Modeling sea level changes and geodetic variations by glacial isostasy: the improved SELEN code

We describe the basic features of SELEN, an open source Fortran 90 program for the numerical solution of the so-called "Sea Level Equation" for a spherical, layered, non-rotating Earth with Maxwell viscoelastic rheology. The Sea Level Equation was introduced in the 70s to model the sea level variations in response to the melting of late-Pleistocene ice-sheets, but it can be also employed for predictions of geodetic quantities such as vertical and horizontal surface displacements and gravity variations on a global and a regional scale. SELEN (acronym of SEa Level EquatioN solver) is particularly oriented to scientists at their first approach to the glacial isostatic adjustment problem and, according to our experience, it can be successfully used in teaching. The current release (2.9) considerably improves the previous versions of the code in terms of computational efficiency, portability and versatility. In this paper we describe the essentials of the theory behind the Sea Level Equation, the purposes of SELEN and its implementation, and we provide practical guidelines for the use of the program. Various examples showing how SELEN can be configured to solve geodynamical problems involving past and present sea level changes and current geodetic variations are also presented and discussed

The Neuroscience of Moral Judgment: Empirical and Philosophical Developments

We chart how neuroscience and philosophy have together advanced our understanding of moral judgment with implications for when it goes well or poorly. The field initially focused on brain areas associated with reason versus emotion in the moral evaluations of sacrificial dilemmas. But new threads of research have studied a wider range of moral evaluations and how they relate to models of brain development and learning. By weaving these threads together, we are developing a better understanding of the neurobiology of moral judgment in adulthood and to some extent in childhood and adolescence. Combined with rigorous evidence from psychology and careful philosophical analysis, neuroscientific evidence can even help shed light on the extent of moral knowledge and on ways to promote healthy moral development

Aging, Emotion, Attention, and Binding in the Taboo Stroop Task: Data and Theories.

How does aging impact relations between emotion, memory, and attention? To address this question, young and older adults named the font colors of taboo and neutral words, some of which recurred in the same font color or screen location throughout two color-naming experiments. The results indicated longer color-naming response times (RTs) for taboo than neutral base-words (taboo Stroop interference); better incidental recognition of colors and locations consistently associated with taboo versus neutral words (taboo context-memory enhancement); and greater speed-up in color-naming RTs with repetition of color-consistent than color-inconsistent taboo words, but no analogous speed-up with repetition of location-consistent or location-inconsistent taboo words (the consistency type by repetition interaction for taboo words). All three phenomena remained constant with aging, consistent with the transmission deficit hypothesis and binding theory, where familiar emotional words trigger age-invariant reactions for prioritizing the binding of contextual features to the source of emotion. Binding theory also accurately predicted the interaction between consistency type and repetition for taboo words. However, one or more aspects of these phenomena failed to support the inhibition deficit hypothesis, resource capacity theory, or socio-emotional selectivity theory. We conclude that binding theory warrants further test in a range of paradigms, and that relations between aging and emotion, memory, and attention may depend on whether the task and stimuli trigger fast-reaction, involuntary binding processes, as in the taboo Stroop paradigm

From relativistic to quantum universe: Observation of a spatially-discontinuous particle dynamics beyond relativity

We perform an experimental test where we directly observe light-induced electron transitions with a macroscopic spatial discontinuity. The effect is related to the fundamental indivisibility of macroscopic orbit-like quantum states reminiscent of so-called extended states in the integer quantum Hall system. The test has become realizable due to the discovering of a quantum phase with spontaneous pervasive quantum ordering reminiscent of that of a single atom. The observed transitions may be regarded as a peculiar quantum dynamics beyond relativity, which implies that the current relativistic model of universe should be replaced by a deeper quantum model. It is the Bohm's model of undivided universe, which now should involve a deeper-than-classical concept of absolute simultaneity and a deeper-than-relativistic concept of space and time. Ultimately, our test thus establishes a new hierarchy of fundamental physical theories where the de Broglie-Bohm realistic quantum theory is the deepest theory which does not contradict either classical physics or relativity but rather is beyond both. This is because the fact that quantum theory is dealing with a deeper reality where physical objects are not self-sufficient entities and therefore their discontinuous transitions are possible within an overall quantum system which may well be macroscopic

Neural correlates of enhanced visual short-term memory for angry faces: An fMRI study

