Monetary reward and punishment to response inhibition modulate activation and synchronization within the inhibitory brain network

© 2018 Chikara, Chang, Lu, Lin, Lin and Ko. A reward or punishment can modulate motivation and emotions, which in turn affect cognitive processing. The present simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging-electroencephalography study examines neural mechanisms of response inhibition under the influence of a monetary reward or punishment by implementing a modified stop-signal task in a virtual battlefield scenario. The participants were instructed to play as snipers who open fire at a terrorist target but withhold shooting in the presence of a hostage. The participants performed the task under three different feedback conditions in counterbalanced order: a reward condition where each successfully withheld response added a bonus (i.e., positive feedback) to the startup credit, a punishment condition where each failure in stopping deduced a penalty (i.e., negative feedback), and a no-feedback condition where response outcome had no consequences and served as a control setting. Behaviorally both reward and punishment conditions led to significantly down-regulated inhibitory function in terms of the critical stop-signal delay. As for the neuroimaging results, increased activities were found for the no-feedback condition in regions previously reported to be associated with response inhibition, including the right inferior frontal gyrus and the pre-supplementary motor area. Moreover, higher activation of the lingual gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus (PCG) and inferior parietal lobule were found in the reward condition, while stronger activation of the precuneus gyrus was found in the punishment condition. The positive feedback was also associated with stronger changes of delta, theta, and alpha synchronization in the PCG than were the negative or no-feedback conditions. These findings depicted the intertwining relationship between response inhibition and motivation networks

A unified constitutive model for asymmetric tension and compression creep-ageing behaviour of naturally aged Al-Cu-Li alloy

A set of unified constitutive equations is presented that predict the asymmetric tension and compression creep behaviour and recently observed double primary creep of pre-stretched/naturally aged aluminium-cooper-lithium alloy AA2050-T34. The evolution of the primary micro- and macro-variables related to the precipitation hardening and creep deformation of the alloy during creep age forming (CAF) are analysed and modelled. Equations for the yield strength evolution of the alloy, including an initial reversion and subsequent strengthening, are proposed based on a theory of concurrent dissolution, re-nucleation and growth of precipitates during artificial ageing. We present new observations of so-called double primary creep during the CAF process. This phenomenon is then predicted by introducing effects of interacting microstructures, including evolving precipitates, diffusing solutes and dislocations, into the sinh-law creep model. In addition, concepts of threshold creep stress σth and a microstructure-dependant creep variable H, which behave differently under different external stress directions, are proposed and incorporated into the creep model. This enables prediction of the asymmetric tension and compression creep-ageing behaviour of the alloy. Quantitative transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and related small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis have been carried out for selected creep-aged samples to assist the development and calibration of the constitutive model. A good agreement has been achieved between the experimental results and the model. The model has the potential to be applied to creep age forming of other heat-treatable aluminium alloys

Packing While Traveling: Mixed Integer Programming for a Class of Nonlinear Knapsack Problems

Packing and vehicle routing problems play an important role in the area of supply chain management. In this paper, we introduce a non-linear knapsack problem that occurs when packing items along a fixed route and taking into account travel time. We investigate constrained and unconstrained versions of the problem and show that both are NP-hard. In order to solve the problems, we provide a pre-processing scheme as well as exact and approximate mixed integer programming (MIP) solutions. Our experimental results show the effectiveness of the MIP solutions and in particular point out that the approximate MIP approach often leads to near optimal results within far less computation time than the exact approach

A new design of friction test rig and determination of friction coefficient when warm forming an aluminium alloy

