Local and global processing. Observations from a remote culture

In Experiment 1, a normal adult population drawn from a remote culture (Himba) in northern Namibia made similarity matches to [Navon, D. (1977). Forest before trees: The precedence of global features in visual perception. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 353–383] hierarchical figures. The Himba showed a local bias stronger than that has been previously observed in any other non-clinical human population. However, in Experiment 2, their recognition of normal or distorted (“Thatcherized”) faces did not appear to have been affected by their attention to detail as has been suggested for autistic populations. The data are consistent with a cultural/experiential origin for population differences in local processing and suggest that attention to the local and global properties of stimuli may differ for hierarchical figures and faces

Cross-species differences in color categorization

International audienceBerlin and Kay (1969) found systematic restrictions in the color terms of the world's languages and were inclined to look to the primate visual system for their origin. Because the visual system does not provide adequate neurophysiological discontinuities to supply natural color category boundaries, and because recent evidence points to a linguistic origin (Davidoff, Davies, & Roberson, 1999), a new approach was used to investigate the controversial issue of the origin of color categories. Baboons and humans were given the same task of matching-to-sample colors that crossed the blue/green boundary. The data and consequent modeling were remarkably clear-cut All human subjects matched our generalization probe stimuli as if to a sharp boundary close to the midpoint between their training items. Despite good color discrimination, none of the baboons showed any inclination to match to a single boundary but rather responded with two boundaries close to the training stimuli. The data give no support to the claim that color categories are explicitly instantiated in the primate color vision system

Atomic and Electronic Structure of a Rashba pp-nn Junction at the BiTeI Surface

The non-centrosymmetric semiconductor BiTeI exhibits two distinct surface terminations that support spin-split Rashba surface states. Their ambipolarity can be exploited for creating spin-polarized $p$-$n$ junctions at the boundaries between domains with different surface terminations. We use scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) to locate such junctions and investigate their atomic and electronic properties. The Te- and I-terminated surfaces are identified owing to their distinct chemical reactivity, and an apparent height mismatch of electronic origin. The Rashba surface states are revealed in the STS spectra by the onset of a van Hove singularity at the band edge. Eventually, an electronic depletion is found on interfacial Te atoms, consistent with the formation of a space charge area in typical $p$-$n$ junctions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Cross-­species Assessment of the Linguistic Origins of Colour Categories

This article considers the relation between language and categorical perception (CP) of colour. Two opposite theories are reviewed, the universalist position arguing that categories are universal with an essentially biological origin, and the relativist position that holds that colour categories are essentially arbitrary and derive from colour terms of the speaker’s language. A review of the human literature presents developmental, neuropsychological, cross-­cultural, neuro-­imaging and computer simulation evidence that CP of colours has at least partly linguistic origins. As animal studies also contribute to this debate, we then review evidence of CP in the visual and auditory domains, and pinpoint the inconsistencies of the literature. To make a direct comparison between humans and monkeys, experimental studies compared humans and baboons for their colour thresholds and in a recognition memory task designed to assess CP of colours. Only humans showed better between-­category than within-­category discrimination performance, suggesting species differences in the processing of a colour continuum. That study along with some of our previous research supports the theory of a linguistic origin for colour categories in humans

Giant alkali-metal-induced lattice relaxation as the driving force of the insulating phase of alkali-metal/Si(111):B

Ab initio density-functional theory calculations, photoemission spectroscopy (PES), scanning tunneling microscopy, and spectroscopy (STM, STS) have been used to solve the 2√3 x 2√3R30 surface reconstruction observed previously by LEED on 0.5 ML K/Si:B. A large K-induced vertical lattice relaxation occurring only for 3/4 of Si adatoms is shown to quantitatively explain both the chemical shift of 1.14 eV and the ratio 1/3 measured on the two distinct B 1s core levels. A gap is observed between valence and conduction surface bands by ARPES and STS which is shown to have mainly a Si-B character. Finally, the calculated STM images agree with our experimental results. This work solves the controversy about the origin of the insulating ground state of alkali-metal/Si(111):B semiconducting interfaces which were believed previously to be related to many-body effectsThis work has received the financial support of the French ANR SURMOTT program (ANR-09-BLAN- 0210-01) and the Spanish MICIIN under Project No. FIS2010-1604

Geriatric Patient Safety Indicators Based on Linked Administrative Health Data to Assess Anticoagulant-Related Thromboembolic and Hemorrhagic Adverse Events in Older Inpatients: A Study Proposal.

