Reduced attention-driven auditory sensitivity in hallucination-prone individuals

Background Evidence suggests that auditory hallucinations may result from abnormally enhanced auditory sensitivity. Aims To investigate whether there is an auditory processing bias in healthy individuals who are prone to experiencing auditory hallucinations. Method Two hundred healthy volunteers performed a temporal order judgement task in which they determined whether an auditory or a visual stimulus came first under conditions of directed attention (‘attend-auditory’ and ‘attend-visual’ conditions). The Launay–Slade Hallucination Scale was used to divide the sample into high and low hallucination-proneness groups. Results The high hallucination-proneness group exhibited a reduced sensitivity to auditory stimuli under the attend-auditory condition. By contrast, attention-directed visual sensitivity did not differ significantly between groups. Conclusions Healthy individuals prone to hallucinatory experiences may possess a bias in attention towards internal auditory stimuli at the expense of external sounds. Interventions involving the redistribution of attentional resources would have therapeutic benefit in patients experiencing auditory hallucinations

Cloning and nucleotide sequencing of the S4 genome segment of avian reovirus S1133

The sequence of RNA genome segment S4 of the avian reovirus (ARV) strain S1133 was determined. S4 RNA is 1185 base pairs long and contains one open reading frame encoding a protein of 367 amino acid residues (40.6kDa), the similar size as the known S4 gene product (sigma NS), with a net charge of -1 at neutral pH. The S4 RNA sequence possesses a pentanucleotide sequence UCAUC at the 3'-terminus of its plus strand like in ARV S1 and S3 segments and ten segments of mammalian reovirus (MRV). The predicted amino acid sequence comparison revealed that the homology is 44.02%, 45.71%, and 42.33% for ARV sigma NS and three serotypes of MRV sigma NS, respectively. The relatively high content of alpha-helix structure in the C-terminal portion of ARV sigma NS suggests that this protein may functionally relate to MRV sigma NS. Northern blot hybridization showed that a P-32-labeled cDNA insert S4-49 from ARV S4 RNA cross-hybridized with the corresponding RNA segments of all seven strains of ARV tested

Unified Field Theory From Enlarged Transformation Group. The Covariant Derivative for Conservative Coordinate Transformations and Local Frame Transformations

Pandres has developed a theory in which the geometrical structure of a real four-dimensional space-time is expressed by a real orthonormal tetrad, and the group of diffeomorphisms is replaced by a larger group called the conservation group. This paper extends the geometrical foundation for Pandres' theory by developing an appropriate covariant derivative which is covariant under all local Lorentz (frame) transformations, including complex Lorentz transformations, as well as conservative transformations. After defining this extended covariant derivative, an appropriate Lagrangian and its resulting field equations are derived. As in Pandres' theory, these field equations result in a stress-energy tensor that has terms which may automatically represent the electroweak field. Finally, the theory is extended to include 2-spinors and 4-spinors.Comment: Aug 25 replacement has corrected margin width

Synthesis and characterization of Na03RhO206H2O - a semiconductor with a weak ferromagnetic component

We have prepared the oxyhydrate Na03RhO206H2O by extracting Na+ cations from NaRhO2 and intercalating water molecules using an aqueous solution of Na2S2O8. Synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and energy-dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX) reveal that a non-stoichiometric Na03(H2O)06 network separates layers of edge-sharing RhO6 octahedra containing Rh3+(4d6, S=0) and Rh4+ (4d5, S=1/2). The resistivities of NaRhO2 and Na03RhO206H2O (T < 300) reveal insulating and semi-conducting behavior with activation gaps of 134 meV and 7.8 meV, respectively. Both Na03RhO206H2O and NaRhO2 show paramagnetism at room temperature, however, the sodium-deficient sample exhibits simultaneously a weak but experimentally reproducible ferromagnetic component. Both samples exhibit a temperature-independent Pauli paramagnetism, for NaRhO2 at T > 50 K and for Na03RhO206H2O at T > 25 K. The relative magnitudes of the temperature-independent magnetic susceptibilities, that of the oxide sample being half that of the oxyhydrate, is consistent with a higher density of thermally accessible electron states at the Fermi level in the hydrated sample. At low temperatures the magnetic moments rise sharply, providing evidence of localized and weakl -ordered electronic spins.Comment: 15 fages 5 figures Solid State Communications in prin

Bethe Ansatz for the Weakly Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process and phase transition in the current distribution

The probability distribution of the current in the asymmetric simple exclusion process is expected to undergo a phase transition in the regime of weak asymmetry of the jumping rates. This transition was first predicted by Bodineau and Derrida using a linear stability analysis of the hydrodynamical limit of the process and further arguments have been given by Mallick and Prolhac. However it has been impossible so far to study what happens after the transition. The present paper presents an analysis of the large deviation function of the current on both sides of the transition from a Bethe ansatz approach of the weak asymmetry regime of the exclusion process.Comment: accepted to J.Stat.Phys, 1 figure, 1 reference, 2 paragraphs adde

Performance analysis on transfer platforms in frame bridge based automated container terminals

10.1155/2013/593847Mathematical Problems in Engineering2013

Coordinating Pricing and Empty Container Repositioning in Two-Depot Shipping Systems

This paper studies joint decisions on pricing and empty container repositioning in two- depot shipping services with stochastic shipping demand. We formulate the problem as a stochastic dynamic programming (DP) model. The exact DP may have a high-dimensional state space due to in-transit containers. To cope with the curse of dimensionality, we develop an approximate model where the number of in-transit containers on each vessel is approxi- mated with a fixed container flow predetermined by solving a static version of the problem. Moreover, we show that the approximate value function is L♮-concave, thereby characterizing the structure of the optimal control policy for the approximate model. With the upper bound obtained by solving the information relaxation-based dual of the exact DP, we numerically show that the control policies generated from our approximate model are close to optimal when transit times span multiple periods

Moment of Inertia and Quadrupole Response Function of a Trapped Superfluid

We derive an explicit relationship between the moment of inertia and the quadrupole response function of an interacting gas confined in a harmonic trap. The relationship holds for both Bose and Fermi systems and is well suited to reveal the effects of irrotationality of the superfluid motion. Recent experimental results on the scissors mode are used to extract the value of the moment of inertia of a trapped Bose gas and to point out the deviations from the rigid value due to superfluidity.Comment: 6 page

Three-Body approach to the K^- d Scattering Length in Particle Basis

We report on the first calculation of the scattering length A_{K^-d} based on a relativistic three-body approach where the two-body input amplitudes coupled to the Kbar N channels have been obtained with the chiral SU(3) constraint, but with isospin symmetry breaking effects taken into account. Results are compared with a recent calculation applying a similar set of two-body amplitudes,based on the fixed center approximation, considered as a good approximation for a loosely bound target, and for which we find significant deviations from the exact three-body results. Effects of the hyperon-nucleon interaction, and deuteron $D$-wave component are also evaluated.Comment: 5 pages, Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Pure point diffraction and cut and project schemes for measures: The smooth case

We present cut and project formalism based on measures and continuous weight functions of sufficiently fast decay. The emerging measures are strongly almost periodic. The corresponding dynamical systems are compact groups and homomorphic images of the underlying torus. In particular, they are strictly ergodic with pure point spectrum and continuous eigenfunctions. Their diffraction can be calculated explicitly. Our results cover and extend corresponding earlier results on dense Dirac combs and continuous weight functions with compact support. They also mark a clear difference in terms of factor maps between the case of continuous and non-continuous weight functions.Comment: 30 page