Transcranial electric stimulation and cognitive training improves face perception

Recently, there has been much interest the effectiveness of cognitive training programmes across a variety of cognitive and perceptual domains. Some evidence suggests that combining training programmes with noninvasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) can enhance training gains, but to date this has only been examined in numerosity and arithmetic tasks. In this study, we examined whether tRNS modulated the effects of a face recognition training programme. Participants completed a face discrimination training task for an hour per day over five days. Each day, training was preceded by twenty minutes of active high frequency tRNS or sham stimulation, targeted at the posterior temporal cortices or the inferior frontal gyri (IFG). Participants who received active stimulation to the posterior temporal cortices showed significant improvement on a facial identity discrimination task (the Cambridge Face Perception Test) after training, whereas those receiving sham or IFG stimulation showed no performance change. There was no evidence of an effect of stimulation on a face memory task (the Cambridge Face Memory Test). These results suggest that tRNS can enhance the effectiveness of cognitive training programmes, but further work is needed to establish whether perceptual gains can be generalised to face memory

The Spatial Ecology of Predator-Prey Interactions: A Case Study of Yellowstone Elk, Wolves, and Cougars

The loss of large apex predators, and their subsequent reintroduction, has been identified as a substantial driver on the structure and function of ecological communities through behavioral mediated trophic cascades (BMTCs). The reintroduction of wolves (Canis lupus) to Yellowstone National Park (YNP) has served as foundational case study of BMTCs. In our system, it has been suggested that wolves have established a ‘landscape of fear’ in which the primary prey, elk (Cervus elaphus), now avoid risky places, which ultimately led to the recovery of the vegetation community. Although this case is frequently cited as a well-understood example of a landscape of fear, researchers never quantified whether elk avoided risky places, a critical component of the BMTC hypothesis. Thus, I employed numerous quantitative approaches to evaluate the role of wolves and cougars on elk habitat selection in northern Yellowstone. The results from this work suggest that the daily activity schedule of wolves provide a temporally predictable period of risk that allows elk to use risky places during safe times. As such, diel predator activity flattened (i.e., made less risky) the landscape of fear for 16 hours per day, 7 days a week, which permitted elk to forage on deciduous woody plants despite the presence of wolves. Thus, suggests that any trophic cascade in northern Yellowstone is likely driven by the consumptive effects of wolves on elk. In addition, my results suggest that daily activity patterns are an important component of predation risk, and as such, provide a predictable avenue for elk to avoid predators despite residing in an environment spatially saturated with wolves and cougars. Thus, the ability of elk to avoid predators through fine-scale spatial decisions provides support for my findings that the current spatial distribution of prey is largely driven by the consumptive effects of predators on the prey population, rather than a landscape of fear. In combination, these results suggest that the landscape of fear, and more generally, fear effects, may be of less relevance to conservation and management than direct killing within free-living, large landscapes

Thermal and hydraulic aspects of the KTB drill site

The extensive data sets obtained by the KTB drilling project (lithological and structural information, BHT values, temperature logs, rock thermal properties) provide a unique opportunity to construct realistic thermal models and thus to shed light on thermal conditions in the upper crust. Our numerical simulation study, a Swiss contribution to the German KTB drilling project, aims to understand the steady-state thermal and hydraulic field in the surroundings of the KTB. The simulations consider state-of-the-art petrophysical aspects relevant to deep, pressurized, high-temperature structures and were performed on discretized 2-D/3-D finite-element meshes that contain topography, geological structures and hydrogeological features. Our analysis of the KTB temperature field suggests three zones of particular geothermal settings: a low-heat-flow zone in the uppermost layers with a transition to high heat flow at 500 m depth; the underlying region accessed by the borehole with its characteristic uniform gradient; and the mid-lower crust that must be responsible for the high-heat-flow regime at the KTB site. The two first zones are treated in the present paper. A 3-D thermo-hydraulic model was set up in order to evaluate the first 2000 m, including the uppermost 500 m low-heat-flow zone. This model incorporates the complex geological information from the KTB pilot hole and topography-driven fluid flow. The lateral boundaries of the model were carefully chosen by analysing the flow pattern within a large, regional 3-D domain. The drilled section is analysed by a 2-D model using the available structural information. Due to dominating refraction effects, a careful temperature gradient analysis has to be carried out for such steeply dipping, anisotropic structures. Both models indicate a thermal regime dominated by diffusive heat transfer. Hydraulic flow seems to be important only for the uppermost (≈400 m) part of the drilled depth section; our simulations do not support significant fluid circulation at greater depths. In the drilled section the rather uniform gradient and the pronounced vertical heat-flow variations can now be explained. Finally, the potential and the limitation of the analysis of heat flows and temperature gradients are demonstrated. Heat-flow interpretations are conclusive only for nearly horizontally layered, isotropic geological units. In steeply dipping and anisotropic formations the heat-flow field is perturbed over a large distance (>1 km) around the point of interest. In such geological units only the temperature gradient interpretation can provide reliable information on the surrounding materia

