients had a significantly lower score in the familiar faces task (mean: 13.2 +/- 3.8) than in the unknown faces task (mean: 16 +/- 2.4; p<.05). In both tests, the highest number of errors was with emotions of anger and fear. Subjectively, the patient group showed a lower level of familiarity and emotional valence to their respective relatives (p<.01). The sense of familiarity may be a factor involved in the face emotion recognition and it may be disturbed in schizophrenia. © 2013.

Neural microgenesis of personally familiar face recognition

PubMed Central

Ramon, Meike; Vizioli, Luca; Liu-Shuang, Joan; Rossion, Bruno

2015-01-01

Despite a wealth of information provided by neuroimaging research, the neural basis of familiar face recognition in humans remains largely unknown. Here, we isolated the discriminative neural responses to unfamiliar and familiar faces by slowly increasing visual information (i.e., high-spatial frequencies) to progressively reveal faces of unfamiliar or personally familiar individuals. Activation in ventral occipitotemporal face-preferential regions increased with visual information, independently of long-term face familiarity. In contrast, medial temporal lobe structures (perirhinal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus) and anterior inferior temporal cortex responded abruptly when sufficient information for familiar face recognition was accumulated. These observations suggest that following detailed analysis of individual faces in core posterior areas of the face-processing network, familiar face recognition emerges categorically in medial temporal and anterior regions of the extended cortical face network. PMID:26283361

Neural microgenesis of personally familiar face recognition.

PubMed

Ramon, Meike; Vizioli, Luca; Liu-Shuang, Joan; Rossion, Bruno

2015-09-01

Despite a wealth of information provided by neuroimaging research, the neural basis of familiar face recognition in humans remains largely unknown. Here, we isolated the discriminative neural responses to unfamiliar and familiar faces by slowly increasing visual information (i.e., high-spatial frequencies) to progressively reveal faces of unfamiliar or personally familiar individuals. Activation in ventral occipitotemporal face-preferential regions increased with visual information, independently of long-term face familiarity. In contrast, medial temporal lobe structures (perirhinal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus) and anterior inferior temporal cortex responded abruptly when sufficient information for familiar face recognition was accumulated. These observations suggest that following detailed analysis of individual faces in core posterior areas of the face-processing network, familiar face recognition emerges categorically in medial temporal and anterior regions of the extended cortical face network.

Proverb familiarity and the mental status examination.

PubMed

Haynes, R M; Resnick, P J; Dougherty, K C; Althof, S E

1993-01-01

Asking patients to interpret proverbs is a traditional method of assessing abstract thinking ability. Familiarity with a proverb increases the likelihood of interpreting it correctly. Differences in proverb familiarity among patients could lead clinicians to incorrectly conclude that a patient is thinking concretely, and thus to underestimate the patient's cognitive ability. Clinicians should be aware of this possibility when assessing patients from different racial and gender groups. The authors surveyed 229 Afro-American and 104 Caucasian high school students to determine their familiarity with 25 proverbs. Thirty-seven clinicians were also asked to rate their patients' familiarity with the same proverbs. The authors found no differences in proverb familiarity between the black and white students or the male and female students. Clinicians' beliefs about proverb familiarity in their patients were found to be inaccurate.

STS-47 Astronaut Crew Training Clip

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

The crew of STS-47, Commander Robert L. Gibson, Pilot Curtis L. Brown, Payload Commander Mark C. Lee, Mission Specialists N. Jan Davis, Jay Apt, and Mae C. Jemison, and Payload Specialist Mamoru Mohri, is seen during various parts of their training, including SAREX training in the Full Fuselage Trainer (FFT), firefighting training. A familiarization flight in the KC-135, a food tasting, photo training in the Crew Compartment Trainer, and bailout training in the Weightless Environment Training Facility (WETF) are also shown.

Multicultural Astronomy Learning Using Sunrise and Sunset Phenomena

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Massalha, T.

2008-06-01

Effective learning mixed with enjoyable activities needs a suitable environment different from the normal curriculum that we (the teachers) and the students are familiar with. On this note, Astronomy activities are attractive and involving. We believe that there is always room to propose educational projects that are implemented outside the classroom walls. In this conference, we will give practical examples of Astronomy Peace Projects that were implemented in middle schools (for Jews, Christians, Moslems and Druzes) in Israel, during the 2002-2007 school years.

Virtual Planning at Work: A Tour of NASA Future Flight Central

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McClenahen, Jim; Dorighi, Nancy S. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

FutureFlight Central will permit integration of tomorrow's technologies in a risk-free simulation of any airport, airfield, and tower cab environment. The facility provides an opportunity for airlines to mitigate passenger delays by fine tuning airport hub operations, gate management and ramp movement procedures. It also allows airport managers an opportunity to study effects of various improvements at their airports. Finally, it enables air traffic controllers to provide feedback and to become familiar with new airport operations and technologies before final installation.

Nursing care of the brain injury patient on a locked neurobehavioral unit.

PubMed

Becker, Christine

2012-01-01

Behavioral problems after a brain injury can be extremely challenging for those working with brain injured people. Nursing staff must be familiar with commonly used post brain injury medications and their effects, behavioral management plans, appropriate use of restrictive devices, and verbal or physical crisis intervention techniques when necessary. Rehabilitation nurses caring for brain injured patients on a locked neurobehavioral unit must maintain continual training and specific competence in this environment to ensure patient and staff safety. © 2012 Association of Rehabilitation Nurses.

STS-32 MS Dunbar wearing LES prepares for WETF water egress training

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1989-01-01

STS-32 Mission Specialist (MS) Bonnie J. Dunbar, wearing a launch and entry suit (LES), orange parachute harness and life vest, is briefed on emergency egress procedures in JSC's Weightless Environment Training Facility (WETF) Bldg 29. During the exercises the crew practiced the procedures to follow in the event of an emergency aboard the Space Shuttle and familiarized themselves with post-Challenger pole system of emergency egress. The crewmembers will simulate parachuting into water by using the WETF's nearby 25 ft deep pool.

46 CFR 15.405 - Familiarity with vessel characteristics.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Familiarity with vessel characteristics. 15.405 Section... MANNING REQUIREMENTS Manning Requirements; All Vessels § 15.405 Familiarity with vessel characteristics. Each credentialed individual must become familiar with the relevant characteristics of the vessel on...

Two areas for familiar face recognition in the primate brain.

PubMed

Landi, Sofia M; Freiwald, Winrich A

2017-08-11

Familiarity alters face recognition: Familiar faces are recognized more accurately than unfamiliar ones and under difficult viewing conditions when unfamiliar face recognition fails. The neural basis for this fundamental difference remains unknown. Using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that personally familiar faces engage the macaque face-processing network more than unfamiliar faces. Familiar faces also recruited two hitherto unknown face areas at anatomically conserved locations within the perirhinal cortex and the temporal pole. These two areas, but not the core face-processing network, responded to familiar faces emerging from a blur with a characteristic nonlinear surge, akin to the abruptness of familiar face recognition. In contrast, responses to unfamiliar faces and objects remained linear. Thus, two temporal lobe areas extend the core face-processing network into a familiar face-recognition system. Copyright © 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing: an eye movement study of sentence reading

PubMed Central

Columbus, Georgie; Sheikh, Naveed A.; Côté-Lecaldare, Marilena; Häuser, Katja; Baum, Shari R.; Titone, Debra

2015-01-01

Metaphors are common elements of language that allow us to creatively stretch the limits of word meaning. However, metaphors vary in their degree of novelty, which determines whether people must create new meanings on-line or retrieve previously known metaphorical meanings from memory. Such variations affect the degree to which general cognitive capacities such as executive control are required for successful comprehension. We investigated whether individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing using eye movement measures of reading. Thirty-nine participants read sentences including metaphors or idioms, another form of figurative language that is more likely to rely on meaning retrieval. They also completed the AX-CPT, a domain-general executive control task. In Experiment 1, we examined sentences containing metaphorical or literal uses of verbs, presented with or without prior context. In Experiment 2, we examined sentences containing idioms or literal phrases for the same participants to determine whether the link to executive control was qualitatively similar or different to Experiment 1. When metaphors were low familiar, all people read verbs used as metaphors more slowly than verbs used literally (this difference was smaller for high familiar metaphors). Executive control capacity modulated this pattern in that high executive control readers spent more time reading verbs when a prior context forced a particular interpretation (metaphorical or literal), and they had faster total metaphor reading times when there was a prior context. Interestingly, executive control did not relate to idiom processing for the same readers. Here, all readers had faster total reading times for high familiar idioms than literal phrases. Thus, executive control relates to metaphor but not idiom processing for these readers, and for the particular metaphor and idiom reading manipulations presented. PMID:25628557

Category specific deficits in Alzheimer's disease: fact or artefact?