To facilitate reduced fuel consumption and increase environmental friendliness, in recent years, demands for lightweight vehicles have been increasing, and interest in hot or warm forming of sheet aluminium alloys for use in vehicle body structures, has grown. For better understanding and optimisation of the forming processes, knowledge of friction coefficient between tooling and work-piece, at elevated temperature, is critical. However, because of difficulties with measurement at elevated temperature, most studies on friction are limited to room temperature. In this study, a friction rig was designed for isothermal tests at elevated temperature. The test rig enables pure sliding between pins (made of a tool steel) and a metal sheet. The friction behaviour of Forge Ease 278, a water based solid lubricant pre-applied to aluminium alloy AA5754, was investigated, under isothermal warm forming conditions, using the test rig. The effects of testing temperature, sliding speed and applied pressure on the friction coefficient were studied. It was found that Forge Ease produced a low friction coefficient of around 0.05, above room temperature and below 250 °C. The lubricant performance degrades at 350 °C and the friction coefficient increases markedly. Both sliding speed (up to 150 mm s -1 ) and applied pressure (up to 12.8 MPa) had no significant effect on friction coefficient of Forge Ease

The peaked response of transpiration rate to vapour pressure deficit in field conditions can be explained by the temperature optimum of photosynthesis

Leaf transpiration rate (E) frequently shows a peaked response to increasing vapour pressure deficit (D). The mechanisms for the decrease in E at high D, known as the 'apparent feed-forward response', are strongly debated but explanations to date have exclusively focused on hydraulic processes. However, stomata also respond to signals related to photosynthesis. We investigated whether the apparent feed-forward response of E to D in the field can be explained by the response of photosynthesis to temperature (T), which normally co-varies with D in field conditions. As photosynthesis decreases with increasing T past its optimum, it may drive a decrease in stomatal conductance (gs) that is additional to the response of gs to increasing D alone. If this additional decrease is sufficiently steep and coupling between A and gs occurs, it could cause an overall decrease in E with increasing D. We tested this mechanism using a gas exchange model applied to leaf-scale and whole-tree CO2 and H2O fluxes measured on Eucalyptus saligna growing in whole-tree chambers. A peaked response of E to D was observed at both leaf and whole-tree scales. We found that this peaked response was matched by a gas exchange model only when T effects on photosynthesis were incorporated. We conclude that field-based studies of the relationship between E and D need to consider signals related to changing photosynthetic rates in addition to purely hydraulic mechanisms. © 2014 Elsevier B.V

Most vital segment barriers

We study continuous analogues of "vitality" for discrete network flows/paths, and consider problems related to placing segment barriers that have highest impact on a flow/path in a polygonal domain. This extends the graph-theoretic notion of "most vital arcs" for flows/paths to geometric environments. We give hardness results and efficient algorithms for various versions of the problem, (almost) completely separating hard and polynomially-solvable cases

Environment is associated with chytrid infection and skin microbiome richness on an amphibian rich island (Taiwan)

Growing evidence suggests that the origins of the panzootic amphibian pathogens Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) are in Asia. In Taiwan, an island hotspot of high amphibian diversity, no amphibian mass mortality events linked to Bd or Bsal have been reported. We conducted a multi-year study across this subtropical island, sampling 2517 individuals from 30 species at 34 field sites, between 2010 and 2017, and including 171 museum samples collected between 1981 and 2009. We analyzed the skin microbiome of 153 samples (6 species) from 2017 in order to assess any association between the amphibian skin microbiome and the probability of infection amongst different host species. We did not detect Bsal in our samples, but found widespread infection by Bd across central and northern Taiwan, both taxonomically and spatially. Museum samples show that Bd has been present in Taiwan since at least 1990. Host species, geography (elevation), climatic conditions and microbial richness were all associated with the prevalence of infection. Host life-history traits, skin microbiome composition and phylogeny were associated with lower prevalence of infection for high altitude species. Overall, we observed low prevalence and burden of infection in host populations, suggesting that Bd is enzootic in Taiwan where it causes subclinical infections. While amphibian species in Taiwan are currently threatened by habitat loss, our study indicates that Bd is in an endemic equilibrium with the populations and species we investigated. However, ongoing surveillance of the infection is warranted, as changing environmental conditions may disturb the currently stable equilibrium

Spatiotemporal evaluation of EMEP4UK-WRF v4.3 atmospheric chemistry transport simulations of health-related metrics for NO2, O3, PM10 and PM2.5 for 2001-2010

