News from Academy Bay

New Faces and New Projects in a New CDRS Department. International Workshop: Feral Goat Eradication Program. Geologists to Invade Galápagos. GIS in Galápagos. The Isabela Project: Off and Running. A Pig-Free Santiago: Is it a Dream or on the Horizon? The Special Law for Galápagos

The Effects of Cognitive Load, Social Objects, Non-social Objects and Adhd-like Traits on Visual Attention

The current thesis examines the effects of cognitive load, social object, non-social object and ADHD-like traits on visual attention. This thesis reports (Experiment 1 and 2) a modified version of Lavie et al, (2004; 2005) and confirmed that increased memory load disrupted performance in the classic flanker task, but not in the singleton. Experiment 3 uses the same manipulation of WM load to probe attention during the viewing of complex scenes. Experiment 4 and 5 examine the effects of visuospatial WM on different presentations: sequential and simultaneous. These experiments compare the extent to which increasing WM load would change the pattern of viewing of the physically salient and socially salient objects while also investigating differences in ADHD traits. Experiment 6 examines the effects of instructions on the image-viewing task by restricting areas such as: social and non-social. Experiments 7 and 8 examine the effects of occluding the eyes in a conversation in traits of ADHD and ASD (low vs high). Experiments 9 examines the relationship between working memory components (maintenance and distractor processing) and ADHD traits within the general population. This thesis discusses their results based on visual prioritisations (social, high and low salience), cognitive load and the heterogeneity of ADHD and their comorbidities. Taken together these results provide interesting implications in eye movements behaviour, in the understanding of individual differences and in the underlying cognitive abilities

Finanzas I

Las finanzas públicas son el conjunto de actividades realizadas por el Estado para conseguir los recursos financieros que le permitan garantizar su funcionamiento y el logro de los diversos objetivos que persigue en beneficio de la sociedad. En otras palabras, el presupuesto es la expresión cuantificada, conjunta y sistemática de los ingresos y gastos para atender durante el año fiscal para cada una de las entidades que forman parte del sector público. Los ingresos públicos, son todos los recursos monetarios percibidos, causados o producidos por conceptos de ingresos corrientes; los cuales son percibidos de modo regular o periódico (proveniente de impuestos, venta de bienes, multas, sanciones y otros). Su percepción es responsabilidad de las Entidades competentes son sujeción a las normas de la materia. Los fondos se orientan de manera eficiente y con atención a las prioridades del desarrollo del país

Do cognitive load and ADHD traits affect the tendency to prioritise social information in scenes?

We report two experiments investigating the effect of working memory (WM) load on selective attention. Experiment 1 was a modified version of Lavie et al. and confirmed that increasing memory load disrupted performance in the classic flanker task. Experiment 2 used the same manipulation of WM load to probe attention during the viewing of complex scenes while also investigating individual differences in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) traits. In the image-viewing task, we measured the degree to which fixations targeted each of two crucial objects: (1) a social object (a person in the scene) and (2) a non-social object of higher or lower physical salience. We compared the extent to which increasing WM load would change the pattern of viewing of the physically salient and socially salient objects. If attending to the social item requires greater default voluntary top-down resources, then the viewing of social objects should show stronger modulation by WM load compared with viewing of physically salient objects. The results showed that the social object was fixated to a greater degree than the other object (regardless of physical salience). Increased salience drew fixations away from the background leading to slightly increased fixations on the non-social object, without changing fixations on the social object. Increased levels of ADHD-like traits were associated with fewer fixations on the social object, but only in the high-salient, low-load condition. Importantly, WM load did not affect the number of fixations on the social object. Such findings suggest rather surprisingly that attending to a social area in complex stimuli is not dependent on the availability of voluntary top-down resources

Alcohol use in South Sudan in relation to social factors, mental distress and traumatic events