PubMed

Tippett, Lynette J; Meier, Sandra L; Blackwood, Kirsty; Diaz-Asper, Catherine

2007-10-01

Impairments in semantic memory commonly occur in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) but do these occur along category-specific lines? We administered a confrontation naming task comprising living and nonliving items to 68 individuals with AD and 59 age-matched control participants, in a study designed to address some of the methodological issues affecting investigation of category effects. In Experiment 1, stimuli were matched for familiarity and word frequency and also visual complexity, and the AD group showed a differential deficit in nonliving things. In Experiment 2, however, living and nonliving stimuli were matched for age-of-acquisition, name agreement, word frequency, and naming accuracy of elderly controls and there was no categorical impairment in the AD group. The AD group was subdivided first into mild and moderate AD, and then into normal or impaired overall naming groups and performance was reanalysed, but there was still no significant category deficit in any group. Converging evidence was provided by hierarchical regressions across items, as age-of-acquisition, name agreement and word frequency were significant predictors of naming performance in mild and moderate AD groups, but category was not. In Experiment 3, stimulus items were matched for familiarity and naming accuracy of elderly controls when their performance was off-ceiling, and again no differential effect of category was found. When we reduced slightly how closely matched stimuli were for familiarity we then found a differential impairment in living things in the AD group. When reviewing the changing pattern of results from use of different stimulus sets, we concluded that the main determinant of whether or not a categorical impairment of either sort is found in AD is which stimulus properties are controlled during stimulus selection. We conclude that AD does not generally lead to a selective category loss in semantic knowledge.

Individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing: an eye movement study of sentence reading.

PubMed

Columbus, Georgie; Sheikh, Naveed A; Côté-Lecaldare, Marilena; Häuser, Katja; Baum, Shari R; Titone, Debra

2014-01-01

Metaphors are common elements of language that allow us to creatively stretch the limits of word meaning. However, metaphors vary in their degree of novelty, which determines whether people must create new meanings on-line or retrieve previously known metaphorical meanings from memory. Such variations affect the degree to which general cognitive capacities such as executive control are required for successful comprehension. We investigated whether individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing using eye movement measures of reading. Thirty-nine participants read sentences including metaphors or idioms, another form of figurative language that is more likely to rely on meaning retrieval. They also completed the AX-CPT, a domain-general executive control task. In Experiment 1, we examined sentences containing metaphorical or literal uses of verbs, presented with or without prior context. In Experiment 2, we examined sentences containing idioms or literal phrases for the same participants to determine whether the link to executive control was qualitatively similar or different to Experiment 1. When metaphors were low familiar, all people read verbs used as metaphors more slowly than verbs used literally (this difference was smaller for high familiar metaphors). Executive control capacity modulated this pattern in that high executive control readers spent more time reading verbs when a prior context forced a particular interpretation (metaphorical or literal), and they had faster total metaphor reading times when there was a prior context. Interestingly, executive control did not relate to idiom processing for the same readers. Here, all readers had faster total reading times for high familiar idioms than literal phrases. Thus, executive control relates to metaphor but not idiom processing for these readers, and for the particular metaphor and idiom reading manipulations presented.

Familiarity-Based Stimulus Generalization of Conditioned Suppression

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

We report that stimulus novelty/familiarity is able to modulate stimulus generalization and discuss the theoretical implications of novelty/familiarity coding. Rats in Skinner boxes received clicker → shock pairings before generalization testing to a tone. Before clicker training, different groups of rats received preexposure treatments designed to systematically modulate the clicker and the tone’s novelty and familiarity. Rats whose preexposure matched novelty/familiarity (i.e., either both or neither clicker and tone were preexposed) showed enhanced suppression to the tone relative to rats whose preexposure mixed novelty/familiarity (i.e., only clicker or tone was preexposed). This was not the result of sensory preconditioning to clicker and tone. PMID:28383938

Recognition errors suggest fast familiarity and slow recollection in rhesus monkeys

PubMed Central

Basile, Benjamin M.; Hampton, Robert R.

2013-01-01

One influential model of recognition posits two underlying memory processes: recollection, which is detailed but relatively slow, and familiarity, which is quick but lacks detail. Most of the evidence for this dual-process model in nonhumans has come from analyses of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves in rats, but whether ROC analyses can demonstrate dual processes has been repeatedly challenged. Here, we present independent converging evidence for the dual-process model from analyses of recognition errors made by rhesus monkeys. Recognition choices were made in three different ways depending on processing duration. Short-latency errors were disproportionately false alarms to familiar lures, suggesting control by familiarity. Medium-latency responses were less likely to be false alarms and were more accurate, suggesting onset of a recollective process that could correctly reject familiar lures. Long-latency responses were guesses. A response deadline increased false alarms, suggesting that limiting processing time weakened the contribution of recollection and strengthened the contribution of familiarity. Together, these findings suggest fast familiarity and slow recollection in monkeys, that monkeys use a “recollect to reject” strategy to countermand false familiarity, and that primate recognition performance is well-characterized by a dual-process model consisting of recollection and familiarity. PMID:23864646

The impact of familiarization strategies on the missing-letter effect.

PubMed

Plamondon, Andréanne; Roy-Charland, Annie; Chamberland, Justin; Quenneville, Joannie; Laforge, Christian

2017-08-01

When reading a text and searching for a target letter, readers make more omissions of the target letter if it is embedded in frequent function words than if it is in rare content words. While word frequency effects are consistently found, few studies have examined the impacts of passage familiarity on the missing-letter effect and studies that have present conflicting evidence. The present study examines the effects of passage familiarity, as well as the impacts of passage familiarization strategy promoting surface or deep encoding, on the missing-letter effect. Participants were familiarized with a passage by retyping a text, replacing all common nouns with synonyms, or generating a text on the same topic as that of the original text, and then completed a letter search task on the familiar passage as well as an unfamiliar passage. In Experiment 1, when both familiar and unfamiliar passages use the same words, results revealed fewer omissions for the retyping and synonyms conditions. However, in Experiment 2, when different words are used in both types of texts, no effect of familiarization strategy was observed. Furthermore, the missing-letter effect is maintained in all conditions, adding support to the robustness of the effect regardless of familiarity with the text.

EXTRACT: interactive extraction of environment metadata and term suggestion for metagenomic sample annotation.

PubMed

Pafilis, Evangelos; Buttigieg, Pier Luigi; Ferrell, Barbra; Pereira, Emiliano; Schnetzer, Julia; Arvanitidis, Christos; Jensen, Lars Juhl

2016-01-01

The microbial and molecular ecology research communities have made substantial progress on developing standards for annotating samples with environment metadata. However, sample manual annotation is a highly labor intensive process and requires familiarity with the terminologies used. We have therefore developed an interactive annotation tool, EXTRACT, which helps curators identify and extract standard-compliant terms for annotation of metagenomic records and other samples. Behind its web-based user interface, the system combines published methods for named entity recognition of environment, organism, tissue and disease terms. The evaluators in the BioCreative V Interactive Annotation Task found the system to be intuitive, useful, well documented and sufficiently accurate to be helpful in spotting relevant text passages and extracting organism and environment terms. Comparison of fully manual and text-mining-assisted curation revealed that EXTRACT speeds up annotation by 15-25% and helps curators to detect terms that would otherwise have been missed. Database URL: https://extract.hcmr.gr/. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

EXTRACT: Interactive extraction of environment metadata and term suggestion for metagenomic sample annotation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pafilis, Evangelos; Buttigieg, Pier Luigi; Ferrell, Barbra

The microbial and molecular ecology research communities have made substantial progress on developing standards for annotating samples with environment metadata. However, sample manual annotation is a highly labor intensive process and requires familiarity with the terminologies used. We have therefore developed an interactive annotation tool, EXTRACT, which helps curators identify and extract standard-compliant terms for annotation of metagenomic records and other samples. Behind its web-based user interface, the system combines published methods for named entity recognition of environment, organism, tissue and disease terms. The evaluators in the BioCreative V Interactive Annotation Task found the system to be intuitive, useful, wellmore » documented and sufficiently accurate to be helpful in spotting relevant text passages and extracting organism and environment terms. Here the comparison of fully manual and text-mining-assisted curation revealed that EXTRACT speeds up annotation by 15–25% and helps curators to detect terms that would otherwise have been missed.« less

EXTRACT: Interactive extraction of environment metadata and term suggestion for metagenomic sample annotation

DOE PAGES

Pafilis, Evangelos; Buttigieg, Pier Luigi; Ferrell, Barbra; ...

2016-01-01

The microbial and molecular ecology research communities have made substantial progress on developing standards for annotating samples with environment metadata. However, sample manual annotation is a highly labor intensive process and requires familiarity with the terminologies used. We have therefore developed an interactive annotation tool, EXTRACT, which helps curators identify and extract standard-compliant terms for annotation of metagenomic records and other samples. Behind its web-based user interface, the system combines published methods for named entity recognition of environment, organism, tissue and disease terms. The evaluators in the BioCreative V Interactive Annotation Task found the system to be intuitive, useful, wellmore » documented and sufficiently accurate to be helpful in spotting relevant text passages and extracting organism and environment terms. Here the comparison of fully manual and text-mining-assisted curation revealed that EXTRACT speeds up annotation by 15–25% and helps curators to detect terms that would otherwise have been missed.« less

How familiar are clinician teammates in the emergency department?

