13,659 research outputs found
Ecological validity of a simplified version of the multiple errands shopping test
Shallice and Burgess (1991) reported the utility of the Multiple Errands Test (MET) in discriminating executive deficits in three frontal lobe patients with preserved high IQ, who were otherwise unimpaired on tests of executive function. The aim of this study was to ascertain the value of a simplified version of the MET (MET-SV) for use with the range of people more routinely encountered in clinical practice. Main findings were as follows: 1) The test discriminated well between neurological patients and controls, and the group effects remained when the difference in current general cognitive functions (WAIS-R FSIQ) was taken into account. 2) The best predictors of performance in the healthy control group (n = 46) were age and the number of times participants asked for help (with more requests associated with poorer performance). 3) In the neurological group, two clear patterns of failure emerged, with performance either characterized by rule breaking or failure to achieve tasks. These two patterns were associated with different dysexecutive symptoms in everyday life. 4) The patients not only made more errors than controls, but also different ones. A scoring method that took this into account markedly increased test sensitivity. 5) Many patients passed traditional tests of executive frontal lobe function but still failed the MET-SV This pattern was strongly associated with observed dysexecutive symptoms in everyday life. The results demonstrate the clinical utility of the test, and suggest that there are two common and independent sources of failure on multitasking tests in a general neurological population: memory dysfunction, and initiation problems
The influence of perceived vocal traits on trusting behaviours in an economic game.
When presented with voices, we make rapid, automatic judgements of social traits such as trustworthiness-and such judgements are highly consistent across listeners. However, it remains unclear whether voice-based first impressions actually influence behaviour towards a voice's owner, and-if they do-whether and how they interact over time with the voice owner's observed actions to further influence the listener's behaviour. This study used an investment game paradigm to investigate (1) whether voices judged to differ in relevant social traits accrued different levels of investment and/or (2) whether first impressions of the voices interacted with the behaviour of their apparent owners to influence investments over time. Results show that participants were responding to their partner's behaviour. Crucially, however, there were no effects of voice. These findings suggest that, at least under some conditions, social traits perceived from the voice alone may not influence trusting behaviours in the context of a virtual interaction
The effects of high variability training on voice identity learning.
High variability training has been shown to benefit the learning of new face identities. In three experiments, we investigated whether this is also the case for voice identity learning. In Experiment 1a, we contrasted high variability training sets - which included stimuli extracted from a number of different recording sessions, speaking environments and speaking styles - with low variability stimulus sets that only included a single speaking style (read speech) extracted from one recording session (see Ritchie & Burton, 2017 for faces). Listeners were tested on an old/new recognition task using read sentences (i.e. test materials fully overlapped with the low variability training stimuli) and we found a high variability disadvantage. In Experiment 1b, listeners were trained in a similar way, however, now there was no overlap in speaking style or recording session between training sets and test stimuli. Here, we found a high variability advantage. In Experiment 2, variability was manipulated in terms of the number of unique items as opposed to number of unique speaking styles. Here, we contrasted the high variability training sets used in Experiment 1a with low variability training sets that included the same breadth of styles, but fewer unique items; instead, individual items were repeated (see Murphy, Ipser, Gaigg, & Cook, 2015 for faces). We found only weak evidence for a high variability advantage, which could be explained by stimulus-specific effects. We propose that high variability advantages may be particularly pronounced when listeners are required to generalise from trained stimuli to different-sounding, previously unheard stimuli. We discuss these findings in the context of mechanisms thought to underpin advantages for high variability training
The effects of dark septate endophytic fungi on chickpea drought tolerance
Non-Peer ReviewedDark septate endophytic (DSE) fungi represent a diverse group of root-colonizing fungal species that are common in environments with strong abiotic stress, such as semiarid prairie regions where their abundance in roots can exceed mycorrhizal fungi. Some DSE fungal species have the ability to benefit host plant growth under water stress conditions. Here we tested the effects of 49 DSE species on chickpea biomass growing under water limiting condition. Three DSE fungal species including Hypocrea lixii, Geomyces vinaceus and Mortierella alpina significantly increased the biomass of chickpea. However the majority of the DSE species did not significantly affect plant biomass and some species decreased that
Perceptual prioritization of self-associated voices
Information associated with the self is prioritized relative to information associated with others and is therefore processed more quickly and accurately. Across three experiments, we examined whether a new externallyâgenerated voice could become associated with the self and thus be prioritized in perception. In the first experiment, participants learned associations between three unfamiliar voices and three identities (self, friend, stranger). Participants then made speeded judgements of whether voiceâidentity pairs were correctly matched, or not. A clear selfâprioritization effect was found, with participants showing quicker and more accurate responses to the newly selfâassociated voice relative to either the friendâ or strangerâ voice. In two further experiments, we tested whether this prioritization effect increased if the selfâvoice was genderâmatched to the identity of the participant (Experiment 2) or if the selfâvoice was chosen by the participant (Experiment 3). Genderâmatching did not significantly influence prioritization; the selfâvoice was similarly prioritized when it matched the gender identity of the listener as when it did not. However, we observed that choosing the selfâvoice did interact with prioritization (Experiment 3); the selfâvoice became more prominent, via lesser prioritization of the other identities, when the selfâvoice was chosen relative to when it was not. Our findings have implications for the design and selection of individuated synthetic voices used for assistive communication devices, suggesting that agency in choosing a new vocal identity may modulate the distinctiveness of that voice relative to others
