Separate areas for mirror responses and agency within the parietal operculum

There is common neural activity in parietal and premotor cortex when executing and observing goal-directed movements: the “mirror” response. In addition, active and passive limb movements cause overlapping activity in premotor and somatosensory cortex. This association of motor and sensory activity cannot ascribe agency, the ability to discriminate between self- and non-self-generated events. This requires that some signals accompanying self-initiated limb movement dissociate from those evoked by observing the action of another or by movement imposed on oneself by external force. We demonstrated associated activity within the medial parietal operculum in response to feedforward visual or somatosensory information accompanying observed and imposed finger movements. In contrast, the response to motor and somatosensory information during self-initiated finger and observed movements resulted in activity localized to the lateral parietal operculum. This ascribes separate functions to medial and lateral second-order somatosensory cortex, anatomically dissociating the agent and the mirror response, demonstrating how executed and observed events are distinguished despite common activity in widespread sensorimotor cortices

Defining agronomic practices for forage corn production in Saskatchewan

Non-Peer ReviewedForage corn may be an economical and high-quality alternative for winter feeding in Saskatchewan, but the cost of corn production is high compared to other forage crops. To maximize the economic potential of forage corn for feeding, input costs, such as seed and fertilizer, need to be minimized. The existing recommendations for nitrogen application rate and seeding rate for forage corn are based on grain corn production, resulting in relatively high recommended nitrogen application rates. The purpose of this project was to develop and refine seeding and fertility recommendations for corn silage production and to evaluate the cost of production and feed quality of corn silage grown in Saskatchewan. The 3-year study, including the 2016, 2017 and 2018 growing seasons, was located at three short-season sites (Lanigan, Melfort, and Scott) and three long-season sites (Yorkton, Redvers, and Outlook). The hybrids grown at each site were selected based on their corn heat unit rating. At each site, two different seed brands were planted at three target seeding rates with three nitrogen application rates. The total biomass yield was individually measured for each plot and subsamples were collected for forage quality analysis. Based on Year 2 results, there were significant differences in plant populations and biomass yields among the sites and treatments. An economic analysis was conducted to determine if any yield advantage from higher nitrogen and seeding rates are worth the added cost of these inputs

Group and individual variability in speech production networks during delayed auditory feedback

Altering reafferent sensory information can have a profound effect on motor output. Introducing a short delay [delayed auditory feedback (DAF)] during speech production results in modulations of voice and loudness, and produces a range of speech dysfluencies. The ability of speakers to resist the effects of delayed feedback is variable yet it is unclear what neural processes underlie differences in susceptibility to DAF. Here, susceptibility to DAF is investigated by looking at the neural basis of within and between subject changes in speech fluency under 50 and 200 ms delay conditions. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, networks involved in producing speech under two levels of DAF were identified, lying largely within networks active during normal speech production. Independent of condition, fluency ratings were associated with midbrain activity corresponding to periaqueductal grey matter. Across subject variability in ability to produce normal sounding speech under a 200 ms delay was associated with activity in ventral sensorimotor cortices, whereas ability to produce normal sounding speech under a 50 ms delay was associated with left inferior frontal gyrus activity. These data indicate whilst overlapping cortical mechanisms are engaged for speaking under different delay conditions, susceptibility to different temporal delays in speech feedback may involve different process

G_2 Perfect-Fluid Cosmologies with a proper conformal Killing vector

We study the Einstein field equations for spacetimes admitting a maximal two-dimensional abelian group of isometries acting orthogonally transitively on spacelike surfaces and, in addition, with at least one conformal Killing vector. The three-dimensional conformal group is restricted to the case when the two-dimensional abelian isometry subalgebra is an ideal and it is also assumed to act on non-null hypersurfaces (both, spacelike and timelike cases are studied). We consider both, diagonal and non-diagonal metrics and find all the perfect-fluid solutions under these assumptions (except those already known). We find four families of solutions, each one containing arbitrary parameters for which no differential equations remain to be integrated. We write the line-elements in a simplified form and perform a detailed study for each of these solutions, giving the kinematical quantities of the fluid velocity vector, the energy-density and pressure, values of the parameters for which the energy conditions are fulfilled everywhere, the Petrov type, the singularities in the spacetimes and the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker metrics contained in each family.Comment: Latex, no figure

Correction to “Temperature-Dependent High-Speed Dynamics of Terahertz Quantum Cascade Lasers”

Corrections to author affiliation information is presented in the above named paper

Recent advances in the application of mineral chemistry to exploration for porphyry copper–gold–molybdenum deposits: detecting the geochemical fingerprints and footprints of hypogene mineralization and alteration

In the past decade, significant research efforts have been devoted to mineral chemistrystudies to assist porphyry exploration. These activities can be divided into two majorfields of research: (1) porphyry indicator minerals (PIMs), which are used to identify thepresence of, or potential for, porphyry-style mineralization based on the chemistry ofmagmatic minerals such as zircon, plagioclase and apatite, or resistate hydrothermalminerals such as magnetite; and (2) porphyry vectoring and fertility tools (PVFTs),which use the chemical compositions of hydrothermal minerals such as epidote,chlorite and alunite to predict the likely direction and distance to mineralized centers,and the potential metal endowment of a mineral district. This new generation ofexploration tools has been enabled by advances in and increased access to laserablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), short wavelength infrared (SWIR), visible near-infrared (VNIR) and hyperspectral technologies.PIMs and PVFTs show considerable promise for exploration and are starting to beapplied to the diversity of environments that host porphyry and epithermal depositsglobally. Industry has consistently supported development of these tools, in the case ofPVFTs encouraged by several successful blind tests where deposit centers havesuccessfully been predicted from distal propylitic settings. Industry adoption is steadilyincreasing but is restrained by a lack of the necessary analytical equipment andexpertise in commercial laboratories, and also by the on-going reliance on well-established geochemical exploration techniques (e.g., sediment, soil and rock-chipsampling) that have aided the discovery of near-surface resources over many decades, are now proving less effective in the search for deeply buried mineral resources, and for those concealed under cover

Porphyry Indicator Minerals (PIMS) and Porphyry Vectoring and Fertility Tools (PVFTS) – Indicators of Mineralization Styles and Recorders of Hypogene Geochemical Dispersion Halos

In the past decade, significant research efforts have been devoted to mineral chemistry studies to assist porphyry exploration. These activities can be divided into two major fields of research: (1) porphyry indicator minerals (PIMS), which aims to identify the presence of, or potential for, porphyry-style mineralization based on the chemistry of magmatic minerals such as plagioclase, zircon and apatite, or resistate hydrothermal minerals such as magnetite; and (2) porphyry vectoring and fertility tools (PVFTS), which use the chemical compositions of hydrothermal minerals such as epidote, chlorite and alunite to predict the likely direction and distance to mineralized centres, and the potential metal endowment of a mineral district. This new generation of exploration tools has been enabled by advances in laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, short wave length infrared data acquisition and data processing, and the increased availability of microanalytical techniques such as cathodoluminescence. PVFTS and PIMS show considerable promise for porphyry exploration, and are starting to be applied to the diversity of environments that host porphyry and epithermal deposits around the circum-Pacific region. Industry has consistently supported development of these tools, in the case of PVFTS encouraged by several successful “blind tests” where deposit centres have successfully been predicted from distal propylitic settings. Industry adoption is steadily increasing but is restrained by a lack of the necessary analytical equipment and expertise in commercial laboratories.Item freely available with no apparent Creative Commons License or copyright statement. The attached file is the published pdf