608 research outputs found
Strategic allocation of attention reduces temporally predictable stimulus conflict
Humans are able to continuously monitor environmental situations and adjust their behavioral strategies to optimize performance. Here we investigate the behavioral and brain adjustments that occur when conflicting stimulus elements are, or are not, temporally predictable. ERPs were collected while manual response variants of the Stroop task were performed in which the SOAs between the relevant color and irrelevant word stimulus components were either randomly intermixed or held constant within each experimental run. Results indicated that the size of both the neural and behavioral effects of stimulus incongruency varied with the temporal arrangement of the stimulus components, such that the random-SOA arrangements produced the greatest incongruency effects at the earliest irrelevant first SOA (-200 msec) and the constant-SOA arrangements produced the greatest effects with simultaneous presentation. These differences in conflict processing were accompanied by rapid (âŒ150 msec) modulations of the sensory ERPs to the irrelevant distractor components when they occurred consistently first. These effects suggest that individuals are able to strategically allocate attention in time to mitigate the influence of a temporally predictable distractor. As these adjustments are instantiated by the participants without instruction, they reveal a form of rapid strategic learning for dealing with temporally predictable stimulus incongruency
ASK Magazine; No. 21
THIS ISSUE FEATURES A VISUAL DEPICTION OF THE ACADEMY of Program and Project Leadership (APPL). I imagine a variety of initial reactions to the drawing. One might be, "What is a cartoon doing in a magazine about project management?" Or perhaps, "Wow, nice colors-and fun." Another may be to closely search the image for signs, symbols and meaning. Still another, to read a new level of innovation and creativity into the picture. Undoubtedly, some readers will raise questions about the cost. Of course, any reaction is a sign of engagement. The stronger, the more energized the emotional and cognitive processing, the better. It is a sign of attention and interaction. For I've heard it said, "You only need to worry if they don t care one way or the other." So what is the point of the picture? To stimulate interest, raise questions, promote discussion, and maybe raise a smile.. .That, at least, was my initial reaction when I was introduced to the work of Nancy Hegedus, who helps to create these drawings for Root Learning Inc. At the NASA PM Conference, I was first shown the work Nancy had been doing with the help of Goddard s Knowledge Management Architect, Dr. Ed Rogers. I was immediately drawn into the power of visualization as a tool for more effective learning, communicating, and conveying complex knowledge concepts. We need new tools in today s world, where information and data overwhelms by sheer volume. There are articles, pamphlets, communications, and white papers-all aiming to convince and influence. Reactions to these tend to be either avoidance or mind-numbing, heavy-eyed consent; the message never registers or enters the soul. That s one of the reasons that APPL s Knowledge Sharing Initiative (KSI) has turned to storytelling as a memorable way of transfer- ring knowledge, inspiring imitation of best practices, and spurring reflection. ASK Magazine s recent fourth birthday marks an important milestone in APPL s continuing quest to provide ongoing support to project managers and to promote mission success. And similar to storytelling, the power of visualization is receiving increasing attention in recent years as a way to stimulate engagement. Pictures and visual graphs are viewed as one of the most effective ways for displaying, describing, and generating discussion about quantitative and technically complex information. Prototypes, models, and simulations are considered essential for stimulating innovation through open and engaging discussions. There has also been extensive writing on the use of visual graphics, pictures, and cartoons to facilitate memory, creativity, openness, attention-and even well-being. For many of these reasons, I am excited to have a colorful visual depiction of the APPL world included in ASK. Without the addition of text or slides, the intent is to invite people into the world of the APPL mission-as well as its products, services, customers, and partners- in a fun and engaging manner. As project leaders strive to find ways to encourage engagement, learning, and transmission of knowledge, traditional technologies are proving to be as valuable as modern technologies. (But for those who want more information in the form of texts and slide presentations, we certainly have an abundance of those as well.
