Remote Effects of OFA Disruption on the Face Perception Network Revealed by Consecutive TMS-FMRI

The face perception system is comprised of a network of connected regions including the middle fusiform gyrus (“fusiform face area” or FFA), the inferior occipital gyrus (“occipital face area” or OFA), and the posterior part of the superior temporal sulcus. These regions are typically active bilaterally but may show right hemisphere dominance. The functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) response of the right FFA is normally attenuated for face stimuli of the same compared to different identities, called fMR-adaptation. The recovery in fMRI signal, or release from fMR-adaptation, for faces of different identities indicates that the neural population comprising the FFA is involved in coding face identity. Patients with prosopagnosia who are unable to visually recognize faces and who show right OFA damage, nonetheless show face-selective activation in the right FFA (Rossion et al., 2003; Steeves et al., 2006). However, the sensitivity to face identity is abnormal in the right FFA and does not show the typical release from adaptation for different face identities (Steeves et al., 2009). This indicates that in these patients the FFA is not differentiating face identity and suggests that an intact right OFA is integral for face identity coding. We used offline repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to temporarily disrupt processing in the right OFA in healthy subjects. We then immediately performed fMRI to measure changes in blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal across the face network using a face fMR-adaptation paradigm. We hypothesized that TMS to the right OFA would induce abnormal face identity coding in the right FFA, reflected by a decreased adaptation response. Indeed, activation for different but not same identity faces in the right FFA decreased after TMS was applied to the right OFA compared to sham TMS and TMS to a control site, the nearby object-selective right lateral occipital area (LO). Our findings indicate that TMS to the OFA selectively disrupts face but not butterfly identity coding in both the OFA and FFA. Congruent with mounting evidence from both patients and healthy subjects, here we causally demonstrate the importance of the often-overlooked OFA for normal face identity coding in the FFA

On (t,r)(t,r) broadcast domination of certain grid graphs

Let $G=( V(G), E(G) )$ be a connected graph with vertex set $V(G)$ and edge set $E(G)$. We say a subset $D$ of $V(G)$ dominates $G$ if every vertex in $V \setminus D$ is adjacent to a vertex in $D$. A generalization of this concept is $(t,r)$ broadcast domination. We designate certain vertices to be towers of signal strength $t$, which send out signal to neighboring vertices with signal strength decaying linearly as the signal traverses the edges of the graph. We let $\mathbb{T}$ be the set of all towers, and we define the signal received by a vertex $v\in V(G)$ from a tower $w \in \mathbb T$ to be $f(v)=\sum_{w\in \mathbb{T}}max(0,t-d(v,w))$. Blessing, Insko, Johnson, Mauretour (2014) defined a $(t,r)$ broadcast dominating set, or a $(t,r)$ broadcast, on $G$ as a set $\mathbb{T} \subseteq V(G)$ such that $f(v)\geq r$ for all $v\in V(G)$. The minimal cardinality of a $(t, r)$ broadcast on $G$ is called the $(t, r)$ broadcast domination number of $G$. In this paper, we present our research on the $(t,r)$ broadcast domination number for certain graphs including paths, grid graphs, the slant lattice, and the king's lattice.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figure

Cultivating cultural capitals in introductory algebra-based physics through reflective journaling

At a large, diverse, hispanic-serving, master’s-granting university, the Alma Project was created to support the rich connections of life experiences of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students that come from racially diverse backgrounds through reflective journaling. Utilizing frameworks in ethnic studies and social psychology, the Alma Project aims to make learning STEM inclusive by affirming the intersectional identities and cultural wealth that students bring into STEM classrooms. Approximately once per month students who participate in the Alma Project spend 5–10 min at the beginning of class responding to questions designed to affirm their values and purpose for studying STEM in college. Students then spend time in class sharing their responses with their peers, to the extent that they feel comfortable, including common struggles and successes in navigating through college and STEM spaces. For this study, we analyze 180 reflective journaling essays of students enrolled in General Physics I, an algebra-based introductory physics course primarily for life science majors. Students were enrolled in a required lab, a self-selected community-based learning program (Supplemental Instruction), or in a small number of instances, both. Using the community cultural wealth framework to anchor our analysis, we identified 11 cultural capitals that students often expressed within these physics spaces. Students in both populations frequently expressed aspirational, attainment, and navigational capital, while expressions of other cultural capitals, such as social capital, differ in the two populations. Our findings suggest that students bring rich and diverse perspectives into physics classrooms when asked to reflect about their lived experiences. Moreover, our study provides evidence that reflective journaling can be used as an asset-based teaching tool. By using reflective journaling in physics spaces, recognizing students’ assets has the potential for physics educators to leverage students’ lived experiences, goals, and values to make physics learning more meaningful and engaging

Bone metabolism and incretin hormones following glucose ingestion in young adults with pancreatic insufficient cystic fibrosis

