Sodium boiling incoherence in a 19-pin wire-wrapped bundle

During various flow transients in a sodium-cooled reactor, localized boiling can occur. If this boiling does not result in dryout, significant reactor core damage is not likely. A full-length electrically heated 19-pin bundle was used to determine the extent to which dynamic boiling can be sustained before dryout occurs. Over 30 boiling runs were made with runs at three flow-power conditions culminating in dryout. Continuous boiling for time periods exceeding 20 sec was observed. Preliminary data analysis suggested that thermal inertia of the duct walls, which were backed with thermal insulation, was higher than designed and was contributing to boiling incoherence. Posttest examination confirmed that the insulation annulus had become permeated with sodium, resulting in a significantly increased thermal inertia. Detailed comparisons of experimental results with the results of several different analytical techniques indicate that incoherent boiling caused by bundle thermal inertia was responsible for the long time periods between boiling inception and dryout. This suggests that thermal inertia designed into the reactor core could prevent or delay core damage during various flow-power mismatch transients

Deficits in visuo-spatial working memory, inhibition and oculomotor control in boys with ADHD and their non-affected brothers.

Few studies have assessed visuo-spatial working memory and inhibition in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by recording saccades and consequently little additional knowledge has been gathered on oculomotor functioning in ADHD. Moreover, this is the first study to report the performance of non-affected siblings of children with ADHD, which may shed light on the familiality of deficits. A total of 14 boys with ADHD, 18 non-affected brothers, and 15 control boys aged 7-14 years, were administered a memory-guided saccade task with delays of three and seven seconds. Familial deficits were found in accuracy of visuo-spatial working memory, percentage of anticipatory saccades, and tendency to overshoot saccades relative to controls. These findings suggest memory-guided saccade deficits may relate to a familial predisposition for ADHD

No evidence for a saccadic range effect for visually guided and memory-guided saccades in simple saccade-targeting tasks

International audienceSaccades to single targets in peripheral vision are typically characterized by an undershoot bias. Putting this bias to a test, Kapoula [1] used a paradigm in which observers were presented with two different sets of target eccentricities that partially overlapped each other. Her data were suggestive of a saccadic range effect (SRE): There was a tendency for saccades to overshoot close targets and undershoot far targets in a block, suggesting that there was a response bias towards the center of eccentricities in a given block. Our Experiment 1 was a close replication of the original study by Kapoula [1]. In addition, we tested whether the SRE is sensitive to top-down requirements associated with the task, and we also varied the target presentation duration. In Experiments 1 and 2, we expected to replicate the SRE for a visual discrimination task. The simple visual saccade-targeting task in Experiment 3, entailing minimal top-down influence, was expected to elicit a weaker SRE. Voluntary saccades to remembered target locations in Experiment 3 were expected to elicit the strongest SRE. Contrary to these predictions, we did not observe a SRE in any of the tasks. Our findings complement the results reported by Gillen et al. [2] who failed to find the effect in a saccade-targeting task with a very brief target presentation. Together, these results suggest that unlike arm movements, saccadic eye movements are not biased towards making saccades of a constant, optimal amplitude for the task

Remapping for visual stability

Visual perception is based on both incoming sensory signals and information about ongoing actions. Recordings from single neurons have shown that corollary discharge signals can influence visual representations in parietal, frontal and extrastriate visual cortex, as well as the superior colliculus (SC). In each of these areas, visual representations are remapped in conjunction with eye movements. Remapping provides a mechanism for creating a stable, eye-centred map of salient locations. Temporal and spatial aspects of remapping are highly variable from cell to cell and area to area. Most neurons in the lateral intraparietal area remap stimulus traces, as do many neurons in closely allied areas such as the frontal eye fields the SC and extrastriate area V3A. Remapping is not purely a cortical phenomenon. Stimulus traces are remapped from one hemifield to the other even when direct cortico-cortical connections are removed. The neural circuitry that produces remapping is distinguished by significant plasticity, suggesting that updating of salient stimuli is fundamental for spatial stability and visuospatial behaviour. These findings provide new evidence that a unified and stable representation of visual space is constructed by redundant circuitry, comprising cortical and subcortical pathways, with a remarkable capacity for reorganization