The effect of the Müller-Lyer illusion on saccades is modulated by spatial predictability and saccadic latency

Studies investigating the effect of visual illusions on saccadic eye movements have provided a wide variety of results. In this study, we test three factors that might explain this variability: the spatial predictability of the stimulus, the duration of the stimulus and the latency of the saccades. Participants made a saccade from one end of a Müller-Lyer figure to the other end. By changing the spatial predictability of the stimulus, we find that the illusion has a clear effect on saccades (16%) when the stimulus is at a highly predictable location. Even stronger effects of the illusion are found when the stimulus location becomes more unpredictable (19–23%). Conversely, manipulating the duration of the stimulus fails to reveal a clear difference in illusion effect. Finally, by computing the illusion effect for different saccadic latencies, we find a maximum illusion effect (about 30%) for very short latencies, which decreases by 7% with every 100 ms latency increase. We conclude that spatial predictability of the stimulus and saccadic latency influences the effect of the Müller-Lyer illusion on saccades

Influence of the borohydride concentration on the composition of the amorphous Fe-B alloy produced by chemical reduction of synthetic, nano-sized iron-oxide particles Part I: Hematite

A

Atyidae and Palaemonidae (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea) of Bocas del Toro, Panama.

The present contribution is a preliminary report on the freshwater caridean fauna of Bocas del Toro province, northeastern Panama, based on field collections carried out during a Shrimp Taxonomy Workshop at the STRI station in Bocas del Toro in August 2008. A total of eight species from two families, Atyidae and Palaemonidae, were collected at 17 different collection sites in the rivers, streams and ponds on several islands of the Bocas del Toro archipelago and the adjacent mainland. The species reported herein are Atya scabra (Leach, 1815), Jonga serrei (Bouvier, 1909), Micratya poeyi (Guérin-Méneville, 1855), Potimirim glabra (Kingsley, 1878), P. potimirim (Müller, 1881) (Atyidae), Palaemon pandaliformis (Stimpson, 1871), Macrobrachium acanthurus (Wiegmann, 1836) and M. crenulatum Holthuis, 1950 (Palaemonidae). The record of J. serrei is the first for Panama, and M. poeyi a P. glabra the first for Bocas del Toro province

The spin temperature of high-redshift damped Lyman-α\alpha systems

We report results from a programme aimed at investigating the temperature of neutral gas in high-redshift damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs). This involved (1) HI 21cm absorption studies of a large DLA sample, (2) VLBI studies to measure the low-frequency quasar core fractions, and (3) optical/ultraviolet spectroscopy to determine DLA metallicities and velocity widths. Including literature data, our sample consists of 37 DLAs with estimates of the spin temperature $T_s$ and the covering factor. We find a strong $4\sigma$) difference between the $T_s$ distributions in high-z (z>2.4) and low-z (z<2.4) DLA samples. The high-z sample contains more systems with high $T_s$ values, $\gtrsim 1000$ K. The $T_s$ distributions in DLAs and the Galaxy are also clearly (~$6\sigma$) different, with more high-$T_s$ sightlines in DLAs than in the Milky Way. The high $T_s$ values in the high-z DLAs of our sample arise due to low fractions of the cold neutral medium. For 29 DLAs with metallicity [Z/H] estimates, we confirm the presence of an anti-correlation between $T_s$ and [Z/H], at $3.5\sigma$ significance via a non-parametric Kendall-tau test. This result was obtained with the assumption that the DLA covering factor is equal to the core fraction. Monte Carlo simulations show that the significance of the result is only marginally decreased if the covering factor and the core fraction are uncorrelated, or if there is a random error in the inferred covering factor. We also find evidence for redshift evolution in DLA $T_s$ values even for the z>1 sub-sample. Since z>1 DLAs have angular diameter distances comparable to or larger than those of the background quasars, they have similar efficiency in covering the quasars. Low covering factors in high-z DLAs thus cannot account for the observed redshift evolution in spin temperatures. (Abstract abridged.)Comment: 37 pages, 22 figures. Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

A Comprehensive Overview of Medical Error in Hospitals Using Incident-Reporting Systems, Patient Complaints and Chart Review of Inpatient Deaths

