Visual Perception And Gestalt Grouping In The Landscape: Are Gestalt Grouping Principles Reliable Indicators Of Visual Preference?

Landscape visual preference research has indicated many potential indicators of preference; however a comprehensive framework concerning the relationship between visual preference and perception has not been solidified. Gestalt psychology, the predecessor to visual perception, proposes certain visual grouping tendencies to explain how humans perceive the world. This study examines if Gestalt grouping principles are reliable indicators of preference, and if they may be used to develop a broad context for visual assessment. Visual preference for 36 landscape scenes testing the proximity and similarity of landscape elements were ranked one through five by 1,749 Mississippi State University undergraduate, graduate, and faculty members in a web-based preference survey. Using a two-way between groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) to analyze responses, the results indicate that the proximal and similar configuration of landscape elements within a scene does significantly affect visual preference

Visual Perception And Gestalt Grouping In The Landscape: Are Gestalt Grouping Principles Reliable Indicators Of Visual Preference?

Landscape visual preference research has indicated many potential indicators of preference; however a comprehensive framework concerning the relationship between visual preference and perception has not been solidified. Gestalt psychology, the predecessor to visual perception, proposes certain visual grouping tendencies to explain how humans perceive the world. This study examines if Gestalt grouping principles are reliable indicators of preference, and if they may be used to develop a broad context for visual assessment. Visual preference for 36 landscape scenes testing the proximity and similarity of landscape elements were ranked one through five by 1,749 Mississippi State University undergraduate, graduate, and faculty members in a web-based preference survey. Using a two-way between groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) to analyze responses, the results indicate that the proximal and similar configuration of landscape elements within a scene does significantly affect visual preference

DRIFTS-Untersuchungen heterogener Reaktionen atmosphärisch relevanter Spurengase auf Eis- und Säurehydrat-Oberflächen

Die vorliegenden Untersuchungen heterogener Reaktionen an Modelloberflächen mit atmosphärischer Relevanz sollen zur Klärung verschiedener Aspekte der Reaktionen an festen, gefrorenen Oberflächen dienen. Die Untersuchungsmethode schließt sowohl die in-situ Analyse der heterogenen Reaktionen über die Diffuse-Reflexions-Infrarot-Fourier-Transformations-Spektroskopie, als auch die Bestimmung der Gasphasen-zusammensetzung der Produkte in einer gekoppelten Anordnung mit FTIR-Spektroskopie, ein. Neben der Ermittlung kinetischer Daten besteht ein zentraler Aspekt dieser Arbeit in der mechanistischen Beschreibung der heterogenen Umsetzungen. Es gelingt somit die spektroskopische Charakterisierung der Einzelkomponenten unter den experimentellen Bedingungen, die während der Reaktionen vorliegen. Diese Arbeit präsentiert eine konsequente und umfassende Bestimmung kinetischer Daten heterogener Reaktionen verschiedener Spurengase (HNO3, NO2, N2O5, HCl, NH3) auf amorphen und kristallinen Hydraten der HNO3, H2O, HCl, H2SO4 mit variierender chemischer Identität (Hydratwasseranteil) und Morphologie. Die Umsetzung von HNO3(g) auf festen Oberflächen führt in einer Reaktion der ersten Ordnung zu einer vollständigen Ionisation der gasförmigen Komponente. Die reaktive Aufnahme führt als Funktion der Temperatur und Konzentration entweder zu amorphen HNO3/H2O-Filmen im Verhältnis 1:3 bis 1:1 (T < 170 K), bzw. ternärer Phasen oder zu den kristallinen Phasen alpha-NAT und NAM (T = 170 K). Die Umsetzung von N2O5 auf festen Oberflächen führt zu analogen festen Reaktionsprodukten wie die Umsetzung mit HNO3, zeigt aber die Bildung gasförmiger Reaktionsprodukte und die intermediäre Bildung des Nitrylkations, als Hinweis auf einen autokatalytischen Reaktionsmechanismus, der in der kinetischen Analyse bestätigt wird. Die heterogenen Reaktionen von NO2(g) folgen in einem bimolekularen Zweistufenprozess einer Reaktion der zweiten Ordnung und resultieren in der Bildung von soliden und gasförmig

