Refresh my memory: Episodic memory reinstatements intrude on working memory maintenance

A fundamental question in memory research is how different forms of memory interact. Previous research has shown that people rely on working memory (WM) in short-term recognition tasks; a common view is that episodic memory (EM) only influences performance on these tasks when WM maintenance is disrupted. However, retrieval of memories from EM has been widely observed during brief periods of quiescence, raising the possibility that EM retrievals during maintenance-critically, before a response can be prepared-might affect short-term recognition memory performance even in the absence of distraction. We hypothesized that this influence would be mediated by the lingering presence of reactivated EM content in WM. We obtained support for this hypothesis in three experiments, showing that delay-period EM reactivation introduces incidentally-associated information ( context ) into WM, and that these retrieved associations negatively impact subsequent recognition, leading to substitution errors (Experiment 1) and slowing of accurate responses (Experiment 2). fMRI pattern analysis showed that slowing is mediated by the content of EM reinstatement (Experiment 3). These results expose a previously hidden influence of EM on WM, raising new questions about the adaptive nature of their interaction

Pilot/vehicle model analysis of visual and motion cue requirements in flight simulation

The optimal control model (OCM) of the human operator is used to predict the effect of simulator characteristics on pilot performance and workload. The piloting task studied is helicopter hover. Among the simulator characteristics considered were (computer generated) visual display resolution, field of view and time delay

MINIMAL DELAY WIFI DISPLAY SHARING WITH USER INPUT BACK CHANNEL IN VIDEO CONFERENCING

Techniques are provided herein for a WiFi Display bridge implemented in telepresence endpoints. This may enhance collaboration technology by upgrading collaboration presentation devices to a remote desktop without requiring software installation. The far-end collaboration presentation devices receive high-fidelity and low-latency audio and video screen captures of the presenting device and have the capability to control the mouse and keyboard

Codon Bias Patterns of E.coliE.coli's Interacting Proteins

Synonymous codons, i.e., DNA nucleotide triplets coding for the same amino acid, are used differently across the variety of living organisms. The biological meaning of this phenomenon, known as codon usage bias, is still controversial. In order to shed light on this point, we propose a new codon bias index, $CompAI$, that is based on the competition between cognate and near-cognate tRNAs during translation, without being tuned to the usage bias of highly expressed genes. We perform a genome-wide evaluation of codon bias for $E.coli$, comparing $CompAI$ with other widely used indices: $tAI$, $CAI$, and $Nc$. We show that $CompAI$ and $tAI$ capture similar information by being positively correlated with gene conservation, measured by ERI, and essentiality, whereas, $CAI$ and $Nc$ appear to be less sensitive to evolutionary-functional parameters. Notably, the rate of variation of $tAI$ and $CompAI$ with ERI allows to obtain sets of genes that consistently belong to specific clusters of orthologous genes (COGs). We also investigate the correlation of codon bias at the genomic level with the network features of protein-protein interactions in $E.coli$. We find that the most densely connected communities of the network share a similar level of codon bias (as measured by $CompAI$ and $tAI$). Conversely, a small difference in codon bias between two genes is, statistically, a prerequisite for the corresponding proteins to interact. Importantly, among all codon bias indices, $CompAI$ turns out to have the most coherent distribution over the communities of the interactome, pointing to the significance of competition among cognate and near-cognate tRNAs for explaining codon usage adaptation

Examining the role of smart TVs and VR HMDs in synchronous at-a-distance media consumption

This article examines synchronous at-a-distance media consumption from two perspectives: How it can be facilitated using existing consumer displays (through TVs combined with smartphones), and imminently available consumer displays (through virtual reality (VR) HMDs combined with RGBD sensing). First, we discuss results from an initial evaluation of a synchronous shared at-a-distance smart TV system, CastAway. Through week-long in-home deployments with five couples, we gain formative insights into the adoption and usage of at-a-distance media consumption and how couples communicated during said consumption. We then examine how the imminent availability and potential adoption of consumer VR HMDs could affect preferences toward how synchronous at-a-distance media consumption is conducted, in a laboratory study of 12 pairs, by enhancing media immersion and supporting embodied telepresence for communication. Finally, we discuss the implications these studies have for the near-future of consumer synchronous at-a-distance media consumption. When combined, these studies begin to explore a design space regarding the varying ways in which at-a-distance media consumption can be supported and experienced (through music, TV content, augmenting existing TV content for immersion, and immersive VR content), what factors might influence usage and adoption and the implications for supporting communication and telepresence during media consumption

Remote Usability Testing - A New Approach Facilitated By Virtual Worlds

Synchronous remote usability testing, involves a facilitator conducting a usability test in real time, interacting with a participant who is remote. This study proposes a new methodology for conducting these studies using a three-dimensional virtual world, Wonderland, and compares it with two other commonly used synchronous usability test methods: the traditional lab approach and WebEx, a web-based conferencing and screen sharing approach. The study involved 48 participants in total, 36 test subjects and 12 test facilitators. These 36 were equally divided among the three environments with the 12 test facilitators being paired with one participant in each of the environments. The participants completed 5 tasks on an e-commerce website. The three methodologies were compared with respect to the dependent variables, the time taken to complete the tasks; the usability defects identified; the severity of these usability issues; and the subjective ratings from the NASA-TLX, the presence and post-test subjective questionnaires. Most importantly, the three methodologies agreed closely in terms of the total number defects identified, number of high severity defects identified and the time taken to complete the tasks. However, there was a significant difference in the workload experienced by the test participants and facilitators, with the traditional lab condition being the least and the Wonderland and the WebEx conditions being almost the same. It was also found that both test participants and test facilitators experienced better involvement and immersive experiences in the Wonderland condition, than the WebEx condition and almost the same for traditional lab condition. The results of this study suggest that participants were productive and enjoyed the Wonderland condition, indicating the potential of a virtual world based approach as an alternative to the conventional approaches

Displays for telemanipulation

Visual displays drive the human operator's highest bandwidth sensory input channel. Thus, no telemanipulation system is adequate which does not make extensive use of visual displays. Although an important use of visual displays is the presentation of a televised image of the work scene, visual displays are examined for presentation of nonvisual information (forces and torques) for simulation and planning, and for management and control of the large numbers of subsystems which make up a modern telemanipulation system

Experimental delayed-choice entanglement swapping

Motivated by the question, which kind of physical interactions and processes are needed for the production of quantum entanglement, Peres has put forward the radical idea of delayed-choice entanglement swapping. There, entanglement can be "produced a posteriori, after the entangled particles have been measured and may no longer exist". In this work we report the first realization of Peres' gedanken experiment. Using four photons, we can actively delay the choice of measurement-implemented via a high-speed tunable bipartite state analyzer and a quantum random number generator-on two of the photons into the time-like future of the registration of the other two photons. This effectively projects the two already registered photons onto one definite of two mutually exclusive quantum states in which either the photons are entangled (quantum correlations) or separable (classical correlations). This can also be viewed as "quantum steering into the past"

Telecommunications media for the delivery of educational programming

The technical characteristics of various telecommunications media are examined for incorporation into educational networks. FM radio, AM radio, and VHF and UHF television are considered along with computer-aided instruction. The application of iteration networks to library systems, and microform technology are discussed. The basic principles of the communications theory are outlined, and the operation of the PLATO 4 random access system is described