A Pretty Good Paper about Pretty Good Privacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCollum, Roy

With today's growth in the use of electronic information systems for e-mail, data development and research, and the relative ease of access to such resources, protecting one's data and correspondence has become a great concern. "Pretty Good Privacy" (PGP), an encryption program developed by Phil Zimmermann, may be the software tool that…

Deaf Learners' Knowledge of English Universal Quantifiers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berent, Gerald P.; Kelly, Ronald R.; Porter, Jeffrey E.; Fonzi, Judith

2008-01-01

Deaf and hearing students' knowledge of English sentences containing universal quantifiers was compared through their performance on a 50-item, multiple-picture task that required students to decide whether each of five pictures represented a possible meaning of a target sentence. The task assessed fundamental knowledge of quantifier sentences,…

Leadership for the next millennium: the physician executive.

PubMed

Klint, R A

1993-01-01

We continue to muddle through using tourniquets and bandaids on a health care system that is in dire straits. And the future is even less promising. There will be millions without basic health care, let alone basic health care coverage. Rural and inner-city hospitals will close, with progressive public apathy, as we focus on the marvels of expensive technologies that serve only the few. Costs will continue to rise at double digit rates, and our nation's employers will fall further behind in the global marketplace. Preventive care will be uncommonly provided and only more rarely reimbursed, while a couple more children die of measles in Mississippi. It's not a pretty picture, and it simply doesn't have to come to pass. "What we really need is leadership," the public cries. That leadership can and should come from medicine through physician executives.

What Girls Say About: The Pressure to Be Pretty

MedlinePlus

... Safe Videos for Educators Search English Español What Girls Say About: The Pressure to Be Pretty KidsHealth / ... presión que existe para ser bonita Survey Says: Girls Worry About Their Looks Imagine a group of ...

The Complicated Geologic History of Asteroid 4 Vesta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, G. J.

2009-06-01

Planetary scientists are pretty sure that almost all of the HED meteorites come from the fourth-largest asteroid, 4 Vesta. HED stands for the three types of rocks that make up the group. As cosmochemists have studied the meteorites over the years, their view of the geologic history of the asteroid has become progressively more complicated. Jean-Alix Barrat and Marcel Bohn (CNRS and University of Brest, France), Philippe Gillet (CNRS and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France), and Akira Yamaguchi (National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, Japan) have found that Vesta is even more complicated--and interesting--than we thought. Barrat and his colleagues analyzed impact-produced glass spherules and fragments in several howardites (mixtures of the two other main types, eucrites and diogenites). Not surprisingly, most of the glasses have compositions similar to eucrites, which are basalts, or mixtures of them with diogenites, but a few are surprisingly rich in silicon and potassium (expressed as the percentages of SiO2 and K2O, respectively). In fact, the concentrations of these oxides are similar to granites, compositionally far from basalt. Their manufacture requires extensive crystallization of magma. Combined with a more subtle variation among the basalts, the emerging picture is one that includes formation of a basaltic crust, partial melting of parts of the crust, mixing of those melts with some (not all) magmas as they migrated through the crust, and extensive crystallization of magma bodies to produce residual magma resembling granites. On top of that, Vestan rocks were thermally metamorphosed and battered and mixed by impacts. A pretty complicated little planetary body!

Quantifying precision and availability of location memory in everyday pictures and some implications for picture database design.

PubMed

Lansdale, Mark W; Oliff, Lynda; Baguley, Thom S

2005-06-01

The authors investigated whether memory for object locations in pictures could be exploited to address known difficulties of designing query languages for picture databases. M. W. Lansdale's (1998) model of location memory was adapted to 4 experiments observing memory for everyday pictures. These experiments showed that location memory is quantified by 2 parameters: a probability that memory is available and a measure of its precision. Availability is determined by controlled attentional processes, whereas precision is mostly governed by picture composition beyond the viewer's control. Additionally, participants' confidence judgments were good predictors of availability but were insensitive to precision. This research suggests that databases using location memory are feasible. The implications of these findings for database design and for further research and development are discussed. (c) 2005 APA

Quantifying Precision and Availability of Location Memory in Everyday Pictures and Some Implications for Picture Database Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lansdale, Mark W.; Oliff, Lynda; Baguley, Thom S.

2005-01-01

The authors investigated whether memory for object locations in pictures could be exploited to address known difficulties of designing query languages for picture databases. M. W. Lansdale's (1998) model of location memory was adapted to 4 experiments observing memory for everyday pictures. These experiments showed that location memory is…

magicaxis: Pretty scientific plotting with minor-tick and log minor-tick support

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robotham, Aaron S. G.

2016-04-01

The R suite magicaxis makes useful and pretty plots for scientific plotting and includes functions for base plotting, with particular emphasis on pretty axis labelling in a number of circumstances that are often used in scientific plotting. It also includes functions for generating images and contours that reflect the 2D quantile levels of the data designed particularly for output of MCMC posteriors where visualizing the location of the 68% and 95% 2D quantiles for covariant parameters is a necessary part of the post MCMC analysis, can generate low and high error bars, and allows clipping of values, rejection of bad values, and log stretching.

Using Games to Teach Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Francis, Paul J.

We all know that astronomical research is a chaotic sociable deeply human enterprise full of baffling mysteries enigmatic clues and breathtakingly unexpected conclusions. Abundant evidence suggests that our students see astronomy very differently. They see it as a lonely activity: a collection of facts (and very pretty pictures) brought down from the mountain by antisocial ""experts"" for them to memorise. Can we change this false perception? I've been experimenting with using role-playing games in the classroom. I've tried these games out on a wide range of high-school and university students. Students play the roles of competing teams of astronomers battling to solve some perplexing astrophysical enigma. Do these games work? Sometimes! When they work well the really change student perceptions of science in a way that almost no other teaching technique can match. But there have been a fair number of embarrassing fiascos along the way... I will share my experiences and hard earned tips for avoiding disasters

Exoplanets and Multiverses (Abstract)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trimble, V.

2016-12-01

(Abstract only) To the ancients, the Earth was the Universe, of a size to be crossed by a god in a day, by boat or chariot, and by humans in a lifetime. Thus an exoplanet would have been a multiverse. The ideas gradually separated over centuries, with gradual acceptance of a sun-centered solar system, the stars as suns likely to have their own planets, other galaxies beyond the Milky Way, and so forth. And whenever the community divided between "just one' of anything versus "many," the "manies" have won. Discoveries beginning in 1991 and 1995 have gradually led to a battalion or two of planets orbiting other stars, very few like our own little family, and to moderately serious consideration of even larger numbers of other universes, again very few like our own. I'm betting, however, on habitable (though not necessarily inhabited) exoplanets to be found, and habitable (though again not necessarily inhabited) universes. Only the former will yield pretty pictures.

Teaching Particle Dynamics by Fulldome Animations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bartolone, L. M.; Reiff, P.; Sumners, C.

2008-12-01

Plasma particle dynamics can be difficult to understand, even for a professional. Creating animations that can be understood and appreciated by the general public are even more challenging. Missions that have "pretty pictures" are much easier to show to the public, whereas creating animations that show how charged particles behave in certain situations is difficult at best. Intrinsically three-dimensional processes such as particle drifts, rotating tilted dipole magnetic fields, charge exchange, and magnetic reconnection can be put into a domed space to put the viewer "into the scene". This allows the viewer to experience, not just see, the process. Examples of animations from our fulldome planetarium shows "IBEX: Search for the Educage of the Solar System", "Force 5" and "Saturn the Ring World 2" will be shown. If space permits, we will bring a portable dome and show these animations in a fulldome theater format.

More than pretty pictures? How illustrations affect parent-child story reading and children's story recall

PubMed Central

Greenhoot, Andrea Follmer; Beyer, Alisa M.; Curtis, Jennifer

2014-01-01

Previous research showed that story illustrations fail to enhance young preschoolers' memories when they accompany a pre-recorded story (e.g., Greenhoot and Semb, 2008). In this study we tested whether young children might benefit from illustrations in a more interactive story-reading context. For instance, illustrations might influence parent-child reading interactions, and thus children's story comprehension and recall. Twenty-six 3.5- to 4.5-year-olds and their primary caregivers were randomly assigned to an Illustrated or Non-Illustrated story-reading condition, and parents were instructed to “read or tell the story” as they normally would read with their child. Children recalled the story after a distracter and again after 1 week. Analyses of the story-reading interactions showed that the illustrations prompted more interactive story reading and more parent and child behaviors known to predict improved literacy outcomes. Furthermore, in the first memory interview, children in the Illustrated condition recalled more story events than those in the Non-Illustrated condition. Story reading measures predicted recall, but did not completely account for picture effects. These results suggest that illustrations enhance young preschoolers' story recall in an interactive story reading context, perhaps because the joint attention established in this context supports children's processing of the illustrations. PMID:25101018

Psychometric properties of startle and corrugator response in NPU, Affective Picture Viewing, and Resting State tasks

PubMed Central

Kaye, Jesse T.; Bradford, Daniel E.; Curtin, John J.

2016-01-01

The current study provides a comprehensive evaluation of critical psychometric properties of commonly used psychophysiology laboratory tasks/measures within the NIMH RDoC. Participants (N = 128) completed the No Shock, Predictable Shock, Unpredictable Shock (NPU) task, Affective Picture Viewing task, and Resting State task at two study visits separated by one week. We examined potentiation/modulation scores in NPU (predictable or unpredictable shock vs. no shock) and Affective Picture Viewing tasks (pleasant or unpleasant vs. neutral pictures) for startle and corrugator responses with two commonly used quantification methods. We quantified startle potentiation/modulation scores with raw and standardized responses. We quantified corrugator potentiation/modulation in the time and frequency domains. We quantified general startle reactivity in the Resting State Task as the mean raw startle response during the task. For these three tasks, two measures, and two quantification methods we evaluated effect size robustness and stability, internal consistency (i.e., split-half reliability), and one-week temporal stability. The psychometric properties of startle potentiation in the NPU task were good but concerns were noted for corrugator potentiation in this task. Some concerns also were noted for the psychometric properties of both startle and corrugator modulation in the Affective Picture Viewing task, in particular for pleasant picture modulation. Psychometric properties of general startle reactivity in the Resting State task were good. Some salient differences in the psychometric properties of the NPU and Affective Picture Viewing tasks were observed within and across quantification methods. PMID:27167717

Pretty Risky Behavior: A Content Analysis of Youth Risk Behaviors in "Pretty Little Liars"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Cougar; West, Joshua; Herbert, Patrick C.

2015-01-01

Adolescent consumption of screen media continues to increase. A variety of theoretical constructs hypothesize the impact of media content on health-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. This study uses a coding instrument based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey to analyze health behavior contained in…

Is Your Tutorial Pretty or Pretty Useless? Creating Effective Tutorials with the Principles of Multimedia Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rapchak, Marcia E.

2017-01-01

With the proliferation of free and easy-to-use tools to make online tutorials, many libraries have been creating online tutorials for their users. These cover everything from showing users how to navigate the databases to covering issues like copyright and evaluation. While the tutorials range from entertaining to rather dry, many of them,…

The Award Winning Black Suns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holbrook, Jarita

2018-01-01

Black Suns: An Astrophysics Adventure is a documentary film focusing on the annular and total solar eclipses of 2012. We made a different kind of astronomy documentary showing the human aspects rather than just focusing on pretty astronomy pictures. The film combines personal stories with science. Our heroes are Hakeem Oluseyi and Alphonse Sterling, who valiantly travel to study the solar corona during total solar eclipses. The goals of the film included presenting three dimensional scientists, to show their paths to becoming astrophysicists, and to show them as they collect data and work as scientists. Drama and tension surround taking data during the small window of time during totality. The Black Suns was filmed in Tokyo, Cairns, Tucson, and Melbourne Florida. Uniquely, the film began through a Kickstarter campaign to fund travel and filming in Tokyo. Many American Astronomical Society members donated to the film! Black Suns won the Jury Prize at the 2017 Art of Brooklyn Film Festival. Black Suns will be screening in full on ???.

Meadowfoam: Pretty flowers, pretty possibilities. [Limnanthes alba

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

Bosisio, M.

1989-02-01

This article describes the cultivation of oilseed plants that can be used to produce products such as industrial lubricants and polymers. Although native to the Pacific Northwest, the meadowfoam plant (Limnanthes alba) can be grown in mild climates where soil temperatures range from 40-60 degrees F. The greatest deterrent to commercialization is cost due to low yields (nutlets contain 20-30% oil). Plant scientists are working to increase the amount of seed oil yield per acre.

Energetic arousal and language: predictions from the computational theory of quantifiers processing.

PubMed

Zajenkowski, Marcin

2013-10-01

The author examines the relationship between energetic arousal (EA) and the processing of sentences containing natural-language quantifiers. Previous studies and theories have shown that energy may differentially affect various cognitive functions. Recent investigations devoted to quantifiers strongly support the theory that various types of quantifiers involve different cognitive functions in the sentence-picture verification task. In the present study, 201 students were presented with a sentence-picture verification task consisting of simple propositions containing a quantifier that referred to the color of a car on display. Color pictures of cars accompanied the propositions. In addition, the level of participants' EA was measured before and after the verification task. It was found that EA and performance on proportional quantifiers (e.g., "More than half of the cars are red") are in an inverted U-shaped relationship. This result may be explained by the fact that proportional sentences engage working memory to a high degree, and previous models of EA-cognition associations have been based on the assumption that tasks that require parallel attentional and memory processes are best performed when energy is moderate. The research described in the present article has several applications, as it shows the optimal human conditions for verbal comprehension. For instance, it may be important in workplace design to control the level of arousal experienced by office staff when work is mostly related to the processing of complex texts. Energy level may be influenced by many factors, such as noise, time of day, or thermal conditions.

Making and Using Aesthetically Pleasing Images With HDI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buckner, Spencer L.

2017-01-01

The Half-Degree Imager (HDI) was installed as the primary imager on the 0.9-m WIYN telescope in October 2013. In the three plus years since then it has proven to be highly effective as a scientific instrument for the 0.9-m WIYN consortium. One thing that has been missing from the mix are aesthetically pleasing images for use in publicity and public outreach. The lack of “pretty pictures” is understandable since the HDI is designed for scientific use and observers are given limited telescope time. However, images which appeal to the general public can be an effective tool for public outreach, publicity and recruitment of students into astronomy programs. As a counter to the loss of limited telescope time an observer has, “pretty picture” images can be taken under less than desirable conditions when photometric studies would have limited usefulness. Astroimaging has become a popular pastime among both amateur and professional astronomers. At Austin Peay State University astrophotography is a popular course with non-science majors that wish to complete an astronomy minor as well as physics majors pursuing the astrophysics track. Images of a number of Messier objects have been taken with the HDI camera and are used to teach the basics of image calibration and processing for aesthetic value to students in the astrophotography class. Using HDI images with most image processing software commercially available to the public does present some problems, though. The extended FITS format of the images is not readable by most amateur image processing software and such software can also have problems recognizing the filter configurations of the HDI. Overcoming these issues and how the images are used in APSU courses, publicity and public outreach as well as finished pictures will be discussed in this presentation. A poster describing the processing techniques used will be displayed during the concurrent HDI poster session along with several poster-sized prints of images.

Where inside the world is the stuff that makes the wood things we write with and the small pretty rocks that women wear on their fingers? And where does that stuff go over time?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kellogg, L. H.

2017-12-01

The middle of the world we live on, between the top and the heart, is made of green rock. When it gets hot, the rock runs slowly like thick water, but it is still rock. The hot rock moves up, and the cold rock moves down. This makes the harder rock on top of our world move around, and it cools the inside of our world. We can not see the green rock place with our own eyes, so we make pretend worlds on a computer. We also use a lot of little tiny bits that are hard to find, to smell where the rock comes from, and where it has been, and how long it takes to move around. One tiny bit that we use is the kind of stuff that makes living things and also makes the wood things we write with and the small pretty rocks that women wear on their fingers. When it is in our air, these little pieces make the air and water warmer. So, how many of the tiny bits that are in wood things we write with and the small pretty rocks are in the green rock place? A lot: much, much more than is now in the air or the water. On another world, the one closer to the sun that is named for a beautiful woman, the air has a lot of the tiny bits that makes the wood things we write with and the small pretty rocks. The air is very heavy and it is very very hot there; no one could live on the beautiful woman world. But we think that maybe our world was like this when our world was very new. On our world, the water, the air, and the rock worked together, using the tiny bits that make wood things we write with and small pretty rocks to make a different kind of rock. Then that kind of rock went down into the green rock place. This made our air very light, and made our world a place where people and other living things can live. Since that early time, when the green rock comes up, it can send some of the tiny bits that make the wood things we write with and small pretty rocks back into the air. What goes down must come up, and what comes up, must go back down.

Once a physicist: David Florence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Florence, David

2009-03-01

I did mathematical physics because it was just what I was best at. I enjoyed it at school, so I applied to do it at Nottingham University. I fell into it, to be quite honest. Once at university, I struggled at first, partly because I found it quite difficult to combine studying with competing and training in sport, which is pretty much full time as well. But by the end of my university career, I had learned to be organized, and to manage my time pretty effectively, so I enjoyed it a lot more.

Teaching Astronomy at Columbus State University using Small Radio Telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Webster, Zodiac T.

2006-12-01

Astronomy is inherently fascinating to students but dark skies and good weather are not often scheduled during the school day. Radio telescopes provide an all-weather, all-day opportunity for astronomical observations. Columbus State University (CSU) has installed two “Small Radio Telescopes” for use by undergraduate students to pursue extra-curricular research in introductory astronomy. These telescopes are relatively affordable and are designed to be remotely operated through a Windows, Linux, or Macintosh environment. They are capable of diffraction-limited observations of the Sun and galactic Hydrogen in the ‘L-band’. A comprehensive website of projects suitable for high-school students and undergraduates is maintained by a group at MIT. This website ensures users are not left to explore the telescope’s abilities blindly. Students with varied interests learn about the nature of science by using an instrument that doesn’t lend itself to pretty pictures. Radio telescopes also provide a slight engineering flavor drawing in students who might not otherwise be interested in astronomy. This poster will provide a summary of installation, calibration, and future plans, and will share some observations by undergraduates at CSU.

Consumption, drugs and style: Constructing intra-ethnic boundaries in Asian American youth cultures

PubMed Central

Moloney, Molly; Hunt, Geoffrey P.

2013-01-01

Based on 250 qualitative interviews with Asian American young men and women in the dance/club scenes in the San Francisco area, we examine the interplay between consumption, style and taste cultures with issues of ethnic identity, gender and acculturation. We explore the ways that consumption and taste markers (e.g. fashion, cars, music and drugs) are used to establish or negotiate symbolic boundaries between groups in this youth culture. The picture they paint of the dance scene is one less about cohesiveness and unity and more about divisions and boundaries, not only between but also significantly within ethnic groupings. The choice of drugs and ways of exhibiting intoxication are among the types of consumption that the young people drew upon to mark symbolic boundaries and establish identities. The young men and women in this study discuss a number of key boundaries in the scene, e.g. between FOBs and twinkies, between pretty boys and thugs, as they attempt to establish the cultural legitimacy of their own styles of Asian American identities. PMID:24065869

Mimicking the Moon

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-11-03

When Galileo first observed Venus displaying a crescent phase, he excitedly wrote to Kepler (in anagram) of Venus mimicking the moon-goddess. He would have been delirious with joy to see Saturn and Titan, seen in this image, doing the same thing. More than just pretty pictures, high-phase observations -- taken looking generally toward the Sun, as in this image -- are very powerful scientifically since the way atmospheres and rings transmit sunlight is often diagnostic of compositions and physical states. In this example, Titan's crescent nearly encircles its disk due to the small haze particles high in its atmosphere refracting the incoming light of the distant Sun. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 3 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in violet light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Aug. 11, 2013. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.1 million miles (1.7 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 154 degrees. Image scale is 64 miles (103 kilometers) per pixel. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18291

Selective Inhibition and Naming Performance in Semantic Blocking, Picture-Word Interference, and Color-Word Stroop Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shao, Zeshu; Roelofs, Ardi; Martin, Randi C.; Meyer, Antje S.

2015-01-01

In 2 studies, we examined whether explicit distractors are necessary and sufficient to evoke selective inhibition in 3 naming tasks: the semantic blocking, picture-word interference, and color-word Stroop task. Delta plots were used to quantify the size of the interference effects as a function of reaction time (RT). Selective inhibition was…

Better bounds on optimal measurement and entanglement recovery, with applications to uncertainty and monogamy relations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Renes, Joseph M.

2017-10-01

We extend the recent bounds of Sason and Verdú relating Rényi entropy and Bayesian hypothesis testing (arXiv:1701.01974.) to the quantum domain and show that they have a number of different applications. First, we obtain a sharper bound relating the optimal probability of correctly distinguishing elements of an ensemble of states to that of the pretty good measurement, and an analogous bound for optimal and pretty good entanglement recovery. Second, we obtain bounds relating optimal guessing and entanglement recovery to the fidelity of the state with a product state, which then leads to tight tripartite uncertainty and monogamy relations.

Impacting Society through Astronomy Undergraduate Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schleigh, Sharon

2015-04-01

A high percentage of non-science majors enroll in undergraduate, introductory astronomy courses across the country. The perception of the astronomy course as being easier than the ``hard sciences'' and the idea that the course will focus on ``pretty pictures'', influences the interests of the non-science majors. Often the students that enroll in these courses will not take other science courses, resulting in the only opportunity to teach college students about basic scientific concepts that impact their lives. Vast misconceptions about the nature of science, the role of science and scientists in society, and social issues embedded in scientific information, impact the decisions that individuals make about every day events. In turn, these decisions influence the policies that construct our society. This talk will provide an overview of the common misconceptions and discuss how they impact our society as a whole. The research presented provides evidence of the impact that introductory college astronomy courses have on changing these everyday misconceptions and influencing non-science majors' ideas about science in society. The research suggests that introductory courses designed for non-science majors are extremely important in impacting our society, and begs for a stronger understanding and implementation of best practices for teaching and learning in the college classroom environment.

Licit and illicit drugs in a wastewater treatment plant in Verona, Italy.

PubMed

Repice, Carla; Dal Grande, Mario; Maggi, Roberto; Pedrazzani, Roberta

2013-10-01

The occurrence of 12 active substances among licit and illicit drugs was investigated over a 2 week period inflowing and outflowing in an activated sludge wastewater treatment plant in the city of Verona, Northern Italy. Chemical analyses were performed by means of on-line solid phase extraction coupled to high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in order to minimize sample pre-treatment. Quantifiable concentrations, up to hundreds of ng/L, were detected in influent and in effluent only for carbamazepine, codeine and benzoylecgonine. Such values are in accordance with literature data, so as removal efficiencies: it was observed that there was pretty much no abatement for carbamazepine, while average removal percentages of about 60% and 90% were calculated for codeine and benzoylecgonine, respectively. These results provide useful information (also concerning some active principles never or rarely detected, up to now, such as lormetazepam) for integrated water cycle managing, also taking into account the specific characteristics of the receiving water basin. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pretty Pleases: The Effects of Physical Attractiveness, Race, and Sex on Receiving Help

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Peter L.; And Others

1976-01-01

Investigates whether favoritism for the physically attractive, a phenomenon demonstrated almost exclusively on the basis of rating scales, generalizes to nonreactive, behavioral helping responses. (Editor)

"Diabetes has instant consequences…"

MedlinePlus

... Javascript on. Feature: Diabetes Stories "Diabetes has instant consequences…" Past Issues / Fall 2009 Table of Contents Photo: ... to chuck it all. But Diabetes has instant consequences. You learn to be responsible pretty quickly, or ...

Global unity.

PubMed

Holleran

1993-02-24

the headquarters of the International Council of Nurses in Geneva, Switzerland, is part of a new building near the lake. There are 17 staff members and only four of us are nurses, yet we have a pretty productive team.

JPL-20180401-WHATSUf-0001-What's Up April 2018

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-04-01

Monthly series for amateur astronomers. April 2018 features: The Moon, Mars and Saturn form a pretty triangle in early April. The Lyrid Meteors are visible in late April, peaking high overhead on the 22nd.

[Food photography atlas: its suitability for quantifying food and nutrient consumption in nutritional epidemiological research in Córdoba, Argentina].

PubMed

Navarro, A; Cristaldo, P E; Díaz, M P; Eynard, A R

2000-01-01

Food pictures are suitable visual tools for quantize food and nutrient consumption avoiding bias due to self-assessments. To determine the perception of food portion size and to establish the efficacy of food pictures for dietaries assessments. A food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) including 118 food items of daily consumption was applied to 30 adults representative of Córdoba, Argentina, population. Among several food models (paper maché, plastics) and pictures, those which more accurately filled the purpose were selected. 3 small, median and large standard portion size were determined. Data were evaluated with descriptive statistics tools and Chi square adherence test. The assessment of 51 percent of the food was assayed in concordance with the reference size. In general, the remainder was overestimated. The 90 percent of volunteers concluded that the pictures were the best visual resource. The photographic atlas of food is an useful material for quantize the dietary consumption, suitable for many types of dietaries assessments. In conclusion, comparison among pictures of three portions previously standardized for each food is highly recommendable.

Things to Expect When Your Mom Is Pregnant

MedlinePlus

... few months. After about 3 or 4 months, your mother's breasts and belly will start to get bigger. ... the time the baby's ready to be born, your mother's belly will be pretty big. She also might ...

Life is pretty meaningful.

PubMed

Heintzelman, Samantha J; King, Laura A

2014-09-01

The human experience of meaning in life is widely viewed as a cornerstone of well-being and a central human motivation. Self-reports of meaning in life relate to a host of important functional outcomes. Psychologists have portrayed meaning in life as simultaneously chronically lacking in human life as well as playing an important role in survival. Examining the growing literature on meaning in life, we address the question "How meaningful is life, in general?" We review possible answers from various psychological sources, some of which anticipate that meaning in life should be low and others that it should be high. Summaries of epidemiological data and research using two self-report measures of meaning in life suggest that life is pretty meaningful. Diverse samples rate themselves significantly above the midpoint on self-reports of meaning in life. We suggest that if meaning in life plays a role in adaptation, it must be commonplace, as our analysis suggests. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Spectral transmittance of UV-blocking soft contact lenses: a comparative study.

PubMed

Rahmani, Saeed; Mohammadi Nia, Mohadeseh; Akbarzadeh Baghban, Alireza; Nazari, Mohammad Reza; Ghassemi-Broumand, Mohammad

2014-12-01

Three major parts of sunlight consist of visible, ultraviolet and infrared radiation. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) can result in a spectrum of skin and ocular diseases. UV-blocking contact lenses help provide protection against harmful UV radiation. We studied the ultraviolet and visible light rays transmission in some soft UV-blocking contact lenses. Four available tinted soft lenses (Acuvue Moist, Zeiss CONTACT Day 30 Air spheric, Pretty Eyes and Sauflon 56 UV) have been evaluated for UV and visible transmission. One-way ANOVA testing was performed to establish is there a statistically significant difference between the UV regions and visible spectra means for the contact lenses (α=0.05). Pretty Eyes, Zeiss CONTACT, Acuvue Moist and Sauflon 56 UV showed UV-B transmittance value of 0.65%, 10.69%, 1.22%, and 5.78%, respectively. Pretty Eyes and Acuvue Moist had UV-A transmittance values of 32% and 34%, Sauflon 56 UV and Zeiss CONTACT had transmittance values of 48% and 43%, respectively. All of the studied lenses transmitted at least 94.6% on the visible spectrum. The results of the one-way ANOVA statistical analysis show that a statistically significant difference exists within the group of contact lenses tested for the visible (p<0.001), UV-B (p<0.001) and UV-A (p<0.001) portions of the spectrum (α=0.05). Acuvue Moist has the best UV-blocking property and also visible transmission between other tested contact lenses in this study. Copyright © 2014 British Contact Lens Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

6. Photocopy of postcard (from Crooks Mansion Partnership) Frank Stumm, ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

6. Photocopy of postcard (from Crooks Mansion Partnership) Frank Stumm, photographer ca. 1908-16 'A PRETTY RESIDENCE SPOT AT BENICIA, CAL.,' CROOKS HOUSE ON THE LEFT - Crooks House, 285 West G Street, Benicia, Solano County, CA

Recovering real money with a contract management system.

PubMed

Lang, Kevin; Williams, Bethany

2003-12-01

A payment error here, a payment error there--pretty soon, you're talking about real money. Contract and underpayment management systems can pay for themselves by unearthing tiny errors that add up to a lot of lost cash.

5 Ways to Avoid Filling Up on Empty Calories

Cancer.gov

It's easy to get overwhelmed by our busy lives and grab food on the go that doesn’t provide the nourishment our bodies need. Pretty much anything you would call “junk food” is an empty-calorie culprit.

Fainting

MedlinePlus

... pressure. Why Do People Faint? Fainting is pretty common in teens. The good news is that most of the time it's not a sign of something serious. When someone faints, it's usually because ... ventilated setting are common causes of fainting in teens. People can also ...

Charge and Exchange

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2008-01-01

Even though comets are basically giant dirty snowballs, a few years ago they surprised astronomers by emitting X-radiation. These X-rays are not produced by multi-million degree gas (as is often the case) but rather by a process called 'charge exchange'. In this process, ionized atoms (which have lost one or more electrons) which are carried within the solar wind collide with neutral atoms in the comet's coma. The solar wind ion can collide with and capture an electron from the neutral comet atom, and in doing so some of the energy of the collision is observed in the form of X-rays. This produces a glow of X-rays on the sunward side of the comet's atmosphere. Charge exchange can occur in a variety of astrophysical settings, and cometary charge exchange provides astronomers a means to study this process up close. The image above is a pretty picture of comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 passing by the Ring Nebula. This image was obtained by the ultraviolet and optical telescope (UVOT) on the Swift gamma-ray burst hunter. The UVOT observations help astronomers to study the structure and chemistry of the comet, while Swift's X-ray Telescope (XRT) simultaneously monitors the charge exchange process. Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 is currently in the process of breaking up, and the UVOT observations show important details of how this breakup is occurring.

Applications of the JPEG standard in a medical environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wittenberg, Ulrich

1993-10-01

JPEG is a very versatile image coding and compression standard for single images. Medical images make a higher demand on image quality and precision than the usual 'pretty pictures'. In this paper the potential applications of the various JPEG coding modes in a medical environment are evaluated. Due to legal reasons the lossless modes are especially interesting. The spatial modes are equally important because medical data may well exceed the maximum of 12 bit precision allowed for the DCT modes. The performance of the spatial predictors is investigated. From the users point of view the progressive modes, which provide a fast but coarse approximation of the final image, reduce the subjective time one has to wait for it, so they also reduce the user's frustration. Even the lossy modes will find some applications, but they have to be handled with care, because repeated lossy coding and decoding leads to a degradation of the image quality. The amount of this degradation is investigated. The JPEG standard alone is not sufficient for a PACS because it does not store enough additional data such as creation data or details of the imaging modality. Therefore it will be an imbedded coding format in standards like TIFF or ACR/NEMA. It is concluded that the JPEG standard is versatile enough to match the requirements of the medical community.

A new view for resource managers

USGS Publications Warehouse

Haas, Robert H.

1986-01-01

In decades past, the rancher depended upon reports from cowboys to gather information he needed to make management decisions. Today, the vast open ranges of the cowboy era are mostly gone in the United States-fenced into pastures, paddocks, or fields that are now discrete management units. But fencing in the rangeland, while it has replaced much of the need for cowboys, has not replaced the need for information about the health and vigor of the forage on each parcel of land. Can a satellite, orbiting at more than 400 miles in space, serve this purpose? As ranchers and resource specialists are asked to make more and more complex management decisions, with less manpower for conducting inventories, they are wise to seek help in today's rapidly developing technologies. For the past few decades the range technician has accomplished most of his range assessment from a pickup truck, traveling periodically to each unit to determine its status. Now, satellite images of the Earth's resources might be able to help the modern range person do an even more efficient job of monitoring the availability of feed for livestock and wildlife. Yet some important questions need to be answered first. Can this new information source be used to evaluate the ecological condition of these lands? Or are satellite images of our Earth and its variety of landscapes just "pretty pictures," with little practical utility?

Guy's Guide to Body Image

MedlinePlus

... and feelings about his or her body and physical appearance. Having a positive body image means feeling pretty ... not feeling too satisfied with their body or appearance to begin with. They may have ... Different physical attributes and body types are good for different ...

Structural Limits on Organizational Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, George H., Jr.

1977-01-01

Organizational development practitioners tend to assume that all workplaces are pretty much alike, and that emotional health in all job situations can be described in approximately the same way. They have failed to recognize the sociological and structural/functional limitations of the workplace. (Author/JG)

Shakespeare's Cosmic World View

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Usher, Peter D.

1997-01-01

As readers of Mercury have surely observed, astronomy admits many an allusion to Shakespeare's plays, replete as they are with descriptions of heavenly events. But Shakespeare's astronomy is more than just pretty words. It is a window into the prevailing Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology of Renaissance Europe.

Still feeling it: the time course of emotional recovery from an attentional perspective

PubMed Central

Morriss, Jayne; Taylor, Alexander N. W.; Roesch, Etienne B.; van Reekum, Carien M.

2013-01-01

Emotional reactivity and the time taken to recover, particularly from negative, stressful, events, are inextricably linked, and both are crucial for maintaining well-being. It is unclear, however, to what extent emotional reactivity during stimulus onset predicts the time course of recovery after stimulus offset. To address this question, 25 participants viewed arousing (negative and positive) and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) followed by task-relevant face targets, which were to be gender categorized. Faces were presented early (400–1500 ms) or late (2400–3500 ms) after picture offset to capture the time course of recovery from emotional stimuli. Measures of reaction time (RT), as well as face-locked N170 and P3 components were taken as indicators of the impact of lingering emotion on attentional facilitation or interference. Electrophysiological effects revealed negative and positive images to facilitate face-target processing on the P3 component, regardless of temporal interval. At the individual level, increased reactivity to: (1) negative pictures, quantified as the IAPS picture-locked Late Positive Potential (LPP), predicted larger attentional interference on the face-locked P3 component to faces presented in the late time window after picture offset. (2) Positive pictures, denoted by the LPP, predicted larger facilitation on the face-locked P3 component to faces presented in the earlier time window after picture offset. These results suggest that subsequent processing is still impacted up to 3500 ms after the offset of negative pictures and 1500 ms after the offset of positive pictures for individuals reacting more strongly to these pictures, respectively. Such findings emphasize the importance of individual differences in reactivity when predicting the temporality of emotional recovery. The current experimental model provides a novel basis for future research aiming to identify profiles of adaptive and maladaptive recovery. PMID:23734116

Decision-making based on emotional images.

PubMed

Katahira, Kentaro; Fujimura, Tomomi; Okanoya, Kazuo; Okada, Masato

2011-01-01

The emotional outcome of a choice affects subsequent decision making. While the relationship between decision making and emotion has attracted attention, studies on emotion and decision making have been independently developed. In this study, we investigated how the emotional valence of pictures, which was stochastically contingent on participants' choices, influenced subsequent decision making. In contrast to traditional value-based decision-making studies that used money or food as a reward, the "reward value" of the decision outcome, which guided the update of value for each choice, is unknown beforehand. To estimate the reward value of emotional pictures from participants' choice data, we used reinforcement learning models that have successfully been used in previous studies for modeling value-based decision making. Consequently, we found that the estimated reward value was asymmetric between positive and negative pictures. The negative reward value of negative pictures (relative to neutral pictures) was larger in magnitude than the positive reward value of positive pictures. This asymmetry was not observed in valence for an individual picture, which was rated by the participants regarding the emotion experienced upon viewing it. These results suggest that there may be a difference between experienced emotion and the effect of the experienced emotion on subsequent behavior. Our experimental and computational paradigm provides a novel way for quantifying how and what aspects of emotional events affect human behavior. The present study is a first step toward relating a large amount of knowledge in emotion science and in taking computational approaches to value-based decision making.

The Aesthetic Values of Film.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

May, Jill P.

1982-01-01

Discusses the criteria for analysis of excellence in children's films and factors involved in the production of a good film, and offers an analysis of three children's films: "The Bridge of Adam Rush,""Angel and Big Joe," and "A Pretty Kettle of Fish." Three references are provided. (EJS)

Comparison of evaporation computation methods, Pretty Lake, Lagrange County, northeastern Indiana

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ficke, John F.

1972-01-01

The different methods, although poor, agree that evaporation when there is ice cover is generally small (less than 0.1 cm day" 1 ), but the evaporation rates during the few days just before freezeup or just after ice breakup are significant

Psoriasis Doesn't Slow Down Texan Brian LaFoy | NIH MedlinePlus the Magazine

MedlinePlus

... I pretty much tried every topical there was." Quality of life issue By the time he reached his mid- ... the lesions common in psoriasis. "It became a quality of life issue for me," LaFoy says. "I'd lost ...

Assiniboine Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Minerva

This series of illustrated booklets presents 13 Indian stories in a bilingual format of English and Assiniboine, an Indian tribal language. Written on the first grade level, the stories have the following titles: (1) "Orange Tree in Lodgepole"; (2) "Pretty Flower"; (3) Inktomi and the Rock"; (4) "Inktomi and the…

More than a pretty place: assessing the impact of environmental education on children's knowledge and attitudes about outdoor play in nature.

PubMed

Beyer, Kirsten M M; Heller, Elizabeth F; Bizub, Jessica M; Kistner, Amy J; Szabo, Aniko; Shawgo, Erin E; Zetts, Corey J

2015-02-12

Our work assessed the influence of an urban environmental education program on children's attitudes toward outdoor play, as well as knowledge of neighborhood features that can facilitate this type of activity. The project team engaged 6 schools near the newest Urban Ecology Center location in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, through a community-academic partnership entitled More Than a Pretty Place. Intervention classrooms participated in programming over the 2012-2013 academic year and pre and post surveys were implemented in classrooms. Data were analyzed using multilevel regression models. The intervention group reported reduced fears of outdoor play in nature and increased frequency of visits to the Urban Ecology Center. The proportion of students who acknowledged knowing of a place to play outside in nature increased significantly in both groups. Our findings indicate an important role for environmental education in addressing fears that may dissuade children from engaging in outdoor play in natural areas.

More than a Pretty Place: Assessing the Impact of Environmental Education on Children’s Knowledge and Attitudes about Outdoor Play in Nature

PubMed Central

Beyer, Kirsten M. M.; Heller, Elizabeth F.; Bizub, Jessica M.; Kistner, Amy J.; Szabo, Aniko; Shawgo, Erin E.; Zetts, Corey J.

2015-01-01

Our work assessed the influence of an urban environmental education program on children’s attitudes toward outdoor play, as well as knowledge of neighborhood features that can facilitate this type of activity. The project team engaged 6 schools near the newest Urban Ecology Center location in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, through a community-academic partnership entitled More Than a Pretty Place. Intervention classrooms participated in programming over the 2012–2013 academic year and pre and post surveys were implemented in classrooms. Data were analyzed using multilevel regression models. The intervention group reported reduced fears of outdoor play in nature and increased frequency of visits to the Urban Ecology Center. The proportion of students who acknowledged knowing of a place to play outside in nature increased significantly in both groups. Our findings indicate an important role for environmental education in addressing fears that may dissuade children from engaging in outdoor play in natural areas. PMID:25685953

BOOK REVIEW: Astronomie und Anschaulichkeit. Die Bilder der populaeren Astronomie des 19. Jahrhunderts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duerbeck, H. W.; Utzt, S.

2004-12-01

Today, popularisation of science also means "pretty pictures": images that accompany articles in magazines and webpages, or are squeezed between the covers of so-called coffee-table books, and the reviewer pleads guilty to having added to this growing pile. But how did this "disease" came into existence? Susanne Utzt, a manager, journalist and student in the history of sciences, has dedicated her master thesis to the investigation of the growing influence of such pictures in the popularisation of astronomy. She has analyzed French and German popular texts by Arago, Guillemin, Flammarion, as well as Littrow, Maedler and Max Wilhelm Meyer that mainly appeared in the second half of the 19th century. Earlier astronomy books just had a few foldout pages with mathematical figures, as the author exemplifies by Littrow's first edition of "Die Wunder des Himmels" of 1834-36. But Flammarion with his "Astronomie Populaire", changed everything: 51 "art pages" and more than 300 figures in the text made it a true picture book, and about a third of Utzt's work is dedicated to its analysis. (In passing, it should be noted that the first 1880 edition of Flammarion's book did not yet contain the "art pages"; the author quotes such pages and text figures according to a German edition of 1907). Besides sober diagrams illustrating the solar system, and telescope drawings showing planetary surfaces and the structure of the solar photosphere, Flammarion includes poetic illustrations like a couple at the seashore at sunset; a scene showing dying Copernicus, already flanked by two angels, as he receives a copy of his De Revolutionibus; or a painting showing a flock of mammoths in an ancient landscape. In most cases, the images are chosen to illustrate the text, but sometimes the text "makes a detour" to permit the inclusion of a pretty picture. Flammarion's book contains drawings illustrating the sphericity of the earth, which appeared in almost identical form in Apian's Cosmography of 1539, and it includes images that became only a reality after space travel to the planets of the solar system became possible: thus Flammarion's images probe the past and the future, they cover a time interval of about 450 years! I think that there is a direct route from Flammarion's images "Jupiter, as seen from one of its moons" or "The rings of Saturn, as seen from Saturn", to the space art of Chesley Bonestell, as it appeared in the early 1950s in the book "The Conquest of Space" by Willy Ley, as well as in popular journals. Besides national prestige to be superior in rocketry and space travel, it was the fantasy and enthusiasm of the general public, as spurred by paintings like those of Bonestell, that made the space missions and the planetary exploration of the last decades possible. In 1880, a certain Father Schlosser (1880) expressed his fear that the flood of images would lead to a loss of fantasy, to sensationalism and superficiality. In modern society, illustrated newspapers, magazines and television may really have caused such a scientific analphabetism and superficial knowledge in wide circles. On the other hand, Wilhelm Foerster (1889) expressed the hope that the layman can be stimulated by sensual pleasures in his pursuit of insight, and even to a collaboration in science, and his hope was also fulfilled: nowadays, more hobby and professional scientists are active than in past times; "hobby science", if done in a professional way, can form a valuable supplement to astronomical science; and honestly, how many present-day astronomers have arrived at their profession by watching astronomical TV programs, reading science fiction novels, or illustrated astronomy books that they once received as a gift? Utzt states that knowledge is generated and transmitted more and more by images, and propagated to the public by means of visualisations. Thus, a critical investigation of the influence of such images is needed, and the historical knowledge of the practice of visualisations in science and popularisation can form a basis for such a study. The somewhat slim volume of this series is embellished with 35 illustrations. It offers interesting insights in the development of illustrations in popular scientific books, their use, and also sometimes their failure. It also inspires the reader to embark on further studies where the author, because of lack of source material, because of self-imposed limits of investigation, or perhaps simply because of lack of time, has halted.

The splitting of Hygrocybe

Treesearch

D. Jean Lodge

2014-01-01

The genus Hygrocybe probably contains more pretty mushrooms than any other. They provide an unrivalled bright, crisp and colourful delight to the eye—hands down, a photographer's favourite, drawing amateur and professional alike with their beauty. To the inquisitive they also provide an interesting subject for investigation, because, as...

Libraries and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rainie, Lee

2016-01-01

The majority of Americans think local libraries serve the educational needs of their communities and families pretty well and library users often outpace others in learning activities. But many do not know about key education services libraries provide. This report provides statistics on library usage and presents key education services provided…

Educators Take Another Look at Substitutes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zubrzycki, Jaclyn

2012-01-01

The mythology surrounding the substitute teacher is not a pretty one: Paper airplanes, lost learning, bullying. But as schools collect more information about teacher absenteeism and its consequences, districts and schools are exploring ways to professionalize substitute teaching--or experiment with alternative ways of coping with teacher absences.…

Being Comfortable in Your Own Skin

Cancer.gov

Let’s be honest. As women, we can be pretty hard on ourselves, and we can be especially hard on how our bodies look. Having negative views of your body can take a toll on how you see yourself and how you interact with others in the world.

Speech Errors in Progressive Non-Fluent Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ash, Sharon; McMillan, Corey; Gunawardena, Delani; Avants, Brian; Morgan, Brianna; Khan, Alea; Moore, Peachie; Gee, James; Grossman, Murray

2010-01-01

The nature and frequency of speech production errors in neurodegenerative disease have not previously been precisely quantified. In the present study, 16 patients with a progressive form of non-fluent aphasia (PNFA) were asked to tell a story from a wordless children's picture book. Errors in production were classified as either phonemic,…

Appreciative Evaluation of Restorative Approaches in Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bevington, Terence J.

2015-01-01

A restorative approach to conflict is being increasingly applied in schools around the world. Existing evaluation evidence has tended to focus on the impact on quantifiable outcomes such as number of behaviour incidents and rates of attendance and exclusion. This case study aimed to broaden the evidence base to capture a richer picture of the…

The Case against Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohn, Alfie

2012-01-01

Enough has been written about academic assessment to fill a library, but when one thinks about it, the whole enterprise really amounts to a straightforward two-step dance. Collect information about how students are doing, then share that information with the students and their parents. Gather and report--that's pretty much it. Collecting…

The Perfect Girl Syndrome: Perfectionism and Self-Esteem in Gifted Girls

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Worley, Cassie

2015-01-01

Considerable research has been published on society's expectations and attitudes toward females. Men think the most important qualities in the ideal woman are attractiveness, sexiness, and kindness. The media suggests females should value physical beauty and marriageability. Girls should be obedient, caring, pretty, and polite. These unreasonable…

Idioms: Wise as an Owl and Good as Gold.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNeill, Joyce H.; Harper, Julia P.

1991-01-01

A technique is presented for teaching deaf students self-discipline along with useful idiomatic expressions. Idioms selected for study (such as "top dog,""in the doghouse,""sitting pretty," and "in hot water") are related to school rules, depicted on a bulletin board, and used to track classroom behavior.…

Intelligence and Creativity Are Pretty Similar After All

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silvia, Paul J.

2015-01-01

This article reviews the history of thought on how intelligence and creativity, two individual differences important to teaching and learning, are connected. For decades, intelligence and creativity have been seen as essentially unrelated abilities. Recently, however, new theories, assessment methods, and statistical tools have caused a shift in…

Happiness Scale Interval Study. Methodological Considerations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kalmijn, W. M.; Arends, L. R.; Veenhoven, R.

2011-01-01

The Happiness Scale Interval Study deals with survey questions on happiness, using verbal response options, such as "very happy" and "pretty happy". The aim is to estimate what degrees of happiness are denoted by such terms in different questions and languages. These degrees are expressed in numerical values on a continuous…

The "Pretty Redhead" Who Changed Science Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Randy

2001-01-01

Discusses the historical marginalization of women with claims that they are neither fit for nor interested in careers in science. Describes two cases of the media depiction of a successful female scientist and a high school biology teacher who was involved in the challenge to Arkansas' antievolution laws. (MM)

Up & Strumming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perlmutter, Adam

2011-01-01

At this point, it's pretty much indisputable: The guitar is a cool instrument. For many years, it's appealed to students because of its prominence in popular music. Lightweight, portable, and inexpensive, it makes a more immediate impact than most other instruments--players can begin to make satisfying music on guitar with just a few easy chord…

Not Just a Pretty Face

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lott, Debra

2010-01-01

Contemporary artist John Currin's artwork has been described as a moralistic portrait of contemporary society. Currin is convinced that most emotions people connect with religion, such as guilt, sin, and redemption, have been changed by modern life. His response is to paint various present-day ills in portraits sometimes evocative of highschool…

Scaling Down: A Modest Proposal for Practice-Based Policy Research in Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erickson, Frederick

2014-01-01

This proposal addresses the assumptions underlying the "Science Wars" about the purpose of educational research. The author proposes a more modest "Lake Woebegon" approach to school reform that supports long-term professional education, a shift away from "Best Practices" to "Pretty Good Practices," low…

The Panopticon of Physical Education: Pretty, Active and Ideally White

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azzarito, Laura

2009-01-01

Background: Recently, a growing number of researchers have explored students' social construction of the body in school settings. Young peoples' construction of the body, inextricably linked to dominant cultural discourses of the mass media, bears upon their identity and physical activity participation choices. Purpose: This study employed a…

Wireless Takes Over

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korzeniowski, Paul

2008-01-01

After starting off as a simple way to provide users with access to internet resources, WiFi networks have evolved to become an important communications cornerstone for a growing number of academic institutions. Not only have colleges been working to make these networks available across their entire campuses (or at least pretty close to 100 percent…

West Africa

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

With its vast expanses of sand, framed by mountain ranges and exposed rock, northwestern Africa makes a pretty picture when viewed from above. This image was acquired by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft. The Canary Islands can be seen on the left side of the image just off Africa's Atlantic shore. The light brown expanse running through the northern two thirds of the image is the Sahara Desert. The desert runs up against the dark brown Haut Atlas mountain range of Morocco in the northwest, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the semi-arid (light brown pixels) Sahelian region in the South. The Sahara, however, isn't staying put. Since the 1960s, the desert has been expanding into the Sahelian region at a rate of up to 6 kilometers per year. In the 1980s this desert expansion, combined with over cultivation of the Sahel, caused a major famine across west Africa. Over the summer months, strong winds pick up sands from the Sahara and blow them across the Atlantic as far west as North America, causing air pollution in Miami and damaging coral reefs in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys. The white outlines on the map represent country borders. Starting at the top-most portion of the map and working clockwise, the countries shown are Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Fasso, Nigeria, Mali (again), and Algeria. Image by Reto Stockli, Robert Simmon, and Brian Montgomery, NASA Earth Observatory, based on data from MODIS

Fermilab Today

Science.gov Websites

swinging for a home run," said Run Coordinator Jim Morgan. "We knew we had a pretty good shot at . Every four to six stores we add them into the shot, that way we get more luminosity," Morgan said July 14 - July 16 - During this 48 hour period Operations established one store that combined with an

"Pretty Lights" and Maths! Increasing Student Engagement and Enhancing Learning through the Use of Electronic Voting Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Samuel O.; Robinson, Carol L.