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Incident reporting systems (IRS) are used to identify medical errors in order to learn from mistakes and improve patient safety in hospitals. However, IRS contain only a small fraction of occurring incidents. A more comprehensive overview of medical error in hospitals may be obtained by combining information from multiple sources. The WHO has developed the International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS) in order to enable comparison of incident reports from different sources and institutions.</p> <h3>Methods</h3><p>The aim of this paper was to provide a more comprehensive overview of medical error in hospitals using a combination of different information sources. Incident reports collected from IRS, patient complaints and retrospective chart review in an academic acute care hospital were classified using the ICPS. The main outcome measures were distribution of incidents over the thirteen categories of the ICPS classifier “Incident type”, described as odds ratios (OR) and proportional similarity indices (PSI).</p> <h3>Results</h3><p>A total of 1012 incidents resulted in 1282 classified items. Large differences between data from IRS and patient complaints (PSI = 0.32) and from IRS and retrospective chart review (PSI = 0.31) were mainly attributable to behaviour (OR = 6.08), clinical administration (OR = 5.14), clinical process (OR = 6.73) and resources (OR = 2.06).</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3><p>IRS do not capture all incidents in hospitals and should be combined with complementary information about diagnostic error and delayed treatment from patient complaints and retrospective chart review. Since incidents that are not recorded in IRS do not lead to remedial and preventive action in response to IRS reports, healthcare centres that have access to different incident detection methods should harness information from all sources to improve patient safety.</p> </div

Adakite-like granitoids of Songkultau: A relic of juvenile Cambrian arc in Kyrgyz Tien Shan

The early Paleozoic Terskey Suture zone, located in the southern part of the Northern Tien Shan domain in Kyrgyzstan, comprises tectonic slivers of dismembered ophiolites and associated primitive volcanics and deep-marine sediments. In the Lake Songkul area, early-middle Cambrian pillow basalts are crosscut by the Songkultau intrusion of coarse-grained gneissose quartz diorites and tonalites with geochemical characteristics typical for high-SiO2 adakites (SiO2 ​> ​56 ​wt.%, Al2O3 ​> ​15 ​wt.%, Na2O ​> ​3.5 ​wt.% and high Sr/Y and La/Yb ratios). The Songkultau granitoids have positive initial εNd (+3.8 to +6.4) and εHf (+12.3 to +13.5) values indicating derivation from sources with MORB-like isotopic signature. Volcanic formations, surrounding the Songkultau intrusion, have geochemical affinities varying from ocean floor to island arc series. This rock assemblage is interpreted as a relic of an early-middle Cambrian primitive arc where the adakite-like granitoids were derived from partial melting of young and hot subducted oceanic crust. An age of 505 ​Ma, obtained for the Songkultau intrusion, shows that hot subduction under the Northern Tien Shan continued until middle Cambrian. The primitive arc complexes were obducted onto the Northern Tien Shan domain, where the Andean type continental magmatic arc developed in Cambrian and Ordovician. Formation of the Andean type arc was accompanied by uplift, erosion and deposition of coarse clastic sediments. A depositional age of ca. 470 Ma, obtained for the gravellites in the Lake Songkul area, is in agreement with the timing of deposition for lower Ordovician conglomerates elsewhere in the Northern Tien Shan, and corresponds to the main phase of the Andean type magmatism. The Songkultau adakites in association with surrounding ocean floor and island arc formations constitute a relic of a primitive Cambrian arc and represent a juvenile domain of substantial size identified so far within the predominantly crustal-derived terranes of Tien Shan. On a regional scale this primitive arc can be compared with juvenile Cambrian arcs of Kazakhstan, Gorny Altai and Mongolia.©2020 China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and Peking University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Site-selective mapping of metastable states using electron-beam induced luminescence microscopy

Metastable states created by electron or hole capture in crystal defects are widely used in dosimetry and photonic applications. Feldspar, the most abundant mineral in the Earth crust (>50%), generates metastable states with lifetimes of millions of years upon exposure to ionizing radiation. Although feldspar is widely used in dosimetry and geochronometry, the creation of metastable states and charge transfer across them is poorly understood. Understanding such phenomena requires next-generation methods based on high-resolution, site-selective probing of the metastable states. Recent studies using site-selective techniques such as photoluminescence (PL), and radioluminescence (RL) at 7 K have revealed that feldspar exhibits two near-infrared (NIR) emission bands peaking at 880 nm and 955 nm, which are believed to arise from the principal electron-trapping states. Here, we map for the first time the electron-trapping states in potassium-rich feldspar using spectrally-resolved cathodoluminescence microscopy at a spatial resolution of around 6 to 22 micrometer. Each pixel probed by a scanning electron microscope provides us a cathodoluminescence spectrum (SEM-CL) in the range 600-1000 nm, and elemental data from energy-dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. We conclude that the two NIR emissions are spatially variable and, therefore, originate from different sites. This conclusion contradicts the existing model that the two emissions arise from two different excited states of a principal trap. Moreover, we are able to link the individual NIR emission peaks with the geochemical variations (K, Na and Fe concentration), and propose a cluster model that explains the quenching of the NIR emission by Fe4+