Limited metacognitive access to one’s own facial expressions

As humans we communicate important information through fine nuances in our facial expressions, but because conscious motor representations are noisy, we might not be able to report these fine but meaningful movements. Here we measured how much explicit metacognitive information young adults have about their own facial expressions. Participants imitated pictures of themselves making facial expressions and triggered a camera to take a picture of them while doing so. They then rated confidence (how well they thought they imitated each expression). We defined metacognitive access to facial expressions as the relationship between objective performance (how well the two pictures matched) and subjective confidence ratings. Metacognitive access to facial expressions was very poor when we considered all face features indiscriminately. Instead, machine learning analyses revealed that participants rated confidence based on idiosyncratic subsets of features. We conclude that metacognitive access to own facial expressions is partial, and surprisingly limited

Collateral and Debt Maturity Choice. A Signaling Model

This paper derives optimal loan policies under asymmetric information where banks offer loan contracts of long and short duration, backed or unbacked with collateral. The main novelty of the paper is that it analyzes a setting in which high quality firms use collateral as a complementary device along with debt maturity to signal their superiority. The least-cost signaling equilibrium depends on the relative costs of the signaling devices, the difference in firm quality and the proportion of good firms in the market. Model simulations suggest a non-monotonic relationship between firm quality and debt maturity, in which high quality firms have both long-term secured debt and short-term secured or non-secured debt.

Sampling Local Fungal Diversity in an Undergraduate Laboratory using DNA Barcoding

Traditional methods for fungal species identification require diagnostic morphological characters and are often limited by the availability of fresh fruiting bodies and local identification resources. DNA barcoding offers an additional method of species identification and is rapidly developing as a critical tool in fungal taxonomy. As an exercise in an undergraduate biology course, we identified 9 specimens collected from the Hendrix College campus in Conway, Arkansas, USA to the genus or species level using morphology. We report that DNA barcoding targeting the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region supported several of our taxonomic determinations and we were able to contribute 5 ITS sequences to GenBank that were supported by vouchered collection information. We suggest that small-scale barcoding projects are possible and that they have value for documenting fungal diversity

Improving the Health Benefits of Snap Bean: Genome-Wide Association Studies of Total Phenolic Content

Snap beans are a significant source of micronutrients in the human diet. Among the micronutrients present in snap beans are phenolic compounds with known beneficial effects on human health, potentially via their metabolism by the gut-associated microbiome. The genetic pathways leading to the production of phenolics in snap bean pods remain uncertain. In this study, we quantified the level of total phenolic content (TPC) in the Bean Coordinated Agriculture Program (CAP) snap bean diversity panel of 149 accessions. The panel was characterized spectrophotometrically for phenolic content with a Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric assay. Flower, seed and pod color were also quantified, as red, purple, yellow and brown colors are associated with anthocyanins and flavonols in common bean. Genotyping was performed through an Illumina Infinium Genechip BARCBEAN6K_3 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) analysis identified 11 quantitative trait nucleotides (QTN) associated with TPC. An SNP was identified for TPC on Pv07 located near the P gene, which is a major switch in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway. Candidate genes were identified for seven of the 11 TPC QTN. Five regulatory genes were identified and represent novel sources of variation for exploitation in developing snap beans with higher phenolic levels for greater health benefits to the consumer

Altering Pace Control and Pace Regulation: Attentional Focus Effects during Running