2009-01-01

University classes in Mathematics are traditionally perceived to be uninspiring and devoid of active student-lecturer communication. Large undergraduate classes further compound the difficulty of engaging students and enabling viable student-lecturer feedback. At the Mathematics Education Centre, Loughborough University, some staff members have…

More than Just a Pretty (Inter) Face: The Role of the Graphical User Interface in Engaging Elearners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Metros, Susan E.; Hedberg, John G.

2002-01-01

Examines the relationship between the graphical user interface (GUI) and the cognitive demands placed on the learner in eLearning (electronic learning) environments. Describes ways educators can design appropriate interfaces to facilitate meaningful interactions with educational content; and examines learner engagement and engagement theory using…

Accessibility: Assistive Tech Goes Mainstream

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaffhauser, Dian

2013-01-01

The latest compilation from the US Department of Education (from 2010-2011) reports that about 13 percent of public school enrollment consists of students served by special education programs. That count has pretty much stayed the same for the past 13 years. What is different now is that, as technology pervades all aspects of the classroom,…

Designing Nature's Way

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Diane

2005-01-01

In the case of cars and other engineered objects, humans go about the design process in a very intentional way. They pretty much know what they are aiming for. The activity described in this article demonstrates how a computer can simulate biological evolution and the laws of natural selection. The article is divided into the following sections:…

Continuous Toxicological Dose-Response Relationships Are Pretty Homogeneous (Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting)

EPA Science Inventory

Dose-response relationships for a wide range of in vivo and in vitro continuous datasets are well-described by a four-parameter exponential or Hill model, based on a recent analysis of multiple historical dose-response datasets, mostly with more than five dose groups (Slob and Se...

Science 101: What Causes Severe Thunderstorms and Tornadoes?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robertson, Bill

2016-01-01

What causes severe thunderstorms and tornadoes? Tornadoes, often accompanied by severe thunderstorms and hail, form in pretty much the same way as severe thunderstorms. In the continental United States, tornadoes usually form in spring and summer, when warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico moves across the continent from southeast to northwest…

"Pretty Rad": Explorations in User Satisfaction with a Discovery Layer at Ryerson University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lundrigan, Courtney; Manuel, Kevin; Yan, May

2015-01-01

Web-scale discovery systems are becoming prevalent in research libraries. Although a number of studies have explored various impacts of discovery systems, few studies exist on user satisfaction. The investigators of this study evaluated user satisfaction with the discovery service Summon at Ryerson University, using online questionnaires and…

"Chaos Rules" Revisited

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, David

2011-01-01

About 20 years ago, while lost in the midst of his PhD research, the author mused over proposed titles for his thesis. He was pretty pleased with himself when he came up with "Chaos Rules" (the implied double meaning was deliberate), or more completely, "Chaos Rules: An Exploration of the Work of Instructional Designers in Distance Education." He…

Modified Cooper Harper Scales for Assessing Unmanned Vehicle Displays

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-12-01

Majesty accident in 1995. After about 35 hours in transit from Bermuda to Boston, the ship grounded on the Nantucket shoals (NTSB, 1995). Shortly after...see another robot – Which one is it? 28 18 Male Student 4 It was pretty simple to use but some symbols like the triangles seem unnecessary. It

Virtualize Me!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waters, John K.

2009-01-01

John Abdelmalak, director of technology for the School District of the Chathams, was pretty sure it was time to jump on the virtualization bandwagon last year when he invited Dell to conduct a readiness assessment of his district's servers. When he saw just how little of their capacity was being used, he lost all doubt. Abdelmalak is one of many…

Translations on Eastern Europe Political, Sociological, and Military Affairs, Number 1354

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-02-16

sheets, embroidery and uncomplicated items for en- terprises. The 8-year schools do not have production plans but they can boast about quite...well they handle the file and the chisel and how, from the skillful fingers of the girls, rich embroidery emerges; I look at the pretty little

Show Me the Green

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norbury, Keith

2013-01-01

Gone are the days when green campus initiatives were a balm to the soul and a drain on the wallet. Today's environmental initiatives are all about saving lots of green--in every sense of the word. The environmental benefits of green campus projects--whether wind turbines or better insulation--are pretty clear. Unfortunately, in today's…

Web life: ComplexityBlog.com

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2010-02-01

The site's homepage calls it "a repository of ideas and perspectives regarding the science, engineering and philosophy of complexity", and it pretty much does what it says on the tin. Part blog, part links archive, part library of modelling tips and tricks, the site is chock full of information that comes under the general heading of "complexity".

"Angels & Demons" May Help Physicists Explain What Matters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basken, Paul

2009-01-01

It's not every day that scientific researchers need to defend themselves against charges of destroying humanity. And yet a group of several dozen physicists associated with the Large Hadron Collider may be getting pretty good at it--and, at the same time, actively engaging in public education and debate in ways that university scientists have…

"Hiding in Plain Sight": An Interview with Cara Hoffman

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hosey, Sara

2014-01-01

Cara Hoffman's work enacts George Orwell's imperative to "pay attention to the obvious" (an idea that several sympathetic characters repeat in her 2011 novel "So Much Pretty"), probing aspects of twenty-first century life in the United States that have become so accepted as to be unremarkable, such as epidemic levels of…

Japan's Monroe Doctrine?: Re-Framing the Story of Pearl Harbor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murnane, John R.

2007-01-01

Ever since War Department propaganda films set the mold, historians have pretty much followed: the road to Pearl Harbor began in 1931 with Japanese aggression in Manchuria. Any "revision" regarding the War in the Pacific has its own set of problems--engendering controversy, often running up against patriotic sentiments and the tendency…

Body Image: It's Not Just About How You See Your Body

Cancer.gov

Let's be honest. As women, we can be pretty hard on ourselves, and we can be especially hard on how our bodies look. Having a negative body image can affect not only how you feel about yourself, but it can also keep you from living the life you want to have.

Exporting Acting Curricula from the Midwest to the Mideast: Seriously?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodworth, Ann E.

2014-01-01

Qatar can afford to purchase pretty much anything--including top-quality American university education. However, given the vast differences in culture, dress, religion, and social mores, along with youth's global unemployment rates and their hankering for all things technological, does it make sense for Qatar to import a course in acting? Many…

Teaching Machines to Think Fuzzy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Technology Teacher, 2004

2004-01-01

Fuzzy logic programs for computers make them more human. Computers can then think through messy situations and make smart decisions. It makes computers able to control things the way people do. Fuzzy logic has been used to control subway trains, elevators, washing machines, microwave ovens, and cars. Pretty much all the human has to do is push one…

Tagging cortical networks in emotion: a topographical analysis

PubMed Central

Keil, Andreas; Costa, Vincent; Smith, J. Carson; Sabatinelli, Dean; McGinnis, E. Menton; Bradley, Margaret M.; Lang, Peter J.

2013-01-01

Viewing emotional pictures is associated with heightened perception and attention, indexed by a relative increase in visual cortical activity. Visual cortical modulation by emotion is hypothesized to reflect re-entrant connectivity originating in higher-order cortical and/or limbic structures. The present study used dense-array electroencephalography and individual brain anatomy to investigate functional coupling between the visual cortex and other cortical areas during affective picture viewing. Participants viewed pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures that flickered at a rate of 10 Hz to evoke steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) in the EEG. The spectral power of ssVEPs was quantified using Fourier transform, and cortical sources were estimated using beamformer spatial filters based on individual structural magnetic resonance images. In addition to lower-tier visual cortex, a network of occipito-temporal and parietal (bilateral precuneus, inferior parietal lobules) structures showed enhanced ssVEP power when participants viewed emotional (either pleasant or unpleasant), compared to neutral pictures. Functional coupling during emotional processing was enhanced between the bilateral occipital poles and a network of temporal (left middle/inferior temporal gyrus), parietal (bilateral parietal lobules), and frontal (left middle/inferior frontal gyrus) structures. These results converge with findings from hemodynamic analyses of emotional picture viewing and suggest that viewing emotionally engaging stimuli is associated with the formation of functional links between visual cortex and the cortical regions underlying attention modulation and preparation for action. PMID:21954087

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia responses to induced emotional states: effects of RSA indices, emotion induction method, age, and sex.

PubMed

Overbeek, Thérèse J M; van Boxtel, Anton; Westerink, Joyce H D M

2012-09-01

The literature shows large inconsistencies in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) responses to induced emotional states. This may be caused by differences in emotion induction methods, RSA quantification, and non-emotional demands of the situation. In 83 healthy subjects, we studied RSA responses to pictures and film fragments eliciting six different discrete emotions relative to neutral baseline stimuli. RSA responses were quantified in the time and frequency domain and were additionally corrected for differences in mean heart rate and respiration rate, resulting in eight different RSA response measures. Subjective ratings of emotional stimuli and facial electromyographic responses indicated that pictures and film fragments elicited the intended emotions. Although RSA measures showed various emotional effects, responses were quite heterogeneous and frequently nonsignificant. They were substantially influenced by methodological factors, in particular time vs. frequency domain response measures, correction for changes in respiration rate, use of pictures vs. film fragments, and sex of participants. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Public Intellectuals in the New-Media Landscape

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenkins, Henry

2008-01-01

The author has what most people would agree is a pretty cool gig: he studies pop culture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which means he has written scholarly articles about "Star Trek" fans, video games, and pro wrestling, among other topics. He is also one of the directors of the institute's comparative-media-studies program, which…

Extra Dimensions of Space

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lincoln, Don

2013-01-01

They say that there is no such thing as a stupid question. In a pedagogically pure sense, that's probably true. But some questions do seem to flirt dangerously close to being really quite ridiculous. One such question might well be, "How many dimensions of space are there?" I mean, it's pretty obvious that there are three:…

Talking Sport and Fitness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dixon-Watmough, Rebecca; Keogh, Brenda; Naylor, Stuart

2012-01-01

For some time the Association for Science Education (ASE) has been aware that it would be useful to have some resources available to get children talking and thinking about issues related to health, sport and fitness. Some of the questions about pulse, breathing rate and so on are pretty obvious to everyone, and there is a risk of these being…

Are Pretty Interfaces Worth the Time? The Effects of User Interface Types on Web-Based Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheon, Jongpil; Grant, Michael M.

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of three different interface types on Web-based instruction: a text-based interface, a graphical interface and a metaphorical interface. In order to determine differences among three interface groups, we compared learning performance, cognitive load, usability, and appeal with various data…

In Defense of the Formula Essay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haluska, Jan Charles

2007-01-01

In 1970, the author learned a simple step in making essays from his advisor. His advisor used a drawing of the Parthenon to illustrate the creation of a five-paragraph essay. It was obvious that his advisor was hesitant on teaching them a very simple concept of essay writing because it was pretty mechanical. Like his advisor, a lot of teachers…

"It's Pretty Simple and in Greek …": Global and Local Languages in the Greek Corporate Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahili, Ifigenia

2014-01-01

Today's corporate world is in a state of flux. The globalisation of business activity and the escalating economic crises force even small/medium enterprises to become international. This impacts on the competitiveness, profitability and survival of organisations, and as a result the companies' recruitment strategies and language policies,…

Identity Crisis in Cormac McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gebreen, Hayder A. K.

2016-01-01

The issue of identity is one of the main issues that encounters man in each culture. Identity is a set of behaviors, emotions, and thought patterns which are unique to every individual that define him as a member of a certain group. Identity is shaped by race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, language, physical features, childhood experiences, sexual…

Clash! The World of Debate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azzam, Amy M.

2008-01-01

Debating has been around for a long time, with some pretty spectacular results. Look at Socrates, who was put to death in 399 BCE for corrupting the youth of Athens; his accusers could not forgive him for incessantly questioning their beliefs and making "the worse appear the better cause." More recently, debating has morphed into a sport for the…

Another year, another volume

Treesearch

Bill Block

2012-01-01

This issue represents the final one in volume 76 of Journal of Wildlife Management. As this one is pretty much in the books, one cannot help but wonder what the future holds for the journal. Lenny Brennan is putting together a piece for Wildlife Society Bulletin to examine how The Wildlife Society publications have changed through time. He solicited input from past and...

"Too Pretty to Do Math!" Young Women in Movement and Pedagogical Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graff, Ulrike

2013-01-01

The article points out some pedagogical challenges in supporting girls and young women in their emancipatory movements today. It spotlights a specific section in gender pedagogy by focusing on the aim of self-determination (rather than achievement) in the field of social-pedagogy and it refers to the concept of "girls work" in Germany. A…

Lawyer Up

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaffhauser, Dian

2012-01-01

Putting a CIO and a lawyer together in the same room may give one the start of a pretty decent joke, but it could also save an institution millions of dollars in legal fees. While the IT chief understands the systems that fall under the purview of compliance, the attorney is the go-to pessimist for identifying the "gotcha" elements when it comes…

The Potential and Promise of Latino Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gándara, Patricia

2017-01-01

By now, it is pretty much common knowledge that Latinos comprise the nation's largest minority group, both as a percentage of the population (17.6 percent) and as a percentage of school-age students (25 percent). That is, one in four K-12 students in the United States is Latino or Latina. While the related challenges are often overemphasized, the…

David Georgi's Cal Council Presidency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Georgi, David

2015-01-01

When the author was asked to write a mini-memoir about his time as Cal Council president, his first thought was "Now, when exactly was that?" He says that pretty much summarizes the quality of his memory these days. The author's first contact with the California Council on the Education of Teachers was back in the 1970s when the…

Practice Makes Pretty Good: Assessment of Primary Literature Reading Abilities across Multiple Large-Enrollment Biology Laboratory Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sato, Brian K.; Kadandale, Pavan; He, Wenliang; Murata, Paige M. N.; Latif, Yama; Warschauer, Mark

2014-01-01

Primary literature is essential for scientific communication and is commonly utilized in undergraduate biology education. Despite this, there is often little time spent "training" our students how to critically analyze a paper. To address this, we introduced a primary literature module in multiple upper-division laboratory courses. In…

In Search of the Next Value Proposition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huwe, Terence K.

2012-01-01

Although it is pretty easy to find colleagues who will express fatigue or frustration about the constant need for libraries to prove their value proposition, there is also an upside to the exercise of crafting a message that justifies librarians' mission. The catch is that however good their crafted message may be, they must forget about ever…

Best Practices: Pass the Poetry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bafumo, Mary Ellen

2005-01-01

Sharing poetry with your students will lead to a lifetime benefit of appreciating the written word If you're an early riser and listen to public radio, you've probably heard Garrison Keillor, the host of "Prairie Home Companion," sharing a reading from the latest edition of "Pretty Good Poems." Each poem invariably evokes a reaction; whether it's…

A Thai Tale: School Business Management beyond the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Ann

2012-01-01

The author is fairly familiar with the work dimensions of a business manager and has pretty much attended most of the professional development "how-to" sessions on everything from asset management to school budgets and beyond. When she thinks about what business managers do in schools and how much of what they do actually adds value, she…

"Pretty Much Fear!!" Rationalizing Teacher (Dis)Engagement in Social Justice Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baily, Supriya; Katradis, Maria

2016-01-01

This article analyzes how teachers in U.S. classrooms navigate, dialogue, debate, and absorb the ideas of privilege, power, and the presence of various forms of injustices. Through their understanding of these topics, we explore how K-12 teachers engage, disengage, and rationalize issues of social justice in education, society, and their own…

Keep Your Small Network Sailing Safely in Dangerous Waters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Semmelroth, Jim

2006-01-01

Asmall library's essential technical problem is that it has to chart a course through the technology shoals without a navigator on board. Small libraries in small towns often have a very low level of technical skill on staff. Furthermore, obtaining skilled technical support can frequently be pretty expensive. Even when one is available, a clever…

Publications - GMC 277 | Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical

Science.gov Websites

from the following: Shell Oil Company Kustatan Ridge #1, Shell Oil Company Middle River State #1 , Superior Oil Three Mile Creek State #1, Texas International Pet. Corp. Pretty Creek State #1 Authors reflectance analyses for Cook Inlet well cuttings from the following: Shell Oil Company Kustatan Ridge #1

Some Plain Thinking About Central America

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-01-01

iarger poi i,:y ,-,cjectiv’e. If. Low Intensity Conf] ict can be pretty intense. As in so many areas in I ire, ~here you stand deoenos in large Dart on...issue of Fqreign Service Journal, pp 22-28. 4. This conversation took place with COL Wes Ludwig in the locker room of the ist Brigade Gym , Ft Leonard

Eva & Rick's Incredible Journey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carner, Eva

2006-01-01

In 1982, the author became the foster mom to Rick, a small child who got a pretty rough start to life and an even rougher "pre" start. Rick's birth mother was addicted to alcohol and for most of his time in her womb she drank heavily. The author was a single, special education teacher, and worked with children with developmental…

The Development of Some Aspects of Quantifier Negation in Children. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development, Number 19.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iannucci, David; Dodd, David

Children in kindergarten and grades 2, 4, and 7, and a group of adults were asked to choose, from a series of paired pictures, which of each pair represented the situation described in a statement that contained an ambiguous negation. In all five sentence types represented, there was a gradual progression toward adult performance, but…

Facial detection using deep learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, Manik; Anuradha, J.; Manne, H. K.; Kashyap, G. S. C.

2017-11-01

In the recent past, we have observed that Facebook has developed an uncanny ability to recognize people in photographs. Previously, we had to tag people in photos by clicking on them and typing their name. Now as soon as we upload a photo, Facebook tags everyone on its own. Facebook can recognize faces with 98% accuracy which is pretty much as good as humans can do. This technology is called Face Detection. Face detection is a popular topic in biometrics. We have surveillance cameras in public places for video capture as well as security purposes. The main advantages of this algorithm over other are uniqueness and approval. We need speed and accuracy to identify. But face detection is really a series of several related problems: First, look at a picture and find all the faces in it. Second, focus on each face and understand that even if a face is turned in a weird direction or in bad lighting, it is still the same person. Third select features which can be used to identify each face uniquely like size of the eyes, face etc. Finally, compare these features to data we have to find the person name. As a human, your brain is wired to do all of this automatically and instantly. In fact, humans are too good at recognizing faces. Computers are not capable of this kind of high-level generalization, so we must teach them how to do each step in this process separately. The growth of face detection is largely driven by growing applications such as credit card verification, surveillance video images, authentication for banking and security system access.

Collecting and propagating the seeds of California wild plants

Treesearch

N.T. Mirov; C.J. Kraebel

1937-01-01

Not long ago the object of forestry was pretty generally considered to be the growing of timber, and forest planting was concerned almost exclusively with the planting of lumber producing trees. The text-books, it is true, have given increasing attention to the part played by ground-cover vegetation in forest ecology, but these discussions have rarely suggested the...

Science 101: How Do We Distinguish between Living and Nonliving Things?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robertson, Bill

2016-01-01

Since nearly every science curriculum in the country contains a section on living and non-living things, Bill Robertson believes that pretty much anyone who has taught the subject has run into difficulties. It seems as if no matter what criteria you use to distinguish between the two you can nearly always find exceptions. This article provides a…

"It's Pretty Cool to Be Clever": The Marginal Relevance of Gender to Educational Practices and Attainment at A/AS Level?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kettley, Nigel

2006-01-01

Gender differences in educational attainment have generated considerable debate. Unfortunately, this debate has been constructed in terms of either the measurement of change in the size of the gender gap over time or attempts to theorise such change. This scholarly divide reflects the commitment of researchers to particular methodological…

Colleges Should Reimagine Themselves in an Oil-Scarce World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlson, Scott

2008-01-01

Some years ago, bringing up peak oil--the concept that oil production will crest and then decline, leading to all sorts of trouble in society--might have made one seem like the kind of person who frequents Web sites that sell survival books and freeze-dried food. Today such discussion has pretty much hit the mainstream. Last month The Wall Street…

Dance and Literacy Hand in Hand: Using Uncommon Practices to Meet the Common Core

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Janet H.

2016-01-01

As a dance teacher in public elementary schools for the last 25 years, Janet Adams has always recognized the creative link between dance and writing, and offered her students structured opportunities to combine the two. She has also honed her management skills and kept a pretty tight ship. Creative expression, though, be it through dancing or…

"She Started to Get Pretty Concerned": Young Men's Relationships with Parents through Senior Schooling and Beyond

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nichols, Sue; Stahl, Garth

2017-01-01

The field of youth sociology has been challenged to reconsider the role of parenting in the lives of young adults. This paper presents a multiple-case study investigation into young men's transitions from school into further education in an Australian context. We will argue that relationships with parents are materially, socially and emotionally…

So That's Where We Came from! A Short History of Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gratto, Fred

2010-01-01

Working on a college campus is pretty special. There is always something fun going on, sporting events to watch, lots of interesting opportunities to help people, and the setting to do work that really matters. Colleges are complex organizations, so it is good to have a broad institutional perspective to better understand what people do and why…

Trial by Science: A Forensic Extravaganza

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunt, Vanessa

2004-01-01

"His handwriting checks out and his prints look pretty good. Move him to the top of the list," orders the 13-year-old captain. His co-detective makes appropriate procedural notes. "Bring the next one up. Get a foot measurement and let Andre print him before we talk." In another corner of the room, two girls administer a solemn oath to one of six…

Economy on the Minds of For Profit CEOs: Annual Status Report on For Profit Care

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neugebauer, Roger

2010-01-01

Considering how bad the economy was in 2009, North America's 50 largest for profit child care chains fared pretty well. In fact, about half of these organizations actually expanded their capacity in 2009--although the expansion was not spectacular, averaging just under 3%. About one-fourth of the organizations maintained their capacity and a…

Does Expertise or Pretty Please? The Influence of Attractiveness, Gender and Expertise on Children's Evaluations of Models in Advertisements.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lerma, Sheila; Downs, A. Chris

The extent to which children evaluated non-television advertisements differentially on the basis of performers' gender, expertise, and attractiveness was assessed. Participating were 56 girls and 47 boys attending first-, third-, and fifth-grade classes in Galveston, Texas. A total of 24 pairs of specially prepared advertisements were used as…

Master of Disaster: Paolo Bacigalupi's Dystopian Tales Are Infuriating, Disturbing, and Impossible to Put down

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carter, Betty

2011-01-01

This article presents an interview with Paolo Bacigalupi, a rising sci-fi star who has walked away with the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and, most recently, the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature--the Young Adult Library Services Association's top prize for prose. That's pretty impressive for a guy who's published…

At Yale, an Unlikely Champion for "The Building that Won't Go Away"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biemiller, Lawrence

2008-01-01

It is most surprising that Yale University is spending $126-million to renovate and add to a 1963 Modernist building that almost everyone has hated for decades. Aside from that, the project's champion is a high-society architect whose own career refutes pretty much the whole Modernist design theology. This article talks about the renovation of…

The Real Value of Teachers: If Good Teachers Matter, Why Don't We Act like It?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carey, Kevin

2009-01-01

Almost nobody, it seems, disputes the importance of effective teachers--including teachers themselves. However, principals actually do none of the things they do when they value something as highly as most people say they value good teachers. By looking at scores on year-end standardized tests by teachers, principals think they have a pretty good…

Turning Thinking on Its Head: How Bodies Make up Their Minds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Claxton, Guy

2012-01-01

The assumption that bodies have little to do with thinking--other than to be the vehicle that gets a mind to a classroom--deeply underpins the traditional model of schooling. Lessons and seminars are designed on the premise that thinking happens best when people are pretty still, their bodies are quiet and undemanding of attention, and they are…

"It May Not Be Pretty, but It's Honest": Examining Parental Grief on the Callapitter Blog

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeGroot, Jocelyn M.; Carmack, Heather J.

2013-01-01

Following the death of a child, parents are turning to alternative means of communication to express their grief. In this instrumental case study, the authors explore how 1 woman, Amy Ambrusko, communicates her grief experience on her blog, emotionally negotiating loss and parental grief. Guided by M. S. Miles's (1984) parental grief model, the…

Educating School Leaders to Think and Act Both Locally and Globally

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Townsend, Tony

2010-01-01

It is clear that school leaders recognize that there has been substantial change in the types of technology available to young people today, most of which adults feel less comfortable about than they do. However, when they are probed further, they come to recognize that it is not just technology that has changed, but pretty much everything else…

Horace Poolaw: Photographer, Mentor, Grandfather

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poolaw, Thomas

2011-01-01

There are at least 2,000 silver nitrate negatives in the Horace Poolaw collection, and as many stories to go along with them. If you begin to talk about one image, it leads from that story to the next, and the next, and pretty soon two or three hours have gone by. Rather than discussing in detail the images in the Horace Poolaw collection, the…

Maniac Talk - Paul Newman

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-02-25

Paul Newman Maniac Lecture, February 25, 2015 NASA climate scientist Dr. Paul Newman presented a Maniac Talk entitled "Some pretty good rules for a career: Newman's own lessons." Paul traced his journey from middle of Seattle, where he grew up, moved to rural Iowa for graduate school, and made his way to NASA/GSFC in 1984, and discussed lessons to be learned from the ozone depletion story.

Leading into the Future: Perceptions of School Board Presidents on the Essential Knowledge and Skills for Superintendent Preparation Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tripses, Jenny; Hunt, John; Kim, JoHyun; Watkins, Sandra

2015-01-01

Reports in the media on American public schools are pretty dismal. Accountability measures enacted with the passing of the No Child Left Behind Law of 2002 include federal and state sanctions for school districts not making adequate yearly progress on state assessments. Typically these results are published locally, which only increases the…

American Academic: A National Survey of Part-time/Adjunct Faculty. Volume 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Federation of Teachers (NJ), 2010

2010-01-01

Plainly, part-time/adjunct faculty members now play a vital role in educating the nation's college students. Even so, the data and research on part-time/adjunct faculty members have tended to be pretty spotty. This survey, conducted by Hart Research Associates on behalf of the American Federation of Teachers, is one of the first nationwide…

"Boys Like Smart Girls More than Pretty Girls": Young Korean Immigrant Girls' Understanding of Romantic Love in American Popular Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Lena

2009-01-01

Despite the importance of understanding children's interpretations of popular culture in the United States, young children's voices have not been sufficiently explored in studies. Moreover, the perspectives of American immigrant children hardly have a presence in studies of popular culture. Thus, this paper explores how young immigrant children…

Society for College Science Teachers: Putting Inquiry Teaching to the Test--Enhancing Learning in College Botany

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lord, Thomas; Shelly, Chad; Zimmerman, Rachel

2007-01-01

Can you imagine a class where students cover the content with each other rather than simply listening to the professor's lecture? Can you envision students developing their own laboratory investigations and quizzing each other weekly to check for understanding? Well, that's pretty much how the major science organizations across the nation are…

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) modulation of picture naming and word reading: A meta-analysis of single session tDCS applied to healthy participants.

PubMed

Westwood, Samuel J; Romani, Cristina

2017-09-01

Recent reviews quantifying the effects of single sessions of transcranial direct current stimulation (or tDCS) in healthy volunteers find only minor effects on cognition despite the popularity of this technique. Here, we wanted to quantify the effects of tDCS on language production tasks that measure word reading and picture naming. We reviewed 14 papers measuring tDCS effects across a total of 96 conditions to a) quantify effects of conventional stimulation on language regions (i.e., left hemisphere anodal tDCS administered to temporal/frontal areas) under normal conditions or under conditions of cognitive (semantic) interference; b) identify parameters which may moderate the size of the tDCS effect within conventional stimulation protocols (e.g., online vs offline, high vs. low current densities, and short vs. long durations), as well as within types of stimulation not typically explored by previous reviews (i.e., right hemisphere anodal tDCS or left/right hemisphere cathodal tDCS). In all analyses there was no significant effect of tDCS, but we did find a small but significant effect of time and duration of stimulation with stronger effects for offline stimulation and for shorter durations (< 15min). We also found some indication of publication bias towards reporting positive effects. We encourage further experimentation in order resolve the disparity between the current popularity of tDCS and its poor efficacy in healthy participants. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

A novel Heart Rate Variability analysis using Lagged Poincaré plot: A study on hedonic visual elicitation.

PubMed

Nardelli, M; Greco, A; Valenza, G; Lanata, A; Bailon, R; Scilingo, E P

2017-07-01

This paper reports on a novel method for the analysis of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) through Lagged Poincaré Plot (LPP) theory. Specifically a hybrid method, LPP symb , including LPP quantifiers and related symbolic dynamics was proposed. LPP has been applied to investigate the autonomic response to pleasant and unpleasant pictures extracted from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). IAPS pictures are standardized in terms of level of arousal, i.e. the intensity of the evoked emotion, and valence, i.e. the level of pleasantness/unpleasantness, according to the Circumplex model of Affects (CMA). Twenty-two healthy subjects were enrolled in the experiment, which comprised four sessions with increasing arousal level. Within each session valence increased from positive to negative. An ad-hoc pattern recognition algorithm using a Leave-One-Subject-Out (LOSO) procedure based on a Quadratic Discriminant Classifier (QDC) was implemented. Our pattern recognition system was able to classify pleasant and unpleasant sessions with an accuracy of 71.59%. Therefore, we can suggest the use of the LPP symb for emotion recognition.

Experimental analysis of in plane shear behaviour of woven composite reinforcements. Influence of tensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Launay, Jean; Hivet, Gilles; Vu Duong, Ahn; Boisse, Philippe

2007-04-01

Two tests are mainly used to identify the shear behavior of fabrics. The "picture frame" which uses a lozenge framework made of four rigid and articulated bars and the "bias test" which is a tensile test on a sample with initially a 45° angle between the yarns and the edges. The picture frame test is the more commonly used because the whole specimen is theoretically in a pure shear state. Nevertheless the absence of tension in the woven reinforcement supposes a perfect alignment of fibres and positioning of the clamping point with regards to the framework articulations. In addition, it is often necessary in practice to impose an initial tension which is not quantified and whose consequences are ignored in the classical picture frame test. An experimental device making it possible to measure the tensions during the test is carried out. Different types of teste on different fabrics have been performed. Results presented here concern a twintex fabric that has been selected for a shear benchmark Thanks to this device, it is shown that tensions play an important role in plane shear behaviour.

Effect of hearing loss on semantic access by auditory and audiovisual speech in children.

PubMed

Jerger, Susan; Tye-Murray, Nancy; Damian, Markus F; Abdi, Hervé

2013-01-01

This research studied whether the mode of input (auditory versus audiovisual) influenced semantic access by speech in children with sensorineural hearing impairment (HI). Participants, 31 children with HI and 62 children with normal hearing (NH), were tested with the authors' new multimodal picture word task. Children were instructed to name pictures displayed on a monitor and ignore auditory or audiovisual speech distractors. The semantic content of the distractors was varied to be related versus unrelated to the pictures (e.g., picture distractor of dog-bear versus dog-cheese, respectively). In children with NH, picture-naming times were slower in the presence of semantically related distractors. This slowing, called semantic interference, is attributed to the meaning-related picture-distractor entries competing for selection and control of the response (the lexical selection by competition hypothesis). Recently, a modification of the lexical selection by competition hypothesis, called the competition threshold (CT) hypothesis, proposed that (1) the competition between the picture-distractor entries is determined by a threshold, and (2) distractors with experimentally reduced fidelity cannot reach the CT. Thus, semantically related distractors with reduced fidelity do not produce the normal interference effect, but instead no effect or semantic facilitation (faster picture naming times for semantically related versus unrelated distractors). Facilitation occurs because the activation level of the semantically related distractor with reduced fidelity (1) is not sufficient to exceed the CT and produce interference but (2) is sufficient to activate its concept, which then strengthens the activation of the picture and facilitates naming. This research investigated whether the proposals of the CT hypothesis generalize to the auditory domain, to the natural degradation of speech due to HI, and to participants who are children. Our multimodal picture word task allowed us to (1) quantify picture naming results in the presence of auditory speech distractors and (2) probe whether the addition of visual speech enriched the fidelity of the auditory input sufficiently to influence results. In the HI group, the auditory distractors produced no effect or a facilitative effect, in agreement with proposals of the CT hypothesis. In contrast, the audiovisual distractors produced the normal semantic interference effect. Results in the HI versus NH groups differed significantly for the auditory mode, but not for the audiovisual mode. This research indicates that the lower fidelity auditory speech associated with HI affects the normalcy of semantic access by children. Further, adding visual speech enriches the lower fidelity auditory input sufficiently to produce the semantic interference effect typical of children with NH.

So Long Primary School Science, and Thanks for All the Fun

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stringer, John

2010-01-01

The author looks at the future of primary science, and is not encouraged. It's pretty much all over for science in primary schools. One only has to look at the poor showing on the stands at January's ASE Annual Conference to see that it is no longer a publishing priority. Eroded by falling status, undermined by national strategies, and finally put…

The Laser Accessory Market

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Desai, Ashvin

1988-09-01

Wandering through the exhibit hall yesterday, I noticed that if you look at the laser companies and if you look at the accessory companies, there are pretty much the same number of accessory booths as well as the laser companies. There was one difference. Laser company booths are all sexy looking, very flashy, big booths. Whereas if you look at the accessories booths, they were small, not so prominent.

"I Guess It Was Pretty Fun": Using WebQuests in the Middle School Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lipscomb, George

2003-01-01

Notes that the WebQuest helps students harness the vast amount of on-line resources available. Presents a list of 10 suggestions that may help teachers unfamiliar with WebQuests, especially those in the history classroom, to use them more effectively. Concludes that students learned a great deal about the Civil War by doing the WebQuest, and the…

All about Plant Pollination: Fruit, Flowers & Seeds. Plant Life for Children[TM]. Schlessinger Science Library. [Videotape].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

2000

Flowers are not only pretty, they are also one of the key elements in the process of plant pollination and reproduction that goes from flowers to fruits to seeds! In All About Plant Pollination: Fruit, Flowers & Seeds, young scientists learn about the different parts of a flower through the use of microscopic photography and detailed diagrams.…

By the Numbers: Expedition 53

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-15

If there’s one thing we at NASA love more than acronyms, it’s numbers—we count pretty much everything. Now that the International Space Station’s Expedition 53 has concluded, we gathered up a few of the pertinent numbers to put this mission in perspective. _______________________________________ FOLLOW THE SPACE STATION! Twitter: https://twitter.com/Space_Station Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ISS Instagram: https://instagram.com/iss/

Journey to Library 2.0: One Library Trains Staff on the Social Tools Users Employ

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hastings, Robin

2007-01-01

In December 2006, the Missouri River Regional Library (MRRL) in Jefferson City, embarked on a journey. They had been watching the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County (PLCMC), NC, on its adventure through the wilds of Web 2.0, and they decided to follow the trail it had blazed. What PLCMC had done was pretty revolutionary. The library…

ChipScope: Actually, That Funny Way of Looking at It Works Pretty Well

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leander, Kevin M.

2014-01-01

In this article, the author describes and reflects on a kind of vision that is unique to Bertram C. ("Chip") Bruce. This "funny way of looking at it" includes a way of seeing the world as it is made in myriad connections, a way of seeing the world imaginatively and metaphorically, and a way of seeing the world with optimism and…

Selective inhibition and naming performance in semantic blocking, picture-word interference, and color-word Stroop tasks.

PubMed

Shao, Zeshu; Roelofs, Ardi; Martin, Randi C; Meyer, Antje S

2015-11-01

In 2 studies, we examined whether explicit distractors are necessary and sufficient to evoke selective inhibition in 3 naming tasks: the semantic blocking, picture-word interference, and color-word Stroop task. Delta plots were used to quantify the size of the interference effects as a function of reaction time (RT). Selective inhibition was operationalized as the decrease in the size of the interference effect as a function of naming RT. For all naming tasks, mean naming RTs were significantly longer in the interference condition than in the control condition. The slopes of the interference effects for the longest naming RTs correlated with the magnitude of the mean interference effect in both the semantic blocking task and the picture-word interference task, suggesting that selective inhibition was involved to reduce the interference from strong semantic competitors either invoked by a single explicit competitor or strong implicit competitors in picture naming. However, there was no correlation between the slopes and the mean interference effect in the Stroop task, suggesting less importance of selective inhibition in this task despite explicit distractors. Whereas the results of the semantic blocking task suggest that an explicit distractor is not necessary for triggering inhibition, the results of the Stroop task suggest that such a distractor is not sufficient for evoking inhibition either. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Reasoning from Incomplete Knowledge

DTIC Science & Technology

1975-03-01

control , and the copulation explosion. T Why didn’t that haonen in Siberia? S Yeah, there’s probably a pretty stronq interaction between the birth ...some parts are predominantly Hindu but most I think is Moslem. Neither of those sects are particularly strong on birth control . Climate differences...the West Coast, birth control from China, climate and food supplies from the difference between Siberia and China, soil and terrain (the latter was

Pretty as a Princess: Longitudinal Effects of Engagement with Disney Princesses on Gender Stereotypes, Body Esteem, and Prosocial Behavior in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coyne, Sarah M.; Linder, Jennifer Ruh; Rasmussen, Eric E.; Nelson, David A.; Birkbeck, Victoria

2016-01-01

This study examined level of engagement with Disney Princess media/products as it relates to gender-stereotypical behavior, body esteem (i.e. body image), and prosocial behavior during early childhood. Participants consisted of 198 children (M[subscript age] = 58 months), who were tested at two time points (approximately 1 year apart). Data…

The Selling of "A Prairie Home Companion": Recasting Reality and Marketing a Myth? or, Recasting a Myth and Marketing Reality?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fine, Marlene G.

The mythical community of Lake Wobegon, created by Garrison Keillor and presented each week through the public radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," is the place to which everyone wants to return. A town devoid of newfangled technology, where life goes on pretty much as it always has, Lake Wobegon offers respite to listeners who daily…

Going beyond Google for Faster and Smarter Web Searching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vine, Rita

2004-01-01

With more than 4 billion web pages in its database, Google is suitable for many different kinds of searches. When you know what you are looking for, Google can be a pretty good first choice, as long as you want to search a word pattern that can be expected to appear on any results pages. The problem starts when you don't know exactly what you're…

Posters that foster cognition in the classroom: Multimedia theory applied to educational posters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hubenthal, M.; O'Brien, T.; Taber, J.

2011-12-01

Despite a decline in popularity within U.S. society, posters continue to hold a prominent place within middle and high school science classrooms. Teachers' demand for posters is largely satisfied by governmental and non-profit science organizations' education and public outreach (EPO) efforts. Here, posters are produced and disseminated as both tangible products resulting from the organization's research, and instruments to communicate scientific content to teachers and students. This study investigates the taken-for-granted good of posters through a survey/interview of science teachers who received sample posters at professional development workshops. The design of sample EPO posters were also examined for their implied, underlying assumptions about learning and their alignment to the setting of the classroom, which is unique for the genera of posters. Based on this analysis we found that rates of poster use were as low as 43% and that many EPO posters fail to achieve their potential as an instructional instrument. As a result, many EPO posters are relegated to merely a collection of pretty pictures on the wall. Leveraging existing research in both cognition and the cognitive theory of Multimedia learning, we propose a design framework for educational posters that is likely to activate students' attention, catalyze cognitive processing, provide a framework to guide students' construction of knowledge, and connect to extended learning through live or web-based exploration of phenomenon. While work to examine the implications of this framework is still on-going, we present a prototype poster and supporting website developed using the framework as a guide, as well as results from focus group discussions with classroom practitioners regarding the prototype poster and its potential in the classroom.

Validation Metrics for Improving Our Understanding of Turbulent Transport - Moving Beyond Proof by Pretty Picture and Loud Assertion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holland, C.

2013-10-01

Developing validated models of plasma dynamics is essential for confident predictive modeling of current and future fusion devices. This tutorial will present an overview of the key guiding principles and practices for state-of-the-art validation studies, illustrated using examples from investigations of turbulent transport in magnetically confined plasmas. The primary focus of the talk will be the development of quantiatve validation metrics, which are essential for moving beyond qualitative and subjective assessments of model performance and fidelity. Particular emphasis and discussion is given to (i) the need for utilizing synthetic diagnostics to enable quantitatively meaningful comparisons between simulation and experiment, and (ii) the importance of robust uncertainty quantification and its inclusion within the metrics. To illustrate these concepts, we first review the structure and key insights gained from commonly used ``global'' transport model metrics (e.g. predictions of incremental stored energy or radially-averaged temperature), as well as their limitations. Building upon these results, a new form of turbulent transport metrics is then proposed, which focuses upon comparisons of predicted local gradients and fluctuation characteristics against observation. We demonstrate the utility of these metrics by applying them to simulations and modeling of a newly developed ``validation database'' derived from the results of a systematic, multi-year turbulent transport validation campaign on the DIII-D tokamak, in which comprehensive profile and fluctuation measurements have been obtained from a wide variety of heating and confinement scenarios. Finally, we discuss extensions of these metrics and their underlying design concepts to other areas of plasma confinement research, including both magnetohydrodynamic stability and integrated scenario modeling. Supported by the US DOE under DE-FG02-07ER54917 and DE-FC02-08ER54977.

Open source software and low cost sensors for teaching UAV science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kefauver, S. C.; Sanchez-Bragado, R.; El-Haddad, G.; Araus, J. L.

2016-12-01

Drones, also known as UASs (unmanned aerial systems), UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or RPAS (Remotely piloted aircraft systems), are both useful advanced scientific platforms and recreational toys that are appealing to younger generations. As such, they can make for excellent education tools as well as low-cost scientific research project alternatives. However, the process of taking pretty pictures to remote sensing science can be daunting if one is presented with only expensive software and sensor options. There are a number of open-source tools and low cost platform and sensor options available that can provide excellent scientific research results, and, by often requiring more user-involvement than commercial software and sensors, provide even greater educational benefits. Scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm implementations, such as the Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE), which can create quality 2D image mosaics with some motion and terrain adjustments and VisualSFM (Structure from Motion), which can provide full image mosaicking with movement and orthorectification capacities. RGB image quantification using alternate color space transforms, such as the BreedPix indices, can be calculated via plugins in the open-source software Fiji (http://fiji.sc/Fiji; http://github.com/george-haddad/CIMMYT). Recent analyses of aerial images from UAVs over different vegetation types and environments have shown RGB metrics can outperform more costly commercial sensors. Specifically, Hue-based pixel counts, the Triangle Greenness Index (TGI), and the Normalized Green Red Difference Index (NGRDI) consistently outperformed NDVI in estimating abiotic and biotic stress impacts on crop health. Also, simple kits are available for NDVI camera conversions. Furthermore, suggestions for multivariate analyses of the different RGB indices in the "R program for statistical computing", such as classification and regression trees can allow for a more approachable interpretation of results in the classroom.

Does it matter how you ask? Self-reported emotions to depictions of need-of-help and social context.

PubMed

Brielmann, Aenne A; Stolarova, Margarita

2015-01-01

When humans observe other people's emotions they not only can relate but also experience similar affective states. This capability is seen as a precondition for helping and other prosocial behaviors. Our study aims to quantify the influence of help-related picture content on subjectively experienced affect. It also assesses the impact of different scales on the way people rate their emotional state. The participants (N=242) of this study were shown stimuli with help-related content. In the first subset, half the drawings depicted a child or a bird needing help to reach a simple goal. The other drawings depicted situations where the goal was achieved. The second subset showed adults either actively helping a child or as passive bystanders. We created control conditions by including pictures of the adults on their own. Participants were asked to report their affective responses to the stimuli using two types of 9-point scales. For one half of the pictures, scales of arousal (calm to excited) and of bipolar valence (unhappy to happy) were employed; for the other half, unipolar scales of pleasantness and unpleasantness (strong to absent) were used. Even non-dramatic depictions of simple need-of-help situations were rated systematically lower in valence, higher in arousal, less pleasant and more unpleasant than corresponding pictures with the child or bird not needing help. The presence of a child and adult together increased pleasantness ratings compared to pictures in which they were depicted alone. Arousal was lower for pictures showing only an adult than for those including a child. Depictions of active helping were rated similarly to pictures showing a passive adult bystander, when the need-of-help was resolved. Aggregated unipolar pleasantness and unpleasantness ratings accounted well for arousal and even better for bipolar valence ratings and for content effects on them. This is the first study to report upon the meaningful impact of harmless need-of-help content on self-reported emotional experience. It provides the basis for further investigating the links between subjective emotional experience and active prosocial behavior. It also builds upon recent findings on the correspondence between emotional ratings on bipolar and unipolar scales.

Ex vivo method to visualize and quantify vascular networks in native and tissue engineered skin.

PubMed

Egaña, José Tomás; Condurache, Alexandru; Lohmeyer, Jörn Andreas; Kremer, Mathias; Stöckelhuber, Beate M; Lavandero, Sergio; Machens, Hans-Günther

2009-03-01

Neovascularization plays a pivotal role in tissue engineering and tissue regeneration. However, reliable technologies to visualize and quantify blood vessel networks in target tissue areas are still pending. In this work, we introduce a new method which allows comparing vascularization levels in normal and tissue-engineered skin. Normal skin was isolated, and vascular dermal regeneration was analyzed based on tissue transillumination and computerized digital segmentation. For tissue-engineered skin, a bilateral full skin defect was created in a nude mouse model and then covered with a commercially available scaffold for dermal regeneration. After 3 weeks, the whole skin (including scaffold for dermal regeneration) was harvested, and vascularization levels were analyzed. The blood vessel network in the skin was better visualized by transillumination than by radio-angiographic studies, the gold standard for angiographies. After visualization, the whole vascular network was digitally segmented showing an excellent overlapping with the original pictures. Quantification over the digitally segmented picture was performed, and an index of vascularization area (VAI) and length (VLI) of the vessel network was obtained in target tissues. VAI/VLI ratio was calculated to obtain the vessel size index. We present a new technique which has several advantages compared to others, as animals do not require intravascular perfusions, total areas of interest can be quantitatively analyzed at once, and the same target tissue can be processed for further experimental analysis.

Photosynthetic Reaction Centers as Active Molecular Electronic Components. Phase I

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-08-13

lauryl dimethylarnine oxide (LDAO). This is followed by final purification by ion-exchange chromatography. Typical media are DEAE-Sephacel with an...should be less then 0.5 ml. Phenol extract two or three times and ethanol precipitate. Note: sulfates from the agarose inhibiting ligase reactions and...transformations was once a concern. Presently agarose from most sources is pretty sulfate free (BioRad is good in this respect and FMC claims that it is

Using Novels as Bases for Case Studies: Michael Crichton's State of Fear and Global Warming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herreid, Clyde Freeman

2005-01-01

Every time an English professor assigns a novel, poem, or play for a class to analyze, he or she is using the case study method. Why shouldn't scientists do the same? They don't always have to write their own material. After all, there are some pretty good writers out there, and some of them actually slip a lot of science into the nooks and…

"I've Had a Pretty Tough Life but That's Not Why I Do This": Narratives of Autonomy and Control among Alcohol and Drug Service-Engaged Early Teenagers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacLean, Sarah J.; Bruun, Andrew; Mallett, Shelley

2013-01-01

The provision of alcohol and other drug (AOD) programmes in Australia targeting a broad age range of young people may inadvertently obscure the particular service needs of early teenagers. In this study, we describe four main accounts of substance use identified through interviews with 20 AOD service-engaged participants in Victoria, aged from 13…

[Knowledge of occupational risk in IRCCS of Neurosciences].

PubMed

Paladino, G; Giuliano, G; Monaco, S; Ottenga, F; Cristaudo, A; Guidi, M; Serretti, N; Talini, D

2002-01-01

A Professional Multicentric Audit, concerning Staff knowledge level about security on workplaces, was conducted by way of a standardized questionnaire given to 1022 (26.4%) IRCCS professional staff pertaining to Neurobiology. Four were the principal tasks of the questionnaire investigating the "sensibility" and "consciousness" concerning risk prevention on workplaces. It came out that there is a great variability in the knowledge level on this field, even if the "medium value" is "pretty good".

SOME IS NOT ENOUGH: QUANTIFIER COMPREHENSION IN CORTICOBASAL SYNDROME AND BEHAVIORAL VARIANT FRONTOTEMPORAL DEMENTIA

PubMed Central

Morgan, Brianna; Gross, Rachel; Clark, Robin; Dreyfuss, Michael; Boller, Ashley; Camp, Emily; Liang, Tsao-Wei; Avants, Brian; McMillan, Corey; Grossman, Murray

2011-01-01

Quantifiers are very common in everyday speech, but we know little about their cognitive basis or neural representation. The present study examined comprehension of three classes of quantifiers that depend on different cognitive components in patients with focal neurodegenerative diseases. Patients evaluated the truth-value of a sentence containing a quantifier relative to a picture illustrating a small number of familiar objects, and performance was related to MRI grey matter atrophy using voxel-based morphometry. We found that patients with corticobasal syndrome (CBS) and posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) are significantly impaired in their comprehension of Cardinal Quantifiers (e.g. “At least three birds are on the branch”), due in part to their deficit in quantity knowledge. MRI analyses related this deficit to temporal-parietal atrophy found in CBS/PCA. We also found that patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) are significantly impaired in their comprehension of Logical Quantifiers (e.g. “Some the birds are on the branch”), associated with a simple form of perceptual logic, and this correlated with their deficit on executive measures. This deficit was related to disease in rostral prefrontal cortex in bvFTD. These patients were also impaired in their comprehension of Majority Quantifiers (e.g. “At least half of the birds are on the branch”), and this too was correlated with their deficit on executive measures. This was related to disease in the basal ganglia interrupting a frontal-striatal loop critical for executive functioning. These findings suggest that a large-scale frontal-parietal neural network plays a crucial role in quantifier comprehension, and that comprehension of specific classes of quantifiers may be selectively impaired in patients with focal neurodegenerative conditions in these areas. PMID:21930136

Maybe Some Big Ground Shakes One Hundred Years Ago in a Big State Near the Ocean Were Caused by People

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hough, S. E.; Tsai, V. C.; Walker, R.; Page, M. T.; Aminzadeh, F.

