Cognitive demands of face monitoring: Evidence for visuospatial overload

Young children perform difficult communication tasks better face to face than when they cannot see one another (e.g., Doherty-Sneddon & Kent, 1996). However, in recent studies, it was found that children aged 6 and 10 years, describing abstract shapes, showed evidence of face-to-face interference rather than facilitation. For some communication tasks, access to visual signals (such as facial expression and eye gaze) may hinder rather than help children’s communication. In new research we have pursued this interference effect. Five studies are described with adults and 10- and 6-year-old participants. It was found that looking at a face interfered with children’s abilities to listen to descriptions of abstract shapes. Children also performed visuospatial memory tasks worse when they looked at someone’s face prior to responding than when they looked at a visuospatial pattern or at the floor. It was concluded that performance on certain tasks was hindered by monitoring another person’s face. It is suggested that processing of visual communication signals shares certain processing resources with the processing of other visuospatial information

Acute respiratory distress secondary to Morgagni diaphragmatic herniation in an adult.

Diaphragmatic hernias of the Morgagni type are generally thought to be asymptomatic in adults. This traditional assumption led to a delay in diagnosing a Morgagni hernia as the cause of acute respiratory distress in a chronic schizophrenic man. While Morgagni hernias are usually considered to be long-standing, we present radiological evidence of an acutely expanding hernia. The patient's symptoms were relieved by surgical repair of the hernia. We advise caution before dismissing Morgagni hernias in adults as being long-standing and clinically insignificant

Greater post-Neolithic wealth disparities in Eurasia than in North America and Mesoamerica

How wealth is distributed among households provides insight into the fundamental characters of societies and the opportunities they afford for social mobility. However, economic inequality has been hard to study in ancient societies for which we do not have written records, which adds to the challenge of placing current wealth disparities into a long-term perspective. Although various archaeological proxies for wealth, such as burial goods or exotic or expensive-to-manufacture goods in household assemblages, have been proposed, the first is not clearly connected with households, and the second is confounded by abandonment mode and other factors. As a result, numerous questions remain concerning the growth of wealth disparities, including their connection to the development of domesticated plants and animals and to increases in sociopolitical scale. Here we show that wealth disparities generally increased with the domestication of plants and animals and with increased sociopolitical scale, using Gini coefficients computed over the single consistent proxy of house-size distributions. However, unexpected differences in the responses of societies to these factors in North America and Mesoamerica, and in Eurasia, became evident after the end of the Neolithic period. We argue that the generally higher wealth disparities identified in post-Neolithic Eurasia were initially due to the greater availability of large mammals that could be domesticated, because they allowed more profitable agricultural extensification, and also eventually led to the development of a mounted warrior elite able to expand polities (political units that cohere via identity, ability to mobilize resources, or governance) to sizes that were not possible in North America and Mesoamerica before the arrival of Europeans. We anticipate that this analysis will stimulate other work to enlarge this sample to include societies in South America, Africa, South Asia and Oceania that were under-sampled or not included in this study

Fire Emissions and Carbon Uptake in Severely Burned Lenga Beech (Nothofagus pumilio) Forests of Patagonia, Argentina

