Psychological Resilience and Cognitive Function Among Older Military Veterans.

The purpose of this study was to explore the association between psychological resilience and cognitive function in military veterans. We obtained public-use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) for this cross-sectional study of military veterans aged 52 to 101 years (n = 150). We estimated a multivariable linear regression model in which cognitive function served as the dependent variable and psychological resilience served as the independent variable. After controlling for demographics, health conditions, and health behaviors, veterans who had higher psychological resilience scores had better cognitive function (b = 0.22, p = 0.03). Our findings suggest that psychological resilience may be associated with cognitive function among veterans. These findings highlight the importance of assessing psychological resilience in gerontological social work practice

Flexibility and Use of a Novel Tool in Asian Small Clawed Otters (Aonyx cinerea)

Asian small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea) demonstrate remarkable hand dexterity when gathering and consuming prey, but little is known about their ability to use objects as tools. The present study used a tool choice paradigm in which six Asian small-clawed otters were tested individually and presented with two identical hook-shaped tools. For each trial, only one tool was positioned such that pulling it allowed an otter to obtain food. Pulling the other hook resulted in the correct hook being moved out of reach, necessitating selection of the correct tool as its first choice The two males performed above chance levels, but the four females did not. The females’ poor overall performance may have reflected their initial inability to understand the tool choice task. Two of the females’ performances improved by 20% over the course of the trials, and another female showed 5% improvement over time. In addition, some incorrect responses appeared to be due to the development of a side preference, rather than to the configuration of the apparatus. Four of the otters exhibited a significant side bias toward the left, but there were individual differences in how these preferences presented in each otter. For all otters, latency to approach and make a choice on the tool-use task decreased over time, regardless of success. Although otters do appear capable of learning which tool should be used in a forced choice comparison such as the one used here, other factors appear to influence the choices individual otters make

Flexibility and Use of a Novel Tool in Asian Small Clawed Otters (Aonyx cinerea)

Asian small-clawed otters ( Aonyx cinerea ) demonstrate remarkable hand dexterity when gathering and consuming prey, but little is known about their ability to use objects as tools. The present study used a tool choice paradigm in which six Asian small-clawed otters were tested individually and presented with two identical hook-shaped tools. For each trial, only one tool was positioned such that pulling it allowed an otter to obtain food. Pulling the other hook resulted in the correct hook being moved out of reach, necessitating selection of the correct tool as its first choice The two males performed above chance levels, but the four females did not. The females’ poor overall performance may have reflected their initial inability to understand the tool choice task. Two of the females’ performances improved by 20% over the course of the trials, and another female showed 5% improvement over time. In addition, some incorrect responses appeared to be due to the development of a side preference, rather than to the configuration of the apparatus. Four of the otters exhibited a significant side bias toward the left, but there were individual differences in how these preferences presented in each otter. For all otters, latency to approach and make a choice on the tool-use task decreased over time, regardless of success. Although otters do appear capable of learning which tool should be used in a forced choice comparison such as the one used here, other factors appear to influence the choices individual otters make

Coronal Heating as Determined by the Solar Flare Frequency Distribution Obtained by Aggregating Case Studies

Flare frequency distributions represent a key approach to addressing one of the largest problems in solar and stellar physics: determining the mechanism that counter-intuitively heats coronae to temperatures that are orders of magnitude hotter than the corresponding photospheres. It is widely accepted that the magnetic field is responsible for the heating, but there are two competing mechanisms that could explain it: nanoflares or Alfv\'en waves. To date, neither can be directly observed. Nanoflares are, by definition, extremely small, but their aggregate energy release could represent a substantial heating mechanism, presuming they are sufficiently abundant. One way to test this presumption is via the flare frequency distribution, which describes how often flares of various energies occur. If the slope of the power law fitting the flare frequency distribution is above a critical threshold, $\alpha=2$ as established in prior literature, then there should be a sufficient abundance of nanoflares to explain coronal heating. We performed $>$600 case studies of solar flares, made possible by an unprecedented number of data analysts via three semesters of an undergraduate physics laboratory course. This allowed us to include two crucial, but nontrivial, analysis methods: pre-flare baseline subtraction and computation of the flare energy, which requires determining flare start and stop times. We aggregated the results of these analyses into a statistical study to determine that $\alpha = 1.63 \pm 0.03$. This is below the critical threshold, suggesting that Alfv\'en waves are an important driver of coronal heating.Comment: 1,002 authors, 14 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, published by The Astrophysical Journal on 2023-05-09, volume 948, page 7