Giving subjects the eye and showing them the finger: socio-biological cues and saccade generation in the anti-saccade task.

Pointing with the eyes or the finger occurs frequently in social interaction to indicate direction of attention and one's intentions. Research with a voluntary saccade task (where saccade direction is instructed by the colour of a fixation point) suggested that gaze cues automatically activate the oculomotor system, but non-biological cues, like arrows, do not. However, other work has failed to support the claim that gaze cues are special. In the current research we introduced biological and non-biological cues into the anti-saccade task, using a range of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). The anti-saccade task recruits both top ^ down and bottom^ up attentional mechanisms, as occurs in naturalistic saccadic behaviour. In experiment 1 gaze, but not arrows, facilitated saccadic reaction times (SRTs) in the opposite direction to the cues over all SOAs, whereas in experiment 2 directional word cues had no effect on saccades. In experiment 3 finger pointing cues caused reduced SRTs in the opposite direction to the cues at short SOAs. These findings suggest that biological cues automatically recruit the oculomotor system whereas non- biological cues do not. Furthermore, the anti-saccade task set appears to facilitate saccadic responses in the opposite direction to the cues

Predictive learning, prediction errors, and attention: evidence from event-related potentials and eye tracking

Prediction error (‘‘surprise’’) affects the rate of learning: We learn more rapidly about cues for which we initially make incorrect predictions than cues for which our initial predictions are correct. The current studies employ electrophysiological measures to reveal early attentional differentiation of events that differ in their previous involvement in errors of predictive judgment. Error-related events attract more attention, as evidenced by features of event-related scalp potentials previously implicated in selective visual attention (selection negativity, augmented anterior N1). The earliest differences detected occurred around 120 msec after stimulus onset, and distributed source localization (LORETA) indicated that the inferior temporal regions were one source of the earliest differences. In addition, stimuli associated with the production of prediction errors show higher dwell times in an eyetracking procedure. Our data support the view that early attentional processes play a role in human associative learning

Learning From Early Attempts to Generalize Darwinian Principles to Social Evolution

Copyright University of Hertfordshire & author.Evolutionary psychology places the human psyche in the context of evolution, and addresses the Darwinian processes involved, particularly at the level of genetic evolution. A logically separate and potentially complementary argument is to consider the application of Darwinian principles not only to genes but also to social entities and processes. This idea of extending Darwinian principles was suggested by Darwin himself. Attempts to do this appeared as early as the 1870s and proliferated until the early twentieth century. But such ideas remained dormant in the social sciences from the 1920s until after the Second World War. Some lessons can be learned from this earlier period, particularly concerning the problem of specifying the social units of selection or replication

Pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer risks in relation to occupational history and asbestos lung burden.

BACKGROUND: We have conducted a population-based study of pleural mesothelioma patients with occupational histories and measured asbestos lung burdens in occupationally exposed workers and in the general population. The relationship between lung burden and risk, particularly at environmental exposure levels, will enable future mesothelioma rates in people born after 1965 who never installed asbestos to be predicted from their asbestos lung burdens. METHODS: Following personal interview asbestos fibres longer than 5 µm were counted by transmission electron microscopy in lung samples obtained from 133 patients with mesothelioma and 262 patients with lung cancer. ORs for mesothelioma were converted to lifetime risks. RESULTS: Lifetime mesothelioma risk is approximately 0.02% per 1000 amphibole fibres per gram of dry lung tissue over a more than 100-fold range, from 1 to 4 in the most heavily exposed building workers to less than 1 in 500 in most of the population. The asbestos fibres counted were amosite (75%), crocidolite (18%), other amphiboles (5%) and chrysotile (2%). CONCLUSIONS: The approximate linearity of the dose-response together with lung burden measurements in younger people will provide reasonably reliable predictions of future mesothelioma rates in those born since 1965 whose risks cannot yet be seen in national rates. Burdens in those born more recently will indicate the continuing occupational and environmental hazards under current asbestos control regulations. Our results confirm the major contribution of amosite to UK mesothelioma incidence and the substantial contribution of non-occupational exposure, particularly in women