Copyright: © 2008 Jackson et al.Background: Fluid and effective social communication requires that both face identity and emotional expression information are encoded and maintained in visual short-term memory (VSTM) to enable a coherent, ongoing picture of the world and its players. This appears to be of particular evolutionary importance when confronted with potentially threatening displays of emotion - previous research has shown better VSTM for angry versus happy or neutral face identities.Methodology/Principal Findings: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, here we investigated the neural correlates of this angry face benefit in VSTM. Participants were shown between one and four to-be-remembered angry, happy, or neutral faces, and after a short retention delay they stated whether a single probe face had been present or not in the previous display. All faces in any one display expressed the same emotion, and the task required memory for face identity. We find enhanced VSTM for angry face identities and describe the right hemisphere brain network underpinning this effect, which involves the globus pallidus, superior temporal sulcus, and frontal lobe. Increased activity in the globus pallidus was significantly correlated with the angry benefit in VSTM. Areas modulated by emotion were distinct from those modulated by memory load.Conclusions/Significance: Our results provide evidence for a key role of the basal ganglia as an interface between emotion and cognition, supported by a frontal, temporal, and occipital network.The authors were supported by a Wellcome Trust grant (grant number 077185/Z/05/Z) and by BBSRC (UK) grant BBS/B/16178

Sustainable Settlement Criteria, Eco-cities and Prospects in Central and Eastern Europe

Eco-city movements constitute a special segment of the sustainable settlement aspirations. Using the classification devised by Mark Roseland, the paper established that the eco-city movement aims at achieving a new, consistent urban solution, while trying also to implement this solution in practice. The movement itself can be traced back to the 1970s in Berkeley, California. Since 1990, a series of international conferences has helped those following this approach to exchange experiences internationally. Eco-city models make efforts to create comprehensive solutions, so that their approach amalgamates the social (community, cultural), economic and ecological dimensions. Implementing solutions in practice requires a manageable, people-centred scale and participants who handle it as their own objective. These conditions make eco-city initiatives territorially limited sustainability experiments. The last decade and a half have brought huge and rapid social changes in the CEE transition countries, with post-industrial views and pressures combining with a learning process for collaboration in a new market economy. There were overestimates of the degree of environmental consciousness to be found in transition societies. These expectations were belied. The main trends have been along the Western path, with replication of all its mistakes. Under these circumstances social lifestyle experiments such as the eco-city movement enjoy relative narrow support: very few followers and relatively little public interest in such experiments. Sectoral division is frequent within environmental (and other) projects. Although there are several movements, they are on the scale of an eco-village, rather than an eco-city

Independent Component Analysis of GPS time series in the Altotiberina fault region in the Northern Apennines (Italy)

L'analisi delle componenti indipendenti (Independent Component Analysis, ICA) è una tecnica di statistica multivariata che consente di scomporre un segnale complesso in un certo numero di componenti, tra loro statisticamente indipendenti, che rappresentano le principali sorgenti di quel segnale. La tecnica ICA è stata applicata a serie temporali di spostamento GPS relative a 30 stazioni localizzate nell'Alta Valle del Tevere, nell'Appennino settentrionale. In quest'area, una faglia normale a basso angolo di immersione (circa 15°), faglia Altotiberina (Altotiberina fault, ATF), risulta attiva e responsabile di microsismicità (ML< 3), nonostante la teoria di Anderson sulla fagliazione affermi che non dovrebbe esserci scorrimento su faglie normali di questo tipo. L'interesse per l'ATF è inoltre dovuto al suo potenziale sismogenetico: un evento che dovesse attivare l'intera faglia (lunga circa 70 km) avrebbe infatti magnitudo intorno a 7. Per questo motivo la zona è monitorata da reti multiparametriche (sismiche, geodetiche, geochimiche) che registrano dati in maniera continuativa, rendendo possibile l’individuazione anche di piccoli segnali di deformazione transiente. Applicando la ICA alle serie temporali GPS si ottiene una scomposizione del segnale in 4 componenti indipendenti. L’analisi di queste componenti ha portato all’individuazione di correlazioni con serie temporali di piovosità, temperatura e sismicità. Una delle componenti, che presenta un segnale transiente di origine tettonica, è stata poi invertita per determinare la distribuzione dello scorrimento su piani di faglia noti. Il momento sismico associato allo scorrimento sulle faglie risulta maggiore del momento sismico associato ai terremoti registrati nell'area, suggerendo quindi che una parte dello scorrimento sia dovuto a movimenti asismici

The value question in India: Ethnographic reflections on an ongoing debate

The terms of the debate about anthropological approaches to the value question in India have been set by Dumont, whose theories were based on his ethnographic studies in North and South India, his knowledge of the Sanskrit literature, his synthesis of the comparative ethnography of India, and his studies on the history of European economic thought. His theory of affinity as a value, one element of this general theory, was based on a critique of L�vi-Strauss and was, in turn, critiqued by Trautmann, among others. On the basis of fieldwork done in Central India, I draw attention to an unexamined assumption that all three theorists share, and I also consider its consequences