PubMed

Patterson, P Daniel; Pfeiffer, Anthony J; Lave, Judith R; Weaver, Matthew D; Abebe, Kaleab; Krackhardt, David; Arnold, Robert M; Yealy, Donald M

2015-04-01

Lack of familiarity between teammates is linked to worsened safety in high risk settings. The emergency department (ED) is a high risk healthcare setting where unfamiliar teams are created by diversity in clinician shift schedules and flexibility in clinician movement across the department. We sought to characterise familiarity between clinician teammates in one urban teaching hospital ED over a 22 week study period. We used a retrospective study design of shift scheduling data to calculate the mean weekly hours of familiarity between teammates at the dyadic level, and the proportion of clinicians with a minimum of 2, 5, 10 and 20 h of familiarity at any given hour during the study period. Mean weekly hours of familiarity between ED clinician dyads was 2 h (SD 1.5). At any given hour over the study period, the proportions of clinicians with a minimum of 2, 5, 10 and 20 h of familiarity were 80%, 51%, 27% and 0.8%, respectively. In our study, few clinicians could be described as having a high level of familiarity with teammates. The limited familiarity between ED clinicians identified in this study may be a natural feature of ED care delivery in academic settings. We provide a template for measurement of ED team familiarity. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Genomic-Enabled Prediction Kernel Models with Random Intercepts for Multi-environment Trials.

PubMed

Cuevas, Jaime; Granato, Italo; Fritsche-Neto, Roberto; Montesinos-Lopez, Osval A; Burgueño, Juan; Bandeira E Sousa, Massaine; Crossa, José

2018-03-28

In this study, we compared the prediction accuracy of the main genotypic effect model (MM) without G×E interactions, the multi-environment single variance G×E deviation model (MDs), and the multi-environment environment-specific variance G×E deviation model (MDe) where the random genetic effects of the lines are modeled with the markers (or pedigree). With the objective of further modeling the genetic residual of the lines, we incorporated the random intercepts of the lines ([Formula: see text]) and generated another three models. Each of these 6 models were fitted with a linear kernel method (Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Predictor, GB) and a Gaussian Kernel (GK) method. We compared these 12 model-method combinations with another two multi-environment G×E interactions models with unstructured variance-covariances (MUC) using GB and GK kernels (4 model-method). Thus, we compared the genomic-enabled prediction accuracy of a total of 16 model-method combinations on two maize data sets with positive phenotypic correlations among environments, and on two wheat data sets with complex G×E that includes some negative and close to zero phenotypic correlations among environments. The two models (MDs and MDE with the random intercept of the lines and the GK method) were computationally efficient and gave high prediction accuracy in the two maize data sets. Regarding the more complex G×E wheat data sets, the prediction accuracy of the model-method combination with G×E, MDs and MDe, including the random intercepts of the lines with GK method had important savings in computing time as compared with the G×E interaction multi-environment models with unstructured variance-covariances but with lower genomic prediction accuracy. Copyright © 2018 Cuevas et al.

Genomic-Enabled Prediction Kernel Models with Random Intercepts for Multi-environment Trials

PubMed Central

Cuevas, Jaime; Granato, Italo; Fritsche-Neto, Roberto; Montesinos-Lopez, Osval A.; Burgueño, Juan; Bandeira e Sousa, Massaine; Crossa, José

2018-01-01

In this study, we compared the prediction accuracy of the main genotypic effect model (MM) without G×E interactions, the multi-environment single variance G×E deviation model (MDs), and the multi-environment environment-specific variance G×E deviation model (MDe) where the random genetic effects of the lines are modeled with the markers (or pedigree). With the objective of further modeling the genetic residual of the lines, we incorporated the random intercepts of the lines (l) and generated another three models. Each of these 6 models were fitted with a linear kernel method (Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Predictor, GB) and a Gaussian Kernel (GK) method. We compared these 12 model-method combinations with another two multi-environment G×E interactions models with unstructured variance-covariances (MUC) using GB and GK kernels (4 model-method). Thus, we compared the genomic-enabled prediction accuracy of a total of 16 model-method combinations on two maize data sets with positive phenotypic correlations among environments, and on two wheat data sets with complex G×E that includes some negative and close to zero phenotypic correlations among environments. The two models (MDs and MDE with the random intercept of the lines and the GK method) were computationally efficient and gave high prediction accuracy in the two maize data sets. Regarding the more complex G×E wheat data sets, the prediction accuracy of the model-method combination with G×E, MDs and MDe, including the random intercepts of the lines with GK method had important savings in computing time as compared with the G×E interaction multi-environment models with unstructured variance-covariances but with lower genomic prediction accuracy. PMID:29476023

Effects of Individual Health Topic Familiarity on Activity Patterns During Health Information Searches

PubMed Central

Moriyama, Koichi; Fukui, Ken–ichi; Numao, Masayuki

2015-01-01

Background Non-medical professionals (consumers) are increasingly using the Internet to support their health information needs. However, the cognitive effort required to perform health information searches is affected by the consumer’s familiarity with health topics. Consumers may have different levels of familiarity with individual health topics. This variation in familiarity may cause misunderstandings because the information presented by search engines may not be understood correctly by the consumers. Objective As a first step toward the improvement of the health information search process, we aimed to examine the effects of health topic familiarity on health information search behaviors by identifying the common search activity patterns exhibited by groups of consumers with different levels of familiarity. Methods Each participant completed a health terminology familiarity questionnaire and health information search tasks. The responses to the familiarity questionnaire were used to grade the familiarity of participants with predefined health topics. The search task data were transcribed into a sequence of search activities using a coding scheme. A computational model was constructed from the sequence data using a Markov chain model to identify the common search patterns in each familiarity group. Results Forty participants were classified into L1 (not familiar), L2 (somewhat familiar), and L3 (familiar) groups based on their questionnaire responses. They had different levels of familiarity with four health topics. The video data obtained from all of the participants were transcribed into 4595 search activities (mean 28.7, SD 23.27 per session). The most frequent search activities and transitions in all the familiarity groups were related to evaluations of the relevancy of selected web pages in the retrieval results. However, the next most frequent transitions differed in each group and a chi-squared test confirmed this finding (P<.001). Next, according to the results of a perplexity evaluation, the health information search patterns were best represented as a 5-gram sequence pattern. The most common patterns in group L1 were frequent query modifications, with relatively low search efficiency, and accessing and evaluating selected results from a health website. Group L2 performed frequent query modifications, but with better search efficiency, and accessed and evaluated selected results from a health website. Finally, the members of group L3 successfully discovered relevant results from the first query submission, performed verification by accessing several health websites after they discovered relevant results, and directly accessed consumer health information websites. Conclusions Familiarity with health topics affects health information search behaviors. Our analysis of state transitions in search activities detected unique behaviors and common search activity patterns in each familiarity group during health information searches. PMID:25783222

Self-reported familiarity with acute respiratory infection guidelines and antibiotic prescribing in primary care.

PubMed

Linder, Jeffrey A; Schnipper, Jeffrey L; Tsurikova, Ruslana; Volk, Lynn A; Middleton, Blackford

2010-12-01

Familiarity with guidelines is generally thought to be associated with guideline implementation, adherence and improved quality of care. We sought to determine if self-reported familiarity with acute respiratory infection (ARI) antibiotic treatment guidelines was associated with reduced or more appropriate antibiotic prescribing for ARIs in primary care. and We surveyed primary care clinicians about their familiarity with ARI antibiotic treatment guidelines and linked responses to administrative diagnostic and prescribing data for non-pneumonia ARI visits. Sixty-five percent of clinicians responded to the survey question about guideline familiarity. There were 208 survey respondents who had ARI patient visits during the study period. Respondents reported being 'not at all' (7%), 'somewhat' (30%), 'moderately' (45%) or 'extremely' (18%) familiar with the guidelines. After dichotomizing responses, compared with clinicians who reported being less familiar with the guidelines, clinicians who reported being more familiar with the guidelines had higher rates of antibiotic prescribing for all ARIs combined (46% versus 38%; n = 11 164; P < 0.0001), for antibiotic-appropriate diagnoses (69% versus 59%; n = 3213; P < 0.0001) and for non-antibiotic appropriate diagnoses (38% versus 28%; n = 7951; P < 0.0001). After adjusting for potential confounders, self-reported guideline familiarity was an independent predictor of increased antibiotic prescribing (odds ratio, 1.36; 95% confidence interval, 1.25-1.48). Self-reported familiarity with an ARI antibiotic treatment guideline was, seemingly paradoxically, associated with increased antibiotic prescribing. Self-reported familiarity with guidelines should not be assumed to be associated with consistent guideline adherence or higher quality of care.

