Agency and responsibility over virtual movements controlled through different paradigms of brain−computer interface

Agency is the attribution of an action to the self and is a prerequisite for experiencing responsibility over its consequences. Here we investigated agency and responsibility by studying the control of movements of an embodied avatar, via brain computer interface (BCI) technology, in immersive virtual reality. After induction of virtual body ownership by visuomotor correlations, healthy participants performed a motor task with their virtual body. We compared the passive observation of the subject's ‘own’ virtual arm performing the task with (1) the control of the movement through activation of sensorimotor areas (motor imagery) and (2) the control of the movement through activation of visual areas (steady‐state visually evoked potentials). The latter two conditions were carried out using a brain–computer interface (BCI) and both shared the intention and the resulting action. We found that BCI‐control of movements engenders the sense of agency, which is strongest for sensorimotor areas activation. Furthermore, increased activity of sensorimotor areas, as measured using EEG, correlates with levels of agency and responsibility. We discuss the implications of these results for the neural basis of agency

Patterns of variability of retinol levels in a harbour porpoise population from an unpolluted environment

Organochlorine compounds (OC) are known to induce vitamin A (retinoids) deficiency in mammals, which may be associated with impairment of immunocompetence, reproduction and growth. This makes retinoids a potentially useful biomarker of organochlorine impact on marine mammals. However, use of retinoids as a biomarker requires knowledge about its intrapopulation patterns of variation in natural conditions, information which is not currently available. We investigated these patterns in a cetacean population living in an unpolluted environment. 100 harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena from West Greenland were sampled during the 1995 hunting season. Sex, age, morphometrics, nutritive condition, and retinol (following saponification) and OC levels in blubber were determined for each individual. OC levels found were extremely low and therefore considered unlikely to affect the population adversely: mean blubber concentrations, expressed on an extractable basis, were 2.04 (SD = 1.1) ppm for PCBs and 2.76 (SD = 1.66) ppm for tDDT. The mean blubber retinol concentration for the overall population was 59.66 (SD = 45.26) mu g g(-1). Taking into account the high contribution of blubber to body mass, blubber constitutes a significant body site for retinoid deposition in harbour porpoises. Retinol concentrations did not differ significantly between geographical regions or sexes, but they did correlate significantly (p <0.001) with age. Body condition, measured by determining the lipid content of the blubber, did not have a significant effect on retinol levels but the individuals examined were considered to be in an overall good nutritive condition. It is concluded that measurement of retinol concentrations in blubber samples is feasible and has a potential for use as a biomarker of organochlorine exposure in cetaceans. However, in order to do so, biological information, particularly age, is critical for the correct assessment of physiological impac

LES-based Study of the Roughness Effects on the Wake of a Circular Cylinder from Subcritical to Transcritical Reynolds Numbers

This paper investigates the effects of surface roughness on the flow past a circular cylinder at subcritical to transcritical Reynolds numbers. Large eddy simulations of the flow for sand grain roughness of size k/D = 0.02 are performed (D is the cylinder diameter). Results show that surface roughness triggers the transition to turbulence in the boundary layer at all Reynolds numbers, thus leading to an early separation caused by the increased momentum deficit, especially at transcritical Reynolds numbers. Even at subcritical Reynolds numbers, boundary layer instabilities are triggered in the roughness sublayer and eventually lead to the transition to turbulence. The early separation at transcritical Reynolds numbers leads to a wake topology similar to that of the subcritical regime, resulting in an increased drag coefficient and lower Strouhal number. Turbulent statistics in the wake are also affected by roughness; the Reynolds stresses are larger due to the increased turbulent kinetic energy production in the boundary layer and separated shear layers close to the cylinder shoulders.We acknowledge “Red Española de Surpercomputación” (RES) for awarding us access to the MareNostrum III machine based in Barcelona, Spain (Ref. FI-2015-2-0026 and FI-2015-3-0011). We also acknowledge PRACE for awarding us access to Fermi and Marconi Supercomputers at Cineca, Italy (Ref. 2015133120). Oriol Lehmkuhl acknowledges a PDJ 2014 Grant by AGAUR (Generalitat de Catalunya). Ugo Piomelli acknowledges the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada under the Discovery Grant Programme (Grant No. RGPIN-2016-04391). Ricard Borrell acknowledges a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral grant (IJCI-2014-21034). Ivette Rodriguez, Oriol Lehmkuhl, Ricard Borrell and Assensi Oliva acknowledge Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación, Spain (ref. ENE2014-60577-R).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A brain-spinal interface (BSI) system-on-chip (SoC) for closed-loop cortically-controlled intraspinal microstimulation