BACKGROUND: Gut-derived incretin hormones, including glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), regulate post-prandial glucose metabolism by promoting insulin production. GIP, GLP-1, and insulin contribute to the acute bone anti-resorptive effect of macronutrient ingestion by modifying bone turnover. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is associated with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (PI), which perturbs the incretin response. Cross-talk between the gut and bone ( gut-bone axis ) has not yet been studied in PI-CF. The objectives of this study were to assess changes in biomarkers of bone metabolism during oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT) and to test associations between incretins and biomarkers of bone metabolism in individuals with PI-CF. METHODS: We performed a secondary analysis of previously acquired blood specimens from multi-sample OGTT from individuals with PI-CF ages 14-30 years (n = 23). Changes in insulin, incretins, and biomarkers of bone resorption (C-terminal telopeptide of type 1 collagen [CTX]) and formation (procollagen type I RESULTS: CTX decreased by 32% by min 120 of OGTT (P \u3c 0.001), but P1NP was unchanged. Increases in GIP from 0 to 30 mins (rho = -0.48, P = 0.03) and decreases in GIP from 30 to 120 mins (rho = 0.62, P = 0.002) correlated with decreases in CTX from mins 0-120. Changes in GLP-1 and insulin were not correlated with changes in CTX, and changes in incretins and insulin were not correlated with changes in P1NP. CONCLUSIONS: Intact GIP response was correlated with the bone anti-resorptive effect of glucose ingestion, represented by a decrease in CTX. Since incretin hormones might contribute to development of diabetes and bone disease in CF, the gut-bone axis warrants further attention in CF during the years surrounding peak bone mass attainment

Losing the Lake: Development and Deployment of an Educational Game

When asked what the top three issues of the Las Vegas region were, the reply was “water, water, water! This was the result of a survey done a few years ago of Las Vegas Valley TV anchors. The reason for this response is that sustainability of the urban environments requires sufficient water resources as does population growth. With the advent of global climate change, this resource is in danger. Water flow and mountainous ice packs are impacted by this change in climate there by impacting the amount of water the the region. This is compounded over time as the population increases and the water supply decreases. Even as the flow of water to the Las Vegas Valley is decreasing, many people in the area do not fully appreciate the severity of this crisis. This knowledge is at many times not brought to fruition as many people do not even understand some possible ways to contribute to water conservation. With the idea of educating young Nevadans, future initiatives can be put into practice to further alleviate a dire situation. Research has shown that imagery is important for a students\u27 attention and enables changes in their thought process. With this approach, the goal of this project is to create an engaging environment to help awareness for the young and old alike

12 Museum Theorists at Play

Introduction by Lauren Appel1. Learning by Do-weyan, by Marian Howard, with Nicole Ferrin2: Dewey Defines Himself and Education, by David Vining 3. Benjamin Ives Gilman: Arts in People’s Lives, by Katherine Hillman 4. John Cotton Dana: The Social Construction of Museums, by Marissa Corwin 5. Piaget in the Art Museum: Constructing Knowledge Through Active Engagement, by Berry Stein 6. Lev Vygotsky: The Social Aspects of Learning, by Nicole Keller 7. Paulo Freire: Literacy, Democracy, and Context, by Nicole Keller 8. Maxine Greene: Aesthetic Education, by Lauren Appel 9. Howard Gardner and Multiple Intelligence Theory: A Practical Application of Entry Points in Museum Programming, by Bill Elliston 10. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Finding the Flow, by David Bowles 11. George Hein: Metaconstructivist, by Lauren Appel 12. David Carr: A Poetics of Questions, by Tiffany Reedy 13. David Sobel: Please in My Backyard, by Kathryn Eliza Harris 14. Connecting the Dots, by Liat Olenickhttps://educate.bankstreet.edu/faculty-staff/1009/thumbnail.jp

Losing the Lake: Designing an Educational Computer Game on Water Resources in Southern Nevada

30 PowerPoint slides Convener: Nick Lancaster, DRI Session 6: Bridging the Gap- Interdisciplinary Science to Connect Biophysical and Social Dimensions of Climate Change Abstract: To design and test an educationally useful computer game to educate middle- and high-school students, and the general public, about water and sustainability + effect of climate change on thos

Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use.

Tobacco and alcohol use are leading causes of mortality that influence risk for many complex diseases and disorders1. They are heritable2,3 and etiologically related4,5 behaviors that have been resistant to gene discovery efforts6-11. In sample sizes up to 1.2 million individuals, we discovered 566 genetic variants in 406 loci associated with multiple stages of tobacco use (initiation, cessation, and heaviness) as well as alcohol use, with 150 loci evidencing pleiotropic association. Smoking phenotypes were positively genetically correlated with many health conditions, whereas alcohol use was negatively correlated with these conditions, such that increased genetic risk for alcohol use is associated with lower disease risk. We report evidence for the involvement of many systems in tobacco and alcohol use, including genes involved in nicotinic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission. The results provide a solid starting point to evaluate the effects of these loci in model organisms and more precise substance use measures

Concert recording 2017-04-27

[Track 1]. Adoramus te, Christe / Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina -- [Track 2]. Ubi caritas / Maurice Duruflé -- [Track 3]. Three Hungarian folk songs. I. The handsome butcher II. Apple, apple III. The old woman / Matyas Seiber -- [Track 4]. He watching over Israel from Elijah / Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy -- [Track 5]. Ain\u27t got time to die / Hall Johnson