Attention explores space periodically at the theta frequency

Voluntary attention is at the core of a wide variety of cognitive functions. Attention can be oriented to and sustained at a location or reoriented in space to allow processing at other locations—critical in an ever-changing environment. Numerous studies have investigated attentional orienting in time and space, but little is known about the spatiotemporal dynamics of attentional reorienting. Here we explicitly manipulated attentional reorienting using a cuing procedure in a two- alternative forced-choice orientation-discrimination task. We interrogated attentional distribution by flashing two probe stimuli with various delays between the precue and target stimuli. Then we used the probabilities that both probes and neither probe were correctly reported to solve a second-degree equation, which estimates the report probability at each probe location. We demonstrated that attention reorients periodically at ~4 Hz (theta) between the two stimulus locations. We further characterized the processing dynamics at each stimulus location, and demonstrated that attention samples each location periodically at ;11 Hz (alpha). Finally, simulations support our findings and show that this method is sufficiently powered, making it a valuable tool for studying the spatiotemporal dynamics of attention

Integrating Normal and Pathological Measures of Narcissism

Narcissism is understood and assessed differently across the most commonly used measures, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Hall, 1979) the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI; Pincus et al., 2009), and the Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) items of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 (PDQ-4; Hyler, 1994). Due to these differences, the range of the severity of narcissism each measure covers and the different abilities of each measure to reliably determine a person’s level of narcissism remain unclear. The use of Item Response Theory (IRT) remedies these issues by allowing each of the three measures to be linked and then compared on the same metric. The three measures were completed by a sample of 587 undergraduate participants. The latent construct was formed by items of the PDQ-4 and was designed to reflect narcissism as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition (DSM-5; American Psychological Association, 2013) and the ability of each measure to indicate that latent continuum was calculated and analyzed. Results show that the PDQ-4 provided statistically significant information from .03 to 2.68 SDs of the latent continuum. The NPI provided statistically significant information across a broader swath of the latent continuum, from -.88 to 3.71 SDs. The PNI provided statistically significant information across the widest range and spanned across -4.0 to 4.0 SDs of the latent continuum. Therefore, when considering how optimally to measure DSM narcissism, evidence suggests that the PNI will likely be best suited to do so and will afford more precise measurement of the more severe ranges of narcissism

EXTRACTION OF VIRTUAL ACCELERATION DATA FROM MOTION CAPTURE

Wearable inertial sensors, such as accelerometers, have recently proven to be very effective tools for studying the biomechanical performance of athletes in many sports, as they are lightweight, relatively unobtrusive, and in many cases can be worn outside the laboratory during both training and competitive conditions. In using such devices, it is important that the sensors are placed in the correct position to capture the desired data, and finding this position can involve considerable time and effort. By utilising 3-D imagery, an efficient method for calculating virtual acceleration data for multiple sensor positions is proposed, which will allow researchers to quickly obtain large amounts of data for testing without the need for extensive field trials. Verification undertaken using actual inertial sensors show the accuracy and usefulness of this approach

The Enigmatic Quaternary Shell Bed Deposits of Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania: Linking Anthropogenic Land-Use with Nearshore Sedimentation

Extensive deposits of carbonate shell-rich sediments in the nearshore environment ( 100 km2). Here, we suggest that observed onshore watershed disturbances result in sediments that are muddier with a higher percentage of clay in the area offshore of the Lagosa and Rukoma river watersheds compared to the area offshore of the largely unaltered Katumbi river watershed. Widespread burning of land, agricultural land-use, and the torrential rains of the wet season are causal factors that result in significant increases in fine-grained clastic sedimentation, increased fluvio-deltaic sediment plume size, and increased delta shoreline progradation. In areas most affected by sedimentation, littoral sponges are largely absent, and we speculate that other important benthic organisms that inhabit the shell beds are also negatively impacted by the influx of fine-grained clastic sediment. The discovery of a small population of Neothauma tanganyicense offshore of the relatively unaltered Katumbi river watershed suggests that the shell beds’ heterogeneity could be related to anthropogenic land-use and its effect on the occurrence of shell-bed forming gastropods

Controlled creation of three-dimensional vortex structures in Bose--Einstein condensates using artificial magnetic fields

The physics of quantized vortex excitations in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates has been extensively studied in recent years.Although simple vortex lines are relatively easy to create, control, and measure in experiments, it is a lot more difficult to do the same for vortex ring structures.Here we suggest and explore a method for generating and controlling superfluid vortex rings, vortex ring lattices, and other three dimensional vortex structures in toroidally-trapped superfluid Bose--Einstein condensates by using the artificial magnetic field produced by an optical nanofiber.The presence of the fiber also necessitates a multiply-connected geometry and we show that in this situation the presence of these vortex structures can be deduced from exciting the scissors mode of the condensate.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

A Note on the Economy of Qualities: Attributing Production Practices to Agricultural Practices

Agricultural products are valued for many attributes including those that describe production practices. These production attributes are established through public and private efforts to promulgate standards and labels that differentiate products based on labor treatment, environmental impact, animal welfare, and other practices that occur during production. Organizations, like third-party certifiers, coordinate information and give credence to products in a way that enables consumers to differentiate products by production practices. Libertarian and utilitarian arguments may be used in the normative debate surrounding the appropriate role of government in sponsoring standards and labels that inform consumers about the modes of production

Performing Que(e)ries

Charles Busch, renowned New York performer, playwright, director, and drag extraordinaire, participated in the second iteration of this new CLAGS series in the Fall. He discussed his astonishing career in the theatre and on film, as well as the changes he has seen in LGBTQ performance over the last four decades in New York and beyond. The conversation was moderated by CLAGS Executive Director James Wilson

Sharing tactical data in a network-enabled coalition, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2004, nr 4

The NATO Command, Control and ConsultationAgency (NC3A) is a participant in a coalition project calledthe Shared Tactical Pictures (STP). The aim of STP is to de-velop methods and techniques to enable the sharing of a widevariety of information { e.g., ground surveillance sensors,airborne sensor platforms, recognized pictures, and muchmore { across a widely distributed network. As NATO changesits war- ghting paradigm from a well-known and stable al-liance con guration to more exible, coalition-based opera-tions, solving the problem of information-sharing has neverbeen more important. This paper discusses the technical andoperational developments being explored in STP

Elevated carbon dioxide alters neural signaling and anti-predator behaviors in ocean phase coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)

Elevated levels of CO2 have been shown to disrupt numerous neurological sensory systems in marine fish. This is of concern as Pacific salmon rely heavily on an important neurosensory system for survival, the olfactory system. In this study, we investigated the effects of elevated CO2 on a salmon olfactory driven behavior, as well as changes in neural signaling and gene expression within the peripheral and central olfactory system. Juvenile coho salmon were exposed to three different levels of CO2 for two weeks. These included a current CO2 level with a pH of 7.8, a medium CO2 level with a pH of 7.5, and a high CO2 level with a pH of 7.2. Our study found that juvenile coho salmon exposed to increasing levels of CO2 ceased avoiding an alarm odor compared to the controls. Furthermore, exposure to the high level of CO2 did not alter odorant induced signaling in the olfactory rosettes but did induce significant changes in signaling within the olfactory bulbs. RNA-seq analysis revealed significant changes in expression of genes involved in neuronal signaling and signal modulation within the olfactory bulbs from coho exposed to the high CO2 level compared to control coho. Our results indicate that coho salmon exposed to elevated CO2 can experience significant behavioral impairments that are potentially driven by alteration in higher-order neural signal processing within the olfactory bulbs. Supported by Washington Sea Grant, the Washington Ocean Acidification Center, and NIEHS Superfund ES-004696