2016-12-01

Sometimes people put water deep into the ground to make it go away and sometimes this causes the ground to shake. Sometimes people take other stuff out of the ground because a lot of people buy this stuff to power cars. Usually when people take this stuff out of the ground it does not cause ground shakes. At least this is what we used to believe. For our study, we looked at ground shakes that caused houses to fall down almost 100 years ago in a big state near the water. They were large ground shakes. One was close to a big city where people make movies and one was a really big shake in another city in the same state. We asked the question, is it possible that these ground shakes happened because people took stuff out of the ground? We considered the places where the ground shakes happened and the places where people took a lot of stuff out of the ground. We show there is a pretty good chance that taking stuff out of the ground caused some pretty big ground shakes. We explain how ground shakes can happen when people take stuff out of the ground. Ground shakes happen on things called faults. When you take stuff out of the ground, usually that makes it harder for the fault to move. This is a good thing. But when the stuff is still deep under the ground, sometimes it also pushes against faults that are close by and helps keep them from moving. So when you take stuff out, it does not push on faults as much, and so sometimes that close-by fault can move and cause ground shakes. We use a computer to show that our idea can explain some of what we see. The idea is not perfect but we think it is a pretty good idea. Our idea explains why it does not usually cause ground shakes when people take stuff out of the ground, but sometimes big ground shakes happen. Our idea suggests that ground shakes caused by people can sometimes be very large. So if people take stuff out of the ground or put stuff in the ground, they need to know if there are faults close by.

Navy LPD-17 Amphibious Ship Procurement: Background, Issues, and Options for Congress

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-06-04

and Options for Congress 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e . TASK NUMBER 5f...context of the best balance of the force overall. “While we agree on requirements—and the Navy and Marine Corps are pretty aligned on that—we have to...sequence and application of lessons learned for follow-on vessels in these programs

National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-05-01

future. A second “wild card” is the ability of the ocean to adapt to increased acidification . The oceans are the world’s largest carbon “sinks,” as they...support systems The projected impacts of climate change—heat waves, intense rainfall, floods and droughts, rising sea levels, more acidic oceans , and...and they had never seen this. That, to me, was pretty profound.” Titley and other scientists say overall ocean temperatures have responded more

East Europe Report, Political, Sociological and Military Affairs

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-09-28

works it promoted (and when I write this I am thinking of the great Eminescu creations set to mu- sic, the pretty composition to the verses of Bacovia...about 141,345 per year; the vocational schools (including apprenticeship at the workplace), together with the technical schools , those for postsecondary...has been shown in order to counter any eventual criticism better. "At the same time I think it is necessary to state that the presentation of the

The Disorderly, Undisciplined State of the Good Order and Discipline Term

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-02-16

martial purpose for eons—trumpets did a pretty good job for Joshua and the Israelites at the battle of Jericho—so too has military justice served...and proposed military justice reforms. They observe that the military opposed the opening of military opportunities to racial minorities, women and... women , and troops could still be fired if they were discovered to be gay or lesbian. All of these changes in military policy took place against the

Sociopathic Knowledge Bases: Correct Knowledge Can Be Harmful Even Given Unlimited Computation

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-08-01

pobitive, as false positives generated by a medical program can often be caught by a physician upon further testing . False negatives, however, may be...improvement over the knowledge base tested is obtained. Although our work is pretty much theoretical research oriented one example of ex- periments is...knowledge base, improves the performance by about 10%. of tests . First, we divide the cases into a training set and a validation set with 70% vs. 30% each

Findings and Recommendations Based on Two Reports on Insights into the Role of Women in South Viet Nam

DTIC Science & Technology

1967-04-01

formerly called for training in fine embroidery , in music, in running a household efficiently yet maintaining a good deal of -6- personal charm. This...institutions ... ... 2 Sewing or embroidery ... ... ...... ... ... 2 Weaving cloth (cottage industry) ... ... ... ... 1 Agriculture (raising fish...8217.-oman, but she should have less education than my son. She should know how to sew, do pretty embroidery ; she should manage the house and know how to

7 Key Challenges for Visualization in Cyber Network Defense

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

Best, Daniel M.; Endert, Alexander; Kidwell, Dan

In this paper we present seven challenges, informed by two user studies, to be considered when developing a visualization for cyber security purposes. Cyber security visualizations must go beyond isolated solutions and “pretty picture” visualizations in order to make impact to users. We provide an example prototype that addresses the challenges with a description of how they are met. Our aim is to assist in increasing utility and adoption rates for visualization capabilities in cyber security.

Automatic attention to emotional stimuli: neural correlates.

PubMed

Carretié, Luis; Hinojosa, José A; Martín-Loeches, Manuel; Mercado, Francisco; Tapia, Manuel

2004-08-01

We investigated the capability of emotional and nonemotional visual stimulation to capture automatic attention, an aspect of the interaction between cognitive and emotional processes that has received scant attention from researchers. Event-related potentials were recorded from 37 subjects using a 60-electrode array, and were submitted to temporal and spatial principal component analyses to detect and quantify the main components, and to source localization software (LORETA) to determine their spatial origin. Stimuli capturing automatic attention were of three types: emotionally positive, emotionally negative, and nonemotional pictures. Results suggest that initially (P1: 105 msec after stimulus), automatic attention is captured by negative pictures, and not by positive or nonemotional ones. Later (P2: 180 msec), automatic attention remains captured by negative pictures, but also by positive ones. Finally (N2: 240 msec), attention is captured only by positive and nonemotional stimuli. Anatomically, this sequence is characterized by decreasing activation of the visual association cortex (VAC) and by the growing involvement, from dorsal to ventral areas, of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Analyses suggest that the ACC and not the VAC is responsible for experimental effects described above. Intensity, latency, and location of neural activity related to automatic attention thus depend clearly on the stimulus emotional content and on its associated biological importance. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

MM-MDS: a multidimensional scaling database with similarity ratings for 240 object categories from the Massive Memory picture database.

PubMed

Hout, Michael C; Goldinger, Stephen D; Brady, Kyle J

2014-01-01

Cognitive theories in visual attention and perception, categorization, and memory often critically rely on concepts of similarity among objects, and empirically require measures of "sameness" among their stimuli. For instance, a researcher may require similarity estimates among multiple exemplars of a target category in visual search, or targets and lures in recognition memory. Quantifying similarity, however, is challenging when everyday items are the desired stimulus set, particularly when researchers require several different pictures from the same category. In this article, we document a new multidimensional scaling database with similarity ratings for 240 categories, each containing color photographs of 16-17 exemplar objects. We collected similarity ratings using the spatial arrangement method. Reports include: the multidimensional scaling solutions for each category, up to five dimensions, stress and fit measures, coordinate locations for each stimulus, and two new classifications. For each picture, we categorized the item's prototypicality, indexed by its proximity to other items in the space. We also classified pairs of images along a continuum of similarity, by assessing the overall arrangement of each MDS space. These similarity ratings will be useful to any researcher that wishes to control the similarity of experimental stimuli according to an objective quantification of "sameness."

Numerical modeling of landslides and generated seismic waves: The Bingham Canyon Mine landslides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miallot, H.; Mangeney, A.; Capdeville, Y.; Hibert, C.

2016-12-01

Landslides are important natural hazards and key erosion processes. They create long period surface waves that can be recorded by regional and global seismic networks. The seismic signals are generated by acceleration/deceleration of the mass sliding over the topography. They consist in a unique and powerful tool to detect, characterize and quantify the landslide dynamics. We investigate here the processes at work during the two massive landslides that struck the Bingham Canyon Mine on the 10th April 2013. We carry a combined analysis of the generated seismic signals and the landslide processes computed with a 3D modeling on a complex topography. Forces computed by broadband seismic waveform inversion are used to constrain the study and particularly the force-source and the bulk dynamic. The source time function are obtained by a 3D model (Shaltop) where rheological parameters can be adjusted. We first investigate the influence of the initial shape of the sliding mass which strongly affects the whole landslide dynamic. We also see that the initial shape of the source mass of the first landslide constrains pretty well the second landslide source mass. We then investigate the effect of a rheological parameter, the frictional angle, that strongly influences the resulted computed seismic source function. We test here numerous friction laws as the frictional Coulomb law and a velocity-weakening friction law. Our results show that the force waveform fitting the observed data is highly variable depending on these different choices.

Navy LPD-17 Amphibious Ship Procurement: Background, Issues, and Options for Congress

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-07-20

and Options for Congress 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e . TASK NUMBER 5f...overall. “While we agree on requirements—and the Navy and Marine Corps are pretty aligned on that—we have to balance the capability and the capacity...sequence and significant rework has been required, disrupting the optimal construction sequence and application of lessons learned for follow-on

Navy LPD-17 Amphibious Ship Procurement: Background, Issues, and Options for Congress

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-12-22

Issues, and Options for Congress 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e . TASK NUMBER 5f...balance of the force overall. “While we agree on requirements—and the Navy and Marine Corps are pretty aligned on that—we have to balance the...and significant rework has been required, disrupting the optimal construction sequence and application of lessons learned for follow-on vessels in

Proceedings of Four Symposia on Nondestructive Testing of Tires

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-05-25

an enormous oven, and rolled into the distribution system something like dough - nuts out of a doughnut machine. Nothing could be further from the...things has some kind of obligation to put a little into the pot, rather than always reach in and take something out. Pretty soon the cookie jar runs...some- thing out of the cookie jar and not put anything back in. Perhaps it is incorrect to think that we’re not doing any- thing new at Air Tread

The Coast Artillery Journal. Volume 70, Number 1, January 1929

DTIC Science & Technology

1929-01-01

sovereign war-rights and liens on their future freedom of action. And for full measure, since measure you will have, let’s come nearer home. Have you...at their full value. Wait a bit, until the world gets used to a new idea. And remember that the League’s resolution of Septem- ber, 1927--to say...guns, planes, and ships, to block any possible blows until our full strength is developed, we will be a pretty dis. couraging proposition. Uncle Sam

Quantifying Temporal and Spatial Characteristics of Pulsating Aurora

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marchese, A. K.; Samara, M.; Michell, R.

2017-12-01

Aurorae are phenomena of colorful light due to charged solar wind particles colliding with gases in Earth's atmosphere. These events tend to be more prominent in higher latitudes since the particles travel along the magnetic field lines until they reach the poles where they enter the atmosphere. The effects of these energetic particles, however, also may damage technology. It is important to study aurorae to understand solar activity and how the magnetosphere responds to it to better deal with these problems. Imagers are located in Montana and Alaska facing towards the sky in order to take pictures of the aurora. Using the data from the imagers, numerous mathematical techniques were applied in order to extract quantitative information from the pictures to analyze pulsating aurora and study the differences between the aurora in Alaska and Montana. The two locations are at different latitudes and, thus, it is expected that they have different characteristics. Alaska, which is at a higher latitude, should have a more intense aurora than Montana.

Autonomous Image Processing Algorithms Locate Region-of-Interests: The Mars Rover Application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Privitera, Claudio; Azzariti, Michela; Stark, Lawrence W.

1998-01-01

In this report, we demonstrate that bottom-up IPA's, image-processing algorithms, can perform a new visual task to select and locate Regions-Of-Interests (ROIs). This task has been defined on the basis of a theory of top-down human vision, the scanpath theory. Further, using measures, Sp and Ss, the similarity of location and ordering, respectively, developed over the years in studying human perception and the active looking role of eye movements, we could quantify the efficient and efficacious manner that IPAs can imitate human vision in located ROIS. The means to quantitatively evaluate IPA performance has been an important part of our study. In fact, these measures were essential in choosing from the initial wide variety of IPAS, that particular one that best serves for a type of picture and for a required task. It should be emphasized that the selection of efficient IPAs has depended upon their correlation with actual human chosen ROIs for the same type of picture and for the same required task accomplishment.

Towards a More Complete Picture: Dissimilatory Metal Reduction by Anaeromyxobacter Species

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

Loeffler, Frank E.

2005-06-01

Towards a More Complete Picture: Dissimilatory Metal Reduction by Anaeromyxobacter Species The overarching goal of this 3-year project is to explore uranium reduction in Anaeromyxobacter species. Specifically, we explore the physiological requirements of available Anaeromyxobacter isolates, design molecular biology tools to detect and quantify Anaeromyxobacter in pure cultures, consortia, and environmental samples, assess their diversity, distribution, and abundance in the environment, including DOE sites, and attempt the isolation of additional Anaeromyxobacter species from the Oak Ridge Field Research Center (FRC). The performers on this project include Frank Loeffler (PI), Robert Sanford (Co-PI), Qingzhong Wu (postdoc), Sara Henry (graduate student withmore » fellowship, no charges to NABIR project), Ivy Thomson (graduate student, no charges to NABIR project), and Ryan Wagner (''Special Topics'' bioinformatics undergraduate student, no charges to NABIR project). Exploratory MALDI-TOF MS experiments for the specific detection of Anaeromyxobacter species were performed by Kerry Preston (graduate student, no charges to NABIR project).« less

Altered States of Consciousness Profile: An Afro-Centric Intrapsychic Evaluation Tool

PubMed Central

Bell, Carl C.; Thompson, Belinda; Shorter-Gooden, Kumea; Mays, Raymond; Shakoor, Bambade

1985-01-01

In an effort to develop an Afro-centric intrapsychic evaluation tool, the Community Mental Health Council, Inc., Altered States of Consciousness Research Team, developed a structured interview used to quantify and qualify the 17 states of consciousness1 that occurred in black control, precare, and aftercare subjects. Differences were noted in the three groups as to the incidence, prevalence, and quality of the various states of consciousness. It was also noted that the profile obtained from the interviews yielded a sharp clinical picture of the subjects' total intrapsychic propensities. PMID:4057274

A novel, optical, on-line bacteria sensor for monitoring drinking water quality

PubMed Central

Højris, Bo; Christensen, Sarah Christine Boesgaard; Albrechtsen, Hans-Jørgen; Smith, Christian; Dahlqvist, Mathis

2016-01-01

Today, microbial drinking water quality is monitored through either time-consuming laboratory methods or indirect on-line measurements. Results are thus either delayed or insufficient to support proactive action. A novel, optical, on-line bacteria sensor with a 10-minute time resolution has been developed. The sensor is based on 3D image recognition, and the obtained pictures are analyzed with algorithms considering 59 quantified image parameters. The sensor counts individual suspended particles and classifies them as either bacteria or abiotic particles. The technology is capable of distinguishing and quantifying bacteria and particles in pure and mixed suspensions, and the quantification correlates with total bacterial counts. Several field applications have demonstrated that the technology can monitor changes in the concentration of bacteria, and is thus well suited for rapid detection of critical conditions such as pollution events in drinking water. PMID:27040142

A novel, optical, on-line bacteria sensor for monitoring drinking water quality.

PubMed

Højris, Bo; Christensen, Sarah Christine Boesgaard; Albrechtsen, Hans-Jørgen; Smith, Christian; Dahlqvist, Mathis

2016-04-04

Today, microbial drinking water quality is monitored through either time-consuming laboratory methods or indirect on-line measurements. Results are thus either delayed or insufficient to support proactive action. A novel, optical, on-line bacteria sensor with a 10-minute time resolution has been developed. The sensor is based on 3D image recognition, and the obtained pictures are analyzed with algorithms considering 59 quantified image parameters. The sensor counts individual suspended particles and classifies them as either bacteria or abiotic particles. The technology is capable of distinguishing and quantifying bacteria and particles in pure and mixed suspensions, and the quantification correlates with total bacterial counts. Several field applications have demonstrated that the technology can monitor changes in the concentration of bacteria, and is thus well suited for rapid detection of critical conditions such as pollution events in drinking water.

Pretty Good or Pretty Bad? The Ovary and Chemicals in Personal Care Products.

PubMed

Craig, Zelieann R; Ziv-Gal, Ayelet

2018-04-01

Personal care products (PCP) contain a myriad of chemicals generally formulated to provide a safe and beneficial use. Nonetheless, an increasing amount of laboratory animal and human studies indicate that some chemicals in PCP are associated with decreased hormone production, diminished ovarian reserve, ovarian cancer, and early pregnancy loss. The ovary is key to female fertility by providing the eggs and sex steroid hormones for fertilization and maintenance of reproductive function, respectively. Thus, understanding how chemicals in PCP affect the ovary will shed some light on their potential effects on female fertility. In this review, we provide an overview of: (1) ovarian function as a determinant of fertility in females, (2) the status of knowledge regarding the effects of seven common chemicals in PCP on the ovary, and (3) significant gaps in the literature along with opportunities to eliminate some of the gaps. Findings from the limited existing data suggest that chemicals in PCP such as dibutyl phthalate can reach the ovary in humans and impact its function in animal models. Unfortunately, it is still difficult to assess how relevant findings of experimental studies are to women because of lack of human exposure data for most of these chemicals and the lack of studies that mimic real-life exposures. In contrast to chemicals such as bisphenol A and dioxin, the investigation of the effects of chemicals in PCP on reproductive function is still limited and warrants further investigation to fill existing data gaps.

2006 Defense Economics Conference: The Defense Department’s Future in a Changing Macroeconomic Environment. Held in Alexandria, Virginia on September 21, 2006

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

cost of defense and the value of insurance against threats purchased by those costs. But a large fraction of the public debate at this time was...happen. One extreme we could ask of people is basically to self- insure . Let them bear the cost of things to happen. Th at’s a pretty powerful incentive...instruments KEYNOTE ADDRESS 11 2006 DEFENSE ECONOMICS CONFERENCE that can be used to shift risk burdens, and the use of insurance and pricing of

The LRCM: (the Long-Range Strategic Cruise Missile) Asymmetries, Deterrence and SAL (Strategic Arms Limitation)

DTIC Science & Technology

1976-03-01

about the same pro- portion of the useful payload. The J-85-4A non- afterburning turbojet engines installed in the F5 aircraft occupy about 25% of the...about one kiloton TNT equivalent yield per 1 5 Pretty and Archer, op. cit. 32 pound of warhead weight. Thus, a 200 KT warhead will weigh about 200...explosion is equivalent to a conventional unit of energy release equal to one thousand short tons of TNT , or about 10 calories, 1.15 x 10 kilowatt

My Oar Keeps Breaking: How to Move Your Part of the Program Forward

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-02-01

53 Defense AT&L: January–February 2016 My Oar Keeps Breaking How to Move Your Part of the Program Forward Chad Millette Millette is a retired...the water to influence the program’s speed or direction. I would tell people that I felt like every time I stuck my oar in the water, it would break ...I would then go back and get another one and stick it in the water, only to have it break again. I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with

Magic User’s Manual 2006

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-12-01

K (M) M issioin Research MRC/WDC-R-556 MAGIC USER’S MANUAL 2006 Author(s): Larry Ludeking ATK Mission Research Contract No.: F49620-03-C-0030 L¾[iJiD... Magic Tool Suite for Windows. It uses the standard Windows Help so it is pretty self-explanatory. You can use the panel to the left to scan through... MAGIC Go to Part 2. MCL Commands Go to Part 3. Tirnc and Space Go to Part 4. Spatial Extensions Go to Part 5. Properties Go to Part 6. Algorithms Go

Terrorism: The Challenge to the Private Sector,

DTIC Science & Technology

private sector , security is a line management responsibility, particularly where goals and objectives, information protection, and protection of key assets are concerned. Each company in the corporate world has a different personality. The goals are pretty much the same, but once you get below that initial goal, then you go to beliefs. Some companies are very macho. Some companies won’t let a security man interview a suspect, some companies will. Companies are very hesitant to go th extremes. Companies are both image conscious and fundamentally ethical. They truly do

Towards a Computational Theory of Definite Anaphora Comprehension in English Discourse.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-06-01

know what flowers are near others might behave differently. But even special audiences nust sometimes use general techniques. Such is the case in the...2 (The) one is a poodle; 3 the other is a cocker spaniel. 4 The poodle has some weird habits. 5 He eats plastic flowers and likes to sleep in a...paper bag. 6 It’s a real problem keeping him away from plastic flowers . 7 The cocker is pretty normal, 8 and he’s a good watch (log. ( I like having themi

The Antiaircraft Journal. Volume 94, Number 6, November-December 1951

DTIC Science & Technology

1951-12-01

authorized by the Visiting Forces Act. Getting their heads together, the Yanks and Tommies have discovered each other to be pretty regular fellows...Francis A., to 3Sth AAA Brig, Ft Meade, Md. McDaniel, Otto L., to Hq Fourth Army, Ft Sam Houston, Tex. Pape, Robin B., to SOth AAA Gp, Ft Totten , NY...to 71 Sth AAA Gun Bn, Ft Totten , NJ. Kee, Pat M., to 209th AAA Gp, Indiantown Gap, Pa. Kennaman, Jack R., to SOlst AAA Gun Bn, North Richland, Wash

[Apocryphal Freud: Sigmund Freud' most famous "quotations" and their actual sources].

PubMed

Elms, Alan C

2005-01-01

The article traces the sources of the three most widespread quotations attributed to Freud "What does Woman want?", "To love and to work" (summarizing what a psychological healthy person should be able to do well), and "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". The first could have been spoken by Freud pretty much as we have it. The second was possibly said by Freud, in some form vaguely resembling the currently cited version. The third most probably did not come from him in any form.

Political Connections of the Boards of Directors and Defense Contractors’ Excessive Profits

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-04-01

found that “political firms borrow 45 percent more and have 50 percent higher default rates. Such preferential treatment occurs exclusively in...SOUP CO.  $88,645,010  367 CPB 2030  11 INTERMEC CORPORATION  $83,566,808  388 IN 3577  11 CAE  CORP  $83,563,697  389 CAE 3690  11 DEL MONTE FOODS...pretty much rule out the possibility of anybody simultaneously serving a high - rank public service role and a top executive role in a private-sector firm

Differential diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Fadil, Halim; Kelley, Roger E; Gonzalez-Toledo, Eduardo

2007-01-01

There are a number of illnesses that can mimic multiple sclerosis (MS). This pretty much includes any pathological process that can reflect injury to the central nervous system either in a transient or progressive basis. Typically, MS presents itself in individuals in their teens up to their late 30s. On occasion, however, one can see MS present in patients in their 60s. However, in retrospect, many of these patients might have had subtle manifestations of MS in their younger years. Visual obscuration or visual loss can be a manifestation of retinal ischemia, retinal migraine, or optic neuritis which might or might not evolve into a clinical picture compatible with MS. Cranial neuropathy, long tract signs, sensory disturbance, and/or gait ataxia can be related to a number of different processes such as illicit drug use, neurosarcoidosis, neuro-Behcet's disease, neuroborreliosis, HIV-related disease, neurosyphilis, vascular occlusive disease including vasculitis, connective tissue disorders, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), idiopathic transverse myelitis, neuromyelitis optica (NMO), or tropical spastic paraparesis. In addition, a constellation of symptoms, with questionable objective findings, along with normal MRI imaging, normal CSF results, and normal evoked response testing, when indicated, might identify a conversion disorder or possibly malingering. There are now established criteria for the diagnosis of MS, but initial presentations can be less than "textbook" in nature. With the advent of immunomodulating therapy, it has become more important to diagnose MS more effectively earlier on in the course of the illness. Prior to specific therapy for MS, astute clinicians did not necessarily move with alacrity to establish the diagnosis in patients with subtle or transient manifestations. This was in recognition of the fact that little could be offered to alter the course of the illness and a number of patients might never experience further problems if they were lucky enough to have their illness go into permanent remission after one minor exacerbation.

Unusual Light in Dark Space Revealed by Los Alamos, NASA

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

Smidt, Joseph

By looking at the dark spaces between visible galaxies and stars the NASA/JPL CIBER sounding rocket experiment has produced data that could redefine what constitutes a galaxy. CIBER, the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment, is designed to understand the physics going on between visible stars and galaxies. The relatively small, sub-orbital rocket unloads a camera that snaps pictures of the night sky in near-infrared wavelengths, between 1.2 and 1.6 millionth of a meter. Scientists take the data and remove all the known visible stars and galaxies and quantify what is left.

Unusual Light in Dark Space Revealed by Los Alamos, NASA

ScienceCinema

Smidt, Joseph

2018-01-16

By looking at the dark spaces between visible galaxies and stars the NASA/JPL CIBER sounding rocket experiment has produced data that could redefine what constitutes a galaxy. CIBER, the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment, is designed to understand the physics going on between visible stars and galaxies. The relatively small, sub-orbital rocket unloads a camera that snaps pictures of the night sky in near-infrared wavelengths, between 1.2 and 1.6 millionth of a meter. Scientists take the data and remove all the known visible stars and galaxies and quantify what is left.

Using high hydraulic conductivity nodes to simulate seepage lakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Anderson, Mary P.; Hunt, Randall J.; Krohelski, James T.; Chung, Kuopo

2002-01-01

In a typical ground water flow model, lakes are represented by specified head nodes requiring that lake levels be known a priori. To remove this limitation, previous researchers assigned high hydraulic conductivity (K) values to nodes that represent a lake, under the assumption that the simulated head at the nodes in the high-K zone accurately reflects lake level. The solution should also produce a constant water level across the lake. We developed a model of a simple hypothetical ground water/lake system to test whether solutions using high-K lake nodes are sensitive to the value of K selected to represent the lake. Results show that the larger the contrast between the K of the aquifer and the K of the lake nodes, the smaller the error tolerance required for the solution to converge. For our test problem, a contrast of three orders of magnitude produced a head difference across the lake of 0.005 m under a regional gradient of the order of 10−3 m/m, while a contrast of four orders of magnitude produced a head difference of 0.001 m. The high-K method was then used to simulate lake levels in Pretty Lake, Wisconsin. Results for both the hypothetical system and the application to Pretty Lake compared favorably with results using a lake package developed for MODFLOW (Merritt and Konikow 2000). While our results demonstrate that the high-K method accurately simulates lake levels, this method has more cumbersome postprocessing and longer run times than the same problem simulated using the lake package.

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

Womeldorff, Geoffrey Alan; Payne, Joshua Estes; Bergen, Benjamin Karl

These are slides for a presentation on PARTISN Research and FleCSI Updates. The following topics are covered: SNAP vs PARTISN, Background Research, Production Code (structural design and changes, kernel design and implementation, lessons learned), NuT IMC Proxy, FleCSI Update (design and lessons learned). It can all be summarized in the following manner: Kokkos was shown to be effective in FY15 in implementing a C++ version of SNAP's kernel. This same methodology was applied to a production IC code, PARTISN. This was a much more complex endeavour than in FY15 for many reasons; a C++ kernel embedded in Fortran, overloading Fortranmore » memory allocations, general language interoperability, and a fully fleshed out production code versus a simplified proxy code. Lessons learned are Legion. In no particular order: Interoperability between Fortran and C++ was really not that hard, and a useful engineering effort. Tracking down all necessary memory allocations for a kernel in a production code is pretty hard. Modifying a production code to work for more than a handful of use cases is also pretty hard. Figuring out the toolchain that will allow a successful implementation of design decisions is quite hard, if making use of "bleeding edge" design choices. In terms of performance, production code concurrency architecture can be a virtual showstopper; being too complex to easily rewrite and test in a short period of time, or depending on tool features which do not exist yet. Ultimately, while the tools used in this work were not successful in speeding up the production code, they helped to identify how work would be done, and provide requirements to tools.« less

Quantifying travel behavior for infectious disease research: a comparison of data from surveys and mobile phones

PubMed Central

Wesolowski, Amy; Stresman, Gillian; Eagle, Nathan; Stevenson, Jennifer; Owaga, Chrispin; Marube, Elizabeth; Bousema, Teun; Drakeley, Christopher; Cox, Jonathan; Buckee, Caroline O.

2014-01-01

Human travel impacts the spread of infectious diseases across spatial and temporal scales, with broad implications for the biological and social sciences. Individual data on travel patterns have been difficult to obtain, particularly in low-income countries. Travel survey data provide detailed demographic information, but sample sizes are often small and travel histories are hard to validate. Mobile phone records can provide vast quantities of spatio-temporal travel data but vary in spatial resolution and explicitly do not include individual information in order to protect the privacy of subscribers. Here we compare and contrast both sources of data over the same time period in a rural area of Kenya. Although both data sets are able to quantify broad travel patterns and distinguish regional differences in travel, each provides different insights that can be combined to form a more detailed picture of travel in low-income settings to understand the spread of infectious diseases. PMID:25022440

Quantifying travel behavior for infectious disease research: a comparison of data from surveys and mobile phones.

PubMed

Wesolowski, Amy; Stresman, Gillian; Eagle, Nathan; Stevenson, Jennifer; Owaga, Chrispin; Marube, Elizabeth; Bousema, Teun; Drakeley, Christopher; Cox, Jonathan; Buckee, Caroline O

2014-07-14

Human travel impacts the spread of infectious diseases across spatial and temporal scales, with broad implications for the biological and social sciences. Individual data on travel patterns have been difficult to obtain, particularly in low-income countries. Travel survey data provide detailed demographic information, but sample sizes are often small and travel histories are hard to validate. Mobile phone records can provide vast quantities of spatio-temporal travel data but vary in spatial resolution and explicitly do not include individual information in order to protect the privacy of subscribers. Here we compare and contrast both sources of data over the same time period in a rural area of Kenya. Although both data sets are able to quantify broad travel patterns and distinguish regional differences in travel, each provides different insights that can be combined to form a more detailed picture of travel in low-income settings to understand the spread of infectious diseases.

Semantic and pragmatic factors influencing deaf and hearing students' comprehension of english sentences containing numeral quantifiers.

PubMed

Kelly, Ronald R; Berent, Gerald P

2011-01-01

This research contrasted deaf and hearing students' interpretive knowledge of English sentences containing numeral quantifier phrases and indefinite noun phrases. A multiple-interpretation picture task methodology was used to assess 305 participants' judgments of the compatibility of sentence meanings with depicted discourse contexts. Participants' performance was assessed on the basis of hearing level (deaf, hearing) and grade level (middle school, high school, college). The deaf students were predicted to have differential access to specific sentence interpretations in accordance with the relative derivational complexity of the targeted sentence types. Hypotheses based on the pressures of derivational economy on acquisition were largely supported. The results also revealed that the deaf participants tended to overactivate pragmatic processes that yielded principled, though non-target, sentence interpretations. Collectively, the results not only contribute to the understanding of English acquisition under conditions of restricted access to spoken language input, they also suggest that pragmatic factors may play a broad role in influencing, and compromising, deaf students' reading comprehension and written expression.

Energy in a Planetary Context

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoehler, Tori M.

2017-01-01

The potential present day habitability of solar system bodies beyond Earth is limited to subsurface environments, where the availability of energy in biologically useful form is a paramount consideration. Energy availability is commonly quantified in terms of molar Gibbs energy changes for metabolisms of interest, but this can provide an incomplete and even misleading picture. A second aspect of life's requirement for energy - the rate of delivery, or power - strongly influences habitability, biomass abundance, growth rates, and, ultimately, rates of evolution. We are developing an approach to quantify metabolic power, using a cell-scale reactive transport model in which physical and chemical environmental parameters are varied. Simultaneously, we evaluate cell-specific energy flux requirements and their dependence on environmental "extremes". Comparison of metabolic power supply and demand provides a constraint on how biomass abundance varies across a range of environmental parameters, and thereby a prediction of the relative habitability of different environments. We are evaluating the predictive capability of this approach through comparison to observed distributions of microbial abundance in a range of subsurface (predominantly serpentinizing) systems.

The Best Lesbian Show Ever!: The Contemporary Evolution of Teen Coming-Out Narratives.

PubMed

Mitchell, Jennifer

2015-01-01

This article examines developing trends within adolescent lesbian coming-out narratives in contemporary literary fiction and television shows. I argue that these texts, including ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars (2010-present), Madeleine George's The Difference Between You and Me (2012), A.S. King's Ask the Passengers (2012), and MTV's Faking It (2014-present), all experiment with the coming-out process in ways that complicate traditional narratives of adolescent queerness. By positioning their respective queer protagonists within broader queer and allied communities, these works articulate new complexities facing the young lesbian and her developing sexuality.

The role of religion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edmond, Ian

2009-11-01

I cannot agree with Chris Jeynes's assertion (October pp15-16) that to equate religious belief with belief in the tooth fairy is to be unaware of our cultural history. It is true, ofcourse, that cathedrals are inspiring achievements of architecture, but that has no bearing whatsoever on the truth of the beliefs of their designers. There are similarly impressive Muslim holy buildings, motivated by similar beliefs, but, to take one example, Jesus was either the son of God or he was not, so the beliefs of at least one group must therefore be incorrect. Pretty buildings make for poor evidence of universal truths.

Echoes from the Past - Lessons for the Future: A Vietnam Oral History.

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-03-30

from the water station pretty regularly. Along about 7 or 8 o’clock you could find yourself with a head full of shampoo and no way to get it out. So...stateside hospital to help establish the 91st EVAC in 7 Vietnam. As a result, many ties had already been formed. As the head nurse of a medical surgical...shower consisted of a shower head hanging up there and you pulled this chain and the water came out of the tank on the top cf it. If the sun was

Finding faults with the data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Showstack, Randy

Rudolph Giuliani and Hillary Rodham Clinton are crisscrossing upstate New York looking for votes in the U.S. Senate race. Also cutting back and forth across upstate New York are hundreds of faults of a kind characterized by very sporadic seismic activity according to Robert Jacobi, professor of geology at the University of Buffalo (UB), who conducted research with fellow UB geology professor John Fountain."We have proof that upstate New York is crisscrossed by faults," Jacobi said. "In the past, the Appalachian Plateau—which stretches from Albany to Buffalo—was considered a pretty boring place structurally without many faults or folds of any significance."

When science meets capitalism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parker, Greg

2008-03-01

When I joined the University of Southampton's microelectronics group in 1987 after spending 10 years in industry, I shared some of my commercial ideas for advancing the group into the 21st century with my academic colleagues. To say that my personal vision of paradise was close to their vision of hell is probably a pretty accurate observation. Two decades on, I now understand why they felt that way. Science for Sale contains a lot of information that explains this vast difference in perception, and the book also does a good job of highlighting how academia and industry differ on practical and ethical levels.

Atmospheric emissions from the Deepwater Horizon spill constrain air-water partitioning, hydrocarbon fate, and leak rate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryerson, T. B.; Aikin, K. C.; Angevine, W. M.; Atlas, E. L.; Blake, D. R.; Brock, C. A.; Fehsenfeld, F. C.; Gao, R.-S.; de Gouw, J. A.; Fahey, D. W.; Holloway, J. S.; Lack, D. A.; Lueb, R. A.; Meinardi, S.; Middlebrook, A. M.; Murphy, D. M.; Neuman, J. A.; Nowak, J. B.; Parrish, D. D.; Peischl, J.; Perring, A. E.; Pollack, I. B.; Ravishankara, A. R.; Roberts, J. M.; Schwarz, J. P.; Spackman, J. R.; Stark, H.; Warneke, C.; Watts, L. A.

2011-04-01

The fate of deepwater releases of gas and oil mixtures is initially determined by solubility and volatility of individual hydrocarbon species; these attributes determine partitioning between air and water. Quantifying this partitioning is necessary to constrain simulations of gas and oil transport, to predict marine bioavailability of different fractions of the gas-oil mixture, and to develop a comprehensive picture of the fate of leaked hydrocarbons in the marine environment. Analysis of airborne atmospheric data shows massive amounts (˜258,000 kg/day) of hydrocarbons evaporating promptly from the Deepwater Horizon spill; these data collected during two research flights constrain air-water partitioning, thus bioavailability and fate, of the leaked fluid. This analysis quantifies the fraction of surfacing hydrocarbons that dissolves in the water column (˜33% by mass), the fraction that does not dissolve, and the fraction that evaporates promptly after surfacing (˜14% by mass). We do not quantify the leaked fraction lacking a surface expression; therefore, calculation of atmospheric mass fluxes provides a lower limit to the total hydrocarbon leak rate of 32,600 to 47,700 barrels of fluid per day, depending on reservoir fluid composition information. This study demonstrates a new approach for rapid-response airborne assessment of future oil spills.

Sporadic frame dropping impact on quality perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pastrana-Vidal, Ricardo R.; Gicquel, Jean Charles; Colomes, Catherine; Cherifi, Hocine

2004-06-01

Over the past few years there has been an increasing interest in real time video services over packet networks. When considering quality, it is essential to quantify user perception of the received sequence. Severe motion discontinuities are one of the most common degradations in video streaming. The end-user perceives a jerky motion when the discontinuities are uniformly distributed over time and an instantaneous fluidity break is perceived when the motion loss is isolated or irregularly distributed. Bit rate adaptation techniques, transmission errors in the packet networks or restitution strategy could be the origin of this perceived jerkiness. In this paper we present a psychovisual experiment performed to quantify the effect of sporadically dropped pictures on the overall perceived quality. First, the perceptual detection thresholds of generated temporal discontinuities were measured. Then, the quality function was estimated in relation to a single frame dropping for different durations. Finally, a set of tests was performed to quantify the effect of several impairments distributed over time. We have found that the detection thresholds are content, duration and motion dependent. The assessment results show how quality is impaired by a single burst of dropped frames in a 10 sec sequence. The effect of several bursts of discarded frames, irregularly distributed over the time is also discussed.

The ultimate picture-the combination of live cell superresolution microscopy and single molecule tracking yields highest spatio-temporal resolution.

PubMed

Dersch, Simon; Graumann, Peter L

2018-06-01

We are witnessing a breathtaking development in light (fluorescence) microscopy, where structures can be resolved down to the size of a ribosome within cells. This has already yielded surprising insight into the subcellular structure of cells, including the smallest cells, bacteria. Moreover, it has become possible to visualize and track single fluorescent protein fusions in real time, and quantify molecule numbers within individual cells. Combined, super resolution and single molecule tracking are pushing the limits of our understanding of the spatio-temporal organization even of the smallest cells to an unprecedented depth. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The social costs of dangerous products: an empirical investigation.

PubMed

Shapiro, Sidney; Ruttenberg, Ruth; Leigh, Paul

2009-01-01

Defective consumer products impose significant costs on consumers and third parties when they cause fatalities and injuries. This Article develops a novel approach to measuring the true extent of such costs, which may not be accurately captured under current methods of estimating the cost of dangerous products. Current analysis rests on a narrowly defined set of costs, excluding certain types of costs. The cost-of-injury estimates utilized in this Article address this omission by quantifying and incorporating these costs to provide a more complete picture of the true impact of defective consumer products. The new estimates help to gauge the true value of the civil liability system.

Water Ice Clouds over the Northern Plains

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

(Released 14 May 2002) The Science This image, centered near 48.5 N and 240.5 W, displays splotchy water ice clouds that obscure the northern lowland plains in the region where the Viking 2 spacecraft landed. This image is far enough north to catch the edge of the north polar hood that develops during the northern winter. This is a cap of water and carbon dioxide ice clouds that form over the Martian north pole. As Mars progresses into northern spring, the persistent north polar hood ice clouds will dissipate and the surface viewing conditions will improve greatly. As the season develops, an equatorial belt of water ice clouds will form. This belt of water ice clouds is as characteristic of the Martian climate as the southern hemisphere summer dust storm season. Seasons on Mars have a dramatic effect on the state of the dynamic Martian atmosphere. The Story Muted in an almost air-brushed manner, this image doesn't have the crispness that most THEMIS images have. That's because clouds were rising over the surface of the red planet on the day this picture was taken. Finding clouds on Mars might remind us of conditions here on Earth, but these Martian clouds are made of frozen water and frozen carbon dioxide -- in other words, clouds of ice and 'dry ice.' Strange as that may sound, the clouds seen here form on a pretty regular basis at the north Martian pole during its winter season. As springtime comes to the northern hemisphere of Mars (and fall comes to the southern), these clouds will slowly disappear, and a nice belt of water ice clouds will form around the equator. So, if you were a THEMIS camera aimer, that might tell you when your best viewing conditions for different areas on Mars would be. As interesting as clear pictures of Martian landforms are, however, you wouldn't want to bypass the weather altogether. Pictures showing seasonal shifts are great for scientists to study, because they reveal a lot about the patterns of the Martian climate and the circulation of the atmosphere. There are a lot of interesting global climate relationships to study. For example, when it's winter in the north of Mars and clouds like the ones in this image form, dust storms rage in the south of Mars, where it's summer. So why does Mars have these wild seasons? Like the Earth, Mars is tilted on its axis. As it travels in its orbit around the sun, the angle between the Earth's axis and the Earth-Sun line changes. That's true for Mars as well. As each point on Mars spins on the rotating red planet each day, the part of the cycle spent in sunlight (day) and shadow (night) just aren't equal because of these angles. When day is longer than night (summer) in the north, night is longer than day (winter) in the south. Half a year later, when Mars has traveled in its orbit to the other side of the sun, the situation is exactly reversed. All this sounds familiar to Earthlings, but there's yet one more difference. Mars is farther away from the sun than the Earth. That means it takes longer for Mars to make a trip around the sun in its orbit than the Earth does -- about twice as long, in fact. That means that the seasons on Mars also last twice as long!

Perceptions regarding genetic testing in populations at risk for nephropathy.

PubMed

Freedman, Barry I; Fletcher, Alison J; Sanghani, Vivek R; Spainhour, Mitzie; Graham, Angelina W; Russell, Gregory B; Cooke Bailey, Jessica N; Iltis, Ana S; King, Nancy M P

2013-01-01

Population ancestry-based differences exist in genetic risk for many kidney diseases. Substantial debate remains regarding returning genetic test results to participants. African-Americans (AAs) and European-Americans (EAs) at risk for end-stage kidney disease were queried for views on the value and use of genetic testing in research. A standardized survey regarding attitudes toward genetic testing was administered to 130 individuals (64 AA, 66 EA) with first-degree relatives on dialysis. Fisher's exact test was used to assess differences in participant attitudes between population groups. Mean (SD) age of surveyed AAs and EAs was 45.5 (12.8) and 50.5 (14.4) years, respectively (p = 0.04), with similar familial relationships (p = 0.22). AAs and EAs wished to know their test results if risk could be: (1) reduced by diet or exercise (100 and 98%, p = 0.99); (2) reduced by medical treatment (100 and 98%, p = 0.99), or (3) if no treatments were available (90 and 82%, p = 0.21). If informed they lacked a disease susceptibility variant, 87% of AAs and 88% of EAs would be extremely or pretty likely to inform family members (p = 0.84). If informed they had a disease susceptibility variant, 92% of AAs and 89% of EAs would be extremely or pretty likely to inform their family (p = 0.43). Attitudes toward obtaining and using genetic test results for disease in research contexts were similar in AAs and EAs at risk for end-stage kidney disease. A substantial majority would want information regardless of available treatments and would share the information with the family. These results have important implications for patient care, study design and the informed consent process. © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

The Pleasures and Perils of Popularization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grinspoon, David H.

2006-09-01

Carl Sagan often reminded us that we are privileged to be space explorers, and we should never take public support for granted. As jobs go, planetary exploration sure beats flipping burgers. It can also seem like a bourgeois extravagance in a world with some serious mayhem and deprivation. We've all encountered the attitude epitomized by the recent Onion headline: "NASA Announces Plan to Launch $700 Million into Space". But planetary science is highly relevant to some burning societal issues. Indeed it is slightly strange to see concepts we labored over in grad school, like "albedo", "insolation” and "infrared opacity” now tossed about in Newsweek. Today, the man and woman in the street are quite aware that climate modeling and glaciology are relevant. It is up to us to explain that comparative planetology is also indispensable. In my career so far, I've tried to balance deep involvement in both research and public outreach. Sometimes this feels like too many jobs, but at least sometimes they are synergistic. Being an active researcher, you can speak to the public with an inside, authentic, behind-the-scenes voice. Interacting with the media on a regular basis helps you (indeed forces you) to stay current in a broad range of subject matter, and that can nurture your research. That all sounds pretty high minded, but public speaking, writing, and media interviews are great fun, and they get easier. Actually, writing is often as much fun as dental work. But usually worth it. These activities feed the soul (and the ego and even occasionally the bank account...). If they help spread the word about the wonders of the solar system, the mysteries of life in the universe and the experiences of working scientists, well that's pretty cool, too.

Multiphase composition changes and reactive oxygen species formation during limonene oxidation in the new Cambridge Atmospheric Simulation Chamber (CASC)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallimore, Peter J.; Mahon, Brendan M.; Wragg, Francis P. H.; Fuller, Stephen J.; Giorio, Chiara; Kourtchev, Ivan; Kalberer, Markus

2017-08-01

The chemical composition of organic aerosols influences their impacts on human health and the climate system. Aerosol formation from gas-to-particle conversion and in-particle reaction was studied for the oxidation of limonene in a new facility, the Cambridge Atmospheric Simulation Chamber (CASC). Health-relevant oxidising organic species produced during secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation were quantified in real time using an Online Particle-bound Reactive Oxygen Species Instrument (OPROSI). Two categories of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were identified based on time series analysis: a short-lived component produced during precursor ozonolysis with a lifetime of the order of minutes, and a stable component that was long-lived on the experiment timescale (˜ 4 h). Individual organic species were monitored continuously over this time using Extractive Electrospray Ionisation (EESI) Mass Spectrometry (MS) for the particle phase and Proton Transfer Reaction (PTR) MS for the gas phase. Many first-generation oxidation products are unsaturated, and we observed multiphase aging via further ozonolysis reactions. Volatile products such as C9H14O (limonaketone) and C10H16O2 (limonaldehyde) were observed in the gas phase early in the experiment, before reacting again with ozone. Loss of C10H16O4 (7-hydroxy limononic acid) from the particle phase was surprisingly slow. A combination of reduced C = C reactivity and viscous particle formation (relative to other SOA systems) may explain this, and both scenarios were tested in the Pretty Good Aerosol Model (PG-AM). A range of characterisation measurements were also carried out to benchmark the chamber against existing facilities. This work demonstrates the utility of CASC, particularly for understanding the reactivity and health-relevant properties of organic aerosols using novel, highly time-resolved techniques.

Characterization of the Key Aroma Volatile Compounds in Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.) Using Gas Chromatography-Olfactometry (GC-O) and Odor Activity Value (OAV).

PubMed

Zhu, JianCai; Chen, Feng; Wang, LingYing; Niu, YunWei; Chen, HeXing; Wang, HongLin; Xiao, ZuoBing

2016-06-22

The volatile compounds of cranberries obtained from four cultivars (Early Black, Y1; Howes, Y2; Searles, Y3; and McFarlin, Y4) were analyzed by gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and GC-flame photometric detection (FPD). The result presented that a total of thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-four, and thirty-six odor-active compounds were identified by GC-O in the Y1, Y2, Y3, and Y4, respectively. In addition, twenty-two, twenty-two, thirty, and twenty-seven quantified compounds were demonstrated as important odorants according to odor activity values (OAVs > 1). Among these compounds, hexanal (OAV: 27-60), pentanal (OAV: 31-51), (E)-2-heptenal (OAV: 17-66), (E)-2-hexenal (OAV: 18-63), (E)-2-octenal (OAV: 10-28), (E)-2-nonenal (OAV: 8-77), ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (OAV: 10-33), β-ionone (OAV: 8-73), 2-methylbutyric acid (OAV: 18-37), and octanal (OAV: 4-24) contributed greatly to the aroma of cranberry. Partial least-squares regression (PLSR) was used to process the mean data accumulated from sensory evaluation by the panelists, odor-active aroma compounds (OAVs > 1), and samples. Sample Y3 was highly correlated with the sensory descriptors "floral" and "fruity". Sample Y4 was greatly related to the sensory descriptors "mellow" and "green and grass". Finally, an aroma reconstitution (Model A) was prepared by mixing the odor-active aroma compounds (OAVs > 1) based on their measured concentrations in the Y1 sample, indicating that the aroma profile of the reconstitution was pretty similar to that of the original sample.

One-session computer-based exposure treatment for spider-fearful individuals--efficacy of a minimal self-help intervention in a randomised controlled trial.

PubMed

Müller, Birgit H; Kull, Sandra; Wilhelm, Frank H; Michael, Tanja

2011-06-01

Computer-based self-help treatments have been proposed to provide greater access to treatment while requiring minimum input from a therapist. The authors employed a randomised controlled trial to investigate the efficacy of one-session computer-based exposure (CBE) as a self-help treatment for spider-fearful individuals. Spider-fearful participants in a CBE group underwent one 27-min session of standardised exposure to nine fear-eliciting spider pictures. Treatment outcome was compared to spider-fearful control participants exposed to nine neutral pictures. Fear reduction was quantified on a subjective level by the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) and complemented with a behavioural approach test (BAT). Results demonstrate that compared to control participants, CBE participants showed greater fear reduction from pre- to posttreatment on both the subjective level (FSQ) and the behavioural level (BAT). Moreover, in contrast to the control group, the obtained subjective fear reduction effect remained stable in the CBE group at 1-month follow-up. These findings highlight the role of computer-based self-help as a minimal but effective intervention to reduce fear of spiders. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dimension dependence of clustering dynamics in models of ballistic aggregation and freely cooling granular gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paul, Subhajit; Das, Subir K.

2018-03-01

Via event-driven molecular dynamics simulations we study kinetics of clustering in assemblies of inelastic particles in various space dimensions. We consider two models, viz., the ballistic aggregation model (BAM) and the freely cooling granular gas model (GGM), for each of which we quantify the time dependence of kinetic energy and average mass of clusters (that form due to inelastic collisions). These quantities, for both the models, exhibit power-law behavior, at least in the long time limit. For the BAM, corresponding exponents exhibit strong dimension dependence and follow a hyperscaling relation. In addition, in the high packing fraction limit the behavior of these quantities become consistent with a scaling theory that predicts an inverse relation between energy and mass. On the other hand, in the case of the GGM we do not find any evidence for such a picture. In this case, even though the energy decay, irrespective of packing fraction, matches quantitatively with that for the high packing fraction picture of the BAM, it is inversely proportional to the growth of mass only in one dimension, and the growth appears to be rather insensitive to the choice of the dimension, unlike the BAM.

Senior Resident Training on Educational Principles (STEP): A Proposed Innovative Step from a Developing Nation.

PubMed

Singh, Satendra

2010-12-01

Resident-as-teacher courses are pretty common in Western medical schools however they are a rarity in Asian and developing countries. The current report is a scholarly analysis of a three day orientation program for senior residents in order to improve their functioning by providing new template either for supplementing basic workshops for faculty or to advocate a change in system. The experience gained by Medical Education Unit of University College of Medical Sciences can be used to conduct training breeding grounds at national or regional levels. Resident as teachers educational interventions need to be designed taking into account their impact on education system.

[Ejaculatory disorders except premature ejaculation, orgasmic disorders].