The Role of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Regulating Social Familiarity-Induced Anxiolysis

PubMed Central

Lungwitz, Elizabeth A; Stuber, Garret D; Johnson, Philip L; Dietrich, Amy D; Schartz, Nicole; Hanrahan, Brian; Shekhar, Anantha; Truitt, William A

2014-01-01

Overcoming specific fears and subsequent anxiety can be greatly enhanced by the presence of familiar social partners, but the neural circuitry that controls this phenomenon remains unclear. To overcome this, the social interaction (SI) habituation test was developed in this lab to systematically investigate the effects of social familiarity on anxiety-like behavior in rats. Here, we show that social familiarity selectively reduced anxiety-like behaviors induced by an ethological anxiogenic stimulus. The anxiolytic effect of social familiarity could be elicited over multiple training sessions and was specific to both the presence of the anxiogenic stimulus and the familiar social partner. In addition, socially familiar conspecifics served as a safety signal, as anxiety-like responses returned in the absence of the familiar partner. The expression of the social familiarity-induced anxiolysis (SFiA) appears dependent on the prefrontal cortex (PFC), an area associated with cortical regulation of fear and anxiety behaviors. Inhibition of the PFC, with bilateral injections of the GABAA agonist muscimol, selectively blocked the expression of SFiA while having no effect on SI with a novel partner. Finally, the effect of D-cycloserine, a cognitive enhancer that clinically enhances behavioral treatments for anxiety, was investigated with SFiA. D-cycloserine, when paired with familiarity training sessions, selectively enhanced the rate at which SFiA was acquired. Collectively, these outcomes suggest that the PFC has a pivotal role in SFiA, a complex behavior involving the integration of social cues of familiarity with contextual and emotional information to regulate anxiety-like behavior. PMID:24157502

Familiarity and recollection produce distinct eye movement, pupil and medial temporal lobe responses when memory strength is matched.

PubMed

Kafkas, Alexandros; Montaldi, Daniela

2012-11-01

Two experiments explored eye measures (fixations and pupil response patterns) and brain responses (BOLD) accompanying the recognition of visual object stimuli based on familiarity and recollection. In both experiments, the use of a modified remember/know procedure led to high confidence and matched accuracy levels characterising strong familiarity (F3) and recollection (R) responses. In Experiment 1, visual scanning behaviour at retrieval distinguished familiarity-based from recollection-based recognition. Recollection, relative to strength-matched familiarity, involved significantly larger pupil dilations and more dispersed fixation patterns. In Experiment 2, the hippocampus was selectively activated for recollected stimuli, while no evidence of activation was observed in the hippocampus for strong familiarity of matched accuracy. Recollection also activated the parahippocampal cortex (PHC), while the adjacent perirhinal cortex (PRC) was actively engaged in response to strong familiarity (than to recollection). Activity in prefrontal and parietal areas differentiated familiarity and recollection in both the extent and the magnitude of activity they exhibited, while the dorsomedial thalamus showed selective familiarity-related activity, and the ventrolateral and anterior thalamus selective recollection-related activity. These findings are consistent with the view that the hippocampus and PRC play contrasting roles in supporting recollection and familiarity and that these differences are not a result of differences in memory strength. Overall, the combined pupil dilation, eye movement and fMRI data suggest the operation of recognition mechanisms drawing differentially on familiarity and recollection, whose neural bases are distinct within the MTL. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pharmaceutical process chemistry: evolution of a contemporary data-rich laboratory environment.

PubMed

Caron, Stéphane; Thomson, Nicholas M

2015-03-20

Over the past 20 years, the industrial laboratory environment has gone through a major transformation in the industrial process chemistry setting. In order to discover and develop robust and efficient syntheses and processes for a pharmaceutical portfolio with growing synthetic complexity and increased regulatory expectations, the round-bottom flask and other conventional equipment familiar to a traditional organic chemistry laboratory are being replaced. The new process chemistry laboratory fosters multidisciplinary collaborations by providing a suite of tools capable of delivering deeper process understanding through mechanistic insights and detailed kinetics translating to greater predictability at scale. This transformation is essential to the field of organic synthesis in order to promote excellence in quality, safety, speed, and cost efficiency in synthesis.

Socioemotional selectivity in cancer patients.

PubMed

Pinquart, Martin; Silbereisen, Rainer K

2006-06-01

This study analyzed the contact preferences of newly diagnosed cancer patients and healthy control group participants. In line with the theory of socioemotional selectivity, patients were more likely than control participants to prefer contact with familiar social partners, but this difference was stronger in younger and middle-aged patients than in older patients. Across a 6-month interval, patients' contact preferences changed according to the perceived success of therapy. For example, if therapy was perceived to be successful, patients showed an increasing interest in contacts with unfamiliar social partners. Results indicate that contact preferences are adapted to the perception of limited versus extended future lifetime. Copyright (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved.

Statistical study of EBR-II fuel elements manufactured by the cold line at Argonne-West and by Atomics International

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harkness, A. L.

1977-09-01

Nine elements from each batch of fuel elements manufactured for the EBR-II reactor have been analyzed for /sup 235/U content by NDA methods. These values, together with those of the manufacturer, are used to estimate the product variance and the variances of the two measuring methods. These variances are compared with the variances computed from the stipulations of the contract. A method is derived for resolving the several variances into their within-batch and between-batch components. Some of these variance components have also been estimated by independent and more familiar conventional methods for comparison.

STS-88 Mission Specialists Currie and Ross inside Endeavour

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

STS-88 Mission Specialists Nancy J. Currie, Ph.D., (back) and Jerry L. Ross (front) check over equipment inside orbiter Endeavour during Terminal Countdown Demonstration Activities (TCDT). The TCDT includes mission familiarization activities, emergency egress training, and the simulated main engine cut-off exercise. Mission STS-88 is targeted for launch on Dec. 3, 1998. It is the first U.S. flight for the assembly of the International Space Station and will carry the Unity connecting module. Unity will be mated with the already orbiting Russian-built Zarya control module. The 12-day mission includes three planned spacewalks to connect power, data and utility lines and install exterior equipment.

[The prevention of depression in pregnancy and the post-partum: when to intervene?].

PubMed

Iapichino, Elena; Quartieri Bollani, Marta; Cauli, Gilla; Gala, Costanzo

2012-06-01

The aim of this paper is to describe the presence of anxious-depressive symptoms and risk factors and discuss the method of intervention used with women in pregnancy and post-partum. The mood of the woman was assessed by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), personality traits with the Vulnerable Personality Style Questionnaire (VPSQ) and social support through the Social Provisions Scale (PPS). 50 women have completed the evaluation. In line with the international literature, the presence of anxiety-depressive symptoms is accompanied by the presence of multiple risk factors, in particular the familiar seems to be a predisposing factor.

Genomic Selection in Multi-environment Crop Trials.

PubMed

Oakey, Helena; Cullis, Brian; Thompson, Robin; Comadran, Jordi; Halpin, Claire; Waugh, Robbie

2016-05-03

Genomic selection in crop breeding introduces modeling challenges not found in animal studies. These include the need to accommodate replicate plants for each line, consider spatial variation in field trials, address line by environment interactions, and capture nonadditive effects. Here, we propose a flexible single-stage genomic selection approach that resolves these issues. Our linear mixed model incorporates spatial variation through environment-specific terms, and also randomization-based design terms. It considers marker, and marker by environment interactions using ridge regression best linear unbiased prediction to extend genomic selection to multiple environments. Since the approach uses the raw data from line replicates, the line genetic variation is partitioned into marker and nonmarker residual genetic variation (i.e., additive and nonadditive effects). This results in a more precise estimate of marker genetic effects. Using barley height data from trials, in 2 different years, of up to 477 cultivars, we demonstrate that our new genomic selection model improves predictions compared to current models. Analyzing single trials revealed improvements in predictive ability of up to 5.7%. For the multiple environment trial (MET) model, combining both year trials improved predictive ability up to 11.4% compared to a single environment analysis. Benefits were significant even when fewer markers were used. Compared to a single-year standard model run with 3490 markers, our partitioned MET model achieved the same predictive ability using between 500 and 1000 markers depending on the trial. Our approach can be used to increase accuracy and confidence in the selection of the best lines for breeding and/or, to reduce costs by using fewer markers. Copyright © 2016 Oakey et al.

30 CFR 56.19096 - Familiarity with signal code.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Familiarity with signal code. 56.19096 Section... Hoisting Signaling § 56.19096 Familiarity with signal code. Any person responsible for receiving or giving signals for cages, skips, and mantrips when persons or materials are being transported shall be familiar...

30 CFR 57.19096 - Familiarity with signal code.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Familiarity with signal code. 57.19096 Section... Hoisting Signaling § 57.19096 Familiarity with signal code. Any person reponsible for receiving or giving signals for cages, skips, and mantrips when persons or materials are being transported shall be familiar...

14 CFR 121.599 - Familiarity with weather conditions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Familiarity with weather conditions. 121... § 121.599 Familiarity with weather conditions. (a) Domestic and flag operations. No aircraft dispatcher may release a flight unless he is thoroughly familiar with reported and forecast weather conditions on...

