Social Comparison Information Influences Intentions to Reduce Single-Use Plastic Water Bottle Consumption

Single-use plastic consumption is at an all-time high and threatens environmental and human health. College campuses in particular serve as a hub for single-use plastics due to their convenience for students on the go. The present research tests whether social comparison information can influence self-perceptions of single-use plastic consumption and motivate behavior change within the college campus environment. In a controlled experiment, we measured college students\u27 existing plastic water bottle usage and gave them false feedback about their behaviors and relative standing to their classmates: participants in comparison conditions learned they were either above or below average in their plastic water bottle sustainability behaviors. Results indicated that (relative to a no-comparison control), being above average at water bottle sustainability led students to be more satisfied with their sustainability efforts. However, either kind of comparison information (i.e., being above or below average) led to greater behavioral intentions to reduce single-use plastic water bottle consumption in the future. This study highlights how comparison information can be used to motivate sustainable behavior change with regards to single-use plastics

Playing and Listening to Tailor-Made Notched Music: Cortical Plasticity Induced by Unimodal and Multimodal Training in Tinnitus Patients

Background. The generation and maintenance of tinnitus are assumed to be based on maladaptive functional cortical reorganization. Listening to modified music, which contains no energy in the range of the individual tinnitus frequency, can inhibit the corresponding neuronal activity in the auditory cortex. Music making has been shown to be a powerful stimulator for brain plasticity, inducing changes in multiple sensory systems. Using magnetoencephalographic (MEG) and behavioral measurements we evaluated the cortical plasticity effects of two months of (a) active listening to (unisensory) versus (b) learning to play (multisensory) tailor-made notched music in nonmusician tinnitus patients. Taking into account the fact that uni- and multisensory trainings induce different patterns of cortical plasticity we hypothesized that these two protocols will have different affects. Results. Only the active listening (unisensory) group showed significant reduction of tinnitus related activity of the middle temporal cortex and an increase in the activity of a tinnitus-coping related posterior parietal area. Conclusions. These findings indicate that active listening to tailor-made notched music induces greater neuroplastic changes in the maladaptively reorganized cortical network of tinnitus patients while additional integration of other sensory modalities during training reduces these neuroplastic effects

Enhancing Inhibition-Induced Plasticity in Tinnitus – Spectral Energy Contrasts in Tailor-Made Notched Music Matter

Chronic tinnitus seems to be caused by reduced inhibition among frequency selective neurons in the auditory cortex. One possibility to reduce tinnitus perception is to induce inhibition onto over-activated neurons representing the tinnitus frequency via tailor-made notched music (TMNM). Since lateral inhibition is modifiable by spectral energy contrasts, the question arises if the effects of inhibition-induced plasticity can be enhanced by introducing increased spectral energy contrasts (ISEC) in TMNM. Eighteen participants suffering from chronic tonal tinnitus, pseudo randomly assigned to either a classical TMNM or an ISEC-TMNM group, listened to notched music for three hours on three consecutive days. The music was filtered for both groups by introducing a notch filter centered at the individual tinnitus frequency. For the ISEC-TMNM group a frequency bandwidth of 3/8 octaves on each side of the notch was amplified, additionally, by about 20 dB. Before and after each music exposure, participants rated their subjectively perceived tinnitus loudness on a visual analog scale. During the magnetoencephalographic recordings, participants were stimulated with either a reference tone of 500 Hz or a test tone with a carrier frequency representing the individual tinnitus pitch. Perceived tinnitus loudness was significantly reduced after TMNM exposure, though TMNM type did not influence the loudness ratings. Tinnitus related neural activity in the N1m time window and in the so called tinnitus network comprising temporal, parietal and frontal regions was reduced after TMNM exposure. The ISEC-TMNM group revealed even enhanced inhibition-induced plasticity in a temporal and a frontal cortical area. Overall, inhibition of tinnitus related neural activity could be strengthened in people affected with tinnitus by increasing spectral energy contrast in TMNM, confirming the concepts of inhibition-induced plasticity via TMNM and spectral energy contrasts

Discordant bioinformatic predictions of antimicrobial resistance from whole-genome sequencing data of bacterial isolates: an inter-laboratory study.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a threat to public health. Clinical microbiology laboratories typically rely on culturing bacteria for antimicrobial-susceptibility testing (AST). As the implementation costs and technical barriers fall, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has emerged as a 'one-stop' test for epidemiological and predictive AST results. Few published comparisons exist for the myriad analytical pipelines used for predicting AMR. To address this, we performed an inter-laboratory study providing sets of participating researchers with identical short-read WGS data from clinical isolates, allowing us to assess the reproducibility of the bioinformatic prediction of AMR between participants, and identify problem cases and factors that lead to discordant results. We produced ten WGS datasets of varying quality from cultured carbapenem-resistant organisms obtained from clinical samples sequenced on either an Illumina NextSeq or HiSeq instrument. Nine participating teams ('participants') were provided these sequence data without any other contextual information. Each participant used their choice of pipeline to determine the species, the presence of resistance-associated genes, and to predict susceptibility or resistance to amikacin, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin and cefotaxime. We found participants predicted different numbers of AMR-associated genes and different gene variants from the same clinical samples. The quality of the sequence data, choice of bioinformatic pipeline and interpretation of the results all contributed to discordance between participants. Although much of the inaccurate gene variant annotation did not affect genotypic resistance predictions, we observed low specificity when compared to phenotypic AST results, but this improved in samples with higher read depths. Had the results been used to predict AST and guide treatment, a different antibiotic would have been recommended for each isolate by at least one participant. These challenges, at the final analytical stage of using WGS to predict AMR, suggest the need for refinements when using this technology in clinical settings. Comprehensive public resistance sequence databases, full recommendations on sequence data quality and standardization in the comparisons between genotype and resistance phenotypes will all play a fundamental role in the successful implementation of AST prediction using WGS in clinical microbiology laboratories