Purpose: To date there are no published studies directly comparing self-controlled and externally-controlled pace endurance tasks. However, previous research suggests pace control may impact on cognitive strategy use and effort perceptions. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effects of manipulating perception of pace control on attentional focus, physiological, and psychological outcomes during running. A secondary aim was to determine the reproducibility of self-paced running performance when regulated by effort perceptions. Methods: Twenty experienced endurance runners completed four 3 km time-trials on a treadmill. Subjects completed two self-controlled pace (SC), one perceived exertion clamped (PE), and one externally-controlled pace (EC) time-trial. PE and EC were completed in a counterbalanced order. Pacing strategy for EC and perceived exertion instructions for PE replicated subjects' fastest SC time-trial. Results: Subjects reported a greater focus on cognitive strategies such as relaxing and optimizing running action during EC than SC. Mean heart rate was 2% lower during EC than SC despite an identical pacing strategy. Perceived exertion did not differ between the three conditions. However, increased internal sensory monitoring coincided with elevated effort perceptions in some subjects during EC, and a 10% slower completion time for PE (13.0 ± 1.6 min) than SC (11.8 ± 1.2 min). Conclusion: Altering pace control and pace regulation impacted on attentional focus. External control over pacing may facilitate performance, particularly when runners engage attentional strategies conducive to improved running efficiency. However, regulating pace based on effort perceptions alone may result in excessive monitoring of bodily sensations and a slower running speed. Accordingly, attentional focus interventions may prove beneficial for some athletes to adopt task-appropriate attentional strategies to optimize performance

An examination of the relationship of governance structure and performance: Evidence from banking companies in Bangladesh

Corporate governance has become increasingly important in developed and developing countries just after a series of corporate scandals and failures in a number of countries. Corporate governance structure is often viewed as a means of corporate success despite prior studies reveal mixed, somewhere conflicting and ambiguous, and somewhere no relationship between governance structure and performance. This study empirically investigates the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and financial performance of listed banking companies in Bangladesh by using two multiple regression models. The study reveals that a good number of companies do not comply with the regulatory requirements indicating remarkable shortfall in corporate governance practice. The companies are run by the professional managers having no duality and no ownership interest for which they are compensated by high remuneration to curb agency conflict. Apart from some inconsistent relationship between some corporate variables, the corporate governance mechanisms do not appear to have significant relationship with financial performances. The findings reveal an insignificant negative impact or somewhere no impact of independent directors and non-independent non-executive directors on the level of performance that strongly support the concept that the managers are essentially worthy of trust and earn returns for the owners as claimed by stewardship theory. The study provides support for the view that while much emphasis on corporate governance mechanisms is necessary to safeguard the interest of stakeholders; corporate governance on its own, as a set of codes or standards for corporate conformance, cannot make a company successful. Companies need to balance corporate governance mechanisms with performance by adopting strategic decision and risk management with the efficient utilization of the organization’s resources

Innovative Manufacturing Process for Defect Free, Affordable, High Pressure, Thin Walled, Hydraulic Tubing

Various thermo-mechanical processes were performed on a standard and a low oxygen content Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Testing was performed to determine whether it was possible to achieve a combination of tensile properties comparable to those of Ti-3Al-2.5V by means of cold working and annealing Ti-6Al-4V from a thickness of 0.671 cm (0.264 in.) to that between 0.081 and 0.094 cm (0.032-0.037 in.), which had never been carried out before. The resulting mechanical properties of this study were compared to the mechanical properties of Ti-3Al-2.5V to determine whether Ti-6Al-4V could be used as a suitable replacement for hydraulic tubing applications. The optimum results were achieved with 10-15% cold work and annealing at 750 A degrees C (1382 A degrees F) for 2 h between cold work reductions in thickness. It was concluded that Ti-6Al-4V was a suitable replacement for Ti-3Al-2.5V for hydraulic tubing with an increase in ultimate and yield strengths, but with a slight sacrifice of 5-10% elongation

Leading particle effect, inelasticity and the connection between average multiplicities in {\bf e+e−e^+e^-} and {\bf pppp} processes

The Regge-Mueller formalism is used to describe the inclusive spectrum of the proton in $p p$ collisions. From such a description the energy dependences of both average inelasticity and leading proton multiplicity are calculated. These quantities are then used to establish the connection between the average charged particle multiplicities measured in {\bf $e^+e^-$} and {\bf $pp/{\bar p}p$} processes. The description obtained for the leading proton cross section implies that Feynman scaling is strongly violated only at the extreme values of $x_F$, that is at the central region ($x_F \approx 0$) and at the diffraction region ($x_F \approx 1$), while it is approximately observed in the intermediate region of the spectrum.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, to be published in Physical Review