The Impact of Stroop Interference and the Simon Effect on Implicit Association Test Performance

The implicit association test (IAT) is a method used to examine associations individuals make between concepts and evaluations (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). The typical finding with the IAT is that RTs are faster when the concepts and evaluations share the same response key. While the IAT has been used to examine a variety of associations, factors influencing these associations are still under consideration. For instance, Klauer et al. (2010) examined aspects of cognitive control in the IAT. They included measures related to switching mental sets, inhibition of responses, and working memory capacity. They found that switching between mental sets was related to IAT performance. In this experiment, participants completed a Simon task, Stroop task, and the flower-insect IAT. Participants showed typical Simon effect and Stroop interference. IAT results were consistent with Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz (1998). While covarying Simon performance had no impact on the IAT, covarying Stroop performance did reduce the size of associations found between flowers and insects across conditions. These results suggest that the ability to inhibit one response in favor of another contributes to IAT findings

Applying Ecosystem Services Analysis to the Shellfish Industry

Shellfish provide numerous essential ecosystem services that are valuable to humans, including nutrient uptake, water filtration, and provision of habitat for aquatic organisms. Ecosystem services analysis can be a valuable tool for examination and management of shellfish, and can be used in combination with other activities on a landscape-level. One example would be the examination of cumulative impacts within specific inlets of Puget Sound, which is especially relevant to the shellfish industry. Cumulative impacts analysis is a way to determine future use of an area given a variety of management decisions and projected growth within a water body. For example, harvest associated with geoduck aquaculture provides a net benefit in terms of nitrogen sequestration, while population growth represents a net impact to nutrient accumulation. This talk will review the general approach of ecosystem services analysis and how it can be incorporated into actions and management decisions associated with the shellfish industry

Investigations of Heat Shock Protein Expression in the Swordtail Fishes Xiphophorus birchmanni and X. malinche

In many species, animals must endure environmental stressors such as exposure to heat, toxins, and ultraviolet radiation. To protect cells against such stressors, animals employ an evolutionarily ancient mechanism: the heat shock response. During a heat shock response, heat shock proteins (Hsps) act as “chaperones,” assisting in maintaining the appropriate conformation of other critical proteins which would otherwise be denatured. Samples from three populations of swordtail fishes were collected from the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico to study the relationship between the amount of natural thermal stress and the quantity of Hsps expressed. In each population, HSP70 and HSP90 were quantified in fish taken directly from the natural environment and fish that underwent an acute heat stress experiment. In both cases, the population that experienced very little environmental heat stress expressed significantly less Hsps than the population that experienced much greater natural thermal variation. If climate temperatures within the Sierra Madre Oriental significantly rise, the swordtail population with the least expression of Hsps will have a significantly lower chance at survival than the swordtail population with the highest expression of Hsps

Partisanship and Judicial Decision Making in U.S. Courts of Appeal

Partisanship is found in voter and Congressional behavior. Members of the federal judiciary should behave similarly. I utilize cases involving the Republican and Democratic parties from 1966 to 1997 and examine the voting behavior of federal Courts of Appeal judges. I utilize both cross tabulations and a Logit regression model to determine the likelihood appellate judges will vote for their own party and against the opposition

A pushing mechanism for microtubule aster positioning in a large cell type

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Meaders, J. L., de Matos, S. N., & Burgess, D. R. A pushing mechanism for microtubule aster positioning in a large cell type. Cell Reports, 33(1), (2020): 108213, doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108213.After fertilization, microtubule (MT) sperm asters undergo long-range migration to accurately position pronuclei. Due to the large sizes of zygotes, the forces driving aster migration are considered to be from pulling on the astral MTs by dynein, with no significant contribution from pushing forces. Here, we re-investigate the forces responsible for sperm aster centration in sea urchin zygotes. Our quantifications of aster geometry and MT density preclude a pulling mechanism. Manipulation of aster radial lengths and growth rates, combined with quantitative tracking of aster migration dynamics, indicates that aster migration is equal to the length of rear aster radii, supporting a pushing model for centration. We find that dynein inhibition causes an increase in aster migration rates. Finally, ablation of rear astral MTs halts migration, whereas front and side ablations do not. Collectively, our data indicate that a pushing mechanism can drive the migration of asters in a large cell type.We would like to thank Dr. Jesse Gatlin for sending us the Tau-mCherry fusion protein for imaging live MTs. We would also like to thank Dr. Timothy Mitchison, Dr. Christine Field, and Dr. James Pelletier for supplying us with CA4, p150-CC1, and EB1-GFP peptides, as well as for fruitful discussions. Finally, we would like to thank Dr. Charles Shuster and Leslie Toledo-Jacobo for constructive feedback when preparing the manuscript. We thank Bret Judson and the Boston College Imaging Core for infrastructure and support. This material is based upon work supported by NSF grant no. 124425 to D.R.B

Sensors, controls, monitors and measurement techniques for agricultural problems

Issued as Final report, Project no. E-600-90

Folk pottery - Vase with grapes

Tobacco ash glaze developed by Meader family.https://commons.und.edu/uac-all/1220/thumbnail.jp