Bed bug deterrence

A recent study in BMC Biology has determined that the immature stage of the bed bug (the nymph) signals its reproductive status to adult males using pheromones and thus avoids the trauma associated with copulation in this species. The success of this nymphal strategy of deterrence is instructive. Against the background of increasing problems with bed bugs, this research raises the question whether pheromones might be used to control them

Kti12, a PSTK-like tRNA dependent ATPase essential for tRNA modification by Elongator

Posttranscriptional RNA modifications occur in all domains of life. Modifications of anticodon bases are of particular importance for ribosomal decoding and proteome homeostasis. The Elongator complex modifies uridines in the wobble position and is highly conserved in eukaryotes. Despite recent insights into Elongator's architecture, the structure and function of its regulatory factor Kti12 have remained elusive. Here, we present the crystal structure of Kti12's nucleotide hydrolase domain trapped in a transition state of ATP hydrolysis. The structure reveals striking similarities to an O-phosphoseryl-tRNA kinase involved in the selenocysteine pathway. Both proteins employ similar mechanisms of tRNA binding and show tRNASec-dependent ATPase activity. In addition, we demonstrate that Kti12 binds directly to Elongator and that ATP hydrolysis is crucial for Elongator to maintain proper tRNA anticodon modification levels in vivo. In summary, our data reveal a hitherto uncharacterized link between two translational control pathways that regulate selenocysteine incorporation and affect ribosomal tRNA selection via specific tRNA modifications.</p

Human tumors instigate granulin-expressing hematopoietic cells that promote malignancy by activating stromal fibroblasts in mice

Systemic instigation is a process by which endocrine signals sent from certain tumors (instigators) stimulate BM cells (BMCs), which are mobilized into the circulation and subsequently foster the growth of otherwise indolent carcinoma cells (responders) residing at distant anatomical sites. The identity of the BMCs and their specific contribution or contributions to responder tumor growth have been elusive. Here, we have demonstrated that Scal(+)cKit(-) hematopoietic BMCs of mouse hosts bearing instigating tumors promote the growth of responding tumors that form with a myofibroblast-rich, desmoplastic stroma. Such stroma is almost always observed in malignant human adenocarcinomas and is an indicator of poor prognosis. We then identified granulin (GRN) as the most upregulated gene in instigating Scal(+)cKit(-) BMCs relative to counterpart control cells. The GRN(+) BMCs that were recruited to the responding tumors induced resident tissue fibroblasts to express genes that promoted malignant tumor progression; indeed, treatment with recombinant GRN alone was sufficient to promote desmoplastic responding tumor growth. Further, analysis of tumor tissues from a cohort of breast cancer patients revealed that high GRN expression correlated with the most aggressive triple-negative, basal-like tumor subtype and reduced patient survival. Our data suggest that GRN and the unique hematopoietic BMCs that produce it might serve as novel therapeutic targets

Adjustment of global precipitation data for enhanced hydrologic modeling of tropical Andean watersheds

Global gridded precipitation is an essential driving input for hydrologic models to simulate runoff dynamics in large river basins. However, the data often fail to adequately represent precipitation variability in mountainous regions due to orographic effects and sparse and highly uncertain gauge data. Water balance simulations in tropical montane regions covered by cloud forests are especially challenging because of the additional water input from cloud water interception. The ISI-MIP2 hydrologic model ensemble encountered these problems for Andean sub-basins of the Upper Amazon Basin, where all models significantly underestimated observed runoff. In this paper, we propose simple yet plausible ways to adjust global precipitation data provided by WFDEI, the WATCH Forcing Data methodology applied to ERA-Interim reanalysis, for tropical montane watersheds. The modifications were based on plausible reasoning and freely available tropics-wide data: (i) a high-resolution climatology of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and (ii) the percentage of tropical montane cloud forest cover. Using the modified precipitation data, runoff predictions significantly improved for all hydrologic models considered. The precipitation adjustment methods presented here have the potential to enhance other global precipitation products for hydrologic model applications in the Upper Amazon Basin as well as in other tropical montane watersheds