PubMed

Rigot, J-M; Marcelli, F; Giuliano, F

2013-07-01

Disorders of ejaculation and orgasm apart from premature ejaculation are pretty uncommon. Medical literature was reviewed and combined with expert opinion of the authors. The semiology of these disorders is essential: aspermia, hypospermia, retrograde ejaculation, delayed or absent ejaculation with or without orgasm. Whether this is a lifelong or acquired condition, it is essential to assess the side-effects of medications i.e. psychotropic drugs, including antidepressant, neuroleptics, tramadol, alphablockers: tamsulosin and silodosin must always be surveyed. The management is often difficult, especially with a parenthood perspective. The management of lifelong disorders must rely on psychosexual therapies. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Mapping national scale land cover disturbance for the continental United States, 2006 to 2010

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hansen, M. C.; Potapov, P. V.; Egorov, A.; Roy, D. P.; Loveland, T. R.

2011-12-01

Data from the Web-Enabled Landsat Data (WELD) project were used to quantify forest cover loss and bare ground gain dynamics for the continental United States at a 30 meter spatial resolution from 2006 to 2010. Results illustrate the land cover dynamics associated with forestry, urbanization and other medium to long-term cover conversion processes. Ephemeral changes, such as crop rotations and fallows or inundation, were not quantified. Forest disturbance is pervasive at the national-scale, while increasing bare ground is found in growing urban areas as well as in mining regions. The methods applied are an outgrowth of the Vegetation Continuous Field (VCF) method, initially employed with MODIS data and then WELD data to map percent cover variables. As in our previous work with MODIS in mapping forest change, we applied the VCF method to characterize forest cover loss and bare ground gain probability per pixel. Additional themes will be added to provide a more comprehensive picture of national-scale land dynamics based on these initial results using WELD.

Quantification of early cutaneous manifestations of chronic venous insufficiency by automated analysis of photographic images: Feasibility and technical considerations.

PubMed

Becker, François; Fourgeau, Patrice; Carpentier, Patrick H; Ouchène, Amina

2018-06-01

We postulate that blue telangiectasia and brownish pigmentation at ankle level, early markers of chronic venous insufficiency, can be quantified for longitudinal studies of chronic venous disease in Caucasian people. Objectives and methods To describe a photographic technique specially developed for this purpose. The pictures were acquired using a dedicated photo stand to position the foot in a reproducible way, with a normalized lighting and acquisition protocol. The image analysis was performed with a tool developed using algorithms optimized to detect and quantify blue telangiectasia and brownish pigmentation and their relative surface in the region of interest. To test the short-term reproducibility of the measures. Results The quantification of the blue telangiectasia and of the brownish pigmentation using an automated digital photo analysis is feasible. The short-term reproducibility is good for blue telangiectasia quantification. It is a less accurate for the brownish pigmentation. Conclusion The blue telangiectasia of the corona phlebectatica and the ankle flare can be assessed using a clinimetric approach based on the automated digital photo analysis.

Quantifying and Characterizing Tonic Thermal Pain Across Subjects From EEG Data Using Random Forest Models.

PubMed

Vijayakumar, Vishal; Case, Michelle; Shirinpour, Sina; He, Bin

2017-12-01

Effective pain assessment and management strategies are needed to better manage pain. In addition to self-report, an objective pain assessment system can provide a more complete picture of the neurophysiological basis for pain. In this study, a robust and accurate machine learning approach is developed to quantify tonic thermal pain across healthy subjects into a maximum of ten distinct classes. A random forest model was trained to predict pain scores using time-frequency wavelet representations of independent components obtained from electroencephalography (EEG) data, and the relative importance of each frequency band to pain quantification is assessed. The mean classification accuracy for predicting pain on an independent test subject for a range of 1-10 is 89.45%, highest among existing state of the art quantification algorithms for EEG. The gamma band is the most important to both intersubject and intrasubject classification accuracy. The robustness and generalizability of the classifier are demonstrated. Our results demonstrate the potential of this tool to be used clinically to help us to improve chronic pain treatment and establish spectral biomarkers for future pain-related studies using EEG.

Tracing Chromospheric Evaporation in Radio and Soft X-rays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aschwanden, Markus J.

1997-01-01

There are three publications in refereed journals and several presentations at scientific conferences resulted from this work, over a period of 6 months during 1995/1996. In the first paper, the discovery of the chromospheric evaporation process at radio wavelengths is described. In the second paper, the radio detection is used to quantify electron densities in the upflowing heated plasma in flare loops, which is then compared with independent other density measurements from soft X-rays, or the plasma frequency of electron beams originating in the acceleration region. In the third paper, the diagnostic results of the chromospheric evaporation process are embedded into a broader picture of a standard flare scenario. Abstracts of these three papers are attached.

The design and integration of retinal CAD-SR to diabetes patient ePR system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Huiqun; Wei, Yufang; Liu, Brent J.; Shang, Yujuan; Shi, Lili; Jiang, Kui; Dong, Jiancheng

2017-03-01

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the serious complications of diabetes that could lead to blindness. Digital fundus camera is often used to detect retinal changes but the diagnosis relies too much on ophthalmologist's experience. Based on our previously developed algorithms for quantifying retinal vessels and lesions, we developed a computer aided detection-structured report (CAD-SR) template and implemented it into picture archiving and communication system (PACS). Furthermore, we mapped our CAD-SR into HL7 CDA to integrate CAD findings into diabetes patient electronic patient record (ePR) system. Such integration could provide more quantitative features from fundus image into ePR system, which is valuable for further data mining researches.

How Normal is Our Solar System?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2015-10-01

To date, weve discovered nearly 2000 confirmed exoplanets, as well as thousands of additional candidates. Amidst this vast sea of solar systems, how special is our own? A new study explores the answer to this question.Analyzing DistributionsKnowing whether our solar system is unique among exoplanetary systems can help us to better understand future observations of exoplanets. Furthermore, if our solar system is typical, this allows us to be optimistic about the possibility of life existing elsewhere in the universe.In a recent study, Rebecca Martin (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) and Mario Livio (Space Telescope Science Institute) examine how normal our solar system is, by comparing the properties of our planets to the averages obtained from known exoplanets.Comparing PropertiesSo how do we measure up?Densities of planets as a function of their mass. Exoplanets (N=287) are shown in blue, planets in our solar system are shown in red. [MartinLivio 2015]Planet masses and densitiesThose of the gas giants in our solar system are pretty typical. The terrestrial planets are on the low side for mass, but thats probably a selection effect: its very difficult to detect low-mass planets.Age of the solar systemRoughly half the stars in the disk of our galaxy are younger than the Sun, and half are older. Were definitely not special in age.Orbital locations of the planetsThis is actually a little strange: our solar system is lacking close-in planets. All of our planets, in fact, orbit at a distance that is larger than the mean distance observed in exoplanetary systems. Again, however, this might be a selection effect at work: its easier to detect large planets orbiting very close to their stars.Eccentricities of the planets orbitsOur planets are on very circular orbits and that actually makes us somewhat special too, compared to typical exoplanet systems. There is a possible explanation though: eccentricity of orbits tends to decrease with more planets in the system. Because weve got eight, it might be unsurprising that their eccentricities are so low.Super-EarthsWe dont have any planets in the range of 1-10 times the mass of Earth, which is pretty unusual super-Earths have a high occurrence rate among exoplanets.In summary, the authors find that for the most part, were a pretty typical solar system. Our most unusual features are the lack of a super-Earth, the lack of any close-in planets, and the low eccentricities of our planets. The fact that were fairly average means that, from a habitability standpoint, theres probably nothing special about our little corner of the galaxy. So perhaps life elsewhere is a possibility!CitationRebecca G. Martin and Mario Livio 2015 ApJ 810 105. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/810/2/105

As Big and As Good As It Gets: The Large Monolithic Imager for Lowell Observatory's 4.3-m Discovery Channel Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Massey, Philip; Dunham, E. W.; Bida, T. A.; Collins, P.; Hall, J. C.; Hunter, D. A.; Lauman, S.; Levine, S.; Neugent, K.; Nye, R.; Oliver, R.; Schleicher, D.; Zoonematkermani, S.

2013-01-01

The Large Monolithic Imager (LMI), a camera built at Lowell Observatory, is currently undergoing commissioning on Lowell's new 4.3-m Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT). At the heart of the LMI is the largest charge-coupled device (CCD) that can be built using current fabrication techniques, and the first of its kind to be made by e2v. The active area of the chip is 92.2mmx92.4mm, and has 6144 by 6160 15-micron pixels. Our choice of a single chip over a mosaic of smaller ones was inspired by the success of USNO in deploying a similarly ginormous device made by Semiconductor Technology Associates, Inc. There are some significant advantages that a (very!) large single CCD has over a mosaic of smaller ones. With a mosaic, one has to dither to fill in the gaps between the chips for complete areal coverage. This is not only costly in overhead, but it also poses a limitation in faint surface brightness studies, as the sky brightness is constantly changing during the dithering process. In addition, differences in the wavelength dependence of the DQE can lead to differences in the color terms from chip to chip in mosaics, requiring one to deal with each chip as a separate instrument (see the Local Group Galaxy photometry of Massey et al. 2006, AJ, 131, 2478). The LMI avoids these problems. The Discovery Channel Telescope is being built by Lowell Observatory in partnership with Discovery Communications. First light took place in May 2012. Institutional DCT partners include Boston University (in perpetuity), the University of Maryland, and the University of Toledo. More about the DCT can be found in the adjacent poster by Hall et al. The LMI has been made possible thanks to a National Science Foundation grant (AST-1005313). We are currently doing on-sky evaluation of the camera, as commissioning of the DCT progresses, determining color terms, photometric zero-points, astrometric characteristics, etc. We will present these results, along with technical details and many pretty pictures (!), in our poster.

Three-Dimensional Computed Tomography (3–D CT) for Evaluation and Management of Children with Complex Chest Wall Anomalies: Useful Information or Just Pretty Pictures?

PubMed Central

Calloway, E. Hollin; Chhotani, Ali N.; Lee, Yueh Z.; Phillips, J. Duncan

2013-01-01

Purpose Shaded Surface Display (SSD) technology, with 3-D CT reconstruction, has been reported in a few small series of patients with congenital or acquired chest wall deformities. SSD images are visually attractive and educational, but many institutions are hesitant to utilize these secondary to cost and image data storage concerns. This study was designed to assess the true value of SSD to the patient, family, and operating surgeon, in the evaluation and management of these children. Methods Following IRB approval, we performed a retrospective review of records of 82 patients with chest wall deformities, evaluated with SSD, from 2002 to 2009. SSD usefulness, when compared with routine 2-D CT, was graded on a strict numerical scale from 0 (added no value besides education for the patient/family) to 3 (critical for surgical planning and patient management). Results There were 56 males and 26 females. Median age was 15.3 years (range: 0.6–41.1). Deformities included 56 pectus excavatum, 19 pectus carinatum, and 8 other/mixed deformities. 6 patients also had acquired asphyxiating thoracic dystrophy (AATD). Eleven (13%) had previous chest wall reconstructive surgery. In 25 (30%) patients, SSD was useful or critical. Findings underappreciated on 2-D images included: sternal abnormalities (29), rib abnormalities (28), and heterotopic calcifications (7). SSD changed or influenced operation choice (4), clarified bone versus soft tissue (3), helped clarify AATD (3), and aided in rib graft evaluation (2). Point biserial correlation coefficient analysis (Rpb) displayed significance for SSD usefulness in patients with previous chest repair surgery (Rpb=0.48, p≤0.001), AATD (Rpb=0.34, p=0.001), pectus carinatum (Rpb=0.27, p=0.008), and females (Rpb=0.19, p=0.044). Conclusions Shaded Surface Display, when used to evaluate children and young adults with congenital or acquired chest wall deformities, provides useful or critical information for surgical planning and patient management in almost 1/3 of patients, especially those requiring a second operation, with acquired asphyxiating thoracic dystrophy, pectus carinatum, and females. PMID:21496531

Color us (or somebody) green

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

Hill, L.W.

1993-04-01

Customers are turning green with environmental awareness in the marketplace. This movement is quickly gaining momentum with increasing demand for natural ingredients, recyclable materials, and low pollution technology. Although foresters have practiced environmental awareness for a long time and have become pretty good at it, the green consumerism needs their attention. Products from the world's forests circulate in world trade. Consumer attitudes about what these products are, where they come from and how they are produced and transported affect our profession. The international Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was formed in 1992 to set a worldwide standard for good forest managementmore » by promoting widely recognized and respected principles of good forest management. The ten principles are listed.« less

"It was pretty scary": the theme of fear in young adult women's descriptions of a history of adolescent dating abuse.

PubMed

Burton, Candace W; Halpern-Felsher, Bonnie; Rehm, Roberta S; Rankin, Sally; Humphreys, Janice C

2013-11-01

The mental health impact of abusive adolescent dating relationships has not been well described, but fear related to abuse has been reported. We elaborate the theme of fear in women's descriptions of a history of adolescent dating abuse. A sample of community-based women, ages 19-34, who experienced an abusive dating relationship during adolescence (ages 11-20) was used. Data were analyzed via thematic analysis. Fear was a consistent and resonant theme. Three types of fear were identified: fear for self, fear for other relationships, and fearful expectation. These results offer important insights into the impact of abusive adolescent relationships on women's mental health.

A humming retrieval system based on music fingerprint

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Xingkai; Cao, Baiyu

2011-10-01

In this paper, we proposed an improved music information retrieval method utilizing the music fingerprint. The goal of this method is to represent the music with compressed musical information. Based on the selected MIDI files, which are generated automatically as our music target database, we evaluate the accuracy, effectiveness, and efficiency of this method. In this research we not only extract the feature sequence, which can represent the file effectively, from the query and melody database, but also make it possible for retrieving the results in an innovative way. We investigate on the influence of noise to the performance of our system. As experimental result shows, the retrieval accuracy arriving at up to91% without noise is pretty well

Science Opportunity Analyzer (SOA): Not Just Another Pretty Face

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Polanskey, Carol A.; Streiiffert, Barbara; O'Reilly, Taifun

2004-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews the Science Opportunity Analyzer (SOA). For the first time at JPL, the Cassini mission to Saturn is using distributed science operations for sequence generation. This means that scientist at other institutions has more responsibility to build the spacecraft sequence. Tools are required to support the sequence development. JPL tools required a complete configuration behind a firewall, and the tools that the user community had developed did not interface with the JPL tools. Therefore the SOA was created to bridge the gap between the remote scientists and the JPL operations teams. The presentation reviews the development of the SOA, and what was required of the system. The presentation reviews the functions that the SOA performed.

"Just another pretty face": a multidimensional scaling approach to face attractiveness and variability.

PubMed

Potter, Timothy; Corneille, Olivier; Ruys, Kirsten I; Rhodes, Ginwan

2007-04-01

Findings on both attractiveness and memory for faces suggest that people should perceive more similarity among attractive than among unattractive faces. A multidimensional scaling approach was used to test this hypothesis in two studies. In Study 1, we derived a psychological face space from similarity ratings of attractive and unattractive Caucasian female faces. In Study 2, we derived a face space for attractive and unattractive male faces of Caucasians and non-Caucasians. Both studies confirm that attractive faces are indeed more tightly clustered than unattractive faces in people's psychological face spaces. These studies provide direct and original support for theoretical assumptions previously made in the face space and face memory literatures.

The Introduction of Appreciative Inquiry to the U.S. Navy Using Appreciative Inquiry Interviews and the Large Group Intervention with Applications to U.S. Marine Corps Logistics Strategic Management

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-03-01

was selected to go to a deployed squadron. It was pretty challenging for this old farm boy—strapped my sea bag to my back and flew over to West ...them. And I think that it wasn’t just me, but all the " shooters " [catapult and arresting officers] watched out for these guys. I think we were...side and I think they appreciated that. The guys that didn’t do that— and there were a couple of " shooters " that didn’t do that—they weren’t as

A Completely Blind Video Integrity Oracle.

PubMed

Mittal, Anish; Saad, Michele A; Bovik, Alan C

2016-01-01

Considerable progress has been made toward developing still picture perceptual quality analyzers that do not require any reference picture and that are not trained on human opinion scores of distorted images. However, there do not yet exist any such completely blind video quality assessment (VQA) models. Here, we attempt to bridge this gap by developing a new VQA model called the video intrinsic integrity and distortion evaluation oracle (VIIDEO). The new model does not require the use of any additional information other than the video being quality evaluated. VIIDEO embodies models of intrinsic statistical regularities that are observed in natural vidoes, which are used to quantify disturbances introduced due to distortions. An algorithm derived from the VIIDEO model is thereby able to predict the quality of distorted videos without any external knowledge about the pristine source, anticipated distortions, or human judgments of video quality. Even with such a paucity of information, we are able to show that the VIIDEO algorithm performs much better than the legacy full reference quality measure MSE on the LIVE VQA database and delivers performance comparable with a leading human judgment trained blind VQA model. We believe that the VIIDEO algorithm is a significant step toward making real-time monitoring of completely blind video quality possible.

The Role and Quality of Software Safety in the NASA Constellation Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Layman, Lucas; Basili, Victor R.; Zelkowitz, Marvin V.

2010-01-01

In this study, we examine software safety risk in the early design phase of the NASA Constellation spaceflight program. Obtaining an accurate, program-wide picture of software safety risk is difficult across multiple, independently-developing systems. We leverage one source of safety information, hazard analysis, to provide NASA quality assurance managers with information regarding the ongoing state of software safety across the program. The goal of this research is two-fold: 1) to quantify the relative importance of software with respect to system safety; and 2) to quantify the level of risk presented by software in the hazard analysis. We examined 154 hazard reports created during the preliminary design phase of three major flight hardware systems within the Constellation program. To quantify the importance of software, we collected metrics based on the number of software-related causes and controls of hazardous conditions. To quantify the level of risk presented by software, we created a metric scheme to measure the specificity of these software causes. We found that from 49-70% of hazardous conditions in the three systems could be caused by software or software was involved in the prevention of the hazardous condition. We also found that 12-17% of the 2013 hazard causes involved software, and that 23-29% of all causes had a software control. Furthermore, 10-12% of all controls were software-based. There is potential for inaccuracy in these counts, however, as software causes are not consistently scoped, and the presence of software in a cause or control is not always clear. The application of our software specificity metrics also identified risks in the hazard reporting process. In particular, we found a number of traceability risks in the hazard reports may impede verification of software and system safety.

Quantifying Tropical Glacier Mass Balance Sensitivity to Climate Change Through Regional-Scale Modeling and The Randolph Glacier Inventory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malone, A.

2017-12-01

Quantifying mass balance sensitivity to climate change is essential for forecasting glacier evolution and deciphering climate signals embedded in archives of past glacier changes. Ideally, these quantifications result from decades of field measurement, remote sensing, and a hierarchy modeling approach, but in data-sparse regions, such as the Himalayas and tropical Andes, regional-scale modeling rooted in first principles provides a first-order picture. Previous regional-scaling modeling studies have applied a surface energy and mass balance approach in order to quantify equilibrium line altitude sensitivity to climate change. In this study, an expanded regional-scale surface energy and mass balance model is implemented to quantify glacier-wide mass balance sensitivity to climate change for tropical Andean glaciers. Data from the Randolph Glacier Inventory are incorporated, and additional physical processes are included, such as a dynamic albedo and cloud-dependent atmospheric emissivity. The model output agrees well with the limited mass balance records for tropical Andean glaciers. The dominant climate variables driving interannual mass balance variability differ depending on the climate setting. For wet tropical glaciers (annual precipitation >0.75 m y-1), temperature is the dominant climate variable. Different hypotheses for the processes linking wet tropical glacier mass balance variability to temperature are evaluated. The results support the hypothesis that glacier-wide mass balance on wet tropical glaciers is largely dominated by processes at the lowest elevation where temperature plays a leading role in energy exchanges. This research also highlights the transient nature of wet tropical glaciers - the vast majority of tropical glaciers and a vital regional water resource - in an anthropogenic warming world.

New scene change control scheme based on pseudoskipped picture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Youngsun; Lee, Jinwhan; Chang, Hyunsik; Nam, Jae Y.

1997-01-01

A new scene change control scheme which improves the video coding performance for sequences that have many scene changed pictures is proposed in this paper. The scene changed pictures except intra-coded picture usually need more bits than normal pictures in order to maintain constant picture quality. The major idea of this paper is how to obtain extra bits which are needed to encode scene changed pictures. We encode a B picture which is located before a scene changed picture like a skipped picture. We call such a B picture as a pseudo-skipped picture. By generating the pseudo-skipped picture like a skipped picture. We call such a B picture as a pseudo-skipped picture. By generating the pseudo-skipped picture, we can save some bits and they are added to the originally allocated target bits to encode the scene changed picture. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm improves encoding performance about 0.5 to approximately 2.0 dB of PSNR compared to MPEG-2 TM5 rate controls scheme. In addition, the suggested algorithm is compatible with MPEG-2 video syntax and the picture repetition is not recognizable.

Proteomic approaches and their application to plant gravitropism.

PubMed

Basu, Proma; Luesse, Darron R; Wyatt, Sarah E

2015-01-01

Proteomics is a powerful technique that allows researchers a window into how an organism responds to a mutation, a specific environment, or at a distinct point during development by quantifying relative protein abundance and posttranslational modifications. Here, we describe methods for the proteomic analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana tissue. Extraction protocols are provided for isolation of soluble, plasma membrane, and tonoplast proteins. In addition, basic analysis and quality metrics for MS/MS data are discussed. The protocols outlined have the potential to unlock new avenues of research that are not possible through basic genetics or transcriptomic approaches. By combining proteomic information with known gene regulatory patterns, researchers can gain a complete picture of how molecular pathways, such as those required for gravitropism, are initiated, regulated, and terminated.

How Corruption Blunts Counternarcotic Policies in Afghanistan: A Multiagent Investigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geller, Armando; Mussavi Rizi, Seyed M.; Łatek, Maciej M.

We report the results of multiagent modeling experiments on interactions between the drug industry and corruption in Afghanistan. The model formalizes assumptions on the motivations of players in the Afghan drug industry, quantifies the tradeoffs among various choices players face and enables inspection of the time, space and level of supply chain in which one can expect positive and negative impacts of counternarcotic policies. If reducing opium exports is one measure of effectiveness for NATO operations in Afghanistan, grasping the links between corruption and the drug industry should provide a better picture of the second-order interactions between corruption and investment in improving the governance quality, in deploying security forces tasked with eradication and interdiction and in programs to enhance rural livelihoods.

Dynamics and cluster formation in charged and uncharged Ficoll70 solutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palit, Swomitra; Yethiraj, Anand

2017-08-01

We apply pulsed-field-gradient NMR (PFG NMR) technique to measure the translational diffusion for both uncharged and charged polysaccharide (Ficoll70) in water. Analysis of the data indicates that the NMR signal attenuation above a certain packing fraction can be adequately fitted with a bi-exponential function. The self-diffusion measurements also show that the Ficoll70, an often-used compact, spherical polysucrose molecule, is itself nonideal, exhibiting signs of both softness and attractive interactions in the form of a stable suspension consisting of monomers and clusters. Further, we can quantify the fraction of monomers and clusters. This work strengthens the picture of the existence of a bound water layer within and around a porous Ficoll70 particle.

Large-Scale Structure and Hyperuniformity of Amorphous Ices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martelli, Fausto; Torquato, Salvatore; Giovambattista, Nicolas; Car, Roberto

2017-09-01

We investigate the large-scale structure of amorphous ices and transitions between their different forms by quantifying their large-scale density fluctuations. Specifically, we simulate the isothermal compression of low-density amorphous ice (LDA) and hexagonal ice to produce high-density amorphous ice (HDA). Both HDA and LDA are nearly hyperuniform; i.e., they are characterized by an anomalous suppression of large-scale density fluctuations. By contrast, in correspondence with the nonequilibrium phase transitions to HDA, the presence of structural heterogeneities strongly suppresses the hyperuniformity and the system becomes hyposurficial (devoid of "surface-area fluctuations"). Our investigation challenges the largely accepted "frozen-liquid" picture, which views glasses as structurally arrested liquids. Beyond implications for water, our findings enrich our understanding of pressure-induced structural transformations in glasses.

Granger-causality maps of diffusion processes.

PubMed

Wahl, Benjamin; Feudel, Ulrike; Hlinka, Jaroslav; Wächter, Matthias; Peinke, Joachim; Freund, Jan A

2016-02-01

Granger causality is a statistical concept devised to reconstruct and quantify predictive information flow between stochastic processes. Although the general concept can be formulated model-free it is often considered in the framework of linear stochastic processes. Here we show how local linear model descriptions can be employed to extend Granger causality into the realm of nonlinear systems. This novel treatment results in maps that resolve Granger causality in regions of state space. Through examples we provide a proof of concept and illustrate the utility of these maps. Moreover, by integration we convert the local Granger causality into a global measure that yields a consistent picture for a global Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. Finally, we recover invariance transformations known from the theory of autoregressive processes.

Seasonal variation in American black bear Ursus americanus activity patterns: Quantification via remote photography

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bridges, A.S.; Vaughan, M.R.; Klenzendorf, S.

2004-01-01

Activity pattern plasticity may serve as an evolutionary adaptation to optimize fitness in an inconstant environment, however, quantifying patterns and demonstrating variation can be problematic. For American black bears Ursus americanus, wariness and habitat inaccessibility further complicate quantification. Radio telemetry has been the primary technique used to examine activity, however, interpretation error and limitation on numbers of animals available to monitor prevent extrapolation to unmarked or untransmittered members of the population. We used remote cameras to quantify black bear activity patterns and examined differences by season, sex and reproductive class in the Alleghany Mountains of western Virginia, USA. We used 1,533 pictures of black bears taken during 1998-2002 for our analyses. Black bears generally were diurnal in summer and nocturnal in autumn with a vespertine activity peak during both seasons. Bear-hound training seasons occurred during September and may offer explanation for the observed shift towards nocturnal behaviour. We found no substantial differences in activity patterns between sex and reproductive classes. Use of remote cameras allowed us to efficiently sample larger numbers of individual animals and likely offered a better approximation of population-level activity patterns than individual-level, telemetry-based methodologies.

Flow Chamber System for the Statistical Evaluation of Bacterial Colonization on Materials

PubMed Central

Menzel, Friederike; Conradi, Bianca; Rodenacker, Karsten; Gorbushina, Anna A.; Schwibbert, Karin

2016-01-01

Biofilm formation on materials leads to high costs in industrial processes, as well as in medical applications. This fact has stimulated interest in the development of new materials with improved surfaces to reduce bacterial colonization. Standardized tests relying on statistical evidence are indispensable to evaluate the quality and safety of these new materials. We describe here a flow chamber system for biofilm cultivation under controlled conditions with a total capacity for testing up to 32 samples in parallel. In order to quantify the surface colonization, bacterial cells were DAPI (4`,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole)-stained and examined with epifluorescence microscopy. More than 100 images of each sample were automatically taken and the surface coverage was estimated using the free open source software g’mic, followed by a precise statistical evaluation. Overview images of all gathered pictures were generated to dissect the colonization characteristics of the selected model organism Escherichia coli W3310 on different materials (glass and implant steel). With our approach, differences in bacterial colonization on different materials can be quantified in a statistically validated manner. This reliable test procedure will support the design of improved materials for medical, industrial, and environmental (subaquatic or subaerial) applications. PMID:28773891

The measure matters: Language dominance profiles across measures in Spanish–English bilingual children*

PubMed Central

BEDORE, LISA M.; PEÑA, ELIZABETH D.; SUMMERS, CONNIE L.; BOERGER, KARIN M.; RESENDIZ, MARIA D.; GREENE, KAI; BOHMAN, THOMAS M.; GILLAM, RONALD B.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if different language measures resulted in the same classifications of language dominance and proficiency for a group of bilingual pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners. Data were analyzed for 1029 Spanish–English bilingual pre-kindergarteners who spanned the full range of bilingual language proficiency. Parent questionnaires were used to quantify age of first exposure and current language use. Scores from a short test of semantic and morphosyntactic development in Spanish and English were used to quantify children’s performance. Some children who were in the functionally monolingual range based on interview data demonstrated minimal knowledge of their other languages when tested. Current use accounted for more of the variance in language dominance than did age of first exposure. Results indicate that at different levels of language exposure children differed in their performance on semantic and morphosyntax tasks. These patterns suggest that it may be difficult to compare the results of studies that employ different measures of language dominance and proficiency. Current use is likely to be a useful metric of bilingual development that can be used to build a comprehensive picture of child bilingualism. PMID:23565049

A scoping review of traditional food security in Alaska.

PubMed

Walch, Amanda; Bersamin, Andrea; Loring, Philip; Johnson, Rhonda; Tholl, Melissa

2018-12-01

Food insecurity is a public health concern. Food security includes the pillars of food access, availability and utilisation. For some indigenous peoples, this may also include traditional foods. To conduct a scoping review on traditional foods and food security in Alaska. Google Scholar and the High North Research Documents were used to search for relevant primary research using the following terms: "traditional foods", "food security", "access", "availability", "utilisation", "Alaska", "Alaska Native" and "indigenous". Twenty four articles from Google Scholar and four articles from the High North Research Documents were selected. The articles revealed three types of research approaches, those that quantified traditional food intake (n=18), those that quantified food security (n=2), and qualitative articles that addressed at least one pillar of food security (n=8). Limited primary research is available on food security in Alaskan. Few studies directly measure food security while most provide a review of food security factors. Research investigating dietary intake of traditional foods is more prevalent, though many differences exist among participant age groups and geographical areas. Future research should include direct measurements of traditional food intake and food security to provide a more complete picture of traditional food security in Alaska.

Mapping permeability over the surface of the Earth

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gleeson, T.; Smith, L.; Moosdorf, N.; Hartmann, J.; Durr, H.H.; Manning, A.H.; Van Beek, L. P. H.; Jellinek, A. Mark

2011-01-01

Permeability, the ease of fluid flow through porous rocks and soils, is a fundamental but often poorly quantified component in the analysis of regional-scale water fluxes. Permeability is difficult to quantify because it varies over more than 13 orders of magnitude and is heterogeneous and dependent on flow direction. Indeed, at the regional scale, maps of permeability only exist for soil to depths of 1-2 m. Here we use an extensive compilation of results from hydrogeologic models to show that regional-scale (>5 km) permeability of consolidated and unconsolidated geologic units below soil horizons (hydrolithologies) can be characterized in a statistically meaningful way. The representative permeabilities of these hydrolithologies are used to map the distribution of near-surface (on the order of 100 m depth) permeability globally and over North America. The distribution of each hydrolithology is generally scale independent. The near-surface mean permeability is of the order of ???5 ?? 10-14 m2. The results provide the first global picture of near-surface permeability and will be of particular value for evaluating global water resources and modeling the influence of climate-surface-subsurface interactions on global climate change. Copyright ?? 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.

Mapping permeability over the surface of the Earth

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gleeson, Tom; Smith, Leslie; Moosdorf, Nils; Hartmann, Jens; Durr, Hans H.; Manning, Andrew H.; van Beek, Ludovicus P. H.; Jellinek, A. Mark

2011-01-01

Permeability, the ease of fluid flow through porous rocks and soils, is a fundamental but often poorly quantified component in the analysis of regional-scale water fluxes. Permeability is difficult to quantify because it varies over more than 13 orders of magnitude and is heterogeneous and dependent on flow direction. Indeed, at the regional scale, maps of permeability only exist for soil to depths of 1-2 m. Here we use an extensive compilation of results from hydrogeologic models to show that regional-scale (>5 km) permeability of consolidated and unconsolidated geologic units below soil horizons (hydrolithologies) can be characterized in a statistically meaningful way. The representative permeabilities of these hydrolithologies are used to map the distribution of near-surface (on the order of 100 m depth) permeability globally and over North America. The distribution of each hydrolithology is generally scale independent. The near-surface mean permeability is of the order of -5 x 10-14 m2. The results provide the first global picture of near-surface permeability and will be of particular value for evaluating global water resources and modeling the influence of climate-surface-subsurface interactions on global climate change.

Quantitative evaluation of reduction of plaque-like hard exudates in diabetic macular edema after intravitreal triamcinolone injection.

PubMed

Cekiç, Osman; Bardak, Yavuz; Tiğ, U Sahin; Yildizoğlu, Uzeyir; Bardak, Handan

2008-04-01

To describe a new method of quantifying the amount of plaque-like hard exudates after intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide injection in diabetic macular edema. This study included 22 eyes of 14 patients (mean age, 63 years) with chronic diabetic macular edema and plaque-like hard exudates. The patients were injected with a single dose of 4 mg intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide. The optic disc size as relative size unit was taken to quantify the hard exudates: Total areas of exudates and the optic nerve head were computed from fundus pictures with a digital analysis program on magnified images. The former was divided by the latter, and the results were expressed as a percentage value. The ratio was used to track improvements in a given eye over 6 months. Average ratio of hard exudates to optic nerve head area reduced to 81% of its initial value at 1 month (P=0.007), to 54% at 3 months (P<0.001) and to 41% at 6 months (P<0.001). The new method allowed detection of a significant reduction of ratio of hard exudates to optic disc area of diabetic plaque-like hard exudates following 4 mg intravitreal triamcinolone.

Gaze differences in processing pictures with emotional content.

PubMed

Budimir, Sanja; Palmović, Marijan

2011-01-01

The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) is a set of standardized emotionally evocative color photographs developed by NIMH Center for Emotion and Attention at the University of Florida. It contains more than 900 emotional pictures indexed by emotional valence, arousal and dominance. However, when IAPS pictures were used in studying emotions with the event-related potentials, the results have shown a great deal of variation and inconsistency. In this research arousal and dominance of pictures were controlled while emotional valence was manipulated as 3 categories, pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures. Two experiments were conducted with an eye-tracker in order to determine to what the participants turn their gaze. Participants were 25 psychology students with normal vision. Every participant saw all pictures in color and same pictures in black/white version. This makes 200 analyzed units for color pictures and 200 for black and white pictures. Every picture was divided into figure and ground. Considering that perception can be influenced by color, edges, luminosity and contrast and since all those factors are collapsed on the pictures in IAPS, we compared color pictures with same black and white pictures. In first eye-tracking IAPS research we analyzed 12 emotional pictures and showed that participants have higher number of fixations for ground on neutral and unpleasant pictures and for figure on pleasant pictures. Second experiment was conducted with 4 sets of emotional complementary pictures (pleasant/unpleasant) which differ only on the content in the figure area and it was shown that participants were more focused on the figure area than on the ground area. Future ERP (event related potential) research with IAPS pictures should take into consideration these findings and to either choose pictures with blank ground or adjust pictures in the way that ground is blank. For the following experiments suggestion is to put emotional content in the figure area and to use different non complementary pictures to see if there is difference between different emotional categories.

Approximation methods for the stability analysis of complete synchronization on duplex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Wenchen; Yang, Junzhong

2018-01-01

Recently, the synchronization on multi-layer networks has drawn a lot of attention. In this work, we study the stability of the complete synchronization on duplex networks. We investigate effects of coupling function on the complete synchronization on duplex networks. We propose two approximation methods to deal with the stability of the complete synchronization on duplex networks. In the first method, we introduce a modified master stability function and, in the second method, we only take into consideration the contributions of a few most unstable transverse modes to the stability of the complete synchronization. We find that both methods work well for predicting the stability of the complete synchronization for small networks. For large networks, the second method still works pretty well.

Writing filter processes for the SAGA editor, appendix G

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirslis, Peter A.

1985-01-01

The SAGA editor provides a mechanism by which separate processes can be invoked during an editing session to traverse portions of the parse tree being edited. These processes, termed filter processes, read, analyze, and possibly transform the parse tree, returning the result to the editor. By defining new commands with the editor's user defined command facility, which invoke filter processes, authors of filter can provide complex operations as simple commands. A tree plotter, pretty printer, and Pascal tree transformation program were already written using this facility. The filter processes are introduced, parse tree structure is described and the library interface made available to the programmer. Also discussed is how to compile and run filter processes. Examples are presented to illustrate aspect of each of these areas.

Energetic Neutral Atom Emissions From Venus: VEX Observations and Theoretical Modeling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fok, M.-C.; Galli, A.; Tanaka, T.; Moore, T. E.; Wurz, P.; Holmstrom, M.

2007-01-01

Venus has almost no intrinsic magnetic field to shield itself from its surrounding environment. The solar wind thus directly interacts with the planetary ionosphere and atmosphere. One of the by-products of this close encounter is the production of energetic neutral atom (ENA) emissions. Theoretical studies have shown that significant amount of ENAs are emanated from the planet. The launch of the Venus Express (VEX) in 2005 provided the first light ever of the Venus ENA emissions. The observed ENA flux level and structure are in pretty good agreement with the theoretical studies. In this paper, we present VEX ENA data and the comparison with numerical simulations. We seek to understand the solar wind interaction with the planet and the impacts on its atmospheres.

Doing Systems Engineering Without Thinking About It at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bohn-Meyer, Marta; Kilp, Stephen; Chun, Peggy; Mizukami, Masashi

2004-01-01

When asked about his processes in designing a new airplane, Burt Rutan responded: ...there is always a performance requirement. So I start with the basic physics of an airplane that can get those requirements, and that pretty much sizes an airplane... Then I look at the functionality... And then I try a lot of different configurations to meet that, and then justify one at a time, throwing them out... Typically I'll have several different configurations... But I like to experiment, certainly. I like to see if there are other ways to provide the utility. This kind of thinking engineering as a total systems engineering approach is what is being instilled in all engineers at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

The Amazing Molecule Race: A WebQuest for 8th Grade Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soehl, Diana; Moats, S. J.; Langston, G. I.

2009-01-01

Did you ever wonder if life exists beyond Earth? The molecules that helped make up you and your friends are the same floating in outer space! The Race is ON to discover as many molecules in space as possible and to find the most important molecules for life: amino acids, DNA and RNA! As aspiring astronomers and astrobiologists, you will explore how these molecules are detected on Earth and in space. The `Search for Life’ is a pretty big task considering the size of the Universe. By learning how to find evidence of life forming molecules you will be able to provide conclusions that will shape policy regarding space missions, funding and technology development during your lifetime.

The role of pictures in improving health communication: a review of research on attention, comprehension, recall, and adherence.

PubMed

Houts, Peter S; Doak, Cecilia C; Doak, Leonard G; Loscalzo, Matthew J

2006-05-01

To assess the effects of pictures on health communications. Peer reviewed studies in health education, psychology, education, and marketing journals were reviewed. There was no limit placed on the time periods searched. Pictures closely linked to written or spoken text can, when compared to text alone, markedly increase attention to and recall of health education information. Pictures can also improve comprehension when they show relationships among ideas or when they show spatial relationships. Pictures can change adherence to health instructions, but emotional response to pictures affects whether they increase or decrease target behaviors. All patients can benefit, but patients with low literacy skills are especially likely to benefit. Patients with very low literacy skills can be helped by spoken directions plus pictures to take home as reminders or by pictures plus very simply worded captions. Educators should: (1) ask "how can I use pictures to support key points?", (2) minimize distracting details in pictures, (3) use simple language in conjunction with pictures, (4) closely link pictures to text and/or captions, (5) include people from the intended audience in designing pictures, (6) have health professionals plan the pictures, not artists, and (7) evaluate pictures' effects by comparing response to materials with and without pictures.

Arousal-Enhanced Location Memory for Pictures

PubMed Central

Mather, Mara; Nesmith, Kathryn

2008-01-01

Four experiments revealed arousal-enhanced location memory for pictures. After an incidental encoding task, participants were more likely to remember the locations of positive and negative arousing pictures than the locations of non-arousing pictures, indicating better binding of location to picture. This arousal-enhanced binding effect did not have a cost for the binding of nearby pictures to their locations. Thus, arousal can enhance binding of an arousing picture’s content to its location without interfering with picture-location binding for nearby pictures. In addition, arousal-enhanced picture-location memory binding is not just a side effect of enhanced memory for the picture itself, as it occurs both when recognition memory is good and when it is poor. PMID:19190722

Enhancing light-harvesting power with coherent vibrational interactions: A quantum heat engine picture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Killoran, N.; Huelga, S. F.; Plenio, M. B.

2015-10-01

Recent evidence suggests that quantum effects may have functional importance in biological light-harvesting systems. Along with delocalized electronic excitations, it is now suspected that quantum coherent interactions with certain near-resonant vibrations may contribute to light-harvesting performance. However, the actual quantum advantage offered by such coherent vibrational interactions has not yet been established. We investigate a quantum design principle, whereby coherent exchange of single energy quanta between electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom can enhance a light-harvesting system's power above what is possible by thermal mechanisms alone. We present a prototype quantum heat engine which cleanly illustrates this quantum design principle and quantifies its quantum advantage using thermodynamic measures of performance. We also demonstrate the principle's relevance in parameter regimes connected to natural light-harvesting structures.

Interference of qubits in pure dephasing and almost pure dephasing environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Łobejko, Marcin; Mierzejewski, Marcin; Dajka, Jerzy

2015-07-01

Two-path interference of quantum particles with internal spin (qubits) interacting on one arm of the interferometer with bosonic environment is studied. It is assumed that the energy exchange between the qubit and its environment is either absent, which is a pure dephasing (decoherence) model, or very weak. Both the amplitude and the position of maximum of an output intensity discussed as a function of a phase shift can serve as a quantifier of parameters describing coupling between qubit and its environment. The time evolution of the qubit-environment system is analyzed in the Schrödinger picture and the output intensity for qubit-environment interaction close to pure decoherence is analyzed by means of perturbation theory. Quality of the applied approximation is verified by comparison with numerical results.

Importance of return flow as a component of water use

USGS Publications Warehouse

Trotta, L.C.; Horn, M.S.

1990-01-01

Understanding the relation between the hydrologjc cycle and water use is important for effective water-resources management. The hydrologic cycle is the natural pathway of water from evaporation to precipitation to infiltration or runoff and to storage from which evaporation can again occur. The science of water use is the study of human influences on the hydrologic cycle. Human activities affect the hydrologic cycle by changing the quantity, distribution, and quality of available water. Quantifying return flow is useful to water managers in evaluating such changes. Return flow is often thought of as what runs down the drain, or what is leftover after the water's purpose has been served. As innocuous as that may sound, return flow plays a significant part in the overall water-use picture.

Quantum mechanical which-way experiment with an internal degree of freedom

PubMed Central

Banaszek, Konrad; Horodecki, Paweł; Karpiński, Michał; Radzewicz, Czesław

2013-01-01

For a particle travelling through an interferometer, the trade-off between the available which-way information and the interference visibility provides a lucid manifestation of the quantum mechanical wave–particle duality. Here we analyse this relation for a particle possessing an internal degree of freedom such as spin. We quantify the trade-off with a general inequality that paints an unexpectedly intricate picture of wave–particle duality when internal states are involved. Strikingly, in some instances which-way information becomes erased by introducing classical uncertainty in the internal degree of freedom. Furthermore, even imperfect interference visibility measured for a suitable set of spin preparations can be sufficient to infer absence of which-way information. General results are illustrated with a proof-of-principle single-photon experiment. PMID:24161992

Quantifying Narrative Ability in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Computational Linguistic Analysis of Narrative Coherence

PubMed Central

Losh, Molly; Gordon, Peter C.

2014-01-01

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by difficulties with social communication and functioning, and ritualistic/repetitive behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). While substantial heterogeneity exists in symptom expression, impairments in language discourse skills, including narrative, are universally observed (Tager-Flusberg, Paul, & Lord, 2005). This study applied a computational linguistic tool, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), to objectively characterize narrative performance in ASD across two narrative contexts differing in interpersonal and cognitive demands. Results indicated that individuals with ASD produced narratives comparable in semantic content to those from controls when narrating from a picture book, but produced narratives diminished in semantic quality in a more demanding narrative recall task. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of LSA as a quantitative, objective, and efficient measure of narrative ability. PMID:24915929

A perspective on extracellular vesicles proteomics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosa-Fernandes, Livia; Rocha, Victória Bombarda; Carregari, Victor Corasolla; Urbani, Andrea; Palmisano, Giuseppe

2017-11-01

Increasing attention has been given to secreted extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the past decades, especially in the portrayal of their molecular cargo and role as messengers in both homeostasis and pathophysiological conditions. This review presents the state-of-the-art proteomic technologies to identify and quantify EVs proteins along with their PTMs, interacting partners and structural details. The rapid growth of mass spectrometry-based analytical strategies for protein sequencing, PTMs and structural characterization has improved the level of molecular details that can be achieve from limited amount of EVs isolated from different biological sources. Here we will provide a perspective view on the achievements and challenges on EVs proteome characterization using mass spectrometry. A detailed bioinformatics approach will help us to picture the molecular fingerprint of EVs and understand better their pathophysiological function.

Episodic effects on picture identification for alcoholic Korsakoff patients.

PubMed

Cermak, L S; Verfaellie, M; Letourneau, L; Jacoby, L L

1993-05-01

Experience with degraded pictures produces better subsequent identification of these pictures in amnesic patients. To examine the contribution of episodic memory to this facilitation, we compared identification of pictures that were identical to a studied picture, pictures that shared the same name with a studied picture, and new, unstudied pictures. In an initial phase of the experiment, patients clarified each picture until they could name it. During a second phase, they again clarified each picture and judged whether it was identical, similar (same-name), or different from pictures identified in the first phase. Korsakoff patients, as well as alcoholic controls, identified identical pictures faster than same-name pictures, and these in turn were identified faster than new pictures. The Korsakoff patients did show less facilitation than the alcoholic controls, but this difference was eliminated by testing the alcoholics after a week delay. The smaller facilitation in performance shown by amnesics and by alcoholics tested after a delay was accompanied by impaired recognition memory as well as by qualitative differences in recognition performance. The Korsakoff patients tended to label same-name pictures as different while alcoholic controls tested immediately called them identical, a tendency which disappeared when alcoholics were tested after a delay. These findings suggest that Korsakoff patients are influenced by specific episodic information even more than are alcoholic controls.

Snake pictures draw more early attention than spider pictures in non-phobic women: evidence from event-related brain potentials.

PubMed

Van Strien, J W; Eijlers, R; Franken, I H A; Huijding, J

2014-02-01

Snakes were probably the first predators of mammals and may have been important agents of evolutionary changes in the primate visual system allowing rapid visual detection of fearful stimuli (Isbell, 2006). By means of early and late attention-related brain potentials, we examined the hypothesis that more early visual attention is automatically allocated to snakes than to spiders. To measure the early posterior negativity (EPN), 24 healthy, non-phobic women watched the random rapid serial presentation of 600 snake pictures, 600 spider pictures, and 600 bird pictures (three pictures per second). To measure the late positive potential (LPP), they also watched similar pictures (30 pictures per stimulus category) in a non-speeded presentation. The EPN amplitude was largest for snake pictures, intermediate for spider pictures and smallest for bird pictures. The LPP was significantly larger for both snake and spider pictures when compared to bird pictures. Interestingly, spider fear (as measured by a questionnaire) was associated with EPN amplitude for spider pictures, whereas snake fear was not associated with EPN amplitude for snake pictures. The results suggest that ancestral priorities modulate the early capture of visual attention and that early attention to snakes is more innate and independent of reported fear. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

ERGOGRAPHY-RATIONAL METHOD FOR HANDLING AND EXTRACTING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN BIBLIOGRAPHIES OF PROLIFIC AUTHORS.

PubMed

Hummel, Hans E; Langner, S S; Sanguanpong, U

2015-01-01

Ergography is a novel technique invented in 2003 by the first author in his attempts to understand, analyze, and quantify at one glance the work of creative scientists without reading through lengthy, usually boring laudations of invited speakers. Traditional enumeration of accomplishments is helpful but less than satisfactory. Simple descriptive texts often do not satisfactorily answer the question of how, when and why certain observations and theories were established and how they influenced the development and advance of scientific fields at large. Five influential entomologists, R.L. Metcalf, H. Schmutterer, P. Karlson, T. Eisner and E.O. Wilson, as well as two biochemists, A. Butenandt and F. Lynen, a few of them still alive, were selected as targets to gain some experience with the new technique superficially resembling chromatograms or spectra. Pretty soon, it became clear that the "when" is easy to answer and follows from simple time diagrams. More difficult is the analysis of the "how" and "why" and "under whose influence" certain subject areas were pursued. Even more difficult to analyze is the impact, if any, certain papers had on subsequent authors and to what extent the "memes" influence contemporary or future authors within and outside established research schools of thought. Ergographic analysis is an ongoing project that learns its rules by trying and doing. It links the forefront of research to the task of the science historian who is looking back over considerable distances. Ergographists try to speed up this process by the tools of analyzing working patterns and hopefully finding similarities and signs of influences in other schools of thought. In the virtual absence of suitable critical electronic software with semantic resolution power, ergography is still a matter of personal enterprise, curiosity, intuition, and willingness to follow with a prepared mind the paths investigated before by ingenious talent and make them more transparent.

Assessing the validity of self-reported community benefit expenditures: evidence from not-for-profit hospitals in California.

PubMed

Rauscher, Simone; Vyzas, Mark

2012-01-01

In its revised Form 990 Schedule H, the Internal Revenue Service requires not-for-profit hospitals to provide detailed financial information on their community benefits, yet no standardized reporting guidelines exist for how these activities should be quantified. As a result, little is known currently about whether a hospital's self-reported community benefit expenditures provide an accurate picture of its commitment to serving the community. To assess the validity of hospitals' self-reported community benefit expenditures. Data for this study came from California hospitals. Self-reported community benefit expenditures were derived from hospitals' annual community benefit reports for the year 2009. Bivariate correlation analysis was used to compare self-reported expenditures to a set of indicators of hospitals' charitable activity. Of the 218 private, not-for-profit California hospitals that were required to submit community benefit reports for 2009, 91 (42%) provided sufficient information for our analysis. California hospitals' self-reported community benefit expenditures were strongly correlated with indicators of charitable activity. Hospitals that reported higher community benefit expenditures engaged in more charitable activities than hospitals that reported lower levels of community benefit spending. Expenditure information from California hospitals' community benefit reports was found to be a valid indicator of charitable activity. Self-reported community benefit spending may thus provide a fairly accurate picture of a hospital's commitment to serving its community, despite the lack of standardized reporting guidelines.

Quantifying narrative ability in autism spectrum disorder: a computational linguistic analysis of narrative coherence.

