18,794 research outputs found
Sex differences in eye gaze and symbolic cueing of attention
Observing a face with averted eyes results in a reflexive shift of attention to the gazed-at location. Here we present results that show that this effect is weaker in males than in females (Experiment 1). This result is predicted by the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism (Baron-Cohen, 2003), which suggests that males in the normal population should display more autism-like traits than females (e.g., poor joint attention). Indeed, participants′ scores on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Stott, Bolton, & Goodyear, 2001) negatively correlated with cueing magnitude. Furthermore, exogenous orienting did not differ between the sexes in two peripheral cueing experiments (Experiments 2a and 2b). However, a final experiment showed that using non-predictive arrows instead of eyes as a central cue also revealed a large gender difference. This demonstrates that reduced orienting from central cues in males generalizes beyond gaze cues. These results show that while peripheral cueing is equivalent in the male and female brains, the attention systems of the two sexes treat noninformative symbolic cues very differently
Spectral Consequences of Deviation from Spherical Composition Symmetry in Type Ia Supernovae
We investigate the prospects for constraining the maximum scale of clumping
in composition that is consistent with observed Type Ia supernova flux spectra.
Synthetic spectra generated without purely spherical composition symmetry
indicate that gross asymmetries make prominent changes to absorption features.
Motivated by this, we consider the case of a single unblended line forming in
an atmosphere with perturbations of different scales and spatial distributions.
Perturbations of about 1% of the area of the photodisk simply weaken the
absorption feature by the same amount independent of the line of sight.
Conversely, perturbations of about 10% of the area of the photodisk introduce
variation in the absorption depth which does depend on the line of sight. Thus,
1% photodisk area perturbations may be consistent with observed profile
homogeneity but 10% photodisk area perturbations can not. Based on this, we
suggest that the absence of significant variation in the depths of Si II 6355
absorption features in normal Type Ia spectra near maximum light indicates that
any composition perturbations in these events are quite small. This also
constrains future three-dimensional explosion models to produce ejecta profiles
with only small scale inhomogeneities.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
High frequency dynamics in a monatomic glass
The high frequency dynamics of glassy Selenium has been studied by Inelastic
X-ray Scattering at beamline BL35XU (SPring-8). The high quality of the data
allows one to pinpoint the existence of a dispersing acoustic mode for
wavevectors () of nm, helping to clarify a previous
contradiction between experimental and numerical results. The sound velocity
shows a positive dispersion, exceeding the hydrodynamic value by 10%
at nm. The dependence of the sound attenuation
, reported for other glasses, is found to be the low- limit of a
more general law which applies also to the
higher region, where no longer holds.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. (Accepted
Colloidal stability of tannins: astringency, wine tasting and beyond
Tannin-tannin and tannin-protein interactions in water-ethanol solvent
mixtures are studied in the context of red wine tasting. While tannin
self-aggregation is relevant for visual aspect of wine tasting (limpidity and
related colloidal phenomena), tannin affinities for salivary proline-rich
proteins is fundamental for a wide spectrum of organoleptic properties related
to astringency. Tannin-tannin interactions are analyzed in water-ethanol
wine-like solvents and the precipitation map is constructed for a typical grape
tannin. The interaction between tannins and human salivary proline-rich
proteins (PRP) are investigated in the framework of the shell model for
micellization, known for describing tannin-induced aggregation of beta-casein.
Tannin-assisted micellization and compaction of proteins observed by SAXS are
described quantitatively and discussed in the case of astringency
Implementing the GBT Data Transmission Protocol in FPGAs
International audienceThe GBT chip is a radiation tolerant ASIC that can be used to implement bidirectional multipurpose 4.8 Gb/s optical links for high-energy physics experiments. It will be proposed to the LHC experiments for combined transmission of physics data, trigger, timing, fast and slow control and monitoring. Although radiation hardness is required on detectors, it is not necessary for the electronics located in the counting rooms. Therefore, a study is being made to implement these GBT links on FPGAs. This paper will describe the GBT protocol implementation, the configuration of the transceivers on Altera Stratix II GX and Xilinx Virtex 4, the optimization of resource for multi-transceivers, the first data transmission tests and the source code availabilit
Do adults with high functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome differ in empathy and emotion recognition?
The present study examined whether adults with high functioning autism (HFA) showed greater difficulties in (i) their self-reported ability to empathise with others and/or (ii) their ability to read mental states in others’ eyes than adults with Asperger syndrome (AS). The Empathy Quotient (EQ) and ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ Test (Eyes Test) were compared in 43 adults with AS and 43 adults with HFA. No significant difference was observed on EQ score between groups, while adults with AS performed significantly better on the Eyes Test than those with HFA. This suggests that adults with HFA may need more support, particularly in mentalizing and complex emotion recognition, and raises questions about the existence of subgroups within autism spectrum conditions
Near-infrared line identification in type Ia supernovae during the transitional phase
We present near-infrared synthetic spectra of a delayed-detonation
hydrodynamical model and compare them to observed spectra of four normal type
Ia supernovae ranging from day +56.5 to day +85. This is the epoch during which
supernovae are believed to be undergoing the transition from the photospheric
phase, where spectra are characterized by line scattering above an optically
thick photosphere, to the nebular phase, where spectra consist of optically
thin emission from forbidden lines. We find that most spectral features in the
near-infrared can be accounted for by permitted lines of Fe II and Co II. In
addition, we find that [Ni II] fits the emission feature near 1.98 {\mu}m,
suggesting that a substantial mass of 58Ni exists near the center of the ejecta
in these objects, arising from nuclear burning at high density. A tentative
identification of Mn II at 1.15 {\mu}m may support this conclusion as well.Comment: accepted to Ap
Brief Report: The Go/No-Go Task Online: Inhibitory Control Deficits in Autism in a Large Sample.
Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC, also referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorders) entail difficulties with inhibition: inhibiting action, inhibiting one's own point of view, and inhibiting distractions that may interfere with a response set. However, the association between inhibitory control (IC) and ASC, especially in adulthood, is unclear. The current study measured IC, using the Go/No-Go task online, in a large adult sample of 201 people with ASC and 240 controls. Number of both False Alarm and False Positive responses were significantly associated with autistic traits and diagnostic status, separately, but not jointly. These findings suggest that deficits in inhibition are associated with ASC. Future studies need to investigate the role of inhibition in ASC in everyday difficulties.This research was supported by the Autism Research Trust, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and EU-AIMS. FU was supported by the British Friends of Haifa University, the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 449/14), the British Friends of Hebrew University, and the Joseph Levy Charitable Foundatio
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