The Moments of the Hydrogen Atom by the Method of Brackets

Expectation values of powers of the radial coordinate in arbitrary hydrogen states are given, in the quantum case, by an integral involving the associated Laguerre function. The method of brackets is used to evaluate the integral in closed-form and to produce an expression for this average value as a finite sum

Is More Mittelstand the Answer? Firm Size and the Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

Corporate concentration is currently being discussed as a core reason for the crisis of democratic capitalism. It is seen as a prime mover for wage stagnation and alienation, economic inequalities and discontent with democracy. A tacit coalition of progressive anti-monopoly critiques and small business promoters considers more deconcentrated corporate structures to be a panacea for the crisis of democratic capitalism, arguing that small firms in competition are better for employment, equality and democracy. This paper offers a brief outline of ideas of the anti-monopoly and small business ideal and critically evaluates whether a more deconcentrated economy may live up to the promises. While we agree that the plea for strengthened antitrust enforcement contains relevant and promising prospects for reform, our analysis concludes on a decidedly critical note. In particular, we caution against romanticized notions of the small capitalist firm

Firm Foundations: The Statistical Footprint of Multinational Corporations as a Problem for Political Economy

The discipline of comparative political economy (CPE) relies heavily on aggregate, country-level economic indicators. However, the practices of multinational corporations have increasingly undermined this approach to measurement. The problem of indicator drift is well-documented by a growing critical literature and calls for systematic methodological attention in CPE. We present the case for a rocky but ultimately rewarding middle road between indicator fatalism and indicator faith. We illustrate our argument by examining two important cases – Sweden’s recent export success and the financialization of non-financial corporations in France. A careful parsing of the data suggests corrections to common characterizations of the two cases. Swedish exports have been reshaped by intragroup trade among foreign subsidiaries of domestic corporations. The growth of financial assets held by French firms is attributable to the growth of foreign direct investment and to cumulative revaluation effects, while what remains of financialization is concentrated among the very largest firms. Based on these findings, we propose a methodological routine that parses data by zooming in on the qualitative specifics of countries, sectors, and firms, while using all available options for disaggregation.Die vergleichende politische Ökonomie (CPE) stützt sich in hohem Maße auf aggregierte, ländervergleichende Wirtschaftsindikatoren. Die Praktiken multinationaler Unternehmen haben diesen Ansatz jedoch zunehmend unterminiert. Das Problem abdriftender Indikatoren wird durch eine wachsende kritische Literatur gut dokumentiert und erfordert eine systematische methodische Antwort. Wir plädieren für einen Mittelweg zwischen Indikator-Fatalismus und Indikator-Glauben und veranschaulichen unser Argument anhand von zwei wichtigen Fällen – Schwedens jüngstem Exporterfolg und der Finanzialisierung von nichtfinanziellen Unternehmen in Frankreich. Eine sorgfältige Analyse der Daten zeigt, dass der Handel zwischen ausländischen Tochtergesellschaften inländischer Unternehmen die schwedische Exportstatistik prägt und dass das Wachstum der von französischen Unternehmen gehaltenen Finanzaktiva auf ausländische Direktinvestitionen und kumulative Bewertungseffekte zurückzuführen und außerdem auf multinationale Großunternehmen konzentriert ist. Methodisch schlagen wir die routinemäßige Rückbindung vergleichender Analysen an die qualitativen Besonderheiten von Ländern, Sektoren und Unternehmen vor sowie eine verstärkte Nutzung verfügbarer Möglichkeiten zur Disaggregation.Contents 1 Introduction 2 The problems with measuring “the economy” Indicator critique in neighboring fields Four major fields of indicator problems 3 Growth models, export indicators, and the globalization of production Macroeconomic pattern recognition in the growth model literature The rise of merchanting in Sweden’s trade data The growth of merchanting as a problem for data legibility The decreasing value of derived indicators 4 Not so financialized after all? Firm financialization in France Disaggregating financial assets: components, valuation, concentration Financial income: From gross to net 5 Methodological ways forward: Zoom in and disaggregate 6 Conclusion Reference