PubMed

Losh, Molly; Gordon, Peter C

2014-12-01

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by serious difficulties with the social use of language, along with impaired social functioning and ritualistic/repetitive behaviors (American Psychiatric Association in Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5, 5th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Arlington, 2013). While substantial heterogeneity exists in symptom expression, impairments in language discourse skills, including narrative (or storytelling), are universally observed in autism (Tager-Flusberg et al. in Handbook on autism and pervasive developmental disorders, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York, pp 335-364, 2005). This study applied a computational linguistic tool, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), to objectively characterize narrative performance in high-functioning individuals with autism and typically-developing controls, across two different narrative contexts that differ in the interpersonal and cognitive demands placed on the narrator. Results indicated that high-functioning individuals with autism produced narratives comparable in semantic content to those produced by controls when narrating from a picture book, but produced narratives diminished in semantic quality in a more demanding narrative recall task. This pattern is similar to that detected from analyses of hand-coded picture book narratives in prior research, and extends findings to an additional narrative context that proves particularly challenging for individuals with autism. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of LSA as a quantitative, objective, and efficient measure of narrative ability.

Individual differences in spatial configuration learning predict the occurrence of intrusive memories.

PubMed

Meyer, Thomas; Smeets, Tom; Giesbrecht, Timo; Quaedflieg, Conny W E M; Girardelli, Marta M; Mackay, Georgina R N; Merckelbach, Harald

2013-03-01

The dual-representation model of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Brewin, Gregory, Lipton, & Burgess, Psychological Review, 117, 210-232 2010) argues that intrusions occur when people fail to construct context-based representations during adverse experiences. The present study tested a specific prediction flowing from this model. In particular, we investigated whether the efficiency of temporal-lobe-based spatial configuration learning would account for individual differences in intrusive experiences and physiological reactivity in the laboratory. Participants (N = 82) completed the contextual cuing paradigm, which assesses spatial configuration learning that is believed to depend on associative encoding in the parahippocampus. They were then shown a trauma film. Afterward, startle responses were quantified during presentation of trauma reminder pictures versus unrelated neutral and emotional pictures. PTSD symptoms were recorded in the week following participation. Better configuration learning performance was associated with fewer perceptual intrusions, r = -.33, p < .01, but was unrelated to physiological responses to trauma reminder images (ps > .46) and had no direct effect on intrusion-related distress and overall PTSD symptoms, rs > -.12, ps > .29. However, configuration learning performance tended to be associated with reduced physiological responses to unrelated negative images, r = -.20, p = .07. Thus, while spatial configuration learning appears to be unrelated to affective responding to trauma reminders, our overall findings support the idea that the context-based memory system helps to reduce intrusions.

Emotional event-related potentials are reduced if negative pictures presented at fixation are unattended.

PubMed

Wiens, Stefan; Sand, Anders; Norberg, Joakim; Andersson, Per

2011-05-20

Viewing of emotional pictures elicits two event-related potentials (ERPs) to emotional versus neutral pictures: an early posterior negativity (EPN) and a late positive potential (LPP). Because it is unresolved whether these indexes of emotional processing are reduced to task-irrelevant pictures at fixation, negative and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture Set (IAPS) were shown at fixation together with 6 letters that surrounded the pictures. In separate tasks, participants were instructed to attend either the pictures or the letters. When the pictures were task relevant, results showed an EPN and LPP. In contrast, when the pictures were task irrelevant, the EPN was eliminated and the LPP reduced. Performance was high in both tasks (hit rates>87%), but somewhat better when the pictures were relevant. However, analyses showed no relationship between this performance difference and the differences in EPN and LPP between tasks. These results suggest that emotional processing of strong, negative pictures is sensitive to manipulations of attention even if the pictures are shown at fixation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of Induced Memory Strategies on Children's Memory for Pictures and Words.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Filan, Gary; Sullivan, Howard

In this study of children's memory, two types of presentation modes (pictures or words) were crossed with two levels of memory strategy ("make a picture in your mind" or "think of the word") to comprise four treatments: see picture/think picture, see picture/think word, see word/think picture, see word/think word. The study was conducted with 144…

Positive erotic picture stimuli for emotion research in heterosexual females.

PubMed

Jacob, Gitta Anne; Arntz, Arnoud; Domes, Gregor; Reiss, Neele; Siep, Nicolette

2011-12-30

In most experimental studies, emotional pictures are widely used as stimulus material. However, there is still a lack of standardization of picture stimuli displaying erotic relationships, despite the association between a number of psychological problems and severe impairments and problems in intimate relationships. The aim of the study was to test a set of erotic stimuli, with the potential to be used in experimental studies, with heterosexual female subjects. Twenty International Affective Picture System (IAPS) pictures and an additional 100 pictures showing romantic but not explicitly sexual scenes and/or attractive single males were selected. All pictures were rated with respect to valence, arousal, and dominance by 41 heterosexual women and compared to pictures with negative, positive, and neutral emotional valence. Erotic IAPS pictures and our additional erotic pictures did not differ in any of the evaluation dimensions. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) for valence, arousal, and dominance comparing different picture valence categories showed strong effects for category. However, valence was not significantly different between erotic and positive pictures, while arousal and control were not significantly different between positive and neutral pictures. The pictures of our new set are as positive for heterosexual women as highly positive IAPS pictures, but higher in arousal and dominance. The picture set can be used in experimental psychiatric studies requiring high numbers of stimuli per category. Limitations are the restriction of stimuli application to heterosexual females only and to self-report data. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neural correlates of processing negative and sexually arousing pictures.

PubMed

Bailey, Kira; West, Robert; Mullaney, Kellie M

2012-01-01

Recent work has questioned whether the negativity bias is a distinct component of affective picture processing. The current study was designed to determine whether there are different neural correlates of processing positive and negative pictures using event-related brain potentials. The early posterior negativity and late positive potential were greatest in amplitude for erotic pictures. Partial Least Squares analysis revealed one latent variable that distinguished erotic pictures from neutral and positive pictures and another that differentiated negative pictures from neutral and positive pictures. The effects of orienting task on the neural correlates of processing negative and erotic pictures indicate that affective picture processing is sensitive to both stimulus-driven, and attentional or decision processes. The current data, together with other recent findings from our laboratory, lead to the suggestion that there are distinct neural correlates of processing negative and positive stimuli during affective picture processing.

Neural Correlates of Processing Negative and Sexually Arousing Pictures

PubMed Central

Bailey, Kira; West, Robert; Mullaney, Kellie M.

2012-01-01

Recent work has questioned whether the negativity bias is a distinct component of affective picture processing. The current study was designed to determine whether there are different neural correlates of processing positive and negative pictures using event-related brain potentials. The early posterior negativity and late positive potential were greatest in amplitude for erotic pictures. Partial Least Squares analysis revealed one latent variable that distinguished erotic pictures from neutral and positive pictures and another that differentiated negative pictures from neutral and positive pictures. The effects of orienting task on the neural correlates of processing negative and erotic pictures indicate that affective picture processing is sensitive to both stimulus-driven, and attentional or decision processes. The current data, together with other recent findings from our laboratory, lead to the suggestion that there are distinct neural correlates of processing negative and positive stimuli during affective picture processing. PMID:23029071

What's Old is New in the Large Magellanic Cloud

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2006-01-01

[figure removed for brevity, see original site] Poster Version Large Magellanic Cloud

This vibrant image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy.

The infrared image, a mosaic of 300,000 individual tiles, offers astronomers a unique chance to study the lifecycle of stars and dust in a single galaxy. Nearly one million objects are revealed for the first time in this Spitzer view, which represents about a 1,000-fold improvement in sensitivity over previous space-based missions. Most of the new objects are dusty stars of various ages populating the Large Magellanic Cloud; the rest are thought to be background galaxies.

The blue color in the picture, seen most prominently in the central bar, represents starlight from older stars. The chaotic, bright regions outside this bar are filled with hot, massive stars buried in thick blankets of dust. The red color around these bright regions is from dust heated by stars, while the red dots scattered throughout the picture are either dusty, old stars or more distant galaxies. The greenish clouds contain cooler interstellar gas and molecular-sized dust grains illuminated by ambient starlight.

Astronomers say this image allows them to quantify the process by which space dust -- the same stuff that makes up planets and even people -- is recycled in a galaxy. The picture shows dust at its three main cosmic hangouts: around the young stars, where it is being consumed (red-tinted, bright clouds); scattered about in the space between stars (greenish clouds); and in expelled shells of material from old stars (randomly-spaced red dots).

The Large Magellanic Cloud, located 160,000 light-years from Earth, is one of a handful of dwarf galaxies that orbit our own Milky Way. It is approximately one-third as wide as the Milky Way, and, if it could be seen in its entirety, would cover the same amount of sky as a grid of about 480 full moons. About one-third of the entire galaxy can be seen in the Spitzer image.

This picture is a composite of infrared light captured by Spitzer. Light with wavelengths of 3.6 (blue) and 8 (green) microns was captured by the telescope's infrared array camera; 24-micron light (red) was detected by the multiband imaging photometer.

What Old is New in the Large Magellanic Cloud

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-09-01

This vibrant image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. The infrared image, a mosaic of 300,000 individual tiles, offers astronomers a unique chance to study the lifecycle of stars and dust in a single galaxy. Nearly one million objects are revealed for the first time in this Spitzer view, which represents about a 1,000-fold improvement in sensitivity over previous space-based missions. Most of the new objects are dusty stars of various ages populating the Large Magellanic Cloud; the rest are thought to be background galaxies. The blue color in the picture, seen most prominently in the central bar, represents starlight from older stars. The chaotic, bright regions outside this bar are filled with hot, massive stars buried in thick blankets of dust. The red color around these bright regions is from dust heated by stars, while the red dots scattered throughout the picture are either dusty, old stars or more distant galaxies. The greenish clouds contain cooler interstellar gas and molecular-sized dust grains illuminated by ambient starlight. Astronomers say this image allows them to quantify the process by which space dust -- the same stuff that makes up planets and even people -- is recycled in a galaxy. The picture shows dust at its three main cosmic hangouts: around the young stars, where it is being consumed (red-tinted, bright clouds); scattered about in the space between stars (greenish clouds); and in expelled shells of material from old stars (randomly-spaced red dots). The Large Magellanic Cloud, located 160,000 light-years from Earth, is one of a handful of dwarf galaxies that orbit our own Milky Way. It is approximately one-third as wide as the Milky Way, and, if it could be seen in its entirety, would cover the same amount of sky as a grid of about 480 full moons. About one-third of the entire galaxy can be seen in the Spitzer image. This picture is a composite of infrared light captured by Spitzer. Light with wavelengths of 3.6 (blue) and 8 (green) microns was captured by the telescope's infrared array camera; 24-micron light (red) was detected by the multiband imaging photometer. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07137

Updating existing emotional memories involves the frontopolar/orbitofrontal cortex in ways that acquiring new emotional memories does not

PubMed Central

Sakaki, Michiko; Niki, Kazuhisa; Mather, Mara

2011-01-01

In life, we must often learn new associations to people, places, or things we already know. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated the neural mechanisms underlying emotional memory updating. Nineteen participants first viewed negative and neutral pictures and learned associations between those pictures and other neutral stimuli, such as neutral objects and encoding tasks. This initial learning phase was followed by a memory updating phase, during which participants learned picture-location associations for old pictures (i.e., pictures previously associated with other neutral stimuli) and new pictures (i.e., pictures not seen in the first phase). There was greater frontopolar/ orbitofrontal (OFC) activity when people learned picture-location associations for old negative pictures than for new negative pictures, but frontopolar OFC activity did not significantly differ during learning locations of old versus new neutral pictures. In addition, frontopolar activity was more negatively correlated with the amygdala when participants learned picture-location associations for old negative pictures than for new negative or old neutral pictures. Past studies revealed that the frontopolar OFC allows for updating the affective values of stimuli in reversal learning or extinction of conditioning (e.g., Izquierdo & Murray, 2005); our findings suggest that it plays a more general role in updating associations to emotional stimuli. PMID:21568639

One look is worth a thousand words: New picture stimuli of interpersonal situations.

PubMed

Fuchs, Simon; Bohleber, Laura M; Ernst, Jutta; Soguel-Dit-Piquard, Jasmine; Boeker, Heinz; Richter, Andre

2018-06-01

This paper introduces a picture system that can be used in functional imaging experiments exploring interpersonal relations. This is important for psychotherapy research to understand the neural basis of psychological treatment effects. Pictures have many advantages for the design of functional imaging experiments, but no picture system illustrating interpersonal behavior patterns is, to date, available. We therefore developed, on the basis of a validated card-sorting test, the Interpersonal Relations Picture System. In summary, 43 pictures with 2 or more stick figures in different social situations and 9 control pictures were composed. To test the relation between each picture and the appropriate description, two successive online surveys, including 1058 and 675 individuals respectively, were conducted. Using two question types, the grade expressiveness of each picture was assessed. In total, 24 pictures and 6 control pictures met our criteria for sufficient strength and consistency with the appropriate description. Both measures are correlated with each other in all pictures illustrating interpersonal behavior, but not in the control pictures. Relations to other stimulus types and the applicability of the new picture system in functional neuroimaging methods are discussed. It is concluded that the new system will be helpful in studying the profound effect of relational change in psychotherapy.

Cascaded Processing in Written Naming: Evidence from the Picture-Picture Interference Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roux, Sebastien; Bonin, Patrick

2012-01-01

The issue of how information flows within the lexical system in written naming was investigated in five experiments. In Experiment 1, participants named target pictures that were accompanied by context pictures having phonologically and orthographically related or unrelated names (e.g., a picture of a "ball" superimposed on a picture of…

Gist-based conceptual processing of pictures remains intact in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

PubMed

Deason, Rebecca G; Hussey, Erin P; Budson, Andrew E; Ally, Brandon A

2012-03-01

The picture superiority effect, better memory for pictures compared to words, has been found in young adults, healthy older adults, and, most recently, in patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment. Although the picture superiority effect is widely found, there is still debate over what drives this effect. One main question is whether it is enhanced perceptual or conceptual information that leads to the advantage for pictures over words. In this experiment, we examined the picture superiority effect in healthy older adults and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to better understand the role of gist-based conceptual processing. We had participants study three exemplars of categories as either words or pictures. In the test phase, participants were again shown pictures or words and were asked to determine whether the item was in the same category as something they had studied earlier or whether it was from a new category. We found that all participants demonstrated a robust picture superiority effect, better performance for pictures than for words. These results suggest that the gist-based conceptual processing of pictures is preserved in patients with MCI. While in healthy older adults preserved recollection for pictures could lead to the picture superiority effect, in patients with MCI it is most likely that the picture superiority effect is a result of spared conceptually based familiarity for pictures, perhaps combined with their intact ability to extract and use gist information.

Gist-based conceptual processing of pictures remains intact in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment

PubMed Central

Deason, Rebecca G.; Hussey, Erin P.; Budson, Andrew E.; Ally, Brandon A.

2012-01-01

Objective The picture superiority effect, better memory for pictures compared to words, has been found in young adults, healthy older adults, and, most recently, in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment. Although the picture superiority effect is widely found, there is still debate over what drives this effect. One main question is whether it is enhanced perceptual or conceptual information that leads to the advantage for pictures over words. In this experiment, we examined the picture superiority effect in healthy older adults and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to better understand the role of gist-based conceptual processing. Method We had participants study three exemplars of categories as either words or pictures. In the test phase, participants were again shown pictures or words and were asked to determine whether the item was in the same category as something they had studied earlier or whether it was from a new category. Results We found that all participants demonstrated a robust picture superiority effect, better performance for pictures than for words. Conclusions These results suggest that the gist-based conceptual processing of pictures is preserved in patients with MCI. While in healthy older adults preserved recollection for pictures could lead to the picture superiority effect, in patients with MCI it is most likely that the picture superiority effect is a result of spared conceptually-based familiarity for pictures, perhaps combined with their intact ability to extract and use gist information. PMID:22229341

The role of age on reactivity and memory for emotional pictures.

PubMed

Christianson, S A; Fällman, L

1990-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate subjects' reactivity to emotional pictures and their recollection of these pictures, and to examine these two factors as they relate to age. Adolescents and young adults were shown emotionally arousing scenic pictures for long (4-s) and very brief (50-ms) durations. Recognition of the pictures and recall and recognition of words presented along with the pictures were assessed both immediately after the presentation and six weeks later. The results showed that very negative pictures are retained better than neutral or even positive pictures, and that very negative pictures reduce memory for associated information. It was also found that adolescents show a somewhat lower reactivity to very negative pictures and a higher degree of retention of these pictures than adults. The results are discussed in relation to (a) habituation effects, (b) strategies that subjects might develop to block emotional involvement, and (c) the notion that watching violence might serve as a powerful prime to socially undesirable behaviour.

The time course of implicit processing of erotic pictures: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Feng, Chunliang; Wang, Lili; Wang, Naiyi; Gu, Ruolei; Luo, Yue-Jia

2012-12-13

The current study investigated the time course of the implicit processing of erotic stimuli using event-related potentials (ERPs). ERPs elicited by erotic pictures were compared with those by three other types of pictures: non-erotic positive, negative, and neutral pictures. We observed that erotic pictures evoked enhanced neural responses compared with other pictures at both early (P2/N2) and late (P3/positive slow wave) temporal stages. These results suggested that erotic pictures selectively captured individuals' attention at early stages and evoked deeper processing at late stages. More importantly, the amplitudes of P2, N2, and P3 only discriminated between erotic and non-erotic (i.e., positive, neutral, and negative) pictures. That is, no difference was revealed among non-erotic pictures, although these pictures differed in both valence and arousal. Thus, our results suggest that the erotic picture processing is beyond the valence and arousal. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

How Children Learn to Navigate the Symbolic World of Pictures: The Importance of the Artist's Mind and Differentiating Picture Modalities.

PubMed

Allen, M L; Armitage, E

2017-01-01

Pictures offer a unique and essential contribution to our lives, both in terms of aesthetic pleasure and links to symbolic thought. As such, psychologists have devoted significant time to investigating how children acquire an understanding of pictures. This chapter focuses on two particular facets of this development: the role of the artist and the importance of picture modality. First, we review work that has focused on tracking children's ability to (a) map the relationship between the mental state of the artist and their pictures, and (b) incorporate such considerations into their evaluations of pictures. Drawing these literatures together provides an up-to-date account of how children acquire a mentalistic understanding of pictures. Second, we argue that a mature theory of pictures must enable children to distinguish between different picture types (e.g., photographs vs drawings), and therefore that picture modality should be incorporated into existing theoretical accounts of pictorial development. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Manipulating affective state using extended picture presentations.

PubMed

Sutton, S K; Davidson, R J; Donzella, B; Irwin, W; Dottl, D A

1997-03-01

Separate, extended series of positive, negative, and neutral pictures were presented to 24 (12 men, 12 women) undergraduates. Each series was presented on a different day, with full counterbalancing of presentation orders. Affective state was measured using (a) orbicularis oculi activity in response to acoustic startle probes during picture presentation, (b) corrugator supercilii activity between and during picture presentation, and (c) changes in self-reports of positive and negative affect. Participants exhibited larger eyeblink reflex magnitudes when viewing negative than when viewing positive pictures. Corrugator activity was also greater during the negative than during the positive picture set, during both picture presentation and the period between pictures. Self-reports of negative affect increased in response to the negative picture set, and self-reports of positive affect were greatest following the positive picture set. These findings suggest that extended picture presentation is an effective method of manipulating affective state and further highlight the utility of startle probe and facial electromyographic measures in providing on-line readouts of affective state.

Effects of attention manipulations on motivated attention to feared and nonfeared negative distracters in spider fear.

PubMed

Norberg, Joakim; Wiens, Stefan

2013-11-09

When people view emotional and neutral pictures, the emotional pictures capture more attention than do neutral pictures. In support, studies with event-related potentials have shown that the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP) to emotional versus neutral pictures are enhanced when pictures are attended. However, this motivated attention decreases when voluntary attention is directed away from the pictures. Most previous studies included only generally emotional pictures of either negative or positive valence. Because people with spider fear report intense fear of spiders, we examined whether directing attention away from emotional pictures at fixation decreases motivated attention less strongly for spiders than for generally negative distracters. We recorded event-related potentials from 128 channels to study whether manipulations of attention (i.e., spatial attention and perceptual load) decrease the EPN and the LPP to emotional distracters less strongly for spiders than for fear-irrelevant negative pictures in people with spider fear. Results confirmed that the EPN and the LPP to spiders (vs. neutral pictures) were particularly enhanced in participants with spider fear compared to participants without spider fear. When attention was directed away from the pictures, the EPN and the LPP to spiders (vs. neutral pictures) decreased similarly in fearful and nonfearful participants. Further, in fearful participants, the decrease in the EPN and the LPP was similar for spiders and for fear-irrelevant negative pictures. Our findings suggest that for people with spider fear, directing attention away from emotional pictures at fixation decreases motivated attention to these distracters similarly for spiders as for fear-irrelevant negative pictures. These findings imply that attention to spiders in spider fear does not exceed the level of attention expected from the spider pictures' high arousal and negative valence (i.e., their intrinsic motivated attention).

An enquiry into the process of categorization of pictures and words.

PubMed

Viswanathan, Madhubalan; Childers, Terry L

2003-02-01

This paper reports a series of experiments conducted to study the categorization of pictures and words. Whereas some studies reported in the past have found a picture advantage in categorization, other studies have yielded no differences between pictures and words. This paper used an experimental paradigm designed to overcome some methodological problems to examine picture-word categorization. The results of one experiment were consistent with an advantage for pictures in categorization. To identify the source of the picture advantage in categorization, two more experiments were conducted. Findings suggest that semantic relatedness may play an important role in the categorization of both pictures and words. We explain these findings by suggesting that pictures simultaneously access both their concept and visually salient features whereas words may initially access their concept and may subsequently activate features. Therefore, pictures have an advantage in categorization by offering multiple routes to semantic processing.

Why women see differently from the way men see? A review of sex differences in cognition and sports

PubMed Central

Li, Rena

2014-01-01

The differences of learning and memory between males and females have been well documented and confirmed by both human and animal studies. The sex differences in cognition started from early stage of neuronal development and last through entire life span. The major biological basis of the gender-dependent cognitive activity includes two major components: sex hormone and sex-related characteristics, such as sex-determining region of the Y chromosome (SRY) protein. However, the knowledge of how much biology of sex contributes to normal cognitive function and elite athletes in various sports are still pretty limited. In this review, we will be focusing on sex differences in spatial learning and memory – especially the role of male- and female-type cognitive behaviors in sports. PMID:25520851

Monitoring a restless volcano: The 2004 eruption of Mount St. Helens

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gardner, C.

2005-01-01

Although the precise course of volcanic activity is difficult to predict, volcanologists are pretty adept at interpreting volcanic signals from well-monitored volcanoes in order to make short-term forecasts. Various monitoring tools record effects to give us warning before eruptions, changes in eruptive behavior during eruptions, or signals that an eruption is ending. Foremost among these tools is seismic monitoring. The character, size, depth and rate of earthquakes are all important to the interpretation of what is happening belowground. The first inkling of renewed activity at Mount St. Helens began in the early hours of Sept. 23, when a seismic swarm - tens to hundreds of earthquakes over days to a week - began beneath the volcano. This article details the obervations made during the eruptive sequence.

[Security aspects on the Internet].

PubMed

Seibel, R M; Kocher, K; Landsberg, P

2000-04-01

Is it possible to use the Internet as a secure media for transport of telemedicine? Which risks exist for routine use? In this article state of the art methods of security were analysed. Telemedicine in the Internet has severe risks, because patient data and hospital data of a secure Intranet can be manipulated by connecting it to the Web. Establishing of a firewall and the introduction of HPC (Health Professional Card) are minimizing the risk of un-authorized access to the hospital server. HPC allows good safety with digital signature and authentication of host and client of medical data. For secure e-mail PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is easy to use as a standard protocol. Planning all activities exactly as well as following legal regulations are important requisites for reduction of safety risks in Internet.

No longer just a pretty face: fashion magazines' depictions of ideal female beauty from 1959 to 1999.

PubMed

Sypeck, Mia Foley; Gray, James J; Ahrens, Anthony H

2004-11-01

The print media's depiction of the ideal of feminine beauty as presented to American women was examined for the years 1959-1999. Trends were investigated through an analysis of cover models appearing on the four most popular American fashion magazines. Body size for fashion models decreased significantly during the 1980s and 1990s. There was also a dramatic increase in the frequency with which the media depicted the entire bodies of the models from the 1960s to the 1990s. Both the increasingly thin images and the striking increase in full-body portrayals suggest an increase in the value placed by American society on a thin ideal for women, a change that is concurrent with the increase in disturbed eating patterns among American women.

Adding a Bit More History to Science Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeBuvitz, William

2011-05-01

The usual science course is not meant to be a history course and the usual science book is not meant to be a history book. However, most science books do include some historical information. Unfortunately, the history part is usually so brief that it is far from interesting and often so oversimplified that it is totally wrong. Introductory physics books often present the history of physics as a dull, cold, logical progression of discoveries and theories. As a result, the student might think that one day Sir Isaac Newton said to himself, "I think I'll produce a theory of gravitation." Then he sat down, wrote it all out, published it, received universal acclaim, and then was included in all physics textbooks. This view of science can look pretty dull and unappealing to students.

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

Miller, James A.

This is a pretty pretentious title, but I promised that I would write something autobiographical in this space, and I will do that. However, first I want to thank everyone who contributed to the Festschrift. When Stephen Klippenstein told me that he and Craig Taatjes had gotten approval for it (against my advice), I envisioned a situation where the issue had only two papers, both co-authored by Stephen. Luckily that turned out not to be the case. At the time of this writing there are forty-three manuscripts at various stages of review. I am extremely grateful to Craig and Stephen,more » to the editors of the journal, and to all the authors for the tribute. It is far and away the most flattering thing that anyone has ever done for me in my career.« less

Why women see differently from the way men see? A review of sex differences in cognition and sports.

PubMed

Li, Rena

2014-09-01

The differences of learning and memory between males and females have been well documented and confirmed by both human and animal studies. The sex differences in cognition started from early stage of neuronal development and last through entire life span. The major biological basis of the gender-dependent cognitive activity includes two major components: sex hormone and sex-related characteristics, such as sex-determining region of the Y chromosome (SRY) protein. However, the knowledge of how much biology of sex contributes to normal cognitive function and elite athletes in various sports are still pretty limited. In this review, we will be focusing on sex differences in spatial learning and memory - especially the role of male- and female-type cognitive behaviors in sports.

Muon Simulation at the Daya Bay SIte

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

Mengyun, Guan; Jun, Cao; Changgen, Yang

2006-05-23

With a pretty good-resolution mountain profile, we simulated the underground muon background at the Daya Bay site. To get the sea-level muon flux parameterization, a modification to the standard Gaisser's formula was introduced according to the world muon data. MUSIC code was used to transport muon through the mountain rock. To deploy the simulation, first we generate a statistic sample of sea-level muon events according to the sea-level muon flux distribution formula; then calculate the slant depth of muon passing through the mountain using an interpolation method based on the digitized data of the mountain; finally transport muons through rockmore » to get underground muon sample, from which we can get results of muon flux, mean energy, energy distribution and angular distribution.« less

Bonding Pictures: Affective Ratings Are Specifically Associated to Loneliness But Not to Empathy

PubMed Central

Silva, Heraldo D.; Campagnoli, Rafaela R.; Mota, Bruna Eugênia F.; Araújo, Cássia Regina V.; Álvares, Roberta Sônia R.; Mocaiber, Izabela; Rocha-Rego, Vanessa; Volchan, Eliane; Souza, Gabriela G. L.

2017-01-01

Responding to pro-social cues plays an important adaptive role in humans. Our aims were (i) to create a catalog of bonding and matched-control pictures to compare the emotional reports of valence and arousal with the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) pictures; (ii) to verify sex influence on the valence and arousal of bonding and matched-control pictures; (iii) to investigate if empathy and loneliness traits exert a specific influence on emotional reports for the bonding pictures. To provide a finer tool for social interaction studies, the present work defined two new sets of pictures consisting of “interacting dyads” (Bonding: N = 70) and matched controls “non-interacting dyads” (Controls: N = 70). The dyads could be either a child and an adult, or two children. Participants (N = 283, 182 women) were divided in 10 groups for the experimental sessions. The task was to rate the hedonic valence and emotional arousal of bonding and controls; and of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures from the IAPS. Effects of social-related traits, empathy and loneliness, on affective ratings were tested. Participants rated bonding pictures as more pleasant and arousing than control ones. Ratings did not differentiate bonding from IAPS pleasant pictures. Control pictures showed lower ratings than pleasant but higher ratings than neutral IAPS pictures. Women rated bonding and control pictures as more positive than men. There was no sex difference for arousal ratings. High empathic participants rated bonding and control pictures higher than low empathic participants. Also, they rated pleasant IAPS pictures more positive and arousing; and unpleasant pictures more negative and arousing than the less empathic ones. Loneliness trait, on the other hand, affected very specifically the ratings of bonding pictures; lonelier participants rated them less pleasant and less arousing than less lonely. Loneliness trait did not modulate ratings of other categories. In conclusion, high empathy seems related to emotional strength in general, while high loneliness seems to weaken the engagement in social interaction cues. PMID:28740473

A funny thing happened on the way to articulation: N400 attenuation despite behavioral interference in picture naming

PubMed Central

Blackford, Trevor; Holcomb, Phillip J.; Grainger, Jonathan; Kuperberg, Gina R.

2013-01-01

We measured Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) and naming times to picture targets preceded by masked words (stimulus onset asynchrony: 80 ms) that shared one of three different types of relationship with the names of the pictures: (1) Identity related, in which the prime was the name of the picture (“socks” – ), (2) Phonemic Onset related, in which the initial segment of the prime was the same as the name of the picture (“log” – ), and (3) Semantically related in which the prime was a co–category exemplar and associated with the name of the picture (“cake” – ). Each type of related picture target was contrasted with an Unrelated picture target, resulting in a 3 × 2 design that crossed Relationship Type between the word and the target picture (Identity, Phonemic Onset and Semantic) with Relatedness (Related and Unrelated). Modulation of the N400 component to related (versus unrelated) pictures was taken to reflect semantic processing at the interface between the picture's conceptual features and its lemma, while naming times reflected the end product of all stages of processing. Both attenuation of the N400 and shorter naming times were observed to pictures preceded by Identity related (versus Unrelated) words. No ERP effects within 600 ms, but shorter naming times, were observed to pictures preceded by Phonemic Onset related (versus Unrelated) words. An attenuated N400 (electrophysiological semantic priming) but longer naming times (behavioral semantic interference) were observed to pictures preceded by Semantically related (versus Unrelated) words. These dissociations between ERP modulation and naming times suggest that (a) phonemic onset priming occurred late, during encoding of the articulatory response, and (b) semantic behavioral interference was not driven by competition at the lemma level of representation, but rather occurred at a later stage of production. PMID:22245030

Bonding Pictures: Affective Ratings Are Specifically Associated to Loneliness But Not to Empathy.

PubMed

Silva, Heraldo D; Campagnoli, Rafaela R; Mota, Bruna Eugênia F; Araújo, Cássia Regina V; Álvares, Roberta Sônia R; Mocaiber, Izabela; Rocha-Rego, Vanessa; Volchan, Eliane; Souza, Gabriela G L

2017-01-01

Responding to pro-social cues plays an important adaptive role in humans. Our aims were (i) to create a catalog of bonding and matched-control pictures to compare the emotional reports of valence and arousal with the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) pictures; (ii) to verify sex influence on the valence and arousal of bonding and matched-control pictures; (iii) to investigate if empathy and loneliness traits exert a specific influence on emotional reports for the bonding pictures. To provide a finer tool for social interaction studies, the present work defined two new sets of pictures consisting of "interacting dyads" (Bonding: N = 70) and matched controls "non-interacting dyads" (Controls: N = 70). The dyads could be either a child and an adult, or two children. Participants ( N = 283, 182 women) were divided in 10 groups for the experimental sessions. The task was to rate the hedonic valence and emotional arousal of bonding and controls; and of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures from the IAPS. Effects of social-related traits, empathy and loneliness, on affective ratings were tested. Participants rated bonding pictures as more pleasant and arousing than control ones. Ratings did not differentiate bonding from IAPS pleasant pictures. Control pictures showed lower ratings than pleasant but higher ratings than neutral IAPS pictures. Women rated bonding and control pictures as more positive than men. There was no sex difference for arousal ratings. High empathic participants rated bonding and control pictures higher than low empathic participants. Also, they rated pleasant IAPS pictures more positive and arousing; and unpleasant pictures more negative and arousing than the less empathic ones. Loneliness trait, on the other hand, affected very specifically the ratings of bonding pictures; lonelier participants rated them less pleasant and less arousing than less lonely. Loneliness trait did not modulate ratings of other categories. In conclusion, high empathy seems related to emotional strength in general, while high loneliness seems to weaken the engagement in social interaction cues.

Enhanced change detection index for disaster response, recovery assessment and monitoring of buildings and critical facilities-A case study for Muzzaffarabad, Pakistan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Alwis Pitts, Dilkushi A.; So, Emily

2017-12-01

The availability of Very High Resolution (VHR) optical sensors and a growing image archive that is frequently updated, allows the use of change detection in post-disaster recovery and monitoring for robust and rapid results. The proposed semi-automated GIS object-based method uses readily available pre-disaster GIS data and adds existing knowledge into the processing to enhance change detection. It also allows targeting specific types of changes pertaining to similar man-made objects such as buildings and critical facilities. The change detection method is based on pre/post normalized index, gradient of intensity, texture and edge similarity filters within the object and a set of training data. More emphasis is put on the building edges to capture the structural damage in quantifying change after disaster. Once the change is quantified, based on training data, the method can be used automatically to detect change in order to observe recovery over time in potentially large areas. Analysis over time can also contribute to obtaining a full picture of the recovery and development after disaster, thereby giving managers a better understanding of productive management and recovery practices. The recovery and monitoring can be analyzed using the index in zones extending from to epicentre of disaster or administrative boundaries over time.

Application of truss analysis for the quantification of changes in fish condition

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fitzgerald, Dean G.; Nanson, Jeffrey W.; Todd, Thomas N.; Davis, Bruce M.

2002-01-01

Conservation of skeletal structure and unique body ratios in fishes facilitated the development of truss analysis as a taxonomic tool to separate physically-similar species. The methodology is predicated on the measurement of across-body distances from a sequential series of connected polygons. Changes in body shape or condition among members of the same species can be quantified with the same technique, and we conducted a feeding experiment using yellow perch (Perca flavescens) to examine the utility of this approach. Ration size was used as a surrogate for fish condition, with fish receiving either a high (3.0% body wt/d) or a low ration (0.5%). Sequentially over our 11-week experiment, replicate ration groups of fish were removed and photographed while control fish were repeatedly weighed and measured. Standard indices of condition (total lipids, weight-length ratios, Fulton's condition) were compared to truss measurements determined from digitized pictures of fish. Condition indices showed similarity between rations while truss measures from the caudal region were important for quantifying changing body shape. These findings identify truss analysis as having use beyond traditional applications. It can potentially be used as a cheap, accurate, and precise descriptor of fish condition in the lab as shown here, and we hypothesize that it would be applicable in field studies.

Dirt detection on brown eggs by means of color computer vision.

PubMed

Mertens, K; De Ketelaere, B; Kamers, B; Bamelis, F R; Kemps, B J; Verhoelst, E M; De Baerdemaeker, J G; Decuypere, E M

2005-10-01

In the last 20 yr, different methods for detecting defects in eggs were developed. Until now, no satisfying technique existed to sort and quantify dirt on eggshells. The work presented here focuses on the design of an off-line computer vision system to differentiate and quantify the presence of different dirt stains on brown eggs: dark (feces), white (uric acid), blood, and yolk stains. A system that provides uniform light exposure around the egg was designed. In this uniform light, pictures of dirty and clean eggs were taken, stored, and analyzed. The classification was based on a few standard logical operators, allowing for a quick implementation in an online set-up. In an experiment, 100 clean and 100 dirty eggs were used to validate the classification algorithm. The designed vision system showed an accuracy of 99% for the detection of dirt stains. Two percent of the clean eggs had a light-colored eggshell and were subsequently mistaken for showing large white stains. The accuracy of differentiation of the different kinds of dirt stains was 91%. Of the eggs with dark stains, 10.81% were mistaken for having bloodstains, and 33.33% of eggs with bloodstains were mistaken for having dark stains. The developed system is possibly a first step toward an on line dirt evaluation technique for brown eggs.

A scoping review of traditional food security in Alaska

PubMed Central

Walch, Amanda; Bersamin, Andrea; Loring, Philip; Johnson, Rhonda; Tholl, Melissa

2018-01-01

ABSTRACT Food insecurity is a public health concern. Food security includes the pillars of food access, availability and utilisation. For some indigenous peoples, this may also include traditional foods. To conduct a scoping review on traditional foods and food security in Alaska. Google Scholar and the High North Research Documents were used to search for relevant primary research using the following terms: “traditional foods”, “food security”, “access”, “availability”, “utilisation”, “Alaska”, “Alaska Native” and “indigenous”. Twenty four articles from Google Scholar and four articles from the High North Research Documents were selected. The articles revealed three types of research approaches, those that quantified traditional food intake (n=18), those that quantified food security (n=2), and qualitative articles that addressed at least one pillar of food security (n=8). Limited primary research is available on food security in Alaskan. Few studies directly measure food security while most provide a review of food security factors. Research investigating dietary intake of traditional foods is more prevalent, though many differences exist among participant age groups and geographical areas. Future research should include direct measurements of traditional food intake and food security to provide a more complete picture of traditional food security in Alaska. PMID:29292675

Anticipation of Negative Pictures Enhances the P2 and P3 in Their Later Recognition

PubMed Central

Lin, Huiyan; Xiang, Jing; Li, Saili; Liang, Jiafeng; Jin, Hua

2015-01-01

Anticipation of emotional pictures has been found to be relevant to the encoding of the pictures as well as their later recognition performance. However, it is as yet unknown whether anticipation modulates neural activity in the later recognition of emotional pictures. To address this issue, participants in the present study were asked to view emotional (negative or neutral) pictures. The picture was preceded by a cue which indicated the emotional content of the picture in half of the trials (the anticipated condition) and without any cues in the other half (the unanticipated condition). Subsequently, participants had to perform an unexpected old/new recognition task in which old and novel pictures were presented without any preceding cues. Electroencephalography data was recorded during the recognition phase. Event-related potential results showed that for negative pictures, P2 and P3 amplitudes were larger in the anticipated as compared to the unanticipated condition; whereas this anticipation effect was not shown for neutral pictures. The present findings suggest that anticipation of negative pictures may enhance neural activity in their later recognition. PMID:26648860

Anticipation of Negative Pictures Enhances the P2 and P3 in Their Later Recognition.

PubMed

Lin, Huiyan; Xiang, Jing; Li, Saili; Liang, Jiafeng; Jin, Hua

2015-01-01

Anticipation of emotional pictures has been found to be relevant to the encoding of the pictures as well as their later recognition performance. However, it is as yet unknown whether anticipation modulates neural activity in the later recognition of emotional pictures. To address this issue, participants in the present study were asked to view emotional (negative or neutral) pictures. The picture was preceded by a cue which indicated the emotional content of the picture in half of the trials (the anticipated condition) and without any cues in the other half (the unanticipated condition). Subsequently, participants had to perform an unexpected old/new recognition task in which old and novel pictures were presented without any preceding cues. Electroencephalography data was recorded during the recognition phase. Event-related potential results showed that for negative pictures, P2 and P3 amplitudes were larger in the anticipated as compared to the unanticipated condition; whereas this anticipation effect was not shown for neutral pictures. The present findings suggest that anticipation of negative pictures may enhance neural activity in their later recognition.

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.

Free amino acids in fibromyalgia syndrome: relationship with clinical picture.

PubMed

Ruggiero, Valeria; Mura, Massimiliano; Cacace, Enrico; Era, Benedetta; Peri, Marcella; Sanna, Giuseppina; Fais, Antonella

2017-04-01

The objectives of our study were to evaluate free amino acid (FAA) concentrations in the serum of patients affected by fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and to determine the relationships between FAA levels and FMS clinical parameters. Thus, serum amino acid concentrations were quantified (HPLC analysis) in 23 females with fibromyalgia (according to the American College of Rheumatology classification criteria) and 20 healthy females. The results showed significantly higher serum concentrations of aspartate, cysteine, glutamate, glycine, isoleucine, leucine, methionine, ornithine, phenylalanine, sarcosine, serine, taurine, tyrosine and valine in FMS patients vs. healthy controls. Patients with higher Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) scores showed increased levels of alanine, glutamine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, proline and valine. In conclusion, our results indicate an imbalance in some FAAs in FMS patients. Increased Glu is particularly interesting, as it could explain the deficit in monoaminergic transmission involved in pain.

LCROSS: Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marmie, John

2010-01-01

This slide presentation reviews the success of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) project. The LCROSS mission science goals was to: (1) Confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed region on the Moon (2) Identify the form/state of hydrogen observed by at the lunar poles (3) Quantify, if present, the amount of water in the lunar regolith, with respect to hydrogen concentrations (4) Characterize the lunar regolith within a permanently shadowed crater on the Moon. The mission confirmed the presence of water ice on the moon by impacting a part of the spent Centaur upper stage into the Cabeus crater.. The presentation includes pictures of the development of the spacecraft, testing, launch, impact site, impact and a section of what the author called "Lunacy" which showed joking cartoons.

Enhancing light-harvesting power with coherent vibrational interactions: A quantum heat engine picture

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

Killoran, N.; Huelga, S. F.; Plenio, M. B.

Recent evidence suggests that quantum effects may have functional importance in biological light-harvesting systems. Along with delocalized electronic excitations, it is now suspected that quantum coherent interactions with certain near-resonant vibrations may contribute to light-harvesting performance. However, the actual quantum advantage offered by such coherent vibrational interactions has not yet been established. We investigate a quantum design principle, whereby coherent exchange of single energy quanta between electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom can enhance a light-harvesting system’s power above what is possible by thermal mechanisms alone. We present a prototype quantum heat engine which cleanly illustrates this quantum design principlemore » and quantifies its quantum advantage using thermodynamic measures of performance. We also demonstrate the principle’s relevance in parameter regimes connected to natural light-harvesting structures.« less

Pictorial enhancement of text memory: limitations imposed by picture type and comprehension skill.

PubMed

Waddill, P J; McDaniel, M A

1992-09-01

We examined the kinds of information in a prose passage that is better remembered when depictive illustrations are embedded in the passage than when the passage contains no illustrations. Experiment 1 showed that (1) pictures depicting details effectively increased recall of those details and (2) pictures depicting relationships effectively increased recall of that relational information (relative to a no-picture control condition). In Experiment 2, comprehension skill was found to modulate the general effects obtained in Experiment 1. Detail pictures enhanced the recall of targeted details for all skill levels. Relational pictures enhanced recall of pictured relational information for highly skilled and moderately skilled comprehenders, but not for less skilled comprehenders. Because there were no recall differences across the different skill levels in the no-picture control condition, it is suggested that pictures may serve to enable processing in which readers would not necessarily engage under ordinary circumstances. Pictures, however, did not appear to compensate for limitations reflected in lower scores on a standardized test of reading comprehension.

Uniform apparent contrast noise: A picture of the noise of the visual contrast detection system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ahumada, A. J., Jr.; Watson, A. B.

1984-01-01

A picture which is a sample of random contrast noise is generated. The noise amplitude spectrum in each region of the picture is inversely proportional to spatial frequency contrast sensitivity for that region, assuming the observer fixates the center of the picture and is the appropriate distance from it. In this case, the picture appears to have approximately the same contrast everywhere. To the extent that contrast detection thresholds are determined by visual system noise, this picture can be regarded as a picture of the noise of that system. There is evidence that, at different eccentricities, contrast sensitivity functions differ only by a magnification factor. The picture was generated by filtering a sample of white noise with a filter whose frequency response is inversely proportional to foveal contrast sensitivity. It was then stretched by a space-varying magnification function. The picture summmarizes a noise linear model of detection and discrimination of contrast signals by referring the model noise to the input picture domain.

Orienting, emotion, and memory: phasic and tonic variation in heart rate predicts memory for emotional pictures in men.

PubMed

Abercrombie, Heather C; Chambers, Andrea S; Greischar, Lawrence; Monticelli, Roxanne M

2008-11-01

Arousal-related processes associated with heightened heart rate (HR) predict memory enhancement, especially for emotionally arousing stimuli. In addition, phasic HR deceleration reflects "orienting" and sensory receptivity during perception of stimuli. We hypothesized that both tonic elevations in HR as well as phasic HR deceleration during viewing of pictures would be associated with deeper encoding and better subsequent memory for stimuli. Emotional pictures are more memorable and cause greater HR deceleration than neutral pictures. Thus, we predicted that the relations between cardiac activity and memory enhancement would be most pronounced for emotionally-laden compared to neutral pictures. We measured HR in 53 males during viewing of unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant pictures, and tested memory for the pictures two days later. Phasic HR deceleration during viewing of individual pictures was greater for subsequently remembered than forgotten pictures across all three emotion categories. Elevated mean HR across the entire encoding epoch also predicted better memory performance, but only for emotionally arousing pictures. Elevated mean HR and phasic HR deceleration were associated, such that individuals with greater tonic HR also showed greater HR decelerations during picture viewing, but only for emotionally arousing pictures. Results suggest that tonic elevations in HR are associated both with greater orienting and heightened memory for emotionally arousing stimuli.

Orienting, emotion, and memory: Phasic and tonic variation in heart rate predicts memory for emotional pictures in men

PubMed Central

Abercrombie, Heather C.; Chambers, Andrea S.; Greischar, Lawrence; Monticelli, Roxanne M.

2008-01-01

Arousal-related processes associated with heightened heart rate (HR) predict memory enhancement, especially for emotionally arousing stimuli. In addition, phasic HR deceleration reflects “orienting” and sensory receptivity during perception of stimuli. We hypothesized that both tonic elevations in HR as well as phasic HR deceleration during viewing of pictures would be associated with deeper encoding and better subsequent memory for stimuli. Emotional pictures are more memorable and cause greater HR deceleration than neutral pictures. Thus, we predicted that the relations between cardiac activity and memory enhancement would be most pronounced for emotionally-laden compared to neutral pictures. We measured HR in 53 males during viewing of unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant pictures, and tested memory for the pictures two days later. Phasic HR deceleration during viewing of individual pictures was greater for subsequently remembered than forgotten pictures across all three emotion categories. Elevated mean HR across the entire encoding epoch also predicted better memory performance, but only for emotionally arousing pictures. Elevated mean HR and phasic HR deceleration were associated, such that individuals with greater tonic HR also showed greater HR decelerations during picture viewing, but only for emotionally arousing pictures. Results suggest that tonic elevations in HR are associated both with greater orienting and heightened memory for emotionally arousing stimuli. PMID:18755284

Emotionally negative pictures increase attention to a subsequent auditory stimulus.

PubMed

Tartar, Jaime L; de Almeida, Kristen; McIntosh, Roger C; Rosselli, Monica; Nash, Allan J

2012-01-01

Emotionally negative stimuli serve as a mechanism of biological preparedness to enhance attention. We hypothesized that emotionally negative stimuli would also serve as motivational priming to increase attention resources for subsequent stimuli. To that end, we tested 11 participants in a dual sensory modality task, wherein emotionally negative pictures were contrasted with emotionally neutral pictures and each picture was followed 600 ms later by a tone in an auditory oddball paradigm. Each trial began with a picture displayed for 200 ms; half of the trials began with an emotionally negative picture and half of the trials began with an emotionally neutral picture; 600 ms following picture presentation, the participants heard either an oddball tone or a standard tone. At the end of each trial (picture followed by tone), the participants categorized, with a button press, the picture and tone combination. As expected, and consistent with previous studies, we found an enhanced visual late positive potential (latency range=300-700 ms) to the negative picture stimuli. We further found that compared to neutral pictures, negative pictures resulted in early attention and orienting effects to subsequent tones (measured through an enhanced N1 and N2) and sustained attention effects only to the subsequent oddball tones (measured through late processing negativity, latency range=400-700 ms). Number pad responses to both the picture and tone category showed the shortest response latencies and greatest percentage of correct picture-tone categorization on the negative picture followed by oddball tone trials. Consistent with previous work on natural selective attention, our results support the idea that emotional stimuli can alter attention resource allocation. This finding has broad implications for human attention and performance as it specifically shows the conditions in which an emotionally negative stimulus can result in extended stimulus evaluation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Strategy Shifts during Learning from Texts and Pictures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schnotz, Wolfgang; Ludewig, Ulrich; Ullrich, Mark; Horz, Holger; McElvany, Nele; Baumert, Jürgen

2014-01-01

Reading for learning frequently requires integrating text and picture information into coherent knowledge structures. This article presents an experimental study aimed at analyzing the strategies used by students for integrating text and picture information. Four combinations of texts and pictures (text-picture units) were selected from textbooks…

Does remembering emotional items impair recall of same-emotion items?

PubMed

Sison, Jo Ann G; Mather, Mara

2007-04-01

In the part-set cuing effect, cuing a subset of previously studied items impairs recall of the remaining noncued items. This experiment reveals that cuing participants with previously-studied emotional pictures (e.g., fear-evoking pictures of people) can impair recall of pictures involving the same emotion but different content (e.g., fear-evoking pictures of animals). This indicates that new events can be organized in memory using emotion as a grouping function to create associations. However, whether new information is organized in memory along emotional or nonemotional lines appears to be a flexible process that depends on people's current focus. Mentioning in the instructions that the pictures were either amusement- or fear-related led to memory impairment for pictures with the same emotion as cued pictures, whereas mentioning that the pictures depicted either animals or people led to memory impairment for pictures with the same type of actor.

The picture superiority effect in patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment.

PubMed

Ally, Brandon A; Gold, Carl A; Budson, Andrew E

2009-01-01

The fact that pictures are better remembered than words has been reported in the literature for over 30 years. While this picture superiority effect has been consistently found in healthy young and older adults, no study has directly evaluated the presence of the effect in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Clinical observations have indicated that pictures enhance memory in these patients, suggesting that the picture superiority effect may be intact. However, several studies have reported visual processing impairments in AD and MCI patients which might diminish the picture superiority effect. Using a recognition memory paradigm, we tested memory for pictures versus words in these patients. The results showed that the picture superiority effect is intact, and that these patients showed a similar benefit to healthy controls from studying pictures compared to words. The findings are discussed in terms of visual processing and possible clinical importance.

