Garden Path Sentence Processing as a Measure of Belief Updating

Handedness is a marker for individual differences in brain organization. Garden path sentences (GPS), those that require a mid-sentence change in understanding to capture sentence meaning require the updating of beliefs via the right hemisphere. Inconsistent-handers (ICH) have increased access to right hemisphere processes, which has previously been shown to result in increased belief updating. It was hypothesized that ICH would be more accurate and more rapid in their processing of GPS relative to consistent right handers (CRH) due to increased access to the neural structures involved. Additionally, men and women differ in their brain organization, and in their cortical representation of language. It was therefore hypothesized that differences in GPS processing may occur as a function of gender. Results revealed decreased speed of processing of GPS in ICH versus CRH, and processing of typical and non-sentences faster in ICH relative to CRH, with the effect holding especially true for men. Results tentatively support individual differences in sentence processing as a function of handedness, which may be mediated by gender. Increased, rather than decreased, reaction time in ICH for GPS may reflect increased atypical representation of language functions in ICH. Future work should replicate this study with a larger sample of men

Marketing Online Workshops

The movement of library instruction to the online environment is only one way that librarians are seeking to meet the just-in-time needs of their patrons. Marketing of this type of instruction should reflect these changes by speaking directly to the needs of the patrons rather than to the topic of the sessions. Effective marketing of online workshops is best achieved by making a plan, diversifying modes of outreach, and by creating consistency with the library and university brands and goals

Reproductive tract infection—Lessons learned from the field: Where do we go from here?

The Population Council convened a meeting about reproductive tract infections (RTIs) to examine how best to use available tools and information, learn about potential service delivery approaches, and examine the direction of research. The meeting began with an examination of what is known about the prevalence, distribution, determinants, characteristics, and consequences of RTIs, as well as the common elements of an intervention framework. General obstacles related to work in the area of RTIs include lack of awareness of the problem and the limited power of women in society. Priorities for future research and programming include: further research on the scope and consequences of RTIs; integration of RTI services with other types of health care; continued investment in female-controlled technology; research on gender and power relations and their relationship to STDs and related protective measures; and research on appropriate low-cost diagnostics and screening tools. While more questions were raised than conclusions reached, the meeting helped to facilitate a move forward in dealing with this serious public health problem

Assessment of Different Contaminants in Freshwater: Origin, Fate and Ecological Impact

Freshwater ecosystems cover over 15% of the world's surface and provide ecosystem services that are pivotal in sustaining human society. However, fast-growing anthropogenic activities have deleterious impacts on these ecosystems. In this Special Issue, we collect ten studies encompassing five different factors of freshwater contamination: landfill leaks, nutrients, heavy metals, emerging organic contaminants and marble slurry. Using different approaches, the studies detailed the direct and indirect effects that these contaminants have on a range of freshwater organisms, from bacteria to vertebrates. Although the papers covered here focused on specific case studies, they exemplify common issues that are expanding in groundwaters, hyporheic zones, streams, lakes and ponds around the world. All the aspects of these issues are in dire need of being continuously discussed among scientists, end-users and policy-makers. To this end, the Special Issue presents a new free software suite for the analysis of the ecological risk and conservation priority of freshwater ecosystems. The software can support local authorities in the preparation of management plans for freshwater basins pursuant to the Water Directives in Europe

Risk Protection, Service Use, and Health Outcomes Under Colombia’s Health Insurance Program for the Poor

Unexpected medical care spending imposes considerable financial risk on developing country households. Based on managed care models of health insurance in wealthy countries, Colombia’s Régimen Subsidiado is a publicly financed insurance program targeted to the poor, aiming both to provide risk protection and to promote allocative efficiency in the use of medical care. Using a “fuzzy” regression discontinuity design, we find that the program has shielded the poor from some financial risk while increasing the use of traditionally under-utilized preventive services – with measurable health gains.