14 CFR 121.599 - Familiarity with weather conditions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Familiarity with weather conditions. 121... § 121.599 Familiarity with weather conditions. (a) Domestic and flag operations. No aircraft dispatcher may release a flight unless he is thoroughly familiar with reported and forecast weather conditions on...

14 CFR 121.599 - Familiarity with weather conditions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Familiarity with weather conditions. 121... § 121.599 Familiarity with weather conditions. (a) Domestic and flag operations. No aircraft dispatcher may release a flight unless he is thoroughly familiar with reported and forecast weather conditions on...

14 CFR 121.599 - Familiarity with weather conditions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Familiarity with weather conditions. 121... § 121.599 Familiarity with weather conditions. (a) Domestic and flag operations. No aircraft dispatcher may release a flight unless he is thoroughly familiar with reported and forecast weather conditions on...

14 CFR 121.599 - Familiarity with weather conditions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Familiarity with weather conditions. 121... § 121.599 Familiarity with weather conditions. (a) Domestic and flag operations. No aircraft dispatcher may release a flight unless he is thoroughly familiar with reported and forecast weather conditions on...

The Role of Noncriterial Recollection in Estimating Recollection and Familiarity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parks, Colleen M.

2007-01-01

Noncriterial recollection (ncR) is recollection of details that are irrelevant to task demands. It has been shown to elevate familiarity estimates and to be functionally equivalent to familiarity in the process dissociation procedure [Yonelinas, A. P., & Jacoby, L. L. (1996). Noncriterial recollection: Familiarity as automatic, irrelevant…

30 CFR 56.19096 - Familiarity with signal code.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Familiarity with signal code. 56.19096 Section... Hoisting Signaling § 56.19096 Familiarity with signal code. Any person responsible for receiving or giving signals for cages, skips, and mantrips when persons or materials are being transported shall be familiar...

30 CFR 56.19096 - Familiarity with signal code.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Familiarity with signal code. 56.19096 Section... Hoisting Signaling § 56.19096 Familiarity with signal code. Any person responsible for receiving or giving signals for cages, skips, and mantrips when persons or materials are being transported shall be familiar...

30 CFR 57.19096 - Familiarity with signal code.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Familiarity with signal code. 57.19096 Section... Hoisting Signaling § 57.19096 Familiarity with signal code. Any person reponsible for receiving or giving signals for cages, skips, and mantrips when persons or materials are being transported shall be familiar...

30 CFR 57.19096 - Familiarity with signal code.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Familiarity with signal code. 57.19096 Section... Hoisting Signaling § 57.19096 Familiarity with signal code. Any person reponsible for receiving or giving signals for cages, skips, and mantrips when persons or materials are being transported shall be familiar...

30 CFR 57.19096 - Familiarity with signal code.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Familiarity with signal code. 57.19096 Section... Hoisting Signaling § 57.19096 Familiarity with signal code. Any person reponsible for receiving or giving signals for cages, skips, and mantrips when persons or materials are being transported shall be familiar...

30 CFR 56.19096 - Familiarity with signal code.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Familiarity with signal code. 56.19096 Section... Hoisting Signaling § 56.19096 Familiarity with signal code. Any person responsible for receiving or giving signals for cages, skips, and mantrips when persons or materials are being transported shall be familiar...

Optical oxygen concentration monitor

DOEpatents

Kebabian, P.

1997-07-22

A system for measuring and monitoring the concentration of oxygen uses as a light source an argon discharge lamp, which inherently emits light with a spectral line that is close to one of oxygen`s A-band absorption lines. In a preferred embodiment, the argon line is split into sets of components of shorter and longer wavelengths by a magnetic field of approximately 2,000 Gauss that is parallel to the light propagation from the lamp. The longer wavelength components are centered on an absorption line of oxygen and thus readily absorbed, and the shorter wavelength components are moved away from that line and minimally absorbed. A polarization modulator alternately selects the set of the longer wavelength, or upshifted, components or the set of the shorter wavelength, or downshifted, components and passes the selected set to an environment of interest. After transmission over a path through that environment, the transmitted optical flux of the argon line varies as a result of the differential absorption. The system then determines the concentration of oxygen in the environment based on the changes in the transmitted optical flux between the two sets of components. In alternative embodiments modulation is achieved by selectively reversing the polarity of the magnetic field or by selectively supplying the magnetic field to either the emitting plasma of the lamp or the environment of interest. 4 figs.

Optical oxygen concentration monitor

DOEpatents

Kebabian, Paul

1997-01-01

A system for measuring and monitoring the concentration of oxygen uses as a light source an argon discharge lamp, which inherently emits light with a spectral line that is close to one of oxygen's A-band absorption lines. In a preferred embodiment, the argon line is split into sets of components of shorter and longer wavelengths by a magnetic field of approximately 2000 Gauss that is parallel to the light propagation from the lamp. The longer wavelength components are centered on an absorption line of oxygen and thus readily absorbed, and the shorter wavelength components are moved away from that line and minimally absorbed. A polarization modulator alternately selects the set of the longer wavelength, or upshifted, components or the set of the shorter wavelength, or downshifted, components and passes the selected set to an environment of interest. After transmission over a path through that environment, the transmitted optical flux of the argon line varies as a result of the differential absorption. The system then determines the concentration of oxygen in the environment based on the changes in the transmitted optical flux between the two sets of components. In alternative embodiments modulation is achieved by selectively reversing the polarity of the magnetic field or by selectively supplying the magnetic field to either the emitting plasma of the lamp or the environment of interest.

Growing a National Learning Environments and Resources Network for Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education: Current Issues and Opportunities for the NSDL Program; Open Linking in the Scholarly Information Environment Using the OpenURL Framework; The HeadLine Personal Information Environment: Evaluation Phase One.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zia, Lee L.; Van de Sompel, Herbert; Beit-Arie, Oren; Gambles, Anne

2001-01-01

Includes three articles that discuss the National Science Foundation's National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education Digital Library (NSDL) program; the OpenURL framework for open reference linking in the Web-based scholarly information environment; and HeadLine (Hybrid Electronic Access and Delivery in the Library Networked…

The development of the use of long-term knowledge to assist short-term recall.

PubMed

Turner, J E; Henry, L A; Smith, P T

2000-05-01

The influence of item familiarity upon memory span was examined in adults and children aged 5, 7, and 10 years by comparing the recall of words and nonwords. Using a probed recall task, both item recall and position recall were tested. The effect of familiarity upon item recall was found to develop with age, from no effects in the 5-year-olds to significant effects in the older children and adults. By contrast, no effect of familiarity was found at any age when recall of position was required. Dissociations between word length effects and familiarity effects supported the conclusion that the familiarity effect does not result from rehearsal. Several explanations for the source of the familiarity effect were examined, and the familiarity effect was attributed to a strategic redintegration or reconstruction process, which is necessary for item recall but not for position recall.

A familiarity disadvantage for remembering specific images of faces.

PubMed

Armann, Regine G M; Jenkins, Rob; Burton, A Mike

2016-04-01

Familiar faces are remembered better than unfamiliar faces. Furthermore, it is much easier to match images of familiar than unfamiliar faces. These findings could be accounted for by quantitative differences in the ease with which faces are encoded. However, it has been argued that there are also some qualitative differences in familiar and unfamiliar face processing. Unfamiliar faces are held to rely on superficial, pictorial representations, whereas familiar faces invoke more abstract representations. Here we present 2 studies that show, for 1 task, an advantage for unfamiliar faces. In recognition memory, viewers are better able to reject a new picture, if it depicts an unfamiliar face. This rare advantage for unfamiliar faces supports the notion that familiarity brings about some representational changes, and further emphasizes the idea that theoretical accounts of face processing should incorporate familiarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Predictive codes of familiarity and context during the perceptual learning of facial identities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Apps, Matthew A. J.; Tsakiris, Manos

2013-11-01

Face recognition is a key component of successful social behaviour. However, the computational processes that underpin perceptual learning and recognition as faces transition from unfamiliar to familiar are poorly understood. In predictive coding, learning occurs through prediction errors that update stimulus familiarity, but recognition is a function of both stimulus and contextual familiarity. Here we show that behavioural responses on a two-option face recognition task can be predicted by the level of contextual and facial familiarity in a computational model derived from predictive-coding principles. Using fMRI, we show that activity in the superior temporal sulcus varies with the contextual familiarity in the model, whereas activity in the fusiform face area covaries with the prediction error parameter that updated facial familiarity. Our results characterize the key computations underpinning the perceptual learning of faces, highlighting that the functional properties of face-processing areas conform to the principles of predictive coding.