Frail older people with multiple interacting conditions, polypharmacy, and complex care needs are particularly exposed to health care-related adverse events. Among these, anticoagulant-related thromboembolic and hemorrhagic events are particularly frequent and serious in older inpatients. The growing use of anticoagulants in this population and their substantial risk of toxicity and inefficacy have therefore become an important patient safety and public health concern worldwide. Anticoagulant-related adverse events and the quality of anticoagulation management should thus be routinely assessed to improve patient safety in vulnerable older inpatients. This project aims to develop and validate a set of outcome and process indicators based on linked administrative health data (ie, insurance claims data linked to hospital discharge data) assessing older inpatient safety related to anticoagulation in both Switzerland and France, and enabling comparisons across time and among hospitals, health territories, and countries. Geriatric patient safety indicators (GPSIs) will assess anticoagulant-related adverse events. Geriatric quality indicators (GQIs) will evaluate the management of anticoagulants for the prevention and treatment of arterial or venous thromboembolism in older inpatients. GPSIs will measure cumulative incidences of thromboembolic and bleeding adverse events based on hospital discharge data linked to insurance claims data. Using linked administrative health data will improve GPSI risk adjustment on patients' conditions that are present at admission and will capture in-hospital and postdischarge adverse events. GQIs will estimate the proportion of index hospital stays resulting in recommended anticoagulation at discharge and up to various time frames based on the same electronic health data. The GPSI and GQI development and validation process will comprise 6 stages: (1) selection and specification of candidate indicators, (2) definition of administrative data-based algorithms, (3) empirical measurement of indicators using linked administrative health data, (4) validation of indicators, (5) analyses of geographic and temporal variations for reliable and valid indicators, and (6) data visualization. Study populations will consist of 166,670 Swiss and 5,902,037 French residents aged 65 years and older admitted to an acute care hospital at least once during the 2012-2014 period and insured for at least 1 year before admission and 1 year after discharge. We will extract Swiss data from the Helsana Group data warehouse and French data from the national health insurance information system (SNIIR-AM). The study has been approved by Swiss and French ethics committees and regulatory organizations for data protection. Validated GPSIs and GQIs should help support and drive quality and safety improvement in older inpatients, inform health care stakeholders, and enable international comparisons. We discuss several limitations relating to the representativeness of study populations, accuracy of administrative health data, methods used for GPSI criterion validity assessment, and potential confounding bias in comparisons based on GQIs, and we address these limitations to strengthen study feasibility and validity

Self-ordered nanoporous lattice formed by chlorine atoms on Au(111)

A self-ordered nanoporous lattice formed by individual chlorine atoms on the Au(111) surface has been studied with low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy, low-energy electron diffraction, and density functional theory calculations. We have found out that room-temperature adsorption of 0.09–0.30 monolayers of chlorine on Au(111) followed by cooling below 110 K results in the spontaneous formation of a nanoporous quasihexagonal structure with a periodicity of 25–38 Å depending on the initial chlorine coverage. The driving force of the superstructure formation is attributed to the substrate-mediated elastic interaction

High field magnetic resonant properties of beta'-(ET)2SF5CF2SO3

A systematic electron spin resonance (ESR) investigation of the low temperature regime for the (ET)2SF5CF2SO3 system was performed in the frequency range of ~200-700 GHz, using backward wave oscillator sources, and at fields up to 25 T. Newly acquired access to the high frequency and fields shows experimental ESR results in agreement with the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) investigation, revealing evidence that the transition seen at 20 K is not of conventional spin-Peierls order. A significant change of the spin resonance spectrum in beta'-(ET)2SF5CF2SO3 at low temperatures, indicates a transition into a three-dimensional-antiferromagnetic (3D AFM) phase.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, minor grammatical change

A 25,000 years climate record from the East African equator: Half-precessional climate forcing and the history of temperature and hydrological change

Particularly in tropical and subtropical regions, high-resolution climate records have demonstrated major variability in the hydrological cycle at orbital, millennial and sub-millennial time scales in the last 25,000 years. Geographical patterns of past climate change (from the equator to both poles, and among continents and ocean basins at similar latitude) at these various time scales hold the key to understanding the climate-dynamical processes governing them, and to resolution of longstanding questions about the relative importance of tropical and high-latitude climate dynamics in translating external climate-forcing mechanisms into regional climate variability. Currently, dynamical analysis of past tropical climate variability is being hampered by the fragmentary or poorly dated nature of available records from key continental regions, debate to what extent marine records are representative for climate history on the continents, and uncertainty about whether traditional isotopic tracers applied to tropical continental records mainly reflect temperature or hydrological change. What has been missing is a continuous, high-resolution climate record from the tropics that adequately separates the evolution of temperature and hydrological change, and covers the period from the Last Glacial Maximum until the present with sufficient age control to establish supra-regional phase relationships in past climate anomalies at millennial and century time scales.In this context, the EuroCLIMATE project CHALLACEA here presents a reconstruction of climate history on the East African equator, based on multiple proxy-indicator analyses in the sediment record of a permanently stratified crater lake (Lake Challa, a 4.2 km2, 92 m deep crater lake on the lower East slope of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania) with stable physical limnology and sedimentation dynamics over the past 25,000 years. This has resulted in a unique combination of high temporal resolution, excellent radiometric (210Pb, 14C) age control, and confidence that the recording parameters of the climatic proxies (i.e. the relationship between climate change and its proxy signals extracted from the sediment record) have remained constant through time. The equatorial (3° S) location of our study site in East Africa, where seasonal migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone spans the widest latitude range, provides unique information on how varying rainfall contributions from the Indian Ocean monsoons have shaped the region’s climate history. The detailed reconstruction of the temperature and moisture-balance history of equatorial East Africa from before the Last Glacial Maximum to the present uniquely weaves together tropical climate variability at orbital, millennial and century time scales. The temporal pattern of reconstructed climate changes bears the clear signature of half-precessional insolation forcing of tropical monsoon dynamics on the East African equator, modified by high southern latitude influence on the timing of post-glacial temperature rise, and by high northern latitude influence on tropical hydrological variability at millennial and century time scales