Fire responses by bird guilds and species in heathy dry forests in central Victoria, Australia

Predicted increases in fire frequency and extent are being realised across Australia, bringing changes to the fire regime which may influence the availability of essential resources required by birds. However, few studies have examined either the impacts of fire frequency on birds or the impacts from both wildfire and planned burns, com bined. Birds were surveyed eight times across 84 sites in heathy dry forests in central Victoria, south-east Australia, from 2012 to 2014. Fire history records were retrieved from the 1970’s onwards, the time from which accurate planned burn records were kept. We developed mixed models to investigate how birds responded to time-since-fire and fire frequency, analysing total bird abundance, ten foraging guilds and 30 individual species. We found distinct responses by all modelled guilds and species to time-since-fire, along with evidence for responses to fire frequency. The greatest shifts in species’ abundances occurred during the first ten years post fire, with bird species commonly present across the stages greater than ten years since fire. For total bird abundance there was no statistically detectible difference between recently burnt forest (0-6 months) and other age classes. However, some guilds showed a significant drop in abundance in newly burnt vegetation (e.g. bark foragers, damp ground insectivores, those that feed on seeds close to the ground, tall shrub foragers). It is with guild and species’ responses that more differences across vegetation age classes became apparent. Significant increases in abundance were apparent in both the regrowth and new growth vegetation age classes, compared with older habitat (e.g. canopy foragers, damp ground insectivores, tall shrub foragers); open ground foragers were especially common in post-fire regrowth but then significantly declined. Other responses were more complex, with species’ preferences reflecting their foraging ecology. Some birds showed preferences across two age classes: sites that were young post-fire regrowth (6 months–2.5 years since fire) along with sites of old habitat (>35 years since fire), (e.g. Crimson Rosella, Scarlet Robin, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo), while some ground-foraging species became scarce in dense new-growth vegetation that appears 2.5–10 years post fire (e.g. Australian Magpie, Laughing Kookaburra and White-winged Chough). Such species may deserve specific management strategies to maintain populations in forests where substantial areas are burnt by wildfire or planned burns, over short periods of time. The model for total bird abundance showed a significant fire frequency response with birds preferring sites twice burnt within 35 years (e.g. bark and canopy-foraging guilds). Four guilds demonstrated a preference for sites frequently burnt, increasing in abundance as number of burns increased (nectarivores, open-ground foragers, seeds in trees foragers, tall shrub foragers). In contrast, two species appeared to prefer sites that had experienced low fire frequencies, a response not common to their guilds. Laughing Kookaburra (carnivore) and White-winged Chough (forages on open ground among trees) generally declined in abundance with increasing fire frequency. © 2023 Elsevier B.V

Light Yield of Perovskite Nanocrystal-Doped Liquid Scintillator

Future generations of liquid scintillator neutrino experiments will require stably loading tons of candidate isotopes into kiloton-scale detectors, representing a significant chemical challenge. Nanoparticles containing the candidate isotopes provide a promising method for this loading. Additionally, the unique optical properties of nanoparticles can enhance detection and background discrimination. Perovskite nanocrystals are particularly attractive due to the reliability of their crystal structure and their easily-scalable synthesis. We present here the first study of lead-based perovskite nanocrystals for this application.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, submitted for publication in JINST. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1807.0663

Confirmation of co-denitrification in grazed grassland

peer-reviewedPasture-based livestock systems are often associated with losses of reactive forms of nitrogen (N) to the environment. Research has focused on losses to air and water due to the health, economic and environmental impacts of reactive N. Di-nitrogen (N2) emissions are still poorly characterized, both in terms of the processes involved and their magnitude, due to financial and methodological constraints. Relatively few studies have focused on quantifying N2 losses in vivo and fewer still have examined the relative contribution of the different N2 emission processes, particularly in grazed pastures. We used a combination of a high 15N isotopic enrichment of applied N with a high precision of determination of 15N isotopic enrichment by isotope-ratio mass spectrometry to measure N2 emissions in the field. We report that 55.8 g N m−2 (95%, CI 38 to 77 g m−2) was emitted as N2 by the process of co-denitrification in pastoral soils over 123 days following urine deposition (100 g N m−2), compared to only 1.1 g N m−2 (0.4 to 2.8 g m−2) from denitrification. This study provides strong evidence for co-denitrification as a major N2 production pathway, which has significant implications for understanding the N budgets of pastoral ecosystems.The authors are grateful for the funding that was provided through the Research Stimulus Fund Program administered by the Department of Agriculture & Food under the National Development Plan 2007–2013 RSF 07536. The first author is grateful for the funding provided by Teagasc through the Walsh Fellowship Scheme