Word-Form Familiarity Bootstraps Infant Speech Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altvater-Mackensen, Nicole; Mani, Nivedita

2013-01-01

At about 7 months of age, infants listen longer to sentences containing familiar words--but not deviant pronunciations of familiar words (Jusczyk & Aslin, 1995). This finding suggests that infants are able to segment familiar words from fluent speech and that they store words in sufficient phonological detail to recognize deviations from a…

Effects of Experimentally Induced Familiarization of Content and Different Response Modes on Achievement from Programmed Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abramson, Theodore; Kagen, Edward

This study investigated attribute by treatment interactions between prior familiarity and response mode to programmed materials for college level subjects by manipulating subjects' familiarity. The programs were a revised version of Diagnosis of Myocardial Infraction in standard format and in a reading version. Materials to familiarize subjects…

Influence of text type, topic familiarity, and stuttering frequency on listener recall, comprehension, and mental effort.

PubMed

Panico, James; Healey, E Charles

2009-04-01

To determine how text type, topic familiarity, and stuttering frequency influence listener recall, comprehension, and perceived mental effort. Sixty adults listened to familiar and unfamiliar narrative and expository texts produced with 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% stuttering. Participants listened to 4 experimental text samples at only 1 stuttering frequency. After hearing the text samples, each listener performed a free recall task, answered cued recall questions, answered story comprehension questions, and rated their perceived mental effort. Free and cued recall as well as story comprehension scores were higher for narrative than for expository texts. Free and cued recall scores were better for familiar than for unfamiliar stories, although topic familiarity did not affect story comprehension scores. Samples with all levels of stuttering resulted in higher mental effort ratings for both text types and topic familiarities. Stuttering has a greater influence on listener recall and comprehension for narrative than for expository texts. Topic familiarity affects free and cued recall but has no influence on story comprehension. Regardless of the amount of stuttering, mental effort was high for both text types and levels of familiarity.

The Price of Fame: The Impact of Stimulus Familiarity on Proactive Interference Resolution

PubMed Central

Prabhakaran, Ranjani; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.

2013-01-01

Interference from previously learned information, known as proactive interference (PI), limits our memory retrieval abilities. Previous studies of PI resolution have focused on the role of short-term familiarity, or recency, in causing PI. In the present study, we investigated the impact of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution processes. In two behavioral experiments and one event-related fMRI experiment, long-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of famous and nonfamous stimuli, and short-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of recent and nonrecent probe items in an item recognition task. The right middle frontal gyrus demonstrated greater sensitivity to famous stimuli, suggesting that long-term stimulus familiarity plays a role in influencing PI resolution processes. Further examination of the effect of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution revealed a larger behavioral interference effect for famous stimuli, but only under speeded response conditions. Thus, models of memory retrieval—and of the cognitive control mechanisms that guide retrieval processes—should consider the impact of and interactions among sources of familiarity on multiple time scales. PMID:20429858

The price of fame: the impact of stimulus familiarity on proactive interference resolution.

PubMed

Prabhakaran, Ranjani; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L

2011-04-01

Interference from previously learned information, known as proactive interference (PI), limits our memory retrieval abilities. Previous studies of PI resolution have focused on the role of short-term familiarity, or recency, in causing PI. In the present study, we investigated the impact of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution processes. In two behavioral experiments and one event-related fMRI experiment, long-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of famous and nonfamous stimuli, and short-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of recent and nonrecent probe items in an item recognition task. The right middle frontal gyrus demonstrated greater sensitivity to famous stimuli, suggesting that long-term stimulus familiarity plays a role in influencing PI resolution processes. Further examination of the effect of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution revealed a larger behavioral interference effect for famous stimuli, but only under speeded response conditions. Thus, models of memory retrieval--and of the cognitive control mechanisms that guide retrieval processes--should consider the impact of and interactions among sources of familiarity on multiple time scales.

How familiar characters influence children's judgments about information and products.

PubMed

Danovitch, Judith H; Mills, Candice M

2014-12-01

Children are exposed to advertisements and products that incorporate familiar characters, such as Dora the Explorer and Bob the Builder, virtually from birth. How does the presence of these characters influence children's judgments about information and products? Three experiments (N=125) explored how 4-year-olds evaluate messages from familiar characters and how their trust in a familiar character's testimony relates to their product preferences. Children endorsed objective and subjective claims made by a familiar character more often than those made by a perceptually similar but unfamiliar character even in situations where they had evidence that the familiar character was unreliable. Children also preferred low-quality products bearing a familiar character's image over high-quality products without a character image up to 74% of the time (whereas control groups preferred the low-quality products less than 6% of the time when they did not include a character image). These findings suggest that young children are powerfully influenced by familiar characters encountered in the media, leaving them vulnerable to advertising messages and clouding their judgments about products. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

You can't drink a word: lexical and individual emotionality affect subjective familiarity judgments.

PubMed

Westbury, Chris

2014-10-01

For almost 30 years, subjective familiarity has been used in psycholinguistics as an explanatory variable, allegedly able to explain many phenomena that have no other obvious explanation (Gernsbacher in J Exp Psychol General 113:256-281, 1984). In this paper, the hypothesis tested is that the subjective familiarity of words is reflecting personal familiarity with or importance of the referents of words. Using an empirically-grounded model of affective force derived from Wundt (Grundriss der Psychologie [Outlines of Psychology]. Engelmann, Leibzig, 1896) and based in a co-occurrence model of semantics (which involves no human judgment), it is shown that affective force can account for the same variance in a large set of human subjective familiarity judgments as other human subjective familiarity judgments, can predict whether people will rate new words of the same objective frequency as more or less familiar, can predict lexical access as well as human subjective familiarity judgments do, and has a predicted relationship to age of acquisition norms. Individuals who have highly affective reactivity [as measured by Carver and White's (J Pers Soc Psychol 67(2):319-333, 1994) Behavioral Inhibition Scale and Behavioral Activation Scales] rate words as significantly more familiar than individuals who have low affective reactivity.

Simulator training with a forward collision warning system: effects on driver-system interactions and driver trust.

PubMed

Koustanaï, Arnaud; Cavallo, Viola; Delhomme, Patricia; Mas, Arnaud

2012-10-01

The study addressed the role of familiarization on a driving simulator with a forward collision warning (FCW) and investigated its impact on driver behavior. Drivers need a good understanding of how an FCW system functions to trust it and use it properly. Theoretical and empirical data suggest that exploring the capacities and limitations of the FCW during the learning period improves operating knowledge and leads to increased driver trust in the system and better driver-system interactions.The authors tested this hypothesis by comparing groups of drivers differing in FCW familiarity. During the familiarization phase, familiarized drivers were trained on the simulator using the FCW, unfamiliarized drivers simply read an FCW manual, and control drivers had no contact with the FCW. During the test, drivers drove the simulator and had to interact with traffic; both familiarized and unfamiliarized drivers used the FCW, whereas controls did not. Simulator familiarization improved driver understanding of FCW operation. Driver-system interactions were more effective: Familiarized drivers had no collisions, longer time headways, and better reactions in most situations. Familiarization increased trust in the FCW but did not raise system acceptance. Familiarization on the simulator had a positive effect on driver-system interactions and on trust in the system. The limitations of the familiarization method are discussed in relation to the driving simulator methodology. Practicing on a driving simulator with driving-assistance systems could facilitate their use during real driving.

ORAM-SENTINEL{trademark} demonstration at Fitzpatrick. Final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, L.K.; Anderson, V.M.; Mohammadi, K.

1998-06-01

New York Power Authority, in cooperation with EPRI, installed the ORAM-SENTINEL{trademark} software at James A. Fitzpatrick (JAF) Nuclear Power Plant. This software incorporates models of safety systems and support systems that are used for defense-in-depth in the plant during outage and on-line periods. A secondary goal was to include some pre-analyzed risk results to validate the methodology for quantitative assessment of the plant risks during proposed on-line maintenance. During the past year, New York Power Authority personnel have become familiar with the formal computerized Safety Assessment process associated with on-line and outage maintenance. The report describes techniques and lessons learnedmore » during development of the ORAM-SENTINEL model at JAF. It overviews the systems important to the Safety Function Assessment Process and provides details on development of the Plant Transient Assessment process using the station emergency operating procedures. The assessment results are displayed by color (green, yellow, orange, red) to show decreasing safety conditions. The report describes use of the JAF Probabilistic Safety Assessment within the ORAM-SENTINEL code to calculate an instantaneous core damage frequency and the criteria by which this frequency is translated to a color indicator.« less

NEQAIR96,Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium Radiative Transport and Spectra Program: User's Manual

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whiting, Ellis E.; Park, Chul; Liu, Yen; Arnold, James O.; Paterson, John A.

1996-01-01

This document is the User's Manual for a new version of the NEQAIR computer program, NEQAIR96. The program is a line-by-line and a line-of-sight code. It calculates the emission and absorption spectra for atomic and diatomic molecules and the transport of radiation through a nonuniform gas mixture to a surface. The program has been rewritten to make it easy to use, run faster, and include many run-time options that tailor a calculation to the user's requirements. The accuracy and capability have also been improved by including the rotational Hamiltonian matrix formalism for calculating rotational energy levels and Hoenl-London factors for dipole and spin-allowed singlet, doublet, triplet, and quartet transitions. Three sample cases are also included to help the user become familiar with the steps taken to produce a spectrum. A new user interface is included that uses check location, to select run-time options and to enter selected run data, making NEQAIR96 easier to use than the older versions of the code. The ease of its use and the speed of its algorithms make NEQAIR96 a valuable educational code as well as a practical spectroscopic prediction and diagnostic code.

Quantification of sensitivity and resistance of breast cancer cell lines to anti-cancer drugs using GR metrics

PubMed Central

Hafner, Marc; Heiser, Laura M.; Williams, Elizabeth H.; Niepel, Mario; Wang, Nicholas J.; Korkola, James E.; Gray, Joe W.; Sorger, Peter K.

2017-01-01

Traditional means for scoring the effects of anti-cancer drugs on the growth and survival of cell lines is based on relative cell number in drug-treated and control samples and is seriously confounded by unequal division rates arising from natural biological variation and differences in culture conditions. This problem can be overcome by computing drug sensitivity on a per-division basis. The normalized growth rate inhibition (GR) approach yields per-division metrics for drug potency (GR50) and efficacy (GRmax) that are analogous to the more familiar IC50 and Emax values. In this work, we report GR-based, proliferation-corrected, drug sensitivity metrics for ~4,700 pairs of breast cancer cell lines and perturbagens. Such data are broadly useful in understanding the molecular basis of therapeutic response and resistance. Here, we use them to investigate the relationship between different measures of drug sensitivity and conclude that drug potency and efficacy exhibit high variation that is only weakly correlated. To facilitate further use of these data, computed GR curves and metrics can be browsed interactively at http://www.GRbrowser.org/. PMID:29112189

Memory color effect induced by familiarity of brand logos.

PubMed

Kimura, Atsushi; Wada, Yuji; Masuda, Tomohiro; Goto, Sho-Ichi; Tsuzuki, Daisuke; Hibino, Haruo; Cai, Dongsheng; Dan, Ippeita

2013-01-01

When people are asked to adjust the color of familiar objects such as fruits until they appear achromatic, the subjective gray points of the objects are shifted away from the physical gray points in a direction opposite to the memory color (memory color effect). It is still unclear whether the discrepancy between memorized and actual colors of objects is dependent on the familiarity of the objects. Here, we conducted two experiments in order to examine the relationship between the degree of a subject's familiarity with objects and the degree of the memory color effect by using logographs of food and beverage companies. In Experiment 1, we measured the memory color effects of logos which varied in terms of their familiarity (high, middle, or low). Results demonstrate that the memory color effect occurs only in the high-familiarity condition, but not in the middle- and low-familiarity conditions. Furthermore, there is a positive correlation between the memory color effect and the actual number of domestic stores of the brand. In Experiment 2, we assessed the semantic association between logos and food/beverage names by using a semantic priming task to elucidate whether the memory color effect of logos relates to consumer brand cognition, and found that the semantic associations between logos and food/beverage names in the high-familiarity brands were stronger than those in the low-familiarity brands only when the logos were colored correctly, but not when they were appropriately or inappropriately colored, or achromatic. The current results provide behavioral evidence of the relationship between the familiarity of objects and the memory color effect and suggest that the memory color effect increases with the familiarity of objects, albeit not constantly.

Identification and Classification of Facial Familiarity in Directed Lying: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Sun, Delin; Chan, Chetwyn C. H.; Lee, Tatia M. C.

2012-01-01

Recognizing familiar faces is essential to social functioning, but little is known about how people identify human faces and classify them in terms of familiarity. Face identification involves discriminating familiar faces from unfamiliar faces, whereas face classification involves making an intentional decision to classify faces as “familiar” or “unfamiliar.” This study used a directed-lying task to explore the differentiation between identification and classification processes involved in the recognition of familiar faces. To explore this issue, the participants in this study were shown familiar and unfamiliar faces. They responded to these faces (i.e., as familiar or unfamiliar) in accordance with the instructions they were given (i.e., to lie or to tell the truth) while their EEG activity was recorded. Familiar faces (regardless of lying vs. truth) elicited significantly less negative-going N400f in the middle and right parietal and temporal regions than unfamiliar faces. Regardless of their actual familiarity, the faces that the participants classified as “familiar” elicited more negative-going N400f in the central and right temporal regions than those classified as “unfamiliar.” The P600 was related primarily with the facial identification process. Familiar faces (regardless of lying vs. truth) elicited more positive-going P600f in the middle parietal and middle occipital regions. The results suggest that N400f and P600f play different roles in the processes involved in facial recognition. The N400f appears to be associated with both the identification (judgment of familiarity) and classification of faces, while it is likely that the P600f is only associated with the identification process (recollection of facial information). Future studies should use different experimental paradigms to validate the generalizability of the results of this study. PMID:22363597

Reactivity to fearful expressions of familiar and unfamiliar people in children with autism: an eye-tracking pupillometry study

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Individuals with autism are often reported to have difficulty with emotion processing. However, clinical and experimental data show that they are sensitive to familiarity; for example, they show normative attachment to familiar people, and have normative brain activity in response to familiar faces. To date, no study has measured their reactivity to the emotions of familiar vs. unfamiliar people. Thus, our aim was to determine whether individuals with autism would show normative reactivity to emotion in familiar people. Methods Participants were 21 children with autism and 21 children with typical development, aged two to five years, matched on age and gender. The children observed videos of familiar people (their child-care teachers) and unfamiliar people expressing fear, whilst their visual attention and pupillary reactions were recorded (the latter as an index of emotional reactivity), using eye tracking technology. Results The children with autism showed normative pupillary reactions (peak magnitude) to fear expressed by familiar people, but a reduced response to fear expressed by unfamiliar people. However, across familiarity conditions, the children with autism had longer latency peak responses than the typically developing children. This pattern of findings was independent of cognitive factors or visual attention as visual attention by group was not related to familiarity condition. The children with autism had reduced visual attention to neutral faces; however, on fearful faces there were no group differences. Abnormalities in pupillary reactivity in the autism group were related to less prosocial behaviour and more severe play and communication deficits. Conclusions Children with autism were less atypical in their responses to fearful expressions of people they know, arguing against a pervasive emotional impairment in autism, but rather one that may be mediated by familiarity. PMID:24982695

Memory Color Effect Induced by Familiarity of Brand Logos

PubMed Central

Kimura, Atsushi; Wada, Yuji; Masuda, Tomohiro; Goto, Sho-ichi; Tsuzuki, Daisuke; Hibino, Haruo; Cai, Dongsheng; Dan, Ippeita

2013-01-01

Background When people are asked to adjust the color of familiar objects such as fruits until they appear achromatic, the subjective gray points of the objects are shifted away from the physical gray points in a direction opposite to the memory color (memory color effect). It is still unclear whether the discrepancy between memorized and actual colors of objects is dependent on the familiarity of the objects. Here, we conducted two experiments in order to examine the relationship between the degree of a subject’s familiarity with objects and the degree of the memory color effect by using logographs of food and beverage companies. Methods and Findings In Experiment 1, we measured the memory color effects of logos which varied in terms of their familiarity (high, middle, or low). Results demonstrate that the memory color effect occurs only in the high-familiarity condition, but not in the middle- and low-familiarity conditions. Furthermore, there is a positive correlation between the memory color effect and the actual number of domestic stores of the brand. In Experiment 2, we assessed the semantic association between logos and food/beverage names by using a semantic priming task to elucidate whether the memory color effect of logos relates to consumer brand cognition, and found that the semantic associations between logos and food/beverage names in the high-familiarity brands were stronger than those in the low-familiarity brands only when the logos were colored correctly, but not when they were appropriately or inappropriately colored, or achromatic. Conclusion The current results provide behavioral evidence of the relationship between the familiarity of objects and the memory color effect and suggest that the memory color effect increases with the familiarity of objects, albeit not constantly. PMID:23874638

Map generation in unknown environments by AUKF-SLAM using line segment-type and point-type landmarks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishihta, Sho; Maeyama, Shoichi; Watanebe, Keigo

2018-02-01

Recently, autonomous mobile robots that collect information at disaster sites are being developed. Since it is difficult to obtain maps in advance in disaster sites, the robots being capable of autonomous movement under unknown environments are required. For this objective, the robots have to build maps, as well as the estimation of self-location. This is called a SLAM problem. In particular, AUKF-SLAM which uses corners in the environment as point-type landmarks has been developed as a solution method so far. However, when the robots move in an environment like a corridor consisting of few point-type features, the accuracy of self-location estimated by the landmark is decreased and it causes some distortions in the map. In this research, we propose AUKF-SLAM which uses walls in the environment as a line segment-type landmark. We demonstrate that the robot can generate maps in unknown environment by AUKF-SLAM, using line segment-type and point-type landmarks.

The feeling of familiarity for music in patients with a unilateral temporal lobe lesion: A gating study.

