Modeling the Function of Narrative in Expertise

The use of narrative is ubiquitous in the development, exercise, and communication of expertise. Expertise and narrative, as complex cognitive capacities, have each been investigated quite deeply, but little attention has been paid to their interdependence. We offer here the position that treating these two domains together can fruitfully inform the modeling of expert cognition and behavior, and present the framework we have been using to develop this approach, the SGOMS macro-cognitive architecture. Finally, we briefly explore the role of narrative in an SGOMS model of cooperative video game playing

Measuring the Effects of Federal Budget Dysfunction: Impacts of Continuing Resolutions on Public Procurement

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Acquisition Research SymposiumThis study measures the behavioral effects of continuing resolutions by examining their impact on federal procurement activities. The restrictions imposed by continuing resolutions are explored as an example of political control over a public organization. The analysis employs a dataset describing the timing of U.S. Marine Corps purchase orders for goods and services. Individual purchase orders were sampled over a four-year period (2016−2019) that endured continuing resolutions of different lengths. The analysis examines the impact of continuing resolutions on the number of purchase orders initiated, the duration of their review period, and the dollar amount per request. The results depict multiple impacts that appear to concentrate on requests for services rather than commodities. These findings help quantify the magnitude of the disruptions caused by federal budgetary dysfunction.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Necessity of Sleep for Motor Gist Learning in Mice

With respect to behavior, the term memory “consolidation” has canonically been used to describe increased fidelity during testing to a learned behavior shaped during training. While the sleeping brain appears to certainly aid in consolidation by this definition for a variety of memories, including motor memories, growing evidence suggests that sleep allows for much more flexible use of the information encountered during prior wakefulness. Sleep has been shown to augment the extraction of gist or patterns from wake experience in human subjects, but this has been difficult to recapitulate in animal models owing to the semantic requirements in many such tasks. Here we establish a model of motor gist learning in mice in which two bouts of exclusive forward running on the rotarod significantly augments the first experience of exclusive backward running. This augmentation does not occur if sleep is disrupted following the forward running template behavior or if a period of natural wakefulness follows one of the two bouts of exclusive forward running. This suggests that sleep is required for the extraction of the motor gist of forward running to apply to backward running

An Improved Cerulean Fluorescent Protein with Enhanced Brightness and Reduced Reversible Photoswitching

Cyan fluorescent proteins (CFPs), such as Cerulean, are widely used as donor fluorophores in Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) experiments. Nonetheless, the most widely used variants suffer from drawbacks that include low quantum yields and unstable flurorescence. To improve the fluorescence properties of Cerulean, we used the X-ray structure to rationally target specific amino acids for optimization by site-directed mutagenesis. Optimization of residues in strands 7 and 8 of the β-barrel improved the quantum yield of Cerulean from 0.48 to 0.60. Further optimization by incorporating the wild-type T65S mutation in the chromophore improved the quantum yield to 0.87. This variant, mCerulean3, is 20% brighter and shows greatly reduced fluorescence photoswitching behavior compared to the recently described mTurquoise fluorescent protein in vitro and in living cells. The fluorescence lifetime of mCerulean3 also fits to a single exponential time constant, making mCerulean3 a suitable choice for fluorescence lifetime microscopy experiments. Furthermore, inclusion of mCerulean3 in a fusion protein with mVenus produced FRET ratios with less variance than mTurquoise-containing fusions in living cells. Thus, mCerulean3 is a bright, photostable cyan fluorescent protein which possesses several characteristics that are highly desirable for FRET experiments

Sleep oscillation-specific associations with Alzheimer’s disease CSF biomarkers : novel roles for sleep spindles and tau

Background: Based on associations between sleep spindles, cognition, and sleep-dependent memory processing, here we evaluated potential relationships between levels of CSF Aβ42, P-tau, and T-tau with sleep spindle density and other biophysical properties of sleep spindles in a sample of cognitively normal elderly individuals. Methods: One-night in-lab nocturnal polysomnography (NPSG) and morning to early afternoon CSF collection were performed to measure CSF Aβ42, P-tau and T-tau. Seven days of actigraphy were collected to assess habitual total sleep time. Results: Spindle density during NREM stage 2 (N2) sleep was negatively correlated with CSF Aβ42, P-tau and T-tau. From the three, CSF T-tau was the most significantly associated with spindle density, after adjusting for age, sex and ApoE4. Spindle duration, count and fast spindle density were also negatively correlated with T-tau levels. Sleep duration and other measures of sleep quality were not correlated with spindle characteristics and did not modify the associations between sleep spindle characteristics and the CSF biomarkers of AD. Conclusions: Reduced spindles during N2 sleep may represent an early dysfunction related to tau, possibly reflecting axonal damage or altered neuronal tau secretion, rendering it a potentially novel biomarker for early neuronal dysfunction. Given their putative role in memory consolidation and neuroplasticity, sleep spindles may represent a mechanism by which tau impairs memory consolidation, as well as a possible target for therapeutic interventions in cognitive decline

Consensus Recommendations for the Use of Automated Insulin Delivery (AID) Technologies in Clinical Practice

International audienceThe significant and growing global prevalence of diabetes continues to challenge people with diabetes (PwD), healthcare providers and payers. While maintaining near-normal glucose levels has been shown to prevent or delay the progression of the long-term complications of diabetes, a significant proportion of PwD are not attaining their glycemic goals. During the past six years, we have seen tremendous advances in automated insulin delivery (AID) technologies. Numerous randomized controlled trials and real-world studies have shown that the use of AID systems is safe and effective in helping PwD achieve their long-term glycemic goals while reducing hypoglycemia risk. Thus, AID systems have recently become an integral part of diabetes management. However, recommendations for using AID systems in clinical settings have been lacking. Such guided recommendations are critical for AID success and acceptance. All clinicians working with PwD need to become familiar with the available systems in order to eliminate disparities in diabetes quality of care. This report provides much-needed guidance for clinicians who are interested in utilizing AIDs and presents a comprehensive listing of the evidence payers should consider when determining eligibility criteria for AID insurance coverage