The influence of typeface fluency on simple sentence encoding as measured through spectral power analysis

This item is only available electronically.Previous research has shown that typeface fluency has an impact on the encoding and processing of written texts. Specifically, less fluent letters and words appear to be processed more deeply and remembered more accurately. To date, there is limited research regarding the mechanisms by which typeface fluency impacts on the encoding of full sentences. Therefore, this study aimed to expand on this research by focusing on the way it can be applied to the encoding of full sentences. Participants were asked to memorise simple sentences presented in either a fluent or disfluent typeface. Electroencephalography was used to record the changes in spectral power during the learning phase in order to determine the level of encoding success. Following a period of distraction, an audio-presented recall task was used to assess recall accuracy. Fluency was found to be associated with changes in alpha power at learning. Further, alpha power significantly differed between the parietal and occipital regions of the brain but did not show any reaction with fluency. Due to performance ceiling effects, these findings could not be associated with memory outcomes. This research is especially relevant to education, as much of the information presented in schooling is digitally presented text. Keywords: electroencephalography, spectral power, typeface fluency, language encoding, typographyThesis (B.PsychSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 201

Chloroplast genome evolution in New Zealand mycoheterotrophic Orchidaceae : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Plant Biology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

The plastid genomes, or plastomes, of most photosynthetic land plants are highly similar. In contrast, those of non-photosynthetic, heterotrophic land plants are often reduced in both size and gene content. The apparent degradation of mycoheterotrophic plant plastomes has been attributed to a functionally-driven stepwise pattern of loss. However, the number of complete plastome sequences available for mycoheterotrophic plants is small and taxonomic coverage is biased. In this thesis, the plastomes of two mycoheterotrophic orchid species endemic to New Zealand, Corybas cryptanthus Hatch (Diurideae) and Danhatchia australis Garay & Christenson (Goodyerinae), as well as those of an albino and several photosynthetic representatives of Corybas are reported. Beyond increasing the number of mycoheterotrophic plastomes available for evaluating broad hypotheses about plastome evolution in non-photosynthetic plants, these data also provide insights into two little studied aspects of plastome evolution in mycoheterotrophs; intraspecific variation in the plastomes of mycoheterotrophs and the differences between mycoheterotrophs and their closest photosynthetic relatives. The plastomes of C. cryptanthus and D. australis differ in the extent to which they are degraded. Perhaps unexpectedly, the plastome of C. cryptanthus, which has close photosynthetic relatives and therefore is likely to have arisen more recently than the taxonomically isolated D. australis, is more reduced. Specifically, the plastomes of C. cryptanthus are approximately half the size and have half the gene content of the other Corybas sequenced whereas the plastome of D. australis is similar to those available for photosynthetic relatives. This contrast may reflect underlying differences between the two genera; the photosynthetic relatives of D. australis have plastomes containing NADH dehydrogenase (ndh) genes whereas those of photosynthetic Corybas have lost their ndh genes and their small single copy regions are highly reduced. These features may have predisposed the ancestor of C. cryptanthus to rapid genome degradation. Finally, observations on these results strongly suggest that plastome degradation follows, rather than precedes, the shift to mycoheterotrophy

Dislocation and Relocation: Women in the Federal Prison System and Repurposing FCI Danbury for Men

(Excerpt) This Report tracks the lack of progress in keeping federal prison space in the Northeast available for women and the impact of the absence of bed-spaces for women on the implementation of federal policies committed to reducing over-incarceration. The problems began in the summer of 2013, when the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) announced plans to transform its only prison for women in the Northeast—FCI Danbury—into a facility for men. The BOP explained that this self-described “mission change” was a response to the need to provide more low-security beds for male prisoners

Early Clinical Features of Dengue Virus Infection in Nicaraguan Children: A Longitudinal Analysis

Dengue virus causes an estimated 50 million dengue cases and approximately 500,000 life-threatening complications annually. New tools are needed to distinguish dengue from other febrile illnesses. In addition, the natural history of pediatric dengue early in illness in a community-based setting has not been well-defined. Here, we describe the clinical spectrum of pediatric dengue over the course of illness in a community setting by using five years of data from an ongoing prospective cohort study of children in Managua, Nicaragua. Day-by-day analysis of clinical signs and symptoms together with longitudinal statistical analysis showed significant associations with testing dengue-positive and important differences during the early phase of illness compared to the entire course of illness. These findings are important for clinical practice since outside of the hospital setting, clinicians may see dengue patients toward the beginning of their illness and utilize that information to decide whether their patient has dengue or another febrile illness. The results of these models should be extended for the development of prediction algorithms to aid clinicians in diagnosing suspected dengue

Effects of Dietary Antioxidant Supplementation on Cattle Finished with 30% Wet Distillers Grains Plus Solubles on Fatty Acid Profiles and Display Life

Steers were finished on either 0% wet distillers grains plus solubles or 30% wet distillers grains plus solubles with four antioxidant treatments to evaluate the effects of finishing diets containing wet distillers grains plus solubles, vitamin E and Agrado Plus on beef fatty acid profiles, discoloration and lipid oxidation of retail- displayed beef. Th e inclusion of 30% wet distillers grains plus solubles increased total polyunsaturated fatty acids of beef, but did not promote discoloration or lipid oxidation compared to the 0% wet distillers grains plus solubles diet. In both diets, feeding vitamin E alone or vitamin E+ Agrado Plus was effective in reducing lipid oxidation and maintaining color stability, while supplementing Agrado Plus alone had minimal effects in improving lipid and color stability

Estimating the burden of pneumococcal pneumonia among adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic techniques

Background: Pneumococcal pneumonia causes significant morbidity and mortality among adults. Given limitations of diagnostic tests for non-bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia, most studies report the incidence of bacteremic or invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), and thus, grossly underestimate the pneumococcal pneumonia burden. We aimed to develop a conceptual and quantitative strategy to estimate the non-bacteremic disease burden among adults with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) using systematic study methods and the availability of a urine antigen assay. Methods and Findings: We performed a systematic literature review of studies providing information on the relative yield of various diagnostic assays (BinaxNOW® S. pneumoniae urine antigen test (UAT) with blood and/or sputum culture) in diagnosing pneumococcal pneumonia. We estimated the proportion of pneumococcal pneumonia that is bacteremic, the proportion of CAP attributable to pneumococcus, and the additional contribution of the Binax UAT beyond conventional diagnostic techniques, using random effects meta-analytic methods and bootstrapping. We included 35 studies in the analysis, predominantly from developed countries. The estimated proportion of pneumococcal pneumonia that is bacteremic was 24.8% (95% CI: 21.3%, 28.9%). The estimated proportion of CAP attributable to pneumococcus was 27.3% (95% CI: 23.9%, 31.1%). The Binax UAT diagnosed an additional 11.4% (95% CI: 9.6, 13.6%) of CAP beyond conventional techniques. We were limited by the fact that not all patients underwent all diagnostic tests and by the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic tests themselves. We address these resulting biases and provide a range of plausible values in order to estimate the burden of pneumococcal pneumonia among adults. Conclusions: Estimating the adult burden of pneumococcal disease from bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia data alone significantly underestimates the true burden of disease in adults. For every case of bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia, we estimate that there are at least 3 additional cases of non-bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia

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