A database of whole-body action videos for the study of action, emotion, and untrustworthiness

We present a database of high-definition (HD) videos for the study of traits inferred from whole-body actions. Twenty-nine actors (19 female) were filmed performing different actions—walking, picking up a box, putting down a box, jumping, sitting down, and standing and acting—while conveying different traits, including four emotions (anger, fear, happiness, sadness), untrustworthiness, and neutral, where no specific trait was conveyed. For the actions conveying the four emotions and untrustworthiness, the actions were filmed multiple times, with the actor conveying the traits with different levels of intensity. In total, we made 2,783 action videos (in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional format), each lasting 7 s with a frame rate of 50 fps. All videos were filmed in a green-screen studio in order to isolate the action information from all contextual detail and to provide a flexible stimulus set for future use. In order to validate the traits conveyed by each action, we asked participants to rate each of the actions corresponding to the trait that the actor portrayed in the two-dimensional videos. To provide a useful database of stimuli of multiple actions conveying multiple traits, each video name contains information on the gender of the actor, the action executed, the trait conveyed, and the rating of its perceived intensity. All videos can be downloaded free at the following address: http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~neb506/databases.html. We discuss potential uses for the database in the analysis of the perception of whole-body actions

Comparison Of The Genesis Solar Wind Regime Algorithm Results With Solar Wind Composition Observed By ACE

Launched on 8 August 2001, the NASA Genesis mission is now collecting samples of the solar wind in various materials, and will return those samples to Earth in 2004 for analysis. A primary science goal of Genesis is the determination of the isotopic and elemental composition of the solar atmosphere from the solar wind material returned. In particular, Genesis will provide measurements of those species that are not provided by solar and in situ observations. We know from in situ measurements that the solar wind exhibits compositional variations across different types of solar wind flows. Therefore, Genesis exposes different collectors to solar wind originating from three flow types: coronal hole, coronal mass ejection (CME), and interstream flows. Flow types are identified using in situ measurements of solar wind protons, alphas, and electrons from electrostatic analyzers carried by Genesis. The flow regime selection algorithm and subsequent collector deployment on Genesis act autonomously. We present an assessment of composition variations of O, He, and Mg ions observed by ACE/SWICS concurrent with Genesis observations, and compare these to the Genesis algorithm decisions. Not only does this serve as a test of the algorithm, the compilation of composition vs. regime will be important for comparison to the abundances determined from sample analysis at the end of the mission. © 2003 American Institute of PhysicsPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87657/2/632_1.pd

Comparison of the Genesis solar wind regime algorithm results with solar wind composition observed by ACE

Launched on 8 August 2001, the NASA Genesis mission is now collecting samples of the solar wind in various materials, and will return those samples to Earth in 2004 for analysis. A primary science goal of Genesis is the determination of the isotopic and elemental composition of the solar atmosphere from the solar wind material returned. In particular, Genesis will provide measurements of those species that are not provided by solar and in situ observations. We know from in situ measurements that the solar wind exhibits compositional variations across different types of solar wind flows. Therefore, Genesis exposes different collectors to solar wind originating from three flow types: coronal hole, coronal mass ejection (CME), and interstream flows. Flow types are identified using in situ measurements of solar wind protons, alphas, and electrons from electrostatic analyzers carried by Genesis. The flow regime selection algorithm and subsequent collector deployment on Genesis act autonomously. We present an assessment of composition variations of O, He, and Mg ions observed by ACE/SWICS concurrent with Genesis observations, and compare these to the Genesis algorithm decisions. Not only does this serve as a test of the algorithm, the compilation of composition vs. regime will be important for comparison to the abundances determined from sample analysis at the end of the mission

