THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NEUROFEEDBACK ON DISSOCIATION AND EMOTION REGULATION, POSSIBLE MEDIATORS OF EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIOR IN ADOLESCENTS IN RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NEUROFEEDBACK ON DISSOCIATION AND EMOTION REGULATION, POSSIBLE MEDIATORS OF EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIOR IN ADOLESCENTS IN RESIDENTIAL TREATMEN

Exploring the measurement of markedness and its relationship with other linguistic variables

Antonym pair members can be differentiated by each word's markedness-that distinction attributable to the presence or absence of features at morphological or semantic levels. Morphologically marked words incorporate their unmarked counterpart with additional morphs (e.g., "unlucky" vs. "lucky"); properties used to determine semantically marked words (e.g., "short" vs. "long") are less clearly defined. Despite extensive theoretical scrutiny, the lexical properties of markedness have received scant empirical study. The current paper employs an antonym sequencing approach to measure markedness: establishing markedness probabilities for individual words and evaluating their relationship with other lexical properties (e.g., length, frequency, valence). Regression analyses reveal that markedness probability is, as predicted, related to affixation and also strongly related to valence. Our results support the suggestion that antonym sequence is reflected in discourse, and further analysis demonstrates that markedness probabilities, derived from the antonym sequencing task, reflect the ordering of antonyms within natural language. In line with the Pollyanna Hypothesis, we argue that markedness is closely related to valence; language users demonstrate a tendency to present words evaluated positively ahead of those evaluated negatively if given the choice. Future research should consider the relationship of markedness and valence, and the influence of contextual information in determining which member of an antonym pair is marked or unmarked within discourse

Contrasting prefrontal cortex contributions to episodic memory dysfunction in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia and alzheimer's disease

Recent evidence has questioned the integrity of episodic memory in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), where recall performance is impaired to the same extent as in Alzheimer's disease (AD). While these deficits appear to be mediated by divergent patterns of brain atrophy, there is evidence to suggest that certain prefrontal regions are implicated across both patient groups. In this study we sought to further elucidate the dorsolateral (DLPFC) and ventromedial (VMPFC) prefrontal contributions to episodic memory impairment in bvFTD and AD. Performance on episodic memory tasks and neuropsychological measures typically tapping into either DLPFC or VMPFC functions was assessed in 22 bvFTD, 32 AD patients and 35 age- and education-matched controls. Behaviourally, patient groups did not differ on measures of episodic memory recall or DLPFC-mediated executive functions. BvFTD patients were significantly more impaired on measures of VMPFC-mediated executive functions. Composite measures of the recall, DLPFC and VMPFC task scores were covaried against the T1 MRI scans of all participants to identify regions of atrophy correlating with performance on these tasks. Imaging analysis showed that impaired recall performance is associated with divergent patterns of PFC atrophy in bvFTD and AD. Whereas in bvFTD, PFC atrophy covariates for recall encompassed both DLPFC and VMPFC regions, only the DLPFC was implicated in AD. Our results suggest that episodic memory deficits in bvFTD and AD are underpinned by divergent prefrontal mechanisms. Moreover, we argue that these differences are not adequately captured by existing neuropsychological measures

Next-Generation Sequencing Reveals Significant Bacterial Diversity of Botrytized Wine

While wine fermentation has long been known to involve complex microbial communities, the composition and role of bacteria other than a select set of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) has often been assumed either negligible or detrimental. This study served as a pilot study for using barcoded amplicon next-generation sequencing to profile bacterial community structure in wines and grape musts, comparing the taxonomic depth achieved by sequencing two different domains of prokaryotic 16S rDNA (V4 and V5). This study was designed to serve two goals: 1) to empirically determine the most taxonomically informative 16S rDNA target region for barcoded amplicon sequencing of wine, comparing V4 and V5 domains of bacterial 16S rDNA to terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) of LAB communities; and 2) to explore the bacterial communities of wine fermentation to better understand the biodiversity of wine at a depth previously unattainable using other techniques. Analysis of amplicons from the V4 and V5 provided similar views of the bacterial communities of botrytized wine fermentations, revealing a broad diversity of low-abundance taxa not traditionally associated with wine, as well as atypical LAB communities initially detected by TRFLP. The V4 domain was determined as the more suitable read for wine ecology studies, as it provided greater taxonomic depth for profiling LAB communities. In addition, targeted enrichment was used to isolate two species of Alphaproteobacteria from a finished fermentation. Significant differences in diversity between inoculated and uninoculated samples suggest that Saccharomyces inoculation exerts selective pressure on bacterial diversity in these fermentations, most notably suppressing abundance of acetic acid bacteria. These results determine the bacterial diversity of botrytized wines to be far higher than previously realized, providing further insight into the fermentation dynamics of these wines, and demonstrate the utility of next-generation sequencing for wine ecology studies

Binary systems and their nuclear explosions

Peer ReviewedPreprin

A sensor management architecture concept for monitoring emissions from open-air demil operations.

Sandia National Laboratories, CA proposed a sensor concept to detect emissions from open-burning/open-detonation (OB/OD) events. The system would serve two purposes: (1) Provide data to demilitarization operations about process efficiency, allowing process optimization for cleaner emissions and higher efficiency. (2) Provide data to regulators and neighboring communities about materials dispersing into the environment by OB/OD operations. The proposed sensor system uses instrument control hardware and data visualization software developed at Sandia National Laboratories to link together an array of sensors to monitor emissions from OB/OD events. The suite of sensors would consist of various physical and chemical detectors mounted on stationary or mobile platforms. The individual sensors would be wirelessly linked to one another and controlled through a central command center. Real-time data collection from the sensors, combined with integrated visualization of the data at the command center, would allow for feedback to the sensors to alter operational conditions to adjust for changing needs (i.e., moving plume position, increased spatial resolution, increased sensitivity). This report presents a systems study of the problem of implementing a sensor system for monitoring OB/OD emissions. The goal of this study was to gain a fuller understanding of the political, economic, and technical issues for developing and fielding this technology