This is an Open Access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC BY 3.0) and originally published in BMC Public Health. You can access the article by following this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3605-9Dette er en vitenskapelig, fagfellevurdert artikkel som opprinnelig ble publisert i BMC Public Health. Artikkelen er publisert under lisensen Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC BY 3.0). Du kan også få tilgang til artikkelen ved å følge denne lenken: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3605-9Background Alcohol use is a major public health problem with vast implications for poor, war-torn countries. The objective of this study was to describe prevalence of alcohol use and risky drinking across socio-demographic factors in South Sudan, and to determine the association between risky drinking, traumatic events and mental distress. Methods This is a randomized, population based, cross-sectional study from the north-western part of South Sudan with nearly 500 participants. We used the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) as main outcome variable, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) for mental distress and five questions to assess traumatic events. Results The mean AUDIT score was 2.7 (SD 0.3) with 14,2 % in the high risk problem drinking category. Being male, lack of a regular income and psychological distress were significantly associated with higher AUDIT score. Traumatic events, however, was not associated with higher score on AUDIT. Conclusion Despite decades of civil war and great poverty the alcohol use in this population was at the same level as other countries in Southern Africa. Traumatic events were not related to risk of problem drinking

An overview of migratory birds in Brazil

We reviewed the occurrences and distributional patterns of migratory species of birds in Brazil. A species was classified as migratory when at least part of its population performs cyclical, seasonal movements with high fidelity to its breeding grounds. Of the 1,919 species of birds recorded in Brazil, 198 (10.3%) are migratory. Of these, 127 (64%) were classified as Migratory and 71 (36%) as Partially Migratory. A few species (83; 4.3%) were classified as Vagrant and eight (0,4%) species could not be defined due to limited information available, or due to conflicting data.Fil: Somenzari, Marina. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; BrasilFil: Amaral, Priscilla Prudente do. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; BrasilFil: Cueto, Víctor. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Centro de Investigación Esquel de Montaña y Estepa Patagóica. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco". Facultad de Ciencias Naturales - Sede Esquel. Centro de Investigación Esquel de Montaña y Estepa Patagónica; ArgentinaFil: Guaraldo, André de Camargo. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Jahn, Alex. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Lima, Diego Mendes. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; BrasilFil: Lima, Pedro Cerqueira. Fundação BioBrasil; BrasilFil: Lugarini, Camile. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; BrasilFil: Machado, Caio Graco. Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana; BrasilFil: Martinez, Jaime. Universidade de Passo Fundo; BrasilFil: do Nascimento, João Luiz Xavier. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; BrasilFil: Pacheco, José Fernando. Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos; BrasilFil: Paludo, Danielle. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; BrasilFil: Prestes, Nêmora Pauletti. Universidade de Passo Fundo; BrasilFil: Serafini, Patrícia Pereira. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; BrasilFil: Silveira, Luís Fábio. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: de Sousa, Antônio Emanuel Barreto Alves. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; BrasilFil: de Sousa, Nathália Alves. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; BrasilFil: de Souza, Manuella Andrade. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; BrasilFil: Telino-Júnior, Wallace Rodrigues. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; BrasilFil: Whitney, Bret Myers. State University of Louisiana; Estados Unido

Alcohol abstinence and drinking among African women: data from the World Health Surveys

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Alcohol use is increasing among women in Africa, and comparable information about women's current alcohol use is needed to inform national and international health policies relevant to the entire population. This study aimed to provide a comparative description of alcohol use among women across 20 African countries.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data were collected as part of the WHO World Health Survey using standardized questionnaires. In total, 40,739 adult women were included in the present study. Alcohol measures included lifetime abstinence, current use (≥1 drink in previous week), heavy drinking (15+ drinks in the previous week) and risky single-occasion drinking (5+ drinks on at least one day in the previous week). Country-specific descriptives of alcohol use were calculated, and K-means clustering was performed to identify countries with similar characteristics. Multiple logistic regression models were fitted for each country to identify factors associated with drinking status.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 33,841 (81%) African women reported lifetime abstinence. Current use ranged from 1% in Malawi to 30% in Burkina Faso. Among current drinkers, heavy drinking varied between 4% in Ghana to 41% in Chad, and risky single-occasion drinking ranged from <1% in Mauritius to 58% in Chad. Increasing age was associated with increased odds of being a current drinker in about half of the countries.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A variety of drinking patterns are present among African women with lifetime abstention the most common. Countries with hazardous consumption patterns require serious attention to mitigate alcohol-related harm. Some similarities in factors related to alcohol use can be identified between different African countries, although these are limited and highlight the contextual diversity of female drinking in Africa.</p