Evidence of water ice near the lunar poles

Lunar Prospector epithermal neutron data were studied to evaluate the probable chemical state of enhanced hydrogen, [H], reported previously to be near both lunar poles [1,2]. Improved versions of thermal and epithermal neutron data were developed for this purpose. Most important is the improved spatial resolution obtained by using shortened integration times. A new data set was created, Epi* = [Epithermal - 0.057 x Thermal], to reduce effects of composition variations other than those due to hydrogen. The Epi* counting rates are generally low near both lunar poles and high over terrane near recent impact events such as Tycho and Jackson. However, other lunar features are also associated with high Epi* rates, which represent a wide range of terrane types that seem to have little in common. If we postulate that one property all bright Epi* features do have in common is low [H], then measured Epi* counting rates appear to be quantitatively self consistent. If we assume that [H]=O above the top 98th percentile of Epi* counting rates at 2{sup o} x 2{sup o} spatial resolution, then [H]{sub ave} = 55 ppm for latitudes equatorward of [75{sup o}]. This value is close to the average found in returned lunar soil samples, [H]{sub ave} {approx} 50 ppm [3]. Using the foregoing physical interpretation of Epi* counting rates, we find that the Epi* counts within most of the large craters poleward of {+-}70{sup o} are higher, and therefore [H] is lower, than that in neighboring inter-crater plains, as shown in Figure 1. Fourteen of these craters that have areas larger than the LP epithermal spatial resolution (55 km diameter at 30 km altitude), were singled out for study. [H] is generally found to increase with decreasing distance from the poles (hence decreasing temperature). However, quantitative estimates of the diffusivity of hydrogen at low temperature show that diffusion can not be an important factor in explaining the difference between the relatively low [H] observed within the large sunlit polar craters and the relatively high [H] in neighboring inter-crater plains. A closer look at the 'inter-crater' plains near the poles, shows that they are covered by many small craters that harbor permanent shade [4]. The temperatures within many of these craters are low enough [5] that they can disable sublimation as a viable loss process of [H{sub 2}O]. It is therefore tempting to postulate that the enhanced hydrogen within most regions of permanent shade is in the form of water molecules. This postulate is certainly viable within the bottoms of several large, permanently shaded craters near the south pole. Predicted temperatures within them [5] fall well below the 100 K temperature that is needed to stabilize water ice for aeons. The picture is different near the north pole. Here, there are relatively few permanently-shaded craters that are large enough to harbor temperatures that are sufficiently low to stabilize water ice indefinitely against sublimation [5]. Instead, the 'inter-crater' polar plains are a jumble of many permanently-shaded craters that have diameters less than 10 km [4]. Although simulations of temperatures within this class of craters show they are only marginally cold enough to indefinitely stabilize water ice [5], this terrane appears to have the highest [H]. Nevertheless, predicted temperatures are close enough to that needed to permanently stabilize [H{sub 2}O] to suggest that sublimation is indeed the process that discriminates between polar terrane that contains enhanced [H] and those that do not (see, e.g., the temperature estimates for doubly-shaded craters [6]). If correct, then an important fraction of the hydrogen near the north pole must be in the form of H{sub 2}O, which then resides within these small craters. Estimates using our improved data set of [H] within craters near the south pole remain unchanged from those derived from our previous analysis [2], [H] = 1700{+-}900 ppm. This translates to [H{sub 2}O]=1.5{+-}0.8%. If all of the enhanced hydrogen in the north is in the form of H{sub 2}O and is confined to the jumble of small permanently-shaded craters identified by radar [4], then we can estimate their water-ice fraction, [H{sub 2}O], using Figure 1a in [2]. We chose two regions near the north pole for this purpose. They each have areas just larger than the surface foot-print of the LP epithermal neutron spectrometer. The first was an inter-crater region nestled between Rozhdestvenskiy and Plaskett, and the second covered the southeast comer of Peary. Using Figure 3 of [4], the first area contains 232 km{sup 2} of measured permanent shade, and the second contains 129 km{sup 2}. Adopting the prescription used in Table 1 of [4] for estimating actual from sampled shaded areas, multiplication of sampled areas by 1.5 yields permanently shaded areas that amount to 350 km{sup 2} in region 1, and 200 km{sup 2} in the southeast comer of Peary

fMR-adaptation indicates selectivity to audiovisual content congruency in distributed clusters in human superior temporal cortex

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Efficient multisensory integration is of vital importance for adequate interaction with the environment. In addition to basic binding cues like temporal and spatial coherence, meaningful multisensory information is also bound together by content-based associations. Many functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies propose the (posterior) superior temporal cortex (STC) as the key structure for integrating meaningful multisensory information. However, a still unanswered question is how superior temporal cortex encodes content-based associations, especially in light of inconsistent results from studies comparing brain activation to semantically matching (congruent) versus nonmatching (incongruent) multisensory inputs. Here, we used fMR-adaptation (fMR-A) in order to circumvent potential problems with standard fMRI approaches, including spatial averaging and amplitude saturation confounds. We presented repetitions of audiovisual stimuli (letter-speech sound pairs) and manipulated the associative relation between the auditory and visual inputs (congruent/incongruent pairs). We predicted that if multisensory neuronal populations exist in STC and encode audiovisual content relatedness, adaptation should be affected by the manipulated audiovisual relation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results revealed an occipital-temporal network that adapted independently of the audiovisual relation. Interestingly, several smaller clusters distributed over superior temporal cortex within that network, adapted stronger to congruent than to incongruent audiovisual repetitions, indicating sensitivity to content congruency.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggest that the revealed clusters contain multisensory neuronal populations that encode content relatedness by selectively responding to congruent audiovisual inputs, since unisensory neuronal populations are assumed to be insensitive to the audiovisual relation. These findings extend our previously revealed mechanism for the integration of letters and speech sounds and demonstrate that fMR-A is sensitive to multisensory congruency effects that may not be revealed in BOLD amplitude per se.</p

Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Acute illness, existing co-morbidities and surgical stress response can all contribute to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was prospectively to develop a pragmatic prognostic model to stratify patients according to risk of developing AKI after major gastrointestinal surgery. Methods: This prospective multicentre cohort study included consecutive adults undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection, liver resection or stoma reversal in 2-week blocks over a continuous 3-month period. The primary outcome was the rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery. Bootstrap stability was used to select clinically plausible risk factors into the model. Internal model validation was carried out by bootstrap validation. Results: A total of 4544 patients were included across 173 centres in the UK and Ireland. The overall rate of AKI was 14·2 per cent (646 of 4544) and the 30-day mortality rate was 1·8 per cent (84 of 4544). Stage 1 AKI was significantly associated with 30-day mortality (unadjusted odds ratio 7·61, 95 per cent c.i. 4·49 to 12·90; P < 0·001), with increasing odds of death with each AKI stage. Six variables were selected for inclusion in the prognostic model: age, sex, ASA grade, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, planned open surgery and preoperative use of either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Internal validation demonstrated good model discrimination (c-statistic 0·65). Discussion: Following major gastrointestinal surgery, AKI occurred in one in seven patients. This preoperative prognostic model identified patients at high risk of postoperative AKI. Validation in an independent data set is required to ensure generalizability

In-person versus virtual administration of the ACR gold standard cognitive battery in SLE: are they interchangeable?

ObjectiveDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, many research studies were adapted, including our longitudinal study examining cognitive impairment (CI) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Cognitive testing was switched from in-person to virtual. This analysis aimed to determine if the administration method (in-person vs. virtual) of the ACR-neuropsychological battery (ACR-NB) affected participant cognitive performance and classification.MethodsData from our multi-visit, SLE CI study included demographic, clinical, and psychiatric characteristics, and the modified ACR-NB. Three analyses were undertaken for cognitive performance: (1) all visits, (2) non-CI group visits only and (3) intra-individual comparisons. A retrospective preferences questionnaire was given to participants who completed the ACR-NB both in-person and virtually.ResultsWe analysed 328 SLE participants who had 801 visits (696 in-person and 105 virtual). Demographic, clinical, and psychiatric characteristics were comparable except for ethnicity, anxiety and disease-related damage. Across all three comparisons, six tests were consistently statistically significantly different. CI classification changed in 11/71 (15%) participants. 45% of participants preferred the virtual administration method and 33% preferred in-person.ConclusionsOf the 19 tests in the ACR-NB, we identified one or more problems with eight (42%) tests when moving from in-person to virtual administration. As the use of virtual cognitive testing will likely increase, these issues need to be addressed - potentially by validating a virtual version of the ACR-NB. Until then, caution must be taken when directly comparing virtual to in-person test results. If future studies use a mixed administration approach, this should be accounted for during analysis

In-person versus virtual administration of the American College of Rheumatology gold standard cognitive battery in systemic lupus erythematosus: Are they interchangeable?

ObjectiveDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, many research studies were adapted, including our longitudinal study examining cognitive impairment (CI) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Cognitive testing was switched from in-person to virtual. This analysis aimed to determine if the administration method (in-person vs. virtual) of the ACR-neuropsychological battery (ACR-NB) affected participant cognitive performance and classification.MethodsData from our multi-visit, SLE CI study included demographic, clinical, and psychiatric characteristics, and the modified ACR-NB. Three analyses were undertaken for cognitive performance: (1) all visits, (2) non-CI group visits only and (3) intra-individual comparisons. A retrospective preferences questionnaire was given to participants who completed the ACR-NB both in-person and virtually.ResultsWe analysed 328 SLE participants who had 801 visits (696 in-person and 105 virtual). Demographic, clinical, and psychiatric characteristics were comparable except for ethnicity, anxiety and disease-related damage. Across all three comparisons, six tests were consistently statistically significantly different. CI classification changed in 11/71 (15%) participants. 45% of participants preferred the virtual administration method and 33% preferred in-person.ConclusionsOf the 19 tests in the ACR-NB, we identified one or more problems with eight (42%) tests when moving from in-person to virtual administration. As the use of virtual cognitive testing will likely increase, these issues need to be addressed - potentially by validating a virtual version of the ACR-NB. Until then, caution must be taken when directly comparing virtual to in-person test results. If future studies use a mixed administration approach, this should be accounted for during analysis

Do Cross-Modal Projections Always Result in Multisensory Integration?

Convergence of afferents from different sensory modalities has generally been thought to produce bimodal (and trimodal) neurons (i.e., exhibit suprathreshold excitation to more than 1 sensory modality). Consequently, studies identifying cross-modal connections assume that such convergence results in bimodal (or trimodal) neurons that produce familiar forms of multisensory integration: response enhancement or depression. The present study questioned that assumption by anatomically identifying a projection from ferret auditory to visual cortex Area 21. However, electrophysiological recording within Area 21 not only failed to identify a single bimodal neuron but also familiar forms of multisensory integration were not observed either. Instead, a small proportion of neurons (9%; 27/296) showed subthreshold multisensory integration, in which visual responses were significantly modulated by auditory inputs. Such subthreshold multisensory effects were enhanced by γ-aminobutyric acid antagonism, whereby a majority of neurons (87%; 20/23) now participated in a significant, multisensory population effect. Thus, multisensory convergence does not de facto result in bimodal (or trimodal) neurons or the traditional forms of multisensory integration. However, the fact that unimodal neurons exhibited a subthreshold form of multisensory integration not only affirms the relationship between convergence and integration but also expands our understanding of the functional repertoire of multisensory processing itself