Effects of awareness and task relevance on neurocomputational models of mismatch negativity generation

Detection of regularities and their violations in sensory input is key to perception. Violations are indexed by an early EEG component called the mismatch negativity (MMN) – even if participants are distracted or unaware of the stimuli. On a mechanistic level, two dominant models have been suggested to contribute to the MMN: adaptation and prediction. Whether and how context conditions, such as awareness and task relevance, modulate the mechanisms of MMN generation is unknown. We conducted an EEG study disentangling influences of task relevance and awareness on the visual MMN. Then, we estimated different computational models for the generation of single-trial amplitudes in the MMN time window. Amplitudes were best explained by a prediction error model when stimuli were task-relevant but by an adaptation model when task-irrelevant and unaware. Thus, mismatch generation does not rely on one predominant mechanism but mechanisms vary with task relevance of s

Uso de minería de datos para identificar comportamientos erráticos en el sistema de liquidación de haberes en el Gobierno de la Provincia de Catamarca

En la actualidad la Minería de Datos (Data Mining) permite, a partir de diversos datos, obtener información sumamente relevante. Por otra parte, la liquidación de haberes es una de las actividades más importante en cualquier empresa y/u organización, la cual está sujeta a posibles errores al momento de efectuarla. Es por ello que la motivación de este trabajo es la de encontrar todas las posibles fallas o comportamientos erráticos, en la emisión de la Liquidación de Haberes de los empleados de la Administración Pública de la Provincia de Catamarca los cuales, debido al gran volumen de datos que se manejan, son difíciles de detectar y solucionar en forma manual. A partir de lo antes expuesto, se muestra la utilidad que brindan los procesos de la Minería de Datos en la búsqueda de conocimientos ocultos (fallas, comportamientos erróneos o anómalos) en las Bases de Datos del Sistema de Liquidación de Haberes; demostrándose de esta manera que, si la Dirección de Liquidación de Haberes, del Gobierno de la Provincia de Catamarca, aplicara en un futuro dicho proceso podría minimizar fallas en el proceso de liquidación de haberes.Eje: Base de datos y minería de datosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Effects of awareness and task relevance on neurocomputational models of mismatch negativity generation

Detection of regularities and their violations in sensory input is key to perception. Violations are indexed by an early EEG component called the mismatch negativity (MMN) – even if participants are distracted or unaware of the stimuli. On a mechanistic level, two dominant models have been suggested to contribute to the MMN: adaptation and prediction. Whether and how context conditions, such as awareness and task relevance, modulate the mechanisms of MMN generation is unknown. We conducted an EEG study disentangling influences of task relevance and awareness on the visual MMN. Then, we estimated different computational models for the generation of single-trial amplitudes in the MMN time window. Amplitudes were best explained by a prediction error model when stimuli were task-relevant but by an adaptation model when task-irrelevant and unaware. Thus, mismatch generation does not rely on one predominant mechanism but mechanisms vary with task relevance of stimuli

Uso de minería de datos para identificar comportamientos erráticos en el sistema de liquidación de haberes en el Gobierno de la Provincia de Catamarca

En la actualidad la Minería de Datos (Data Mining) permite, a partir de diversos datos, obtener información sumamente relevante. Por otra parte, la liquidación de haberes es una de las actividades más importante en cualquier empresa y/u organización, la cual está sujeta a posibles errores al momento de efectuarla. Es por ello que la motivación de este trabajo es la de encontrar todas las posibles fallas o comportamientos erráticos, en la emisión de la Liquidación de Haberes de los empleados de la Administración Pública de la Provincia de Catamarca los cuales, debido al gran volumen de datos que se manejan, son difíciles de detectar y solucionar en forma manual. A partir de lo antes expuesto, se muestra la utilidad que brindan los procesos de la Minería de Datos en la búsqueda de conocimientos ocultos (fallas, comportamientos erróneos o anómalos) en las Bases de Datos del Sistema de Liquidación de Haberes; demostrándose de esta manera que, si la Dirección de Liquidación de Haberes, del Gobierno de la Provincia de Catamarca, aplicara en un futuro dicho proceso podría minimizar fallas en el proceso de liquidación de haberes.Eje: Base de datos y minería de datosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Uso de minería de datos para identificar comportamientos erráticos en el sistema de liquidación de haberes en el Gobierno de la Provincia de Catamarca

En la actualidad la Minería de Datos (Data Mining) permite, a partir de diversos datos, obtener información sumamente relevante. Por otra parte, la liquidación de haberes es una de las actividades más importante en cualquier empresa y/u organización, la cual está sujeta a posibles errores al momento de efectuarla. Es por ello que la motivación de este trabajo es la de encontrar todas las posibles fallas o comportamientos erráticos, en la emisión de la Liquidación de Haberes de los empleados de la Administración Pública de la Provincia de Catamarca los cuales, debido al gran volumen de datos que se manejan, son difíciles de detectar y solucionar en forma manual. A partir de lo antes expuesto, se muestra la utilidad que brindan los procesos de la Minería de Datos en la búsqueda de conocimientos ocultos (fallas, comportamientos erróneos o anómalos) en las Bases de Datos del Sistema de Liquidación de Haberes; demostrándose de esta manera que, si la Dirección de Liquidación de Haberes, del Gobierno de la Provincia de Catamarca, aplicara en un futuro dicho proceso podría minimizar fallas en el proceso de liquidación de haberes.Eje: Base de datos y minería de datosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Origins Of Heterospory And The Seed Habit: The Role Of Heterochrony

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149713/1/tax04577.pd