Isospin splitting of the nucleon mean field

The isospin splitting of the nucleon mean field is derived from the Brueckner theory extended to asymmetric nuclear matter. The Argonne V18 has been adopted as bare interaction in combination with a microscopic three body force. The isospin splitting of the effective mass is determined from the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock self-energy: It is linear acording to the Lane ansatz and such that $m^*_n > m^*_p$ for neutron-rich matter. The symmetry potential is also determined and a comparison is made with the predictions of the Dirac-Brueckner approach and the phenomenological interactions. The theoretical predictions are also compared with the empirical parametrizations of neutron and proton optical-model potentials based on the experimental nucleon-nucleus scattering and the phenomenological ones adopted in transport-model simulations of heavy-ion collisions. The direct contribution of the rearrangement term due to three-body forces to the single particle potential and symmetry potential is discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure

Essential thrombocythaemia in a child of three years

AbstractEssential thrombocythaemia is a rare pathology in adults and extremely rare in children, making it a diagnostic challenge for paediatricians. The challenge is greater when patients are asymptomatic, despite an incidental discovery of thrombocytosis.We report the case of extreme thrombocytosis found in an asymptomatic child of 3 years with no personal history or familial history. Study protocol started by ruling out laboratory errors, infectious disease, haemolytic anaemia, iron deficiency anaemia and autoimmune diseases. Bone marrow sample confirmed elevated megakaryocyte production, with other cell lines within normal ranges. Genetic analysis (including JAK2 mutation) was also negative, leading to a differential diagnosis of essential thrombocythaemia. Hydroxyurea (10mg/kg) and aspirin (5mg/kg) were prescribed. A moderate reduction in platelet count was achieved after 4 weeks of treatment

Book Reviews

Review of the following books: The Tape-Recorded Interview: A Manual for Field Works in Folklore and Oral History by Edward D. Ives; The First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Waterville, Maine, 1828-1978 by Abbot E. Smith; Thrust for Canada: The American Attempt on Quebec in 1775-1776 by Robert McConnell Hatch; Native North American Spirituality of Eastern Woodlands: Sacred Myths, Dreams, Visions, Speeches, Healing Formulas, Rituals and Ceremonials edited by Elisabeth Tooke

Isospin non-equilibrium in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies

We study the equilibration of isospin degree of freedom in intermediate energy heavy-ion collisions using an isospin-dependent BUU model. It is found that there exists a transition from the isospin equilibration at low energies to non-equilibration at high energies as the beam energy varies across the Fermi energy in central, asymmetric heavy-ion collisions. At beam energies around 55 MeV/nucleon, the composite system in thermal equilibrium but isospin non-equilibrium breaks up into two primary hot residues with N/Z ratios closely related to those of the target and projectile respectively. The decay of these forward-backward moving residues results in the strong isospin asymmetry in space and the dependence of the isotopic composition of fragments on the N/Z ratios of the target and projectile. These features are in good agreement with those found recently in experiments at NSCL/MSU and TAMU, implications of these findings are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, latex, + 3 figures available upon reques

3 mm GMVA Observations of Total and Polarized Emission from Blazar and Radio Galaxy Core Regions

We present total and linearly polarized 3 mm Global mm-VLBI Array images of a sample of blazars and radio galaxies from the VLBA-BU-BLAZAR 7 mm monitoring program designed to probe the innermost regions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets and locate the sites of gamma-ray emission observed by the Fermi-LAT. The lower opacity at 3 mm and improved angular resolution, on the order of 50 microarcseconds, allow us to distinguish features in the jet not visible in the 7 mm VLBA data. We also compare two different methods used for the calibration of instrumental polarisation and we analyze the resulting images for some of the sources in the sample.Comment: Polarised Emission from Astrophysical Jets, June 12-16, 2017, Ierapetra, Greec