This paper reports on a fully miniaturized brain-spinal interface system for closed-loop cortically-controlled intraspinal microstimulation (ISMS). Fabricated in AMS 0.35 µm two-poly four-metal complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology, this system-on-chip measures ~ 3.46 mm × 3.46 mm and incorporates two identical 4-channel modules, each comprising a spike-recording front-end, embedded digital signal processing (DSP) unit, and programmable stimulating back-end. The DSP unit is capable of generating multichannel trigger signals for a wide array of ISMS triggering patterns based on real-time discrimination of a programmable number of intracortical neural spikes within a pre-specified time-bin duration via thresholding and user-adjustable time–amplitude windowing. The system is validated experimentally using an anesthetized rat model of a spinal cord contusion injury at the T8 level. Multichannel neural spikes are recorded from the cerebral cortex and converted in real time into electrical stimuli delivered to the lumbar spinal cord below the level of the injury, resulting in distinct patterns of hindlimb muscle activation

Properties of LZS/nanoAl2O3 glass-ceramic composites

[EN] The LZS glass-ceramic (19.58 Li2O center dot 11.10ZrO(2)center dot 69.32SiO(2)) have a high coefficient thermal expansion (CTE) which can be a limitation in some applications. The addition of alumina in a LZS glass-ceramic matrix is able to reduce the CTE significantly. This happens because of the alumina affinity with respect to lithium silicates to form beta-spodumene (LiAlSi2O6), a crystalline phase having a CTE nearly zero (0.9 x 10(-6) degrees C-1).In this work, (1-5 vol%) Al2O3 nanoparticles (13 nm) were added to a LZS (3.5 mu m) glass-ceramic matrix to prepare composites with the main goal of evaluation the influence of Al2O3 on their mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. Each composition was wet homogenized and then dried at 110 degrees C for 48 h for disaggregation. The composites, sintered at 900 degrees C for 30 min, with relative densities between 92% and 98%, showed zircon and beta-spodumene as main crystalline phases. The incorporation of increasing additions of nanosized alumina progressively decreases the final density. This makes the properties to slightly decrease, also. The Young's modulus significantly decreases from 111 to 78 GPa of hardness due to the exponential variation with porosity, but the changes of toughness and hardness are much lower. The electrical conductivity was maintained within +/- 10-7 S. cm(-1), and the dielectric constant ranged from 5 to 6 for all compositions. Thermal conductivity ranged around 4.2 to 3.5 W/mK. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work has been supported by CAPES in the frame of the International Cooperation Program Science without Borders for Special Visiting Researcher PVE (MEC/MCTI/CAPES/CNPq/FAPs/ No 71/2013), Project No A011/2013 (Brazil) and CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil). This work has been also supported by Ministerio de Economia y Cornpetitividad and FEDER Funds under grant No MAT2016-67586-C3-R and grant ENE2013-49111-C2-1-R. A. Borrell acknowledges the MINECO for her Juan de la Cierva-Incorporacion contract (IJCI-2014-19839).Arcaro, S.; Moreno, B.; Chinarro, E.; Salvador Moya, MD.; Borrell Tomás, MA.; Nieto, M.; Moreno, R.... (2017). Properties of LZS/nanoAl2O3 glass-ceramic composites. Journal of Alloys and Compounds. 710:567-574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.03.299S56757471

Ventilation inhibits sympathetic action potential recruitment even during severe chemoreflex stress