PubMed

Huijgen, Josefien; Dellacherie, Delphine; Tillmann, Barbara; Clément, Sylvain; Bigand, Emmanuel; Dupont, Sophie; Samson, Séverine

2015-10-01

Previous research has indicated that the medial temporal lobe (MTL), and more specifically the perirhinal cortex, plays a role in the feeling of familiarity for non-musical stimuli. Here, we examined contribution of the MTL to the feeling of familiarity for music by testing patients with unilateral MTL lesions. We used a gating paradigm: segments of familiar and unfamiliar musical excerpts were played with increasing durations (250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 ms and complete excerpts), and participants provided familiarity judgments for each segment. Based on the hypothesis that patients might need longer segments than healthy controls (HC) to identify excerpts as familiar, we examined the onset of the emergence of familiarity in HC, patients with a right MTL resection (RTR), and patients with a left MTL resection (LTR). In contrast to our hypothesis, we found that the feeling of familiarity was relatively spared in patients with a right or left MTL lesion, even for short excerpts. All participants were able to differentiate familiar from unfamiliar excerpts as early as 500 ms, although the difference between familiar and unfamiliar judgements was greater in HC than in patients. These findings suggest that a unilateral MTL lesion does not impair the emergence of the feeling of familiarity. We also assessed whether the dynamics of the musical excerpt (linked to the type and amount of information contained in the excerpts) modulated the onset of the feeling of familiarity in the three groups. The difference between familiar and unfamiliar judgements was greater for high than for low-dynamic excerpts for HC and RTR patients, but not for LTR patients. This indicates that the LTR group did not benefit in the same way from dynamics. Overall, our results imply that the recognition of previously well-learned musical excerpts does not depend on the integrity of either right or the left MTL structures. Patients with a unilateral MTL resection may compensate for the effects of unilateral damage by using the intact contralateral temporal lobe. Moreover, we suggest that remote semantic memory for music might depend more strongly on neocortical structures rather than the MTL. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Bidirectional Modulation of Recognition Memory

PubMed Central

Ho, Jonathan W.; Poeta, Devon L.; Jacobson, Tara K.; Zolnik, Timothy A.; Neske, Garrett T.; Connors, Barry W.

2015-01-01

Perirhinal cortex (PER) has a well established role in the familiarity-based recognition of individual items and objects. For example, animals and humans with perirhinal damage are unable to distinguish familiar from novel objects in recognition memory tasks. In the normal brain, perirhinal neurons respond to novelty and familiarity by increasing or decreasing firing rates. Recent work also implicates oscillatory activity in the low-beta and low-gamma frequency bands in sensory detection, perception, and recognition. Using optogenetic methods in a spontaneous object exploration (SOR) task, we altered recognition memory performance in rats. In the SOR task, normal rats preferentially explore novel images over familiar ones. We modulated exploratory behavior in this task by optically stimulating channelrhodopsin-expressing perirhinal neurons at various frequencies while rats looked at novel or familiar 2D images. Stimulation at 30–40 Hz during looking caused rats to treat a familiar image as if it were novel by increasing time looking at the image. Stimulation at 30–40 Hz was not effective in increasing exploration of novel images. Stimulation at 10–15 Hz caused animals to treat a novel image as familiar by decreasing time looking at the image, but did not affect looking times for images that were already familiar. We conclude that optical stimulation of PER at different frequencies can alter visual recognition memory bidirectionally. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Recognition of novelty and familiarity are important for learning, memory, and decision making. Perirhinal cortex (PER) has a well established role in the familiarity-based recognition of individual items and objects, but how novelty and familiarity are encoded and transmitted in the brain is not known. Perirhinal neurons respond to novelty and familiarity by changing firing rates, but recent work suggests that brain oscillations may also be important for recognition. In this study, we showed that stimulation of the PER could increase or decrease exploration of novel and familiar images depending on the frequency of stimulation. Our findings suggest that optical stimulation of PER at specific frequencies can predictably alter recognition memory. PMID:26424881

Not all minds wander equally: The influence of traits, states and road environment factors on self-reported mind wandering during everyday driving.

PubMed

Burdett, Bridget R D; Charlton, Samuel G; Starkey, Nicola J

2016-10-01

Inattention is a road safety problem, but few studies have focused specifically on mind wandering during everyday driving. This paper explores differences in self-reported mind wandering according to driver demographic characteristics (including age and gender), cognitive traits (such as tendency toward cognitive failure or mindful attention), states (such as feeling tired or stressed) and road environment factors (such as route familiarity). Five hundred and two participants (113 male, average age 44.4 years, SD=14.0years) completed a series of questionnaires (Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS), Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) and Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ)), as well as study-specific questions about mind wandering during different personal states and across a range of road and traffic situations. All respondents reported mind wandering during driving at least some of the time. Mind wandering was more likely to be reported on familiar roads than on unfamiliar roads and when drivers are tired. Drivers who reported relatively more mind wandering were younger, reported less mindful attention in daily life, more cognitive failures, and more driving violations and lapses. Together, the findings suggest that mind wandering is common in everyday driving, however any link with crash risk remains unclear. Future research using self-report and naturalistic methods could provide more insight into relationships between mind wandering, error and crash risk. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Beyond competencies: using a capability framework in developing practice standards for advanced practice nursing.

PubMed

O'Connell, Jane; Gardner, Glenn; Coyer, Fiona

2014-12-01

This paper presents a discussion on the application of a capability framework for advanced practice nursing standards/competencies. There is acceptance that competencies are useful and necessary for definition and education of practice-based professions. Competencies have been described as appropriate for practice in stable environments with familiar problems. Increasingly competencies are being designed for use in the health sector for advanced practice such as the nurse practitioner role. Nurse practitioners work in environments and roles that are dynamic and unpredictable necessitating attributes and skills to practice at advanced and extended levels in both familiar and unfamiliar clinical situations. Capability has been described as the combination of skills, knowledge, values and self-esteem which enables individuals to manage change, be flexible and move beyond competency. A discussion paper exploring 'capability' as a framework for advanced nursing practice standards. Data were sourced from electronic databases as described in the background section. As advanced practice nursing becomes more established and formalized, novel ways of teaching and assessing the practice of experienced clinicians beyond competency are imperative for the changing context of health services. Leading researchers into capability in health care state that traditional education and training in health disciplines concentrates mainly on developing competence. To ensure that healthcare delivery keeps pace with increasing demand and a continuously changing context there is a need to embrace capability as a framework for advanced practice and education. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Motor adaptation in complex sports - the influence of visual context information on the adaptation of the three-point shot to altered task demands in expert basketball players.

PubMed

Stöckel, Tino; Fries, Udo

2013-01-01

We examined the influence of visual context information on skilled motor behaviour and motor adaptation in basketball. The rules of basketball in Europe have recently changed, such that that the distance for three-point shots increased from 6.25 m to 6.75 m. As such, we tested the extent to which basketball experts can adapt to the longer distance when a) only the unfamiliar, new three-point line was provided as floor markings (NL group), or b) the familiar, old three-point line was provided in addition to the new floor markings (OL group). In the present study 20 expert basketball players performed 40 three-point shots from 6.25 m and 40 shots from 6.75 m. We assessed the percentage of hits and analysed the landing position of the ball. Results showed better adaptation of throwing performance to the longer distance when the old three-point line was provided as a visual landmark, compared to when only the new three-point line was provided. We hypothesise that the three-point line delivered relevant information needed to successfully adapt to the greater distance in the OL group, whereas it disturbed performance and ability to adapt in the NL group. The importance of visual landmarks on motor adaptation in basketball throwing is discussed relative to the influence of other information sources (i.e. angle of elevation relative to the basket) and sport practice.

Investigating Faculty Familiarity with Assessment Terminology by Applying Cluster Analysis to Interpret Survey Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raker, Jeffrey R.; Holme, Thomas A.

2014-01-01

A cluster analysis was conducted with a set of survey data on chemistry faculty familiarity with 13 assessment terms. Cluster groupings suggest a high, middle, and low overall familiarity with the terminology and an independent high and low familiarity with terms related to fundamental statistics. The six resultant clusters were found to be…

Familiarity and Sex Based Stereotypes on Instant Impressions of Male and Female Faculty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nadler, Joel T.; Berry, Seth A.; Stockdale, Margaret S.

2013-01-01

To address the stranger-to-stranger critique of stereotyping research, psychology students (n = 139) and law students (n = 58) rated photographs of familiar or unfamiliar male or female professors on competence. Results from Study 1 indicated that familiar male psychology faculty were rated as more competent than were familiar female faculty,…

40 CFR 141.84 - Lead service line replacement requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Lead service line replacement requirements. 141.84 Section 141.84 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL PRIMARY DRINKING WATER REGULATIONS Control of Lead and Copper § 141.84 Lead...

40 CFR 141.84 - Lead service line replacement requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Lead service line replacement requirements. 141.84 Section 141.84 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL PRIMARY DRINKING WATER REGULATIONS Control of Lead and Copper § 141.84 Lead...