Great Minds Think Alike? Spatial Search Processes Can Be More Idiosyncratic When Guided by More Accurate Information

Existing research demonstrates that pre-decisional information sampling strategies are often stablewithin a given person while varying greatly across people. However, it remains largely unknown whatdrives these individual differences, that is, why in some circumstances we collect information moreidiosyncratically. In this brief report, we present a pre-registered online study of spatial search. Usinga novel technique that combines machine-learning dimension reduction and sequence alignment algo-rithms, we quantify the extent to which the shape and temporal properties of a search trajectory areidiosyncratic. We show that this metric increases (trajectories become more idiosyncratic) when a per-son is better informed about the likely location of the search target, while poorly informed individualsseem more likely to resort to default search routines determined bottom-up by the properties of thesearch field. This shows that when many people independently attempt to solve a task in a similar way,they are not necessarily “onto something.”publishedVersionPaid open acces

Surface free energy of polyurethane coatings with improved hydrophobicity

The polarity of polyurethane coats was studied on the basis of the goniometric method for determination of wetting angle values, on the basis of calculated surface free energy (SFE) values by the van Oss–Good and Owens–Wendt methods, and on the basis of polarity measurements with the use of the 1H NMR spectra. Test polyurethanes were synthesised in the reaction of methylene diphenyl 4,4′-diisocyanate (MDI) or 3-izocyanatomethyl –3,5,5- trimethylcyclohexyl isocyanate (IPDI) and polyoxyethylene glycols or polyesters poly(ε-caprolactone) diols and poly(ethyleneadipate) diol with different molecular weights, and some diols as chain extenders, in dioxane. The type of raw material was found to significantly affect the phase structure of the obtained polyurethane elastomers and to control physical interactions within those structures, thus influencing the SFE values. Fundamental reduction in the SFE value of a coating below 28 mJ/m2 was achieved by the use of 2,2,3,3-tetrafluoro-1,4-butanediol as the urethane prepolymer chain extender

Effects of macronutrient composition on specific dynamic action in the laboratory mouse, Mus musculus

Open-flow respirometry was used to measure the magnitude of specific dynamic action (SDA), the maximum rate of oxygen consumption and the length of time that the rate of oxygen uptake remained elevated above pre-feeding level in MF1 female mice fed different macronutrient diets. Irrespective of diet, the metabolic rate increased immediately after feeding and reached a maximum within 1.7 hours. The composition of the diet significantly altered the magnitude of SDA. SDA was highest for high protein-fed mice (9.4%), followed by high carbohydrate-fed mice (6.1%) and lastly high and medium fat-fed mice (3.9% and 4.5%).KEY WORDS: Specific dynamic action, resting metabolic rate, macronutrient diets, open-flow respirometry, respiratory quotient, energy expenditur

Effects of dietary protein intake on lactation performance of the laboratory mouse, Mus musculus

Laboratory mice (strain MF1) were used to investigate the effects of dietary protein content on lactation performance to test the heat dissipation limit hypothesis. The specific dynamic action (SDA) for high protein (HP) and high carbohydrate (HC) diets was measured using open-flow respirometry at 9.4% and 6.1%, respectively. The same two diets were fed ad libitum to mice during lactation. Mice fed on HP and HC diets at 21 ºC reached a plateau in their daily food intake at 12.3±0.2 g day-1 and 16.6±0.2 g day-1, respectively between days 12-17 of lactation. HP-fed mice had a significantly higher daily energy expenditure (DEE) measured by doubly labelled water and higher water turnover than HC-fed mice but the energy they exported as milk was significantly lower than that of HC-fed mice and therefore resulted in poor growth rate of their offspring. The urea production of HP-fed mice from their daily protein intake of 7.1 g was estimated at 1994 mg which required 10.2 mls of water per day to be cleared. The mice increased their urine production by 14.4 mls probably to eliminate this urea. High protein diet had negative effects on lactation, indicating the growth of pups in previous studies was not protein limited. The negative effects of the HP diet were due to the high DEE that greatly reduced the energy available for milk production, rather than a toxicity effect of the urea production. The different DEE of the two diets suggests that other factors were involved in the delivery of energy to the offspring.KEY WORDS: Laboratory mouse, dietary protein, specific dynamic action, and daily energy expenditur

Effects of feeding fat on lactation performance of the laboratory mouse, Mus musculus

Laboratory mice (strain MF1) were used to investigate the effects of dietary fat intake on lactation performance. The specific dynamic action (SDA) for high fat (HF), medium fat (MF) and a low fat (LF) diets was measured using open-flow respirometry at 4.5%, 3.9% and 6.1%, respectively. The same three diets were fed ad libitum to mice between days 4 and 18 of lactation. Mice fed HF, MF and LF diets reached plateau in their daily food intake at 14.95±1.14 g day-1, 16.30±0.61 g day-1 and 16.57±0.26 g day-1, respectively between days 12-17 of lactation. At weaning, litters from HF and MF-fed mice were significantly heavier than pups on LF diet. This was because the HF and MF-fed mice not only consumed more energy at peak lactation but also delivered more milk energy to their pups than the LF-fed mice. Evidence suggested that the positive effects of feeding fat to mice were in part due to the low SDA and probably low heat production for milk synthesis. Probably, the ability of the HF and MF-fed mice to directly transfer absorbed fat into the milk might have reduced the heat production of lactogenesis. The HF and MF diets had beneficial effects on lactation because they increased the capacity of mice to generate milk more efficiently and wean heavier offspring than mice fed LF diet. The daily energy expenditure (DEE) of mice in the three dietary groups was fixed.KEY WORDS: Laboratory mouse, dietary fat, specific dynamic action, doubly labelled water, daily energy expenditure, milk energy output, reproductive performanc