Firm Foundations: The Statistical Footprint of Multinational Corporations as a Problem for Political Economy

The discipline of comparative political economy (CPE) relies heavily on aggregate, country-level economic indicators. However, the practices of multinational corporations have increasingly undermined this approach to measurement. The problem of indicator drift is well documented by a growing critical literature and calls for systematic methodological attention in CPE. We present the case for a rocky but ultimately rewarding middle road between indicator fatalism and indicator faith. We illustrate our argument by examining two important cases—Sweden’s recent export success and the financialization of non-financial corporations in France. A careful parsing of the data suggests corrections to common characterizations of the two cases. Swedish exports have been reshaped by intragroup trade among foreign subsidiaries of domestic corporations. The growth of financial assets held by French firms is attributable to the growth of foreign direct investment and to cumulative revaluation effects, while what remains of financialization is concentrated among the very largest firms. Based on these findings, we propose a methodological routine that parses data by zooming in on the qualitative specifics of countries, sectors, and firms, while using all available options for disaggregation.Introduction The problems with measuring “the economy” Growth models, export indicators, and the globalization of production Not so financialized after all? Firm financialization in France Methodological ways forward: Zoom in and disaggregate Conclusion Notes Reference

Normality and Short Exact Sequences of Hopf-Galois Structures

Every Hopf-Galois structure on a finite Galois extension K/k where G = Gal(K/k) corresponds uniquely to a regular subgroup N ≤ B = Perm(G), normalized by λ(G) ≤ B, in accordance with a theorem of Greither and Pareigis. The resulting Hopf algebra which acts on K/k is HN = (K[N])λ(G). For a given such N we consider the Hopf-Galois structure arising from a subgroup P ⊳ N that is also normalized by λ(G). This subgroup gives rise to a Hopf sub-algebra HP ⊆ HN with fixed field F = KHP . By the work of Chase and Sweedler, this yields a Hopf-Galois structure on the extension K/F where the action arises by base changing HP to F ⊗k HP which is an F-Hopf algebra. We examine this analogy with classical Galois theory, and also examine how the Hopf-Galois structure on K/F relates to that on K/k. We will also pay particular attention to how the Greither-Pareigis enumeration/construction of those HP acting on K/F relates to that of the HN which act on K/k. In the process we also examine short exact sequences of the Hopf algebras which act, whose exactness is directly tied to the descent theoretic description of these algebras

Transcranial random noise stimulation and cognitive training improves face perception

Several studies have found that cognitive training can improve face recognition. However, the effects tend to be relatively small and short-lived. Recent research has found that non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) can enhance and extend the effects of cognitive training in other domains, but this has not been examined for face recognition. In this study, we examined whether tRNS modulated the effects of a face recognition training program in people with typical face recognition abilities. Participants completed a face discrimination training task for one hour per day over fi ve days. Training was preceded by twenty minutes of active high frequency tRNS or sham stimulation to lateral occipitotemporal cortices. Participants completed a battery of face processing tasks assessing face memory (the Cambridge Face Memory Test, CFMT), face perception (the Cambridge Face Perception Test, CFPT), and patterns of eye-movements to faces (free-viewing of faces and social scenes); these took place before training, after training, and at a one-week follow-up session. Participants who received active stimulation showed signifi cant improvement on the CFPT following training, whereas those who received sham stimulation did not show any training gains. There was no improvement for inverted faces, and neither the active or sham stimulation group showed an improvement on the CFMT, or any change in eye-movement patterns. These results suggest that tRNS can enhance the effectiveness of face recognition training programmes, but further work is needed to establish whether perceptual gains can be generalised to memory