Los incendios forestales son reconocidos como fuentes de emisión de CO2 y otros gases de efecto invernadero (GHG) que, alterando la dinámica del intercambio entre el carbono (C) terrestre y el atmosférico, influencian el clima global. En la región central de la Patagonia Andina Argentina, incendios de características severas han afectado los bosques de lenga (Nothofagus pumilio Poepp. & Endl. Krasser), incrementando de esa manera las emisiones de CO2 a la atmósfera y alterando asimismo sus patrones sucesionales. En este estudio, determinamos las emisiones y el secuestro de C en tres rodales, quemados en 1976 (Lago Guacho), 1983 (La Torta), y 2008 (la Colisión). La estructura forestal, y los compartimientos de biomasa aérea y broza fueron cuantificados en cada rodal quemado y en sus adyacentes sin quemar. El stock de C y de otros GHG (CO2 , CO, CH4 , NO2 , NOx y Ce) emitidos por cada incendio, el CO2 capturado y el C anual incorporado a la biomasa fueron determinados en base a las guías propuestas por el Panel Internacional para el Cambio Climático. El carbono total (biomasa aérea más radical) antes de los incendios fue de 301,8 Mg C ha-1 para La Colisión, 258,13 Mg C ha-1 para La Torta, y 270,7 Mg C ha-1 para Lago Guacho, mientras que las pérdidas de C debido a los incendios fueron de 104,6 Mg C ha-1, 90,7 Mg C ha-1, and 94,7 Mg C ha-1 para cada uno de los sitios, respectivamente. Diferencias en la estructura forestal y en la biomasa de cada sitio previo a los incendios explican los valores de emisión de CO2 y otros GHG observados después de éstos. Al presente, el balance de C es negativo en los tres sitios. Sin ninguna acción de restauración activa y usando las tasas actuales de crecimiento para cada sitio, el tiempo estimado de recuperación del C perdido es de 105,5 años para La Colisión, 94,2 años para La Torta, y 150,2 años para Lago Guacho. Mediante el uso de tasas de captura de C variables (que decrecen a medida que la sucesión avanza), el tiempo de recuperación sería de 182 años para La Colisión, 154 años para La Torta, y 162 para Lago Guacho. El ambiente post-incendio y las condiciones de cada sitio parecen tener una mayor influencia en la recuperación de la vegetación que los efectos primarios del fuego. Tareas de restauración activas aparecen como necesarias para incrementar la tasa de recuperación del C post-fuego y ayudar a re-establecer el paisaje original en bosques de lenga.Forest wildfires are recognized as sources of CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHG) that, altering the dynamics between terrestrial and atmospheric carbon (C) exchange, influence global climate. In central Andean Patagonia, Argentina, severe wildfires affect temperate lenga beech (Nothofagus pumilio Poepp. & Endl. Krasser) forests, thereby increasing atmospheric CO2 emissions and changing natural succession paths. In this study, we determined fire emissions and C uptake in three lenga beech forests stands burned in 1976 (Lago Guacho site), 1983 (La Torta site), and 2008 (La Colisión site). Forest structure and aboveground biomass and litter compartments in burned and adjacent unburned stands were quantified for each fire. Carbon stocks and GHG (CO2 , CO, CH4 , NO2 , NOx and Ce) released by the fires, CO2 removals, and mean annual C uptake were determined by following the International Panel of Climate Change guidelines. Total (aboveground plus root) C stock before fires was 301.8 Mg C ha-1 for La Colisión, 258.13 Mg C ha-1 for La Torta, and 270.7 Mg C ha-1 for Lago Guacho, while C losses due to the fires were 104.6 Mg C ha-1, 90.7 Mg C ha-1, and 94.7 Mg C ha-1 for the three sites, respectively. Differences in pre-fire forest structures and biomass explained the values observed in CO2 and other GHG emissions after the fires. Currently, the C balance is negative for the three sites. Without any active restoration and using actual growth rates for each site, the estimated C recovery time is 105.5 yr for La Colisión, 94.2 yr for La Torta, and 150.2 yr for Lago Guacho. By using variable rates of C uptake (which decrease as early succession proceeds), this recovery time will take 182 yr for La Colisión, 154 for La Torta, and 162 yr for Lago Guacho. Post-fire environmental and site conditions appeared to have a greater influence in forest recovery than primary fire effects. Active restoration activities may be necessary to increase C recovery rates and help to re-establish former lenga beech forest landscapes.Fil: Bertolin, María Lila. Centro de Investigación y Extensión Forestal Andino Patagónico; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Urretavizcaya, María Florencia. Centro de Investigación y Extensión Forestal Andino Patagónico; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Defossé, Guillermo Emilio. Centro de Investigación y Extensión Forestal Andino Patagónico; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Creating Standardized Video Recordings of Multimodal Interactions across Cultures

Abstract. Trying to adapt the behavior of an interactive system to the cultural background of the user requires information on how relevant behaviors differ as a function of the user’s cultural background. To gain such insights in the interrelation of culture and behavior patterns, the information from the literature is often too anecdotal to serve as the basis for modeling a system’s behavior, making it necessary to collect multimodal corpora in a standardized fashion in different cultures. In this chapter, the challenges of such an endeavor are introduced and solutions are presented by examples from a German-Japanese project that aims at modeling culture-specific behaviors for Embodied Conversational Agents.