Exotic Smoothness and Quantum Gravity

Since the first work on exotic smoothness in physics, it was folklore to assume a direct influence of exotic smoothness to quantum gravity. Thus, the negative result of Duston (arXiv:0911.4068) was a surprise. A closer look into the semi-classical approach uncovered the implicit assumption of a close connection between geometry and smoothness structure. But both structures, geometry and smoothness, are independent of each other. In this paper we calculate the "smoothness structure" part of the path integral in quantum gravity assuming that the "sum over geometries" is already given. For that purpose we use the knot surgery of Fintushel and Stern applied to the class E(n) of elliptic surfaces. We mainly focus our attention to the K3 surfaces E(2). Then we assume that every exotic smoothness structure of the K3 surface can be generated by knot or link surgery a la Fintushel and Stern. The results are applied to the calculation of expectation values. Here we discuss the two observables, volume and Wilson loop, for the construction of an exotic 4-manifold using the knot $5_{2}$ and the Whitehead link $Wh$. By using Mostow rigidity, we obtain a topological contribution to the expectation value of the volume. Furthermore we obtain a justification of area quantization.Comment: 16 pages, 1 Figure, 1 Table subm. Class. Quant. Grav

Topological quantum D-branes and wild embeddings from exotic smooth R^4

This is the next step of uncovering the relation between string theory and exotic smooth R^4. Exotic smoothness of R^4 is correlated with D6 brane charges in IIA string theory. We construct wild embeddings of spheres and relate them to a class of topological quantum Dp-branes as well to KK theory. These branes emerge when there are non-trivial NS-NS H-fluxes where the topological classes are determined by wild embeddings S^2 -> S^3. Then wild embeddings of higher dimensional $p$-complexes into S^n correspond to Dp-branes. These wild embeddings as constructed by using gropes are basic objects to understand exotic smoothness as well Casson handles. Next we build C*-algebras corresponding to the embeddings. Finally we consider topological quantum D-branes as those which emerge from wild embeddings in question. We construct an action for these quantum D-branes and show that the classical limit agrees with the Born-Infeld action such that flat branes = usual embeddings.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

Exploring Locality in Ethereum Transactions

Early open blockchain designs face low throughput, high latency, and prohibitive costs for setting up a full node. New designs improve this with innovative mechanisms for handling transactions and the blockchain state, often assuming locality properties in the workload of transactions. Temporal locality allows efficient space management such as light nodes or snapshot-based bootstrap. Disjoint access parallelism, which depends on spatial locality, enables parallel processing of non-conflicting transactions. We analyze locality properties and their interplay in the largest transactional workload available to date, that of Ethereum. Our results show that, although transactions generally display good locality, a minority of accounts are responsible for caching- or parallelism-unfriendliness, calling for specific identification and handling in future blockchain designs

Density of Gr1-positive myeloid precursor cells, p-STAT3 expression and gene expression pattern in canine mammary cancer metastasis

The very recent studies on human and mice models have indicated an important role of myeloid precursor cells (progenitors or not fully differentiated cells that express the Gr1 antigen also called Gr1-positive myeloid suppressor cells) in the tumor progression and metastasis. They are thought to suppress the immune system and promote angiogenesis via Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) activation. As of now there is no data available on the correlation of Gr1-positive cell number, phosphorylated STAT3 (p-STAT3) expression and cancer ability to metastasis. Thus, we counted the myeloid precursor cell number and analyzed p-STAT3 expression in 50 canine mammary tumors that gave local/distant metastases and did not metastasize. We showed that the number of Gr1-positive cells and p-STAT3 expression are significantly higher (p < 0.001) in the metastatic tumors than in the non-metastatic ones. We also observed higher expression of p-STAT3 in the canine mammary cancer cell lines with metastatic potential than in other cell lines (p < 0.001). Moreover, the number of myeloid precursors and p-STAT3 expression in metastatic tumors correlate strongly. The tumor infiltrating myeloid precursor cells may invigorate the STAT3 activity (probably via vascular endothelial growth factor – VEGF) that contributes to the tumor angiogenesis and furthermore tumor`s ability to metastasize. The analysis of gene expression in canine mammary cancer cell lines with metastatic potential indicated that semaphorin 3B (SEMA3B) and neuropilin receptors (NRP) may also be important elements in this process. Thus, we discuss the possible interactions within the tumor that may be required for cancer metastatis