© 2017 the American Physiological Society. This study investigated the influence of ventilation on sympathetic action potential (AP) discharge patterns during varying levels of high chemoreflex stress. In seven trained breath-hold divers (age 33 ± 12 yr), we measured muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) at baseline, during preparatory rebreathing (RBR), and during 1) functional residual capacity apnea (FRCApnea) and 2) continued RBR. Data from RBR were analyzed at matched (i.e., to FRCApnea) hemoglobin saturation (HbSat) levels (RBRMatched) or more severe levels (RBREnd). A third protocol compared alternating periods (30 s) of FRC and RBR (FRC-RBRALT). Subjects continued each protocol until 85% volitional tolerance. AP patterns in MSNA (i.e., providing the true neural content of each sympathetic burst) were studied using wavelet-based methodology. First, for similar levels of chemoreflex stress (both HbSat: 71 ± 6%; P = NS), RBRMatched was associated with reduced AP frequency and APs per burst compared with FRCApnea (both P _ 0.001). When APs were binned according to peak-to-peak amplitude (i.e., into clusters), total AP clusters increased during FRCApnea (+10 ± 2; P \u3c 0.001) but not during RBRMatched (+1 ± 2; P = NS). Second, despite more severe chemoreflex stress during RBREnd (Hb-Sat: 56 ± 13 vs. 71 ± 6%; P = 0.001), RBREnd was associated with a restrained increase in the APs per burst (FRCApnea: +18 ± 7; RBREnd: +11 ± 5) and total AP clusters (FRCApnea: +10 ± 2; RBREnd: +6 ± 4) (both P \u3c 0.01). During FRC-RBRALT, all periods of FRC elicited sympathetic AP recruitment (all P \u3c 0.001), whereas all periods of RBR were associated with complete withdrawal of AP recruitment (all P = NS). Presently, we demonstrate that ventilation per se restrains and/or inhibits sympathetic axonal recruitment during high, and even extreme, chemoreflex stress. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The current study demonstrates that the sympathetic neural recruitment patterns observed during chemoreflex activation induced by rebreathing or apnea are restrained and/or inhibited by the act of ventilation per se, despite similar, or even greater, levels of severe chemoreflex stress. Therefore, ventilation modulates not only the timing of sympathetic bursts but also the within-burst axonal recruitment normally observed during progressive chemoreflex stress

Profesionales trabajando : La inserción laboral de graduados recientes de carreras “no tradicionales”

Los estudios sobre graduados universitarios se enmarcan en el campo de las relaciones entre el mundo de la educación y el mundo del trabajo, relaciones que revisten una gran complejidad. En este marco y considerando que la inserción en el mundo del trabajo supone un proceso en el que confluyen diversidad de factores entre los cuales está la formación, la finalidad de este trabajo es dar cuenta de la trayectoria laboral y el desempeño profesional de graduados recientes en la Facultad de Ciencia Política y RRII de la UNR, para establecer vinculaciones con las competencias adquiridas a lo largo de la formación académica; esto implica describir la secuencia laboral atendiendo a los distintos empleos desempeñados por los graduados, considerando también género y generación así como identificar las estrategias y mecanismos desarrollados para obtener o cambiar de empleo.Mesa 29: Juventud divino tesoro: jóvenes, trabajo y educación.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Profesionales trabajando : La inserción laboral de graduados recientes de carreras “no tradicionales”

Los estudios sobre graduados universitarios se enmarcan en el campo de las relaciones entre el mundo de la educación y el mundo del trabajo, relaciones que revisten una gran complejidad. En este marco y considerando que la inserción en el mundo del trabajo supone un proceso en el que confluyen diversidad de factores entre los cuales está la formación, la finalidad de este trabajo es dar cuenta de la trayectoria laboral y el desempeño profesional de graduados recientes en la Facultad de Ciencia Política y RRII de la UNR, para establecer vinculaciones con las competencias adquiridas a lo largo de la formación académica; esto implica describir la secuencia laboral atendiendo a los distintos empleos desempeñados por los graduados, considerando también género y generación así como identificar las estrategias y mecanismos desarrollados para obtener o cambiar de empleo.Mesa 29: Juventud divino tesoro: jóvenes, trabajo y educación.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació