Earlier visual N1 latencies in expert video-game players: a temporal basis of enhanced visuospatial performance.

Increasing behavioural evidence suggests that expert video game players (VGPs) show enhanced visual attention and visuospatial abilities, but what underlies these enhancements remains unclear. We administered the Poffenberger paradigm with concurrent electroencephalogram (EEG) recording to assess occipital N1 latencies and interhemispheric transfer time (IHTT) in expert VGPs. Participants comprised 15 right-handed male expert VGPs and 16 non-VGP controls matched for age, handedness, IQ and years of education. Expert VGPs began playing before age 10, had a minimum 8 years experience, and maintained playtime of at least 20 hours per week over the last 6 months. Non-VGPs had little-to-no game play experience (maximum 1.5 years). Participants responded to checkerboard stimuli presented to the left and right visual fields while 128-channel EEG was recorded. Expert VGPs responded significantly more quickly than non-VGPs. Expert VGPs also had significantly earlier occipital N1s in direct visual pathways (the hemisphere contralateral to the visual field in which the stimulus was presented). IHTT was calculated by comparing the latencies of occipital N1 components between hemispheres. No significant between-group differences in electrophysiological estimates of IHTT were found. Shorter N1 latencies may enable expert VGPs to discriminate attended visual stimuli significantly earlier than non-VGPs and contribute to faster responding in visual tasks. As successful video-game play requires precise, time pressured, bimanual motor movements in response to complex visual stimuli, which in this sample began during early childhood, these differences may reflect the experience and training involved during the development of video-game expertise, but training studies are needed to test this prediction

Galaxy Zoo: Morphological Classification and Citizen Science

We provide a brief overview of the Galaxy Zoo and Zooniverse projects, including a short discussion of the history of, and motivation for, these projects as well as reviewing the science these innovative internet-based citizen science projects have produced so far. We briefly describe the method of applying en-masse human pattern recognition capabilities to complex data in data-intensive research. We also provide a discussion of the lessons learned from developing and running these community--based projects including thoughts on future applications of this methodology. This review is intended to give the reader a quick and simple introduction to the Zooniverse.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure; to be published in Advances in Machine Learning and Data Mining for Astronom

The snakes and ladders of legal participation: litigants in person and the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights

This article reviews the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights for litigants in person (LIPs). LIPs operate in a system that was not designed for them and so challenge the norm of fully represented parties that the system has evolved to expect, creating potential risks for their Article 6 rights. The jurisprudence on Article 6 reveals the centrality of effective participation as a requirement for fulfilling the right to a fair trial. The article views the jurisprudential interpretation against original and significant empirical research data on how LIPs participate in civil and family court processes. It applies a conceptual analysis of legal participation to consider what might constitute effective participation in court proceedings and, through the empirical evidence, categorizes the intellectual, practical, emotional, and attitudinal barriers that LIPs face in their legal proceedings, which can constitute risks to their rights under Article 6

Knowledge and attitudes of UK university students in relation to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure and their sun-related behaviours: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVES: To explore whether knowledge about the harms of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) influences UK university students' sun-related behaviours and examine in depth their attitudes towards: sun protection, natural and artificial tanning behaviours. DESIGN: Qualitative methodology with 15 semistructured, individual interviews. Thematic analysis using the Framework Method with analyst triangulation and member validation. SETTING: One university in the West Midlands, UK. PARTICIPANTS: 15 Caucasian male (n=4) and female (n=11) students, aged 18–22 years, from a UK university. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling from the university's main campus followed by purposive sampling for: gender, course and sun-related behaviours. RESULTS: Five main themes emerged: (1) knowledge of UVR; (2) sun-protection practices; (3) attitudes towards tanning; (4) external influences and (5) internal influences. All students knew the associated skin cancer risks from the sun and sunbed use, but this did not appear an important influence in their sun-related behaviours. Body image strongly motivated sun-protection practices and the desire to tan naturally or artificially, across both genders. However, participants' final decision-making appeared to be influenced by their beliefs that practising known harmful sun-related behaviours would not affect them or the perceived susceptibility to sunburn. Beliefs about sunbathing and sunscreen use prompted improper use of sun protection and inadvertently caused more harmful practices. Participants' peers, family and the media had dual roles influencing the development of attitudes towards sun protection and tanning, which contributed to how participants behaved in the sun and their engagement in tanning methods. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge about the risk of skin cancer associated with UVR did not strongly influence sun-related behaviours, whereas body image appeared as a key motivator. Attitudes towards sun protection and tanning stemmed from the media, peers and family, and particularly from childhood habits. Public health strategies may benefit from appearance-related skin cancer prevention campaigns, encouraging safer parental sun-related habits and correcting sun-related misconceptions

Australian Capital Territory COVID-19 Intensive Care Triage Principles and Process: Consumer, Carer, and Community Consultation Report

Executive Summary The ACT Clinical Health Emergency Coordination Centre engaged the research team in May 2020 to conduct a review of the ethical decision-making processes for allocating critical care resources should demand exceed supply during the global COVID-19 pandemic. ES.1 Methodology The methodology for this review broadly included undertaking a scoping review of ethical decision-making frameworks in other jurisdictions; a systematic review of consumer, carer, and community engagement in ethical decision-making frameworks; and a series of consultative processes. The outcomes from each of these activities were then integrated into the ACT Ethical Decision-Making Framework which had been drafted by the Clinical Ethics Committee of Canberra Health Services earlier in the pandemic. Based on a ‘Scoping Review of Ethical Decision-Making Frameworks’ and a ‘Systematic Review of Consumer Engagement in Ethical Decision-Making Frameworks’, a consultation process was developed whereby relevant consumer, carer, and community groups from across the ACT region were given a range of opportunities to provide input into what principles should form the basis of ethical decision-making in the context of COVID-19 should demand for acute care resources exceed capacity. ES.2 Recommendations The recommendations developed through analysis of the consultations are: 1. There should be a primacy of Human Rights underpinning decision-making processes, 2. Non-discrimination should be embedded in triage, 3. Triage should be primarily based on immediate health concerns (that is, with no assumptions or value judgements about people’s health conditions), 4. Triage processes should minimise bias, and 5. Triage processes should be transparent