From Idea to Practice: The Brain-Based Research Team

A cohort of teachers in the Bank Street School for Children spent a year in professional development around brain-based research and shared their knowledge with the rest of the teaching faculty with the plan to incorporate the research into practice.https://educate.bankstreet.edu/progressive/1021/thumbnail.jp

Right-lateralized alpha desynchronization during regularity discrimination: Hemispheric specialization or directed spatial attention?

When actively classifying abstract patterns according to their regularity, alpha desynchronization (ERD) becomes right lateralized over posterior brain areas. This could reflect temporary enhancement of contralateral visual inputs and specifically a shift of attention to the left, or right hemisphere specialization for regularity discrimination. This study tested these competing hypotheses. Twenty-four participants discriminated between dot patterns containing a reflection or a translation. The direction of the transformation, which matched one half onto the other half, was either vertical or horizontal. The strategy of shifting attention to one side of the patterns would not produce lateralized ERD in the horizontal condition. However, right-lateralized ERD was found in all conditions, regardless of orientation. We conclude that right hemisphere networks that incorporate the early posterior regions are specialized for regularity discrimination

3D Structural and Stratigraphic Architecture of the Northwest Santa Barbara Basin and Implications for Submarine Landslide Generation

Multiple submarine landslides have been previously documented on the north flank of the Santa Barbara Channel, and such failures are considered to be capable of generating local tsunamis hazards to the Santa Barbara region. 2D seismic-reflection datasets provide a general view of regional framework geology, including faulting and folding associated with north-south compression. However, better understanding of the relationships between faults, folds, stratigraphic architecture, and submarine landslides can be obtained with 3D seismic datasets. In this study we use an industry 3D seismic-reflection volume that encompasses the slope and shelfbreak surrounding the Gaviota submarine landslide (3.8 km2) to investigate structural and stratigraphic controls on slope failure in this region. The depth-migrated seismic volume shows a network of stacked thrust faults, backthrusts, and splays that result in both broad and local zones of compression, folding, and uplift along the slope and shelf. One localized zone of enhanced folding and uplift associated with small-scale thrust faults is located directly beneath the Gaviota landslide, while another zone is located directly below the westernmost extent of a seafloor fissure inferred to represent incipient failure. In addition, 3D seismic attribute analysis provides insight into the shallow sedimentary section of the failed and non-failed sedimentary packages. Calculation of RMS amplitude within a windowed region below the seafloor horizon delineates an apparent zone of gas-charged strata that onlaps onto older folded sediments. The up-dip limit of these gas-charged sediments appears to align with the location of seafloor fissures and the Gaviota landslide headwall. The slope gradient surrounding the Gaviota slide is only 4°, which is significantly lower than the internal friction angle for fine-grained marine sediments. It is therefore proposed that the combination of active 8 deformation and fluid charging acted to pre-condition and trigger the failure of the Gaviota landslide through a reduction in shear strength. These conditions are also present in intact sections of the slope adjacent to the Gaviota landslide, which should be considered prone to future landslides

Visual symmetry in objects and gap

It is known that perceptual organization modulates the salience of visual symmetry. Reflectional symmetry is more quickly detected when it is a property of a single object than when it is formed by a gap between two objects. Translational symmetry shows the reverse effect, being more quickly detected when it is a gap between objects. We investigated the neural correlates of this interaction. Electroencephalographic data was recorded from 40 participants who were presented with reflected and translated contours in one- or two-object displays. Half of the participants discriminated regularity, half distinguished number of objects. An event-related potential known as the Sustained Posterior Negativity (SPN) distinguished between reflection and translation. A similar ERP distinguished between one and two object presentations, but these waves summed with the SPN, rather than altering it. All stimuli produced desynchronization of 8?13 Hz alpha oscillations over the bilateral parietal cortex. In the Discriminate Regularity group, this effect was right lateralized. The SPN and alpha desynchronization index different stages of visual symmetry discrimination. However, neither component displayed the Regularity · Objecthood interaction that is observed in speeded discrimination tasks, suggesting that integration of visual regularity with objectness is not inevitable. Instead, both attributes may be processed in parallel and independently

Combining orthopaedic special tests to improve diagnosis of shoulder pathology.

This document is the accepted manuscript version of the following article: Eric J. Hegedus, et al, 'Combining orthopedic special tests to improve diagnosis of shoulder pathology', Physical Therapy in Sport, Vol. 16 (2): 87-92, May 2015, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2014.08.001. This manuscript version is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.The use of orthopedic special tests (OSTs) to diagnose shoulder pathology via the clinical examination is standard in clinical practice. There is a great deal of research on special tests but much of the research is of a lower quality implying that the metrics from that research, sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios, is likely to vary greatly in the hands of different clinicians and in varying practice environments. A way to improve the clinical diagnostic process is to cluster OSTs and to use these clusters to either rule in or out different pathologies. The aim of the article is to review the best OST clusters, examine the methodology by which they were derived, and illustrate, with a case study, the use of these OST clusters to arrive at a pathology-based diagnosis.Peer reviewedProo

Scenario planning and strategizing: an integrated approach

This thesis presents an analysis of how one UK Regional Development Agency (RDA) used scenario planning in its construction of the region’s Regional Economic Strategy (RES). Strategists are broadly defined to include those within the RDA charged with developing and enacting a consultative strategy making process, the consultants engaged to provide advice and expertise to ensure workshops were conducted effectively, and, individuals representing stakeholder organizations that attended these workshops and responded to written consultations. Four scenarios depicting the region in the year 2020 were produced, which were subsequently presented as an evidence-base for the strategy process. A draft RES was created and issued for consultation. Previous RES development processes had been criticized for their lack of consultation, in this iteration strategists skilfully utilized a recognized strategy making practice as a means of responding to this. The scenario planning approach they adopted bore little resemblance to to the sanitised and context-free recipes commonly presented in the strategy textbooks. The research is a reflective, longitudinal study with data drawn from forty-six semi-structured interviews producing an authentic rich description that illustrates how actors enacted a strategizing process in the complex environment of the UK public sector. The analysis highlights how the strategists were influenced by sometimes conflicting desires and aspirations, and that to reconcile these and ensure deadlines were met inductive, interpretive and subjective acts were required. This analysis presents strategists as bricoleurs, with the documents and draft strategies produced being socially situated co-constructions emerging from negotiated, temporally-bound, power-laden and politically-infused interactions

Dynamics of Two Pathogens in a Single Tick Population

A mathematical model for a two-pathogen, one-tick, one-host system is presented and explored. The goal of this model is to determine how long an invading pathogen persists within a tick population in which a resident pathogen is already established. The numerical simulations of the model demonstrate the parameter ranges that allow for coexistence of the two pathogens. Sensitivity analysis highlights the importance of vector-borne, tick-to-host, transmission rates on the invasion reproductive number and persistence of the pathogens over time. The model is then applied to a case study based on a reclaimed swampland field site in southeastern Virginia using field and laboratory data. The results pinpoint the thresholds required for persistence of both pathogens in the local tick population. However, the invading pathogen is not predicted to persist beyond three years. Understanding the persistence and coexistence of tick-borne pathogens will allow public health officials increased insight into tick-borne disease dynamics