Integrating visual and tactile information in the perirhinal cortex

By virtue of its widespread afferent projections, perirhinal cortex is thought to bind polymodal information into abstract object-level representations. Consistent with this proposal, deficits in cross-modal integration have been reported after perirhinal lesions in nonhuman primates. It is therefore surprising that imaging studies of humans have not observed perirhinal activation during visual–tactile object matching. Critically, however, these studies did not differentiate between congruent and incongruent trials. This is important because successful integration can only occur when polymodal information indicates a single object (congruent) rather than different objects (incongruent). We scanned neurologically intact individuals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they matched shapes. We found higher perirhinal activation bilaterally for cross-modal (visual–tactile) than unimodal (visual–visual or tactile–tactile) matching, but only when visual and tactile attributes were congruent. Our results demonstrate that the human perirhinal cortex is involved in cross-modal, visual–tactile, integration and, thus, indicate a functional homology between human and monkey perirhinal cortices

Blood lactate clearance after maximal exercise depends on active recovery intensity

AIM: High-intensity exercise is time-limited by onset of fatigue, marked by accumulation of blood lactate. This is accentuated at maximal, all-out exercise that rapidly accumulates high blood lactate. The optimal active recovery intensity for clearing lactate after such maximal, all-out exercise remains unknown. Thus, we studied the intensity-dependence of lactate clearance during active recovery after maximal exercise.<p></p> METHODS: We constructed a standardized maximal, all-out treadmill exercise protocol that predictably lead to voluntary exhaustion and blood lactate concentration >10 mM. Next, subjects ran series of all-out bouts that increased blood lactate concentration to 11.5±0.2 mM, followed by recovery exercises ranging 0% (passive)-100% of the lactate threshold.<p></p> RESULTS: Repeated measurements showed faster lactate clearance during active versus passive recovery (P<0.01), and that active recovery at 60-100% of lactate threshold was more efficient for lactate clearance than lower intensity recovery (P<0.05). Active recovery at 80% of lactate threshold had the highest rate of and shortest time constant for lactate clearance (P<0.05), whereas the response during the other intensities was graded (100%=60%>40%>passive recovery, P<0.05).<p></p> CONCLUSION: Active recovery after maximal all-out exercise clears accumulated blood lactate faster than passive recovery in an intensity-dependent manner, with maximum clearance occurring at active recovery of 80% of lactate threshold

Panel III: Implications of the New Telecommunications Legislation

We present a method that employs a tree-based Neural Network (NN) for performing classification. The novel mechanism, apart from incorporating the information provided by unlabeled and labeled instances, re-arranges the nodes of the tree as per the laws of Adaptive Data Structures (ADSs). Particularly, we investigate the Pattern Recognition (PR) capabilities of the Tree-Based Topology-Oriented SOM (TTOSOM) when Conditional Rotations (CONROT) [8] are incorporated into the learning scheme. The learning methodology inherits all the properties of the TTOSOM-based classifier designed in [4]. However, we now augment it with the property that frequently accessed nodes are moved closer to the root of the tree. Our experimental results show that on average, the classification capabilities of our proposed strategy are reasonably comparable to those obtained by some of the state-of-the-art classification schemes that only use labeled instances during the training phase. The experiments also show that improved levels of accuracy can be obtained by imposing trees with a larger number of nodes

Marine Monitoring Program: Annual report for inshore pesticide monitoring 2014-2015

[Extract] Declining water quality influenced by land-based activities and run-off has been identified as a significant threat to the health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef (the Reef). Sediment, nutrients and pesticides remain the key water quality issues and may have negative impacts on marine plants and animals (primarily corals and seagrass) that are exposed to run-off plumes in inshore marine areas. The Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (Reef Plan) is a collaborative program designed to improve the quality of water in the Reef though improved land management practises. In 2014-2015, Entox carried out water quality monitoring activities in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (the Marine Park) as part of the Marine Monitoring Program (MMP) under Reef Plan. The key objectives of the project are to monitor and assess trends in inshore water quality (i.e. concentrations of pesticides/ herbicides) against the Marine Park Water Quality Guidelines, and link inshore concentrations and their transport with end-of-catchment loads

Pesticide monitoring in inshore waters of the Great Barrier Reef using both time-integrated and event monitoring techniques (2012-2013)

The report details pesticide monitoring activities carried out utilising a combination of passive sampling and grab sampling techniques in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park as part of the Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program (MMP). The MMP was implemented to evaluate changes in water quality in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and the status of key ecosystems under the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (RWQPP) 2003 (which was further updated in 2009).Report prepared by monitoring provider contractor to GBRMPA. Contract with gives GBRMPA complete use and distribution rights to all contract outputs, including this report

Pesticide monitoring in inshore waters of the Great Barrier Reef using both time-integrated and event monitoring techniques (2013-2014)

The report details pesticide monitoring activities carried out utilising a combination of passive sampling and grab sampling techniques in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park as part of the Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program (MMP). The MMP was implemented to evaluate changes in water quality in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and the status of key ecosystems under the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (RWQPP) 2003 (which was further updated in 2009)

Mapping the CMB I: the first flight of the QMAP experiment

We report on the first flight of the balloon-borne QMAP experiment. The experiment is designed to make a map of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy on angular scales from 0.7 to several degrees. Using the map we determine the angular power spectrum of the anisotropy in multipole bands from l~40 to l~140. The results are consistent with the Saskatoon (SK) measurements. The frequency spectral index (measured at low l) is consistent with that of CMB and inconsistent with either Galactic synchrotron or free-free emission. The instrument, measurement, analysis of the angular power spectrum, and possible systematic errors are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, with 5 figures included. Submitted to ApJL. Window functions and color figures are available at http://pupgg.princeton.edu/~cmb/welcome.htm

Pesticide monitoring in inshore waters of the Great Barrier Reef using both time-integrated and event monitoring techniques (2010-2011)

The report details pesticide monitoring activities carried out utilising a combination of passive sampling and grab sampling techniques in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park as part of the Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program (MMP). The MMP was implemented to evaluate changes in water quality in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and the status of key ecosystems under the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (RWQPP) 2003 (which was further updated in 2009).ENTOX: National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicolog

Galactic microwave emission at degree angular scales

We cross-correlate the Saskatoon Ka and Q-Band Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data with different maps to quantify possible foreground contamination. We detect a marginal correlation (2 sigma) with the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) 240, 140 and 100 microm maps, but we find no significant correlation with point sources, with the Haslam 408 MHz map or with the Reich and Reich 1420 MHz map. The rms amplitude of the component correlated with DIRBE is about 20% of the CMB signal. Interpreting this component as free-free emission, this normalization agrees with that of Kogut et al. (1996a; 1996b) and supports the hypothesis that the spatial correlation between dust and warm ionized gas observed on large angular scales persists to smaller angular scales. Subtracting this contribution from the CMB data reduces the normalization of the Saskatoon power spectrum by only a few percent.Comment: Minor revisions to match published version. 14 pages, with 2 figures included. Color figure and links at http://www.sns.ias.edu/~angelica/foreground.htm