Activating representations in permanent memory: different benefits for pictures and words.

PubMed

Seifert, L S

1997-09-01

Previous research has suggested that pictures have privileged access to semantic memory (W. R. Glaser, 1992), but J. Theios and P. C. Amrhein (1989b) argued that prior studies inappropriately used large pictures and small words. In Experiment 1, participants categorized pictures reliably faster than words, even when both types of items were of optimal perceptual size. In Experiment 2, a poststimulus flashmask and judgments about internal features did not eliminate picture superiority, indicating that it was not due to differences in early visual processing or analysis of visible features. In Experiment 3, when participants made judgments about whether items were related, latencies were reliably faster for categorically related pictures than for words, but there was no picture advantage for noncategorically associated items. Results indicate that pictures have privileged access to semantic memory for categories, but that neither pictures nor words seem to have privileged access to noncategorical associations.

Directed forgetting: Comparing pictures and words.

PubMed

Quinlan, Chelsea K; Taylor, Tracy L; Fawcett, Jonathan M

2010-03-01

The authors investigated directed forgetting as a function of the stimulus type (picture, word) presented at study and test. In an item-method directed forgetting task, study items were presented 1 at a time, each followed with equal probability by an instruction to remember or forget. Participants exhibited greater yes-no recognition of remember than forget items for each of the 4 study-test conditions (picture-picture, picture-word, word-word, word-picture). However, this difference was significantly smaller when pictures were studied than when words were studied. This finding demonstrates that the magnitude of the directed forgetting effect can be reduced by high item memorability, such as when the picture superiority effect is operating. This suggests caution in using pictures at study when the goal of an experiment is to examine potential group differences in the magnitude of the directed forgetting effect. 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

The picture superiority effect in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment

PubMed Central

Ally, Brandon A.; Gold, Carl A.; Budson, Andrew E.

2009-01-01

The fact that pictures are better remembered than words has been reported in the literature for over 30 years. While this picture superiority effect has been consistently found in healthy young and older adults, no study has directly evaluated the presence of the effect in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Clinical observations have indicated that pictures enhance memory in these patients, suggesting that the picture superiority effect may be intact. However, several studies have reported visual processing impairments in AD and MCI patients which might diminish the picture superiority effect. Using a recognition memory paradigm, we tested memory for pictures versus words in these patients. The results showed that the picture superiority effect is intact, and that these patients showed a similar benefit to healthy controls from studying pictures compared to words. The findings are discussed in terms of visual processing and possible clinical importance. PMID:18992266

The picture superiority effect in associative recognition.

PubMed

Hockley, William E

2008-10-01

The picture superiority effect has been well documented in tests of item recognition and recall. The present study shows that the picture superiority effect extends to associative recognition. In three experiments, students studied lists consisting of random pairs of concrete words and pairs of line drawings; then they discriminated between intact (old) and rearranged (new) pairs of words and pictures at test. The discrimination advantage for pictures over words was seen in a greater hit rate for intact picture pairs, but there was no difference in the false alarm rates for the two types of stimuli. That is, there was no mirror effect. The same pattern of results was found when the test pairs consisted of the verbal labels of the pictures shown at study (Experiment 4), indicating that the hit rate advantage for picture pairs represents an encoding benefit. The results have implications for theories of the picture superiority effect and models of associative recognition.

Emotional modulation of the attentional blink by pleasant and unpleasant pictures.

PubMed

de Oca, Beatrice M; Villa, Marie; Cervantes, Miguel; Welbourne, Tyler

2012-01-01

When shown a rapid series of images, attention to a second target that follows in short proximity to a first is diminished--a phenomenon sometimes called an "attentional blink." Three experiments compared detection of motivationally relevant pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures when they appeared as the second target following a neutral (Experiment 1), unpleasant (Experiment 2) and pleasant (Experiment 3) picture target. The second target followed at lags of 2, 3 or 8 pictures. In all three experiments, detection of neutral pictures was reduced at lags 2 and 3, indicative of an attentional blink. In contrast, unpleasant pictures were detected more than neutral pictures at lags 2 and 3. Unexpectedly, pleasant pictures not only resisted the attentional blink, but they were detected substantially more than other pictures at all lags in all three experiments. Overall, the experiments support the idea that motivationally relevant stimuli preferentially capture attention more than motivationally neutral stimuli.

Pictorial and conceptual representation of glimpsed pictures.

PubMed

Potter, Mary C; Staub, Adrian; O'Connor, Daniel H; Potter, Mary C

2004-06-01

Pictures seen in a rapid sequence are remembered briefly, but most are forgotten within a few seconds (M. C. Potter. A. Staub, J. Rado. & D. H. O'Connor. 2002). The authors investigated the pictorial and conceptual components of this fleeting memory by presenting 5 pictured scenes and immediately testing recognition of verbal titles (e.g., people at a table) or recognition of the pictures themselves. Recognition declined during testing, but initial performance was higher and the decline steeper when pictures were tested. A final experiment included test decoy pictures that were conceptually similar to but visually distinct from the original pictures. Yeses to decoys were higher than yeses to other distractors. Fleeting memory for glimpsed pictures has a strong conceptual component (conceptual short-term memory), but there is additional highly volatile pictorial memory (pictorial short-term memory) that is not tapped hy a gist title or decoy picture. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

Consideration of vision and picture quality: psychological effects induced by picture sharpness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kusaka, Hideo

1989-08-01

A psychological hierarchy model of human vision(1)(2) suggests that the visual signals are processed in a serial manner from lower to higher stages: that is "sensation" - "perception" - "emotion." For designing a future television system, it is important to find out what kinds of physical factors affect the "emotion" experienced by an observer in front of the display. This paper describes the psychological effects induced by the sharpness of the picture. The subjective picture quality was evaluated for the same pictures with five different levels of sharpness. The experiment was performed on two kinds of printed pictures: (A) a woman's face, and (B) a town corner. From these experiments, it was found that the amount of high-frequency peaking (physical value of the sharpness) which psychologically gives the best picture quality, differs between pictures (A) and (B). That is, the optimum picture sharpness differs depending on the picture content. From these results, we have concluded that the psychophysical sharpness of the picture is not only determined at the stage of "perception" (e.g., resolution or signal to noise ratio, which everyone can judge immediately), but also at the stage of "emotion" (e.g., sensation of reality or beauty).

Memory for pictures and sounds: independence of auditory and visual codes.

PubMed

Thompson, V A; Paivio, A

1994-09-01

Three experiments examined the mnemonic independence of auditory and visual nonverbal stimuli in free recall. Stimulus lists consisted of (1) pictures, (2) the corresponding environmental sounds, or (3) picture-sound pairs. In Experiment 1, free recall was tested under three learning conditions: standard intentional, intentional with a rehearsal-inhibiting distracter task, or incidental with the distracter task. In all three groups, recall was best for the picture-sound items. In addition, recall for the picture-sound stimuli appeared to be additive relative to pictures or sounds alone when the distracter task was used. Experiment 2 included two additional groups: In one, two copies of the same picture were shown simultaneously; in the other, two different pictures of the same concept were shown. There was no difference in recall among any of the picture groups; in contrast, recall in the picture-sound condition was greater than recall in either single-modality condition. However, doubling the exposure time in a third experiment resulted in additively higher recall for repeated pictures with different exemplars than ones with identical exemplars. The results are discussed in terms of dual coding theory and alternative conceptions of the memory trace.

Emotionally arousing pictures increase blood glucose levels and enhance recall.

PubMed

Blake, T M; Varnhagen, C K; Parent, M B

2001-05-01

Arousal enhances memory in human participants and this enhancing effect is likely due to the release of peripheral epinephrine. As epinephrine does not readily enter the brain, one way that peripheral epinephrine may enhance memory is by increasing circulating blood glucose levels. The present study investigated the possibility that emotionally arousing color pictures would improve memory and elevate blood glucose levels in human participants. Blood glucose levels were measured before, 15 min, and 30 min after male university students viewed 60 emotionally arousing or relatively neutral pictures. Participants viewed each picture for 6 s and then had 10 s to rate the arousal (emotional intensity) and valence (pleasantness) of each picture. A free-recall memory test was given 30 min after the last picture was viewed. Although the emotionally arousing and neutral picture sets were given comparable valence ratings, participants who viewed the emotionally arousing pictures rated the pictures as being more arousing, recalled more pictures, and had higher blood glucose levels after viewing the pictures than did participants who viewed the neutral pictures. These findings indicate that emotionally arousing pictures increase blood glucose levels and enhance memory, and that this effect is not due to differences in the degree of pleasantness of the stimuli. These findings support the possibility that increases in circulating blood glucose levels in response to emotional arousal may be part of the biological mechanism that allows emotional arousal to enhance memory. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Tracing the time course of picture--word processing.

PubMed

Smith, M C; Magee, L E

1980-12-01

A number of independent lines of research have suggested that semantic and articulatory information become available differentially from pictures and words. The first of the experiments reported here sought to clarify the time course by which information about pictures and words becomes available by considering the pattern of interference generated when incongruent pictures and words are presented simultaneously in a Stroop-like situation. Previous investigators report that picture naming is easily disrupted by the presence of a distracting word but that word naming is relatively immune to interference from an incongruent picture. Under the assumption that information available from a completed process may disrupt an ongoing process, these results suggest that words access articulatory information more rapidly than do pictures. Experiment 1 extended this paradigm by requiring subjects to verify the category of the target stimulus. In accordance with the hypothesis that picture access the semantic code more rapidly than words, there was a reversal in the interference pattern: Word categorization suffered considerable disruption, whereas picture categorization was minimally affected by the presence of an incongruent word. Experiment 2 sought to further test the hypothesis that access to semantic and articulatory codes is different for pictures and words by examining memory for those items following naming or categorization. Categorized words were better recognized than named words, whereas the reverse was true for pictures, a result which suggests that picture naming involves more extensive processing than picture categorization. Experiment 3 replicated this result under conditions in which viewing time was held constant. The last experiment extended the investigation of memory differences to a situation in which subjects were required to generate the superordinate category name. Here, memory for categorized pictures was as good as memory for named pictures. Category generation also influenced memory for words, memory performance being superior to that following a yes--no verification of category membership. These experiments suggest a model of information access whereby pictures access semantic information were readily than name information, with the reverse being true for words. Memory for both pictures and words was a function of the amount of processing required to access a particular type of information as well as the extent of response differentiation necessitated by the task.

Self-rated health and standard risk factors for myocardial infarction: a cohort study.

PubMed

Waller, Göran; Janlert, Urban; Norberg, Margareta; Lundqvist, Robert; Forssén, Annika

2015-02-13

To investigate the relationship between self-rated health, adjusted for standard risk factors, and myocardial infarction. Population-based prospective cohort study. Enrolment took place between 1990 and 2004 in Västerbotten County, Sweden Every year, persons in the total population, aged 40, 50 or 60 were invited. Participation rate was 60%. The cohort consisted of 75 386 men and women. After exclusion for stroke or myocardial infarction before, or within 12 months after enrolment or death within 12 months after enrolment, 72 530 persons remained for analysis. Mean follow-up time was 13.2 years. Cox regression analysis was used to estimate HRs for the end point of first non-fatal or fatal myocardial infarction. HR were adjusted for age, sex, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, body mass index, education, physical activity and self-rated health in the categories very good; pretty good; somewhat good; pretty poor or poor. In the cohort, 2062 persons were diagnosed with fatal or non-fatal myocardial infarction. Poor self-rated health adjusted for sex and age was associated with the outcome with HR 2.03 (95% CI 1.45 to 2.84). All categories of self-rated health worse than very good were statistically significant and showed a dose-response relationship. In a multivariable analysis with standard risk factors (not including physical activity and education) HR was attenuated to 1.61 (95% CI 1.13 to 2.31) for poor self-rated health. All categories of self-rated health remained statistically significant. We found no interaction between self-rated health and standard risk factors except for poor self-rated health and diabetes. This study supports the use of self-rated health as a standard risk factor among others for myocardial infarction. It remains to demonstrate whether self-rated health adds predictive value for myocardial infarction in combined algorithms with standard risk factors. 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.

Task choice and semantic interference in picture naming.

PubMed

Piai, Vitória; Roelofs, Ardi; Schriefers, Herbert

2015-05-01

Evidence from dual-task performance indicates that speakers prefer not to select simultaneous responses in picture naming and another unrelated task, suggesting a response selection bottleneck in naming. In particular, when participants respond to tones with a manual response and name pictures with superimposed semantically related or unrelated distractor words, semantic interference in naming tends to be constant across stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between the tone stimulus and the picture-word stimulus. In the present study, we examine whether semantic interference in picture naming depends on SOA in case of a task choice (naming the picture vs reading the word of a picture-word stimulus) based on tones. This situation requires concurrent processing of the tone stimulus and the picture-word stimulus, but not a manual response to the tones. On each trial, participants either named a picture or read aloud a word depending on the pitch of a tone, which was presented simultaneously with picture-word onset or 350 ms or 1000 ms before picture-word onset. Semantic interference was present with tone pre-exposure, but absent when tone and picture-word stimulus were presented simultaneously. Against the background of the available studies, these results support an account according to which speakers tend to avoid concurrent response selection, but can engage in other types of concurrent processing, such as task choices. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Children's Picture Interpretation: Appearance or Intention?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Armitage, Emma; Allen, Melissa L.

2015-01-01

Pictures are defined by their creator's intentions and resemblance to their real world referents. Here we examine whether young children follow a realist route (e.g., focusing on how closely pictures resemble their referents) or intentional route (e.g., focusing on what a picture is intended to represent by its artist) when identifying a picture's…

Security policy speculation of user uploaded images on content sharing sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iyapparaja, M.; Tiwari, Maneesh

2017-11-01

Innovation is developing step by step tremendously. As there are numerous social locales where information likes pictures, sound, video and so forth are shared by the client to each other. In concentrate to all exercises on social locales, there is need of protection to pictures. Because of this reason, I utilized Adaptive protection strategy forecast instrument to give security to the pictures. Issue identified with pictures is the huge issue in social locales like Facebook, twitter and so on. So here the part of a social thought, security to pictures, metadata and so on is produced. To conquer this issue we produced an answer which is 2 systems which understanding to a background marked by the pictures gives appropriated answer for them. Here we give an arrangement to the specific sort of pictures by characterizing them and in addition giving protection to pictures which are transferred agreement to a calculation that we utilized. Consequently as indicated by this arrangement expectation pictures take after a similar approach on up and coming pictures and give successful security to them.

Picture superiority doubly dissociates the ERP correlates of recollection and familiarity.

PubMed

Curran, Tim; Doyle, Jeanne

2011-05-01

Two experiments investigated the processes underlying the picture superiority effect on recognition memory. Studied pictures were associated with higher accuracy than studied words, regardless of whether test stimuli were words (Experiment 1) or pictures (Experiment 2). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) recorded during test suggested that the 300-500 msec FN400 old/new effect, hypothesized to be related to familiarity-based recognition, benefited from study/test congruity, such that it was larger when study and test format remained constant than when they differed. The 500-800 msec parietal old/new effect, hypothesized to be related to recollection, benefited from studying pictures, regardless of test format. The parallel between the accuracy and parietal ERP results suggests that picture superiority may arise from encoding the distinctive attributes of pictures in a manner that enhances their later recollection. Furthermore, when words were tested, opposite effects of studying words versus studying pictures were observed on the FN400 (word > picture) versus parietal (picture > word) old/new effects--providing strong evidence for a crossover interaction between these components that is consistent with a dual-process perspective.

Different Timing Features in Brain Processing of Core and Moral Disgust Pictures: An Event-Related Potentials Study

PubMed Central

Zhang, Youxue; Lou, Liandi; Ding, Daoqun

2015-01-01

Disgust, an emotion motivating withdrawal from offensive stimuli, protects us from the risk of biological pathogens and sociomoral violations. Homogeneity of its two types, namely, core and moral disgust has been under intensive debate. To examine the dynamic relationship between them, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) for core disgust, moral disgust and neutral pictures while participants performed a modified oddball task. ERP analysis revealed that N1 and P2 amplitudes were largest for the core disgust pictures, indicating automatic processing of the core disgust-evoking pictures. N2 amplitudes were higher for pictures evoking moral disgust relative to core disgust and neutral pictures, reflecting a violation of social norms. The core disgust pictures elicited larger P3 and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes in comparison with the moral disgust pictures which, in turn, elicited larger P3 and LPP amplitudes when compared to the neutral pictures. Taken together, these findings indicated that core and moral disgust pictures elicited different neural activities at various stages of information processing, which provided supporting evidence for the heterogeneity of disgust. PMID:26011635

Different timing features in brain processing of core and moral disgust pictures: an event-related potentials study.

PubMed

Zhang, Xiangyi; Guo, Qi; Zhang, Youxue; Lou, Liandi; Ding, Daoqun

2015-01-01

Disgust, an emotion motivating withdrawal from offensive stimuli, protects us from the risk of biological pathogens and sociomoral violations. Homogeneity of its two types, namely, core and moral disgust has been under intensive debate. To examine the dynamic relationship between them, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) for core disgust, moral disgust and neutral pictures while participants performed a modified oddball task. ERP analysis revealed that N1 and P2 amplitudes were largest for the core disgust pictures, indicating automatic processing of the core disgust-evoking pictures. N2 amplitudes were higher for pictures evoking moral disgust relative to core disgust and neutral pictures, reflecting a violation of social norms. The core disgust pictures elicited larger P3 and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes in comparison with the moral disgust pictures which, in turn, elicited larger P3 and LPP amplitudes when compared to the neutral pictures. Taken together, these findings indicated that core and moral disgust pictures elicited different neural activities at various stages of information processing, which provided supporting evidence for the heterogeneity of disgust.

Retro-Active Emotion: Do Negative Emotional Stimuli Disrupt Consolidation in Working Memory?

PubMed

Kandemir, Güven; Akyürek, Elkan G; Nieuwenstein, Mark R

2017-01-01

While many studies have shown that a task-irrelevant emotionally arousing stimulus can interfere with the processing of a shortly following target, it remains unclear whether an emotional stimulus can also retro-actively interrupt the ongoing processing of an earlier target. In two experiments, we examined whether the presentation of a negative emotionally arousing picture can disrupt working memory consolidation of a preceding visual target. In both experiments, the effects of negative emotional pictures were compared with the effects of neutral pictures. In Experiment 1, the pictures were entirely task-irrelevant whereas in Experiment 2 the pictures were associated with a 2-alternative forced choice task that required participants to respond to the color of a frame surrounding the pictures. The results showed that the appearance of the pictures did not interfere with target consolidation when the pictures were task-irrelevant, whereas such interference was observed when the pictures were associated with a 2-AFC task. Most importantly, however, the results showed no effects of whether the picture had neutral or emotional content. Implications for further research are discussed.

[Study on rules of TCM syndrome in patients with dyslipidemia and its objectization].

PubMed

Lei, Yan; Wang, Zhen-Hua; Liu, Jian-Gang

2007-12-01

To explore the rules of TCM syndrome in patients with dyslipidemia and its relation with C-reactive protein (CRP), homocysteine (Hcy), carotid ultrasonic picture, blood lipids and blood viscosity. From 152 recruited patients symptoms and physical signs (including figures of tongue and pulse) were selected and analyzed in grading and quantifying by factor analysis. At the same time, blood lipids, CRP, Hcy, carotid ultrasonic picture and blood viscosity were detected to conduct a canonical correlation analysis for exploring the relationship between different TCM syndromes and their corresponding physical and/or chemical indexes. Five types of TCM syndrome obtained by factor analysis were syndrome of Shen-yin deficiency (I), Pi-qi deficiency (II), turbid-phlegm impediment (III), blood stasis (IV), and phlegm-blood block (V). By canonical correlation analysis, they were characterized with: Type I, high levels of CRP and blood viscosity; Type II, high level of very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C); Type III, high level of total cholesterol (TC) and low level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C); and Type V, high level of Hcy. The five syndrome types frequently found in patients with dyslipidemia are syndrome of Shen-yin deficiency, Pi-qi deficiency, turbid-phlegm impediment, blood stasis, and phlegm-blood block. Different syndrome has its own correlation with some corresponding physical and/or chemical laboratory indexes, the issue provides new evidences for the objectification of TCM syndromes in patients with dyslipidemia.

Subjective emotional over-arousal to neutral social scenes in paranoid schizophrenia.

PubMed

Haralanova, Evelina; Haralanov, Svetlozar; Beraldi, Anna; Möller, Hans-Jürgen; Hennig-Fast, Kristina

2012-02-01

From the clinical practice and some experimental studies, it is apparent that paranoid schizophrenia patients tend to assign emotional salience to neutral social stimuli. This aberrant cognitive bias has been conceptualized to result from increased emotional arousal, but direct empirical data are scarce. The aim of the present study was to quantify the subjective emotional arousal (SEA) evoked by emotionally non-salient (neutral) compared to emotionally salient (negative) social stimuli in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Thirty male inpatients with paranoid schizophrenia psychosis and 30 demographically matched healthy controls rated their level of SEA in response to neutral and negative social scenes from the International Affective Picture System and the Munich Affective Picture System. Schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls had an increased overall SEA level. This relatively higher SEA was evoked only by the neutral but not by the negative social scenes. To our knowledge, the present study is the first designed to directly demonstrate subjective emotional over-arousal to neutral social scenes in paranoid schizophrenia. This finding might explain previous clinical and experimental data and could be viewed as the missing link between the primary neurobiological and secondary psychological mechanisms of paranoid psychotic-symptom formation. Furthermore, despite being very short and easy to perform, the task we used appeared to be sensitive enough to reveal emotional dysregulation, in terms of emotional disinhibition/hyperactivation in paranoid schizophrenia patients. Thus, it could have further research and clinical applications, including as a neurobehavioral probe for imaging studies.

Choosing Fighting Competitors Among Men: Testosterone, Personality, and Motivations.

PubMed

Borráz-León, Javier I; Cerda-Molina, Ana Lilia; Rantala, Markus J; Mayagoitia-Novales, Lilian

2018-01-01

Higher testosterone levels have been positively related to a variety of social behaviors and personality traits associated with intrasexual competition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of testosterone levels and personality traits such as aggressiveness, competitiveness, and self-esteem on the task of choosing a fighting competitor (a rival) with or without a motivation to fight. In Study 1, a group of 119 men participated in a task for choosing a rival through pictures of men with high-dominant masculinity versus low-dominant masculinity. Participants completed three personality questionnaires and donated two saliva samples (pre-test and post-test sample) to quantify their testosterone levels. We found that the probability of choosing high-dominant masculine men as rivals increased with higher aggressiveness scores. In Study 2, the task of choosing rivals was accompanied by motivations to fight (pictures of women with high or low waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]). In this context, we observed that the probability of choosing dominant masculine men as rivals depended on the WHR of the women. Overall, average levels of post-test testosterone, aggressiveness, and high self-esteem increased the probability to fight for women with low WHR independently of the dominance masculinity of the rivals. Our results indicate that human decisions, in the context of intrasexual competition and mate choice, are regulated by physiological and psychological mechanisms allowing men to increase their biological fitness. We discuss our results in the light of the plasticity of human behavior according to biological and environmental forces.

The perception of naturalness correlates with low-level visual features of environmental scenes.

PubMed

Berman, Marc G; Hout, Michael C; Kardan, Omid; Hunter, MaryCarol R; Yourganov, Grigori; Henderson, John M; Hanayik, Taylor; Karimi, Hossein; Jonides, John

2014-01-01

Previous research has shown that interacting with natural environments vs. more urban or built environments can have salubrious psychological effects, such as improvements in attention and memory. Even viewing pictures of nature vs. pictures of built environments can produce similar effects. A major question is: What is it about natural environments that produces these benefits? Problematically, there are many differing qualities between natural and urban environments, making it difficult to narrow down the dimensions of nature that may lead to these benefits. In this study, we set out to uncover visual features that related to individuals' perceptions of naturalness in images. We quantified naturalness in two ways: first, implicitly using a multidimensional scaling analysis and second, explicitly with direct naturalness ratings. Features that seemed most related to perceptions of naturalness were related to the density of contrast changes in the scene, the density of straight lines in the scene, the average color saturation in the scene and the average hue diversity in the scene. We then trained a machine-learning algorithm to predict whether a scene was perceived as being natural or not based on these low-level visual features and we could do so with 81% accuracy. As such we were able to reliably predict subjective perceptions of naturalness with objective low-level visual features. Our results can be used in future studies to determine if these features, which are related to naturalness, may also lead to the benefits attained from interacting with nature.

Preservation of propositional speech in a pure anomic: the importance of an abstract vocabulary.

PubMed

Crutch, Sebastian J; Warrington, Elizabeth K

2003-12-01

We describe a detailed quantitative analysis of the propositional speech of a patient, FAV, who became severely anomic following a left occipito-temporal infarction. FAV showed a selective noun retrieval deficit in naming to confrontation and from verbal description. Nonetheless, his propositional speech was fluent and content-rich. To quantify this observation, three picture description-based tasks were designed to elicit spontaneous speech. These were pictures of professional occupations, real world scenes and stylised object scenes. FAV's performance was compared and contrasted with that of 5 age- and sex-matched control subjects on a number of variables including speech production rate, volume of output, pause frequency and duration, word frequency, word concreteness and diversity of vocabulary used. FAV's propositional speech fell within the range of normal control performance on the majority of measurements of quality, quantity and fluency. Only in the narrative tasks which relied more heavily upon a concrete vocabulary, did FAV become less voluble and resort to summarising the scenes in an manner. This dissociation between virtually intact propositional speech and a severe naming deficit represents the purest case of anomia currently on record. We attribute this dissociation in part to the preservation of his ability to retrieve his abstract word vocabulary. Our account demonstrates that poor performance on standard naming tasks may be indicative of only a narrowly defined word retrieval deficit. However, we also propose the existence of a feedback circuit which guides sentence construction by providing information regarding lexical availability.

Fear conditioning induced by interpersonal conflicts in healthy individuals.

PubMed

Tada, Mitsuhiro; Uchida, Hiroyuki; Maeda, Takaki; Konishi, Mika; Umeda, Satoshi; Terasawa, Yuri; Nakajima, Shinichiro; Mimura, Masaru; Miyazaki, Tomoyuki; Takahashi, Takuya

2015-01-01

Psychophysiological markers have been focused to investigate the psychopathology of psychiatric disorders and personality subtypes. In order to understand neurobiological mechanisms underlying these conditions, fear-conditioning model has been widely used. However, simple aversive stimuli are too simplistic to understand mechanisms because most patients with psychiatric disorders are affected by social stressors. The objective of this study was to test the feasibility of a newly-designed conditioning experiment using a stimulus to cause interpersonal conflicts and examine associations between personality traits and response to that stimulus. Twenty-nine healthy individuals underwent the fear conditioning and extinction experiments in response to three types of stimuli: a simple aversive sound, disgusting pictures, and pictures of an actors' face with unpleasant verbal messages that were designed to cause interpersonal conflicts. Conditioned response was quantified by the skin conductance response (SCR). Correlations between the SCR changes, and personality traits measured by the Zanarini Rating Scale for Borderline Personality Disorder (ZAN-BPD) and Revised NEO Personality Inventory were explored. The interpersonal conflict stimulus resulted in successful conditioning, which was subsequently extinguished, in a similar manner as the other two stimuli. Moreover, a greater degree of conditioned response to the interpersonal conflict stimulus correlated with a higher ZAN-BPD total score. Fear conditioning and extinction can be successfully achieved, using interpersonal conflicts as a stimulus. Given that conditioned fear caused by the interpersonal conflicts is likely associated with borderline personality traits, this paradigm could contribute to further understanding of underlying mechanisms of interpersonal fear implicated in borderline personality disorder.

Noise-assisted energy transfer from the dilation of the set of one-electron reduced density matrices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraborty, Romit; Mazziotti, David A.

2017-05-01

Noise-assisted energy transfer can be explained geometrically in terms of the set of one-electron reduced density matrices (1-RDMs) [R. Chakraborty and D. A. Mazziotti, Phys. Rev. A 91, 010101(R) (2015)]. In this paper, we examine the geometric picture of quantum noise for the seven-chromophore Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex. Noise expands the feasible set of orbital occupation trajectories to the target state through the violation of the pure-state N-representability conditions on the 1-RDM, known as the generalized Pauli constraints. While the generalized Pauli constraints are not explicitly known for seven-electron systems, we are able to treat a seven-exciton model of the FMO complex through the use of generalized Pauli constraints for p qubits which are known for arbitrary p. In the model, we find that while dephasing noise alone produces a trajectory of ensemble states that neither expands the set of 1-RDMs nor reaches the reaction center, the inclusion of both dephasing and dissipation expands the set of 1-RDMs and exhibits an efficient energy transfer to the reaction center. The degree to which the noise expands the set of 1-RDMs, violating the generalized Pauli constraints, is quantified by the distance of the 1-RDM outside its pure set to the distance of the 1-RDM inside its ensemble set. The geometric picture of energy transfer has applications to general quantum systems in chemistry and physics.

Eye movement assessment of selective attentional capture by emotional pictures.

PubMed

Nummenmaa, Lauri; Hyönä, Jukka; Calvo, Manuel G

2006-05-01

The eye-tracking method was used to assess attentional orienting to and engagement on emotional visual scenes. In Experiment 1, unpleasant, neutral, or pleasant target pictures were presented simultaneously with neutral control pictures in peripheral vision under instruction to compare pleasantness of the pictures. The probability of first fixating an emotional picture, and the frequency of subsequent fixations, were greater than those for neutral pictures. In Experiment 2, participants were instructed to avoid looking at the emotional pictures, but these were still more likely to be fixated first and gazed longer during the first-pass viewing than neutral pictures. Low-level visual features cannot explain the results. It is concluded that overt visual attention is captured by both unpleasant and pleasant emotional content. 2006 APA, all rights reserved

Semantic interference from distractor pictures in single-picture naming: evidence for competitive lexical selection.

PubMed

Jescheniak, Jörg D; Matushanskaya, Asya; Mädebach, Andreas; Müller, Matthias M

2014-10-01

Picture-naming studies have demonstrated interference from semantic-categorically related distractor words, but not from corresponding distractor pictures, and the lack of generality of the interference effect has been argued to challenge theories viewing lexical selection in speech production as a competitive process. Here, we demonstrate that semantic interference from context pictures does become visible, if sufficient attention is allocated to them. We combined picture naming with a spatial-cuing procedure. When participants' attention was shifted to the distractor, semantically related distractor pictures interfered with the response, as compared with unrelated distractor pictures. This finding supports models conceiving lexical retrieval as competitive (Levelt, Roelofs, & Meyer, 1999) but is difficult to reconcile with the response exclusion hypothesis (Finkbeiner & Caramazza, 2006b) proposed as an alternative.

A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of short-term source and item memory for negative pictures.

PubMed

Mitchell, Karen J; Mather, Mara; Johnson, Marcia K; Raye, Carol L; Greene, Erich J

2006-10-02

We investigated the hypothesis that arousal recruits attention to item information, thereby disrupting working memory processes that help bind items to context. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared brain activity when participants remembered negative or neutral picture-location conjunctions (source memory) versus pictures only. Behaviorally, negative trials showed disruption of short-term source, but not picture, memory; long-term picture recognition memory was better for negative than for neutral pictures. Activity in areas involved in working memory and feature integration (precentral gyrus and its intersect with superior temporal gyrus) was attenuated on negative compared with neutral source trials relative to picture-only trials. Visual processing areas (middle occipital and lingual gyri) showed greater activity for negative than for neutral trials, especially on picture-only trials.

Effects of attention manipulations on motivated attention to feared and nonfeared negative distracters in spider fear

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background When people view emotional and neutral pictures, the emotional pictures capture more attention than do neutral pictures. In support, studies with event-related potentials have shown that the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP) to emotional versus neutral pictures are enhanced when pictures are attended. However, this motivated attention decreases when voluntary attention is directed away from the pictures. Most previous studies included only generally emotional pictures of either negative or positive valence. Because people with spider fear report intense fear of spiders, we examined whether directing attention away from emotional pictures at fixation decreases motivated attention less strongly for spiders than for generally negative distracters. Results We recorded event-related potentials from 128 channels to study whether manipulations of attention (i.e., spatial attention and perceptual load) decrease the EPN and the LPP to emotional distracters less strongly for spiders than for fear-irrelevant negative pictures in people with spider fear. Results confirmed that the EPN and the LPP to spiders (vs. neutral pictures) were particularly enhanced in participants with spider fear compared to participants without spider fear. When attention was directed away from the pictures, the EPN and the LPP to spiders (vs. neutral pictures) decreased similarly in fearful and nonfearful participants. Further, in fearful participants, the decrease in the EPN and the LPP was similar for spiders and for fear-irrelevant negative pictures. Conclusions Our findings suggest that for people with spider fear, directing attention away from emotional pictures at fixation decreases motivated attention to these distracters similarly for spiders as for fear-irrelevant negative pictures. These findings imply that attention to spiders in spider fear does not exceed the level of attention expected from the spider pictures’ high arousal and negative valence (i.e., their intrinsic motivated attention). PMID:24207058

Where and how morphologically complex words interplay with naming pictures.

PubMed

Zwitserlood, Pienie; Bölte, Jens; Dohmes, Petra

2002-01-01

Two picture-word experiments are reported in which a delay of 7 to 10 was introduced between distractor and picture. Distractor words were either derived words (Experiment 1) or compounds (Experiment 2), morphologically related to the picture name. In both experiments, the position of morphological overlap between distractor (e.g., rosebud vs tea-rose) and picture name (rose) was manipulated. Clear facilitation of picture naming latencies was obtained when pictures were paired with morphological distractors, and effects were independent of distractor type and position of overlap. The results are evaluated against "full listing" and "decomposition" approaches of morphological representation. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).

Different Loci of Semantic Interference in Picture Naming vs. Word-Picture Matching Tasks.

PubMed

Harvey, Denise Y; Schnur, Tatiana T

2016-01-01

Naming pictures and matching words to pictures belonging to the same semantic category impairs performance relative to when stimuli come from different semantic categories (i.e., semantic interference). Despite similar semantic interference phenomena in both picture naming and word-picture matching tasks, the locus of interference has been attributed to different levels of the language system - lexical in naming and semantic in word-picture matching. Although both tasks involve access to shared semantic representations, the extent to which interference originates and/or has its locus at a shared level remains unclear, as these effects are often investigated in isolation. We manipulated semantic context in cyclical picture naming and word-picture matching tasks, and tested whether factors tapping semantic-level (generalization of interference to novel category items) and lexical-level processes (interactions with lexical frequency) affected the magnitude of interference, while also assessing whether interference occurs at a shared processing level(s) (transfer of interference across tasks). We found that semantic interference in naming was sensitive to both semantic- and lexical-level processes (i.e., larger interference for novel vs. old and low- vs. high-frequency stimuli), consistent with a semantically mediated lexical locus. Interference in word-picture matching exhibited stable interference for old and novel stimuli and did not interact with lexical frequency. Further, interference transferred from word-picture matching to naming. Together, these experiments provide evidence to suggest that semantic interference in both tasks originates at a shared processing stage (presumably at the semantic level), but that it exerts its effect at different loci when naming pictures vs. matching words to pictures.

Different Loci of Semantic Interference in Picture Naming vs. Word-Picture Matching Tasks

PubMed Central

Harvey, Denise Y.; Schnur, Tatiana T.

2016-01-01

Naming pictures and matching words to pictures belonging to the same semantic category impairs performance relative to when stimuli come from different semantic categories (i.e., semantic interference). Despite similar semantic interference phenomena in both picture naming and word-picture matching tasks, the locus of interference has been attributed to different levels of the language system – lexical in naming and semantic in word-picture matching. Although both tasks involve access to shared semantic representations, the extent to which interference originates and/or has its locus at a shared level remains unclear, as these effects are often investigated in isolation. We manipulated semantic context in cyclical picture naming and word-picture matching tasks, and tested whether factors tapping semantic-level (generalization of interference to novel category items) and lexical-level processes (interactions with lexical frequency) affected the magnitude of interference, while also assessing whether interference occurs at a shared processing level(s) (transfer of interference across tasks). We found that semantic interference in naming was sensitive to both semantic- and lexical-level processes (i.e., larger interference for novel vs. old and low- vs. high-frequency stimuli), consistent with a semantically mediated lexical locus. Interference in word-picture matching exhibited stable interference for old and novel stimuli and did not interact with lexical frequency. Further, interference transferred from word-picture matching to naming. Together, these experiments provide evidence to suggest that semantic interference in both tasks originates at a shared processing stage (presumably at the semantic level), but that it exerts its effect at different loci when naming pictures vs. matching words to pictures. PMID:27242621

Enhanced Choice for Viewing Cocaine Pictures in Cocaine Addiction

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

Moeller, S.J.; Goldstein, R.; Moeller, S.J.

Individuals with cocaine use disorder (CUD) chose cocaine over nondrug rewards. In two newly designed laboratory tasks with pictures, we document this modified choice outside of a cocaine administration paradigm. Choice for viewing cocaine, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral pictures-under explicit contingencies (choice made between two fully visible side-by-side images) and under more implicit contingencies (selections made between pictures hidden under flipped-over cards)-was examined in 20 CUD and 20 matched healthy control subjects. Subjects also provided self-reported ratings of each picture's pleasantness and arousal. Under both contingencies, CUD subjects chose to view more cocaine pictures than control subjects, group differences thatmore » were not fully explained by the self-reported picture ratings. Furthermore, whereas CUD subjects choice for viewing cocaine pictures exceeded choice for viewing unpleasant pictures (but did not exceed choice for viewing pleasant pictures, in contrast to their self-reported ratings), healthy control subjects avoided viewing cocaine pictures as frequently as, or even more than, unpleasant pictures. Finally, CUD subjects with the most cocaine viewing selections, even when directly compared with selections of the pleasant pictures, also reported the most frequent recent cocaine use. Enhanced drug-related choice in cocaine addiction can be demonstrated even for nonpharmacologic (pictorial) stimuli. This choice, which is modulated by alternative stimuli, partly transcends self-reports (possibly indicative of a disconnect in cocaine addiction between self-reports and objective behavior) to provide an objective marker of addiction severity. Neuroimaging studies are needed to establish the neural underpinnings of such enhanced cocaine-related choice.« less

Autonomic responses to social and nonsocial pictures in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Louwerse, Anneke; Tulen, Joke H M; van der Geest, Jos N; van der Ende, Jan; Verhulst, Frank C; Greaves-Lord, Kirstin

2014-02-01

It remains unclear why individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to respond in an atypical manner in social situations. Investigating autonomic and subjective responses to social vs. nonsocial stimuli may help to reveal underlying mechanisms of these atypical responses. This study examined autonomic responses (skin conductance level and heart rate) and subjective responses to social vs. nonsocial pictures in 37 adolescents with an ASD and 36 typically developing (TD) adolescents. Thirty-six pictures from the International Affective Picture System were presented, divided into six categories based on social content (social vs. nonsocial) and pleasantness (pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant). Both in adolescents with ASD as well as TD adolescents, pictures with a social content resulted in higher skin conductance responses (SCRs) for pleasant and unpleasant pictures than for neutral pictures. No differences in SCRs were found for the three nonsocial picture categories. Unpleasant pictures, both with and without a social content, showed more heart rate deceleration than neutral pictures. Self-reported arousal ratings were influenced by the social and affective content of a picture. No differences were found between individuals with ASD and TD individuals in their autonomic and subjective responses to the picture categories. These results suggest that adolescents with ASD do not show atypical autonomic or subjective responses to pictures with and without a social content. These findings make it less likely that impairments in social information processing in individuals with ASD can be explained by atypical autonomic responses to social stimuli. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Selective attention affects implicit and explicit memory for familiar pictures at different delay conditions.

PubMed

Ballesteros, Soledad; Reales, José M; García, Eulalio; Carrasco, Marisa

2006-02-01

Three experiments investigated the effects of two variables -selective attention during encoding and delay between study and test- on implicit (picture fragment completion and object naming) and explicit (free recall and recognition) memory tests. Experiments 1 and 2 consistently indicated that (a) at all delays (immediate to 1 month), picture-fragment identification threshold was lower for the attended than the unattended pictures; (b) the attended pictures were recalled and recognized better than the unattended; and (c) attention and delay interacted in both memory tests. For implicit memory, performance decreased as delay increased for both attended and unattended pictures, but priming was more pronounced and lasted longer for the attended pictures; it was still present after a 1-month delay. For explicit memory, performance decreased as delay increased for attended pictures, but for unattended pictures performance was consistent throughout delay. By using a perceptual object naming task, Experiment 3 showed reliable implicit and explicit memory for attended but not for unattended pictures. This study indicates that picture repetition priming requires attention at the time of study and that neither delay nor attention dissociate performance in explicit and implicit memory tests; both types of memory require attention, but explicit memory does so to a larger degree.

Pictures in Pictures: Art History and Art Museums in Children's Picture Books

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yohlin, Elizabeth

2012-01-01

Children's picture books that recreate, parody, or fictionalize famous artworks and introduce the art museum experience, a genre to which I will refer as "children's art books," have become increasingly popular over the past decade. This essay explores the pedagogical implications of this trend through the family program "Picture Books and Picture…

Optimizing Picture Activities for the Language Classroom: Picture Line-Up Activities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmidt, Ken

1995-01-01

The use of picture line-up activities, classroom exercises in which students must place a series of pictures in correct order, is discussed. The advantages of use of a picture series instead of simple pairs are examined, a basic activity is described, and ideas for implementation, adaptation, and follow-up are outlined. The basic activity uses…

Attenuating the alcohol allure: attentional broadening reduces rapid motivational response to alcohol pictures.

PubMed

Ryerson, Nicole C; Neal, Lauren B; Gable, Philip A

2017-04-01

Past research has found that exposure to alcohol cues causes a narrowing of attentional scope and enhances the neural responses associated with approach motivation. The current research sought to determine if a manipulated broadened (global) attentional scope would reduce approach-motivated neural reactivity to alcohol pictures. In the current study, participants (n = 82) were exposed to alcohol and neutral pictures following either a global or local attentional scope manipulation. Early motivated attentional processing was assessed using the N1 event-related potential (ERP), a neurophysiological marker of rapid motivated attention. A global attentional scope reduced N1 amplitudes to alcohol pictures as compared to a local attentional scope. Self-reported binge drinking related to larger N1 amplitudes to alcohol pictures, but not to neutral pictures. Individuals with greater binge drinking experience demonstrated increased rapid motivated attentional processing to alcohol pictures. These results suggest that enhancing a global (vs. local) attentional scope attenuates rapid motivated attentional processing of alcohol pictures in comparison to neutral pictures. Graphical abstract ᅟ.

Attentional disengagement is modulated by the offset of unpleasant pictures: a saccadic reaction time study.

PubMed

Machado-Pinheiro, Walter; Faria, Aydamari; Braga, Filipe; Guerra, Pedro; Perakakis, Pandelis; Caldas, Ariane Leão; Mocaiber, Izabela; Oliveira, Letícia; Pereira, Mirtes Garcia; Volchan, Eliane; Vila, Jaime

2013-12-01

We studied the influence of passively viewing a picture on saccade latencies to peripheral targets. Thirty-two volunteers were instructed to look at a central picture, wait for the onset of a peripheral target, and execute a saccade toward it as quickly as possible - saccadic reaction time (SRT). The central picture (neutral or unpleasant) could be turned off simultaneously with target onset (the no-gap condition) or 200ms prior to target onset (the gap-200 condition). We found that saccade latencies were influenced by emotional valence and condition. In the no-gap condition, SRTs were longer after viewing unpleasant pictures. In the gap-200 condition, the pattern was reversed, and unpleasant pictures induced shorter SRTs in relation to neutral pictures. Furthermore, the influence of unpleasant pictures gradually decreased when images were re-exposed to the participants - affective habituation. The results are discussed in terms of attentional avoidance and disengagement from unpleasant emotional pictures. © 2013.

Can pictures promote the acquisition of sight-word reading? An evaluation of two potential instructional strategies.

PubMed

Richardson, Amy R; Lerman, Dorothea C; Nissen, Melissa A; Luck, Kally M; Neal, Ashley E; Bao, Shimin; Tsami, Loukia

2017-01-01

Sight-word instruction can be a useful supplement to phonics-based methods under some circumstances. Nonetheless, few studies have evaluated the conditions under which pictures may be used successfully to teach sight-word reading. In this study, we extended prior research by examining two potential strategies for reducing the effects of overshadowing when using picture prompts. Five children with developmental disabilities and two typically developing children participated. In the first experiment, the therapist embedded sight words within pictures but gradually faded in the pictures as needed using a least-to-most prompting hierarchy. In the second experiment, the therapist embedded text-to-picture matching within the sight-word reading sessions. Results suggested that these strategies reduced the interference typically observed with picture prompts and enhanced performance during teaching sessions for the majority of participants. Text-to-picture matching also accelerated mastery of the sight words relative to a condition under which the therapist presented text without pictures. © 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Less is More: How manipulative features affect children’s learning from picture books

PubMed Central

Tare, Medha; Chiong, Cynthia; Ganea, Patricia; DeLoache, Judy

2010-01-01

Picture books are ubiquitous in young children’s lives and are assumed to support children’s acquisition of information about the world. Given their importance, relatively little research has directly examined children’s learning from picture books. We report two studies examining children’s acquisition of labels and facts from picture books that vary on two dimensions: iconicity of the pictures and presence of manipulative features (or “pop-ups”). In Study 1, 20-month-old children generalized novel labels less well when taught from a book with manipulative features than from standard picture books without such elements. In Study 2, 30- and 36-month-old children learned fewer facts when taught from a manipulative picture book with drawings than from a standard picture book with realistic images and no manipulative features. The results of the two studies indicate that children’s learning from picture books is facilitated by realistic illustrations, but impeded by manipulative features. PMID:20948970

Two-Dimensional Grammars And Their Applications To Artificial Intelligence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Edward T.

1987-05-01

During the past several years, the concepts and techniques of two-dimensional grammars1,2 have attracted growing attention as promising avenues of approach to problems in picture generation as well as in picture description3 representation, recognition, transformation and manipulation. Two-dimensional grammar techniques serve the purpose of exploiting the structure or underlying relationships in a picture. This approach attempts to describe a complex picture in terms of their components and their relative positions. This resembles the way a sentence is described in terms of its words and phrases, and the terms structural picture recognition, linguistic picture recognition, or syntactic picture recognition are often used. By using this approach, the problem of picture recognition becomes similar to that of phrase recognition in a language. However, describing pictures using a string grammar (one-dimensional grammar), the only relation between sub-pictures and/or primitives is the concatenation; that is each picture or primitive can be connected only at the left or right. This one-dimensional relation has not been very effective in describing two-dimensional pictures. A natural generaliza-tion is to use two-dimensional grammars. In this paper, two-dimensional grammars and their applications to artificial intelligence are presented. Picture grammars and two-dimensional grammars are introduced and illustrated by examples. In particular, two-dimensional grammars for generating all possible squares and all possible rhombuses are presented. The applications of two-dimensional grammars to solving region filling problems are discussed. An algorithm for region filling using two-dimensional grammars is presented together with illustrative examples. The advantages of using this algorithm in terms of computation time are also stated. A high-level description of a two-level picture generation system is proposed. The first level is the picture primitive generation using two-dimensional grammars. The second level is picture generation using either string description or entity-relationship (ER) diagram description. Illustrative examples are also given. The advantages of ER diagram description together with its comparison to string description are also presented. The results obtained in this paper may have useful applications in artificial intelligence, robotics, expert systems, picture processing, pattern recognition, knowledge engineering and pictorial database design. Furthermore, examples related to satellite surveillance and identifications are also included.

Harm avoidance in adolescents modulates late positive potentials during affective picture processing.

PubMed

Zhang, Wenhai; Lu, Jiamei; Ni, Ziyin; Liu, Xia; Wang, Dahua; Shen, Jiliang

2013-08-01

Research in adults has shown that individual differences in harm avoidance (HA) modulate electrophysiological responses to affective stimuli. To determine whether HA in adolescents modulates affective information processing, we collected event-related potentials from 70 adolescents while they viewed 90 pictures from the Chinese affective picture system. Multiple regressions revealed that HA negatively predicted late positive potential (LPP) for positive pictures and positively predicted for negative pictures; however, HA did not correlate with LPP for neutral pictures. The results suggest that at the late evaluative stage, high-HA adolescents display attentional bias to negative pictures while low-HA adolescents display attentional bias to negative pictures. Moreover, these dissociable attentional patterns imply that individual differences in adolescents' HA modulate the late selective attention mechanism of affective information. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Testing the snake-detection hypothesis: larger early posterior negativity in humans to pictures of snakes than to pictures of other reptiles, spiders and slugs.

PubMed

Van Strien, Jan W; Franken, Ingmar H A; Huijding, Jorg

2014-01-01

According to the snake detection hypothesis (Isbell, 2006), fear specifically of snakes may have pushed evolutionary changes in the primate visual system allowing pre-attentional visual detection of fearful stimuli. A previous study demonstrated that snake pictures, when compared to spiders or bird pictures, draw more early attention as reflected by larger early posterior negativity (EPN). Here we report two studies that further tested the snake detection hypothesis. In Study 1, we tested whether the enlarged EPN is specific for snakes or also generalizes to other reptiles. Twenty-four healthy, non-phobic women watched the random rapid serial presentation of snake, crocodile, and turtle pictures. The EPN was scored as the mean activity at occipital electrodes (PO3, O1, Oz, PO4, O2) in the 225-300 ms time window after picture onset. The EPN was significantly larger for snake pictures than for pictures of the other reptiles. In Study 2, we tested whether disgust plays a role in the modulation of the EPN and whether preferential processing of snakes also can be found in men. 12 men and 12 women watched snake, spider, and slug pictures. Both men and women exhibited the largest EPN amplitudes to snake pictures, intermediate amplitudes to spider pictures and the smallest amplitudes to slug pictures. Disgust ratings were not associated with EPN amplitudes. The results replicate previous findings and suggest that ancestral priorities modulate the early capture of visual attention.

Graphene enhanced optical fiber SPR sensor for liquid concentration measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Xue; Li, Xuegang; Cheng, TongLei; Li, Shuguang; An, Guowen

2018-07-01

A high sensitivity optical fiber Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensor which based on coreless optical fiber, silver film and graphene, has been designed and implemented for liquid concentration detection. In this paper, Graphene is firstly verified that it can be used to enhance the evanescent field of traditional optical fiber and thus increasing sensitivity in experiment. The sensitivity of proposed sensor is 6.417 nm/%, which is higher than that of the traditional optical fiber SPR sensor according to the comparative experiments. In addition, the proposed sensor is extremely easy to make and the silver film could be protected from oxidation and damage due to the existence of graphene. Moreover, the sensor has pretty small size, immunity to electromagnetic interference, quick response speed and thus can suitable a variety of severe environments and real-time measurement.

[Over projected tip].

PubMed

Duron, J-B; Nguyen, P S; Levet, Y; Bardot, J; Aiach, G

2014-12-01

Overprojected tip is a pretty usual request not easy to manage. Preop analysis is crucial in order to evaluate tip support and skin thickness and ability to retract. For example, if the skin is very thick and has poor chance to retract, the surgeon should be very careful in the tip projection decreasing to avoid a skin pollybeak deformity. In such cases, he has to analyze the facial proportions, especially other areas projection (radix, dorsum and chin) and think about augmenting them to balance the profile rather than decreasing tip projection. Correction should always be conducted incrementally, starting with weakening the tip support mechanisms and, only if necessary, continue with alar cartilage interruption. This can be performed on many areas (lateral cruras, domes, medial cruras) and with several techniques (resection or interruption+overlapping). Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Happiness and longevity in the United States.

PubMed

Lawrence, Elizabeth M; Rogers, Richard G; Wadsworth, Tim

2015-11-01

This is the first study to our knowledge to examine the relationship between happiness and longevity among a nationally representative sample of adults. We use the recently-released General Social Survey-National Death Index dataset and Cox proportional hazards models to reveal that overall happiness is related to longer lives among U.S. adults. Indeed, compared to very happy people, the risk of death over the follow-up period is 6% (95% CI 1.01-1.11) higher among individuals who are pretty happy and 14% (95% CI 1.06-1.22) higher among those who are not happy, net of marital status, socioeconomic status, census division, and religious attendance. This study provides support for happiness as a stand-alone indicator of well-being that should be used more widely in social science and health research. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Happiness and Longevity in the United States

PubMed Central

Lawrence, Elizabeth M.; Rogers, Richard G.; Wadsworth, Tim

2016-01-01

This is the first study to our knowledge to examine the relationship between happiness and longevity among a nationally representative sample of adults. We use the recently-released General Social Survey-National Death Index dataset and Cox proportional hazards models to reveal that overall happiness is related to longer lives among U.S. adults. Indeed, compared to very happy people, the risk of death over the follow-up period is 6% (95% CI 1.01 – 1.11) higher among individuals who are pretty happy and 14% (95% CI 1.06 – 1.22) higher among those who are not happy, net of marital status, socioeconomic status, census division, and religious attendance. This study provides support for happiness as a stand-alone indicator of well-being that should be used more widely in social science and health research. PMID:26421947

Two Bears Walk Into a Bar…. A Quest to Communicate Climate Change Ends in Puppets and Sketches and Songs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Willis, J. K.; O'Brien, R.

2015-12-01

Like most colleagues, I struggle to connect with a broad audience about my research. And after years of falling short, I decided to do something about it. So I took a comedy class. And then another. And another. Pretty soon I met a talented director, writer and actor named Rani O'Brien and together we created the Lollygaggers—a sketch comedy musical about climate change for kids of all ages. For 16 weeks in 2014, The Lollygaggers ran in the Second City Studio Theater on Hollywood Blvd, brining laughs and lessons on climate change to a wide audience using puppets, characters and songs. This presentation will focus on how climate change and comedy can unite, how the Lollygaggers came to be, and will include a song from the show.

My Life and Career (So Far) in Combustion Chemistry

DOE PAGES

Miller, James A.

2007-05-10

This is a pretty pretentious title, but I promised that I would write something autobiographical in this space, and I will do that. However, first I want to thank everyone who contributed to the Festschrift. When Stephen Klippenstein told me that he and Craig Taatjes had gotten approval for it (against my advice), I envisioned a situation where the issue had only two papers, both co-authored by Stephen. Luckily that turned out not to be the case. At the time of this writing there are forty-three manuscripts at various stages of review. I am extremely grateful to Craig and Stephen,more » to the editors of the journal, and to all the authors for the tribute. It is far and away the most flattering thing that anyone has ever done for me in my career.« less

Status of women in two Bengals: evidence from large scale surveys.

PubMed

Chattopadhyay, Aparajita; Goswami, Baishali

2007-03-01

Greater female autonomy is mirrored through better performance in the major demographic and social indicators. This study attempts to capture the effect of religion on the status of women considering 'Greater Bengal'. There is much evidence suggesting that when cultural factors are constant, religion does not have a significant effect on any demographic issue. In this paper, the validity of this proposition is examined using two datasets, namely NFHS II (98-99) and BDHS 2000. It is clear from the analyses that not only region but also religion has a distinct effect on the status of women. In West Bengal, the religious gap for all the indicators considered is pretty high, whereas in Bangladesh the gap is not that wide. A state-level population policy is needed in West Bengal to act as a social leveller.

Fabrication and characterization of novel transparent conducting oxide N-CNT doped ZnO for photovoltaic applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benyounes, Anas; Abbas, Naseem; Hammi, Maryama; Ziat, Younes; Slassi, Amine; Zahra, Nida

2018-02-01

The present research reports on the electrical and optical properties of N-CNT doped with ZnO, which is considered as wurtzite transparent and conducting oxide semiconductor structure. The thin films of N-doped carbon nanotubes/ZnO were prepared using sol-gel method, then we carried out investigations in optical and electrical point of view to extract their usefulness in photovoltaic applications. For this purpose, ZnO films were doped by several ratios of carbon nanotubes and N-doped carbon nanotubes. The electrical studies were performed over these two kinds of doped ZnO films, the electrical conductivity has found to be more important for ZnO films filled with N-CNTs. This finding is pretty explained by the electronic conduction hold by nitrogen as charge carriers within carbon nanotubes.

Internal field distribution of a radially inhomogeneous droplet illuminated by an arbitrary shaped beam

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jia Jie; Wriedt, Thomas; Han, Yi Ping; Mädler, Lutz; Jiao, Yong Chang

2018-05-01

Light scattering of a radially inhomogeneous droplet, which is modeled by a multilayered sphere, is investigated within the framework of Generalized Lorenz-Mie Theory (GLMT), with particular efforts devoted to the analysis of the internal field distribution in the cases of shaped beam illumination. To circumvent numerical difficulties in the computation of internal field for an absorbing/non-absorbing droplet with pretty large size parameter, a recursive algorithm is proposed by reformulation of the equations for the expansion coefficients. Two approaches are proposed for the prediction of the internal field distribution, namely a rigorous method and an approximation method. The developed computer code is tested to be stable in a wide range of size parameters. Numerical computations are implemented to simulate the internal field distributions of a radially inhomogeneous droplet illuminated by a focused Gaussian beam.

Cognate Effects in Picture Naming: Does Cross-Language Activation Survive a Change of Script?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoshino, Noriko; Kroll, Judith F.

2008-01-01

Bilinguals are faster to name a picture in one language when the picture's name is a cognate in the other language. We asked whether cognate facilitation in picture naming would be obtained for bilinguals whose two languages differ in script. Spanish-English and Japanese-English bilinguals named cognate and noncognate pictures in English, their…

False recollection of emotional pictures in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Gallo, David A; Foster, Katherine T; Wong, Jessica T; Bennett, David A

2010-10-01

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) can reduce the effects of emotional content on memory for studied pictures, but less is known about false memory. In healthy adults, emotionally arousing pictures can be more susceptible to false memory effects than neutral pictures, potentially because emotional pictures share conceptual similarities that cause memory confusions. We investigated these effects in AD patients and healthy controls. Participants studied pictures and their verbal labels, and then picture recollection was tested using verbal labels as retrieval cues. Some of the test labels had been associated with a picture at study, whereas other had not. On this picture recollection test, we found that both AD patients and controls incorrectly endorsed some of the test labels that had not been studied with pictures. These errors were associated with medium to high levels of confidence, indicating some degree of false recollection. Critically, these false recollection judgments were greater for emotional compared to neutral items, especially for positively valenced items, in both AD patients and controls. Dysfunction of the amygdala and hippocampus in early AD may impair recollection, but AD did not disrupt the effect of emotion on false recollection judgments. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Delayed matching to two-picture samples by individuals with and without disabilities: an analysis of the role of naming.

PubMed

Gutowski, Stanley J; Stromer, Robert

2003-01-01

Delayed matching to complex, two-picture samples (e.g., cat-dog) may be improved when the samples occasion differential verbal behavior. In Experiment 1, individuals with mental retardation matched picture comparisons to identical single-picture samples or to two-picture samples, one of which was identical to a comparison. Accuracy scores were typically high on single-picture trials under both simultaneous and delayed matching conditions. Scores on two-picture trials were also high during the simultaneous condition but were lower during the delay condition. However, scores improved on delayed two-picture trials when each of the sample pictures was named aloud before comparison responding. Experiment 2 replicated these results with preschoolers with typical development and a youth with mental retardation. Sample naming also improved the preschoolers' matching when the samples were pairs of spoken names and the correct comparison picture matched one of the names. Collectively, the participants could produce the verbal behavior that might have improved performance, but typically did not do so unless the procedure required it. The success of the naming intervention recommends it for improving the observing and remembering of multiple elements of complex instructional stimuli.

Mindful attention predicts greater recovery from negative emotions, but not reduced reactivity.

PubMed

Cho, Sinhae; Lee, Hyejeen; Oh, Kyung Ja; Soto, José A

2017-09-01

This study investigated the role of dispositional mindful attention in immediate reactivity to, and subsequent recovery from, laboratory-induced negative emotion. One hundred and fourteen undergraduates viewed blocks of negative pictures followed by neutral pictures. Participants' emotional responses to negative pictures and subsequent neutral pictures were assessed via self-reported ratings. Participants' emotional response to negative pictures was used to index level of emotional reactivity to unpleasant stimuli; emotional response to neutral pictures presented immediately after the negative pictures was used to index level of emotional recovery from pre-induced negative emotion (residual negativity). Results indicated that mindful attention was not associated with the emotional response to negative pictures, but it was associated with reduced negative emotion in response to the neutral pictures presented immediately after the negative pictures, suggesting better recovery as opposed to reduced reactivity. This effect was especially pronounced in later experimental blocks when the accumulation of negative stimuli produced greater negative emotion from which participants had to recover. The current study extends previous findings on the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and reduced negative emotion by demonstrating that mindful attention may facilitate better recovery from negative emotion, possibly through more effective disengagement from previous stimuli.

Picture Memory Improves with Longer On Time and Off Time

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tversky, Barbara; Sherman, Tracy

1975-01-01

Both recognition and recall of pictures improve as picture presentation time increases and as time between picture increases. This experiment was compared with an earlier one by Shaffer and Shiffrin (1972). (Editor/RK)

Eating behaviour associated with differences in conflict adaptation for food pictures.

PubMed

Husted, Margaret; Banks, Adrian P; Seiss, Ellen

2016-10-01

The goal conflict model of eating (Stroebe, Mensink, Aarts, Schut, & Kruglanski, 2008) proposes differences in eating behaviour result from peoples' experience of holding conflicting goals of eating enjoyment and weight maintenance. However, little is understood about the relationship between eating behaviour and the cognitive processes involved in conflict. This study aims to investigate associations between eating behaviour traits and cognitive conflict processes, specifically the application of cognitive control when processing distracting food pictures. A flanker task using food and non-food pictures was used to examine individual differences in conflict adaptation. Participants responded to target pictures whilst ignoring distracting flanking pictures. Individual differences in eating behaviour traits, attention towards target pictures, and ability to apply cognitive control through adaptation to conflicting picture trials were analysed. Increased levels of external and emotional eating were related to slower responses to food pictures indicating food target avoidance. All participants showed greater distraction by food compared to non-food pictures. Of particular significance, increased levels of emotional eating were associated with greater conflict adaptation for conflicting food pictures only. Emotional eaters demonstrate greater application of cognitive control for conflicting food pictures as part of a food avoidance strategy. This could represent an attempt to inhibit their eating enjoyment goal in order for their weight maintenance goal to dominate. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A comparison of conscious and automatic memory processes for picture and word stimuli: a process dissociation analysis.

PubMed

McBride, Dawn M; Anne Dosher, Barbara

2002-09-01

Four experiments were conducted to evaluate explanations of picture superiority effects previously found for several tasks. In a process dissociation procedure (Jacoby, 1991) with word stem completion, picture fragment completion, and category production tasks, conscious and automatic memory processes were compared for studied pictures and words with an independent retrieval model and a generate-source model. The predictions of a transfer appropriate processing account of picture superiority were tested and validated in "process pure" latent measures of conscious and unconscious, or automatic and source, memory processes. Results from both model fits verified that pictures had a conceptual (conscious/source) processing advantage over words for all tasks. The effects of perceptual (automatic/word generation) compatibility depended on task type, with pictorial tasks favoring pictures and linguistic tasks favoring words. Results show support for an explanation of the picture superiority effect that involves an interaction of encoding and retrieval processes.

Erotic and disgust-inducing pictures--differences in the hemodynamic responses of the brain.

PubMed

Stark, Rudolf; Schienle, Anne; Girod, Cornelia; Walter, Bertram; Kirsch, Peter; Blecker, Carlo; Ott, Ulrich; Schäfer, Axel; Sammer, Gebhard; Zimmermann, Mark; Vaitl, Dieter

2005-09-01

The aim of this fMRI study was to explore brain structures that are involved in the processing of erotic and disgust-inducing pictures. The stimuli were chosen to trigger approach and withdrawal tendencies, respectively. By adding sadomasochistic (SM) scenes to the design and examining 12 subjects with and 12 subjects without sadomasochistic preferences, we introduced a picture category that induced erotic pleasure in one sample and disgust in the other sample. Since we also presented neutral pictures, all subjects viewed pictures of four different categories: neutral, disgust-inducing, erotic, and SM erotic pictures. The analysis indicated that several brain structures are commonly involved in the processing of disgust-inducing and erotic pictures (occipital cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, and the amygdala). The ventral striatum was specifically activated when subjects saw highly sexually arousing pictures. This indicates the involvement of the human reward system during the processing of visual erotica.

Influence of trait behavioral inhibition and behavioral approach motivation systems on the LPP and frontal asymmetry to anger pictures.

PubMed

Gable, Philip A; Poole, Bryan D

2014-02-01

Behavioral approach and avoidance are fundamental to the experience of emotion and motivation, but the motivational system associated with anger is not well established. Some theories posit that approach motivational processes underlie anger, whereas others posit that avoidance motivational processes underlie anger. The current experiment sought to address whether traits related to behavioral approach or avoidance influence responses to anger stimuli using multiple measures: ERP, electroencephalographic (EEG) α-asymmetry and self-report. After completing the behavioral inhibition system/behavioral approach system (BIS/BAS) scales, participants viewed anger pictures and neutral pictures. BAS predicted larger late positive potentials (LPPs) to anger pictures, but not to neutral pictures. In addition, BAS predicted greater left-frontal asymmetry to anger pictures. Moreover, larger LPPs to anger pictures related to greater left-frontal EEG asymmetry during anger pictures. These results suggest that trait approach motivation relates to neurophysiological responses of anger.

Influence of trait behavioral inhibition and behavioral approach motivation systems on the LPP and frontal asymmetry to anger pictures

PubMed Central

Poole, Bryan D.

2014-01-01

Behavioral approach and avoidance are fundamental to the experience of emotion and motivation, but the motivational system associated with anger is not well established. Some theories posit that approach motivational processes underlie anger, whereas others posit that avoidance motivational processes underlie anger. The current experiment sought to address whether traits related to behavioral approach or avoidance influence responses to anger stimuli using multiple measures: ERP, electroencephalographic (EEG) α-asymmetry and self-report. After completing the behavioral inhibition system/behavioral approach system (BIS/BAS) scales, participants viewed anger pictures and neutral pictures. BAS predicted larger late positive potentials (LPPs) to anger pictures, but not to neutral pictures. In addition, BAS predicted greater left-frontal asymmetry to anger pictures. Moreover, larger LPPs to anger pictures related to greater left-frontal EEG asymmetry during anger pictures. These results suggest that trait approach motivation relates to neurophysiological responses of anger. PMID:23175676

Do perceived context pictures automatically activate their phonological code?

PubMed

Jescheniak, Jörg D; Oppermann, Frank; Hantsch, Ansgar; Wagner, Valentin; Mädebach, Andreas; Schriefers, Herbert

2009-01-01

Morsella and Miozzo (Morsella, E., & Miozzo, M. (2002). Evidence for a cascade model of lexical access in speech production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28, 555-563) have reported that the to-be-ignored context pictures become phonologically activated when participants name a target picture, and took this finding as support for cascaded models of lexical retrieval in speech production. In a replication and extension of their experiment in German, we failed to obtain priming effects from context pictures phonologically related to a to-be-named target picture. By contrast, corresponding context words (i.e., the names of the respective pictures) and the same context pictures, when used in an identity condition, did reliably facilitate the naming process. This pattern calls into question the generality of the claim advanced by Morsella and Miozzo that perceptual processing of pictures in the context of a naming task automatically leads to the activation of corresponding lexical-phonological codes.

Effects of picture amount on preference, balance, and dynamic feel of Web pages.

PubMed

Chiang, Shu-Ying; Chen, Chien-Hsiung

2012-04-01

This study investigates the effects of picture amount on subjective evaluation. The experiment herein adopted two variables to define picture amount: column ratio and picture size. Six column ratios were employed: 7:93,15:85, 24:76, 33:67, 41:59, and 50:50. Five picture sizes were examined: 140 x 81, 220 x 127, 300 x 173, 380 x 219, and 460 x 266 pixels. The experiment implemented a within-subject design; 104 participants were asked to evaluate 30 web page layouts. Repeated measurements revealed that the column ratio and picture size have significant effects on preference, balance, and dynamic feel. The results indicated the most appropriate picture amount for display: column ratios of 15:85 and 24:76, and picture sizes of 220 x 127, 300 x 173, and 380 x 219. The research findings can serve as the basis for the application of design guidelines for future web page interface design.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Articulation: N400 Attenuation despite Behavioral Interference in Picture Naming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blackford, Trevor; Holcomb, Phillip J.; Grainger, Jonathan; Kuperberg, Gina R.

2012-01-01

We measured Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) and naming times to picture targets preceded by masked words (stimulus onset asynchrony: 80 ms) that shared one of three different types of relationship with the names of the pictures: (1) Identity related, in which the prime was the name of the picture ("socks"--[picture of socks]), (2) Phonemic Onset…

Effects of Uncertainty on ERPs to Emotional Pictures Depend on Emotional Valence

PubMed Central

Lin, Huiyan; Jin, Hua; Liang, Jiafeng; Yin, Ruru; Liu, Ting; Wang, Yiwen

2015-01-01

Uncertainty about the emotional content of an upcoming event has found to modulate neural activity to the event before its occurrence. However, it is still under debate whether the uncertainty effects occur after the occurrence of the event. To address this issue, participants were asked to view emotional pictures that were shortly after a cue, which either indicated a certain emotion of the picture or not. Both certain and uncertain cues were used by neutral symbols. The anticipatory phase (i.e., inter-trial interval, ITI) between the cue and the picture was short to enhance the effects of uncertainty. In addition, we used positive and negative pictures that differed only in valence but not in arousal to investigate whether the uncertainty effect was dependent on emotional valence. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded during the presentation of the pictures. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that negative pictures evoked smaller P2 and late LPP but larger N2 in the uncertain as compared to the certain condition; whereas we did not find the uncertainty effect in early LPP. For positive pictures, the early LPP was larger in the uncertain as compared to the certain condition; however, there were no uncertainty effects in some other ERP components (e.g., P2, N2, and late LPP). The findings suggest that uncertainty modulates neural activity to emotional pictures and this modulation is altered by the valence of the pictures, indicating that individuals alter the allocation of attentional resources toward uncertain emotional pictures dependently on the valence of the pictures. PMID:26733916

Testing the snake-detection hypothesis: larger early posterior negativity in humans to pictures of snakes than to pictures of other reptiles, spiders and slugs

PubMed Central

Van Strien, Jan W.; Franken, Ingmar H. A.; Huijding, Jorg

2014-01-01

According to the snake detection hypothesis (Isbell, 2006), fear specifically of snakes may have pushed evolutionary changes in the primate visual system allowing pre-attentional visual detection of fearful stimuli. A previous study demonstrated that snake pictures, when compared to spiders or bird pictures, draw more early attention as reflected by larger early posterior negativity (EPN). Here we report two studies that further tested the snake detection hypothesis. In Study 1, we tested whether the enlarged EPN is specific for snakes or also generalizes to other reptiles. Twenty-four healthy, non-phobic women watched the random rapid serial presentation of snake, crocodile, and turtle pictures. The EPN was scored as the mean activity at occipital electrodes (PO3, O1, Oz, PO4, O2) in the 225–300 ms time window after picture onset. The EPN was significantly larger for snake pictures than for pictures of the other reptiles. In Study 2, we tested whether disgust plays a role in the modulation of the EPN and whether preferential processing of snakes also can be found in men. 12 men and 12 women watched snake, spider, and slug pictures. Both men and women exhibited the largest EPN amplitudes to snake pictures, intermediate amplitudes to spider pictures and the smallest amplitudes to slug pictures. Disgust ratings were not associated with EPN amplitudes. The results replicate previous findings and suggest that ancestral priorities modulate the early capture of visual attention. PMID:25237303

Valence and Arousal Value of Visual Stimuli and Their Role in the Mitigation of Chronic Pain: What Is the Power of Pictures?

PubMed

Shaygan, Maryam; Böger, Andreas; Kröner-Herwig, Birgit

2017-02-01

The present study investigated the pain-reducing effects of various pictures in a sample of 88 patients receiving inpatient treatment for chronic pain. We investigated whether the pain-attenuating effects of the pictures were mediated by picture valence, arousal, or change in subjective social support. The study was carried out over 4 consecutive days. Patients were presented with photographs of loved ones, strangers, landscapes, or optical illusions via digital albums and were asked to rate their pain intensity and their sensory and affective experience of pain immediately before and after viewing the pictures. They also evaluated the valence of the pictures and the extent to which they were arousing. Before and after participation in the study, patients provided information on their subjective social support. The valence attributed to the pictures varied; photographs of loved ones elicited the greatest pleasure. Pictures of varying emotional content and arousal value all reduced affective and sensory perceptions of pain. Viewing photographs of loved ones reduced pain intensity more than viewing other picture types. The association between picture type and decrease in pain intensity was mediated by picture valence. These findings suggest an easy to implement supplementary intervention that could be used in multidisciplinary pain treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that pictures mitigate pain in chronic pain patients receiving treatment in a multidisciplinary pain center. The procedure could be used routinely to treat pain, particularly severe pain. Copyright © 2016 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The picture superiority effect in conceptual implicit memory: a conceptual distinctiveness hypothesis.

PubMed

Hamilton, Maryellen; Geraci, Lisa

2006-01-01

According to leading theories, the picture superiority effect is driven by conceptual processing, yet this effect has been difficult to obtain using conceptual implicit memory tests. We hypothesized that the picture superiority effect results from conceptual processing of a picture's distinctive features rather than a picture's semantic features. To test this hypothesis, we used 2 conceptual implicit general knowledge tests; one cued conceptually distinctive features (e.g., "What animal has large eyes?") and the other cued semantic features (e.g., "What animal is the figurehead of Tootsie Roll?"). Results showed a picture superiority effect only on the conceptual test using distinctive cues, supporting our hypothesis that this effect is mediated by conceptual processing of a picture's distinctive features.

The spatial distribution and time evolution of impact-generated magnetic fields

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crawford, D. A.; Schultz, P. H.

1991-01-01

The production of magnetic fields was revealed by laboratory hypervelocity impacts in easily vaporized targets. As quantified by pressure measurements, high frame-rate photography, and electrostatic probes, these impacts tend to produce large quantities of slightly ionized vapor, which is referred to as impact-generated plasma. Nonaligned electron density and temperature gradients within this plasma may lead to production of the observed magnetic fields. Past experiments were limited to measuring a single component of the impact-generated magnetic fields at only a few locations about the developing impact crater and consequently gave little information about the field production mechanism. To understand this mechanism, the techniques were extended to map the three components of the magnetic field both in space and time. By conducting many otherwise identical experiments with arrayed magnetic detectors, a preliminary 3-D picture was produced of impact-generated magnetic fields as they develop through time.

Emotion regulation and emotion coherence: evidence for strategy-specific effects.

PubMed

Dan-Glauser, Elise S; Gross, James J

2013-10-01

One of the central tenets of emotion theory is that emotions involve coordinated changes across experiential, behavioral, and physiological response domains. Surprisingly little is known, however, about how the strength of this emotion coherence is altered when people try to regulate their emotions. To address this issue, we recorded experiential, behavioral, and physiological responses while participants watched negative and positive pictures. Cross-correlations were used to quantify emotion coherence. Study 1 tested how two types of suppression (expressive and physiological) influence coherence. Results showed that both strategies decreased the response coherence measured in negative and positive contexts. Study 2 tested how multichannel suppression (simultaneously targeting expressive and physiological responses) and acceptance influence emotion coherence. Results again showed that suppression decreased coherence. By contrast, acceptance was not significantly different from the unregulated condition. These findings help to clarify the nature of emotion response coherence by showing how different forms of emotion regulation may differentially affect it.

Self-confidence of anglers in identification of freshwater sport fish

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chizinski, C.J.; Martin, D. R.; Pope, Kevin L.

2014-01-01

Although several studies have focused on how well anglers identify species using replicas and pictures, there has been no study assessing the confidence that can be placed in angler's ability to identify recreationally important fish. Understanding factors associated with low self-confidence will be useful in tailoring education programmes to improve self-confidence in identifying common species. The purposes of this assessment were to quantify the confidence of recreational anglers to identify 13 commonly encountered warm water fish species and to relate self-confidence to species availability and angler experience. Significant variation was observed in anglers self-confidence among species and levels of self-declared skill, with greater confidence associated with greater skill and with greater exposure. This study of angler self-confidence strongly highlights the need for educational programmes that target lower skilled anglers and the importance of teaching all anglers about less common species, regardless of skill level.

Structures of Neural Correlation and How They Favor Coding

PubMed Central

Franke, Felix; Fiscella, Michele; Sevelev, Maksim; Roska, Botond; Hierlemann, Andreas; da Silveira, Rava Azeredo

2017-01-01

Summary The neural representation of information suffers from “noise”—the trial-to-trial variability in the response of neurons. The impact of correlated noise upon population coding has been debated, but a direct connection between theory and experiment remains tenuous. Here, we substantiate this connection and propose a refined theoretical picture. Using simultaneous recordings from a population of direction-selective retinal ganglion cells, we demonstrate that coding benefits from noise correlations. The effect is appreciable already in small populations, yet it is a collective phenomenon. Furthermore, the stimulus-dependent structure of correlation is key. We develop simple functional models that capture the stimulus-dependent statistics. We then use them to quantify the performance of population coding, which depends upon interplays of feature sensitivities and noise correlations in the population. Because favorable structures of correlation emerge robustly in circuits with noisy, nonlinear elements, they will arise and benefit coding beyond the confines of retina. PMID:26796692

Discrete solitons and vortices in anisotropic hexagonal and honeycomb lattices

DOE PAGES

Hoq, Q. E.; Kevrekidis, P. G.; Bishop, A. R.

2016-01-14

We consider the self-focusing discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation on hexagonal and honeycomb lattice geometries. Our emphasis is on the study of the effects of anisotropy, motivated by the tunability afforded in recent optical and atomic physics experiments. We find that multi-soliton and discrete vortex states undergo destabilizing bifurcations as the relevant anisotropy control parameter is varied. Furthermore, we quantify these bifurcations by means of explicit analytical calculations of the solutions, as well as of their spectral linearization eigenvalues. Finally, we corroborate the relevant stability picture through direct numerical computations. In the latter, we observe the prototypical manifestation of these instabilitiesmore » to be the spontaneous rearrangement of the solution, for larger values of the coupling, into localized waveforms typically centered over fewer sites than the original unstable structure. In weak coupling, the instability appears to result in a robust breathing of the relevant waveforms.« less

Discrete solitons and vortices in anisotropic hexagonal and honeycomb lattices

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

Hoq, Q. E.; Kevrekidis, P. G.; Bishop, A. R.

We consider the self-focusing discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation on hexagonal and honeycomb lattice geometries. Our emphasis is on the study of the effects of anisotropy, motivated by the tunability afforded in recent optical and atomic physics experiments. We find that multi-soliton and discrete vortex states undergo destabilizing bifurcations as the relevant anisotropy control parameter is varied. Furthermore, we quantify these bifurcations by means of explicit analytical calculations of the solutions, as well as of their spectral linearization eigenvalues. Finally, we corroborate the relevant stability picture through direct numerical computations. In the latter, we observe the prototypical manifestation of these instabilitiesmore » to be the spontaneous rearrangement of the solution, for larger values of the coupling, into localized waveforms typically centered over fewer sites than the original unstable structure. In weak coupling, the instability appears to result in a robust breathing of the relevant waveforms.« less

On-farm renewables and resilience: a water-energy-food nexus case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Todman, Lindsay

2017-04-01

On farm renewables diversify farm income sources (or reduce energy costs) and are thus generally considered to increase farm resilience. Whilst they clearly contribute to renewable energy production targets they can also affect water quality either positively (e.g. use of farmyard manure for anaerobic digestion) or negatively (particularly during construction). Here the interactions within the water-energy-food nexus are examined as they relate to on-farm renewables, where possible quantifying the relative magnitude of feedbacks between the three sectors. Particular focus is given to the dynamics of the system in changing climatic conditions. These analyses reveal a complex picture, with trade-offs between the 'resilience' in different parts of the nexus. This highlights the need for dialogue between stakeholders to identify the key functions in each sector that would be susceptible to particular climatic stresses so that these can be prioritised during planning.

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

Yoder Jr, Graydon L; Heatherly, Dennis Wayne; Williams, David F

A small molten fluoride salt experiment has been constructed and tested to develop experimental techniques for application in liquid fluoride salt systems. There were five major objectives in developing this test apparatus: Allow visual observation of the salt during testing (how can lighting be introduced, how can pictures be taken, what can be seen) Determine if IR photography can be used to examine components submerged in the salt Determine if the experimental configuration provides salt velocity sufficient for collection of corrosion data for future experimentation Determine if a laser Doppler velocimeter can be used to quantify salt velocities. Acquire naturalmore » circulation heat transfer data in fluoride salt at temperatures up to 700oC All of these objectives were successfully achieved during testing with the exception of the fourth: acquiring velocity data using the laser Doppler velocimeter. This paper describes the experiment and experimental techniques used, and presents data taken during natural circulation testing.« less

Measuring health care process quality with software quality measures.

PubMed

Yildiz, Ozkan; Demirörs, Onur

2012-01-01

Existing quality models focus on some specific diseases, clinics or clinical areas. Although they contain structure, process, or output type measures, there is no model which measures quality of health care processes comprehensively. In addition, due to the not measured overall process quality, hospitals cannot compare quality of processes internally and externally. To bring a solution to above problems, a new model is developed from software quality measures. We have adopted the ISO/IEC 9126 software quality standard for health care processes. Then, JCIAS (Joint Commission International Accreditation Standards for Hospitals) measurable elements were added to model scope for unifying functional requirements. Assessment (diagnosing) process measurement results are provided in this paper. After the application, it was concluded that the model determines weak and strong aspects of the processes, gives a more detailed picture for the process quality, and provides quantifiable information to hospitals to compare their processes with multiple organizations.

Performance characteristics of the Mayo/IBM PACS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Persons, Kenneth R.; Gehring, Dale G.; Pavicic, Mark J.; Ding, Yingjai

1991-07-01

The Mayo Clinic and IBM (at Rochester, Minnesota) have jointly developed a picture archiving system for use with Mayo's MRI and Neuro CT imaging modalities. The communications backbone of the PACS is a portion of the Mayo institutional network: a series of 4-Mbps token rings interconnected by bridges and fiber optic extensions. The performance characteristics of this system are important to understand because they affect the response time a PACS user can expect, and the response time for non-PACS users competing for resources on the institutional network. The performance characteristics of each component and the average load levels of the network were measured for various load distributions. These data were used to quantify the response characteristics of the existing system and to tune a model developed by North Dakota State University Department of Computer Science for predicting response times of more complex topologies.

Random-Phase Approximation Methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Guo P.; Voora, Vamsee K.; Agee, Matthew M.; Balasubramani, Sree Ganesh; Furche, Filipp

2017-05-01

Random-phase approximation (RPA) methods are rapidly emerging as cost-effective validation tools for semilocal density functional computations. We present the theoretical background of RPA in an intuitive rather than formal fashion, focusing on the physical picture of screening and simple diagrammatic analysis. A new decomposition of the RPA correlation energy into plasmonic modes leads to an appealing visualization of electron correlation in terms of charge density fluctuations. Recent developments in the areas of beyond-RPA methods, RPA correlation potentials, and efficient algorithms for RPA energy and property calculations are reviewed. The ability of RPA to approximately capture static correlation in molecules is quantified by an analysis of RPA natural occupation numbers. We illustrate the use of RPA methods in applications to small-gap systems such as open-shell d- and f-element compounds, radicals, and weakly bound complexes, where semilocal density functional results exhibit strong functional dependence.

Characterizing the Fundamental Intellectual Steps Required in the Solution of Conceptual Problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stewart, John

2010-02-01

At some level, the performance of a science class must depend on what is taught, the information content of the materials and assignments of the course. The introductory calculus-based electricity and magnetism class at the University of Arkansas is examined using a catalog of the basic reasoning steps involved in the solution of problems assigned in the class. This catalog was developed by sampling popular physics textbooks for conceptual problems. The solution to each conceptual problem was decomposed into its fundamental reasoning steps. These fundamental steps are, then, used to quantify the distribution of conceptual content within the course. Using this characterization technique, an exceptionally detailed picture of the information flow and structure of the class can be produced. The intellectual structure of published conceptual inventories is compared with the information presented in the class and the dependence of conceptual performance on the details of coverage extracted. )

Picture object recognition in an American black bear (Ursus americanus).

PubMed

Johnson-Ulrich, Zoe; Vonk, Jennifer; Humbyrd, Mary; Crowley, Marilyn; Wojtkowski, Ela; Yates, Florence; Allard, Stephanie

2016-11-01

Many animals have been tested for conceptual discriminations using two-dimensional images as stimuli, and many of these species appear to transfer knowledge from 2D images to analogous real life objects. We tested an American black bear for picture-object recognition using a two alternative forced choice task. She was presented with four unique sets of objects and corresponding pictures. The bear showed generalization from both objects to pictures and pictures to objects; however, her transfer was superior when transferring from real objects to pictures, suggesting that bears can recognize visual features from real objects within photographic images during discriminations.

Communication system analysis for manned space flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schilling, D. L.

1977-01-01

One- and two-dimensional adaptive delta modulator (ADM) algorithms are discussed and compared. Results are shown for bit rates of two bits/pixel, one bit/pixel and 0.5 bits/pixel. Pictures showing the difference between the encoded-decoded pictures and the original pictures are presented. The effect of channel errors on the reconstructed picture is illustrated. A two-dimensional ADM using interframe encoding is also presented. This system operates at the rate of two bits/pixel and produces excellent quality pictures when there is little motion. The effect of large amounts of motion on the reconstructed picture is described.

Investigating the flow of information during speaking: the impact of morpho-phonological, associative, and categorical picture distractors on picture naming

PubMed Central

Bölte, Jens; Böhl, Andrea; Dobel, Christian; Zwitserlood, Pienie

2015-01-01

In three experiments, participants named target pictures by means of German compound words (e.g., Gartenstuhl–garden chair), each accompanied by two different distractor pictures (e.g., lawn mower and swimming pool). Targets and distractor pictures were semantically related either associatively (garden chair and lawn mower) or by a shared semantic category (garden chair and wardrobe). Within each type of semantic relation, target and distractor pictures either shared morpho-phonological (word-form) information (Gartenstuhl with Gartenzwerg, garden gnome, and Gartenschlauch, garden hose) or not. A condition with two completely unrelated pictures served as baseline. Target naming was facilitated when distractor and target pictures were morpho-phonologically related. This is clear evidence for the activation of word-form information of distractor pictures. Effects were larger for associatively than for categorically related distractors and targets, which constitute evidence for lexical competition. Mere categorical relatedness, in the absence of morpho-phonological overlap, resulted in null effects (Experiments 1 and 2), and only speeded target naming when effects reflect only conceptual, but not lexical processing (Experiment 3). Given that distractor pictures activate their word forms, the data cannot be easily reconciled with discrete serial models. The results fit well with models that allow information to cascade forward from conceptual to word-form levels. PMID:26528209

Does the generation effect occur for pictures?

PubMed

Kinjo, H; Snodgrass, J G

2000-01-01

The generation effect is the finding that self-generated stimuli are recalled and recognized better than read stimuli. The effect has been demonstrated primarily with words. This article examines the effect for pictures in two experiments: Subjects named complete pictures (name condition) and fragmented pictures (generation condition). In Experiment 1, memory was tested in 3 explicit tasks: free recall, yes/no recognition, and a source-monitoring task on whether each picture was complete or fragmented (the complete/incomplete task). The generation effect was found for all 3 tasks. However, in the recognition and source-monitoring tasks, the generation effect was observed only in the generation condition. We hypothesized that absence of the effect in the name condition was due to the sensory or process match effect between study and test pictures and the superior identification of pictures in the name condition. Therefore, stimuli were changed from pictures to their names in Experiment 2. Memory was tested in the recognition task, complete/incomplete task, and second source-monitoring task (success/failure) on whether each picture had been identified successfully. The generation effect was observed for all 3 tasks. These results suggest that memory of structural and semantic characteristics and of success in identification of generated pictures may contribute to the generation effect.

Event-related potentials and recognition memory for pictures and words: the effects of intentional and incidental learning.

PubMed

Noldy, N E; Stelmack, R M; Campbell, K B

1990-07-01

Event-related potentials were recorded under conditions of intentional or incidental learning of pictures and words, and during the subsequent recognition memory test for these stimuli. Intentionally learned pictures were remembered better than incidentally learned pictures and intentionally learned words, which, in turn, were remembered better than incidentally learned words. In comparison to pictures that were ignored, the pictures that were attended were characterized by greater positive amplitude frontally at 250 ms and centro-parietally at 350 ms and by greater negativity at 450 ms at parietal and occipital sites. There were no effects of attention on the waveforms elicited by words. These results support the view that processing becomes automatic for words, whereas the processing of pictures involves additional effort or allocation of attentional resources. The N450 amplitude was greater for words than for pictures during both acquisition (intentional items) and recognition phases (hit and correct rejection categories for intentional items, hit category for incidental items). Because pictures are better remembered than words, the greater late positive wave (600 ms) elicited by the pictures than the words during the acquisition phase is also consistent with the association between P300 and better memory that has been reported.

Road-safety education: spatial decentering and subjective or objective picture processing.

PubMed

Guercin, F

2007-10-01

The current study examined children's ability to analyse pictures of a risky situation, both in relation to the characteristics of the pictures and in relation to the centering/decentering process of cognitive development. Sixty children aged 6, 9 or 11 years were given an objective or subjective version of a story about a risky situation involving road crossing and were asked to reconstruct it by putting six pictures in chronological order. The type of picture series, objective or subjective, had a different effect on the children's understanding and performance, according to the age. The older children were better at ordering the pictures, but on the subjective version only. The picture-version effect on planning time decreased with age; only the younger children took more time to start touching the pictures. On one hand, it is concluded that for the youngest children, objective representations are essential to analysing pictures showing a risk, whereas the oldest children will profit more from a subjective view. On the other hand, subjective representations, which give a more realistic view, provide an excellent tool for testing children's abilities. Subjective representations can be used to detect potentially risky behaviour in virtual situations (static pictures, or multimedia tools), since it permits one to predict at-risk behaviour in the street and to assess the effectiveness of remedial measures.

#cutting: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) on Instagram.

PubMed

Brown, R C; Fischer, T; Goldwich, A D; Keller, F; Young, R; Plener, P L

2018-01-01

Social media presents an important means for social interaction, especially among adolescents, with Instagram being the most popular platform in this age-group. Pictures and communication about non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) can frequently be found on the internet. During 4 weeks in April 2016, n = 2826 (from n = 1154 accounts) pictures which directly depicted wounds on Instagram were investigated. Those pictures, associated comments, and user accounts were independently rated for content. Associations between characteristics of pictures and comments as well as weekly and daily trends of posting behavior were analyzed. Most commonly, pictures depicted wounds caused by cutting on arms or legs and were rated as mild or moderate injuries. Pictures with increasing wound grades and those depicting multiple methods of NSSI generated elevated amounts of comments. While most comments were neutral or empathic with some offering help, few comments were hostile. Pictures were mainly posted in the evening hours, with a small peak in the early morning. While there was a slight peak of pictures being posted on Sundays, postings were rather evenly spread across the week. Pictures of NSSI are frequently posted on Instagram. Social reinforcement might play a role in the posting of more severe NSSI pictures. Social media platforms need to take appropriate measures for preventing online social contagion.

Investigating the flow of information during speaking: the impact of morpho-phonological, associative, and categorical picture distractors on picture naming.

PubMed

Bölte, Jens; Böhl, Andrea; Dobel, Christian; Zwitserlood, Pienie

2015-01-01

In three experiments, participants named target pictures by means of German compound words (e.g., Gartenstuhl-garden chair), each accompanied by two different distractor pictures (e.g., lawn mower and swimming pool). Targets and distractor pictures were semantically related either associatively (garden chair and lawn mower) or by a shared semantic category (garden chair and wardrobe). Within each type of semantic relation, target and distractor pictures either shared morpho-phonological (word-form) information (Gartenstuhl with Gartenzwerg, garden gnome, and Gartenschlauch, garden hose) or not. A condition with two completely unrelated pictures served as baseline. Target naming was facilitated when distractor and target pictures were morpho-phonologically related. This is clear evidence for the activation of word-form information of distractor pictures. Effects were larger for associatively than for categorically related distractors and targets, which constitute evidence for lexical competition. Mere categorical relatedness, in the absence of morpho-phonological overlap, resulted in null effects (Experiments 1 and 2), and only speeded target naming when effects reflect only conceptual, but not lexical processing (Experiment 3). Given that distractor pictures activate their word forms, the data cannot be easily reconciled with discrete serial models. The results fit well with models that allow information to cascade forward from conceptual to word-form levels.

Snake scales, partial exposure, and the Snake Detection Theory: A human event-related potentials study.

PubMed

Van Strien, Jan W; Isbell, Lynne A

2017-04-07

Studies of event-related potentials in humans have established larger early posterior negativity (EPN) in response to pictures depicting snakes than to pictures depicting other creatures. Ethological research has recently shown that macaques and wild vervet monkeys respond strongly to partially exposed snake models and scale patterns on the snake skin. Here, we examined whether snake skin patterns and partially exposed snakes elicit a larger EPN in humans. In Task 1, we employed pictures with close-ups of snake skins, lizard skins, and bird plumage. In task 2, we employed pictures of partially exposed snakes, lizards, and birds. Participants watched a random rapid serial visual presentation of these pictures. The EPN was scored as the mean activity (225-300 ms after picture onset) at occipital and parieto-occipital electrodes. Consistent with previous studies, and with the Snake Detection Theory, the EPN was significantly larger for snake skin pictures than for lizard skin and bird plumage pictures, and for lizard skin pictures than for bird plumage pictures. Likewise, the EPN was larger for partially exposed snakes than for partially exposed lizards and birds. The results suggest that the EPN snake effect is partly driven by snake skin scale patterns which are otherwise rare in nature.

Snake scales, partial exposure, and the Snake Detection Theory: A human event-related potentials study

PubMed Central

Van Strien, Jan W.; Isbell, Lynne A.

2017-01-01

Studies of event-related potentials in humans have established larger early posterior negativity (EPN) in response to pictures depicting snakes than to pictures depicting other creatures. Ethological research has recently shown that macaques and wild vervet monkeys respond strongly to partially exposed snake models and scale patterns on the snake skin. Here, we examined whether snake skin patterns and partially exposed snakes elicit a larger EPN in humans. In Task 1, we employed pictures with close-ups of snake skins, lizard skins, and bird plumage. In task 2, we employed pictures of partially exposed snakes, lizards, and birds. Participants watched a random rapid serial visual presentation of these pictures. The EPN was scored as the mean activity (225–300 ms after picture onset) at occipital and parieto-occipital electrodes. Consistent with previous studies, and with the Snake Detection Theory, the EPN was significantly larger for snake skin pictures than for lizard skin and bird plumage pictures, and for lizard skin pictures than for bird plumage pictures. Likewise, the EPN was larger for partially exposed snakes than for partially exposed lizards and birds. The results suggest that the EPN snake effect is partly driven by snake skin scale patterns which are otherwise rare in nature. PMID:28387376

SHERPA: Towards better accessibility of earthquake rupture archives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Théo, Yann; Sémo, Emmanuel; Mazet Roux, Gilles; Bossu, Rémy; Kamb, Linus; Frobert, Laurent

2010-05-01

Large crustal earthquakes are the subject of extensive field surveys in order to better understand the rupture process and its tectonic consequences. After the earthquake, pictures of the rupture can easily viewed quite easily on the web. However, once the event gets old, pictures disappear and can no longer be viewed, a heavy loss for researchers looking for information. Even when available, there are linked to a given survey and comparison between different earthquakes of the same phenomenon can not be easily performed. SHERPA, Sharing of Earthquake Rupture Pictures Archive, a web application developed at EMSC aims to fill this void. It aims at making available pictures of past earthquakes and sharing resources while strictly protecting the authors copyright and keeping the authors in charge of the diffusion to avoid unfair or inappropriate use of the photos. Our application is targeted at scientists and scientists only. Pictures uploaded on SHERPA are marked by a watermark "NOT FOR PUBLICATION" spread all over, and state the author's name. Authors and authors only have the possibility to remove this mark should they want their work to enter the public domain. If a user sees a picture he/she would like to use, he/she can put this picture in his/her cart. After the validation of this cart, a request (stating the name and purposes of the requestor) will be sent to the author(s) to ask to share the picture(s). If an author accepts this request, the requestor will be given the authorization to access a protected folder and download the unmarked picture. Without the author explicit consent, no picture will never be accessible to anyone. We want to state this point very clearly because ownership and copyright protection are essential to the SHERPA project. Uploading pictures is quick and easy: once registered, you can very simply upload pictures that can then be geolocalised using a Google map plugged on the web site. If the camera is equipped with a GPS, the software will automatically retrieve the location from the exif file. Pictures can be linked to an earthquake and be described through a system of tags. This way, they are searchable in the database. Once uploaded, pictures become available for browsing for any visitors. Using the tags, visitors can search the database for pictures of a same phenomenon in several events, or extract the ones from a given region, or a certain type of faulting. The selected pictures can be viewed on a map and on a carousel. By providing such a service we hope to contribute to a better accessibility of the pictures taken during field survey and then improving earthquake documentation which remain a key element for our field of research. http://sherpa.emsc-csem.org/

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.

The picture superiority effect in a cross-modality recognition task.

PubMed

Stenbert, G; Radeborg, K; Hedman, L R

1995-07-01

Words and pictures were studied and recognition tests given in which each studied object was to be recognized in both word and picture format. The main dependent variable was the latency of the recognition decision. The purpose was to investigate the effects of study modality (word or picture), of congruence between study and test modalities, and of priming resulting from repeated testing. Experiments 1 and 2 used the same basic design, but the latter also varied retention interval. Experiment 3 added a manipulation of instructions to name studied objects, and Experiment 4 deviated from the others by presenting both picture and word referring to the same object together for study. The results showed that congruence between study and test modalities consistently facilitated recognition. Furthermore, items studied as pictures were more rapidly recognized than were items studied as words. With repeated testing, the second instance was affected by its predecessor, but the facilitating effect of picture-to-word priming exceeded that of word-to-picture priming. The finds suggest a two- stage recognition process, in which the first is based on perceptual familiarity and the second uses semantic links for a retrieval search. Common-code theories that grant privileged access to the semantic code for pictures or, alternatively, dual-code theories that assume mnemonic superiority for the image code are supported by the findings. Explanations of the picture superiority effect as resulting from dual encoding of pictures are not supported by the data.

Ultrafast scene detection and recognition with limited visual information

PubMed Central

Hagmann, Carl Erick; Potter, Mary C.

2016-01-01

Humans can detect target color pictures of scenes depicting concepts like picnic or harbor in sequences of six or twelve pictures presented as briefly as 13 ms, even when the target is named after the sequence (Potter, Wyble, Hagmann, & McCourt, 2014). Such rapid detection suggests that feedforward processing alone enabled detection without recurrent cortical feedback. There is debate about whether coarse, global, low spatial frequencies (LSFs) provide predictive information to high cortical levels through the rapid magnocellular (M) projection of the visual path, enabling top-down prediction of possible object identities. To test the “Fast M” hypothesis, we compared detection of a named target across five stimulus conditions: unaltered color, blurred color, grayscale, thresholded monochrome, and LSF pictures. The pictures were presented for 13–80 ms in six-picture rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) sequences. Blurred, monochrome, and LSF pictures were detected less accurately than normal color or grayscale pictures. When the target was named before the sequence, all picture types except LSF resulted in above-chance detection at all durations. Crucially, when the name was given only after the sequence, performance dropped and the monochrome and LSF pictures (but not the blurred pictures) were at or near chance. Thus, without advance information, monochrome and LSF pictures were rarely understood. The results offer only limited support for the Fast M hypothesis, suggesting instead that feedforward processing is able to activate conceptual representations without complementary reentrant processing. PMID:28255263

Pictures Improve Memory of SAT Vocabulary Words.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Price, Melva; Finkelstein, Arleen

1994-01-01

Suggests that students can improve their memory of Scholastic Aptitude Test vocabulary words by associating the words with corresponding pictures taken from magazines. Finds that long-term recall of words associated with pictures was higher than recall of words not associated with pictures. (RS)

19 CFR 10.68 - Procedure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... CONDITIONALLY FREE, SUBJECT TO A REDUCED RATE, ETC. General Provisions Theatrical Effects, Motion-Picture Films... effects, motion-picture films (including motion-picture films taken aboard a vessel for exhibition only... scenery, properties, and effects and motion-picture films may be returned only with an informal entry...