This study was motivated by the use in air pollution epidemiology and health burden assessment of data simulated at 5 km  ×  5 km horizontal resolution by the EMEP4UK-WRF v4.3 atmospheric chemistry transport model. Thus the focus of the model–measurement comparison statistics presented here was on the health-relevant metrics of annual and daily means of NO2, O3, PM2. 5, and PM10 (daily maximum 8 h running mean for O3). The comparison was temporally and spatially comprehensive, covering a 10-year period (2 years for PM2. 5) and all non-roadside measurement data from the UK national reference monitor network, which applies consistent operational and QA/QC procedures for each pollutant (44, 47, 24, and 30 sites for NO2, O3, PM2. 5, and PM10, respectively). Two important statistics highlighted in the literature for evaluation of air quality model output against policy (and hence health)-relevant standards – correlation and bias – together with root mean square error, were evaluated by site type, year, month, and day-of-week. Model–measurement statistics were generally better than, or comparable to, values that allow for realistic magnitudes of measurement uncertainties. Temporal correlations of daily concentrations were good for O3, NO2, and PM2. 5 at both rural and urban background sites (median values of r across sites in the range 0.70–0.76 for O3 and NO2, and 0.65–0.69 for PM2. 5), but poorer for PM10 (0.47–0.50). Bias differed between environments, with generally less bias at rural background sites (median normalized mean bias (NMB) values for daily O3 and NO2 of 8 and 11 %, respectively). At urban background sites there was a negative model bias for NO2 (median NMB  =  −29 %) and PM2. 5 (−26 %) and a positive model bias for O3 (26 %). The directions of these biases are consistent with expectations of the effects of averaging primary emissions across the 5 km  ×  5 km model grid in urban areas, compared with monitor locations that are more influenced by these emissions (e.g. closer to traffic sources) than the grid average. The biases are also indicative of potential underestimations of primary NOx and PM emissions in the model, and, for PM, with known omissions in the model of some PM components, e.g. some components of wind-blown dust. There were instances of monthly and weekday/weekend variations in the extent of model–measurement bias. Overall, the greater uniformity in temporal correlation than in bias is strongly indicative that the main driver of model–measurement differences (aside from grid versus monitor spatial representivity) was inaccuracy of model emissions – both in annual totals and in the monthly and day-of-week temporal factors applied in the model to the totals – rather than simulation of atmospheric chemistry and transport processes. Since, in general for epidemiology, capturing correlation is more important than bias, the detailed analyses presented here support the use of data from this model framework in air pollution epidemiology

Bridging the Mid-Infrared-to-Telecom Gap with Silicon Nanophotonic Spectral Translation

Expanding far beyond traditional applications in optical interconnects at telecommunications wavelengths, the silicon nanophotonic integrated circuit platform has recently proven its merits for working with mid-infrared (mid-IR) optical signals in the 2-8 {\mu}m range. Mid-IR integrated optical systems are capable of addressing applications including industrial process and environmental monitoring, threat detection, medical diagnostics, and free-space communication. Rapid progress has led to the demonstration of various silicon components designed for the on-chip processing of mid-IR signals, including waveguides, vertical grating couplers, microcavities, and electrooptic modulators. Even so, a notable obstacle to the continued advancement of chip-scale systems is imposed by the narrow-bandgap semiconductors, such as InSb and HgCdTe, traditionally used to convert mid-IR photons to electrical currents. The cryogenic or multi-stage thermo-electric cooling required to suppress dark current noise, exponentially dependent upon the ratio Eg/kT, can limit the development of small, low-power, and low-cost integrated optical systems for the mid-IR. However, if the mid-IR optical signal could be spectrally translated to shorter wavelengths, for example within the near-infrared telecom band, photodetectors using wider bandgap semiconductors such as InGaAs or Ge could be used to eliminate prohibitive cooling requirements. Moreover, telecom band detectors typically perform with higher detectivity and faster response times when compared with their mid-IR counterparts. Here we address these challenges with a silicon-integrated approach to spectral translation, by employing efficient four-wave mixing (FWM) and large optical parametric gain in silicon nanophotonic wires