Association of chickpea root with soil fungi: a comparison of cultivars
Non-Peer ReviewedField crops influence soil microbiota, impacting the health status and productivity of cropping systems. We conducted a two year field experiment using thirteen genotypes of chickpea and applied deep amplicon pyrosequencing to verify whether plant genetics control the fungal community of the root endosphere. We obtained 63796 sequences of ITS1F/ITS2 and 52129 of 18S rDNA gene clustered into 127 non-mycorrhizal and 89 mycorrhizal operational taxonomic units (OTUs), respectively. Plant genotype and year (soil and weather) had significant effects on the fungal community of chickpea root endosphere. The desi genotypes had higher levels of mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal fungal richness and diversity than kabuli genotypes. This study reveals a "genotype effect" of chickpea on the soil microbiota and indicates the possibility to improve the performance of this crop through the selection of genotypes with improved root fungal communities
Cavity-enhanced optical Hall effect in two-dimensional free charge carrier gases detected at terahertz frequencies
The effect of a tunable, externally coupled Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity to
resonantly enhance the optical Hall effect signatures at terahertz frequencies
produced by a traditional Drude-like two-dimensional electron gas is shown and
discussed in this communication. As a result, the detection of optical Hall
effect signatures at conveniently obtainable magnetic fields, for example by
neodymium permanent magnets, is demonstrated. An AlInN/GaN-based high electron
mobility transistor structure grown on a sapphire substrate is used for the
experiment. The optical Hall effect signatures and their dispersions, which are
governed by the frequency and the reflectance minima and maxima of the
externally coupled Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity, are presented and discussed. Tuning
the externally coupled Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity strongly modifies the optical
Hall effect signatures, which provides a new degree of freedom for optical Hall
effect experiments in addition to frequency, angle of incidence and magnetic
field direction and strength
Improving public services through open data: public toilets
Bichardâs work for the TACT3 project (Bichard REF Output 3) found that UK toilet provision is not centrally collated and no national map or database of toilets exists. In contrast, the UK governmentâs white paper Open Public Services (2011) emphasised its commitment to incorporating the use of Open Data in public services provision that could be tailored to community preferences, and therefore be more sustainable. Incorporating Open Data on public toilet provision, Bichard and Knight (RCA) developed The Great British Public Toilet Map (GBPTM). Whilst a number of other websites and applications map toilets by âcrowd surfingâ, GBPTM is entirely populated by Open Data, and not only uses the data as information for users, but informs members of the public that such information is available and accessible for their use.
This paper presents the development of the GBPTM, including inclusive design research and studies that compare accuracy of information directly provided by users with Open Data collected by local authorities. It suggests that, to meet the health and well-being of an ageing population, a sustainable and cost-effective solution must be found for âpublicly accessibleâ toilet provision, including opening up provision beyond that âfor customers onlyâ and providing accurate information on current public provision. The paper highlights the barriers encountered in the production of Open Data by local authorities. A review of the paper in the journal Civil Engineering (May 2013) described the design of the GBPTM as a âsimple and elegant solutionâ.
The development of a digital output and an understanding of digitally based research led to Bichardâs successful submission to an EPSRC Digital Economy sandpit, in which she developed an interdisciplinary project with the Universities of Newcastle, Bournemouth and the West of England. The project, Family Rituals 2.0, secured ÂŁ750,000 in research funding with Bichard as co-investigator (2013â15)
Low-loss criterion and effective area considerations for photonic crystal fibers
We study the class of endlessly single-mode all-silica photonic crystal
fibers with a triangular air-hole cladding. We consider the sensibility to
longitudinal nonuniformities and the consequences and limitations for realizing
low-loss large-mode area photonic crystal fibers. We also discuss the
dominating scattering mechanism and experimentally we confirm that both macro
and micro-bending can be the limiting factor.Comment: Accepted for Journal of Optics A - Pure and Applied Optic
Introduction to the computational structural mechanics testbed
The Computational Structural Mechanics (CSM) testbed software system based on the SPAR finite element code and the NICE system is described. This software is denoted NICE/SPAR. NICE was developed at Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory and contains data management utilities, a command language interpreter, and a command language definition for integrating engineering computational modules. SPAR is a system of programs used for finite element structural analysis developed for NASA by Lockheed and Engineering Information Systems, Inc. It includes many complementary structural analysis, thermal analysis, utility functions which communicate through a common database. The work on NICE/SPAR was motivated by requirements for a highly modular and flexible structural analysis system to use as a tool in carrying out research in computational methods and exploring computer hardware. Analysis examples are presented which demonstrate the benefits gained from a combination of the NICE command language with a SPAR computational modules
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