The Iowa Homemaker vol.39A, no.3
Halloween-Time for Fanciful Goodies, Rachel Davis, page 5
Checkerboard Summer, Jane Gibson, page 6
Imagination + Independence Encouraged By Honors Program, Carol Shellenbarger, page 8
Honoraries Stress Scholarship, Diane Houser, page 9
Have You Lost Your Marbles?, Carol Armstrong Wolf, page 10
Add a Jibber to Your Wardrobe, Marty Keeney, page 12
Dishpan Hands Soon Obsolete, Beth Beecher, page 13
Key to Personality â Your Walk, Suzanne Guernsey, page 14
How Do You Rate With Your Professor?, Mary Stoner, page 15
Whatâs Going On, page 1
Dabrafenib for Treating Unresectable, Advanced or Metastatic BRAF V600 Mutation-Positive Melanoma: An Evidence Review Group Perspective
XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of three X-ray faint early-type galaxies
We present XMM-Newton observations of three X-ray under-luminous elliptical
galaxies, NGC 3585, NGC 4494 and NGC 5322. All three galaxies have relatively
large optical luminosities (log LB=10.35-10.67 solar) but have X-ray
luminosities consistent with emission from discrete sources only. In
conjunction with a Chandra observation of NGC 3585, we analyse the XMM data and
show that the three galaxies are dominated by discrete source emission, but do
possess some X-ray emitting gas. The gas is at relatively low temperatures,
kT=0.25-0.44 keV. All three galaxies show evidence of recent dynamical
disturbance and formation through mergers, including kinematically distinct
cores, young stellar ages, and embedded stellar disks. This leads us to
conclude that the galaxies formed relatively recently and have yet to build up
large X-ray halos. They are likely to be in a developmental phase where the
X-ray gas has a very low density, making it undetectable outside the galaxy
core. However, if the gas is a product of stellar mass loss, as seems most
probable, we would expect to observe supersolar metal abundances. While
abundance is not well constrained by the data, we find best fit abundances <0.1
solar for single-temperature models, and it seems unlikely that we could
underestimate the metallicity by such a large factor.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 12 pages, 8 postscript figure
A Serendipitous XMM Survey of the SDSS: the evolution of the colour-magnitude diagram of X-ray AGN from z=0.8 to z=0.1
A new serendipitous XMM survey in the area of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey is
described (XMM/SDSS), which includes features such as the merging of
overlapping fields to increase the sensitivity to faint sources, the use of a
new parametrisation of the XMM point spread function for the source detection
and photometry, the accurate estimation of the survey sensitivity. About 40,000
X-ray point sources are detected over a total area of 122deg2. A subsample of
209 sources detected in the 2-8keV spectral band with SDSS spectroscopic
redshifts in the range 0.03<z<0.2, optical magnitudes r<17.77mag and
logLx(2-10keV)>41.5 (erg/s) are selected to explore their distribution on the
colour magnitude diagram. This is compared with the colour-magnitude diagram of
X-ray AGN in the AEGIS field at z~0.8. We find no evidence for evolution of the
rest-frame colours of X-ray AGN hosts from z=0.8 to z=0.1. This suggests that
the dominant accretion mode of the AGN population, which is expected to imprint
on the properties of their host galaxies, does not change since z=0.8. This
argues against scenarios which attribute the rapid decline of the accretion
power of the Universe with time (1dex since z=0.8) to changes in the AGN
fueling/triggering mode.Comment: To appear in MNRAS. Data available at
http://www.astro.noa.gr/~age/xmmsdss.htm
Making the Earth: Combining Dynamics and Chemistry in the Solar System
No terrestrial planet formation simulation completed to date has considered
the detailed chemical composition of the planets produced. While many have
considered possible water contents and late veneer compositions, none have
examined the bulk elemental abundances of the planets produced as an important
check of formation models. Here we report on the first study of this type. Bulk
elemental abundances based on disk equilibrium studies have been determined for
the simulated terrestrial planets of O'Brien et al. (2006). These abundances
are in excellent agreement with observed planetary values, indicating that the
models of O'Brien et al. (2006) are successfully producing planets comparable
to those of the Solar System in terms of both their dynamical and chemical
properties. Significant amounts of water are accreted in the present
simulations, implying that the terrestrial planets form "wet" and do not need
significant water delivery from other sources. Under the assumption of
equilibrium controlled chemistry, the biogenic species N and C still need to be
delivered to the Earth as they are not accreted in significant proportions
during the formation process. Negligible solar photospheric pollution is
produced by the planetary formation process. Assuming similar levels of
pollution in other planetary systems, this in turn implies that the high
metallicity trend observed in extrasolar planetary systems is in fact
primordial.Comment: 61 pages (including online material), 12 figures (7 in paper, 5
online). Accepted to Icaru
Modified field enhancement in plasmonic nanowire dimers due to nonlocal response
We study the effect of nonlocal optical response on the optical properties of
metallic nanowires, by numerically implementing the hydrodynamical Drude model
for arbitrary nanowire geometries. We first demonstrate the accuracy of our
frequency-domain finite-element implementation by benchmarking it in a wide
frequency range against analytical results for the extinction cross section of
a cylindrical plasmonic nanowire. Our main results concern more complex
geometries, namely cylindrical and bow-tie nanowire dimers that can strongly
enhance optical fields. For both types of dimers we find that nonlocal response
can strongly affect both the field enhancement in between the dimers and their
respective extinction cross sections. In particular, we give examples of
maximal field enhancements near hybridized plasmonic dimer resonances that are
still large but nearly two times smaller than in the usual local-response
description. At the same time, for a fixed frequency the field enhancement and
cross section can also be significantly more enhanced in the nonlocal-response
model.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
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