Age of second language acquisition affects nonverbal conflict processing in children : an fMRI study

Background: In their daily communication, bilinguals switch between two languages, a process that involves the selection of a target language and minimization of interference from a nontarget language. Previous studies have uncovered the neural structure in bilinguals and the activation patterns associated with performing verbal conflict tasks. One question that remains, however is whether this extra verbal switching affects brain function during nonverbal conflict tasks. Methods: In this study, we have used fMRI to investigate the impact of bilingualism in children performing two nonverbal tasks involving stimulus-stimulus and stimulus-response conflicts. Three groups of 8-11-year-old children - bilinguals from birth (2L1), second language learners (L2L), and a control group of monolinguals (1L1) - were scanned while performing a color Simon and a numerical Stroop task. Reaction times and accuracy were logged. Results: Compared to monolingual controls, bilingual children showed higher behavioral congruency effect of these tasks, which is matched by the recruitment of brain regions that are generally used in general cognitive control, language processing or to solve language conflict situations in bilinguals (caudate nucleus, posterior cingulate gyrus, STG, precuneus). Further, the activation of these areas was found to be higher in 2L1 compared to L2L. Conclusion: The coupling of longer reaction times to the recruitment of extra language-related brain areas supports the hypothesis that when dealing with language conflicts the specialization of bilinguals hampers the way they can process with nonverbal conflicts, at least at early stages in life

Maximising community wellbeing: Assessing the threats to the benefits communities derive from the marine estate

© 2018 The coastal and marine environment is often managed according to the principles of sustainable development, which include environmental, economic, and social dimensions. While each are equally important, social sustainability receives a lower priority in both policy and research. Methodologies for assessing social sustainability are less developed than for environmental and economic sustainability, and there is a lack of data on the social aspects of sustainable development (such as social equity), which constitutes a barrier to understanding social considerations and integrating them into natural resource management. This paper explores a threat and risk assessment to the marine estate in New South Wales, Australia, which identified and categorised both the benefits that communities gain from the marine estate and the threats to those benefits. A broad range of benefits were identified including participation (e.g., socialising and sense of community), enjoyment (e.g., enjoying the biodiversity and beauty), cultural heritage and use, intrinsic and bequest values, the viability of businesses, and direct economic values. Threats to community benefits were categorised as resource use conflict, environmental, governance, public safety, critical knowledge gaps and lack of access. An integrated threat and risk assessment approach found that the priority threats to community benefits were environmental threats (e.g., water pollution), critical knowledge gaps (e.g., inadequate social and economic information), governance (e.g., lack of compliance), resource-use conflict (e.g., anti-social behaviour), and lack of access (e.g., loss of fishing access). Threat and risk assessment is an evidence-based tool that is useful for marine planning because it provides a structured approach to incorporating multiple types of knowledge and enables limited resources to be targeted to the threats identified as being most important to address

Development of Casbar: a Two-phase Flow Code for the Interior Ballistics Problem

Accurate modelling of gun interior ballistic processes aids in the design and analysis of guns and their propelling charges. Presently, the most accurate modelling of the interior ballistics problem is provided by two-phase, multidimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. We present our development of a CFD code, Casbar, which solves a two-phase (gas/particulate) flow problem in axisymmetric geometries. Our model is based on the governing equations for two-phase flow derived from separated flow theory. A finite-volume discretisation of the governing equations is used. The resulting set of equations is solved with a timestep-splitting approach based on the separation of various physical processes. We also present the modelling for the component physics such as propellant combustion and interphase drag. In addition, the solver includes the motion of the projectile and its influence on the flow dynamics. The capabilities of the code are demonstrated with some verification exercises

Temperature triggers immune evasion by Neisseria meningitidis.

Neisseria meningitidis has multiple strategies to evade complement-mediated killing, which contribute to its ability to cause septicaemic disease and meningitis. However, the meningococcus is primarily an obligate commensal of the human nasopharynx, and it is unclear why the bacterium has evolved exquisite mechanisms to avoid host immunity. Here we demonstrate that mechanisms of meningococcal immune evasion and resistance against complement increase in response to an elevation in ambient temperature. We have identified three independent RNA thermosensors located in the 5′-UTRs of genes necessary for capsule biosynthesis, the expression of factor H binding protein, and sialylation of lipopolysaccharide, which are essential for meningococcal resistance against immune killing(1,2). Therefore increased temperature (which occurs during inflammation) acts as a ‘danger signal’ for the meningococcus which enhances defence against human immune killing. Infection with viral pathogens, such as influenza, leads to inflammation in the nasopharynx with an elevated temperature and recruitment of immune effectors(3,4). Thermoregulation of immune defence could offer an adaptive advantage to the meningococcus during co-infection with other pathogens, and promote the emergence of virulence in an otherwise commensal bacterium

Simulation of CO2–N2 expansion tunnel flow for the study of radiating bluntbody shock layers

A 25MJ/kg CO2–N2 expansion tunnel condition has been developed for the X2 impulse facility at the University of Queensland. A hybrid Lagrangian and Navier–Stokes computational simulation technique is found to give good correlation with experimentally measured shock speeds and pressure traces. The use of an inertial diaphragm model for describing secondary diaphragm rupture is found to estimate between 4% and 25% more CO2 recombination over the test time than the widely accepted holding-time model. The obtained freestream conditions are assessed for application to proposed bluntbody spectroscopy and subscale aeroshell experiments. The chemically and vibrationally excited freestream test gas is found to prevent exact thermochemical similarity from being achieved, and the strong radiation–flowfield coupling characteristic of Mars aerocapture conditions cannot be reproduced experimentally