19 CFR 10.68 - Procedure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... CONDITIONALLY FREE, SUBJECT TO A REDUCED RATE, ETC. General Provisions Theatrical Effects, Motion-Picture Films... effects, motion-picture films (including motion-picture films taken aboard a vessel for exhibition only... scenery, properties, and effects and motion-picture films may be returned only with an informal entry...

19 CFR 10.68 - Procedure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... CONDITIONALLY FREE, SUBJECT TO A REDUCED RATE, ETC. General Provisions Theatrical Effects, Motion-Picture Films... effects, motion-picture films (including motion-picture films taken aboard a vessel for exhibition only... scenery, properties, and effects and motion-picture films may be returned only with an informal entry...

19 CFR 10.68 - Procedure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... CONDITIONALLY FREE, SUBJECT TO A REDUCED RATE, ETC. General Provisions Theatrical Effects, Motion-Picture Films... effects, motion-picture films (including motion-picture films taken aboard a vessel for exhibition only... scenery, properties, and effects and motion-picture films may be returned only with an informal entry...

The Role of Pictures in Learning Biology: Part 1, Perception and Observation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reid, David

1990-01-01

The concept of a "picture superiority effect" is discussed. Examined are a number of perceptual considerations that need to be given to picture construction. Parameters which appear to attract the learner's attention to a picture are considered. (CW)

19 CFR 10.68 - Procedure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... CONDITIONALLY FREE, SUBJECT TO A REDUCED RATE, ETC. General Provisions Theatrical Effects, Motion-Picture Films... effects, motion-picture films (including motion-picture films taken aboard a vessel for exhibition only... scenery, properties, and effects and motion-picture films may be returned only with an informal entry...

Women's Work in Pictures; The Countryside in Pictures; Childhood in Pictures Helen Bate Women's Work in Pictures; The Countryside in Pictures; Childhood in Pictures Pictures to Share 32 £15.00 each 0 9553940 23;0 9553940 15;0 9553940 07 0955394023 0955394015 0955394007 [Formula: see text].

PubMed

2007-05-01

These books are rather beautiful, with a photograph or other image on each page and a quotation from literature. Their intention is to provide enjoyment for people who are finding ordinary books, magazines and television too complex and confusing. The large bold text allows the books to be used by people with some visual impairment. Such a person might enjoy sitting quietly turning the pages. They are so lovely that I don't want to part with my review copies and put them, as I should, in our library.

Implicit and Explicit Attention to Pictures and Words: An fMRI-Study of Concurrent Emotional Stimulus Processing.

PubMed

Flaisch, Tobias; Imhof, Martin; Schmälzle, Ralf; Wentz, Klaus-Ulrich; Ibach, Bernd; Schupp, Harald T

2015-01-01

The present study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural processing of concurrently presented emotional stimuli under varying explicit and implicit attention demands. Specifically, in separate trials, participants indicated the category of either pictures or words. The words were placed over the center of the pictures and the picture-word compound-stimuli were presented for 1500 ms in a rapid event-related design. The results reveal pronounced main effects of task and emotion: the picture categorization task prompted strong activations in visual, parietal, temporal, frontal, and subcortical regions; the word categorization task evoked increased activation only in left extrastriate cortex. Furthermore, beyond replicating key findings regarding emotional picture and word processing, the results point to a dissociation of semantic-affective and sensory-perceptual processes for words: while emotional words engaged semantic-affective networks of the left hemisphere regardless of task, the increased activity in left extrastriate cortex associated with explicitly attending to words was diminished when the word was overlaid over an erotic image. Finally, we observed a significant interaction between Picture Category and Task within dorsal visual-associative regions, inferior parietal, and dorsolateral, and medial prefrontal cortices: during the word categorization task, activation was increased in these regions when the words were overlaid over erotic as compared to romantic pictures. During the picture categorization task, activity in these areas was relatively decreased when categorizing erotic as compared to romantic pictures. Thus, the emotional intensity of the pictures strongly affected brain regions devoted to the control of task-related word or picture processing. These findings are discussed with respect to the interplay of obligatory stimulus processing with task-related attentional control mechanisms.

Implicit and Explicit Attention to Pictures and Words: An fMRI-Study of Concurrent Emotional Stimulus Processing

PubMed Central

Flaisch, Tobias; Imhof, Martin; Schmälzle, Ralf; Wentz, Klaus-Ulrich; Ibach, Bernd; Schupp, Harald T.

2015-01-01

The present study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural processing of concurrently presented emotional stimuli under varying explicit and implicit attention demands. Specifically, in separate trials, participants indicated the category of either pictures or words. The words were placed over the center of the pictures and the picture-word compound-stimuli were presented for 1500 ms in a rapid event-related design. The results reveal pronounced main effects of task and emotion: the picture categorization task prompted strong activations in visual, parietal, temporal, frontal, and subcortical regions; the word categorization task evoked increased activation only in left extrastriate cortex. Furthermore, beyond replicating key findings regarding emotional picture and word processing, the results point to a dissociation of semantic-affective and sensory-perceptual processes for words: while emotional words engaged semantic-affective networks of the left hemisphere regardless of task, the increased activity in left extrastriate cortex associated with explicitly attending to words was diminished when the word was overlaid over an erotic image. Finally, we observed a significant interaction between Picture Category and Task within dorsal visual-associative regions, inferior parietal, and dorsolateral, and medial prefrontal cortices: during the word categorization task, activation was increased in these regions when the words were overlaid over erotic as compared to romantic pictures. During the picture categorization task, activity in these areas was relatively decreased when categorizing erotic as compared to romantic pictures. Thus, the emotional intensity of the pictures strongly affected brain regions devoted to the control of task-related word or picture processing. These findings are discussed with respect to the interplay of obligatory stimulus processing with task-related attentional control mechanisms. PMID:26733895

Quantitative in vivo immunohistochemistry of epidermal growth factor receptor using a receptor concentration imaging approach

PubMed Central

Samkoe, Kimberley S.; Tichauer, Kenneth M.; Gunn, Jason R.; Wells, Wendy A.; Hasan, Tayyaba; Pogue, Brian W.

2014-01-01

As receptor-targeted therapeutics become increasingly used in clinical oncology, the ability to quantify protein expression and pharmacokinetics in vivo is imperative to ensure successful individualized treatment plans. Current standards for receptor analysis are performed on extracted tissues. These measurements are static and often physiologically irrelevant, therefore, only a partial picture of available receptors for drug targeting in vivo is provided. Until recently, in vivo measurements were limited by the inability to separate delivery, binding, and retention effects but this can be circumvented by a dual-tracer approach for referencing the detected signal. We hypothesized that in vivo receptor concentration imaging (RCI) would be superior to ex vivo immunohistochemistry. Using multiple xenograft tumor models with varying epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression, we determined the EGFR concentration in each model using a novel targeted agent (anti-EGFR affibody-IRDye800CW conjugate) along with a simultaneously delivered reference agent (control affibody-IRDye680RD conjugate). The RCI-calculated in vivo receptor concentration was strongly correlated with ex vivo pathologist-scored immunohistochemistry and computer-quantified ex vivo immunofluorescence. In contrast, no correlation was observed with ex vivo Western blot or in vitro flow cytometry assays. Overall, our results argue that in vivo RCI provides a robust measure of receptor expression equivalent to ex vivo immuno-staining, with implications for use in non-invasive monitoring of therapy or therapeutic guidance during surgery. PMID:25344226

Associations From Pictures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pettersson, Rune

A picture can be interpreted in different ways by various persons. There is often a difference between a picture's denotation (literal meaning), connotation (associative meaning), and private associations. Two studies were conducted in order to observe the private associations that pictures awaken in people. One study deals with associations made…

Time of day affects implicit memory for unattended stimuli.

PubMed

Rothen, Nicolas; Meier, Beat

2016-11-01

We investigated whether circadian arousal affects perceptual priming as a function of whether stimuli were attended or ignored during learning. We tested 160 participants on- and off-peak with regards to their circadian arousal. In the study phase, they were presented with two superimposed pictures in different colours. They had to name the pictures of one colour while ignoring the others. In the test phase, they were presented with the same and randomly intermixed new pictures. Each picture was presented in black colour in a fragment completion task. Priming was measured as the difference in fragmentation level at which the pictures from the study phase were named compared to the new pictures. Priming was stronger for attended than ignored pictures. Time of day affected priming only for ignored pictures, with stronger priming effects off-peak than on-peak. Thus, circadian arousal seems to favour the encoding of unattended materials specifically at off-peak. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effects of humor on memory for non-sensical pictures.

PubMed

Takahashi, Masanobu; Inoue, Tomoyoshi

2009-09-01

Two experiments investigated the effects of humor on memory for non-sensical pictures. Each picture was given three labels that differed in the degree of humor: high, low, and no humor labels. In Experiment 1, the humor of the picture labels was manipulated between participants. Participants were shown 30 pictures for 10s each and were asked to rate the degree of humor of each picture. After the rating task, participants were asked to draw the pictures in an unexpected memory test. Performance in the memory test was best in the high humor label group, followed by the low and the no humor label groups. In Experiment 2, intention to learn (incidental versus intentional encoding tasks) as well as humor label was manipulated between the participants. In the incidental learning condition, the high humor group performed better than the low humor group, but in the intentional learning condition, there was no humor effect. The effects of humor on picture memory were discussed in terms of appraisal processing within a distinctiveness framework.

Are pictures good for learning new vocabulary in a foreign language? Only if you think they are not.

PubMed

Carpenter, Shana K; Olson, Kellie M

2012-01-01

The current study explored whether new words in a foreign language are learned better from pictures than from native language translations. In both between-subjects and within-subject designs, Swahili words were not learned better from pictures than from English translations (Experiments 1-3). Judgments of learning revealed that participants exhibited greater overconfidence in their ability to recall a Swahili word from a picture than from a translation (Experiments 2-3), and Swahili words were also considered easier to process when paired with pictures rather than translations (Experiment 4). When this overconfidence bias was eliminated through retrieval practice (Experiment 2) and instructions warning participants to not be overconfident (Experiment 3), Swahili words were learned better from pictures than from translations. It appears, therefore, that pictures can facilitate learning of foreign language vocabulary--as long as participants are not too overconfident in the power of a picture to help them learn a new word.

Pictures from Year Two CNEC and CVT Measurements

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

Hutchinson, Jesson D.; Bahran, Rian Mustafa; McKenzie, George Espy

Below are all of the pictures for the CNEC and CVT measurements performed at the DAF in July 2016. In total there are 165 pictures. The photos on pages 2-105 were taken during the first week of measurements and the photos on pages 106-165 were taken during the second week of measurements. Many photos are applicable to both sets, which is why it is best to keep the entire set together. For most configurations, a description of the configuration was written on a white board; photos of the measurement setup were taken, then a photo of the white board wasmore » taken. For example, the pictures on pages 6-19 (which precede a white board picture on page 20) are of the configuration with Rocky Flats Shells 1-2 surrounded by 4 AmLi sources, which is listed on the white board picture on page 20. In some cases, the white board picture precedes the configuration pictures.« less

Electrocortical processing of food and emotional pictures in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

PubMed

Blechert, Jens; Feige, Bernd; Joos, Andreas; Zeeck, Almut; Tuschen-Caffier, Brunna

2011-06-01

Objective To compare the electrocortical processing of food pictures in participants with anorexia nervosa (n = 21), bulimia nervosa (n = 22), and healthy controls (HCs) (n = 32) by measuring the early posterior negativity, an event-related potential that reflects stimulus salience and selective attention. Methods We exposed these three groups to a rapid stream of high- and low-calorie food pictures, as well as standard emotional and neutral pictures. Results Event-related potentials in the time range of 220 milliseconds to 310 milliseconds on posterior electrodes differed between groups: patients with eating disorders showed facilitated processing of both high- and low-calorie food pictures relative to neutral pictures, whereas HC participants did so only for the high-calorie pictures. Subjective palatability of the pictures was rated highest by patients with anorexia nervosa, followed by the HC and bulimia nervosa groups. Conclusions Patients with eating disorders show a generalized attentional bias for food images, regardless of caloric value. This might explain the persistent preoccupation with food in these individuals.

Directed attention reduces processing of emotional distracters irrespective of valence and arousal level.

PubMed

Wiens, Stefan; Syrjänen, Elmeri

2013-09-01

Emotional stimuli tend to capture attention, and this so-called motivated attention is commonly measured using the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP). We hypothesized that voluntary, directed attention reduces motivated attention more strongly for highly than moderately arousing pleasant or unpleasant pictures. Participants were instructed to direct their attention to either a picture at fixation or the letters flanking the picture. Pictures varied substantially in arousal and valence. When the pictures were attended to, EPN and LPP increased linearly with arousal. When the letters were attended to, these linear effects decreased in the EPN for pleasant and unpleasant pictures and in the LPP for pleasant pictures. Thus, directed attention decreases processing of emotional distracters more strongly for highly than moderately arousing pleasant and unpleasant pictures. These results are consistent with the view that directed attention decreases emotion effects on sensory gain. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[The effects of concomitant pictorial information on the memory and comprehension of story].

PubMed

Kitao, N; Okamoto, M

1993-02-01

The present study was carried out to examine the effect of movement and coloring of concomitant pictures on children's story learning. The story was Hans Christian Andersen's HINAGIKU (daisy), which was 47 sentences long. In relation to the story, the subjects in experimental groups were presented the static or moving pictures by means of picture-card show or animation video. Those pictures were colored or uncolored. Immediately after the story learning, the subjects were given verbative recall and inferential tests. The 156 second graders were assigned to one of four experimental groups and a control group (without pictures). The main findings were as follows; (1) The coloring of picture had facilitative effects on the verbative recall of story. This result indicates that clear visual imagery improved the memory of story. (2) The moving of picture facilitated the inferential test performance. This result indicates that the movement of picture clarified the story context and gave a lot of cue information to comprehend story.

Ninety-three pictures and 108 questions for the elicitation of homophones

PubMed Central

FERREIRA, VICTOR S.; CUTTING, J. COOPER

2007-01-01

Homographs and homophones have interesting linguistic properties that make them useful in many experiments involving language. To assist researchers in the elicitation of homophones, this paper presents a set of 93 line-drawn pictures of objects with homophonic names and a set of 108 questions with homophonic answers. Statistics are also included for each picture and question: Picture statistics include name-agreement percentages, dominance, and frequency statistics of depicted referents, and picture-naming latencies both with and without study of the picture names. For questions, statistics include answer-agreement percentages, difficulty ratings, dominance, frequency statistics, and naming latencies for 60 of the most consistently answered questions. PMID:18185842

The robustness of false memory for emotional pictures.

PubMed

Bessette-Symons, Brandy A

2018-02-01

Emotional material is commonly reported to be more accurately recognised; however, there is substantial evidence of increased false alarm rates (FAR) for emotional material and several reports of stronger influences on response bias than accuracy. This pattern is more frequently reported for words than pictures. Research on the mechanisms underlying bias differences has mostly focused on word lists under short retention intervals. This article presents four series of experiments examining recognition memory for emotional pictures while varying arousal and the control over the content of the pictures at two retention intervals, and one study measuring the relatedness of the series picture sets. Under the shorter retention interval, emotion increased false alarms and reduced accuracy. Under the longer retention interval emotion increased hit rates and FAR, resulting in reduced accuracy and/or bias. At both retention intervals, the pattern of valence effects differed based on the arousal associated with the picture sets. Emotional pictures were found to be more related than neutral pictures in each set; however, the influence of relatedness alone does not provide an adequate explanation for all emotional differences. The results demonstrate substantial emotional differences in picture recognition that vary based on valence, arousal and retention interval.

Enhanced Right Amygdala Activity in Adolescents during Encoding of Positively-Valenced Pictures

PubMed Central

Vasa, Roma A.; Pine, Daniel S.; Thorn, Julia M.; Nelson, Tess E.; Spinelli, Simona; Nelson, Eric; Maheu, Francoise S.; Ernst, Monique; Bruck, Maggie; Mostofsky, Stewart H.

2010-01-01

While studies among adults implicate the amygdala and interconnecting brain regions in encoding emotional stimuli, few studies have examined whether developmental changes occur within this emotional-memory network during adolescence. The present study examined whether adolescents and adults differentially engaged the amygdala and hippocampus during successful encoding of emotional pictures, with either positive or negative valence. Eighteen adults and twelve adolescents underwent event-related fMRI while encoding emotional pictures. Approximately 30 minutes later, outside the scanner, subjects were asked to recall the pictures seen during the scan. Age group differences in brain activity in the amygdala and hippocampus during encoding of the pictures that were later successfully and unsuccessfully recalled were separately compared for the positive and negative pictures. Adolescents, relative to adults, demonstrated enhanced activity in the right amygdala during encoding of positive pictures that were later recalled compared to not recalled. There were no age group differences in amygdala or hippocampal activity during successful encoding of negative pictures. The findings of preferential activity within the adolescent right amygdala during successful encoding of positive pictures may have implications for the increased reward and novelty seeking behavior, as well as elevated rates of psychopathology, observed during this distinct developmental period. PMID:21127721

Aging memory for pictures: using high-density event-related potentials to understand the effect of aging on the picture superiority effect.

PubMed

Ally, Brandon A; Waring, Jill D; Beth, Ellen H; McKeever, Joshua D; Milberg, William P; Budson, Andrew E

2008-01-31

High-density event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to understand the effect of aging on the neural correlates of the picture superiority effect. Pictures and words were systematically varied at study and test while ERPs were recorded at retrieval. Here, the results of the word-word and picture-picture study-test conditions are presented. Behavioral results showed that older adults demonstrated the picture superiority effect to a greater extent than younger adults. The ERP data helped to explain these findings. The early frontal effect, parietal effect, and late frontal effect were all indistinguishable between older and younger adults for pictures. In contrast, for words, the early frontal and parietal effects were significantly diminished for the older adults compared to the younger adults. These two old/new effects have been linked to familiarity and recollection, respectively, and the authors speculate that these processes are impaired for word-based memory in the course of healthy aging. The findings of this study suggest that pictures allow older adults to compensate for their impaired memorial processes, and may allow these memorial components to function more effectively in older adults.

Aging memory for pictures: Using high-density event-related potentials to understand the effect of aging on the picture superiority effect

PubMed Central

Ally, Brandon A.; Waring, Jill D.; Beth, Ellen H.; McKeever, Joshua D.; Milberg, William P.; Budson, Andrew E.

2008-01-01

High-density event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to understand the effect of aging on the neural correlates of the picture superiority effect. Pictures and words were systematically varied at study and test while ERPs were recorded at retrieval. Here, the results of the word-word and picture-picture study-test conditions are presented. Behavioral results showed that older adults demonstrated the picture superiority effect to a greater extent than younger adults. The ERP data helped to explain these findings. The early frontal effect, parietal effect, and late frontal effect, were all indistinguishable between older and younger adults for pictures. In contrast, for words, the early frontal and parietal effects were significantly diminished for the older adults compared to the younger adults. These two old/new effects have been linked to familiarity and recollection, respectively, and the authors speculate that these processes are impaired for word-based memory in the course of healthy aging. The findings of this study suggest that pictures allow older adults to compensate for their impaired memorial processes, and may allow these memorial components to function more effectively in older adults. PMID:17981307

Perception of dental visit pictures in children with autism spectrum disorder and their caretakers: A qualitative study.

PubMed

Wibisono, Witriana L; Suharsini, Margaretha; Wiguna, Tjhin; Sudiroatmodjo, Budiharto; Budiardjo, Sarworini B; Auerkari, Elza I

2016-01-01

One of the most common ways to communicate to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is by using pictures. This study was conducted to identify the easiest perception of dental visit by children with ASD when using pictures as printed photographs. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants from a school for children with special needs in south Jakarta. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 autistic children aged 13-17 years, 2 parents, and 2 teachers. Open-ended questions were asked to participants regarding pictures of dental clinic personnel and activity. Conversations were noted, tape recorded, and then categorized to extract a theme. The data were analyzed using Dedoose mixed methods software. Most respondents showed a positive perception of the dental visit pictures. Many of the pictures were easily recognized by children with ASD, but some failed to be understood. Caretakers not only gave their perception but also recommendations for improvement of the pictures. Dental visit pictures could be used as useful communication tools for children with ASD. Based on the results, the pictures related to dental visit were generally easy to understand, however, some needed correction to be comprehensible.

What interests them in the pictures?--differences in eye-tracking between rhesus monkeys and humans.

PubMed

Hu, Ying-Zhou; Jiang, Hui-Hui; Liu, Ci-Rong; Wang, Jian-Hong; Yu, Cheng-Yang; Carlson, Synnöve; Yang, Shang-Chuan; Saarinen, Veli-Matti; Rizak, Joshua D; Tian, Xiao-Guang; Tan, Hen; Chen, Zhu-Yue; Ma, Yuan-Ye; Hu, Xin-Tian

2013-10-01

Studies estimating eye movements have demonstrated that non-human primates have fixation patterns similar to humans at the first sight of a picture. In the current study, three sets of pictures containing monkeys, humans or both were presented to rhesus monkeys and humans. The eye movements on these pictures by the two species were recorded using a Tobii eye-tracking system. We found that monkeys paid more attention to the head and body in pictures containing monkeys, whereas both monkeys and humans paid more attention to the head in pictures containing humans. The humans always concentrated on the eyes and head in all the pictures, indicating the social role of facial cues in society. Although humans paid more attention to the hands than monkeys, both monkeys and humans were interested in the hands and what was being done with them in the pictures. This may suggest the importance and necessity of hands for survival. Finally, monkeys scored lower in eye-tracking when fixating on the pictures, as if they were less interested in looking at the screen than humans. The locations of fixation in monkeys may provide insight into the role of eye movements in an evolutionary context.

Using background knowledge for picture organization and retrieval

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quintana, Yuri

1997-01-01

A picture knowledge base management system is described that is used to represent, organize and retrieve pictures from a frame knowledge base. Experiments with human test subjects were conducted to obtain further descriptions of pictures from news magazines. These descriptions were used to represent the semantic content of pictures in frame representations. A conceptual clustering algorithm is described which organizes pictures not only on the observable features, but also on implicit properties derived from the frame representations. The algorithm uses inheritance reasoning to take into account background knowledge in the clustering. The algorithm creates clusters of pictures using a group similarity function that is based on the gestalt theory of picture perception. For each cluster created, a frame is generated which describes the semantic content of pictures in the cluster. Clustering and retrieval experiments were conducted with and without background knowledge. The paper shows how the use of background knowledge and semantic similarity heuristics improves the speed, precision, and recall of queries processed. The paper concludes with a discussion of how natural language processing of can be used to assist in the development of knowledge bases and the processing of user queries.

The Role of Decorative Pictures in Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lenzner, Alwine; Schnotz, Wolfgang; Müller, Andreas

2013-01-01

Three experiments with students from 7th and 8th grade were performed to investigate the effects of decorative pictures in learning as compared to instructional pictures. Pictures were considered as instructional, when they were primarily informative, and as decorative, when they were primarily aesthetically appealing. The experiments…

Prehospital digital photography and automated image transmission in an emergency medical service - an ancillary retrospective analysis of a prospective controlled trial.

PubMed

Bergrath, Sebastian; Rossaint, Rolf; Lenssen, Niklas; Fitzner, Christina; Skorning, Max

2013-01-16

Still picture transmission was performed using a telemedicine system in an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) during a prospective, controlled trial. In this ancillary, retrospective study the quality and content of the transmitted pictures and the possible influences of this application on prehospital time requirements were investigated. A digital camera was used with a telemedicine system enabling encrypted audio and data transmission between an ambulance and a remotely located physician. By default, images were compressed (jpeg, 640 x 480 pixels). On occasion, this compression was deactivated (3648 x 2736 pixels). Two independent investigators assessed all transmitted pictures according to predefined criteria. In cases of different ratings, a third investigator had final decision competence. Patient characteristics and time intervals were extracted from the EMS protocol sheets and dispatch centre reports. Overall 314 pictures (mean 2.77 ± 2.42 pictures/mission) were transmitted during 113 missions (group 1). Pictures were not taken for 151 missions (group 2). Regarding picture quality, the content of 240 (76.4%) pictures was clearly identifiable; 45 (14.3%) pictures were considered "limited quality" and 29 (9.2%) pictures were deemed "not useful" due to not/hardly identifiable content. For pictures with file compression (n = 84 missions) and without (n = 17 missions), the content was clearly identifiable in 74% and 97% of the pictures, respectively (p = 0.003). Medical reports (n = 98, 32.8%), medication lists (n = 49, 16.4%) and 12-lead ECGs (n = 28, 9.4%) were most frequently photographed. The patient characteristics of group 1 vs. 2 were as follows: median age - 72.5 vs. 56.5 years, p = 0.001; frequency of acute coronary syndrome - 24/113 vs. 15/151, p = 0.014. The NACA scores and gender distribution were comparable. Median on-scene times were longer with picture transmission (26 vs. 22 min, p = 0.011), but ambulance arrival to hospital arrival intervals did not differ significantly (35 vs. 33 min, p = 0.054). Picture transmission was used frequently and resulted in an acceptable picture quality, even with compressed files. In most cases, previously existing "paper data" was transmitted electronically. This application may offer an alternative to other modes of ECG transmission. Due to different patient characteristics no conclusions for a prolonged on-scene time can be drawn. Mobile picture transmission holds important opportunities for clinical handover procedures and teleconsultation.

Pictures cueing threat: brain dynamics in viewing explicitly instructed danger cues

PubMed Central

Schupp, Harald T.

2012-01-01

Recent event-related brain potential studies revealed the selective processing of emotional and threatening pictures. Integrating the picture viewing and threat-of-shock paradigm, the present study examined the processing of emotional pictures while they were explicitly instructed to cue threat of real world danger (i.e. electric shocks). Toward this end, 60 pleasant, neutral and unpleasant IAPS-pictures were presented (1 s) as a continuous random stream while high-density EEG and self-reported threat were assessed. In three experimental runs, each picture category was used once as a threat-cue, whereas in the other conditions the same category served as safety-cue. An additional passive viewing run served as a no-threat condition, thus, establishing a threat–safety continuum (threat-cue–safety-cue–no-threat) for each picture category. Threat-of-shock modulated P1, P2 and parieto-occipital LPP amplitudes. While the P1 component differentiated among threat- and no-threat conditions, the P2 and LPP effects were specific to pictures signaling threat-of-shock. Thus, stimulus processing progressively gained more accurate information about environmental threat conditions. Interestingly, the finding of increased EPN and centro-parietal LPP amplitudes to emotional pictures was independent from threat-of-shock manipulation. Accordingly, the results indicate distinct effects associated with the intrinsic significance of emotional pictures and explicitly instructed threat contingencies. PMID:21719425

Eye-movement evidence of the time-course of attentional bias for threatening pictures in test-anxious students.

PubMed

Dong, Yunying; De Beuckelaer, Alain; Yu, Liang; Zhou, Renlai

2017-06-01

Protocols for measuring attentional bias to threat in test-anxiety, a special form of trait-anxiety, are rarely found in the literature. In our eye-tracking study, we introduced a new protocol, and studied the time-course of attention to test-related pictures with varying threat levels in 22 high test-anxious (HTA) and 22 low test-anxious (LTA) subjects. To determine whether attentional bias to test-related pictures is due to test-anxiety and not to state-anxiety, we also included a third group of 22 subjects with high state-anxiety but low test-anxiety (HSA). The subjects completed a free viewing task (FVT) in which high threat-neutral (HT-N) and low threat-neutral (LT-N) picture pairs were presented for 3 s. The results demonstrated that: (1) HTA subjects showed initial orienting to LT pictures, early attentional engagement with HT pictures later on and avoidance of HT pictures at the very end; (2) LTA subjects showed initial orienting to HT pictures and maintenance of attention on them later on; while (3) HSA subjects showed an initial orientation towards LT pictures and maintenance of attention on LT and HT pictures later on. These results suggest that, (high) test-anxiety is also prone to attentional bias towards test-related threat stimuli. Implications for future research are discussed.

Young women's genital self-image and effects of exposure to pictures of natural vulvas.

PubMed

Laan, Ellen; Martoredjo, Daphne K; Hesselink, Sara; Snijders, Nóinín; van Lunsen, Rik H W

2017-12-01

Many women have doubts about the normality of the physical appearance of their vulvas. This study measured genital self-image in a convenience sample of college-educated women, and assessed whether exposure to pictures of natural vulvas influenced their genital self-image. Forty-three women were either shown pictures of natural vulvas (N = 29) or pictures of neutral objects (N = 14). Genital self-image was measured before and after exposure to the pictures and two weeks later. Sexual function, sexual distress, self-esteem and trait anxiety were measured to investigate whether these factors influenced genital self-image scores after vulva picture exposure. A majority of the participants felt generally positively about their genitals. Having been exposed to pictures of natural vulvas resulted in an even more positive genital self-image, irrespective of levels of sexual function, sexual distress, self-esteem and trait anxiety. In the women who had seen the vulva pictures, the positive effect on genital self-image was still present after two weeks. The results of this study seem to indicate that even in young women with a relatively positive genital self-image, exposure to pictures of a large variety of natural vulvas positively affects genital self-image. This finding may suggest that exposure to pictures of natural vulvas may also lead to a more positive genital self-image in women who consider labiaplasty.

Personal relevance modulates the positivity bias in recall of emotional pictures in older adults.

PubMed

Tomaszczyk, Jennifer C; Fernandes, Myra A; MacLeod, Colin M

2008-02-01

Some studies have suggested that older adults remember more positive than negative valence information, relative to younger adults, whereas other studies have reported no such difference. We tested whether differences in encoding instructions and in personal relevance could account for these inconsistencies. Younger and older adults were instructed either to passively view positive, negative, and neutral pictures or to actively categorize them by valence. On a subsequent incidental recall test, older adults recalled equal numbers of positive and negative pictures, whereas younger adults recalled negative pictures best. There was no effect of encoding instructions. Crucially, when the pictures were grouped into high and low personal relevance, a positivity bias emerged in older adults only for low-relevance pictures, suggesting that the personal relevance of pictures may be the factor underlying cross-study differences.

How liked and disliked foods affect time perception.

PubMed

Gil, Sandrine; Rousset, Sylvie; Droit-Volet, Sylvie

2009-08-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence on time perception of pictures showing liked or disliked foods in comparison with a neutral picture. Healthy adults performed a temporal bisection task in which they had to categorize the presentation duration of pictures (neutral, liked, and disliked foods) as more similar to a short (400 ms) or to a long (1,600 ms) standard duration. The data revealed that the presentation duration of food pictures was underestimated compared with the presentation duration of the neutral picture, and that this underestimation was more marked for the disliked than for the liked food pictures. These results are consistent with the idea that this time underestimation arises from an attentional-bias mechanism. The food pictures, and particularly those depicting disliked food items, distracted attention away from the processing of time. 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

When Sufficiently Processed, Semantically Related Distractor Pictures Hamper Picture Naming.

PubMed

Matushanskaya, Asya; Mädebach, Andreas; Müller, Matthias M; Jescheniak, Jörg D

2016-11-01

Prominent speech production models view lexical access as a competitive process. According to these models, a semantically related distractor picture should interfere with target picture naming more strongly than an unrelated one. However, several studies failed to obtain such an effect. Here, we demonstrate that semantic interference is obtained, when the distractor picture is sufficiently processed. Participants named one of two pictures presented in close temporal succession, with color cueing the target. Experiment 1 induced the prediction that the target appears first. When this prediction was violated (distractor first), semantic interference was observed. Experiment 2 ruled out that the time available for distractor processing was the driving force. These results show that semantically related distractor pictures interfere with the naming response when they are sufficiently processed. The data thus provide further support for models viewing lexical access as a competitive process.

Emotional sounds modulate early neural processing of emotional pictures

PubMed Central

Gerdes, Antje B. M.; Wieser, Matthias J.; Bublatzky, Florian; Kusay, Anita; Plichta, Michael M.; Alpers, Georg W.

2013-01-01

In our natural environment, emotional information is conveyed by converging visual and auditory information; multimodal integration is of utmost importance. In the laboratory, however, emotion researchers have mostly focused on the examination of unimodal stimuli. Few existing studies on multimodal emotion processing have focused on human communication such as the integration of facial and vocal expressions. Extending the concept of multimodality, the current study examines how the neural processing of emotional pictures is influenced by simultaneously presented sounds. Twenty pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures of complex scenes were presented to 22 healthy participants. On the critical trials these pictures were paired with pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral sounds. Sound presentation started 500 ms before picture onset and each stimulus presentation lasted for 2 s. EEG was recorded from 64 channels and ERP analyses focused on the picture onset. In addition, valence and arousal ratings were obtained. Previous findings for the neural processing of emotional pictures were replicated. Specifically, unpleasant compared to neutral pictures were associated with an increased parietal P200 and a more pronounced centroparietal late positive potential (LPP), independent of the accompanying sound valence. For audiovisual stimulation, increased parietal P100 and P200 were found in response to all pictures which were accompanied by unpleasant or pleasant sounds compared to pictures with neutral sounds. Most importantly, incongruent audiovisual pairs of unpleasant pictures and pleasant sounds enhanced parietal P100 and P200 compared to pairings with congruent sounds. Taken together, the present findings indicate that emotional sounds modulate early stages of visual processing and, therefore, provide an avenue by which multimodal experience may enhance perception. PMID:24151476

Picture Superiority Doubly Dissociates the ERP Correlates of Recollection and Familiarity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curran, Tim; Doyle, Jeanne

2011-01-01

Two experiments investigated the processes underlying the picture superiority effect on recognition memory. Studied pictures were associated with higher accuracy than studied words, regardless of whether test stimuli were words (Experiment 1) or pictures (Experiment 2). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) recorded during test suggested that the…

PICTURE PERFECT: IN DEPTH LOOK AT THE PICTURE FORMAT

EPA Science Inventory

SAS PICTURE format is a very powerful tool. The different options allow the display of data in a more picturesque manner adding symbols, qualifiers, and comments to the data points without modifying the data. With a PICTURE format one can create a series of templates for displa...

PICTURE PERFECT: IN DEPTH LOOK AT THE PICTURE FORMAT

EPA Science Inventory

SAS picture format is a very powerful tool. The different options allow the display of data in a more picturesque manner adding symbols, qualifiers, and comments to the data points without modifying the data. With a picture format one can create a series of templates for displ...

Pattern Perception and Pictures for the Blind

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heller, Morton A.; McCarthy, Melissa; Clark, Ashley

2005-01-01

This article reviews recent research on perception of tangible pictures in sighted and blind people. Haptic picture naming accuracy is dependent upon familiarity and access to semantic memory, just as in visual recognition. Performance is high when haptic picture recognition tasks do not depend upon semantic memory. Viewpoint matters for the ease…

36 CFR 7.32 - Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Pictured Rocks National... INTERIOR SPECIAL REGULATIONS, AREAS OF THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM § 7.32 Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore... Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The designated routes for snowmobiles will be confined to the frozen...

36 CFR 7.32 - Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Pictured Rocks National... INTERIOR SPECIAL REGULATIONS, AREAS OF THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM § 7.32 Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore... Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The designated routes for snowmobiles will be confined to the frozen...

36 CFR 7.32 - Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Pictured Rocks National... INTERIOR SPECIAL REGULATIONS, AREAS OF THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM § 7.32 Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore... Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The designated routes for snowmobiles will be confined to the frozen...

The Improvement of Children's Creativity through Korean Picture Books.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cho, Boo-Kyung; Kim, Jeongjun

1999-01-01

Examines how one Korean kindergarten used picture books to facilitate children's creativity. Describes students' responses to literature-based science activities related to a picture book. Concludes that good picture books can unleash children's minds from conventional science activities and that the development of the children's ideas depended on…

Interference in Joint Picture Naming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gambi, Chiara; Van de Cavey, Joris; Pickering, Martin J.

2015-01-01

In 4 experiments we showed that picture naming latencies are affected by beliefs about the task concurrently performed by another speaker. Participants took longer to name pictures when they believed that their partner concurrently named pictures than when they believed their partner was silent (Experiments 1 and 4) or concurrently categorized the…

32 CFR 705.9 - Availability of motion pictures to external audiences.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... UNITED STATES NAVY REGULATIONS AND OFFICIAL RECORDS PUBLIC AFFAIRS REGULATIONS § 705.9 Availability of motion pictures to external audiences. (a) Public access. Navy and Marine Corps general motion pictures and motion picture projects not previously cleared for public exhibition will require clearance by the...

Partial Picture Effects on Children's Memory for Sentences Containing Implicit Information.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Gloria E.; Pressley, Michael

1987-01-01

Two experiments were conducted examining the effects of partial picture adjuncts on young children's coding of information implied in sentences. Developmental differences were found in whether (l) partial pictures facilitated inferencing and (2) pictures containing information not explicitly stated in sentences promoted cue recall of the…

Teaching Art with Art: Flowers in Art.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hubbard, Guy

1998-01-01

Justifies examining still-life pictures of flowers to provide students with an opportunity to learn how one distinguishes between deeply artistic pictures full of emotion and pictures lacking this quality. Claims that students will develop their own artistic expression. Offers pictures by Diego Rivera, Watanabe Shiko, Consuelo Kanaga, and Rachel…

The use of picture prompts and prompt delay to teach receptive labeling.

PubMed

Vedora, Joseph; Barry, Tiffany

2016-12-01

The current study extended research on picture prompts by using them with a progressive prompt delay to teach receptive labeling of pictures to 2 teenagers with autism. The procedure differed from prior research because the auditory stimulus was not presented or was presented only once during the picture-prompt condition. The results indicated that the combination of picture prompts and prompt delay was effective, although 1 participant required a procedural modification. © 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Mariner Mars 1971 television picture catalog: Sequence design and picture coverage, volume 2, addendum 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koskela, P. E.

1973-01-01

This addendum to the Mariner Mars 1971 Television Picture Catalog, Volume 2 (for abstract, see N73-20850) contains data for the Mariner 9 TV pictures taken after Rev 262. Some of the data presented in Volume 2 is brought up to date. The new provisional mapping pole is discussed, and tables provide the latitude and longitude with respect to the new pole, prime meridian, and rotation rate for the centerpoints of all the Mariner 9 TV pictures.

Processing of unattended, simple negative pictures resists perceptual load.

PubMed

Sand, Anders; Wiens, Stefan

2011-05-11

As researchers debate whether emotional pictures can be processed irrespective of spatial attention and perceptual load, negative and neutral pictures of simple figure-ground composition were shown at fixation and were surrounded by one, two, or three letters. When participants performed a picture discrimination task, there was evidence for motivated attention; that is, an early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP) to negative versus neutral pictures. When participants performed a letter discrimination task, the EPN was unaffected whereas the LPP was reduced. Although performance decreased substantially with the number of letters (one to three), the LPP did not decrease further. Therefore, attention to simple, negative pictures at fixation seems to resist manipulations of perceptual load.

The effects of viewpoint on the virtual space of pictures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sedgwick, H. A.

1989-01-01

Pictorial displays whose primary purpose is to convey accurate information about the 3-D spatial layout of an environment are discussed. How and how well, pictures can convey such information is discussed. It is suggested that picture perception is not best approached as a unitary, indivisible process. Rather, it is a complex process depending on multiple, partially redundant, interacting sources of visual information for both the real surface of the picture and the virtual space beyond. Each picture must be assessed for the particular information that it makes available. This will determine how accurately the virtual space represented by the picture is seen, as well as how it is distorted when seen from the wrong viewpoint.

[French norms of imagery for pictures, for concrete and abstract words].

PubMed

Robin, Frédérique

2006-09-01

This paper deals with French norms for mental image versus picture agreement for 138 pictures and the imagery value for 138 concrete words and 69 abstract words. The pictures were selected from Snodgrass et Vanderwart's norms (1980). The concrete words correspond to the dominant naming response to the pictorial stimuli. The abstract words were taken from verbal associative norms published by Ferrand (2001). The norms were established according to two variables: 1) mental image vs. picture agreement, and 2) imagery value of words. Three other variables were controlled: 1) picture naming agreement; 2) familiarity of objects referred to in the pictures and the concrete words, and 3) subjective verbal frequency of words. The originality of this work is to provide French imagery norms for the three kinds of stimuli usually compared in research on dual coding. Moreover, these studies focus on figurative and verbal stimuli variations in visual imagery processes.

Mariner Mars 1971 television picture catalog. Volume 2: Sequence design and picture coverage

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koskela, P. E.; Helton, M. R.; Seeley, L. N.; Zawacki, S. J.

1972-01-01

A collection of data relating to the Mariner 9 TV picture is presented. The data are arranged to offer speedy identification of what took place during entire science cycles, on individual revolutions, and during individual science links or sequences. Summary tables present the nominal design for each of the major picture-taking cycles, along with the sequences actually taken on each revolution. These tables permit identification at a glance, all TV sequences and the corresponding individual pictures for the first 262 revolutions (primary mission). A list of TV pictures, categorized according to their latitude and longitude, is also provided. Orthographic and/or mercator plots for all pictures, along with pertinent numerical data for their center points are presented. Other tables and plots of interest are also included. This document is based upon data contained in the Supplementary Experiment Data Record (SEDR) files as of 21 August 1972.

Emotion regulation of the affect-modulated startle reflex during different picture categories.

PubMed

Conzelmann, Annette; McGregor, Victoria; Pauli, Paul

2015-09-01

Previous studies on emotion regulation of the startle reflex found an increase in startle amplitude from down-, to non-, to up-regulation for pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. We wanted to clarify whether this regulation effect remains stable for different picture categories within pleasant and unpleasant picture sets. We assessed startle amplitude of 31 participants during down-, non-, or up-regulation of feelings elicited by pleasant erotic and adventure and unpleasant victim and threat pictures. Startle amplitude was smaller during adventure and erotic compared to victim and threat pictures and increased from down-, to non-, to up-regulation independently of the picture category. Results indicate that the motivational priming effect on startle modulation elicited by different picture categories is independent of emotion regulation instructions. In addition, the emotion regulation effect is independent of motivational priming effects. © 2015 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Getting the Picture: Iconicity Does Not Affect Representation-Referent Confusion

PubMed Central

Wimmer, Marina C.; Robinson, Elizabeth J.; Koenig, Laura; Corder, Emma

2014-01-01

Three experiments examined 3- to 5-year-olds' (N = 428) understanding of the relationship between pictorial iconicity (photograph, colored drawing, schematic drawing) and the real world referent. Experiments 1 and 2 explored pictorial iconicity in picture-referent confusion after the picture-object relationship has been established. Pictorial iconicity had no effect on referential confusion when the referent changed after the picture had been taken/drawn (Experiment 1) and when the referent and the picture were different from the outset (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 investigated whether children are sensitive to iconicity to begin with. Children deemed photographs from a choice of varying iconicity representations as best representations for object reference. Together, findings suggest that iconicity plays a role in establishing a picture-object relation per se but is irrelevant once children have accepted that a picture represents an object. The latter finding may reflect domain general representational abilities. PMID:25247708

Distance-dependent processing of pictures and words.

PubMed

Amit, Elinor; Algom, Daniel; Trope, Yaacov

2009-08-01

A series of 8 experiments investigated the association between pictorial and verbal representations and the psychological distance of the referent objects from the observer. The results showed that people better process pictures that represent proximal objects and words that represent distal objects than pictures that represent distal objects and words that represent proximal objects. These results were obtained with various psychological distance dimensions (spatial, temporal, and social), different tasks (classification and categorization), and different measures (speed of processing and selective attention). The authors argue that differences in the processing of pictures and words emanate from the physical similarity of pictures, but not words, to the referents. Consequently, perceptual analysis is commonly applied to pictures but not to words. Pictures thus impart a sense of closeness to the referent objects and are preferably used to represent such objects, whereas words do not convey proximity and are preferably used to represent distal objects in space, time, and social perspective.

The picture superiority effect: support for the distinctiveness model.

PubMed

Mintzer, M Z; Snodgrass, J G

1999-01-01

The form change paradigm was used to explore the basis for the picture superiority effect. Recognition memory for studied pictures and words was tested in their study form or the alternate form. Form change cost was defined as the difference between recognition performance for same and different form items. Based on the results of Experiment 1 and previous studies, it was difficult to determine the relative cost for studied pictures and words due to a reversal of the mirror effect. We hypothesized that the reversed mirror effect results from subjects' basing their recognition decisions on their assumptions about the study form. Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed this hypothesis and generated a method for evaluating the relative cost for pictures and words despite the reversed mirror effect. More cost was observed for pictures than words, supporting the distinctiveness model of the picture superiority effect.

Positron emission imaging device and method of using the same

DOEpatents

Bingham, Philip R.; Mullens, James Allen

2013-01-15

An imaging system and method of imaging are disclosed. The imaging system can include an external radiation source producing pairs of substantially simultaneous radiation emissions of a picturization emission and a verification emissions at an emission angle. The imaging system can also include a plurality of picturization sensors and at least one verification sensor for detecting the picturization and verification emissions, respectively. The imaging system also includes an object stage is arranged such that a picturization emission can pass through an object supported on said object stage before being detected by one of said plurality of picturization sensors. A coincidence system and a reconstruction system can also be included. The coincidence can receive information from the picturization and verification sensors and determine whether a detected picturization emission is direct radiation or scattered radiation. The reconstruction system can produce a multi-dimensional representation of an object imaged with the imaging system.

Investigating the effect of respiratory bodily threat on the processing of emotional pictures.

PubMed

Juravle, Georgiana; Stoeckel, Maria Cornelia; Rose, Michael; Gamer, Matthias; Büchel, Christian; Wieser, Matthias Johannes; von Leupoldt, Andreas

2014-12-01

It has been demonstrated that emotions can substantially impact the perception and neural processing of breathlessness, but little is known about the reverse interaction. Here, we examined the impact of breathlessness on emotional picture processing. The continuous EEG was recorded while volunteers viewed positive/neutral/negative emotional pictures under conditions of resistive-load-induced breathlessness, auditory noise, and an unloaded baseline. Breathlessness attenuated P1 and early posterior negativity (EPN) ERP amplitudes, irrespective of picture valence. Moreover, as expected, larger amplitudes for positive and negative pictures relative to neutral pictures were found for EPN and the late positive potential (LPP) ERPs, which were not affected by breathlessness. The results suggest that breathlessness impacts on the early attention-related neural processing of picture stimuli without influencing the later cognitive processing of emotional contents. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

z~2: An Epoch of Disk Assembly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simons, Raymond C.; Kassin, Susan A.; Weiner, Benjamin; Heckman, Timothy M.; Trump, Jonathan; SIGMA, DEEP2

2018-01-01

At z = 0, the majority of massive star-forming galaxies contain thin, rotationally supported gas disks. It was once accepted that galaxies form thin disks early: collisional gas with high velocity dispersion should dissipate energy, conserve angular momentum, and develop strong rotational support in only a few galaxy crossing times (~few hundred Myr). However, this picture is complicated at high redshift, where the processes governing galaxy assembly tend to be violent and inhospitable to disk formation. We present results from our SIGMA survey of star-forming galaxy kinematics at z = 2. These results challenge the simple picture described above: galaxies at z = 2 are unlike local well-ordered disks. Their kinematics tend to be much more disordered, as quantified by their low ratios of rotational velocity to gas velocity dispersion (Vrot/σg): less than 35% of galaxies have Vrot/σg > 3. For comparison, nearly 100% of local star-forming galaxies meet this same threshold. We combine our high redshift sample with a similar low redshift sample from the DEEP2 survey. This combined sample covers a continuous redshift baseline over 0.1 < z < 2.5, spanning 10 Gyrs of cosmic time. Over this period, galaxies exhibit remarkably smooth kinematic evolution on average. All galaxies tend towards rotational support with time, and it is reached earlier in higher mass systems. This is due to both a significant decline in gas velocity dispersion and a mild rise in ordered rotational motions. These results indicate that z = 2 is a period of disk assembly, during which the strong rotational support present in today’s massive disk galaxies is only just beginning to emerge.

Seasonal Dependence of Geomagnetic Active-Time Northern High-Latitude Upper Thermospheric Winds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhadly, Manbharat S.; Emmert, John T.; Drob, Douglas P.; Conde, Mark G.; Doornbos, Eelco; Shepherd, Gordon G.; Makela, Jonathan J.; Wu, Qian; Nieciejewski, Richard J.; Ridley, Aaron J.

2018-01-01

This study is focused on improving the poorly understood seasonal dependence of northern high-latitude F region thermospheric winds under active geomagnetic conditions. The gaps in our understanding of the dynamic high-latitude thermosphere are largely due to the sparseness of thermospheric wind measurements. With current observational facilities, it is infeasible to construct a synoptic picture of thermospheric winds, but enough data with wide spatial and temporal coverage have accumulated to construct a meaningful statistical analysis. We use long-term data from eight ground-based and two space-based instruments to derive climatological wind patterns as a function of magnetic local time, magnetic latitude, and season. These diverse data sets possess different geometries and different spatial and solar activity coverage. The major challenge is to combine these disparate data sets into a coherent picture while overcoming the sampling limitations and biases among them. In our previous study (focused on quiet time winds), we found bias in the Gravity Field and Steady State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) cross-track winds. Here we empirically quantify the GOCE bias and use it as a correction profile for removing apparent bias before empirical wind formulation. The assimilated wind patterns exhibit all major characteristics of high-latitude neutral circulation. The latitudinal extent of duskside circulation expands almost 10∘ from winter to summer. The dawnside circulation subsides from winter to summer. Disturbance winds derived from geomagnetic active and quiet winds show strong seasonal and latitudinal variability. Comparisons between wind patterns derived here and Disturbance Wind Model (DWM07) (which have no seasonal dependence) suggest that DWM07 is skewed toward summertime conditions.